01011022 This Day In History, October 22

362: The temple of Apollo at Daphne, outside Antioch (there were many others in other cities throughout the ancient Mediterranean area), was destroyed by fire.


741: Charles Martel died at age 53. The rulership of Gaul was divided between his two sons Pepin III and Carloman (see map below). Pepin became the first of the Carolingians, the family of Charles Martel, to become king. Martel's grandson, Charlemagne, extended the Frankish dominions to include much of the West, and became the first Emperor since the fall of Rome (see The Holy Roman Empire Of The German Nation). The Islamic prophesied "King of the South" already existed in the time of Charles Martel (see map above and The Prophet Daniel: Kings Of The North and South).

794: Emperor Kanmu relocated the capital of Japan to Heiankyo (now known as Kyoto).

1633: The Ming dynasty defeated the Dutch East India Company in the Battle of Liaoluo Bay.

1707: The Scilly naval disaster. Four British Royal Navy ships ran aground near the Isles of Scilly because of faulty navigation. Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell and thousands of sailors were drowned.

1721: Peter the Great became czar (czar is the Russian form of "Caesar," as is the German kaiser) of all Russia.

1764: The Battle of Baksar, fought between the East India Company's forces and those of the Mughals. The decisive battle confirmed the British control of Bengal.

1784: Russia founded a colony on Kodiak Island, Alaska (Russia sold Alaska to the U.S.A. in 1867).

1797: The first successful parachute jump was made by Andre-Jacques Garnerin, from a balloon over Paris, France.

1836: Sam Houston became the first "President of the Republic of Texas" (unlike the "New England" States, Texas, which remained part of Mexico in 1776, rebelled against Mexico about 50 years later).

1844: The date predicted by religious leader William Miller (Ellen White's "Seventh Day Adventist" organization, Herbert Armstrong's "Worldwide Church of God" and the present-day "Sacred Name" movement were among a number of early 20th Century offshoots of the Miller movement) when the Return of Jesus Christ would occur. Among the many thousands of his followers, the day became known as the "Great Disappointment." Miller and his followers chose to ignore the only Biblically-stated proof that Christ's return would soon happen - the beginning of the 42 month miraculous ministry of the "two witnesses," immediately after which Christ's return will happen (see The Two Signs Of Christ's Return; also Could Christ Return Tonight?).

1859: Spain declared war on the Moors in Morocco.

1952: The complete Jewish Torah was published in English for the first time.

1954: West Germany joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

1954: After Geneva accords conceded Communist control over North Vietnam (Vietnam was divided into North and South by France in its failed effort to make Vietnam a French colony), U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower authorized U.S. training of the South Vietnamese Army (the U.S. replaced the colonial involvement of France in Vietnam). The U.S. "advisors" soon became the primary combatants in that Vietnamese civil war; it ended in the 1970s with North and South Vietnam re-unified into a single nation that had existed for centuries before French and U.S. interference.

1966: The Soviet Union launched Luna 12 to orbit the moon.

1975: The Soviet unmanned spacecraft Venera 9 landed on Venus.

1979: The exiled Shah of Iran (a brutal, undemocratic dictator who had been supported by the U.S. for decades because he was "pro-western") arrived in the U.S. for medical treatment. In response, Iranian revolutionaries invaded the U.S. embassy in Tehran, thereby beginning the Iranian Hostage Crisis, demanding the return of the Shah in exchange for the U.S. diplomats/CIA agents.

2008: India launched its first unmanned lunar mission, Chandrayaan-1.