1879 – Using a filament of carbonized thread, Thomas Edison tests the first practical electric incandescent light bulb (it lasts 131⁄2 hours before burning out).

1883 – The Metropolitan Opera House in New York City opens with a performance of Gounod's Faust.

1884 – The International Meridian Conference designates the Royal Observatory, Greenwich as the world's prime meridian.

1962 – Cuban Missile Crisis: President Kennedy, after internal counsel from Dwight D. Eisenhower, announces that American reconnaissance planes have discovered Soviet nuclear weapons in Cuba, and that he has ordered a naval "quarantine" of the Communist nation.

1964 – Jean-Paul Sartre is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, but turns down the honor.

1964 – An all-party Parliamentary Committee selects the design which will become the new official flag of Canada.

1976 – Red Dye No. 4 is banned by the US Food and Drug Administration after it is discovered that it causes tumors in the bladders of dogs.

1981 – The United States Federal Labor Relations Authority votes to decertify the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) for its strike the previous August.

2001 – Grand Theft Auto III is released, popularizing a genre of open-world, action-adventure video games, as well as spurring controversy around violence in video games.

2013 – The Australian Capital Territory becomes the first Australian jurisdiction to legalize same-sex marriage with the Marriage Equality (Same Sex) Act 2013.

2019 – Same-sex marriage is legalised, and abortion is decriminalised in Northern Ireland as a result of the Northern Ireland Assembly not being restored.

…and if today is your birthday, Happy Birthday To You! You share this day with…

1811 – Franz Liszt, Hungarian pianist and composer (d. 1886)

1844 – Sarah Bernhardt, French actress and manager (d. 1923)

1882 – N. C. Wyeth, American painter and illustrator (d. 1945)

1903 – Curly Howard, American comedian and vaudevillian (d. 1952)

1908 – John Gould, American journalist and author (d. 2003).

1913 – Robert Capa, Hungarian-American photographer and journalist (d. 1954)

1913 – Bảo Đại, Vietnamese emperor (d. 1997)

1915 – Yitzhak Shamir, Belarusian-Israeli civil servant and politician, 7th Prime Minister of Israel (d. 2012)

1917 – Joan Fontaine, British-American actress (d. 2013)

1919 – Doris Lessing, British novelist, poet, playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2013)[14]

1920 – Timothy Leary, American psychologist and author (d. 1996)

1928 – Clare Fischer, American pianist, composer and arranger (d. 2012)

1929 – Dory Previn, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2012)

1939 – Tony Roberts, American actor and singer

1942 – Annette Funicello, American actress and singer (d. 2013)

1943 – Catherine Deneuve, French actress and singer

1946 – Deepak Chopra, Indian-American physician and author

1968 – Shelby Lynne, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

1969 – Spike Jonze, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter

Almanac - Thursday 10/22/20

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