MOMENTS IN TIME

. On Oct. 22, 1797, the first parachute jump of note is made by Andre-Jacques Garnerin from a hydrogen balloon 3,200 feet above Paris. As he failed to include an air vent at the top of the prototype, Garnerin oscillated wildly in his descent, and he landed shaken but unhurt.

. On Oct. 23, 1989, 23 people die in a series of explosions sparked by an ethylene leak at the Phillips Petroleum Company factory in Pasadena, Texas. A subsequent investigation found that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) had not done a comprehensive inspection of the plant since 1975.

. On Oct. 24, 1861, workers of the Western Union Telegraph Company link the nation’s eastern and western telegraph networks, completing the first transcontinental line. The obstacles to building the line were huge. Among other things, Sioux warriors had cut a completed part of the line and took a long section of wire for making bracelets.

. On Oct. 25, 1944, during the Battle of the Leyte Gulf, the Japanese deploy kamikaze (“divine wind”) suicide bombers against American warships for the first time. More than 1,321 Japanese aircraft crash-dived their planes into Allied warships during the war. 