May 22

May 22 is the 142nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (143rd in leap years). There are 223 days remaining.

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Events

• 1176 – Murder attempt by the Hashshashin (Assassins) on Saladin near Aleppo.
• 1455 – Wars of the Roses: At the First Battle of St Albans, Richard, Duke of York, defeats and captures King Henry VI of England.
• 1762 – Sweden and Prussia sign the Treaty of Hamburg.
• 1807 – A grand jury indicts former Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr on a charge of treason.
• 1819 – The SS Savannah leaves port at Savannah, Georgia on a voyage to become the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean. The ship will arrive at Liverpool, England on June 20.
• 1840 – The transporting of British convicts to the New South Wales colony is abolished.
• 1843 – The first major wagon train heading for the Northwest sets out with one thousand pioneers from Elm Grove, Missouri on the Oregon Trail.
• 1856 – Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina beats Senator Charles Sumner with a cane in the hall of the United States Senate for a speech Sumner had made attacking Southerners who sympathized with the pro-slavery violence in Kansas ("Bleeding Kansas").
• 1872 – Reconstruction: President Ulysses S. Grant signs the Amnesty Act of 1872 into law restoring full civil rights to all but about 500 Confederate sympathizers.
• 1906 – The 1906 Summer Olympics, not now recognized as part of the official Olympic Games, opens in Athens.
• 1908 – The Wright Brothers patent their aircraft.
• 1939 – World War II: Germany and Italy sign the Pact of Steel.
• 1947 – Cold War: In an effort to fight the spread of Communism, President Harry S. Truman of the U.S. signs an act into law that will later be called the Truman Doctrine. The act grants $400 million in military and economic aid to Turkey and Greece.
• 1960 – An earthquake measuring 9.5 on the Richter scale, now known as the Great Chilean Earthquake, affects southern Chile. It is the most powerful earthquake ever recorded.
• 1967 – The Innovation department store in the centre of Brussels, Belgium burns down. It is the most devastating fire in Belgian history, which results in 323 dead and missing and 150 injured.
• 1967 – Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, the longest-running children's series on television, airs its first episode.
• 1968 – The nuclear-powered submarine the USS Scorpion sinks with 99 men aboard 400 miles southwest of the Azores.
• 1969 – Apollo 10's lunar module flies within 8.4 nautical miles of the moon's surface.
• 1972 – Ceylon adopts a new constitution, changes its name to Sri Lanka, and joins the British Commonwealth.
• 1990 – North and South Yemen are unified to create the Republic of Yemen.
• 1990 – The Windows 3.0 operating system is released by Microsoft.
• 1992 – After 30 years, 66-year-old Johnny Carson hosts the Tonight Show for the last time.
• 1997 – Kelly Flinn, US Air Force's first female bomber pilot certified for combat, accepts a general discharge in order to avoid a court martial.
• 1998 – Lewinsky scandal: A federal judge rules that United States Secret Service agents can be compelled to testify before a grand jury concerning the scandal, involving President Bill Clinton.
• 2002 – In Washington, DC, the remains of the missing Chandra Levy are found in Rock Creek Park.
• 2002 – American civil rights movement: A jury in Birmingham, Alabama convicts former Ku Klux Klan member Bobby Frank Cherry of the 1963 murders of four girls in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church.
• 2003 – In Fort Worth, Texas, Annika Sörenstam becomes the first woman to play the PGA Tour in 58 years.
• 2004 – Felipe, Prince of Asturias of the Spanish Royal Family marries Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano.
• 2004 – Hallam, Nebraska wiped out by a powerful F4 tornado which broke a width record at an astounding 2.5 miles wide. It also killed one.
• 2005 – Wedding of Hiren & Shefali arranged in Navsari

Births

• 1694 – Daniel Gran, Austrian painter (d. 1757)
• 1715 – François-Joachim de Pierre de Bernis, French cardinal and statesman (d. 1794)
• 1772 – Ram Mohan Roy, Hindu reformer (d. 1833)
• 1808 – Gérard de Nerval, French writer (d. 1855)
• 1813 – Richard Wagner, German composer (d. 1883)
• 1841 – Catulle Mendès, French poet (d. 1909)
• 1844 – Mary Cassatt, American artist (d. 1926)
• 1848 – Fritz von Uhde, German painter (d. 1911)
• 1849 – Louis Perrier, Swiss politician (d. 1913)
• 1852 – Émile Sauret, French composer
• 1859 – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, physician and writer (d. 1930)
• 1874 – Daniel François Malan, first prime minister of apartheid government in South Africa (d. 1959)
• 1879 – Alla Nazimova, Ukrainian-born actress, scriptwriter and producer (d. 1945)
• 1879  – Warwick Armstrong, Australian cricketer (d. 1947)
• 1885 – Giacomo Matteotti, Italian politician (d. 1924)
• 1885  – Toyoda Soemu, Japanese admiral (d. 1957)
• 1891 – Eddie Edwards, jazz musician (d. 1963)
• 1902 – Al Simmons, Baseball Hall of Famer (d. 1956)
• 1907 – Sir Laurence Olivier, English actor, director (d. 1989)
• 1907  – Hergé, comic book creator (d. 1983)
• 1910 – Johnny Olson, game show announcer (d. 1985)
• 1911 – Anatol Rapoport, mathematical psychologist & pianist
• 1912 – Herbert C. Brown, Nobel Prize winner for chemistry (d. 2004)
• 1914 – Vance Packard, author (d. 1996)
• 1914  – Sun Ra, jazz musician (d. 1993)
• 1917 – Georg Tintner, conductor (d. 1999)
• 1920 – Thomas Gold, Austrian astrophysicist (d. 2004)
• 1922 – Quinn Martin, television producer (d. 1987)
• 1924 – Charles Aznavour, singer, actor, composer
• 1925 – Jean Tinguely, kinetic artist (d. 1991)
• 1930 – John Barth, American writer
• 1930 – Harvey Milk, politician, civil rights activist (d. 1978)
• 1934 – Peter Nero, musician
• 1937 – Guy Marchand, French musician and actor
• 1938 – Richard Benjamin, actor
• 1938  – Susan Strasberg, actress
• 1940 – Bernard Shaw, television journalist
• 1941 – Paul Winfield, actor (d. 2004)
• 1942 – Volker Canaris, theatre director
• 1942  – Theodore Kaczynski, bomber
• 1942  – Calvin Simon, musician (P Funk)
• 1943 – Betty Williams, politician, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Peace
• 1943  – Tommy John, Major League Baseball pitcher
• 1946 – George Best, footballer
• 1950 – Bernie Taupin, songwriter
• 1957 – Gary Sweet, actor
• 1959 – Morrissey, singer
• 1960 – Hideaki Anno, Japanese director
• 1968 – James Luecke, saxophonist
• 1970 – Naomi Campbell, fashion model and actress
• 1972 – Annabel Chong, actress
• 1978 – Katie Price (Jordan), model and media personality
• 1984 – Alex Bogdanovic, British tennis player

1990 Mike Kochik was born. He is currently writing and playing the guitar.

Deaths

• 337 – Constantine the Great, Roman emperor (b. 272)
• 1540 – Francesco Guicciardini (b. 1483)
• 1667 – Pope Alexander VII (b. 1599)
• 1885 – Victor Hugo, French author (b. 1802)
• 1939 – Ernst Toller, author
• 1939 – Jiri Mahen, author
• 1949 – Klaus Mann, German writer (b. 1906)
• 1966 – Tom Goddard, English cricketer (b. 1900)
• 1967 – Langston Hughes, American writer (b. 1902)
• 1972 – Cecil Day-Lewis, poet and writer (b. 1904)
• 1972  – Margaret Rutherford, actress (b. 1892)
• 1990 – Rocky Graziano, American boxer (b. 1922)
• 1992 – Zellig Harris, linguist (b. 1909)
• 2004 – Richard Biggs, actor (b. 1960)

Holidays and observances

• Feast day of St Rita
• World Biodiversity Day
• Republic of Yemen National Day
• Trinity Sunday in Catholicism (2005)

External links

• BBC: On This Day

May 21 – May 23 – April 22 – June 22 — listing of all days