February 22

February 22 is the 53rd day of every year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 312 days remaining, 313 in leap years.

Events

• 1290s BC – The coronation of Ramses II, on whose face the sun's rays fall each year in Abu Simbel temple.
• AD 1281 – Martin IV becomes Pope.
• 1288 – Nicholas IV becomes Pope.
• 1495 – King Charles VIII of France enters Naples to claim the city's throne.
• 1632 – Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems is published.
• 1744 – The Battle of Toulon begins.
• 1819 – By the Adams-Onís Treaty, Spain sold Florida to the United States for five million U.S. dollars.
• 1847 – Mexican-American War: The Battle of Buena Vista – 5,000 American troops drive off 15,000 Mexican.
• 1855 – The Pennsylvania State University is founded.
• 1856 – The Republican Party opens its first national meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
• 1865 – Tennessee adopts a new constitution that abolishes slavery.
• 1876 – Johns Hopkins University is founded in Baltimore, Maryland.
• 1879 – In Utica, New York, Frank Woolworth opens the first of many of 5 and 10-cent Woolworth stores.
• 1889 – President Grover Cleveland signs a bill admitting North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Washington as U.S. states.
• 1915 – Germany institutes unrestricted submarine warfare.
• 1920 – In Emeryville, California, the first dog race track to employ an imitation rabbit opens.
• 1923 – The United States begins the first transcontinental air mail route.
• 1923 – Barcelona (Catalonia): Albert Einstein visits the city, invited by the scientist Esteban Terradas i Illa, as part of the monografics course of High Studies and Exchange organized by the Mancomunitat de Catalunya and conducted by Rafael de Campalans.
• 1924 – Calvin Coolidge becomes the first President of the United States to deliver a radio broadcast from the White House.
• 1942 – World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders General Douglas MacArthur out of the Philippines as American defense collapses.
• 1943 – Members of White Rose are executed in Nazi Germany.
• 1956 – Elvis Presley enters the music charts for the first time, with "Heartbreak Hotel".
• 1958 – Egypt and Syria join to form the United Arab Republic.
• 1959 – Lee Petty wins the first Daytona 500.
• 1969 – Barbara Jo Rubin wins a United States thoroughbred horse race making history as the first woman to do so.
• 1973 – Cold War: Following President Richard Nixon's visit to China, the United States and the People's Republic of China agree to establish liaison offices.
• 1979 – Independence of Saint Lucia from the United Kingdom.
• 1980 – The United States ice hockey team defeats the Soviet Union team at the 1980 Winter Olympic Games in an upset dubbed the "Miracle on Ice".
• 1994 – Aldrich Ames and his wife are charged by the United States Department of Justice with spying for the Soviet Union.
• 1997 – In Roslin, Scotland, scientists announce that an adult sheep named Dolly had been successfully cloned.
• 2002 – A MH-47E Chinook helicopter crashes into the ocean near the Philippines, killing all 10 aboard.
• 2004 – Ralph Nader announces his intention to run as an independent candidate for President of the United States.

Births

• 1403 – Charles VII of France (d. 1461)
• 1440 – Ladislaus Posthumus of Bohemia and Hungary
• 1732 – George Washington, first President of the United States (d. 1799) (Note: February 11 in the Julian Calendar that was then still in use)
• 1778 – Rembrandt Peale, artist
• 1788 – Arthur Schopenhauer, philosopher (d. 1860)
• 1796 – Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet, mathematician (d. 1874)
• 1817 – Carl Wilhelm Borchardt, mathematician
• 1819 – James Russell Lowell, poet and essayist (d. 1891)
• 1839 – Francis Pharcellus Church, American editor and publisher (d. 1906)
• 1840 – August Bebel, politician (d. 1913)
• 1849 – Nikolay Yakovlevich Sonin, Russian mathematician (d 1915)
• 1857 – Lord Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Scouting movement (d. 1941)
• 1857 – Heinrich Hertz, German physicist (d. 1894)
• 1878 – Walter Ritz, Swiss physicist (d. 1909)
• 1880 – Frigyes Riesz, mathematician
• 1886 – Hugo Ball, German author and poet (d. 1927)
• 1889 – Lady Olave Baden-Powell GBE (nee Soames) Chief Girl Guide (d. 1977)
• 1892 – Edna St. Vincent Millay, writer (d. 1950)
• 1899 – Dwight Frye, actor (d. 1943)
• 1899 – Dechko Uzunov, painter (d. 1986)
• 1900 – Luis Buñuel, film director (d. 1983)
• 1903 – Morley Callaghan, Canadian writer (d. 1990)
• 1903 – Frank Plumpton Ramsey, mathematician (d. 1903)
• 1907 – Sheldon Leonard, actor, writer, director, producer (d. 1997)
• 1907 – Robert Young, American actor (d. 1998)
• 1908 – Sir John Mills, English actor (d. 2005)
• 1915 – Jules Munshin, American actor (d. 1970)
• 1918 – Don Pardo, American radio and television announcer
• 1918 – Sid Abel, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2000)
• 1918 – Charlie Finley, American sports entrepreneur (d. 1996)
• 1921 – Jean-Bédel Bokassa, ruler of Central African Republic (d. 1996)
• 1925 – Edward Gorey, American illustrator (d. 2000)
• 1926 – Kenneth Williams, actor (d. 1988)
• 1926 – Bud Yorkin, American film director
• 1927 – Guy Mitchell, singer
• 1928 – Bruce Forsyth, entertainer
• 1928 – Paul Dooley, American actor
• 1929 – Rebecca Schull, American actress
• 1930 – Marni Nixon, American singer
• 1932 – Ted Kennedy, politician and brother of John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy
• 1934 – Sparky Anderson, Baseball Hall of Fame manager
• 1938 – Ishmael Reed, Writer
• 1941 – Hipólito Mejía, former President of the Dominican Republic (2000–2004)
• 1944 – Jonathan Demme, director
• 1944 – Robert Kardashian, Lawyer for O. J. Simpson
• 1944 – Sparky Anderson, American baseball manager
• 1945 – Leslie Charleson, American actress
• 1945 – Oliver, singer (d. 2000)
• 1948 – John Ashton, American actor
• 1949 – Niki Lauda, Formula One driver
• 1950 – Julius Erving, Basketball Hall of Famer
• 1950 – Miou-Miou, actress
• 1950 – Julie Walters, actress
• 1952 – Bill Frist, American politician
• 1959 – Kyle MacLachlan, actor
• 1962 – Steve Irwin, Australian herpetologist and TV personality (The Crocodile Hunter)
• 1963 – Vijay Singh, golfer
• 1966 – Brian Greig, Australian politician
• 1966 – Rachel Dratch, American actress, comedienne
• 1967 – Alf Poier, Austrian comedian
• 1968 – Jeri Ryan, actress
• 1971 – Lea Salonga, Filipina actress, singer
• 1975 – Drew Barrymore, actress
• 1982 – Jenna Haze, erotic actress

Deaths

• 965 – Odo, Duke of Burgundy
• 1512 – Amerigo Vespucci, Italian merchant and explorer (b. 1454)
• 1875 – Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, French painter (b. 1796)
• 1875 – Sir Charles Lyell, geologist (b. 1797)
• 1890 – John Jacob Astor III, American businessman (b. 1822)
• 1890 – Carl Heinrich Bloch, Danish painter (b. 1834)
• 1901 – George Francis FitzGerald, mathematician
• 1903 – Hugo Wolf, composer (b. 1860)
• 1939 – Antonio Machado, Spanish poet (b. 1875)
• 1943 – Hans Scholl and Sophie Scholl, German resistance fighters
• 1961 – Nick LaRocca, jazz musician (b. 1889)
• 1965 – Felix Frankfurter, justice of the United States Supreme Court (b. 1882)
• 1968 – Peter Arno, cartoonist
• 1976 – Angela Baddeley, actress and sister of Hermione Baddeley (b. 1904)
• 1976  – Florence Ballard, singer (The Supremes) (b. 1943)
• 1983 – Sir Adrian Boult, English conductor (b. 1889)
• 1984 – Jessamyn West, writer (b. 1902)
• 1984 – David Vetter, the "Bubble Boy"
• 1985 – Efrem Zimbalist, violinist
• 1985 – Alexander Scourby, American actor
• 1987 – Andy Warhol, artist, director, and writer (b. 1928)
• 1987 – David Susskind, American television producer
• 1994 – Papa John Creech, musician
• 1995 – Ed Flanders, American actor
• 1997 – Joseph Aiuppa, gangster
• 1998 – Sandy Hume, American reporter
• 1998 – Abraham Ribicoff, American politician
• 2000 – Fernando Buesa, Basque politician (b. 1946)
• 2002 – Chuck Jones, animator (b. 1912)
• 2002  – Jonas Savimbi, Angolan rebel leader (b. 1934)
• 2003 – Kurt Gscheidle, politician
• 2004 – Andy Seminick, baseball player (b. 1920)
• 2004  – Roque Máspoli, Uruguayan goalkeeper (b. 1917)
• 2005 – Simone Simon, French actress
• 2005 – Zdzisław Beksiński, Polish artist

Holidays and observances

• Catholicism – Chair of St. Peter.
• United States – Washington's Birthday (traditionally)
• Saint Lucia – independence (1979)

External links

• BBC: On This Day

February 21 – February 23 – January 22 – March 22 — listing of all days