May
22
Events
May
22
334 BC –
The Macedonian army of Alexander the Great defeats Darius III
of Persia in the Battle of the Granicus.
853 – A Byzantine fleet sacks and destroys undefended Damietta
in Egypt
1176 – The Hashshashin (Assassins) attempt to murder Saladin
near Aleppo.
1200 – King John of England and King Philip II of France sign
the Treaty of Le Goulet.
1254 – Serbian King Stephen Uroš I and the Republic of Venice
sign a peace treaty.
1377 – Pope Gregory XI issues five papal bulls to denounce the
doctrines of English theologian John Wycliffe.
1455 – Wars of the Roses: at the First Battle of St Albans,
Richard, Duke of York, defeats and captures King Henry VI of
England.
1629 – Emperor Ferdinand II & Danish King Christian IV sign
the Treaty of Lübeck to end the Danish intervention in the Thirty
Years' War.
1659 – France, England & Netherlands sign "Hedges Concerto"
treaty.
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.
1807 – Most of the English town of Chudleigh is destroyed by
fire
1809 – On the second and last day of the Battle of Aspern-Essling
(near Vienna), Napoleon is repelled by an enemy army for the
first time.
1816 – A mob in Littleport, Cambridgeshire, England, riots over
high unemployment and rising grain costs; the rioting spreads
to Ely the next day.
1819 – The SS Savannah leaves port at Savannah, Georgia, United
States, on a voyage to become the first steamship to cross the
Atlantic Ocean. The ship arrived at Liverpool, England on June
20.
1826 – HMS Beagle departs on its first voyage.
1840 – The transportation of British convicts to the New South
Wales colony is abolished.
1844 – Persian Prophet The Báb announces his revelation, founding
Bábism. He announces to the world the coming of "He whom
God shall make manifest". He is considered the forerunner
of Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Bahá'í Faith.
1848 – Slavery is abolished in Martinique.
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").
1863 – American Civil War: Siege of Port Hudson – Union forces
begin to lay siege to the Confederate-controlled Port Hudson,
Louisiana.
1864 – American Civil War: After ten weeks, the Union Army's
Red River Campaign ends with the Union unable to achieve any
of its objectives.
1871 – The U.S. Army issued an order for abandonment of Fort
Kearny in Nebraska.
1872 – Reconstruction: U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant signs
the Amnesty Act of 1872 into law restoring full civil rights
to all but about 500 Confederate sympathizers.
1897 – The Blackwall Tunnel under the River Thames is officially
opened
1903 – Launch of the White Star Liner, SS Ionic.
1906 – The Wright brothers are granted U.S. patent number 821,393
for their "Flying-Machine".
1915 – Lassen Peak erupts with a powerful force, and is the
only mountain other than Mount St. Helens to erupt in the contiguous
US during the 20th century.
1915 – Three trains collide in the Quintinshill rail crash near
Gretna Green, Scotland, killing 227 people and injuring 246;
the accident is found to be the result of non-standard operating
practices during a shift change at a busy junction.
1926 – Chiang Kai-shek replaces communists in Kuomintang China
1939 – World War II: Germany and Italy sign the Pact of Steel.
1942 – Mexico enters World War II on the side of the Allies.
1942 – The Steel Workers Organizing Committee disbands, and
a new trade union, the United Steelworkers, is formed.
1942 – World War II: Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox enlists
in the United States Marine Corps as a flight instructor.
1943 – Stalin disbands Comintern.
1947 – Cold War: in an effort to fight the spread of Communism,
U.S. President Harry S. Truman 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, each battling
an internal Communist movement.
1958 – Sri Lankan riots of 1958: This riot is a watershed event
in the race relationship of the various ethnic communities of
Sri Lanka. The total number of deaths is estimated to be 300,
mostly Sri Lankan Tamils.
1960 – An earthquake measuring 9.5 on the moment magnitude scale,
now known as the Great Chilean Earthquake, hits southern Chile.
It is the most powerful earthquake ever recorded.
1962 – Continental Airlines Flight 11 crashes after bombs explode
on board.
1963 – Assassination attempt of Greek left-wing politician Gregoris
Lambrakis, who will die five days afterwards.
1964 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson announces the goals
of his Great Society social reforms to bring an "end to
poverty and racial injustice" in America.
1967 – The L'Innovation department store in the centre of Brussels,
Belgium, burns down. It is the most devastating fire in Belgian
history, resulting in 323 dead and missing and 150 injured.
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
(16 km) of the moon's surface.
1972 – Ceylon adopts a new constitution, thus becoming a Republic,
changes its name to Sri Lanka, and joins the Commonwealth of
Nations.
1980 – Namco releases the highly influential arcade game Pac-Man.
1987 – Hashimpura massacre in Meerut city of India.
1987 – First ever Rugby World Cup kicks off with New Zealand
playing Italy at Eden Park, Auckland.
1990 – North and South Yemen are unified to create the Republic
of Yemen.
1990 – Microsoft releases the Windows 3.0 operating system.
1992 – After 30 years, 66-year-old Johnny Carson hosts The Tonight
Show for the last time.
1992 – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia join the
United Nations.
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, D.C., 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 – The U.S. town of Hallam, Nebraska, is wiped out by a
powerful F4 tornado (part of the May 2004 tornado outbreak sequence)
that broke a width record at an astounding 2.5 miles (4.0 km)
wide, which kills one resident.
2008 – The Late-May 2008 tornado outbreak sequence unleashes
235 tornadoes, including an EF4 and an EF5 tornado, between
May 22 and May 31, 2008. The tornadoes struck 19 states and
one Canadian province.
2011 – An EF5 Tornado strikes Joplin, Missouri killing 161 people,
the single deadliest tornado in the United States since modern
record keeping began in 1950.
Holidays
and observances
Abolition
Day (Martinique)
Christian Feast Day:
Castus and Emilius
Fulk
Humilita
Julia of Corsica
Quiteria
Rita of Cascia
Romanus of Subiaco
May 22 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Harvey Milk Day (California)
International Day for Biological Diversity (International)
National Maritime Day (United States)
National Sovereignty Day (Haiti)
Republic Day (Sri Lanka)
Unity Day or National Day, celebrate the unification of North
and South Yemen into the Republic of Yemen in 1990.
For details, contact Datacentre
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