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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