May 22: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

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

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, United States, on a voyage to become the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean. The ship arrived at Liverpool, England on June 20.
• 1840 - The transporting of British convicts to the New South Wales colony is abolished.
• 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: 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.
• 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, 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.
• 1960 - An earthquake measuring 9.5 on the Richter 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.
• 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 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 U.S. 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 (16 km) 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 - The U.S. town of Hallam, Nebraska, is wiped out by a powerful F4 tornado that broke a width record at an astounding 2.5 miles wide. It also killed one local resident.

• 1622 - Louis de Buade de Frontenac, Governor of New France (d. 1698)
• 1688 - Alexander Pope, English poet (d. 1744)
• 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)
• 1849 - Louis Perrier, Swiss politician (d. 1913)
• 1859 - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, British physician and writer (d. 1930)
• 1874 - Daniel François Malan, Prime Minister of South Africa (d. 1959)
• 1879 - Warwick Armstrong, Australian cricketer (d. 1947)
• 1879 - Alla Nazimova, Ukrainian-born actress, scriptwriter, and producer (d. 1945)
• 1885 - Giacomo Matteotti, Italian politician (d. 1924)
• 1885 - Toyoda Soemu, Japanese admiral (d. 1957)
• 1891 - Eddie Edwards, American jazz trombonist (d. 1963)
• 1902 - Al Simmons, baseball player (d. 1956)
• 1903 - Yves Rocard, French physicist (d. 1992)
• 1907 - Hergé, Belgian comic book creator (d. 1983)
• 1907 - Sir Laurence Olivier, English actor and director (d. 1989)
• 1910 - Johnny Olson, American game show announcer (d. 1985)
• 1911 - Anatol Rapoport, Russian-born mathematical psychologist, and pianist
• 1912 - Herbert C. Brown, English-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2004)
• 1914 - Vance Packard, American author (d. 1996)
• 1914 - Sun Ra, American musician (d. 1993)
• 1917 - Georg Tintner, Austrian-born conductor (d. 1999)
• 1920 - Thomas Gold, Austrian astrophysicist (d. 2004)
• 1922 - Quinn Martin, American television producer (d. 1987)
• 1924 - Charles Aznavour, French singer, actor, and composer
• 1925 - James King, American tenor (d. 2005)
• 1925 - Jean Tinguely, Swiss artist (d. 1991)
• 1927 - George Andrew Olah, Hungarian-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1930 - John Barth, American writer
• 1930 - Harvey Milk, American politician and civil rights activist (d. 1978)
• 1934 - Peter Nero, American musician
• 1936 - M. Scott Peck, American psychiatrist and writer (d. 2005)
• 1938 - Richard Benjamin, American actor
• 1938 - Susan Strasberg, American actress
• 1940 - Bernard Shaw, American television journalist
• 1941 - Paul Winfield, American actor (d. 2004)
• 1942 - Theodore Kaczynski, American bomber
• 1942 - Calvin Simon, American musician (P Funk)
• 1943 - Tommy John, baseball player
• 1943 - Betty Williams, Irish politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
• 1946 - George Best, Irish footballer (d. 2005)
• 1950 - Bernie Taupin, English songwriter
• 1957 - Gary Sweet, Australian actor
• 1959 - Morrissey, English singer
• 1960 - Hideaki Anno, Japanese director
• 1964 - Ashley Renee, American fetish model
• 1966 - Kenny Hickey, American guitarist (Type O Negative)
• 1970 - Naomi Campbell, English model and actress
• 1972 - Annabel Chong, Singapore actress
• 1978 - Jordan, English model and media personality

• 337 - Constantine the Great, Roman Emperor (b. 272)
• 1068 - Emperor Go-Reizei of Japan (b. 1025)
• 1455 - Henry Percy, 2nd Earl of Northumberland, English politician (killed in battle)
• 1455 - Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset, English commander (killed in battle) (b. 1406)
• 1457 - Saint Rita of Cascia, Italian saint (b. 1381)
• 1538 - John Forrest, English Franciscan friar (martyred) (b. 1471)
• 1540 - Francesco Guicciardini, Italian historian (b. 1483)
• 1667 - Pope Alexander VII (b. 1599)
• 1745 - François-Marie, 1st duc de Broglie, French military leader (b. 1671)
• 1746 - Thomas Southerne, Irish dramatist (b. 1660)
• 1760 - Israel ben Eliezer, Polish-born mystical rabbi (b. 1700)
• 1772 - Durastante Natalucci, Italian historian (b. 1687)
• 1795 - Ewald Friedrich, Count von Hertzberg, Prussian statesman (b. 1725)
• 1859 - King Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies (b. 1810)
• 1868 - Julius Plücker, German mathematician and physicist (b. 1801)
• 1885 - Victor Hugo, French author (b. 1802)
• 1932 - Lady Gregory, writer (b. 1852)
• 1939 - Ernst Toller, German author (b. 1893)
• 1939 - Jiri Mahen, Czech author (b. 1882)
• 1949 - Klaus Mann, German writer (b. 1906)
• 1961 - Hon. Leonard F. Morse, co-founder Phi Beta Sigma fraternity (b. 1891)
• 1966 - Tom Goddard, English cricketer (b. 1900)
• 1967 - Langston Hughes, American writer (b. 1902)
• 1972 - Cecil Day-Lewis, Irish poet and writer (b. 1904)
• 1972 - Margaret Rutherford, English actress (b. 1892)
• 1983 - Albert Claude, Belgian biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1899)
• 1988 - Giorgio Almirante, Italian politician (b. 1914)
• 1990 - Rocky Graziano, American boxer (b. 1922)
• 1992 - Zellig Harris, American linguist (b. 1909)
• 1997 - Alfred Hershey, American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1908)
• 2004 - Richard Biggs, American actor (b. 1960)
• 2004 - Mikhail Voronin, Russian gymnist (b. 1945)
• 2005 - Charilaos Florakis, Greek politician (b. 1914)
• 2005 - Julia Randall, American poet (b. 1924)
• 2005 - Thurl Ravenscroft, American voice actor and singer (b. 1914)

• Feast day of the following saints in the Roman Catholic Church:
  • Saint Julia
  • Saint Rita
  • Saint Lupus
  • Saint Atto
  • Saint Fulk
  • Humilita
  • Saint Romanus
• World Biodiversity Day
• Republic of Yemen National Day
• Trinity Sunday in Catholicism (2005)
• National Heroes Day in Sri Lanka

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