May 22

Events

• 192 - Dong Zhuo is assassinated by his adopted son Lü Bu.
• 760 - Fourteenth recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet.
• 853 - A Byzantine fleet sacks and destroys undefended Damietta in Egypt.
• 1176 - The Hashshashin attempt to assassinate Saladin near Aleppo.
• 1200 - King John of England and King Philip II of France sign the Treaty of Le Goulet.
• 1246 - Henry Raspe is elected anti-king of the Kingdom of Germany in opposition to Conrad IV.
• 1254 - Serbian King Stefan Uroš I and the Republic of Venice sign a peace treaty.
• 1370 - Brussels massacre: Hundreds of Jews are murdered and the rest of the Jewish community is banished from Brussels, Belgium, for allegedly desecrating consecrated Host.
• 1377 - Pope Gregory XI issues five papal bulls to denounce the doctrines of English theologian John Wycliffe.
• 1455 - Start of the Wars of the Roses: At the First Battle of St Albans, Richard, Duke of York, defeats and captures King Henry VI of England.
• 1520 - The massacre at the festival of Tóxcatl takes place during the Fall of Tenochtitlan, resulting in turning the Aztecs against the Spanish.
• 1629 - Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II and Danish King Christian IV sign the Treaty of Lübeck ending Danish intervention in the Thirty Years' War.
• 1762 - Sweden and Prussia sign the Treaty of Hamburg.
• 1762 - Trevi Fountain is officially completed and inaugurated in Rome.
• 1766 - A large earthquake causes heavy damage and loss of life in Istanbul and the Marmara region.
• 1804 - The Lewis and Clark Expedition officially begins as the Corps of Discovery departs from St. Charles, Missouri.
• 1807 - A grand jury indicts former Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr on a charge of treason.
• 1809 - On the second and last day of the Battle of Aspern-Essling, Napoleon I 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, and the riots spread to Ely the next day.
• 1819 - leaves port at Savannah, Georgia, United States, on a voyage to become the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean.
• 1826 - departs on its first voyage.
• 1840 - The penal transportation of British convicts to the New South Wales colony is abolished.
• 1848 - Slavery is abolished in Martinique.
• 1849 - Future U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is issued a patent for an invention to lift boats, making him the only U.S. president to ever hold a patent.
• 1856 - Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina severely beats Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts with a cane in the hall of the United States Senate for a speech Sumner had made regarding Southerners and slavery.
• 1863 - American Civil War: Union forces begin the Siege of Port Hudson which lasts 48 days, the longest siege in U.S. military history.
• 1864 - American Civil War: After ten weeks, the Union Army's Red River Campaign ends in failure.
• 1866 - Oliver Winchester founded the Winchester Repeating Arms
• 1872 - Reconstruction Era: President Ulysses S. Grant signs the Amnesty Act into law, restoring full civil and political rights to all but about 500 Confederate sympathizers.
• 1900 - The Associated Press is formed in New York City as a non-profit news cooperative.
• 1906 - The Wright brothers are granted U.S. patent number 821,393 for their "Flying-Machine".
• 1915 - Lassen Peak erupts with a powerful force, the only volcano besides Mount St. Helens to erupt in the contiguous U.S. during the 20th century.
• 1915 - Three trains collide in the Quintinshill rail disaster near Gretna Green, Scotland, killing 227 people and injuring 246.
• 1926 - Chiang Kai-shek replaces the communists in Kuomintang China.
• 1927 - Near Xining, China, an 8.3 magnitude earthquake causes 200,000 deaths in one of the world's most destructive earthquakes.
• 1939 - World War II: Germany and Italy sign the Pact of Steel.
• 1941 - During the Anglo-Iraqi War, British troops take Fallujah.
• 1942 - Mexico enters the Second World War on the side of the Allies.
• 1943 - Joseph Stalin disbands the Comintern.
• 1947 - Cold War: The Truman Doctrine goes into effect, aiding Turkey and Greece.
• 1957 - South Africa's government approves of racial separation in universities.
• 1958 - The 1958 riots in Ceylon become a watershed in the race relations of various ethnic communities of Sri Lanka. The total deaths is estimated at 300, mostly Tamils.
• 1960 - The Great Chilean earthquake, measuring 9.5 on the moment magnitude scale, hits southern Chile, becoming the most powerful earthquake ever recorded.
• 1962 - Continental Airlines Flight 11 crashes after bombs explode on board.
• 1963 - Greek left-wing politician Grigoris Lambrakis is shot in an assassination attempt, and dies five days later.
• 1964 - Lyndon B. Johnson launches the Great Society.

• 1967 - L'Innovation department store in Brussels, Belgium, burns down, resulting in 323 dead or missing and 150 injured, the most devastating fire in Belgian history.
• 1968 - The nuclear-powered submarine sinks with 99 men aboard, 400 miles southwest of the Azores.
• 1969 - Apollo 10's lunar module flies within of the moon's surface.
• 1972 - Ceylon adopts a new constitution, becoming a republic and changing its name to Sri Lanka, and joins the Commonwealth of Nations.
• 1972 - Over 400 women in Derry, Northern Ireland attack the offices of Sinn Féin following the shooting by the Irish Republican Army of a young British soldier on leave.
• 1987 - Hashimpura massacre occurs in Meerut, India.
• 1987 - First ever Rugby World Cup kicks off with New Zealand playing Italy at Eden Park in Auckland, New Zealand.
• 1990 - North and South Yemen are unified to create the Republic of Yemen.
• 1992 - Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia join the United Nations.
• 1994 - A worldwide trade embargo against Haiti goes into effect to punish its military rulers for not reinstating the country's ousted elected leader, Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
• 1996 - The Burmese military regime jails 71 supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi in a bid to block a pro-democracy meeting.
• 1998 - A U.S. federal judge rules that U.S. Secret Service agents can be compelled to testify before a grand jury concerning the Lewinsky scandal involving President Bill Clinton.
• 2000 - In Sri Lanka, over 150 Tamil rebels are killed over two days of fighting for control in Jaffna.
• 2002 - Civil rights movement: A jury in Birmingham, Alabama, convicts former Ku Klux Klan member Bobby Frank Cherry of the 1963 murder of four girls in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing.
• 2010 - Air India Express Boeing 737 crashes over a cliff upon landing at Mangalore, India, killing 158 of 166 people on board, becoming the deadliest crash involving a Boeing 737.
• 2010 - Inter Milan beat Bayern Munich 2–0 in the Uefa Champions League final in Madrid, Spain to become the first, and so far only, Italian team to win the historic treble.
• 2011 - An EF5 tornado strikes Joplin, Missouri, killing 158 people and wreaking $2.8 billion in damages, the costliest and seventh-deadliest single tornado in U.S. history.
• 2012 - Tokyo Skytree opens to the public. It is the tallest tower in the world, and the second tallest man-made structure on Earth after Burj Khalifa.
• 2014 - General Prayut Chan-o-cha becomes interim leader of Thailand in a military coup d'état, following six months of political turmoil.
• 2014 - An explosion occurs in Ürümqi, capital of China's far-western Xinjiang region, resulting in at least 43 deaths and 91 injuries.
• 2015 - The Republic of Ireland becomes the first nation in the world to legalize gay marriage in a public referendum.
• 2017 - Twenty-two people are killed at an Ariana Grande concert in the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing.
• 2017 - United States President Donald Trump visits the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and becomes the first sitting U.S. president to visit the Western Wall.

  Births

• 626 - Itzam K'an Ahk I, Mayan king
• 1009 - Su Xun, Chinese writer
• 1408 - Annamacharya, Hindu saint
• 1539 - Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford
• 1622 - Louis de Buade de Frontenac, French soldier and governor
• 1644 - Gabriël Grupello, Flemish Baroque sculptor
• 1650 - Richard Brakenburgh, Dutch Golden Age painter
• 1694 - Daniel Gran, Austrian painter
• 1715 - François-Joachim de Pierre de Bernis, French cardinal and diplomat
• 1733 - Hubert Robert, French painter
• 1752 - Louis Legendre, French butcher and politician
• 1762 - Henry Bathurst, 3rd Earl Bathurst, English politician
• 1770 - Princess Elizabeth of the United Kingdom
• 1772 - Ram Mohan Roy, Indian philosopher and reformer
• 1782 - Hirose Tansō, Japanese neo-Confucian scholar, teacher, writer
• 1783 - William Sturgeon, English physicist and inventor, invented the electromagnet and electric motor
• 1808 - Gérard de Nerval, French poet and translator
• 1811 - Giulia Grisi, Italian soprano
• 1811 - Henry Pelham-Clinton, 5th Duke of Newcastle, English politician
• 1813 - Richard Wagner, German composer
• 1814 - Amalia Lindegren, Swedish painter
• 1820 - Worthington Whittredge, American painter
• 1828 - Albrecht von Graefe, German ophthalmologist and academic
• 1831 - Henry Vandyke Carter, English anatomist and surgeon
• 1833 - Félix Bracquemond, French painter and etcher
• 1833 - Manuel Ruiz Zorrilla, Spanish politician, Prime Minister of Spain
• 1841 - Catulle Mendès, French poet, author, and playwright
• 1844 - Mary Cassatt, American painter and educator
• 1846 - Rita Cetina Gutiérrez, Mexican poet, educator, and activist
• 1848 - Fritz von Uhde, German painter and educator
• 1849 - Aston Webb, English architect and academic
• 1858 - Belmiro de Almeida, Brazilian painter, illustrator, sculptor
• 1859 - Arthur Conan Doyle, British writer
• 1859 - Tsubouchi Shōyō, Japanese author, playwright, and educator
• 1864 - Willy Stöwer, German author and illustrator
• 1868 - Augusto Pestana, Brazilian engineer and politician
• 1874 - Daniel François Malan, South African clergyman and politician, 5th Prime Minister of South Africa
• 1876 - Julius Klinger, Austrian painter and illustrator
• 1879 - Warwick Armstrong, Australian cricketer and journalist
• 1879 - Jean Cras, French admiral and composer
• 1879 - Symon Petliura, Ukrainian statesman and independence leader
• 1880 - Francis de Miomandre, French author and translator
• 1885 - Giacomo Matteotti, Italian lawyer and politician
• 1885 - Soemu Toyoda, Japanese admiral
• 1887 - A. W. Sandberg, Danish film director and screenwriter
• 1891 - Johannes R. Becher, German politician, novelist, and poet
• 1894 - Friedrich Pollock, German sociologist and philosopher
• 1897 - Robert Neumann, German and English-speaking author
• 1900 - Juan Arvizu, Mexican lyric opera tenor and bolero vocalist
• 1901 - Maurice J. Tobin, American politician, 6th United States Secretary of Labor
• 1902 - Jack Lambert, English footballer and manager
• 1902 - Al Simmons, American baseball player and coach
• 1904 - Uno Lamm, Swedish electrical engineer and inventor
• 1905 - Bodo von Borries, German physicist and academic, co-invented the electron microscope
• 1905 - Tom Driberg, British politician
• 1907 - Hergé, Belgian author and illustrator
• 1907 - Laurence Olivier, English actor, director, and producer
• 1908 - Horton Smith, American golfer and captain
• 1909 - Margaret Mee, English illustrator and educator
• 1912 - Herbert C. Brown, English-American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1913 - Rafael Gil, Spanish director and screenwriter
• 1913 - Dominique Rolin, Belgian author
• 1914 - Max Kohnstamm, Dutch historian and diplomat
• 1914 - Sun Ra, American pianist, composer, bandleader, poet
• 1917 - George Aratani, American businessman and philanthropist
• 1917 - Jean-Louis Curtis, French author
• 1919 - Paul Vanden Boeynants, Belgian businessman and politician, 55th Prime Minister of Belgium
• 1920 - Thomas Gold, Austrian-American astrophysicist and academic
• 1921 - George S. Hammond, American scientist
• 1922 - Quinn Martin, American screenwriter and producer
• 1924 - Charles Aznavour, French-Armenian singer-songwriter and actor
• 1925 - Jean Tinguely, Swiss painter and sculptor
• 1927 - Michael Constantine, American actor
• 1927 - Peter Matthiessen, American novelist, short story writer, editor, co-founded The Paris Review
• 1927 - George Andrew Olah, Hungarian-American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1928 - Serge Doubrovsky, French theorist and author
• 1928 - John Mackenzie, Scottish director and producer
• 1928 - T. Boone Pickens, American businessman
• 1928 - Hiroshi Sano, Japanese novelist
• 1929 - Ahmed Fouad Negm, Egyptian poet
• 1930 - Kenny Ball, English jazz trumpet player, vocalist, and bandleader
• 1930 - Marisol Escobar, French-American sculptor
• 1930 - Harvey Milk, American lieutenant and politician
• 1932 - Robert Spitzer, American psychiatrist and academic
• 1933 - Chen Jingrun, Chinese mathematician and academic
• 1934 - Peter Nero, American pianist and conductor
• 1936 - George H. Heilmeier, American engineer
• 1937 - Facundo Cabral, Argentinian singer-songwriter
• 1938 - Richard Benjamin, American actor and director
• 1938 - Susan Strasberg, American actress
• 1939 - Paul Winfield, American actor
• 1940 - Kieth Merrill, American filmmaker
• 1940 - Michael Sarrazin, Canadian actor
• 1940 - Bernard Shaw, American journalist
• 1940 - Mick Tingelhoff, American Pro Football Hall of Famer
• 1941 - Menzies Campbell, Scottish sprinter and politician
• 1942 - Roger Brown, American basketball player
• 1942 - Ted Kaczynski, American academic and mathematician turned anarchist and serial murderer
• 1942 - Barbara Parkins, Canadian actress
• 1942 - Richard Oakes, Native American civil rights activist
• 1943 - Betty Williams, Northern Irish peace activist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1943 - Tommy John, American baseball player
• 1944 - John Flanagan, Australian fantasy author
• 1945 - Bob Katter, Australian politician
• 1946 - George Best, Northern Irish footballer and manager
• 1946 - Michael Green, English physicist and academic
• 1946 - Howard Kendall, English footballer and manager
• 1946 - Andrei Marga, Romanian philosopher, political scientist, politician
• 1946 - Lyudmila Zhuravleva, Russian-Ukrainian astronomer
• 1948 - Tomás Sánchez, Cuban painter and engraver
• 1948 - Nedumudi Venu, Indian actor and screenwriter
• 1949 - Cheryl Campbell, English actress
• 1949 - Valentin Inzko, Austrian diplomat
• 1950 - Bernie Taupin, English singer-songwriter and poet
• 1953 - François Bon, French writer
• 1953 - Cha Bum-kun, South Korean footballer and manager
• 1953 - Paul Mariner, English footballer, coach, and manager
• 1954 - Barbara May Cameron, Native American human rights activist
• 1954 - Shuji Nakamura, Japanese-American physicist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1956 - Lucie Brock-Broido, American poet
• 1957 - Lisa Murkowski, American lawyer and politician
• 1959 - David Blatt, Israeli-American basketball player and coach
• 1959 - Morrissey, English singer-songwriter and performer
• 1959 - Kwak Jae-yong, South Korean director and screenwriter
• 1959 - Mehbooba Mufti, Indian politician
• 1960 - Hideaki Anno, Japanese animator, director, and screenwriter
• 1962 - Brian Pillman, American football player and wrestler
• 1963 - Claude Closky, French contemporary artist
• 1965 - Jay Carney, American journalist, 29th White House Press Secretary
• 1966 - Johnny Gill, American singer-songwriter and producer
• 1966 - Wang Xiaoshuai, Chinese director and screenwriter
• 1968 - Graham Linehan, Irish comedian, actor, and author
• 1969 - Cathy McMorris Rodgers, American lawyer and politician
• 1970 - Naomi Campbell, English model
• 1970 - Brody Stevens, American comedian and actor
• 1972 - Max Brooks, American author and screenwriter
• 1973 - Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Danish actor
• 1974 - Garba Lawal, Nigerian footballer
• 1974 - Henrietta Ónodi, Hungarian Olympic gymnast
• 1974 - Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Ukrainian politician
• 1975 - Salva Ballesta, Spanish footballer and manager
• 1976 - Christian Vande Velde, American cyclist
• 1978 - Ginnifer Goodwin, American actress
• 1978 - Katie Price, English television personality and glamour model
• 1979 - Maggie Q, American actress
• 1979 - Nazanin Boniadi, Iranian-American actress
• 1980 - Sharice Davids, American politician
• 1980 - Lucy Gordon, British actress and model
• 1981 - Daniel Bryan, American wrestler
• 1981 - Bassel Khartabil, Syrian computer programmer and engineer
• 1981 - Jürgen Melzer, Austrian tennis player
• 1982 - Erin McNaught, Australian model and actress
• 1982 - Apolo Ohno, American speed skater
• 1982 - Hong Yong-jo, North Korean footballer
• 1983 - Natasha Kai, American soccer player and Olympic medalist
• 1984 - Karoline Herfurth, German actress
• 1984 - Didier Ya Konan, Ivorian footballer
• 1984 - Dustin Moskovitz, American entrepreneur, co-founder of Facebook
• 1985 - Tranquillo Barnetta, Swiss footballer
• 1985 - Tao Okamoto, Japanese model and actress
• 1986 - Julian Edelman, American football player
• 1986 - Matt Jarvis, English footballer
• 1986 - Tatiana Volosozhar, Russian figure skater
• 1987 - Novak Djokovic, Serbian tennis player
• 1987 - Arturo Vidal, Chilean footballer
• 1988 - Heida Reed, Icelandic-British actress
• 1989 - Corey Dickerson, American baseball player
• 1990 - Wyatt Roy, Australian politician
• 1991 - Joel Obi, Nigerian footballer
• 1991 - Suho, South Korean singer and actor
• 1992 - Anna Baryshnikov, American actress
• 1994 - Florian Luger, Austrian male model
• 1998 - Samile Bermannelli, Brazilian fashion model
• 1999 - Camren Bicondova, American actress
• 1999 - Femke Huijzer, Dutch model

  Deaths

• 192 - Dong Zhuo, Chinese warlord and politician
• 337 - Constantine the Great, Roman emperor
• 748 - Empress Genshō of Japan
• 1067 - Constantine X, Byzantine Emperor
• 1068 - Emperor Go-Reizei of Japan
• 1310 - Saint Humility, founder of the Vallumbrosan religious order of nuns
• 1409 - Blanche of England, sister of King Henry V
• 1455 - Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset, English commander
• 1455 - Thomas Clifford, 8th Baron de Clifford, Lancastrian commander
• 1455 - Henry Percy, 2nd Earl of Northumberland, English commander
• 1457 - Rita of Cascia, Italian nun and saint
• 1490 - Edmund Grey, 1st Earl of Kent, English administrator, nobleman and magnate
• 1538 - John Forest, English friar and martyr
• 1540 - Francesco Guicciardini, Italian historian and politician
• 1545 - Sher Shah Suri, Indian ruler
• 1553 - Giovanni Bernardi, Italian sculptor and engraver
• 1602 - Renata of Lorraine
• 1609 - Pieter Willemsz. Verhoeff, Dutch captain
• 1666 - Gaspar Schott, German physicist and mathematician
• 1667 - Pope Alexander VII
• 1745 - François-Marie, 1st duc de Broglie, French general
• 1760 - Baal Shem Tov, Polish rabbi and author
• 1772 - Durastante Natalucci, Italian historian and academic
• 1795 - Ewald Friedrich von Hertzberg, Prussian politician, Foreign Minister of Prussia
• 1802 - Martha Washington, First, First Lady of the United States
• 1851 - Mordecai Manuel Noah, American journalist and diplomat
• 1859 - Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies
• 1861 - Thornsbury Bailey Brown, American soldier
• 1868 - Julius Plücker, German mathematician and physicist
• 1885 - Victor Hugo, French novelist, poet, and playwright
• 1901 - Gaetano Bresci, Italian-American anarchist, assassin of Umberto I of Italy
• 1910 - Jules Renard, French author and playwright
• 1932 - Augusta, Lady Gregory, Anglo-Irish activist, landlord, and playwright, co-founded the Abbey Theatre
• 1933 - Tsengeltiin Jigjidjav, Mongolian politician, 10th Prime Minister of Mongolia
• 1938 - William Glackens, American painter and illustrator
• 1939 - Ernst Toller, German playwright and author
• 1939 - Jiří Mahen, Czech author and playwright
• 1954 - Chief Bender, American baseball player, coach, and manager
• 1965 - Christopher Stone, English radio host
• 1966 - Tom Goddard, English cricketer
• 1967 - Langston Hughes, American poet, social activist, novelist, and playwright
• 1967 - Charlotte Serber, American Librarian of the Manhattan Project's Los Alamos site
• 1972 - Cecil Day-Lewis, Anglo-Irish poet and author
• 1972 - Margaret Rutherford, English actress
• 1974 - Irmgard Flügge-Lotz, German-American mathematician and aerospace engineer
• 1975 - Lefty Grove, American baseball player
• 1982 - Cevdet Sunay, Turkish general and politician, 5th President of Turkey
• 1983 - Albert Claude, Belgian biologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1985 - Wolfgang Reitherman, German-American animator, director, and producer
• 1988 - Giorgio Almirante, Italian journalist and politician
• 1989 - Steven De Groote, South African pianist and educator
• 1990 - Rocky Graziano, American boxer
• 1991 - Shripad Amrit Dange, Indian lawyer and politician
• 1991 - Stan Mortensen, English footballer and manager
• 1992 - Zellig Harris, American linguist and academic
• 1993 - Mieczysław Horszowski, Polish-American pianist and composer
• 1997 - Alziro Bergonzo, Italian architect and painter
• 1997 - Alfred Hershey, American biochemist and geneticist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1998 - John Derek, American actor, director, and photographer
• 1998 - José Enrique Moyal, Israeli physicist and engineer
• 2000 - Davie Fulton, Canadian lawyer, judge, and politician
• 2004 - Richard Biggs, American actor
• 2004 - Mikhail Voronin, Russian gymnast
• 2005 - Charilaos Florakis, Greek politician
• 2005 - Thurl Ravenscroft, American voice actor and singer
• 2006 - Lee Jong-wook, South Korean physician and diplomat
• 2007 - Pemba Doma Sherpa, Nepalese mountaineer
• 2008 - Robert Asprin, American soldier and author
• 2010 - Martin Gardner, American mathematician, cryptographer, and author
• 2011 - Joseph Brooks, American director, producer, screenwriter, and composer
• 2012 - Muzafar Bhutto, Pakistani politician
• 2012 - Wesley A. Brown, American lieutenant and engineer
• 2013 - Sigurd Ottovich Schmidt, Russian historian and ethnographer
• 2015 - Marques Haynes, American basketball player and coach
• 2015 - Vladimir Katriuk, Ukrainian-Canadian SS officer
• 2016 - Velimir "Bata" Živojinović, Serbian actor and politician
• 2017 - Nicky Hayden, American motorcycle racer
• 2019 - Judith Kerr, German-born British writer and illustrator
• 2020 - Denise Cronenberg, Canadian costume designer

  Holidays and observances

• Abolition Day
• Christian feast day:
• *Castus and Emilius
• *Fulk
• *Humilita
• *Michael Hồ Đình Hy
• *Quiteria
• *Rita of Cascia
• *Romanus of Subiaco
• *May 22
• Harvey Milk Day
• International Day for Biological Diversity
• United States National Maritime Day
• National Sovereignty Day
• Republic Day
• Translation of the Relics of Saint Nicholas from Myra to Bari
• Unity Day, celebrates the unification of North and South Yemen into the Republic of Yemen in 1990.
• World Goth Day