On this day: 22 May

Years ago today

Events · 33

• 853(Julian date)
  Sack of Damietta — 853 raid on the port city of Damietta on 22–24 May 853
• 1370(Julian date)
  Sacrament of Miracle — 1370 pogrom against the Jewish population of Brussels
• 1455
  Wars of the Roses — dynastic civil war in England from 1455 to 1487
• 1455(Julian date)
  First Battle of St Albans — 1455 conflict
• 1520(Julian date)
  Massacre in the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan
• 1629
  Treaty of Lübeck — peace treaty in the thrirty years'war
• 1766
  1766 Istanbul earthquake — earthquake in Turkey
• 1846
  Associated Press — multinational nonprofit news agency headquartered in New York, United States
• 1856
  caning of Charles Sumner — attack on an anti-slavery US Congressman by a pro-slavery US Congressman
• 1882
  Joseon–United States Treaty of 1882 — 1882 treaty between the United States and Korea that established their mutual relationship
• 1915
  Quintinshill rail disaster — deadliest railway accident in the United Kingdom
• 1927
  1927 Gulang earthquake — earthquake struck Gansu Province, China on May 22
• 1939
  Pact of Steel — agreement signed between Germany and Italy in 1939
• 1962
  Continental Airlines Flight 11 — 1962 airliner bombing
• 1967
  L'Innovation Department Store fire — Fire incident in Brussels
• 1972
  Sri Lanka — island country in South Asia
• 1987
  1987 Rugby World Cup — 1st Rugby World Cup
• 1987
  Hashimpura massacre — 1987 mass killing of Muslim youths by police in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India
• 1990
  Yemen — country in West Asia
• 1990
  Windows 3.x — released since 1990, is also known as Windows Version 3 and can refer to either an individual or all of the following versions of Microsoft Windows
• 1990
  Yemeni unification — 1990 merger of the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (South Yemen) and the Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen) into a single state, forming the Republic of Yemen
• 2010
  2010 UEFA Champions League Final — association football match
• 2010
  Air India Express Flight 812 — 2010 plane crash of an Air India Express Boeing 737-800 in Mangalore, India
• 2011
  2011 Joplin tornado — tornado in Missouri, US
• 2012
  Tokyo Skytree — tower in Tokyo, Japan
• 2013
  murder of Lee Rigby — 2013 killing of a British soldier
• 2014
  2014 Thai coup d'état — 2014 military coup in Thailand
• 2014
  May 2014 Ürümqi explosion — terrorist attack in Xinjiang, China
• 2017
  Manchester Arena bombing — 2017 terrorist attack in the United Kingdom
• 2020
  Pakistan International Airlines Flight 8303 — domestic passenger flight crash near Karachi, Pakistan on 22 May 2020
• 2020
  2020 National People's Congress
• 2021
  Gansu ultramarathon disaster — death of 21 ultrarunners in China 2021
• 2026
  2026 Liushenyu coal mine explosion — 2026 disaster in Shanxi Province, China

Births · 60

• 1770
  Princess Elizabeth of the United Kingdom — Member of the British Royal Family (1770-1840)
• 1772
  Ram Mohan Roy — Indian religious, social, and educational reformer, and humanitarian
• 1783
  William Sturgeon — British inventor
• 1808
  — French writer, poet, essayist and translator (1808–1855)
• 1813
  Richard Wagner — German composer (1813–1883)
• 1844
  Mary Cassatt — American painter and printmaker (1844—1926)
• 1859
  Arthur Conan Doyle — British writer and physician (1859–1930)
• 1874
  Daniel François Malan — South African Prime Minister (1874-1959)
• 1879
  Symon Petliura — Ukrainian military leader (1879–1926)
• 1885
  Giacomo Matteotti — Italian politician (1885-1924)
• 1891
  Johannes R. Becher — German politician, novelist and poet (1891–1958)
• 1907
  Laurence Olivier — English actor and director (1907–1989)
• 1907
  Hergé — Belgian comics writer (1907–1983)
• 1912
  Herbert C. Brown — American chemist (1912–2004)
• 1914
  Sun Ra — American jazz composer and bandleader (1914–1993)
• 1920
  Thomas Gold — Austrian astrophysicist (1920-2004)
• 1924
  Charles Aznavour — Armenian-French singer and diplomat (1924-2018)
• 1925
  Jean Tinguely — Swiss sculptor (1925–1991)
• 1927
  George Andrew Olah — Hungarian chemist (1927-2017)
• 1930
  Harvey Milk — American politician and gay rights activist (1930–1978)
• 1937
  Facundo Cabral — Argentine singer and songwriter (1937–2011)
• 1938
  Susan Strasberg — American film and stage actress (1938–1999)
• 1938
  Richard Benjamin — American actor and film director
• 1939
  Paul Winfield — American actor (1939–2004)
• 1942
  Ted Kaczynski — American mathematician and domestic terrorist (1942–2023)

Deaths · 60

• 192(Julian date)
  Dong Zhuo — Chinese general and warlord during the late Han (2nd century)
• 337(Julian date)
  Constantine the Great — Roman emperor from 306 to 337 and first to convert to Christianity (272–337)
• 748(Julian date)
  Genshō — Empress of Japan (680-748)
• 987(Julian date)
  Louis V of France — King of West Francia from 979 to 987
• 1068(Julian date)
  Go-Reizei — 70th emperor of Japan
• 1409(Julian date)
  Blanche of England — English princess
• 1455
  Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset — English military personnel
• 1455(Julian date)
  Henry Percy, 2nd Earl of Northumberland — English nobleman and military commander
• 1457
  — Italian Augustinian nun
• 1540(Julian date)
  Francesco Guicciardini — Italian writer, historian and politician (1483-1540)
• 1545(Julian date)
  Sher Shah Suri — Founder of the Suri Empire in India (1472-1545)
• 1602
  Renata of Lorraine — Duchess consort of Bavaria
• 1667
  Alexander VII — pope of the Catholic Church from 1655 to 1667
• 1745
  François-Marie, 1st duc de Broglie — Marshal of France
• 1802
  Martha Washington — First Lady of the United States from 1789 to 1797
• 1859
  Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies — King of the Two sicilies
• 1868
  Julius Plücker — German mathematician and physicist (1801-1868)
• 1885
  — French novelist, poet, dramatist and politician (1802–1885)
• 1887
  Honoré Jacquinot — French surgeon and zoologist
• 1901
  Gaetano Bresci — Italian anarchist regicide of King Umberto I of Italy (1869-1901)
• 1910
  Jules Renard — French author (1864-1910)
• 1932
  Augusta, Lady Gregory — Irish playwright, poet, folklorist (1852-1932)
• 1938
  William James Glackens — painter from the United States (1870-1938)
• 1939
  Ernst Toller — German writer, politician and leader of the Munich Soviet Republic (1893-1939)
• 1939
  Jiří Mahen — Czech writer, poet, journalist, librarian and theater director (1882–1939)