May 22nd in History

Michael Dobson | May 22

Today in History

  • Alexander the Great defeats Persian monarch Darius III at the Battle of the Granicus (334 BCE)
  • The Hashshashin (Assassins) attempt to murder Saladin (1176 CE)
  • The Wars of the Roses begins when Henry VI is defeated and captured at the First Battle of St. Albans (1455 CE)
  • Former US Vice President Aaron Burr is indicted for treason (1807 CE)
  • The first steamship (SS Savannah) crosses the Atlantic Ocean (1819 CE)
  • Transportation of British convicts to the New South Wales colony is abolished (1840 CE)
  • Martinique abolishes slavery (1848 CE)
  • Abraham Lincoln patents an invention to lift boats over obstacles in a river, becoming the only US President to ever hold a patent (1849 CE)
  • Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina beats Senator Charles Sumner with a cane in the halls of the US Senate for Sumner’s speech attacking pro-slavery Southerners (1856 CE)
  • The Wright brothers receive US Patent 821,393 for their “Flying-Machine” (1906 CE)
  • The Truman Doctrine, funding anti-Communist activities in Turkey, Greece, and eventually other countries, becomes law (1947 CE)
  • The game Pac-Man is released (1980 CE)
  • Johnny Carson hosts The Tonight Show for the last time (1992 CE)

Birthdays

  • Richard Wagner, composer (1813)
  • Mary Cassatt, painter (1844)
  • Arthur Conan Doyle, author (1859)
  • Al Simmons, baseball player (1902)
  • Hergé, Tintin creator (1907)
  • Laurence Olivier, actor and director (1907)
  • Johnny Olson, announcer (1910)
  • Vance Packard, journalist and author (1914)
  • Sun Ra, bandleader (1914)
  • Quinn Martin, TV producer (1922)
  • Michael Constantine, actor (1927)
  • T. Boone Pickens, businessman (1928)
  • Harvey Milk, first openly gay person elected to public office in California (1930)
  • Peter Nero, pianist (1934)
  • M. Scott Peck, psychiatrist and author (1936)
  • Richard Benjamin, actor (1938)
  • Susan Strasberg, actress (1938)
  • Paul Winfield, actor (1939)
  • Bernard Shaw, news anchor (1940)
  • Michael Sarrazin, actor (1940)
  • Ted Kaczynski, Unabomber (1942)
  • Bernie Taupin, singer-songwriter (1950)
  • Morrissey, singer-songwriter (1959)
  • Naomi Campbell, supermodel (1970)
  • Maggie Q, actress (1979)

Deaths

  • Constantine the Great, Roman emperor (337)
  • Martha Washington, first First Lady (1802)
  • Victor Hugo, author (1885)
  • Langston Hughes, poet (1967)
  • Margaret Rutherford, actress (1972)
  • Lefty Grove, baseball player (1975)
  • Wolfgang Reitherman, Disney animator (1985)
  • Rocky Graziano, boxer (1990)
  • John Derek, filmmaker and photographer (1998)
  • Robert Aspirin, science fiction writer (2008)
  • Martin Gardner, author (2010)

Holidays and Celebrations

  • Abolition Day (Martinique)
  • Corpus Christi Day (Corpus Christi, Texas)
  • Harvey Milk Day (California)
  • International Day for Biological Diversity (worldwide)
  • National Maritime Day (United States)
  • National Museum Day (United States)
  • National Sovereignty Day (Haiti)
  • Republic Day (Sri Lanka)
  • Unity Day (Yemen)
Informal and made-up holidays include Buy a Musical Instrument Day, Canadian Immigrants Day, National Vanilla Pudding Day, Swamp Monster Day (first claimed sighting of the Loch Ness Monster), Toad Pinching for Pixies Day, Toothpaste Tube Day, Viking Ragnar Lodbrok Day, and World Goth Day.