May 22

Historic Events

2026

A gas explosion at a coal mine in Changzhi, Shanxi, leaves at least 82 people dead. ›

2021

Hypothermia kills 21 runners in the 100 km (60-mile) Gansu ultramarathon disaster in China. ›

2020

Pakistan International Airlines Flight 8303 crashes in Model Colony near Jinnah International Airport in Karachi, Pakistan, killing 98 people. ›

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. ›

2015

The Republic of Ireland becomes the first nation in the world to utilise a public referendum to legalise gay marriage. ›

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. ›

2013

Fusilier Lee Rigby is murdered by two Islamic extremists in Woolwich, Southeast London. ›

2012

Tokyo Skytree opens to the public. It is the tallest tower in the world (634 m), and the third tallest man-made structure on Earth after Merdeka 118 (680.5 m) and Burj Khalifa (829.8 m). ›

2012

SpaceX COTS Demo Flight 2 launches a Dragon capsule on a Falcon 9 rocket in the first commercial flight to the International Space Station. ›

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. ›

2010

Air India Express Flight 812, a 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 until the crash of Lion Air Flight 610. ›

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 (Serie A, Coppa Italia, Champions League). ›

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. ›

2000

In Sri Lanka, over 150 Tamil rebels are killed over two days of fighting for control in Jaffna. ›

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. ›

1996

The Burmese military regime jails 71 supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi in a bid to block a pro-democracy meeting. ›

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. ›

1992

Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia join the United Nations. ›

1990

North and South Yemen are unified to create the Republic of Yemen. ›

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. ›

1972

Ceylon adopts a new constitution, becoming a republic and changing its name to Sri Lanka. ›

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. ›

1969

Apollo 10's Lunar Module flies within 8.4 nautical miles (16 km) of the Moon's surface. ›

1968

The nuclear-powered submarine USS Scorpion sinks with 99 men aboard, 400 nautical miles (740 km) southwest of the Azores. ›

1967

Egypt closes the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping. ›

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. ›

1964

U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson launches his Great Society program. ›

1963

Greek left-wing politician Grigoris Lambrakis is clubbed over the head, causing his death five days later. ›

1962

Continental Airlines Flight 11 crashes in Unionville, Missouri after bombs explode on board, killing 45. ›

1960

The Great Chilean earthquake, measuring 9.5 on the moment magnitude scale, hits southern Chile, becoming the most powerful earthquake ever recorded. ›

1958

The 1958 riots in Ceylon become a watershed in the race relations of various ethnic communities of Sri Lanka. The total deaths are estimated at 300, mostly Tamils. ›

1957

South Africa's government approves of racial separation in universities. ›

1948

Finnish President J. K. Paasikivi releases Yrjö Leino from his duties as interior minister after the Finnish parliament adopted a motion of censure of Leino with connection to his illegal handing over of nineteen people to the Soviet Union in 1945. ›

1947

Cold War: The Truman Doctrine goes into effect, aiding Turkey and Greece. ›

1943

Joseph Stalin disbands the Comintern. ›

1942

Mexico enters the Second World War on the side of the Allies. ›

1941

During the Anglo-Iraqi War, British troops take Fallujah. ›

1939

World War II: Germany and Italy sign the Pact of Steel. ›

1927

Near Xining, China, an 8.3 magnitude earthquake causes 200,000 deaths in one of the world's most destructive earthquakes. ›

1926

Chiang Kai-shek replaces the communists in Kuomintang China.[vague] ›

1916

A British army defeats a force of the Darfur Sultanate under Sultan Ali Dinar due to its superior firepower in the battle of Beringia. ›

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. ›

1911

The Uruguayan Regional Workers' Federation declares a general strike in solidarity with trolley workers in Montevideo. ›

1906

The Wright brothers are granted U.S. patent number 821,393 for their "Flying-Machine". ›

1905

The Sultan of the Ottoman Empire Abdul Hamid II establishes the Ullah millet for the Aromanians of the empire. For this reason, the Aromanian National Day is sometimes celebrated on this day, although most do so on May 23 instead, which is when this event was publicly announced. ›

1874

Verdi's Requiem is first performed at San Marco in Milan on the first anniversary of Alessandro Manzoni's death. ›

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. ›

1866

Oliver Winchester founds the Winchester Repeating Arms. ›

1864

American Civil War: After ten weeks, the Union Army's Red River Campaign ends in failure. ›

1863

American Civil War: Union forces begin the Siege of Port Hudson which lasts 48 days, the longest siege in U.S. military history. ›

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. ›

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. ›

1848

Slavery is abolished in Martinique. ›

1846

The Associated Press is formed in New York City as a non-profit news cooperative. ›

1840

The penal transportation of British convicts to the New South Wales colony is abolished. ›

1826

HMS Beagle departs on its first voyage. ›

1819

SS Savannah leaves port at Savannah, Georgia, United States, on a voyage to become the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean. ›

1816

A mob in Littleport, Cambridgeshire, England, riots over high unemployment and rising grain costs, and the riots spread to Ely the next day. ›

1809

On the second and last day of the Battle of Aspern-Essling (near Vienna, Austria), Napoleon I is defeated in a major battle for the first time in his career, and repelled by an enemy army for the first time in a decade. ›

1807

A grand jury indicts former Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr on a charge of treason. ›

1804

The Lewis and Clark Expedition officially begins as the Corps of Discovery departs from St. Charles, Missouri. ›

1766

A large earthquake causes heavy damage and loss of life in Istanbul and the Marmara region. ›

1762

Sweden and Prussia sign the Treaty of Hamburg. ›

1762

Trevi Fountain is officially completed and inaugurated in Rome. ›

1629

Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II and Danish King Christian IV sign the Treaty of Lübeck ending Danish intervention in the Thirty Years' War. ›

1520

The massacre at the festival of Tóxcatl takes place during the Fall of Tenochtitlan, resulting in turning the Aztecs against the Spanish. ›

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. ›

1377

Pope Gregory XI issues five papal bulls to denounce the doctrines of English theologian John Wycliffe. ›

1370

Brussels massacre: An estimated 13 Jews are murdered and the rest of the Jewish community is banished from Brussels, Belgium, in an anti-Semitic attack, for allegedly desecrating consecrated Host. ›

1254

Serbian King Stefan Uroš I and the Republic of Venice sign a peace treaty. ›

1246

Henry Raspe is elected anti-king of the Kingdom of Germany in opposition to Conrad IV. ›

1200

King John of England and King Philip II of France sign the Treaty of Le Goulet. ›

1176

The Hashshashin (Assassins) attempt to assassinate Saladin near Aleppo. ›

853

A Byzantine fleet sacks and destroys undefended Damietta in Egypt. ›

760

Fourteenth recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet. ›

192

Dong Zhuo is assassinated by his adopted son Lü Bu. ›