May 22 facts for kids

On May 22nd, many interesting things have happened throughout history! From ancient times to today, this date has seen important events, the births of famous people, and the passing of others who left their mark on the world. It's also a day for special celebrations and observances around the globe.

Events

Early History (Before 1600)

• 192 – A powerful Chinese warlord named Dong Zhuo is killed by his adopted son, Lü Bu.
• 760 – Halley's Comet, a famous comet that visits Earth regularly, is seen passing by the Sun for the fourteenth time on record.
• 853 – A fleet from the Byzantine Empire attacks and damages the city of Damietta in Egypt.
• 1176 – A group known as the Assassins tries to kill Saladin, a famous leader, near Aleppo.
• 1200 – King John of England and King Philip II of France sign an important agreement called the Treaty of Le Goulet.
• 1246 – Henry Raspe is chosen as a rival king in the Kingdom of Germany, going against Conrad IV.
• 1254 – The Serbian King Stefan Uroš I and the Republic of Venice sign a peace treaty.
• 1377 – Pope Gregory XI issues several official statements against the ideas of the English thinker John Wycliffe.
• 1455 – The Wars of the Roses begin in England. At the First Battle of St Albans, Richard, Duke of York, wins against and captures King Henry VI of England.
• 1520 – A violent event happens at the festival of Tóxcatl during the Fall of Tenochtitlan. This causes the Aztecs to turn against the Spanish invaders.

From 1601 to 1900

• 1629 – Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II and Danish King Christian IV sign the Treaty of Lübeck, which ends Denmark's involvement in the Thirty Years' War.
• 1762 – Sweden and Prussia sign the Treaty of Hamburg.
• 1762 – The beautiful Trevi Fountain in Rome is officially finished and opened to the public.
• 1766 – A big earthquake causes a lot of damage and loss of life in Istanbul and the surrounding Marmara region.
• 1804 – The famous Lewis and Clark Expedition officially starts. The Corps of Discovery team leaves St. Charles, Missouri, to explore the western parts of the United States.
• 1807 – A grand jury formally accuses former U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr of treason.
• 1809 – On the second day of the Battle of Aspern-Essling near Vienna, Napoleon I is defeated in a major battle for the first time in his career.
• 1816 – People in Littleport, Cambridgeshire, England, protest due to high unemployment and rising food costs. The protests spread to Ely the next day.
• 1819 – The SS Savannah leaves port in Savannah, Georgia, to become the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean.
• 1826 – The famous ship HMS Beagle begins its first journey.
• 1840 – The British government stops sending convicts from Britain to the New South Wales colony in Australia.
• 1846 – The Associated Press, a non-profit news organization, is created in New York City.
• 1848 – Slavery is abolished in Martinique.
• 1849 – Future U.S. President Abraham Lincoln receives a patent for his invention to lift boats. This makes him the only U.S. president to ever hold a patent.
• 1856 – Congressman Preston Brooks from South Carolina severely beats Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts with a cane in the U.S. Senate hall. This happened because of a speech Sumner gave about slavery.
• 1863 – American Civil War: Union forces begin the Siege of Port Hudson. This siege lasts 48 days, making it the longest siege in U.S. military history.
• 1864 – American Civil War: After ten weeks, the Union Army's Red River Campaign ends without success.
• 1866 – Oliver Winchester starts the Winchester Repeating Arms company.
• 1872 – Reconstruction Era: President Ulysses S. Grant signs the Amnesty Act into law. This act gives full civil and political rights back to almost all Confederate supporters.
• 1900 – The Sultan of the Ottoman Empire Abdul Hamid II creates the Ullah millet for the Aromanians of the empire. This is why the Aromanian National Day is sometimes celebrated on this day.

Modern Times (1901–Present)

• 1906 – The Wright brothers are given a U.S. patent for their "Flying-Machine".
• 1915 – Lassen Peak, a volcano, erupts with great power. It is one of only two volcanoes in the connected U.S. to erupt in the 20th century.
• 1915 – Three trains crash in the Quintinshill rail disaster near Gretna Green, Scotland. This terrible accident kills 227 people and injures 246.
• 1926 – Chiang Kai-shek takes control of the Kuomintang party in China, replacing the communists.
• 1927 – Near Xining, China, a huge 8.3 magnitude earthquake strikes. It causes about 200,000 deaths, making it one of the world's most destructive earthquakes.
• 1939 – World War II: Germany and Italy sign the Pact of Steel, forming an alliance.
• 1941 – During the Anglo-Iraqi War, British troops capture Fallujah.
• 1942 – Mexico enters the Second World War on the side of the Allies.
• 1943 – Joseph Stalin officially closes down the Comintern, an international communist organization.
• 1947 – Cold War: The Truman Doctrine begins, providing aid to Turkey and Greece.
• 1948 – Finnish President J. K. Paasikivi removes Yrjö Leino from his job as interior minister. This happens after the Finnish parliament criticizes Leino for illegally handing over nineteen people to the Soviet Union in 1945.
• 1957 – South Africa's government approves apartheid, a system of racial separation in universities.
• 1958 – The 1958 riots in Ceylon become a turning point in race relations in Sri Lanka. About 300 people die, mostly Tamils.
• 1960 – The Great Chilean earthquake, measuring 9.5 on the moment magnitude scale, hits southern Chile. It is the most powerful earthquake ever recorded.
• 1963 – Greek politician Grigoris Lambrakis is attacked, leading to his death five days later.
• 1964 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson starts his Great Society program, aiming to reduce poverty and racial injustice.
• 1967 – Egypt closes the Straits of Tiran to ships from Israel.
• 1967 – The L'Innovation department store in Brussels, Belgium, burns down. This fire results in 323 deaths or missing people and 150 injured, making it the most devastating fire in Belgian history.
• 1968 – The nuclear-powered submarine USS Scorpion sinks with 99 men on board, about 400 miles southwest of the Azores.
• 1969 – Apollo 10's Lunar Module flies very close to the Moon's surface, within about 8.4 nautical miles (15.6 km).
• 1972 – Ceylon adopts a new constitution, becoming a republic and changing its name to Sri Lanka.
• 1987 – The first ever Rugby World Cup begins. New Zealand plays 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 become members of the United Nations.
• 1994 – A worldwide trade ban against Haiti begins. This is to punish its military rulers for not bringing back the country's elected leader, Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
• 1996 – The military government in Burma jails 71 supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi to stop a meeting for democracy.
• 1998 – A U.S. federal judge rules that U.S. Secret Service agents can be made to speak to a grand jury about the Lewinsky scandal involving President Bill Clinton.
• 2010 – Air India Express Flight 812, a Boeing 737, crashes upon landing at Mangalore, India. This tragic accident kills 158 of 166 people on board.
• 2010 – Inter Milan beats Bayern Munich 2–0 in the UEFA Champions League final in Madrid, Spain. They become the first Italian team to win the historic treble (Serie A, Coppa Italia, Champions League).
• 2011 – An EF5 tornado hits Joplin, Missouri, killing 158 people and causing $2.8 billion in damages. It is one of the costliest and deadliest single tornadoes in U.S. history.
• 2012 – Tokyo Skytree opens to the public. It is the tallest tower in the world (634 m) and the second tallest human-made structure on Earth after Burj Khalifa (829.8 m).
• 2012 – SpaceX COTS Demo Flight 2 launches a Dragon capsule on a Falcon 9 rocket. This is the first commercial flight to the International Space Station.
• 2014 – General Prayut Chan-o-cha becomes the temporary leader of Thailand in a military coup d'état, after six months of political unrest.
• 2014 – An explosion happens in Ürümqi, the capital of China's Xinjiang region. At least 43 people die and 91 are injured.
• 2015 – The Republic of Ireland becomes the first country in the world to make gay marriage legal through a public vote.
• 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.
• 2021 – Hypothermia causes the deaths of 21 runners in the 100 km (60-mile) Gansu ultramarathon disaster in China.

Births

Born Before 1600

• 626 – Itzam K'an Ahk I, a Mayan king.
• 1009 – Su Xun, a Chinese writer.
• 1408 – Annamacharya, a Hindu saint.
• 1539 – Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford.

Born Between 1601 and 1900

• 1622 – Louis de Buade de Frontenac, a French soldier and governor.
• 1644 – Gabriël Grupello, a Flemish sculptor.
• 1650 – Richard Brakenburgh, a Dutch painter.
• 1665 – Magnus Stenbock, a Swedish field marshal.
• 1694 – Daniel Gran, an Austrian painter.
• 1715 – François-Joachim de Pierre de Bernis, a French cardinal and diplomat.
• 1733 – Hubert Robert, a French painter.
• 1752 – Louis Legendre, a French butcher and politician.
• 1762 – Henry Bathurst, 3rd Earl Bathurst, an English politician.
• 1770 – Princess Elizabeth of the United Kingdom.
• 1772 – Ram Mohan Roy, an Indian philosopher and reformer.
• 1783 – William Sturgeon, an English physicist and inventor who created the electromagnet.
• 1808 – Gérard de Nerval, a French poet.
• 1811 – Giulia Grisi, an Italian opera singer.
• 1813 – Richard Wagner, a famous German composer.
• 1820 – Worthington Whittredge, an American painter.
• 1828 – Albrecht von Graefe, a German eye doctor.
• 1831 – Henry Vandyke Carter, an English anatomist and surgeon.
• 1833 – Mary Cassatt, an American painter and educator.
• 1846 – Rita Cetina Gutiérrez, a Mexican poet and activist.
• 1848 – Fritz von Uhde, a German painter.
• 1849 – Aston Webb, an English architect.
• 1859 – Arthur Conan Doyle, the British writer who created Sherlock Holmes.
• 1864 – Willy Stöwer, a German author and illustrator.
• 1874 – Daniel François Malan, a South African politician and Prime Minister.
• 1879 – Warwick Armstrong, an Australian cricketer.
• 1879 – Symon Petliura, a Ukrainian statesman.
• 1885 – Giacomo Matteotti, an Italian lawyer and politician.
• 1891 – Johannes R. Becher, a German politician and poet.
• 1900 – Juan Arvizu, a Mexican opera singer.

Born After 1900

• 1901 – Maurice J. Tobin, an American politician and U.S. Secretary of Labor.
• 1902 – Al Simmons, an American baseball player.
• 1904 – Uno Lamm, a Swedish electrical engineer and inventor.
• 1905 – Bodo von Borries, a German physicist who helped invent the electron microscope.
• 1907 – Hergé, the Belgian author and illustrator who created Tintin.
• 1907 – Laurence Olivier, a famous English actor and director.
• 1909 – Margaret Mee, an English illustrator.
• 1912 – Herbert C. Brown, an American chemist and Nobel Prize winner.
• 1914 – Sun Ra, an American pianist and composer.
• 1919 – Paul Vanden Boeynants, a Belgian politician and Prime Minister.
• 1920 – Thomas Gold, an Austrian-American astrophysicist.
• 1924 – Charles Aznavour, a French-Armenian singer-songwriter and actor.
• 1925 – Jean Tinguely, a Swiss sculptor.
• 1927 – George Andrew Olah, a Hungarian-American chemist and Nobel Prize winner.
• 1928 – T. Boone Pickens, an American businessman.
• 1930 – Harvey Milk, an American politician and activist.
• 1934 – Peter Nero, an American pianist and conductor.
• 1938 – Richard Benjamin, an American actor and director.
• 1940 – Bernard Shaw, an American journalist.
• 1942 – Ted Kaczynski, an American mathematician.
• 1943 – Betty Williams, a Northern Irish peace activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner.
• 1944 – John Flanagan, an Australian fantasy author.
• 1946 – George Best, a famous Northern Irish footballer.
• 1949 – Naomi Campbell, an English model.
• 1953 – Cha Bum-kun, a South Korean footballer.
• 1954 – Shuji Nakamura, a Japanese-American physicist and Nobel Prize winner.
• 1959 – Morrissey, an English singer-songwriter.
• 1960 – Hideaki Anno, a Japanese animator and director.
• 1965 – Jay Carney, an American journalist and White House Press Secretary.
• 1969 – Michael Kelly, an American actor.
• 1970 – Naomi Campbell, an English model.
• 1972 – Max Brooks, an American author.
• 1974 – Arseniy Yatsenyuk, a Ukrainian politician.
• 1978 – Ginnifer Goodwin, an American actress.
• 1979 – Maggie Q, an American actress.
• 1981 – Daniel Bryan, an American wrestler.
• 1982 – Apolo Ohno, an American speed skater and Olympic medalist.
• 1984 – Dustin Moskovitz, an American entrepreneur and co-founder of Facebook.
• 1986 – Julian Edelman, an American football player.
• 1987 – Novak Djokovic, a famous Serbian tennis player.
• 1991 – Suho, a South Korean singer and actor.
• 2001 – Emma Chamberlain, an American internet personality.
• 2004 – Peyton Elizabeth Lee, an American actress.

Deaths

Passed Away Before 1600

• 192 – Dong Zhuo, a Chinese warlord.
• 337 – Constantine the Great, a Roman emperor.
• 748 – Empress Genshō of Japan.
• 1068 – Emperor Go-Reizei of Japan.
• 1310 – Saint Humility, a founder of a religious order.
• 1455 – Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset, an English commander.
• 1457 – Rita of Cascia, an Italian nun and saint.
• 1540 – Francesco Guicciardini, an Italian historian.
• 1545 – Sher Shah Suri, an Indian ruler.

Passed Away Between 1601 and 1900

• 1609 – Pieter Willemsz. Verhoeff, a Dutch captain.
• 1667 – Pope Alexander VII.
• 1795 – Ewald Friedrich von Hertzberg, a Prussian politician.
• 1802 – Martha Washington, the first First Lady of the United States.
• 1859 – Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies.
• 1868 – Julius Plücker, a German mathematician and physicist.
• 1885 – Victor Hugo, a famous French novelist and poet.

Passed Away After 1900

• 1901 – Gaetano Bresci, an Italian-American anarchist.
• 1910 – Jules Renard, a French author.
• 1932 – Augusta, Lady Gregory, an Anglo-Irish playwright.
• 1939 – Ernst Toller, a German playwright.
• 1948 – Claude McKay, a Jamaican writer and poet.
• 1954 – Chief Bender, an American baseball player.
• 1967 – Langston Hughes, a famous American poet and writer.
• 1972 – Margaret Rutherford, an English actress.
• 1975 – Lefty Grove, an American baseball player.
• 1982 – Cevdet Sunay, a Turkish general and President.
• 1983 – Albert Claude, a Belgian biologist and Nobel Prize winner.
• 1985 – Wolfgang Reitherman, a German-American animator and director.
• 1990 – Rocky Graziano, an American boxer.
• 1991 – Lino Brocka, a Filipino director.
• 1997 – Alfred Hershey, an American biochemist and Nobel Prize winner.
• 2004 – Richard Biggs, an American actor.
• 2010 – Martin Gardner, an American mathematician and author.
• 2015 – Marques Haynes, an American basketball player.
• 2016 – Velimir "Bata" Živojinović, a Serbian actor.
• 2017 – Nicky Hayden, an American motorcycle racer.
• 2019 – Judith Kerr, a German-born British writer and illustrator.
• 2022 – Dervla Murphy, an Irish touring cyclist and author.

Holidays and Observances

• Abolition Day (Martinique)
• Aromanian National Day (sometimes celebrated, but May 23 is more common)
• Christian feast day:
  • Castus and Emilius
  • Fulk
  • Humilita
  • Michael Hồ Đình Hy (one of Vietnamese Martyrs)
  • Quiteria
  • Rita of Cascia
  • Romanus of Subiaco
  • May 22 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
• Harvey Milk Day (California)
• International Day for Biological Diversity (International)
• United States National Maritime Day
• National Sovereignty Day (Haiti)
• Republic Day (Sri Lanka)
• Translation of the Relics of Saint Nicholas from Myra to Bari (Ukraine)
• Unity Day (Yemen), celebrates the joining of North and South Yemen in 1990.
• World Goth Day

See also

In Spanish: 22 de mayo para niños