TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON: MAY 22
334 BC The Macedonian army of Alexander the Great defeats Darius III of Persia in the Battle of the Granicus
1370 Jews are expelled/massacred from Brussels Belgium
1455 The first battle in the 30-year War of Roses took place at St. Albans.
1570 1st atlas ‘Theatrum Orbis Terrarum’ (Theatre of the World), published by Abraham Ortelius in Antwerp with 70 maps
1807 Former Vice President Aaron Burr is tried for treason in Richmond VA (acquitted)
1843 1st wagon train with 700 – 1000 migrants, departs Independence, Missouri for Oregon
1849 Abraham Lincoln received patent number 6469 for his floating dry dock.
1856 U.S. Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina beats Senator Charles Sumner with a cane for Sumner’s earlier condemnation of slavery, which included an insult to Brooks’ cousin, Senator Andrew Butler.
1863 Union General Ulysses S. Grant’s second attack on Vicksburg fails and a siege begins.
1868 The “Great Train Robbery” takes place as seven members of the Reno Gang make off with $98,000 in cash from a train’s safe in Indiana.
1872 The Amnesty Act restores civil rights to Southerners.
1900 Associated Press organizes in NYC as non-profit news cooperative
1906 The Wright brothers’ flying machine is patented
1939 Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini sign a “Pact of Steel” forming the Axis powers.
1947 Harry S. Truman’s Doctrine brought aid to Greece and Turkey to combat the spread of Communism.
1953 President Eisenhower signs Offshore Oil Bill
1955 A scheduled dance to be headlined by Fats Domino was canceled by police in Bridgeport, Connecticut because “rock and roll dances might be featured.”
1964 LBJ presents “Great Society”
1967 “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” debuts on NET (now PBS)
1972 Richard Nixon arrived in Moscow, becoming the first U.S. president to visit the Soviet Union.
1980 The arcade game Pac-Man is released
1990 In the Middle East, North and South Yemen merge to become a single state.
1998 New information came to light about the June 1996 bombing that killed 19 American airmen. The information indicated that Saudi citizens had been responsible and not Iranians as once believed.
2003 The UN Security Council approved a resolution lifting the economic sanctions against Iraq and supporting the U.S.-led administration in Iraq.
2004 Fahrenheit 9-11, directed by Michael Moore, becomes the first documentary ever to win the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
2010 Following a 200-year search for the tomb of Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus his remains are reburied in Frombork Cathedral
2014 Royal Thai Armed Forces, led by General Prayut Chan-o-cha stage a coup in Thailand, suspending the kingdom’s constitution and taking control of the government, the 12th since the country’s first coup in 1932
2015 The Republic of Ireland, long known as a conservative, predominantly Catholic country, becomes the first nation in the world to legalize gay marriage in a public referendum
REFERENCE: HISTORY.NET, ONTHISDAY.COM, TIMEANDDATE.COM, INFOPLEASE.COM, FACTMONSTER.COM, SCOPESYS.COM, ON-THIS-DAY.COM, THEPEOPLEHISTORY.COM
