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
1246 Henry Raspe is elected anti-king by the Rhenish prelates in France.
1455 King Henry VI is taken prisoner by the Yorkists at the Battle of St. Albans, during the War of the Roses.
1570 1st atlas ‘Theatrum Orbis Terrarum’ (Theatre of the World), published by Abraham Ortelius in Antwerp with 70 maps
1761 The first life insurance policy in the United States was issued in Philadelphia
1804 The Lewis and Clark Expedition officially begins as the Corps of Discovery departs from St. Charles, Missouri.
1841 Henry Kennedy received a patent for the first reclining chair.
1849 Abraham Lincoln received a patent for the 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.
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.
1908 The Wright brothers register their flying machine for a U.S. patent.
1933 The Federal Emergency Relief fund has given 8 states a total of $5,336,317 in relief funding today to pay for welfare programs including Texas and Washington State.
1939 Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini sign a “Pact of Steel” forming the Axis powers.
1945 Winston Churchill resigned as prime minister of England which brings an end to the coalition cabinet formed during the war , There is an election called on July 5th.
1947 The Truman Doctrine brings aid to Turkey and Greece.
1967 The children’s program Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood premiers.
1972 President Richard Nixon the first US president to visit Moscow arrives for talks with Soviet leaders over “international issues” including the war in Vietnam and the current Nuclear Arms Race.
1980 The arcade game Pac-Man is released
1990 In the Middle East, North and South Yemen merge to become a single state.
1997 Kelly Flinn, the U.S. Air Force’s first female bomber pilot certified for combat, accepted a general discharge. She thereby avoided court-martial on charges of adultery, lying and disobeying an order.
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 U.N. Security Council gives the U.S. and Britain a mandate to rule Iraq, ending 13 years of economic sanctions.
2009 A woman in the US state of Washington became the first person to die under an assisted suicide law in that state.
2010 Following a 200-year search for the tomb of Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus his remains are reburied in Frombork Cathedral
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.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
