On this day: May 22

Events on May 22

• 853 Arab–Byzantine wars: The Byzantine navy began a raid on the Nile Delta port city of Damietta, whose garrison was absent at the time. Wikipedia
• 1629 Albrecht von Wallenstein and King Christian IV of Denmark signed the Treaty of Lübeck to end Danish intervention in the Thirty Years' War. Wikipedia
• 1762 The Trevi Fountain in Rome was officially inaugurated by Pope Clement XIII. Wikipedia
• 1766 A magnitude-7.1 earthquake struck Constantinople and was followed by a tsunami that caused significant damage. Wikipedia
• 1816 A riot broke out in Littleport, England, over high unemployment and rising grain costs, spreading to Ely the next day before being quelled by troops. Wikipedia
• 1826 HMS Beagle departed on her first voyage from Plymouth for a hydrographic survey of the Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego regions of South America. Wikipedia
• 1844 In Shiraz, Iran, the Báb declared himself to be a messenger of God to Mullá Husayn, leading to the foundation of Bábism, considered to be a precursor to the Baháʼí Faith. Wikipedia
• 1849 Abraham Lincoln was issued a patent for an invention to lift boats over obstacles in a river, making him the only U.S. president ever to hold a patent. Wikipedia
• 1856 Senator Charles Sumner was assaulted by Representative Preston Brooks in the United States Senate chamber in retaliation for a speech in which Sumner fiercely criticized slaveholders. Wikipedia
• 1874 Giuseppe Verdi's Requiem was first performed in the San Marco church in Milan to commemorate the first anniversary of Alessandro Manzoni's death. Wikipedia
• 1897 The first Blackwall Tunnel under the River Thames was opened to improve commerce and trade in the East End of London. Wikipedia
• 1905 Sultan Abdul Hamid II established the Ullah millet, a separate millet for the Aromanians within the Ottoman Empire. Wikipedia
• 1911 The Uruguayan Regional Workers' Federation declared a general strike in solidarity with trolley workers in Montevideo. Wikipedia
• 1915 California's Lassen Peak violently erupted, the only volcanic eruption in the contiguous U.S. in the 20th century until Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980. Wikipedia
• 1939 Germany and Italy signed the Pact of Steel, a military and political alliance. Wikipedia
• 1958 Ethnic riots mostly targeting the minority Sri Lankan Tamils broke out in Ceylon, resulting in at least 158 deaths over the next few days. Wikipedia
• 1960 The most powerful earthquake ever recorded, registering approximately 9.5 Mw, struck near Valdivia, Chile, generating tsunamis that reached Hawaii and Japan. Wikipedia
• 1972 The Dominion of Ceylon changed its name to Sri Lanka, adopted a new constitution, and officially became a republic within the Commonwealth. Wikipedia
• 1980 Location testing for Pac-Man, a Japanese arcade game that became an icon of 1980s popular culture, began in Shibuya, Tokyo. Wikipedia
• 1987 During Hindu–Muslim rioting in Meerut, India, 19 members of the Provincial Armed Constabulary allegedly massacred 42 Muslims and dumped their bodies in water canals. Wikipedia
• 1992 Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia join the United Nations. Wikipedia
• 1998 In Public Prosecutor v Taw Cheng Kong, the Court of Appeal of Singapore overruled a High Court decision in the only time a statute in Singapore had been ruled unconstitutional. Wikipedia
• 2002 Police announced that the skeletal remains of Federal Bureau of Prisons intern Chandra Levy, who had been missing for a year, had been found in Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C. Wikipedia
• 2010 Upon landing in Mangalore, Air India Express Flight 812 overshot the runway and fell down a hillside, killing 158 of the 166 people on board. Wikipedia
• 2014 Prayut Chan-o-cha, the commander-in-chief of the Royal Thai Army, launched a coup d'état against the caretaker government following six months of political crisis. Wikipedia
• 2026 A gas explosion at a coal mine in Changzhi, Shanxi, China, leaves at least 82 people dead. Wikipedia

Born on May 22

• 1772 Ram Mohan Roy, Indian philosopher and reformer (died 1833) Wikipedia
• 1808 Gérard de Nerval, French poet and translator (died 1855) Wikipedia
• 1813 Richard Wagner, German composer (died 1883) Wikipedia
• 1844 Mary Cassatt, American painter and educator (died 1926) Wikipedia
• 1859 Arthur Conan Doyle, British writer (died 1930) Wikipedia
• 1879 Symon Petliura, Ukrainian statesman and independence leader (died 1926) Wikipedia
• 1907 Laurence Olivier, English actor, director, and producer (died 1989) Wikipedia
• 1907 Hergé, Belgian author and illustrator (died 1983) Wikipedia
• 1912 Herbert C. Brown, English-American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2004) Wikipedia
• 1924 Charles Aznavour, French-Armenian singer-songwriter and actor (died 2018) Wikipedia
• 1927 George Andrew Olah, Hungarian-American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2017) Wikipedia
• 1930 Harvey Milk, American lieutenant and politician (died 1978) Wikipedia
• 1942 Ted Kaczynski, American academic and mathematician turned anarchist and serial murderer (Unabomber) (died 2023) Wikipedia
• 1943 Betty Williams, Northern Irish peace activist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2020) Wikipedia
• 1946 George Best, Northern Irish footballer (died 2005) Wikipedia
• 1954 Shuji Nakamura, Japanese-American physicist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate Wikipedia
• 1959 Morrissey, English singer-songwriter and performer Wikipedia
• 1970 Naomi Campbell, English model Wikipedia
• 1974 Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Ukrainian politician Wikipedia
• 1978 Ginnifer Goodwin, American actress Wikipedia
• 1987 Novak Djokovic, Serbian tennis player Wikipedia
• 1987 Arturo Vidal, Chilean footballer Wikipedia

Died on May 22

• 337 Constantine the Great, Roman emperor (born 272) Wikipedia
• 1540 Francesco Guicciardini, Italian historian and politician (born 1483) Wikipedia
• 1545 Sher Shah Suri, Indian ruler (born 1486) Wikipedia
• 1667 Pope Alexander VII (born 1599) Wikipedia
• 1760 Baal Shem Tov, Polish rabbi and author (born 1700) Wikipedia
• 1802 Martha Washington, First, First Lady of the United States (born 1731) Wikipedia
• 1885 Victor Hugo, French novelist, poet, and playwright (born 1802) Wikipedia
• 1910 Jules Renard, French author and playwright (born 1864) Wikipedia
• 1967 Langston Hughes, American poet, social activist, novelist, and playwright (born 1902) Wikipedia
• 1972 Margaret Rutherford, English actress (born 1892) Wikipedia
• 1982 Cevdet Sunay, Turkish general and politician, 5th President of Turkey (born 1899) Wikipedia
• 1983 Albert Claude, Belgian biologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1899) Wikipedia
• 1997 Alfred Hershey, American biochemist and geneticist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1908) Wikipedia
• 2010 Martin Gardner, American mathematician, cryptographer, and author (born 1914) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

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

Sources

• Wikipedia — “May 22” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/May 22” — the anniversaries editors chose for the date and the article each one is about (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikidata — in how many language editions each entry's own article exists, used to fill the lists (CC0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• vacanza/holidays (open-source holiday rules, MIT licence) — holiday rules used to build the lists (checked 2026-10-15)

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “May 22” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-15 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. Every anniversary that Wikipedia's editors selected for May 22 stays on the list; the remaining places, up to 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths, go to the entries whose own article — about the event itself, or else the person or thing it is about — appears in the most language editions (counted from Wikidata); an article about a person or thing, which covers far more than one day, counts half. An entry with no article of its own counts, also at half, by the least covered article it links, and one that links only places counts for nothing. Each list runs by year, and the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures, audio and video.