'Barlow Cutoff', near Mount Hood, Oregon

A thousand pioneers head West as part of the Great Emigration

Born on This Day

Sir Laurence Olivier Wearing Blazer

Laurence Olivier

1907 - 1989

Oscar winner often hailed as the best English-speaking actor of the 20th century. Film roles included "Rebecca" and "Hamlet."

Harvey Milk

Harvey Milk

1930 - 1978

First openly gay man elected to public office in California. His 1978 assassination by a fellow San Francisco supervisor sparked outrage.

"Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga" (Furiosa: Une Saga Mad Max) Red Carpet - The 77th Annual Cannes Film Festival

Naomi Campbell

1970 -

Trailblazing British supermodel who dominated the fashion scene in the 1990s as one of the "Big Six" and broke barriers for Black models.

Laurence OlivierCorbis via Getty Images

Harvey MilkHearst Newspapers via Getty Imag

Naomi CampbellGetty Images

1992

MAY22

Johnny Carson ends his nearly 30-year run as host of "The Tonight Show," drawing 50 million viewers. The most-watched episode before his final bow? The 1969 live wedding of Tiny Tim and Miss Vicki, watched by 45 million.

Timeline

Also on This Day in History

Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on May 22nd

The War of the Roses begins

In the opening battle of England’s War of the Roses, the Yorkists defeat King Henry VI’s Lancastrian forces at St. Albans, 20 miles northwest of London. Many Lancastrian nobles perished, including Edmund Beaufort, the duke of Somerset, and the king was forced to submit to the rule of his cousin, Richard of York. The dynastic […]

Patriot siege of Ninety Six, South Carolina begins

On May 22, 1781, Major General Nathanael Greene and 1,000 Patriots attempt an attack on the critical village of Ninety Six in the South Carolina backcountry. After failing to seize the fortified settlement, they began a siege of it, which lasted until their retreat on June 18, making it the longest of the Revolutionary War. […]

1:34m read read

Zong slave ship trial: insurance loss or mass murder?

Hearing arguments in the case of the Zong, a slave ship, the Chief Justice of the King’s Bench in London states that a massacre of enslaved African “was the same as if Horses had been thrown over board” on May 22, 1783. The crew of the Zong had thrown at least 130 captive Africans into […]

2:26m read read

LONDON - MARCH 29: A detail view of a length of chain in the muesum aboard the Tall ship Kaskelot, a replica of the 18th century wooden square rigger ship 'The Zong', on the River Thames by Tower Bridge on March 29, 2007 in London, England. Today's events form part of the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade act. The Zong was at the centre of a court case in 1783, after 133 slaves were thrown overboard in an insurance scam. The resulting public outrage led to the rise of the Abolitionist movement.

First Lady Martha Washington dies

President George Washington’s devoted widow and the nation’s first lady, Martha Dandridge Custis Washington, dies at her Mt. Vernon home on May 22, 1802. She was 70 years old. Like her husband, Martha Washington was born in the American colonies as a British subject (1731). The petite, dark-haired 19-year-old married her first husband, a prosperous […]

2:52m read read

Southern congressman beats Northern senator with a cane in the halls of Congress

Southern Congressman Preston Brooks savagely beats Northern Senator Charles Sumner in the halls of Congress as tensions rise over the expansion of slavery. When the controversial Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 was passed, popular sovereignty was applied within the two new territories and people were given the right to decide the slavery issue by vote. Because […]

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, is born

It’s the birthday of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of master sleuth Sherlock Holmes. Doyle was born in Scotland and studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, where he met Dr. Joseph Bell, a teacher with extraordinary deductive reasoning power. Bell partly inspired Doyle’s character Sherlock Holmes years later. After medical school, Doyle moved […]

1:10m read read

The Pact of Steel is signed; the Axis is formed

On May 22, 1939, Italy and Germany agree to a military and political alliance, giving birth formally to the Axis powers, which will ultimately include Japan. Mussolini coined the nickname “Pact of Steel” (he had also come up with the metaphor of an “axis” binding Rome and Berlin) after reconsidering his first choice, “Pact of […]

Jerry Lee Lewis drops a bombshell in London

The arrival in the United Kingdom of one of the biggest figures in rock and roll was looked forward to with great anticipation in May of 1958. Nowhere in the world were the teenage fans of the raucous music coming out of America more enthusiastic than they were in England, and the coming tour of […]

2:12m read read

President Nixon arrives in Moscow for historic summit

On May 22, 1972, President Richard Nixon arrives in Moscow for a summit with Soviet leaders. Although it was Nixon’s first visit to the Soviet Union as president, he had visited Moscow once before–as U.S. vice president. As Eisenhower’s vice president, Nixon made frequent official trips abroad, including a 1959 trip to Moscow to tour […]

Wayne Williams is questioned by police for Atlanta child murders

On May 22, 1981, police staking out a bridge over the Chattahoochee River near Atlanta, Georgia, hear a loud splash, and begin chasing Wayne Williams as he attempts to drive away in a station wagon. After questioning him about his involvement in the unprecedented string of child murders in Atlanta over the two previous years, […]

2:22m read read

South Yemen and North Yemen are unified as the Republic of Yemen

After 150 years apart, Marxist South Yemen and conservative North Yemen are unified as the Republic of Yemen. Ali Abdullah, president of North Yemen, became the new country’s president, and Ali Salem Al-Baidh, leader of the South Yemeni Socialist Party, vice president. The first free elections were held in 1993. Situated at the southern tip […]

0:48m read read

Chandra Levy’s remains found

The remains of former Federal Bureau of Prisons intern Chandra Levy are found on May 22, 2002, over a year after the 24-year-old was last seen at a health club. The bone remains, discovered by a man walking through Washington, D.C.’s Rock Creek Park, were identified through dental records. A sweatshirt, sneakers and a Sony […]

1:42m read read

George W. Bush falls from his bicycle

On May 22, 2004, President George Bush is in a bicycle accident. Bush had taken up mountain biking for exercise at the suggestion of physicians. Washington Post reporter Dana Milbank recounted how Bush fell from his mountain bike while completing a 17-mile course on his ranch in Crawford, Texas. Despite scrapes and scratches on his […]

1:24m read read

Controversial documentary “Fahrenheit 9/11” wins Palme d’Or prize

On May 22, 2004, Michael Moore’s documentary film Fahrenheit 9/11 beats out 18 other films to win the coveted Palme d’Or, the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival. It became the first documentary to triumph at Cannes since The Silent World, co-directed by Jacques Cousteau and Louis Malle, won the Palme d’Or in 1956. […]

1:24m read read

Manchester Arena bombed during Ariana Grande concert

Just moments after Ariana Grande finished the final song of her May 22, 2017 concert at Manchester Arena, a suicide bomber detonated an explosion on the premises, killing 22 concertgoers and injuring 116 more. ISIS claimed responsibility for what was the deadliest act of terrorism in Britain since the 2005 London metro bombings. A scene of youthful fun […]

1:24m read read

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