22 February History
- 1349 - Jews are expelled from Zurich, Switzerland.
- 1613 - Mikhail Romanov is elected czar of Russia.
- 1732 - George Washington was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia.
- 1797 - The last invasion of Britain takes place when some 1,400 Frenchmen land at Fishguard in Wales.
- 1819 - Spain signs a treaty with the United States ceding eastern Florida.
- 1825 - Russia and Britain establish the Alaska/Canada boundary.
- 1862 - Jefferson Davis is inaugurated president of the Confederacy in Richmond, Va. for the second time.
- 1864 - Nathan Bedford Forrest's brother, Jeffrey, is killed at Okolona, Mississippi.
- 1865 - Federal troops capture Wilmington, N.C.
- 1879 - Frank Winfield Woolworth's 'nothing over five cents' shop opens at Utica, New York. It is the first chain store.
- 1902 - A fistfight breaks out in the Senate. Senator Benjamin Tillman suffers a bloody nose for accusing Senator John McLaurin of bias on the Philippine tariff issue.
- 1909 - The Great White Fleet returns to Norfolk, Virginia, from an around-the-world show of naval power.
- 1911 - Canadian Parliament votes to preserve the union with the British Empire.
- 1920 - The American Relief Administration appeals to the public to pressure Congress to aid starving European cities.
- 1924 - Columbia University declares radio education a success.
- 1926 - Pope Pius rejects Mussolini's offer of aid to the Vatican.
- 1932 - Adolf Hitler is the Nazi Party candidate for the presidential elections in Germany.
- 1935 - All plane flights over the White House are barred because they are disturbing President Roosevelt's sleep.
- 1942 - President Franklin Roosevelt orders Gen. Douglas MacArthur to leave the Philippines.
- 1951 - The Atomic Energy Commission discloses information about the first atom-powered airplane.
- 1952 - French forces evacuate Hoa Binh in Indochina.
- 1954 - U.S. is to install 60 Thor nuclear missiles in Britain.
- 1962 - A Soviet bid for new Geneva arms talks is turned down by the U.S.
- 1963 - Moscow warns the U.S. that an attack on Cuba would mean war.
- 1967 - Operation Junction City becomes the largest U.S. operation in Vietnam.
- 1984 - Britain and the U.S. send warships to the Persian Gulf following an Iranian offensive against Iraq.
22 February Birthdays
- 1403 - Charles VII, King of France.
- 1732 - George Washington, Commander-in-chief of Continental forces during the American Revolution and first U.S. President.
- 1778 - Rembrandt Peale, American painter known for portraits of U.S. founding fathers.
- 1857 - Lord Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scout Movement.
- 1857 - Heinrich Hertz, German physicist, the first person to broadcast and receive radio waves.
- 1892 - Edna St. Vincent Millay, poet.
- 1900 - Sean O'Faolain, Irish short story writer.
- 1925 - Edward Gorey, American writer and illustrator.
- 1932 - Edward Kennedy, Massachusetts Senator, brother of John F. Kennedy.
- 1944 - Jonathan Demme, film director (The Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia).