22 April History


Month:                           Date:     

  • 296    -    St. Gaius ends his reign as Catholic Pope.
  • 536    -    St. Agapitus I ends his reign as Catholic Pope.
  • 1500    -    Pedro Alvarez Cabral discovers Brazil.
  • 1509    -    Henry VIII ascends to the throne of England upon the death of his father, Henry VII.
  • 1529    -    Spain and Portugal divide the eastern hemisphere in the Treaty of Saragosa.
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  • 1745    -    The Peace of Fussen is signed.
  • 1792    -    President George Washington proclaims American neutrality in the war in Europe.
  • 1861    -    Robert E. Lee is named commander of Virginia forces.
  • 1889    -    The Oklahoma land rush officially starts at noon as thousands of Americans race for new, unclaimed land.
  • 1898    -    In the first action of the Spanish-American War, the USS Nashville, takes on a Spanish ship.
  • 1915    -    At the Second Battle of Ypres, the Germans use poison gas for the first time.
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  • 1918    -    British naval forces attempt to sink block-ships in the German U-boat bases at the Battle of Zeeburgge.
  • 1931    -    Egypt signs treaty of friendship with Iraq.
  • 1944    -    Allies launch major attack against the Japanese in Hollandia, New Guinea.
  • 1954    -    The Senate Army-McCarthy hearings begin. They are broadcast on television.
  • 1955    -    Congress orders all U.S. coins to bear the motto "In God We Trust."
  • 1976    -    Barbara Walters becomes the first female nightly news anchor on network television.
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  • 1995    -    In Africa, Rwandan troops kill thousands of Hutu refugees in Kibeho.

  • 22 April Birthdays

  • 1451    -    Isabella I of Castile, Queen of Spain, patron of Christopher Columbus.
  • 1707    -    Henry Fielding, English novelist (Tom Jones).
  • 1724    -    Immanuel Kant, German philosopher.
  • 1870    -    Vladimir Ilich Lenin (Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov), leader of the Bolshevik Revolution (1917) and first head of the U.S.S.R.
  • 1873    -    Ellen Glassgow, American novelist.
  • 1876    -    O.E. Rolvaag, novelist (Giants in the Earth).
  • 1899    -    Vladimir Nabokov, Russian novelist (Lolita).
  • 1904    -    J. Robert Oppenheimer, physicist, director of the Manhattan Project.
  • 1916    -    Yehudi Menuhin, violinist.
  • 1918    -    Robert Wadlow, the world's tallest man (8'11.1").
  • 1922    -    Charles Mingus, jazz bassist.
  • 1943    -    Louise Gluck, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet.