22 May History
- 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.
- 1804 - The Lewis and Clark Expedition officially begins as the Corps of Discovery departs from St. Charles, Missouri.
- 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.
- 1863 - Union General Ulysses S. Grant's second attack on Vicksburg fails and a siege begins.
- 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.
- 1882 - The United States formally recognizes Korea.
- 1908 - The Wright brothers register their flying machine for a U.S. patent.
- 1939 - Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini sign a "Pact of Steel" forming the Axis powers.
- 1947 - The Truman Doctrine brings aid to Turkey and Greece.
- 1967 - The children's program Mister Rogers' Neighborhood premiers.
- 1972 - Ceylon becomes the Republic of Sri Lanka as its constitution is ratified.
- 1985 - Baseball player Pete Rose passes Hank Aaron as National League run scoring leader with 2,108.
- 1987 - An Iraqi missile hits the American frigate USS Stark in the Persian Gulf.
- 1990 - In the Middle East, North and South Yemen merge to become a single state.
- 1813 - Richard Wagner, German composer.
- 1828 - Albrecht von Grafe, German eye surgeon, founder of modern opthamology.
- 1844 - Mary Cassatt, impressionist painter.
- 1859 - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author, creator of the Sherlock Holmes series.
- 1907 - Laurence Olivier, actor.
- 1920 - Thomas Gold, astronomer.
- 1927 - Peter Mathiessen, writer.