History Events on May 22

Ceylon adopts a new constitution, becoming a republic and changing its name to Sri Lanka, and joins the Commonwealth of Nations.

#Sri_Lankan_Constitution_of_1972

Apollo 10's lunar module flies within 8.4 nautical miles (16 km) of the moon's surface.

#Apollo_10

Chiang Kai-shek replaces the communists in Kuomintang China.

#Chiang_Kai-shek

A U.S. federal judge rules that U.S. Secret Service agents can be compelled to testify before a grand jury concerning the Lewinsky scandal involving President Bill Clinton.

#United_States_Secret_Service

Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina severely beats Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts with a cane in the hall of the United States Senate for a speech Sumner had made regarding Southerners and slavery.

#United_States_House_of_Representatives

SS Savannah leaves port at Savannah, Georgia, United States, on a voyage to become the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean.

#SS_Savannah

General Prayut Chan-o-cha becomes interim leader of Thailand in a military coup d'état, following six months of political turmoil.

#Prayut_Chan-o-cha

Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II and Danish King Christian IV sign the Treaty of Lübeck ending Danish intervention in the Thirty Years' War.

#Holy_Roman_Emperor

The Burmese military regime jails 71 supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi in a bid to block a pro-democracy meeting.

#Aung_San_Suu_Kyi

Lassen Peak erupts with a powerful force, the only volcano besides Mount St. Helens to erupt in the contiguous U.S. during the 20th century.

#Lassen_Peak

World War II: Germany and Italy sign the Pact of Steel.

#Pact_of_Steel

Continental Airlines Flight 11 crashes after bombs explode on board.

#Continental_Airlines_Flight_11

King John of England and King Philip II of France sign the Treaty of Le Goulet.

#John,_King_of_England

Sweden and Prussia sign the Treaty of Hamburg.

#Prussia

On the second and last day of the Battle of Aspern-Essling (near Vienna, Austria), Napoleon I is repelled by an enemy army for the first time.

#Battle_of_Aspern-Essling

Inter Milan beat Bayern Munich 2-0 in the Uefa Champions League final in Madrid, Spain to become the first, and so far only, Italian team to win the historic treble (Serie A, Coppa Italia, Champions League).

#Inter_Milan

American Civil War: After ten weeks, the Union Army's Red River Campaign ends in failure.

#Union_Army

Egypt closes the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping.

#Straits_of_Tiran

An EF5 tornado strikes Joplin, Missouri, killing 158 people and wreaking $2.8 billion in damages, the costliest and seventh-deadliest single tornado in U.S. history.

#2011_Joplin_tornado

Twenty-two people are killed at an Ariana Grande concert in the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing.

#Ariana_Grande

The Great Chilean earthquake, measuring 9.5 on the moment magnitude scale, hits southern Chile, becoming the most powerful earthquake ever recorded.

#1960_Valdivia_earthquake

Mexico enters World War II, joining the Allies.

#Allies_of_World_War_II

Three trains collide in the Quintinshill rail disaster near Gretna Green, Scotland, killing 227 people and injuring 246.

#Quintinshill_rail_disaster

Air India Express Boeing 737 crashes over a cliff upon landing at Mangalore, India, killing 158 of 166 people on board, becoming the deadliest crash involving a Boeing 737.

#Air_India_Express_Flight_812

Pope Gregory XI issues five papal bulls to denounce the doctrines of English theologian John Wycliffe.

#Pope_Gregory_XI

Future U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is issued a patent for an invention to lift boats, making him the only U.S. President to ever hold a patent.

#President_of_the_United_States

A worldwide trade embargo against Haiti goes into effect to punish its military rulers for not reinstating the country's ousted elected leader, Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

#Haiti

North and South Yemen are unified to create the Republic of Yemen.

#Yemen_Arab_Republic

In Sri Lanka, over 150 Tamil rebels are killed over two days of fighting for control in Jaffna.

#Sri_Lanka

Start of the Wars of the Roses: At the First Battle of St Albans, Richard, Duke of York, defeats and captures King Henry VI of England.

#Wars_of_the_Roses

Lyndon B. Johnson launches the Great Society.

#Lyndon_B._Johnson

Near Xining, China, an 8.3 magnitude earthquake causes 200,000 deaths in one of the world's most destructive earthquakes.

#Xining

South Africa's government approves of racial separation in universities.

#Apartheid

Fourteenth recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet.

#Halley's_Comet

The penal transportation of British convicts to the New South Wales colony is abolished.

#Penal_transportation

Tokyo Skytree opens to the public. It is the tallest tower in the world (634 m), and the second tallest man-made structure on Earth after Burj Khalifa (829.8 m).

#Tokyo_Skytree

During the Anglo-Iraqi War, British troops take Fallujah.

#Anglo-Iraqi_War

Cold War: The Truman Doctrine goes into effect, aiding Turkey & Greece.

#Cold_War

The Wright brothers are granted U.S. patent number 821,393 for their "Flying-Machine".

#Wright_brothers

L'Innovation department store in Brussels, Belgium, burns down, resulting in 323 dead or missing and 150 injured, the most devastating fire in Belgian history.

#L'Innovation_Department_Store_fire

Trevi Fountain is officially completed and inaugurated in Rome.

#Trevi_Fountain

Serbian King Stefan Uroš I and the Republic of Venice sign a peace treaty.

#Kingdom_of_Serbia_(medieval)

The Hashshashin (Assassins) attempt to assassinate Saladin near Aleppo.

#Order_of_Assassins

The Lewis and Clark Expedition officially begins as the Corps of Discovery departs from St. Charles, Missouri.

#Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition

HMS Beagle departs on its first voyage.

#HMS_Beagle

Joseph Stalin disbands the Comintern.

#Joseph_Stalin

Brussels massacre: Hundreds Jews are murdered and the rest of the Jewish community is banished from Brussels, Belgium, for allegedly descrating consecrated Host.

#Brussels_massacre

Civil rights movement: A jury in Birmingham, Alabama, convicts former Ku Klux Klan member Bobby Frank Cherry of the 1963 murder of four girls in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing.

#Civil_rights_movement

American Civil War: Union forces begin the Siege of Port Hudson which lasts 48 days, the longest siege in U.S. military history.

#American_Civil_War

Hashimpura massacre occurs in Meerut, India.

#Hashimpura_massacre

Over 400 women in Derry, Northern Ireland attack the offices of Sinn Féin following the shooting by the Irish Republican Army of a young British soldier on leave.

#Derry

A Byzantine fleet sacks and destroys undefended Damietta in Egypt.

#Sack_of_Damietta_(853)

The Republic of Ireland becomes the first nation in the world to legalize gay marriage in a public referendum.

#Republic_of_Ireland

Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia join the United Nations.

#Bosnia_and_Herzegovina

The Associated Press is formed in New York City as a non-profit news cooperative.

#Associated_Press

An explosion occurs in Ürümqi, capital of China's far-western Xinjiang region, resulting in at least 43 deaths and 91 injuries.

#May_2014_Ürümqi_attack

The nuclear-powered submarine USS Scorpion sinks with 99 men aboard, 400 miles southwest of the Azores.

#Submarine

Dong Zhuo is assassinated by his adopted son Lü Bu.

#Dong_Zhuo

United States President Donald Trump visits the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and becomes the first sitting U.S. President to visit the Western Wall.

First ever Rugby World Cup kicks off with New Zealand playing Italy at Eden Park in Auckland, New Zealand.

Greek left-wing politician Grigoris Lambrakis is shot in an assassination attempt, and dies five days later.

The 1958 riots in Ceylon become a watershed in the race relations of various ethnic communities of Sri Lanka. The total deaths is estimated at 300, mostly Tamils.

Reconstruction Era: President Ulysses S. Grant signs the Amnesty Act into law, restoring full civil and political rights to all but about 500 Confederate sympathizers.

Slavery is abolished in Martinique.

A mob in Littleport, Cambridgeshire, England, riots concerning high unemployment and rising grain costs spreads to Ely the next day.

A grand jury indicts former Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr on a charge of treason.

The massacre at the festival of Tóxcatl takes place during the Fall of Tenochtitlan, resulting in turning the Aztecs against the Spanish.

Henry Raspe is elected anti-king of the Kingdom of Germany in opposition to Conrad IV.