April 22: Today in History – Historical Events
Early Centuries – April 22 Historic Events – Before the 1700s
1. 22nd April 296: St. Gaius ended his reign as Catholic Pope on this day.
2. 22nd April 536: St. Agapitus I ended his reign as Catholic Pope today.
3. 22nd April 1056: Supernova Crab nebula was last seen by the naked eye on this day.
4. 22nd April 1073: Gregory VII, St. Hildebrand, became Pope today. He was driven from Rome and died in exile in 1085.
5. 22nd April 1370: The first stone of the Bastille was laid by order of King Charles V. The original design of the Bastille which was merely a fortified gate was later modified into a fortress by Charles VI. It was used as a prison in the 17th century. It was demolished following the storming of the Bastille on 14th July 1789.
6. 22nd April 1500: Portuguese explorer Pedro Alvares Cabral discovered Brazil and claimed it for Portugal. He anchored for ten days in the bay which he called “Poro Seguro” before continuing his onward journey to India.
7. 22nd April 1509: Henry Tudor became King Henry VIII following the death of his father, Henry VII.
8. 22nd April 1521: King of France Francois I declared war on Spain.
9. 22nd April 1521: Spanish nobleman Juan de Padilla, commune-rebel, was beheaded today.
10. 22nd April 1529: In the Treaty of Saragosa, Spain and Portugal divided the eastern hemisphere.
11. 22nd April 1648: The English army today claimed King Charles I was responsible for the bloodshed.
12. 22nd April 1659: The English parliament was today disbanded by Lord Protector Cromwell.
13. 22nd April 1671: King Charles II sat in on the English parliament.
14. 22nd April 1692: Edward Bishop was jailed for proposing flogging as a cure for witchcraft.
18th Century – What Happened on April 22 – The 1700s
15. 22nd April 1722: 19 VOC “komplotteurs” were today executed in Batavia in Indonesia.
16. 22nd April 1745: The status quo of Germany was restored by signing the Peace of Fussen.
17. 22nd April 1969: Madame du Barry became King Louis XV’s “official” mistress.
18. 22nd April 1792: President George Washington of America, today proclaimed neutrality in the war in Europe.
19. 22nd April 1796: At the Battle of Mondovi, Napoleon defeated the Piedmontese.
19th Century – April 22 This Day That Year – The 1800s
20. 22nd April 1823: The roller skates were today patented by R.J. Tyers.
21. 22nd April 1826: Missolonghi in West Greece was taken by Ibrahim, son of Mohammed Ali of Egypt after a long siege.
22. 22nd April 1838: After a record Atlantic crossing, the English steamship “Sirius” today docked in New York City.
23. 22nd April 1861: Robert E. Lee was today named commander of Virginia forces.
24. 22nd April 1864: Congress today authorized the use of the phrase “In God We Trust” on the 2-cent coin for the first time.
25. 22nd April 1884: Thomas Stevens started the 1st bicycle trip to cross the US from San Francisco. He later continued around the world, which he completed in 2 years and 9 months.
26. 22nd April 1889: The Unassigned Lands of the Indian Territory was today opened up by the US federal government to the country’s first land run. The Oklahoma land rush officially started at noon as thousands of homesteaders staking claims.
27. 22nd April 1897: “Forward” the New York Cities Jewish newspaper began publishing today.
28. 22nd April 1898: US Congress today passed the Volunteer Army Act calling for a Volunteer Cavalry.
29. 22nd April 1898: The US Navy under the orders of President McKinley began blockading Cuban ports as the United States and Spain were on the verge of formally declaring war.
20th Century – Important Events On This Day April 22nd – The 1900s
30. 22nd April 1912: At the behest of President Taft the Chamber of Commerce of the USA was established at a Washington hotel by a gathering of 700 delegates from 44 states.
31. 22nd April 1915: “Success” the Australian ship which was billed as the convict museum, docked in San Francisco, for the Panama Pacific International Exposition. While there the Keystone Film Company made a short film called “Mabel and Fatty Viewing the World’s Fair at San Francisco”.
32. 22nd April 1915: Germans today made the first use of poison gas in World War I when chlorine gas was used along 4 miles of the French line at Ypres in the second battle of Ypres.
33. 22nd April 1929: Director of research at the University of California, Institute of Child Welfare, Harold E. Jones reported that children doing poor school work and those most often exhibiting objectionable traits were found to be those who frequently attend motion picture shows.
34. 22nd April 1931: Egypt today signed a treaty of friendship with Iraq.
35. 22nd April 1933: Left-wing radio address was forbidden by the Dutch government.
36. 22nd April 1938: There was an explosion in a coal mine at Keen Mountain in Buchanan County Virginia. 45 workers were killed in the explosion.
37. 22nd April 1940: Rear Admiral Joseph Taussig today testified before the US Senate Naval Affairs Committee that the war with Japan was inevitable.
38. 22nd April 1943: Germany launched a counterattack in North Tunisia.
39. 22nd April 1943: 14 German transport planes were shot down today by the RAF over the Mediterranean Sea.
40. 22nd April 1944: Hitler and Mussolini today met at Obersalzburg.
41. 22nd April 1944: The US forces and the Allies began invading Japanese-held New Guinea during World War II, with ambitious landings near Hollandia, New Guinea.
42. 22nd April 1945: Hitler acknowledged that the war was lost.
43. 22nd April 1945: Soviet troops today liberated the concentration Camp at Sachsenhausen. Soviet secret police then used the camp just north of Berlin to imprison many Nazis and also critics of the Soviet Union.
44. 22nd April 1951: There was a ticker-tape parade for General MacArthur in New York City.
45. 22nd April 1952: An atomic test was conducted at Yucca Flat, Nevada. This test became the first nuclear explosion shown on live network television.
46. 22nd April 1955: Congress today ordered all U.S. coins to bear the motto “In God We Trust”.
47. 22nd April 1959: The Soviet authorities exposed a secret Allied spy tunnel built a year earlier from Rudow in West Berlin to Alt-Glienicke in East Berlin with underground cables intercepting Red Army communications.
48. 22nd April 1961: An uprising of French parachutists was led by Gen. Salan Challe in Algeria.
49. 22nd April 1964: The 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair in Queens was opened by President Johnson. It featured a futuristic Unisphere and a house made of Formica.
50. 22nd April 1969: In the Golden Glove boat race one man became the first to single-handedly sail nonstop around the world.
51. 22nd April 1969: The human eye transplant was performed today for John Madden in Houston.
52. 22nd April 1970: The first Earth Day and Earth Week was celebrated. Millions protested pollution on Earth and expressed their concern for the environment. The event was organized by a 33-member committee in Philadelphia.
53. 22nd April 1971: A former US Navy lieutenant John Kerry testified before the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee and talked about what he heard from fellow veterans about the war crimes committed in Vietnam by US forces.
54. 22nd April 1974: 107 people were killed in Bali when a Pan Am 707 crashed into the mountains.
55. 22nd April 1976: Director Ingmar Bergman and actress Bibi Anderson today announced that Swedish tax officials are harassing them and therefore are leaving Sweden.
56. 22nd April 1977: Israeli Statesman Shimon Peres today became the 8th Prime Minister of Israel.
57. 22nd April 1981: Close to one million metal workers go on strike in Germany.
58. 22nd April 1981: In the largest US bank robbery, over $3.3 million was stolen in Tucson Arizona. Four men were later arrested for the robbery.
59. 22nd April 1981: USSR today performed a nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR.
60. 22nd April 1982: In south California, in a savage murder spree, 18-year-old Robert Maurice Bloom killed his father, his stepmother, and his stepsister. He was convicted and sentenced to death. In the appellate, it was established that he was mentally ill and could not understand the consequences of his actions. He was later released in 1997 pending a new trial.
61. 22nd April 1983: Soyuz T-8 returned to Earth today.
62. 22nd April 1983: Great Britain performed a nuclear test at the Nevada Test Site today.
63. 22nd April 1983: In Germany the bogus “Hitler Diaries” was published by Stern Magazine. The magazine had announced that it had discovered 60 volumes of Hitler’s diary, which turned out to be a hoax.
64. 22nd April 1986: The consumer price index dropped by .04% for the second month in a row.
65. 22nd April 1986: The US today performed a nuclear test at its Nevada test site.
66. 22nd April 1987: Sri Lankan Air Force today bombed Tamil region killing hundreds of people.
67. 22nd April 1988: George P. Shultz, US Secretary of State met President Mikhail S. Gorbachev during his visit to the Soviet Union. Gorbachev reportedly was critical of what he called the “confrontational” approach of the Reagan administration to U.S.-Soviet relations.
68. 22nd April 1989: The first outbreak of violence stemming from China’s pro-democracy protests, in the provincial capital of Xian was reported by Xinhua News Agency today.
69. 22nd April 1990: American hostage Robert Polhill was today released by pro-Iranian kidnappers after nearly 39 months of captivity.
70. 22nd April 1991: The US White House today promised a full accounting of chief of staff John Sununu’s air travels. This was aimed at stemming political fallout over reports of his extensive use of military jets for personal travel.
71. 22nd April 1991: Intel today released the 486SX chip.
72. 22nd April 1991: Johnny Carson announced that he would retire from Tonight Show the next year.
73. 22nd April 1991: A strong earthquake shook Costa Rica and neighboring Panama causing damage worth millions of dollars in addition to killing sixty people.
74. 22nd April 1992: A series of sewer explosions in Guadalajara Mexico killed more than 200 people.
75. 22nd April 1992: The Supreme Court after hearing arguments of Pennsylvania’s restrictive abortion law, upheld most of the provisions of the law the following June, but also reaffirmed a woman’s basic right to an abortion.
76. 22nd April 1992: California was today hit by a 6.0 Joshua Tree earthquake.
77. 22nd April 1992: A plane crash at Perris Valley Airport California kills 16 parachutists.
78. 22nd April 1993: Holocaust Memorial Museum was dedicated today in Washington D.C.
79. 22nd April 1993: Today marked the release of the web browser Mosaic version 1.0.
80. 22nd April 1994: In Rwanda, 7,000 Tutsis were slaughtered by Huto in the stadium at Kibuye.
81. 22nd April 1994: The largest lollipop, weighing 3,011 pounds was made in Denmark today.
82. 22nd April 1994: Borge Ousland reaches the North Pole.
83. 22nd April 1997: The hostage crisis in the Japanese embassy in Lima, Peru ended today.
84. 22nd April 1997: In Algeria, 93 villagers were killed in the Haouch Khemisti massacre.
85. 22nd April 1998: Disney’s Animal Kingdom opens today at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Florida in the United States.
21st Century – April 22 This Day In History – The 2000s
86. 22nd April 2000: The Big Number Change takes place in the United Kingdom.
87. 22nd April 2000: Six-year-old Elian Gonzalez was today seized from his relative’s home by federal agents in a pre-dawn raid in Miami, Florida.
88. 22nd April 2004: In North Korea, two fuel trains collided in Ryongchon, killing about 150 people.
89. 22nd April 2006: Roadside bombs planted by Taliban militants about 75 kilometers north of Kandahar in Afghanistan, four Canadian soldiers were killed. This was the worst single-day combat loss for the Canadian army since the Korean War.
90. 22nd April 2006: Security forces of Nepal opened fire on protesters against King Gyanendra in Nepal injuring 243 pro-democracy protesters.
91. 22nd April 2010: A series of blasts were detonated near a massive encampment of anti-government protesters in Bangkok Thailand. At least one person was reported killed and as many as 28 people were injured.
92. 22nd April 2011: A tornado tore through a terminal at St. Louis Lambert Airport in Missouri causing several injuries. Gov. Jay Nixon announced a state of emergency to allow emergency response to the storm’s aftermath.
93. 22nd April 2012: To coincide with Earth Day, a prize-winning, super energy-saving 10W LED bulb from the Dutch Electronics company Philips, went on sale. The bulb which has a life of 20 years won the US Department of Energy’s “Bright Tomorrow Lighting Prize”.
94. 22nd April 2012: During the London Marathon a 30-year-old woman collapsed and died.
95. 22nd April 2013: In a shooting rampage in Belgorod Russia, six people were killed.
96. 22nd April 2013: As Nevada legislators emotionally debated a move toward same-sex marriage; Senator Kelvin Atkinson rose to his feet and declared “I’m gay”. The senator claims to have picked up hundreds of
97. 22nd April 2014: President Obama took an aerial tour of Oso, Wa., where a least 41 people were reported killed in a mudslide on March 22nd. After the tour, he spoke at the Oso Fire Department.
98. 22nd April 2014: In Somalia, two gunmen of the Islamic extremist group shot and killed legislator Abdiaziz Isaq Mursal as he came out of his home in Mogadishu.
99. 22nd April 2016: The Paris Agreement on climate change was today signed in New York binging 195 nations to an increase in the average temperature to less than 2°C above the pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the increase to 1.5°C.
100. 22nd April 2017: Veteran tennis player Ilie Nastase was today thrown off the tennis court for insulting British female players during the Fed Cup play-off against Romania in Constanta.
See Also: