July 22 is the 203rd day of the year (204th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 162 days remaining until the end of the year.
Holidays
- Birthday of the Late King Sobhuza (Swaziland)
- Christian feast day:
- Earliest day on which Parents’ Day can fall, while 28 July is the latest; celebrated on the fourth Sunday in July. (United States)
- National Press Day (Azerbaijan)
- Pi Approximation Day, see also March 14
- Ratcatcher’s Day
- Revolution Day (The Gambia)
- Sarawak Self-government Day (Sarawak, Malaysia)
History
In 838, Battle of Anzen: The Byzantine emperor Theophilos suffers a heavy defeat by the Abbasids.
In 1099, First Crusade: Godfrey of Bouillon is elected the first Defender of the Holy Sepulchre of The Kingdom of Jerusalem.
In 1209, Massacre at Béziers: The first major military action of the Albigensian Crusade.
In 1298, Wars of Scottish Independence: Battle of Falkirk – King Edward I of England and his longbowmen defeat William Wallace and his Scottish schiltrons outside the town of Falkirk.
In 1342, St. Mary Magdalene’s flood is the worst such event on record for central Europe
In 1376, The Pied Piper of Hamelin struck, according to German legend. A piper — angry at not having been paid for ridding the town of Hamelin of its rats — led the town’s children away and into a hole in the side of a mountain, never to be seen again. Historians think the legend stems from an event in 1284, when many young men of Hamelin left on a colonizing adventure.
In 1456, Ottoman Wars in Europe: Siege of Belgrade – John Hunyadi, Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary, defeats Mehmet II of the Ottoman Empire
In 1484, Battle of Lochmaben Fair – A 500-man raiding party led by Alexander Stewart, Duke of Albany and James Douglas, 9th Earl of Douglas are defeated by Scots forces loyal to Albany’s brother James III of Scotland; Douglas is captured.
In 1499, Battle of Dornach – The Swiss decisively defeat the Imperial army of Emperor Maximilian I.
In 1587, a second English colony, the first vanished under mysterious circumstances, was established on Roanoke Island off North Carolina. (John White delivers 177 colonists to Roanoke Island)
In 1620, A small congregation of English Separatists, led by John Robinson, began their emigration to the New World. Today, we refer to these folks as ‘Pilgrims.’
In 1686, Albany, New York is formally chartered as a municipality by Governor Thomas Dongan.
In 1706, The Acts of Union 1707 are agreed upon by commissioners from the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland, which, when passed by each countries’ Parliaments, led to the creation of the Kingdom of Great Britain.
In 1793, Alexander Mackenzie reaches the Pacific Ocean becoming the first recorded human to complete a transcontinental crossing of Canada.
In 1796, Surveyors of the Connecticut Land Company name an area in Ohio “Cleveland” after Gen. Moses Cleaveland, the superintendent of the surveying party.
In 1797, Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife: Battle between Spanish and British naval forces during the French Revolutionary Wars. During the Battle, Rear-Admiral Nelson is wounded in the arm and the arm had to be partially amputated.
In 1805, Napoleonic Wars: War of the Third Coalition – Battle of Cape Finisterre – An inconclusive naval action is fought between a combined French and Spanish fleet under Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve of Spain and a British fleet under Admiral Robert Calder.
In 1812, Napoleonic Wars: Peninsular War – Battle of Salamanca – British forces led by Arthur Wellesley (later the Duke of Wellington) defeat French troops near Salamanca, Spain.
In 1824, Thomas McNamara Russell, English admiral dies. He was an admiral in the Royal Navy. Russell’s naval career spanned the American Revolutionary War, French Revolutionary War and Napoleonic War. Vice-Admiral Russell is best remembered for his command of a squadron in the North Sea when he took possession of Heligoland after Denmark came into the war on the side of the French in 1809. His career was also notable due to the single ship action fought between the 20-gun HMS Hussar and the 32-gun French frigate Sybille in which he captured the French frigate despite her superior number of men and guns. There is controversy surrounding the event in that the capture happened towards the end of the American Revolution and the British officers claimed that the French were flying false colours and a distress flag during the action. Whilst it was common for ships of opposing nations to lure, or escape from, one another with false colours it was considered dishonourable to continue flying false flags once the action had begun. Similarly, the flying of a flag of distress was not an acceptable ruse de guerre, as it would dissuade shipping from approaching a vessel in genuine distress.
In 1864, American Civil War: Battle of Atlanta – Outside Atlanta, Georgia, Confederate General John Bell Hood leads an unsuccessful attack on Union troops under General William T. Sherman on Bald Hill.
In 1864, James B. McPherson, American general (b. 1828) was killed in battle. He was a career United States Army officer who served as a General in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He was killed at the Battle of Atlanta, the second highest ranking Union officer killed during the war.
His adversary, John Bell Hood, wrote,
I will record the death of my classmate and boyhood friend, General James B. McPherson, the announcement of which caused me sincere sorrow. Since we had graduated in 1853, and had each been ordered off on duty in different directions, it has not been our fortune to meet. Neither the years nor the difference of sentiment that had led us to range ourselves on opposite sides in the war had lessened my friendship; indeed the attachment formed in early youth was strengthened by my admiration and gratitude for his conduct toward our people in the vicinity of Vicksburg. His considerate and kind treatment of them stood in bright contrast to the course pursued by many Federal officers.
In 1869, John A. Roebling, German-American engineer, designed the Brooklyn Bridge (b. 1806) dies. He is famous for his wire rope suspension bridge designs.
In 1893, Wellesley College professor Katharine Lee Bates wrote the original version of her poem “America the Beautiful” in Colorado Springs, Colorado, after being inspired by the view from Pike’s Peak. The words to her only famous poem first appeared in print in The Congregationalist, a weekly journal, for Independence Day, 1895.
In 1894, The first ever motor race is held in France between the cities of Paris and Rouen. The fastest finisher was the Comte Jules-Albert de Dion, but The ‘official’ victory was awarded to Albert Lemaître driving his 3 hp petrol engined Peugeot.
In 1916, In San Francisco, California, a bomb explodes on Market Street during a Preparedness Day parade killing ten and injuring 40.
In 1933, Wiley Post becomes the first person to fly solo around the world traveling 15,596 miles (25,099 km) in seven days, 18 hours and 45 minutes.
In 1932, The Federal Home Loan Bank Board is established.
In 1932, Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr., American actor and producer (b. 1867) dies. He popularly known as “Flo” Ziegfeld, was an American Broadway impresario, notable for his series of theatrical revues, the Ziegfeld Follies (1907–1931), inspired by the Folies Bergère of Paris. He also produced the musical Show Boat. He was known as the “glorifier of the American girl”. Flo Ziegfeld is a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame.
In 1933, American aviator Wiley Post completed the first solo flight around the world in 7 days, 18 hours and 45 minutes.
In 1934, Outside Chicago‘s Biograph Theater, “Public Enemy No. 1” John Dillinger is mortally wounded by FBI agents.
In 1937, New Deal: The United States Senate votes down President Franklin D. Roosevelt‘s proposal to add more justices to the Supreme Court of the United States.
In 1937, The Farm Security Administration (FSA) is established through the passage of the Bankhead-Jones Act of 1937, to aid farm tenants, sharecroppers and laborers in buy land.
In 1939, Jane Bolin becomes the first black woman judge when she is appointed to the N.Y. City Court of Domestic Relations. The mayor of New York City, Fiorello La Guardia, appointed the 31-year-old Bolin as a judge of the Domestic Relations Court on July 22, 1939, at the New York World’s Fair.
In 1940, Jacqueline Kennedy’s parents divorce.
In 1942, The United States government begins compulsory civilian gasoline rationing due to the wartime demands.
In 1942, Holocaust: The systematic deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto begins.
In 1943, World War II: Allied forces capture the Italian city of Palermo.
In 1944, The Polish Committee of National Liberation publishes its manifesto, starting the period of Communist rule in Poland
In 1946, King David Hotel bombing: A Zionist underground organisation, the Irgun, bombs the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, site of the civil administration and military headquarters for Mandate Palestine, resulting in 91 deaths.
In 1951, Dezik (Дезик) and Tsygan (Цыган, “Gypsy”) are the first dogs to make a sub-orbital flight.
In 1954, Puerto Rico becomes the first Ind. U.S. Commonwealth.
In 1955, Richard Nixon became the first vice-president to preside over a cabinet meeting.
In 1960, Cuba nationalizes US owned sugar factories.
In 1962, Mariner program: Mariner 1 spacecraft flies erratically several minutes after launch and has to be destroyed.
In 1963, Sarawak achieve independence.
In 1972, Venera 8 makes a soft landing on Venus.
In 1976, Japan completes its last reparation to the Philippines for war crimes committed during the imperial Japan’s conquest of the country in the Second World War.
In 1977, Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping is restored to power.
In 1983, Martial law in Poland is officially revoked.
In 1985, both of Australia’s leading domestic airlines announce they will refuse service to anyone with HIV/AIDS.
In 1991, Jeffrey Dahmer is arrested in Milwaukee after police discover human remains in his apartment.
In 1991, Desiree Washington, a Miss Black America contestant, charged she’d been raped by boxer Mike Tyson in an Indianapolis hotel room. Tyson, convicted of rape, served three years in prison.
In 1992, Near Medellín, Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar escapes from his luxury prison fearing extradition to the United States.
In 1993, Great Flood of 1993: Levees near Kaskaskia, Illinois rupture, forcing the entire town to evacuate by barges operated by the Army Corps of Engineers.
In 1997, The second Blue Water Bridge opens between Port Huron, Michigan and Sarnia, Ontario.
In 1997, More than 2,000 people gathered in Milan, Italy, for a memorial Mass for slain fashion designer Gianni Versace (JAH’-nee vur-SAH’-chee); the mourners included Princess Diana, singer-songwriter Elton John and supermodels Naomi Campbell and Eva Herzigova.
In 1999, Family members watched mournfully from the deck of a Navy destroyer as the ashes of John F. Kennedy Junior, his wife, Carolyn, and her sister, Lauren Bessette, were cast into the sea off Martha’s Vineyard, consigned to the depths where they died.
In 2003, Members of 101st Airborne of the United States, aided by Special Forces, attack a compound in Iraq, killing Saddam Hussein‘s sons Uday and Qusay, along with Mustapha Hussein, Qusay’s 14-year old son, and a bodyguard.
In 2005, Jean Charles de Menezes is killed by police as the hunt begins for the London Bombers responsible for the 7 July 2005 London bombings and the 21 July 2005 London bombings.
In 2011, Norway is the victim of twin terror attacks, the first being a bomb blast which targeted government buildings in central Oslo, the second being a massacre at a youth camp on the island of Utøya.
In 2013, A series of earthquakes in Dingxi, China, kills at least 89 people and injures more than 500 others.
In 2015, Three people die and 17 are injured in a collision between a Pendolino train and a lorry that occurred near Studénka, north Moravia, in the Czech Republic