On This Day: 22 April

The Roman Senate outlaws Maximinus Thrax, Emperor since 235, for his bloodthirsty proscriptions in Rome, and nominates two of its members, Pupienus and Balbinus, to the throne – sparking off what would come to be known as the Year of the Six Emperors		238
Pedro Alvarez Cabral discovers Brazil, and claims it for Portugal		1500
Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes establishes a settlement at Veracruz, Mexico		1519
Royal Society incorporated		1662
Battle of Mondori: Napoleon defeats the Piedmontese		1796
Baltic Exchange, London, founded as the Baltic Club		1823
St. Helena becomes a Crown colony		1834
British packet ship Sirius becomes the first steamship to cross the Atlantic from England to New York and the first vessel to cross the Atlantic under continuous steam power		1838
US National League of Professional Baseball Clubs founded		1876
Two million acres released for new settlers in Oklahoma		1889
The Intercalated Games (no longer recognised as an official Olympiad) open in Athens		1906
The use of poison gas in World War I escalates when German forces release chlorine gas as a chemical weapon in the Second Battle of Ypres		1915
Alf Dean lands a 2664–lb great white shark at Denial Bay, South Australia – the largest fish ever caught on a rod		1959
Greville Wynne exchanged for Soviet agent Gordon Lonsdale; New York World's Fair opens		1964
Greek army effects a coup and declares martial law		1967
Robin Knox–Johnston sails into Falmouth after 312 days at sea, to complete the first ever solo non–stop circumnavigation and win the Sunday Times Golden Globe race		1969
John Fairfax and Sylvia Cook arrive in Australia – the first people to row across the Pacific		1972
Increased American bombing in Vietnam prompts anti–war protests in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco.		1972
Keith Richards performs a benefit concert for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind in lieu of a jail sentence on a drugs conviction		1979
The German magazine Stern claims that Hitler's diaries had been found in wreckage in East Germany; the diaries are subsequently revealed to be forgeries		1983
US and French researchers announce the discovery of the AIDS virus (HIV)		1984
Britain breaks off diplomatic relations with Libya in response to the shooting of WPC Yvonne Fletcher outside its embassy in London		1984
206 people lose their lives, nearly 500 are injured and 15,000 left homeless, as five miles of streets are destroyed in a series of explosions in the sewers of Guadalajara, Mexico. An investigation later finds that the explosions resulted from faulty design		1992
Eighteen–year–old Stephen Lawrence is murdered in a racially motivated attack while waiting for a bus in Well Hall, Eltham, south London		1993
A four–month siege at the Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima ends; 71 of 72 remaining hostages are freed, and all 14 rebels killed		1997
Hundreds of Hutus killed when the Rwandan Patriotic Army opens fire in Kibeho refugee camp		2003
The administrator of ITV Digital puts the company up for sale, leaving the 72 clubs in the Football League owed a total of £178.5 million		2002
3,000 are feared dead after an explosion at Ryongchon railway station in North Korea, when two fuel trains collide; more conservative estimates put the number of fatalities at between 54 and 160		2004
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi apologises for Japan's war record		2005
Representatives of 196 states sign the Paris Agreement, within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change; the long–term goal of the agreement is to keep the increase in global average temperature to "well below 2 °C" above pre–industrial levels		2016

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On This Day: 22 April