On This Day: 22 May

Halley's Comet makes its fourteenth recorded perihelion passage		760
Constantine the Great dies at Nicomedia (Izmit), Turkey		337
Saladin, the first sultan of Egypt and Syria, survives an assassination attempt by the Hashshashin (Assassins)		1176
Louis VIII of France, having been offered the English throne by barons opposed to King John, lands unopposed on the Isle of Thanet (following John's death in October the same year, many of the rebellious barons would desert Louis in favour of John's nine–year–old son, Henry III, and Louis would be forced to make peace on English terms)		1216
Pope Gregory XI issues five papal bulls to denounce the doctrines of English theologian John Wycliffe		1377
Battle of St. Albans (first battle of the Wars of the Roses): Richard of York captures the city and takes Henry VI prisoner		1455
James I ennobles the first eighteen baronets		1611
Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II and Danish King Christian IV sign the Treaty of Lübeck, ending Danish intervention in the Thirty Years' War		1629
The Trevi Fountain is officially completed and inaugurated by Pope Clement XIII		1762
Mungo Park sets sail on his first voyage to Africa		1795
The Lewis and Clark Expedition officially begins as the Corps of Discovery departs from St. Charles, Missouri		1804
Former US Vice President Aaron Burr is indicted by a grand jury on a charge of treason		1807
The steamship Savannah leaves Savannah, Georgia, on a voyage to become the first steamship to cross the Atlantic		1819
HMS Beagle departs on its first voyage		1826
The penal transportation of British convicts to the New South Wales colony is abolished		1840
Future US President Abraham Lincoln is issued a patent for an invention to lift boats, which would make him the only US President ever to hold a patent		1849
The first parliament of New South Wales opens		1856
Jefferson Davies, the fugitive Confederate president, is captured at Irwinsville, Georgia		1865
President Ulysses S. Grant signs the Amnesty Act into law, restoring full civil and political rights to all but about 500 Confederate sympathizers		1872
Great Paul, a new bell for St. Paul's Cathedral, arrives in London		1882
Victor Hugo, French author, dies in Paris aged 83		1885
Blackwall Tunnel officially opened by the Prince of Wales		1897
The Associated Press is formed in New York City as a non–profit news cooperative		1900
Gaetano Bresci, assassin of King Umberto, commits suicide in prison		1901
Wilbur and Orville Wright are granted a patent for their flying machine		1906
Frederick William Pethick–Lawrence, his wife Emmeline and Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst sentenced to nine months' imprisonment		1912
Italy joins the Allies		1915
Britain's worst train crash: 227 die when a troop train (carrying the 7^th Battalion, Royal Scots to Gallipoli) collides with a local train near Gretna Green and is then hit by an express		1915
Near Xining, China, one of the world's most destructive earthquakes, of magnitude 8.3, causes 200,000 deaths		1927
Whipsnade Zoo opens – the world's first open–air zoo		1927
Italy and Germany sign an alliance agreement in Berlin		1939
Josef Stalin disbands the Comintern		1943
Battle of Anzio begins		1944
The most powerful earthquake ever recorded. measuring 9.5 on the moment magnitude scale, hits southern Chile; 5,000 die as a tidal wave travels as far as Hawaii and Japan		1960
Organisation of African Unity founded in Addis Ababa		1963
Goya's portrait of Wellington, stolen from the National Gallery in 1961, is found in a railway carriage in Birmingham		1965
323 die when fire sweeps a department store in Brussels – the most devastating fire in Belgian history		1967
The nuclear–powered submarine USS Scorpion sinks with 99 men aboard, 400 miles southwest of the Azores		1968
The Apollo 10 mission sends a manned lunar module within 8.4 nautical miles of the Moon's surface, in rehearsal for a summer Moon landing		1969
The Cricket Council reverses a decision to allow South African cricketers to tour England, a move welcomed by anti–apartheid activist Peter Hain		1970
Richard Nixon arrives in Moscow, becoming the first US President to visit the USSR		1972
Ceylon adopts a new constitution, changing its name to Sri Lanka and becoming a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations		1972
The city of Bingöl, Turkey, is destroyed by a 20–second earthquake; 1,000 die		1972
Over 400 women attack the offices of Sinn Féin in Derry, following the shooting by the IRA of a young British soldier on leave		1972
Richard Nixon admits ordering aides to restrict the Watergate investigation on grounds of national security		1973
Foreign Secretary Lord Carrington apologises to Saudi Arabia over Death of a Princess, shown on ITV last month		1980
Peter Sutcliffe is jailed for life after being found guilty at the Old Bailey on thirteen counts of murder and seven of attempted murder		1981
The first ever Rugby World Cup kicks off as New Zealand play Italy at Eden Park in Auckland		1987
North and South Yemen are unified to create the Republic of Yemen		1990
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia join the United Nations		1992
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		1994
The Burmese military regime jails 71 supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi in a bid to block a pro–democracy meeting		1996
Voters in both Northern Ireland and the Republic vote overwhelmingly in favour of the Good Friday Agreement		1998
A US federal judge rules that US Secret Service agents can be compelled to testify before a grand jury concerning the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal		1998
Lebanese Hezbollah fighters split Israel's southern occupation zone into two as they approach the common border		2000
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		2002
An Air India Express Boeing 737 crashes over a cliff upon landing at Mangalore; only eight of 166 people on board survive, in the deadliest crash ever to involve a Boeing 737		2010
The Tokyo Skytree (a broadcasting, restaurant and observation tower) opens to the public; at 634 metres it is the world's tallest tower, and the second tallest man–made structure after Burj Khalifa (829.8 m)		2012
In a public referendum, the Republic of Ireland becomes the first nation to legalise gay marriage		2015
Twenty–two people lose their lives in a suicide bombing at an Ariana Grande concert in the Manchester Arena		2017
Donald Trump visits the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, and becomes the first sitting US President to visit the Western Wall		2017

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On This Day: 22 May