February 22Birthdays & History

On this day: February 22 in history

Oldest first. Tap a year to see it on the World Chronicle timeline.

1. 896Pope Formosus crowns Arnulf of Carinthia as Emperor in Rome. Arnulf suffers a stroke soon after and retreats from Italy.Europe
2. 1076Having received a letter during the Lenten synod of 14–20 February demanding that he abdicate, Pope Gregory VII excommunicates Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor.Europe
3. 1288The Franciscan Girolamo Maschi is elected pope, choosing the name Nicholas IV.Europe
4. 1316The Battle of Picotin, between Ferdinand of Majorca and the forces of Matilda of Hainaut, ends in victory for Ferdinand.Europe
5. 1371Robert II becomes King of Scotland, beginning the Stuart dynasty.Europe
6. 1495King Charles VIII of France enters Naples to claim the city's throne.Europe
7. 1632Ferdinando II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, the dedicatee, receives the first printed copy of Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems.Europe
8. 1651St. Peter's Flood: A storm surge floods the Frisian coast, drowning 15,000 people.Europe
9. 1744War of the Austrian Succession: The Battle of Toulon causes several Royal Navy captains to be court-martialed, and the Articles of War to be amended.Europe
10. 1770British customs officer Ebenezer Richardson fires blindly into a crowd during a protest in North End, Boston, fatally wounding 11-year-old Christopher Seider; the first American fatality of the American Revolution.EuropeNorth America
11. 1797The last Invasion of Britain begins near Fishguard, Wales.Europe
12. 1819By the Adams–Onís Treaty, Spain sells Florida to the United States for five million U.S. dollars.EuropeNorth America
13. 1847Mexican–American War: The Battle of Buena Vista: Five thousand American troops defeat 15,000 Mexican troops.Latin AmericaNorth America
14. 1848The French Revolution of 1848, which would lead to the establishment of the French Second Republic, begins.Europe
15. 1856The United States Republican Party opens its first national convention in Pittsburgh.North America
16. 1862American Civil War: Jefferson Davis is officially inaugurated for a six-year term as the President of the Confederate States of America in Richmond, Virginia. He was previously inaugurated as a provisional president on February 18, 1861.North America
17. 1872The Prohibition Party holds its first national convention in Columbus, Ohio, nominating James Black as its presidential nominee.North America
18. 1879In Utica, New York, Frank Woolworth opens the first of many of five-and-dime Woolworth stores.North America
19. 1881Cleopatra's Needle, a 3,500-year-old Ancient Egyptian obelisk is erected in Central Park, New York.Middle EastNorth America
20. 1889President Grover Cleveland signs a bill admitting North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Washington as U.S. states.North America
21. 1899Filipino forces led by General Antonio Luna launch counterattacks for the first time against the American forces during the Philippine–American War. The Filipinos fail to regain Manila from the Americans.AsiaNorth America
22. 1904The United Kingdom sells a meteorological station on the South Orkney Islands to Argentina; the islands are subsequently claimed by the United Kingdom in 1908.EuropeLatin America
23. 1909The sixteen battleships of the Great White Fleet, led by USS Connecticut, return to the United States after a voyage around the world.North America
24. 1921After Russian forces under Baron Roman von Ungern-Sternberg drive the Chinese out, the Bogd Khan is reinstalled as the emperor of Mongolia.EuropeAsia
25. 1942World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders General Douglas MacArthur out of the Philippines as the Japanese victory becomes inevitable.AsiaAsia
26. 1943World War II: Members of the White Rose resistance, Sophie Scholl, Hans Scholl, and Christoph Probst are executed in Nazi Germany.Europe
27. 1943Yankee Clipper crashes while landing on the Tagus in Lisbon, killing 24.Europe
28. 1944World War II: The Soviet Red Army recaptures Krivoi Rog.Europe
29. 1944World War II: American aircraft mistakenly bomb the Dutch towns of Nijmegen, Arnhem, Enschede and Deventer, resulting in 800 dead in Nijmegen alone.North AmericaEurope
30. 1946The "Long Telegram", proposing how the United States should deal with the Soviet Union, arrives from the US embassy in Moscow.North AmericaEurope
31. 1957Ngô Đình Diệm of South Vietnam survives a communist shooting assassination attempt in Buôn Ma Thuột.Asia
32. 1958Following a plebiscite in both countries the previous day, Egypt and Syria join to form the United Arab Republic.Middle East
33. 1959Lee Petty wins the first Daytona 500.North America
34. 1972The Official Irish Republican Army detonates a car bomb at Aldershot barracks, killing seven and injuring nineteen others.Europe
35. 1973Cold War: Following President Richard Nixon's visit to the People's Republic of China, the two countries agree to establish liaison offices.Asia
36. 1974Samuel Byck attempts to hijack an aircraft at Baltimore/Washington International Airport with the intention of crashing it into the White House to assassinate Richard Nixon, but commits suicide after being wounded by police.North America
37. 1974The Organisation of the Islamic Conference summit begins in Lahore, Pakistan. Thirty-seven countries attend and twenty-two heads of state and government participate. It also recognizes Bangladesh.Asia
38. 1979Saint Lucia gains independence from the United Kingdom.Europe
39. 1980Miracle on Ice: In Lake Placid, New York, the United States hockey team defeats the Soviet Union hockey team 4–3.North AmericaEurope
40. 1983The notorious Broadway flop Moose Murders opens and closes on the same night at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre.North America
41. 1986Start of the People Power Revolution in the Philippines.Asia
42. 1994Aldrich Ames and his wife are charged by the United States Department of Justice with spying for the Soviet Union.North AmericaEurope
43. 1995The Corona reconnaissance satellite program, in existence from 1959 to 1972, is declassified.World
44. 1997In Roslin, Midlothian, British scientists announce that an adult sheep named Dolly has been successfully cloned.Europe
45. 2002Angolan political and rebel leader Jonas Savimbi is killed in a military ambush.Africa
46. 2005The 6.4 Mw Zarand earthquake shakes the Kerman province of Iran with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), leaving 612 people dead and 1,411 injured.Middle East
47. 2006The Securitas depot robbery was the UK's largest heist. Almost £53m (about $92.5 million or €78 million) was stolen from a Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent.Europe
48. 2006At approximately 6:44 a.m. local Iraqi time, explosions occurred at the al-Askari Shrine in Samarra, Iraq. The attack on the shrine, one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam, caused the escalation of sectarian tensions in Iraq into a full-scale civil war.Middle East
49. 2011Bahraini uprising: Tens of thousands of people march in protest against the deaths of seven victims killed by police and army forces during previous protests.Middle East
50. 2011New Zealand's second deadliest earthquake, the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, kills 185 people.Oceania
51. 2012A train crash in Buenos Aires, Argentina, kills 51 people and injures 700 others.Latin America
52. 2014President Viktor Yanukovych of Ukraine is impeached by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine by a vote of 328–0, fulfilling a major goal of the Euromaidan rebellion.Europe
53. 2015A ferry carrying 100 passengers capsizes in the Padma River, killing 70 people.Asia
54. 2018A man throws a grenade at the U.S. embassy in Podgorica, Montenegro. He dies at the scene from a second explosion, with no one else hurt.North AmericaEurope
55. 2022Twosday, the name given to Tuesday, February 22, 2022, at 2:22:22, occurs.World

Source: Wikipedia "February 22" / CC BY-SA 4.0