This Day in History

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May 22

1762 – Trevi Fountain in Rome is officially completed and inaugurated by Pope Clemens XIII.

1804 – The Lewis and Clark Expedition officially began, as the Corps of Discovery departed from St. Charles, Missouri.

1807 – A grand jury indicts former Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr on a charge of treason.

1826 – HMS Beagle departs on its first voyage.

1849 – Future U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is issued a patent for an invention to lift boats over obstacles in a river, making him the only U.S. President to ever hold a patent.

1885 – Prior to burial in the Panthéon, the body of Victor Hugo was exposed under the Arc de Triomphe during the night.

1897 – The Blackwall Tunnel under the River Thames is officially opened.

1915 – Lassen Peak erupts with a powerful force, and is the only mountain other than Mount St. Helens to erupt in the contiguous US during the 20th century.

Three trains collide in the Quintinshill rail disaster near Gretna Green, Scotland, killing 227 people and injuring 246; the accident is found to be the result of non-standard operating practices during a shift change at a busy junction.

1968 – The nuclear-powered submarine the USS Scorpion sinks with 99 men aboard 400 miles southwest of the Azores.

1969 – Apollo 10's lunar module flies within 8.4 nautical miles (16 km) of the moon's surface.

1980 – Namco releases the highly influential arcade game Pac-Man.

2004 – The U.S. town of Hallam, Nebraska is wiped out by a powerful F4 tornado (part of the May 2004 tornado outbreak sequence) which kills one resident, and becomes the widest tornado on record at 2.5 miles (4.0 km) wide.

2008 – The Late-May 2008 tornado outbreak sequence unleashes 235 tornadoes, including an EF4 and an EF5 tornado, between May 22 and May 31, 2008. The tornadoes strike 19 states and one Canadian province.

2010 – Air India Express Flight 812, a Boeing 737, goes over a cliff and crashes upon landing at Mangalore, India, killing 158 of the 166 people on board. It is the worst crash involving a Boeing 737.

2011 – An EF5 tornado strikes Joplin, Missouri, killing 162 people and wreaking $2.8 billion worth in damage—the costliest and seventh-deadliest single tornado in U.S. history.

2015 – The Republic of Ireland becomes the first nation in the world to legalize gay marriage in a public referendum.

Births

1783 – William Sturgeon (invented the electromagnet and electric motor); 1813 – Richard Wagner; 1844 – Mary Cassatt; 1859 – Arthur Conan Doyle; 1907 – Laurence Olivier; 1914 – Sun Ra; 1922 – Quinn Martin; 1928 – T. Boone Pickens; 1930 – Harvey Milk; 1939 – Paul Winfield; 1940 – Bernard Shaw; 1942 – Ted Kaczynski (Unabomber); 1943 – Tommy John; 1950 – Bernie Taupin; 1959 – Morrissey; 1970 – Naomi Campbell; 1972 – Max Brooks ("World War Z"); 1979 – Maggie Q; 1980 – Lucy Gordon; 1986 – Julian Edelman; 1987 – Novak Djokovic

Deaths

337 – Constantine the Great; 1802 – Martha Washington; 1885 – Victor Hugo; 1967 – Langston Hughes; 1990 – Rocky Graziano; 1998 – John Derek; 2005 – Thurl Ravenscroft