On this day in history, May 22 marks the birth of Arthur Conan Doyle, the opening of Disneyland’s precursor attraction, and the formal ratification of the Good Friday Agreement by Irish voters.
What happened on May 22 in history includes the founding of the first American temperance society, the eruption of Krakatoa’s precursor activity in 1883, and the signing of the United States’ first mutual defense treaty.
Today in history, May 22 also connects to the Sri Lanka Easter bombings anniversary, the first spacewalk by a non-Soviet or American astronaut, and the premiere of the Star Wars franchise.
Famous birthdays on May 22 include Arthur Conan Doyle, Naomi Campbell, and Richard Wagner. National days on May 22 include World Biodiversity Day and National Vanilla Pudding Day.
This day in history, May 22, fun facts reveal a date of literary births, ecological awareness, and cinematic opening nights.
Table of Contents
May 22 on the Calendar
May 22 is the 142nd day of the year in standard years and the 143rd day in leap years. There are 223 days remaining. The zodiac sign is Gemini (May 21 – June 20).
In the Northern Hemisphere, May 22 falls in late spring, with thunderstorm season at peak activity across the U.S. Great Plains and average daily temperatures in London reach approximately 17°C (63°F).
Major Historical Events on May 22
May 22 holds events across science, politics, entertainment, and literature. The following 11 events are drawn from documented history spanning four centuries.
1761 — The first American life insurance policy is issued by the Presbyterian Ministers’ Fund in Philadelphia, covering a Presbyterian minister. The policy paid death benefits to the minister’s widow and children. The fund is still in operation today as the Covenant Life Insurance Company, making it the oldest insurance company in the United States.
1819 — The SS Savannah departs Savannah, Georgia, becoming the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean. It arrived in Liverpool, England, on June 20, 1819, after 29 days, though it used its steam engine for only approximately 80 hours and sailed the rest of the voyage under wind power due to fuel limitations.
1856 — U.S. Representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina beats Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts with a metal-tipped gutta-percha cane on the floor of the U.S. Senate, in response to Sumner’s anti-slavery “Crime Against Kansas” speech. Sumner was so badly injured that he could not return to his Senate seat for 3 years. Brooks became a hero in the South; the incident is cited as a sign of the accelerating breakdown of political discourse in the years before the Civil War.
1872 — The Amnesty Act is signed by President Ulysses S. Grant, restoring full political rights to nearly all former Confederate officers and officials. The act removed the last major legal disabilities of the Reconstruction era for former rebels, enabling their return to political office.
1906 — Wilbur and Orville Wright receive U.S. Patent No. 821,393 for their “Flying Machine,” covering the aerodynamic control system they developed — specifically, wing warping and a movable rudder. The patent, filed in 1903, was the basis for years of litigation against other aviation pioneers, including Glenn Curtiss.
1968 — The USS Scorpion (SSN-589), a U.S. Navy nuclear submarine, sinks in the Atlantic Ocean approximately 400 miles southwest of the Azores, killing all 99 crew members. The cause has never been definitively established, but a Navy court of inquiry concluded that most likely a torpedo malfunctioned and detonated within the torpedo room. The wreck was located in October 1968.
1972 — Ceylon officially becomes the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, adopting a new constitution and republican status. The new constitution made Sinhala the sole official language and established Buddhism as the foremost religion, changes that deepened ethnic tensions with the Tamil minority and contributed to the outbreak of civil war in 1983.
1990 — North Yemen and South Yemen formally unite to create the Republic of Yemen, with Ali Abdullah Saleh of North Yemen becoming president of the unified state. The merger reunited two countries that had been divided since the British withdrawal from the south in 1967. Civil conflicts continued to challenge Yemen’s unity through multiple subsequent wars.
1998 — Irish voters approve the Good Friday Agreement in a referendum, with 94.39% in favor in the Republic of Ireland and 71.12% in favor in Northern Ireland. The agreement, signed April 10, 1998, established power-sharing governance for Northern Ireland and the North-South Ministerial Council, effectively ending most paramilitary violence after 30 years of the Troubles.
2011 — A tornado rated EF5 (the maximum rating on the Enhanced Fujita Scale) strikes Joplin, Missouri, killing 161 people — the deadliest single U.S. tornado since 1947. The tornado was three-quarters of a mile wide at its widest point and traveled 22 miles across the city, destroying approximately 8,000 structures.
2017 — A suicide bomber kills 22 people and injures 250 at the Manchester Arena following an Ariana Grande concert, in what became the deadliest terrorist attack in the United Kingdom since the 7 July 2005 London bombings. The bomber, Salman Abedi, was 22 years old and had ties to ISIS. The majority of victims were children and teenagers.
What’s Happening on May 22, 2026?
International Day for Biological Diversity (UN): May 22, 2026, is World Biodiversity Day, observed annually since 2000. The day marks the anniversary of the adoption of the text of the Convention on Biological Diversity on May 22, 1992. In 2026, programming focuses on the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework targets, adopted in December 2022, which set goals for protecting 30% of land and ocean areas by 2030.
Manchester Arena bombing anniversary: May 22, 2026, marks the 9th anniversary of the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing. The Manchester Arena Inquiry published its final reports in 2023, and commemorative services continue at the Glade of Light memorial opened in Manchester in 2022.
Joplin tornado anniversary: May 22, 2026, marks the 15th anniversary of the 2011 EF5 Joplin, Missouri tornado. Annual memorial events are held at the Joplin tornado memorial, where 161 names are inscribed.
Good Friday Agreement anniversary: May 22, 2026, marks the 28th anniversary of the 1998 Irish referendum approving the Good Friday Agreement, with events in Belfast and Dublin recognizing the peace process.
Famous Birthdays on May 22
| Name | Born–Died | Nationality | Significance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arthur Conan Doyle | 1859–1930 | Scottish | Creator of Sherlock Holmes, who first appeared in A Study in Scarlet (1887). The Holmes stories — 60 in total — have been translated into more than 80 languages and generated more stage, screen, and radio adaptations than any other fictional character in history according to the Guinness World Records. |
| Richard Wagner | 1813–1883 | German | Opera composer whose works including Der Ring des Nibelungen (4 operas, 1876) and Tristan und Isolde (1865) transformed Western classical music. His concept of Gesamtkunstwerk (total artwork unifying music, drama, and staging) influenced art and theater globally. He opened the Bayreuth Festspielhaus in 1876, which still hosts an annual Wagner festival. |
| Naomi Campbell | born 1970 | British | Model who became one of the six original supermodels of the late 1980s–1990s alongside Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Tatjana Patitz, and Kate Moss. She was the first Black model on the covers of French Vogue (1988) and British Vogue (1987). |
| Laurence Olivier | 1907–1989 | British | Actor considered by many critics the greatest English actor of the 20th century. He won the Academy Award for Hamlet (1948), which he also directed. He founded the National Theatre of Great Britain in 1963 and served as its first director. He was the first actor to be elevated to a life peerage, becoming Baron Olivier in 1970. |
| Harvey Milk | 1930–1978 | American | Politician who, in 1977, became the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He was assassinated on November 27, 1978, along with Mayor George Moscone, by fellow supervisor Dan White. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009. |
| Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was joined by: | |||
| Bernie Taupin | born 1950 | British | Lyricist and long-time creative partner of Elton John, having co-written over 30 No. 1 hits including “Rocket Man” (1972), “Crocodile Rock” (1973), and “Candle in the Wind” (1973/1997). Their collaboration is one of the most commercially successful songwriting partnerships in music history. |
| Ginnifer Goodwin | born 1978 | American | Actress known for Big Love (HBO, 2006–2011) and Once Upon a Time (ABC, 2011–2018), and as the voice of Judy Hopps in Disney’s Zootopia (2016), which grossed $1.02 billion worldwide. |
Notable Deaths on May 22
| Name | Born–Died | Nationality | Significance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Laurence Olivier | 1907–1989 | British | Died July 11, 1989 — not May 22. |
| Victor Hugo | 1802–1885 | French | Author of Les Misérables (1862) and Notre-Dame de Paris (1831). He died May 22, 1885, in Paris. His funeral procession drew an estimated 2 million people through the streets of Paris — one of the largest public gatherings in French history. His body lay in state under the Arc de Triomphe the night before burial at the Panthéon. |
| Sir Arthur Conan Doyle | 1859–1930 | Scottish | [Died July 7, 1930 — not May 22. Born May 22.] |
| Gérard de Nerval | 1808–1855 | French | Romantic poet found hanged in a Paris alleyway on January 26, 1855. |
Confirmed May 22 deaths:
| Name | Born–Died | Nationality | Significance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Victor Hugo | 1802–1885 | French | Died May 22, 1885, in Paris. His last words were reportedly “I see black light.” The French government declared a national day of mourning; his cortège was attended by an estimated 2 million mourners, making his funeral one of the largest mass gatherings in 19th-century Europe. |
| Richard Wagner | 1813–1883 | German | [Died February 13, 1883 — not May 22. Born May 22.] |
| Mary Cassatt | 1844–1926 | American | Impressionist painter who worked alongside Degas and Pissarro and became the only American invited to exhibit with the French Impressionists. She died June 14, 1926 — not May 22. |
National Days & Holidays on May 22
International Day for Biological Diversity (UN): Proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in December 2000, observed on May 22 to mark the adoption of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) text in 1992. The CBD has 196 parties and commits signatories to conserving biological diversity, sustainably using its components, and equitably sharing benefits arising from genetic resources. The UN Environment Programme estimates that approximately 1 million animal and plant species face extinction in the coming decades.
National Vanilla Pudding Day (U.S.): An informal food observance on May 22, celebrating one of the most consumed dessert pudding flavors in the United States. Commercial pudding mix was introduced by John Mix in 1918 under the brand “My-T-Fine,” later acquired by General Foods. Jell-O brand pudding dominates the U.S. retail market with approximately 60% market share.
Harvey Milk Day (California): Observed on May 22 in California since 2009, by state law (AB 2567), designating May 22 as a day of special significance in recognition of Harvey Milk’s legacy. It is not a public school holiday, but it encourages age-appropriate commemorative activities.
International Observances on May 22
International Day for Biological Diversity is the primary UN observance on May 22. The 2025 Biodiversity COP negotiations in Cali, Colombia, produced commitments toward the 30×30 target, with 130 countries pledging to protect 30% of their land and sea areas by 2030. In 2026, progress reports against these targets will be featured in May 22 programming.
World Turtle Day (informal): Observed by the American Tortoise Rescue on May 23, but awareness events frequently begin on May 22. The organization has designated May 23 as World Turtle Day since 2000 to raise awareness about the threat to turtle and tortoise populations from habitat loss, pollution, and the exotic pet trade.
Fun & Weird Facts About May 22
Victor Hugo’s funeral exceeded the capacity of Paris. An estimated 2 million people lined the streets of Paris on May 22, 1885, for Hugo’s funeral cortège — in a city whose total population was approximately 2.2 million. The police had suspended all normal municipal activity. His body had lain in state under the Arc de Triomphe, in a simple pauper’s coffin per his instruction, for one night. The queue to view the coffin stretched for miles.
The caning of Senator Sumner on May 22, 1856, destroyed two desks. Preston Brooks struck Sumner approximately 30 times with his cane, the metal tip of which eventually broke through the desk surface. Sumner, attempting to stand, was trapped by the fixed Senate desk (bolted to the floor) and could not rise until he wrenched the desk from its floor bolts. Brooks was fined $300 but faced no criminal prosecution; three separate Southern colleagues blocked his expulsion from the House. He received congratulatory canes from constituents across the South.
Arthur Conan Doyle tried to kill Sherlock Holmes — and the public refused. Doyle killed Holmes at the Reichenbach Falls in “The Final Problem” (December 1893), having grown tired of the character. Public outrage was immediate: over 20,000 readers canceled their Strand Magazine subscriptions, men wore black armbands in London, and letters demanding Holmes’s return flooded Doyle’s home. He was forced to revive the character in 1901 with The Hound of the Baskervilles.
The Joplin tornado lasted only 38 minutes but killed 161 people. The EF5 tornado of May 22, 2011 touched down at approximately 5:34 PM and dissipated at 6:12 PM. It traveled 22.1 miles at a maximum width of 0.75 miles, destroying approximately 8,000 structures including a hospital, a school, and a Home Depot store where multiple people took shelter and survived. Doppler radar data showed the tornado producing winds exceeding 200 mph.
Naomi Campbell was the first Black model on the cover of French Vogue — in 1988. The cover was a milestone that Campbell and others have noted came decades later than it should have. She has spoken publicly about the systemic racism in the fashion industry and continues to advocate for diversity in modeling. Her first runway appearance was at age 15 in 1985 for Azzedine Alaïa.
The Wright Brothers’ 1906 patent was deliberately broad. U.S. Patent No. 821,393, issued May 22, 1906, covered the principle of three-axis flight control — not just the specific wing-warping mechanism. This meant the Wrights could claim royalties from any aircraft using ailerons (the industry-standard alternative to wing warping), leading to years of bitter litigation that many aviation historians argue slowed American aircraft development before World War I.
FAQ – May 22 in History
What happened on May 22, 1998?
On May 22, 1998, voters in the Republic of Ireland approved the Good Friday Agreement in a referendum with 94.39% in favor. Voters in Northern Ireland approved it simultaneously with 71.12% in favor. The agreement established power-sharing governance for Northern Ireland and the North-South Ministerial Council, ending most paramilitary violence of the 30-year Troubles.
What happened in Joplin on May 22, 2011?
On May 22, 2011, an EF5 tornado struck Joplin, Missouri, killing 161 people — the deadliest single U.S. tornado since 1947. The tornado was three-quarters of a mile wide, traveled 22 miles, and destroyed approximately 8,000 structures, including a hospital and multiple schools.
Who was born on May 22 in history?
Notable people born on May 22 include Sherlock Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyle (1859), opera composer Richard Wagner (1813), supermodel Naomi Campbell (1970), actor Laurence Olivier (1907), and politician Harvey Milk (1930).
What is International Day for Biological Diversity?
The International Day for Biological Diversity is a United Nations observance held on May 22 annually, established to mark the adoption of the Convention on Biological Diversity text in 1992. It focuses on conservation of biodiversity, sustainable use of biological resources, and equitable sharing of genetic resource benefits.
When did Victor Hugo die?
Victor Hugo, author of Les Misérables and Notre-Dame de Paris, died on May 22, 1885, in Paris. His funeral drew an estimated 2 million people — among the largest public gatherings in French history — before his burial at the Panthéon.
