What Happened on July 22nd in History
30 historical events on this date
The first ever motor race is held in France between the cities of Paris and Rouen. The fastest finisher was the Comte Jules-Albert de Dion, but the "official" victory was awarded to Albert LemaĂźtre driving his three-horsepower petrol engined Peugeot.
ParisâRouen was a pioneering city-to-city motoring competition in 1894 which is sometimes described as the world's first competitive motor race.
Preparedness Day Bombing: In San Francisco, a bomb explodes on Market Street during a parade, killing ten and injuring 40.
The Preparedness Day bombing was a bombing in San Francisco, California, United States, on July 22, 1916, of a parade organised by local supporters of the Preparedness Movement which advocated...
Rif War: The Spanish Army suffers its worst military defeat in modern times to the Berbers of the Rif region of Spanish Morocco.
The Rif War was an armed conflict fought from 1921 to 1926 between Spain and Berber tribes of the mountainous Rif region of northern Morocco.
Aviator Wiley Post returns to Floyd Bennett Field in New York City, completing the first solo flight around the world in seven days, 18 hours and 49 minutes.
Wiley Hardeman Post was an American aviator during the interwar period and the first pilot to fly solo around the world. Known for his work in high-altitude flying, he helped develop one of the...
Spanish Civil War: The Popular Executive Committee of Valencia takes power in the Valencian Community.
The Spanish Civil War was fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republicans and the Nationalist rebels. Republicans loyal to the left-leaning Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic...
New Deal: The United States Senate votes down President Franklin D. Roosevelt's proposal to add more justices to the Supreme Court of the United States.
The New Deal was a 1933â1938 series of economic, social, and political reforms in response to the Great Depression in the United States under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He introduced the...
The United States government begins compulsory civilian gasoline rationing due to the wartime demands.
Gasoline or petrol is a petrochemical product characterized as a transparent, yellowish and flammable liquid normally used as a fuel for spark-ignited internal combustion engines. When formulated as...
Grossaktion Warsaw: The systematic deportation of Jews from the Warsaw ghetto begins.
The Grossaktion Warsaw was the Nazi code name for the deportation and mass murder of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto during the summer of 1942, beginning on 22 July. During the Grossaktion, Jews were...
World War II: Allied forces capture Palermo during the Allied invasion of Sicily.
World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major...
World War II: Axis occupation forces violently disperse a massive protest in Athens, killing 22.
The Axis powers, originally called the RomeâBerlin Axis and also RomeâBerlinâTokyo Axis, was the military coalition which initiated World War II and fought against the Allies. Its principal members...
The Polish Committee of National Liberation publishes its manifesto, starting the period of Communist rule in Poland.
The Polish Committee of National Liberation, also known as the Lublin Committee, was an executive governing authority established by the Soviet-backed communists in Poland at the later stage of...
King David Hotel bombing: A Zionist underground organisation, the Irgun, bombs the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, site of the civil administration and military headquarters for Mandatory Palestine, resulting in 91 deaths.
The British administrative headquarters for Mandatory Palestine, housed in the southern wing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, were bombed in a terrorist attack on 22 July 1946, by the militant...
Soviet space dogs: Dezik and Tsygan were launched into a sub-orbital spaceflight from Kapustin Yar and became the first dogs to fly in space and the first to safely return.
In the 1950s and 1960s, the Soviet space program used dogs for suborbital and orbital space flights as proof-of-concept to determine whether human spaceflight was feasible. The Soviet space program...
Mariner program: Mariner 1 spacecraft flies erratically several minutes after launch and has to be destroyed.
The Mariner program was conducted by the American space agency NASA to explore other planets. Between 1962 and late 1973, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) designed and built 10 robotic...
Crown Colony of Sarawak gains self-governance.
The Crown Colony of Sarawak was a British Crown colony on the island of Borneo, established in 1946, shortly after the dissolution of the British Military Administration. It was succeeded as the...
Pan Am Flight 816 crashes after takeoff from Faa'a International Airport in Papeete, French Polynesia, killing 78.
Pan Am Flight 816 was an international flight from Auckland, New Zealand, to San Francisco, California, via Tahiti, French Polynesia, and Los Angeles, California. It was operated by a Pan Am Boeing...
Japan completes its last reparation to the Philippines for war crimes committed during imperial Japan's conquest of the country in the Second World War.
The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of about 7,641 islands, with a total area...
Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping is restored to power.
Deng Xiaoping was a Chinese statesman, revolutionary and political theorist who served as the paramount leader of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from 1978 to 1989. Emerging as China's most...
The first game of the 1981 South Africa rugby union tour of New Zealand and the United States is held in Gisborne, New Zealand.
The 1981 South African rugby tour polarised opinions and inspired widespread protests across New Zealand. The controversy also extended to the United States, where the South African rugby team...
Martial law in Poland is officially revoked.
Martial law in Poland existed between 13 December 1981 and 22 July 1983. The government of the Polish People's Republic drastically restricted everyday life by introducing martial law and a military...
Greg LeMond, an American road racing cyclist, wins his third Tour de France after leading the majority of the race. It was LeMond's second consecutive Tour de France victory.
Gregory James LeMond is an American former road racing cyclist. He won the Tour de France three times, and the Road Race World Championship twice, becoming the only American male to win the former.
Near MedellĂn, Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar escapes from his luxury prison fearing extradition to the United States.
MedellĂn, officially the Special District of Science, Technology and Innovation of MedellĂn, is the second-largest city in Colombia after BogotĂĄ, and the capital of the department of Antioquia. It...
Great Flood of 1993: Levees near Kaskaskia, Illinois rupture, forcing the entire town to evacuate by barges operated by the Army Corps of Engineers.
The Great Flood of 1993 was a flood that occurred in the Midwestern United States, along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers and their tributaries, from April to October 1993.
The second Blue Water Bridge opens between Port Huron, Michigan and Sarnia, Ontario.
The Blue Water Bridge is a twin-span international bridge across the St. Clair River that links Port Huron, Michigan, United States, and Point Edward, Ontario, Canada. The Blue Water Bridge connects...
Iraq War: Members of 101st Airborne of the United States, aided by Special Forces, attack a compound in Iraq, killing Saddam Hussein's sons Uday and Qusay, along with Mustapha Hussein, Qusay's 14-year-old son, and a bodyguard.
The Iraq War, also referred to as the Second Gulf War, was a protracted armed conflict in Iraq from 2003 to 2011. It began with the invasion by a United Statesâled coalition, which resulted in the...
Jean Charles de Menezes is killed by police as the hunt begins for the London Bombers responsible for the 7 July 2005 London bombings and the 21 July 2005 London bombings.
Jean Charles da Silva de Menezes was a Brazilian man fatally shot and wrongfully murdered by the Metropolitan Police Service at Stockwell Station of the London Underground, after being mistakenly...
Norway attacks: A bomb explodes, targeted at government buildings in central Oslo, followed by a massacre at a youth camp on the island of UtĂžya.
On 22 July 2011, 32-year-old Norwegian far-right terrorist Anders Behring Breivik committed two domestic terrorist attacks in Norway against the government, the civilian population, and a Workers'...
Syrian civil war: The People's Protection Units (YPG) captured the cities of SerĂȘ KaniyĂȘ and DirbĂȘsiyĂȘ, during clashes with pro-government forces in Al-Hasakah.
The Syrian civil war was an armed conflict that began with the Syrian revolution in March 2011, when popular discontent with the Ba'athist regime ruled by Bashar al-Assad triggered large-scale...
Dingxi earthquakes: A series of earthquakes in Dingxi, China, kills at least 89 people and injures more than 500 others.
On 22 July 2013, a series of earthquakes occurred in Dingxi, Gansu. The first quake struck at 07:45 China Standard Time with an epicenter located at the border of Min County and Zhang County. The...
Chandrayaan-2, the second lunar exploration mission developed by Indian Space Research Organisation after Chandrayaan-1 is launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in a GSLV Mark III M1. It consists of a lunar orbiter, and also included the Vikram lander, and the Pragyan lunar rover.
Chandrayaan-2 is the second lunar exploration mission developed by ISRO after Chandrayaan-1. It consists of a lunar orbiter, the Vikram lunar lander, and the Pragyan rover, all of which were...