Return to home
337 May 22,
Constantine (47), convert to Christianity and Emperor of Rome (306-37),
died. He had made Christianity the official religion of the Roman
Empire and had the Chapel of the Burning Bush built in the Sinai Desert
at the site where Moses was believed to have witnessed the Miracle of
the Burning Bush. He was baptized just before death.
(V.D.-H.K.p.92)(PCh, 1992, p.48)(MC, 5/22/02)
760 May 22, The 14th recorded
perihelion passage of Halley's Comet occurred.
(MC, 5/22/02)
987 May 22, Louis V le Faineant
(20), the Lazy, king of France (986-87), was allegedly poisoned by his
mother. [see May 21]
(MC, 5/22/02)
1176 May 22, There was a murder
attempt by "Assassins" (hashish-smoking mountain killers) on Saladin
near Aleppo.
(MC, 5/22/02)
1246 May 22, Henry Raspe was
elected anti-king by the Rhenish prelates in France.
(HN, 5/22/98)
1370 May 22, Jews were expelled
(massacred) from Brussels, Belgium.
(MC, 5/22/02)
1455 May 22, King Henry VI was
taken prisoner by the Yorkists at the Battle of St. Albans, the 1st
battle in the 30-year War of the Roses. The army of the Duke of York
met the army of Queen Margaret at the Battle of St. Alban’s. The 2nd
Duke of Somerset was killed as Yorkists briefly took possession of King
Henry VI.
(MH, 12/96)(HN, 5/22/99)(MC, 5/22/02)
1761 May 22, The first life
insurance policy in the United States was issued, in Philadelphia.
(AP, 5/22/97)
1803 May 22, The 1st US public
library opened in Connecticut.
(MC, 5/22/02)
1804 May 22, The Lewis and Clark
Expedition officially began as the Corps of Discovery departed from St.
Charles, Missouri. [see May 14]
(HN, 5/22/99)
1807 May 22, The treason trial of
former VP Aaron Burr began in Richmond, Va. [see Sep 1]
(PCh, 1992, p.367)(MC, 5/22/02)
1807 May 22, Townsend Speakman 1st
sold fruit-flavored carbonated drinks in Phila.
(MC, 5/22/02)
1813 May 22, Richard Wagner,
German composer, conductor and writer, was born in Leipzig, Germany. He
composed "The Flying Dutchman."
(AP, 5/22/97)(HN, 5/22/99)
1819 May 22, The first
steam-propelled vessel to attempt a trans-Atlantic crossing, the
Savannah, departed from Savannah, Ga. It arrived in Liverpool, England,
June 20.
(AP, 5/22/97)
1828 May 22, Albrecht von Grafe,
German eye surgeon, founder of modern ophthalmology, was born.
(HN, 5/22/01)
1843 May 22, The 1st wagon train
with over 1000 people departed Independence, Missouri for Oregon. Known
as the "Great Emigration," the expedition came two years after the
first modest party of settlers made the long, overland journey to
Oregon.
(MC, 5/22/02)
1845 May 22, Mary Cassatt
(d.1926), American impressionist painter and printmaker, was born in
Alleghany, Pa. Much of Cassatt’s early life was spent in Europe with
her wealthy family. She attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine
Arts from 1861 to 1865 and worked briefly with Charles Joshua Chaplin
in Paris, but preferred working her own way and copying old masters.
She was a close friend of and greatly influenced by Edgar Degas. He
admired her entry in the Salon of 1874, and at his invitation she
joined the Impressionists and afterward showed her works at their
exhibits. Degas’ influence is apparent in Cassatt’s mastery of drawing
and in her unposed, asymmetrical compositions. Initially, Cassatt was a
figure painter whose subjects were groups of women drinking tea or on
outings with friends. After the great exhibition of Japanese prints
held in Paris in 1890, she brought out her series of 10 colored prints,
such as "Woman Bathing," and "The Coiffure," in which the influence of
the Japanese masters Utamaro and Toyokuni is apparent. Cassatt urged
her wealthy American friends and relatives to buy Impressionist
paintings, and in this way, more than through her own works, she
exerted a lasting influence on American taste. She was largely
responsible for selecting the works that make up the H.O. Havemeyer
Collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
(HFA, ‘96, p.30)(AHD, p.209)(FAMSF, Mar, 98)
1856 May 22, Charles Cora, a
gambler, and James Casey, a member of the SF Board of supervisors, were
hanged by the SF Committee of Vigilance led by merchant Charles Doane,
following a drumhead trial at “Fort Gunnybags, ”the vigilante
headquarters on Sacramento St. There was widespread belief that Cora
and Casey were “in cahoots” with then sheriff David Scannel.
(GenIV, Winter 04/05)(SFC, 6/12/10, p.C1)
1856 May 22, Massachusetts Senator
Charles Sumner was assaulted on the Senate floor by South Carolina’s
Preston Brooks. Representative Brooks, a pro-slavery Democrat from
South Carolina, used a cane to attack Senator Charles Sumner, a
Republican abolitionist from Mass. Sumner was beaten unconscious and
was unable to resume duties for 3 years. Brooks resigned from his seat
but was re-elected. Sumner's injuries in the attack compelled his
absence from the Senate until December, 1859.
(SFC, 7/25/98, p.A6)(HNQ, 7/7/99)
1859 May 22, Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle (d.1930), author of the Sherlock Holmes series, was born in
Edinburgh, Scotland. He wrote 4 novels featuring Sherlock Holmes.
"Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly
recognizes genius." In 1999 Daniel Stashower published the biography:
"Teller of Tales."
(AP, 6/17/97)(HN, 5/22/98)(WSJ, 4/12/99, p.A21)
1863 May 22, The US War Dept.
established the Bureau of Colored Troops.
(MC, 5/22/02)
1863 May 22, U.S. Grant’s second
attack on Vicksburg, Miss., failed and a siege began.
(HN, 5/22/98)
1863 May 22, The Treaty of Coche
was signed in Venezuela. Arms were laid down from the Federal War and a
general assembly called at Victoria, which elected Juan Chrisostomo
Falcon as president and Antonio Leocadio Guzman as vice president. The
latter was at the same time secretary of the treasury, and went to
London to negotiate a loan.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Guzm%C3%A1n_Blanco)
1864 May 22, Battle of North Anna
River, VA.
(MC, 5/22/02)
1868 May 22, The Great Train
Robbery took place near Marshfield, Ind., as seven members of the Reno
gang made off with $96,000 ($98k) in cash, gold and bonds.
(AP, 5/22/97)(HN, 5/22/02)
1872 May 22, The Amnesty Act
restored civil rights to Southerners.
(HN, 5/22/98)
1882 May 22, The United States
formally recognized Korea.
(HN, 5/22/98)
1885 May 22, Victor-Marie Hugo
(b.1802), French novelist (Les Miserables) and poet, died. In 1998
Graham Robb published the biography: "Victor Hugo." Hugo also did a
number of drawings, later appreciated by Andre Breton and Max Ernst,
and in 1914 Henri Focillon published the first critical study of them.
In 1998 Pierre Georgel and Marie-Laure Prevost published "Shadows of a
Hand: The Drawings of Victor Hugo."
(WSJ, 2/10/98, p.A16)(HN, 2/26/98)(SFEC, 5/31/98, BR
p.4)(MC, 5/22/02)
1892 May 22, Dr. Washington
Sheffield invented toothpaste tube.
(MC, 5/22/02)
1900 May 22, The Associated Press
(founded in 1848) was incorporated in New York as a non-profit news
cooperative.
(AP, 5/22/00)
1906 May 22, Orville and Wilbur
Wright were awarded U.S. Patent 821,393 for "new and useful improvement
in Flying Machines." They had hired a patent attorney to refine their
1903 application. The first successful powered flight of the Wright
Flyer took place on December 17, 1903.
(HNQ, 3/19/01)
1907 May 22, Lord Laurence
Olivier, English actor, was born in Dorking, Surrey. He made
Shakespeare movies and was knighted in 1947.
(HN, 5/22/99)(AP, 5/22/07)
1908 May 22, The SF Chronicle
reported that US Army Pvt. William Bulwada had been found guilty and
sentenced to 5 years in prison for having applauded for and shaken
hands with anarchist Emma Goldman, pending approval by Gen. Funston.
(SSFC, 5/18/08, DB p.58)
1908 May 22, The Wright brothers
registered their flying machine for a U.S. patent.
(HN, 5/22/98)
1915 May 22, Near Gretna,
Scotland, a passenger train collided with a troop train, killing 227
people.
(SFC, 6/4/98, p.A15)(AP, 2/18/04)
1916 May 22, French troops
occupied parts of Fort Douaumont, Verdun.
(MC, 5/22/02)
1920 May 22, Thomas Gold,
astronomer, was born.
(HN, 5/22/01)
1927 May 22, Peter Mathiessen,
writer, was born.
(HN, 5/22/01)
1927 cMay 22, Harlem dancer Shorty
Snowden, during a dance marathon, named his dance step the Lindy Hop
following the headlines "Lindy Hops the Atlantic."
(WSJ, 5/7/99, p.W15)
1931 May 22, Canned rattlesnake
meat 1st went on sale in Florida.
(MC, 5/22/02)
1933 May 22, John Browning,
pianist (Leventritt Award-1956), was born in Denver, Colorado.
(MC, 5/22/02)
1933 May 22, Loch Ness Monster was
1st "sighted" by John Mackay.
(SFEC,12/797, p.T4)(MC, 5/22/02)
1938 May 22, Richard Benjamin,
director, actor (Goodbye Columbus, He & She), was born in NYC.
(MC, 5/22/02)
1939 May 22, The foreign ministers
of Germany and Italy, Joachim von Ribbentrop and Galeazzo Ciano, signed
a "Pact of Steel" committing Germany and Italy to a military alliance
forming the Axis powers.
(HN, 5/22/99)(AP, 5/22/07)
1940 May 22, Premier Winston
Churchill flew to Paris.
(MC, 5/22/02)
1941 May 22, British troops
attacked Baghdad.
(MC, 5/22/02)
1943 May 22, The 1st US jet
fighter was tested. Lockheed Martin had picked Clarence Johnson, a
Univ. of Michigan graduate (1932) to develop the nation’s 1st jet
fighter. He had already designed the P-38 Lightning. Johnson and his
staff developed a jet prototype, the Shooting Star, in 143 days.
(MC, 5/22/02)(MT, Summer/04, p.7)
1943 May 22, Stalin disbanded the
Komintern.
(MC, 5/22/02)
1947 May 22, The Truman Doctrine
brought aid to Turkey and Greece. President Harry S. Truman relied
heavily on Dean Acheson for his most significant foreign policy
achievements.
(EWH, 1968, p.1207)(AP, 5/22/97)(HN, 5/22/98)
1947 May 22, The 1st US ballistic
missile was fired.
(MC, 5/22/02)
1950 May 22, Richard Strauss' "4
Last Songs" (4 letzte Lieder) were performed in London.
(www.richard-strauss.com/biography.html)
1957 May 22, South Africa
government approved race separation in universities.
(MC, 5/22/02)
1960 May 22, Chile experienced a
9.5 earthquake (moment magnitude). A slow earthquake was detected just
before the big one. It caused tsunamis in every coastal town between
the 36th and 44th parallels with a death toll of some 1000 people.
(PCh, 1992, p.977)(SFC, 9/6.96, p.A11)(Econ,
10/15/05, p.28)
1961 May 22, The 1st revolving
restaurant, Top of The Needle in Seattle, opened.
(MC, 5/22/02)
1964 May 22, Pres. Johnson (LBJ)
presented his “Great Society” speech at the Univ. of Mich.
(www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/archives.hom/speeches.hom/640522.asp)
1965 May 22,
"Super-cali-fragil-istic-expi-ali-docious" hit #66.
(MC, 5/22/02)
1965 May 22, Heinrich Barth, Swiss
philosopher (Das Sein in der Zeit), died.
(MC, 5/22/02)
1967 May 22, Egyptian president
Nasser closed the Straits of Tiran to Israel.
(www.palestinefacts.org/pf_1948to1967_sixday_backgd.php)
1967 May 22, J. Langston Hughes
(b.1902), poet laureate, US author (Tambourines to Glory), died of
complications following surgery at NY Polyclinic Hospital.
(SSFC, 7/25/04, p.F3)
1968 May 22, The nuclear-powered
US submarine Scorpion, with 99 men aboard, sank in the Atlantic Ocean.
It was declared lost on June 5. Remains of the sub were found in
October on the ocean floor 400 miles southwest of the Azores.
(AP,
5/22/07)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Scorpion_(SSN-589))
1969 May 22, The lunar module of
Apollo 10 separated from the command module and flew to within nine
miles of the moon's surface in a dress rehearsal for the first lunar
landing.
(AP, 5/22/97)
1970 May 22, Joseph W. Krutch
(b.1893), US writer, died. His books included “Measure of Man” (1954).
(www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/323961/Joseph-Wood-Krutch)
1971 May 22, A 6.9 earthquake in
eastern Turkey killed about a thousand people.
(http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/world/events/1971_05_turkey.php)
1972 May 22, President Nixon began
a visit to the Soviet Union, the 1st for a US president, during which
he and Kremlin leaders signed the SALT I arms limitation treaty.
(AP, 5/22/02)
1972 May 22, Dame Margaret
Rutherford (b.1892), Academy Award-winning English character actress,
died. Her numerous films included “Murder at the Gallop” (1963).
(WSJ, 3/4/06, p.P2)(www.imdb.com/name/nm0751983/)
1972 May 22, The island nation of
Ceylon became the republic of Sri Lanka, which is Sinhala for
resplendent land, with the adoption of a new constitution under PM
Sirimavo Bandaranaike. Sinhala was made the official language and
Buddhism the state religion.
(SFC, 6/20/96, p.A8)(AP, 5/22/97)(HNQ, 5/23/98)(SFC,
5/30/00, p.A25)
1973 May 22, President Nixon made
a 4,000-word defense of his own actions in the Watergate scandal.
(www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/watergate/articles/060373-1.htm)
1973 May 22, Robert Metcalf
(b.1946), at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), circulated a
memo about his Ethernet ideas to PARC colleagues. He later fixed this
day as the birthdate of Ethernet. Metcalf had combined packet switching
from the Arpanet and single wire broadcasting to lay the foundations
for computer networks. Bob Metcalf described ethernet for the 1st time
in a patent memo.
(Econ, 12/12/09, TQ p.23)(SFC, 10/25/00, p.A16)
1973 May 22, In Greece a coup was
planned, but it was put off due to fears and hesitation. The Junta got
wind of the conspiracy, many arrests were made and people were
tortured. The destroyer HNS Velos followed the original alternative
plan in case of failure and sailed to Italy.
(SFC, 6/28/99,
p.A19)(www.greeceindex.com/history-mythology/Greek-Junta.html)
1978 May 22, Italy legalized
abortion.
(http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/population/abortion/Italy.abo.htm)
1979 May 22, Canadians went to the
polls in parliamentary elections that put the Progressive Conservatives
under Joseph Clark in power, ending the 11-year tenure of PM Pierre
Elliott Trudeau.
(AP,
5/22/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_federal_election,_1979)
1980 May 22, In response to a
request from the Governor of NY, President Carter declared a second
federal emergency at Love Canal, paving the way for federal aid to
relocate the more than 700 families who still lived near the former
toxic waste dump.
(www.health.state.ny.us/environmental/investigations/love_canal/lcreport.htm)
1980 May 22, Larry Layton, former
member of the People’s Temple, was acquitted of 2 charges of attempted
murder by a jury in Georgetown, Guyana.
(SFC, 5/20/05, p.F2)
1980 May 22, The computer game
Pac-Man was first released in Japan. Pac-Man, with its characters:
Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde, epitomized the arcade games of the 1980s.
(SFC, 7/5/97,
p.E1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pac-Man)
1985 May 22, Baseball player Pete
Rose passed Hank Aaron as the National League run scoring leader with
2,108.
(HN, 5/22/98)
1985 May 22, SF Mayor Diane
Feinstein declared this day to be “James Bond Day” to honor the premier
of “A View To Kill,” a third of which was filmed in the city. Stars
Roger Moore and Grace Jones were present along with the rock group
Duran Duran, which sang the title song.
(SSFC, 5/23/10, DB p.50)
1985 May 22, In Lebanon Michel
Seurat, a French history researcher, was abducted. In 1986 the Islamic
Jihad said he had been executed.
(AP, 3/5/00)(AP, 3/7/06)
1986 May 22, Cher called David
Letterman an asshole on Late Night on NBC.
(www.justplaincher.net/content-23.html)
1987 May 22, An Iraqi missile hit
the American frigate USS Stark in the Persian Gulf. [see 5/17/87]
(HN, 5/22/99)
1987 May 22, A deadly tornado
devastated the small West Texas town of Saragosa, killing 30 people and
injuring 162. The storm destroyed 61 houses and leveled the community
center and church.
(AP, 5/22/97)
1988 May 22, Janos Kadar,
installed by the Soviet Union as head of Hungary's Communist Party in
1956, was replaced by Prime Minister Karoly Grosz.
(AP, 5/22/98)
1989 May 22, More than 100 top
Chinese military leaders vowed to refrain from entering Beijing to
suppress pro-democracy demonstrations.
(AP, 5/22/99)
1990 May 22, Microsoft released
Windows 3.0.
(www.guidebookgallery.org/guis/windows/win30)
1990 May 22, Boxer Rocky Graziano
died in New York at age 71.
(AP, 5/22/00)
1990 May 22, After years of
conflict, pro-Western North Yemen and pro-Soviet South Yemen merged to
form the Republic of Yemen. The North was conservative and the South
was socialist.
(WSJ, 3/28/97, p.A1)(AP, 5/22/98)
1991 May 22, Sonia Gandhi, the
Italian-born wife of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, was designated
to lead his Congress Party through national elections, one day after
his assassination. However, Mrs. Gandhi turned down the position.
(AP, 5/22/01)
1992 May 22, Johnny Carson hosted
NBC's "Tonight Show" for the last time after a reign lasting nearly 30
years, telling his audience: "I bid you a very heartfelt good night."
Carson was succeeded by Jay Leno.
(AP, 5/22/97)
1993 May 22, The United States,
Russia, France, Britain and Spain agreed to enforce safe areas in
Bosnia-Herzegovina, but stopped short of endorsing President Clinton's
proposal to use military force.
(AP, 5/22/98)
1994 May 22, A worldwide trade
embargo against Haiti went into effect to punish Haiti's military
rulers for not reinstating the country's ousted elected leader,
Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
(AP, 5/22/99)
1995 May 22, The Supreme Court
ruled 5-4 that states cannot limit service in Congress without amending
the Constitution.
(AP, 5/22/00)
1995 May 22, "The CBS Evening
News" resumed a single-anchor format with Dan Rather, after Connie
Chung was dropped from the broadcast.
(AP, 5/22/00)
1996 May 22, President Clinton
counterattacked against Republican criticism of his foreign policy
during a commencement address at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New
London, Conn.; the president then traveled to New York where he was
cheered by sailors from four nations aboard the USS Intrepid.
(AP, 5/22/97)
1996 May 22, A consortium led by
Houston Industries, AES Corp., and Electricite de France purchased
control of the Brazilian state owned electrical utility Light Servicos
de Eletricidade SA for 1.7 bil.
(WSJ, 5/22/96, p.A-16)
1996 May 22, The Burmese military
regime has jailed 71 supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi in a bid to block a
pro-democracy meeting. General Maung Aye, commander and deputy chairman
of the military regime warned that the government will annihilate
anyone who disturbs peace and tranquility.
(SFC, 5/22/96, p.C-1)
1996 May 22, China planned to
spend $10.78 billion on its telecommunications industry this year.
24,800 miles of optical cable were scheduled for install.
(WSJ, 5/22/96, p.A-16)
1996 May 22, Iraq reached an
agreement with the UN to sell $2 billion in oil for 180 days to buy
food and medicine.
(SFC, 9/4/96, p.A8)
1996 May 22, Amnesty International
reported that Iraqi doctors were forced to cut off the ears of alleged
deserters and that Kenyan doctors were pressured to ignore evidence of
torture.
(SFC, 5/22/96, p.A9)
1997 May 22, The US Postal Service
released a Bugs Bunny commemorative stamp, the first animated character
on a US stamp.
(SFC, 5/22/97, p.A3)
1997 May 22, Kelly Flinn, the Air
Force's first female bomber pilot certified for combat, accepted a
general discharge, thereby avoiding court-martial on charges of lying,
adultery and disobeying an order.
(AP, 5/22/98)
1997 May 22, The defense began
presenting its case in the Oklahoma City bombing trial of Timothy
McVeigh.
(AP, 5/22/98)
1997 May 22, The Christian
Coalition began a campaign for a proposed "religious liberty"
constitutional amendment.
(SFC, 5/23/97, p.A5)
1997 May 22, In Algeria a car bomb
killed 15 people in Boufarik south of the capital.
(SFC, 5/23/97, p.A18)
1997 May 22, In Italy the Grand
Princess was launched at the Fincantieri Monfalcone shipyard. It was
the world’s largest passenger cruise ship at 109,000 gross tons and was
scheduled for interior completion in the spring of 1998.
(SFEC, 5/26/97, p.A11)
1997 May 22, In Russia Pres.
Yeltsin fired defense minister Gen’l. Igor Rodionov and Viktor
Samsanov, head of the general staff, for lack of military reforms.
(SFC, 5/23/97, p.A1)
1998 May 22, Federal Judge Norma
Holloway Johnson ruled that Secret Service agents could be compelled to
testify before the grand jury in the Monica Lewinsky investigation.
(AP, 5/22/99)
1998 May 22, John Derek, film
director, died in Santa Maria, Ca. His wives included Pati Behrs,
Ursula Andress, Linda Evans and Mary Cathleen Collins, better known as
Bo Derek.
(SFC, 5/23/98, p.A23)
1998 May 22, A joint peacekeeping
force was set up by 7 European nations to maintain peace in Kosovo.
Deputy defense ministers of Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Greece,
Italy, Romania and Turkey signed on after meeting in Tirana. Slovenia
and the US signed on as observers.
(SFC, 5/23/98, p.A14)
1998 May 22, In Bolivia
earthquakes destroyed hundreds of homes in central remote mountain
towns and at least 60 people were killed.
(SFC, 5/23/98, p.A12)
1998 May 22, In Indonesia Gen’l.
Wiranto emerged as defense minister and chief of the armed forces. He
peacefully evicted student protestors from the Parliament and removed
rival Gen’l. Prabowo, a son-in-law of Suharto, to a military college in
Bandung
(SFC, 5/23/98, p.A12)
1998 May 22, In Tijuana, Mexico,
the workers of the Han Young auto parts factory went on strike. An
attempted strike break and political maneuverings by the company were
unsuccessful and the case was to be put before a judge.
(SFC, 6/2/98, p.A10)
1998 May 22, A vote on the
referendum on the Northern Ireland peace agreement was held in Northern
Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Voters showed 71% support in
Northern Ireland and 94% support in the Republic of Ireland.
(SFC, 4/23/98, p.A12)(SFC, 5/23/98, p.A1)(SFEC,
5/24/98, p.A1)
1998 May 22, In Portugal just
12,000 people visited the Expo by midday on its first day. Organizers
had predicted an average daily attendance of 140,000.
(SFC, 5/23/98, p.A14)
1999 May 22, In Colorado Columbine
High School seniors wearing blue-and-silver gowns marched single file
in a graduation ceremony that mixed celebration of the day with sorrow
for victims of the recent massacre.
(AP, 5/22/00)
1999 May 22, NATO bombed the
Kolubara power plant 20 miles from Belgrade, which supplied most of the
power to Belgrade and northern Serbia.
(SFEC, 5/23/99, p.A8)
1999 May 22, In Russia the new All
Russia Party was formed in St. Petersburg in the Tauride Palace. Gov.
Vladimir Yakovlev and Tatarstan Pres. Mintimir Shaimiyev gave the
opening and closing speeches. The party favored greater state control
of the economy, lower taxes and welfare policies that targeted the
needy.
(SFEC, 5/23/99, p.A22)
2000 May 22, The Supreme Court
struck down, 5-to-4, a federal law that shielded children from
sex-oriented cable TV channels.
(AP, 5/22/01)
2000 May 22, A committee of the
Arkansas Supreme Court recommended that President Clinton be disbarred
for giving false testimony about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky
in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case. Clinton later agreed to give
up his Arkansas law license for five years.
(AP, 5/22/01)
2000 May 22, In Israel the Supreme
Court ruled that women may read out load from the Torah and wear a
prayer shawl at the Western Wall. In 2003 the Supreme Court rejected
the rule.
(SFC, 5/23/00, p.A10)(SFC, 4/7/03, p.A12)
2000 May 22, Israel’s 22-year
occupation of southern Lebanon crumbled as Islamic guerrillas and
civilians laid claim to disputed lands.
(SFC, 5/23/00, p.A1)
2000 May 22, In Liberia 29
captured UN peacekeepers were freed while in Sierra Leone a halt dozen
men with UN uniforms and Zambian insignia were found dead.
(SFC, 5/23/00, p.A10)
2000 May 22, In Nigeria fresh
Christian-Muslim clashes left 3 people dead in Kaduna.
(WSJ, 5/23/00, p.A1)
2000 May 22, In Peru election
observers suspended monitoring preparations for elections. Alejandro
Toledo formally pulled out of the race after his demand for an election
postponement was rebuffed.
(WSJ, 5/23/00, p.A1)(SFC, 5/23/00, p.A12)
2000 May 22, Russia asserted that
Afghanistan’s Taliban had signed an agreement with Chechen rebels and
that it might launch air strikes against Afghanistan.
(SFC, 5/23/00, p.A10)
2000 May 22, Pres. Putin abolished
the chief agency for environmental protection and transferred its
powers to a ministry that hands out oil and gas leases.
(SFC, 5/23/00, p.A12)
2000 May 22, In Sri Lanka over 150
Tamil rebels were killed over 2 days of fighting for control in Jaffna.
Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister met with Foreign Minister Lakshman
Kadirgamar in Colombo in an attempt to broker a peace.
(SFC, 5/23/00, p.A12)
2000 May 22, In Yugoslavia a
Serbian court convicted 143 ethnic Albanians from Djakovica, Kosovo, on
terrorism charges for attacks against Serbian police during 1999 NATO
bombings.
(SFC, 5/23/00, p.A14)
2001 May 22, Ford Motor Co. said
it planned to spend more than $2 billion to replace up to 13 million
Firestone tires on its vehicles because of safety concerns.
(AP, 5/22/02)
2001 May 22, It was reported that
researchers had identified a gene linked to Crohn’s disease, an
inflammatory bowel disorder.
(WSJ, 5/22/01, p.A1)
2001 May 22, The Taliban of
Afghanistan decreed an edict that would require non-Muslims to wear
distinguishing clothing.
(WSJ, 5/22/01, p.A1)(SFC, 5/23/01, p.A1)
2001 May 22, Ethnic Albanian
rebels in southern Serbia began laying aside their weapons for
collection by NATO.
(SFC, 5/23/01, p.A12)
2001 May 22, In the Philippines 2
workers were killed at the Pearl Farms resort on Samal Island during an
attack by suspected Muslim rebels. Guards repulsed the attack.
(SFC, 5/24/01, p.C3)
2001 May 22, In Sweden delegates
from 127 countries formally adopted a global treaty banning 12 toxic
chemicals called persistent organic pollutants (POPS).
(SFC, 5/23/01, p.C4)
2002 May 22, Pres. Bush arrived in
Berlin on a 7-day trip to 4 countries.
(SFC, 5/23/02, p.A10)
2002 May 22, Bobby Frank Cherry
(71), former Alabama Klansman, was convicted for the Sep 14, 1963,
murder of 4 Black girls at the 16th Street Baptist Church. The jury
sent him to prison for life.
(SFC, 5/23/02, p.A1)
2002 May 22, The remains of
Chandra Levy, former intern to Calif. Rep. Gary Condit, were found in
Rock Creek Park, Washington DC. She was last seen April 30, 2001.
(SFC, 5/23/02, p.A1)
2002 May 22, Robert Rhodes (68),
former Florida dog track security guard, was charged in Alabama with
cruelty to animals after the remains of some 3,000 greyhounds were
found on his property.
(SFC, 5/23/02, p.A6)
2002 May 22, Pope John Paul (82)
arrived in Azerbaijan for a 2-day visit before continuing on to
Bulgaria. He hope to improve relations with the Muslim and Christian
Orthodox believers.
(WSJ, 5/22/02, p.A1)(SFC, 5/23/02, p.A1)
2002 May 22, In Israel a
Palestinian suicide bomber killed himself and 2 Israelis in Rishon
Letzion, a Tel Aviv suburb. Some 3 dozen people were injured. A
Ukrainian Christian woman, previously misidentified, and her
Palestinian husband drove the suicide bomber to the site. Irena Plitzik
said she did not know about the suicide mission. A 2nd bomber, Tauurya
Hamamra, backed out.
(SFC, 5/23/02, p.A10)(WSJ, 5/23/02, p.A1)(WSJ,
5/31/02, p.A1)(SFC, 5/31/02, p.A10)(SSFC, 6/2/02, p.A11)
2002 May 22, Kyrgyzstan Pres.
Akayev accepted the resignation of PM Kurmanbek Bakiev and his entire
government amid protests over clashes with police that killed 6 people
in March.
(SFC, 5/23/02, p.A12)(Econ, 3/26/05, p.44)
2002 May 22, In Nepal King
Gyanendra dissolved parliament and ordered elections due to rifts over
a proposed extension of emergency rule.
(SFC, 5/23/02, p.A12)
2002 May 22, Philippine police in
Cotabato city arrested Noor Mohammad Umog, a Muslim Abu Sayyaf leader.
(SFC, 5/24/02, p.A16)
2002 May 22, A US-led int'l.
commission condemned the Sudanese government for allowing slavery to
flourish. Bondage to pay off debts still existed.
(SFC, 5/23/02, p.A15)
2002 May 22, A UN environmental
report said population growth was slowing but that severe water
shortages should be expected in the Middle East over the next
generation and biodiversity will continue to be damaged in many world
regions. Ocean degradation was also noted.
(SFC, 5/23/02, p.A6)
2003 May 22, Annika Sorenstam
became the first woman since Babe Didrikson Zaharias in 1945 to tee off
against the men on the pro tour, playing in the first round of the
Colonial golf tournament in Fort Worth, Texas. Sorenstam missed the cut
the next day by four shots.
(AP, 5/22/08)
2003 May 22, LeBron James, high
school basketball star, agreed to a deal with Nike worth more than $90
million.
(AP, 5/22/03)
2003 May 22, Maryland Gov. Robert
Ehrlich signed a bill that reduced criminal penalties for seriously ill
people who smoke marijuana to a maximum $100 and no jail time.
(SFC, 5/23/03, p.A5)o
2003 May 22, NASA released the 1st
photo of Earth taken from Mars, 86 million miles away. The record
distance was a 1990 shot by Voyager 1 from 4 billion miles.
(WSJ, 5/23/03, p.A1)
2003 May 22, In Colombia
Government troops killed at least 29 rebels in a two-day battle in
eastern Colombia.
(AP, 5/22/03)
2003 May 22, Iceland PM David
Oddsson announced that he will step down in September 2004 in favor of
the current foreign minister, who leads the other party in his
coalition government.
(AP, 5/22/03)
2003 May 22, The UN Security
Council overwhelmingly approved an end to 13-year-old sanctions against
Iraq and gave the United States and Britain extraordinary powers to run
the country and its lucrative oil industry. Security Council Resolution
1483 identified the US and Britain as “occupying powers” in Iraq.
(AP, 5/22/03)(Econ, 4/19/08, p.102)
2004 May 22, Filmmaker Michael
Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11," a scathing indictment of White House actions
after the Sept. 11 attacks, won the top prize at the Cannes Film
Festival. It was the first documentary to win Cannes' prestigious
Palme d'Or since Jacques Cousteau's and Louis Malle's "The Silent
World" in 1956.
(AP, 5/23/04)
2004 May 22, Samuel Johnson (76),
who'd built the family's SC Johnson wax company into a consumer
products giant, died.
(AP, 5/22/05)
2004 May 22, An Arab League summit
met for a 2-day session in Tunis. 8 Arab leaders, including Crown
Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, failed to show up and Libyan leader
Moammar Gadhafi walked out on the 1st day.
(AP, 5/23/04)
2004 May 22, The Commonwealth of
Britain and its former colonies lifted a four-year suspension of
Pakistan.
(AP, 5/22/04)
2004 May 22, A bomb planted by
suspected rebels exploded in a crowded discotheque in northwest
Colombia, killing at least six people and wounding 82.
(AP, 5/23/04)
2004 May 22, In Baghdad a car bomb
exploded outside the home of a deputy interior minister, wounding him
and killing at least five people, including four police.
(AP, 5/22/04)
2004 May 22, Bombs exploded
outside three banks in Jiutepec, central Mexico, heavily damaging them
but causing no injuries. A note near the bombing sites signed by a
group calling itself the Comando Jaramillista Morelense 23 de Mayo — in
tribute to the peasant leader Ruben Jaramillo, who was murdered along
with his family by state forces on May 23, 1962.
(AP, 5/23/04)
2004 May 22, A 3-year-old
Palestinian girl was shot and killed in the Rafah refugee camp on the
fifth day of Israeli searches and house demolitions. A suicide bomber
blew himself at an Israeli army checkpoint in the West Bank, wounding
five people.
(AP, 5/22/04)
2004 May 22, North Korea agreed to
release the family members of Japanese citizens kidnapped by Northern
agents, and Japan pledged aid to the impoverished country at a summit
between the two nations' leaders.
(AP, 5/22/04)
2004 May 22, Spain's Crown Prince
Felipe married former TV anchorwoman Letizia Ortiz, the first commoner
in line to be queen in Spanish history.
(AP, 5/22/04)
2004 May 22, Voters in Sierra
Leone choose local councils for the first time in 30 years.
(AP, 5/23/04)
2004 May 22, The ship car carrier
MV Hyundai, carrying 4,000 cars, sank after colliding with the oil
tanker MT Kaminesan just south of Singapore.
(AP, 5/23/04)
2004 May 22, Arab militiamen
killed at least 56 people in a raid in western Sudan, just days after
the government declared the troubled region was stable.
(AP, 5/24/04)
2005 May 22, First Lady Laura Bush
was heckled by protesters during a visit to holy sites in Jerusalem.
(AP, 5/22/06)
2005 May 22, Voice actor Thurl
Ravenscroft (91), who supplied Tony the Tiger's "They're grrrrreeeat!"
for more than 50 years, died in Fullerton, Calif.
(AP, 5/22/06)
2005 May 22, Egyptian authorities
arrested the 4th-highest official in the powerful Muslim Brotherhood
and 25 others. Mahmoud Ezzat, secretary-general of the Islamist group
and head of its Cairo operations, is the highest-profile Brotherhood
arrest since 1996.
(AP, 5/22/05)
2005 May 22, In India bombs tore
through 2 cinemas in New Delhi showing a film considered offensive by
some Sikhs.
(AP, 5/23/05)
2005 May 22, Seven Iraqi
battalions backed by US forces launched an offensive in Baghdad in an
effort to stanch the violence that has killed more than 550 people in
less than a month.
(AP, 5/22/05)
2005 May 22, In Iraq gunmen killed
a top trade ministry official while aides of a radical Shiite cleric
met with a key Sunni group seeking to ease sectarian tensions.
(AP, 5/22/05)
2005 May 22, In Iraq 3 Romanian
journalists and their Iraqi-American guide were freed after nearly two
months in captivity. Mohammed Munaf, their Iraqi-American translator,
was later tried and convicted on charges that he assisted in the
kidnapping. In 2006 Munaf was sentenced to death.
(AP, 5/22/05)(SSFC, 10/15/06, p.A20)
2005 May 22, Jordan, Israel and
the Palestinian Authority said they had agreed terms for a feasibility
study on transferring water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea, to save
the world's lowest sea from vanishing.
(AP, 5/22/05)
2005 May 22, A North Korean cargo
ship arrived in South Korea to pick up fertilizer, the first such
vessel from the isolated communist nation to dock here in 21 years.
(AP, 5/22/05)
2005 May 22, A top Kyrgyz official
said Uzbeks who fled into neighboring Kyrgyzstan to escape violence in
their Central Asian country are not refugees and must return home.
(AP, 5/22/05)
2005 May 22, In Mongolia Nambariin
Enkhbayar, a candidate from the former Communist Party, won the
presidency with 53% of the vote.
(AP, 5/23/05)
2005 May 22, In Palestine
protesters besieged Laura Bush during her visit to two of Jerusalem's
most sacred sites.
(AP, 5/22/05)
2005 May 22, In South Africa 7
teenage girls drowned in a rip tide off the east coast and a boy was
missing after a beach outing turned tragic when the swimmers ventured
out before lifeguards were on duty.
(AP, 5/23/05)
2005 May 22, The UN condemned as
"utterly unacceptable" the alleged abuse of detainees at the main US
base in Afghanistan and called on the American military to allow an
investigation by Afghan human rights officials.
(AP, 5/22/05)
2006 May 22, The US Supreme Court
ruled unanimously that police without a warrant can enter a home to
break up a fight, overturning 3 Utah court findings.
(WSJ, 5/23/06, p.A1)
2006 May 22, The Department of
Veterans Affairs said personal data, including Social Security numbers
of 26.5 million US veterans, was stolen from a VA employee after he
took the information home without authorization.
(AP, 5/22/07)
2006 May 22, AP reported that the
Wyoming Department of Family Services has funneled tens of thousands of
dollars to a grant program administered by a private religious
corporation that has funded churches, ministries and religiously
oriented anti-abortion centers.
(AP, 5/22/06)
2006 May 22, Braxton Bilbrey (7)
of Arizona swam from Alcatraz Island to San Francisco in 47 minutes.
(AP, 5/22/07)
2006 May 22, The NYSE under John
Thain made a $10.2 billion cash and stock bid for Euronext NV, a
European exchange operator, in an attempt to become the world’s first
transatlantic stock trading center. Euronext had formed earlier as a
combination of the Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels exchanges. The merged
entity began trading April 4, 2007.
(SFC, 5/23/06, p.C3)(Econ, 5/27/06, p.66)(WSJ,
4/5/07, p.C12)
2006 May 22, Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
announced it was withdrawing from the highly competitive South Korean
retail market, agreeing to sell its 16 stores to the country's top
discount chain.
(AP, 5/22/06)
2006 May 22, Seagate Technology, a
disk-drive manufacturer, completed its acquisition of Maxtor Corp. and
said it will fire some 6,000 Maxtor employees.
(SFC, 5/23/06, p.C1)
2006 May 22, A US-led coalition
said nighttime airstrike against Taliban rebels in a southern Afghan
village killed up to 80 suspected militants. The local governor said 16
civilians were killed and 16 wounded in Azizi in Kandahar province.
(AP, 5/22/06)
2006 May 22, In Bangladesh textile
workers demanding better pay and one day off per week went on a rampage
at Savar, an industrial town near Dhaka, setting fire to two factories
and several buses.
(AP, 5/22/06)
2006 May 22, An explosion in an
illegal Chinese coal mine in the village of Siyuangou in Henan province
killed eight miners and left an undetermined number missing.
(AP, 5/24/06)
2006 May 22, Colombia's Interior
Minister Sabas Pretelt said the peace process with far-right
paramilitary gunmen was back on track, following days of tensions
caused by a court ruling that tossed out part of a peace pact. In
Jamundi 10 police officers in a US-trained unit were ambushed and
killed in a ferocious attack by a platoon of 28 soldiers who unleashed
a barrage of some 150 bullets and seven grenades. The attack stunned
Colombians and severely embarrassed President Alvaro Uribe. An 11th
man, an informant who led the police squad to the scene promising they
would find a large stash of cocaine, was also found dead. When
investigators removed his ski mask, they found a bullet hole in his
head. In 2008 a judge gave a 54-year prison term to a cashiered army
lieutenant colonel who was convicted of ordering the massacre of the
anti-drug police. He also slapped near-maximum sentences of 52 years on
the unit's second-in-command, and 50 years each on the other 13
soldiers involved. Senior police believed former Lt. Col. Byron
Carvajal and his troops had been protecting a drug lord.
(AP, 5/22/06)(AP, 6/17/06)(AP, 5/8/08)
2006 May 22, Haiti’s President
Rene Preval said he has nominated former Cabinet member and close ally
Jacques Edouard Alexis as prime minister. UN Secretary-General Kofi
Annan appointed Edmond Mulet (b.1951) of Guatemala as his Special
Representative in Haiti and Head of the UN Stabilization Mission in
Haiti (MINUSTAH). Mr. Mulet succeeded Júan Gabriel Valdés
of Chile.
(AP,
5/22/06)(www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2006/sga1007.doc.htm)
2006 May 22, India’s main market
index, the Sensex, set a record for intra-day volatility. Share prices
had fallen by nearly 20% within 2 weeks. The recent drop was seen as a
correction following a 3-year boom.
(Econ, 5/27/06, p.70)
2006 May 22, In Iraq car bombs and
drive-by shootings killed 17 people, including seven police officers,
hours before Iraq's parliament met for its first session after swearing
in a new government.
(AP, 5/22/06)
2006 May 22, Fed up with legal
stonewalling and political posturing, Lithuania's government announced
that it would submit a bill on nationalizing Mazeikiu Nafta, the
country's largest corporation and the only oil refinery in the Baltics.
If approved, the unprecedented move would ostensibly end a slew of
legal battles and intense competition surrounding the enterprise, while
at the same time possibly opening a Pandora's box of litigation against
the Lithuanian government.
(http://www.baltictimes.com/news/articles/15498/)
2006 May 22, A court found the
former chief executive and chief financial officer of Dutch retailer
Royal Ahold NV guilty of fraud, but ruled the pair will not have to
serve prison time.
(AP, 5/22/06)
2006 May 22, AP Television News
opened a full-time office in North Korea, becoming the first Western
news organization to provide regular coverage of that nation.
(AP, 5/22/06)
2006 May 22, Hamas militiamen and
Palestinian police traded heavy fire near Gaza City's parliament
building, killing the driver of the Jordanian ambassador and wounding
six people in the worst internal fighting in recent weeks.
(AP, 5/22/06)
2006 May 22, Dr. Lee Jong-wook
(61) died following surgery for a blood clot on the brain. He
spearheaded the World Health Organization's successive battles against
SARS and bird flu and was the first South Korean to head a UN agency.
(AP, 5/22/06)
2007 May 22, The US and China
opened a new round of high-level economic talks with the Bush
administration pushing for concrete results and China saying efforts to
politicize trade disagreements would be a mistake.
(AP, 5/22/07)
2007 May 22, Two-time Olympic
gold medalist speedskater Apolo Anton Ohno and his professional dance
partner, Julianne Hough, won ABC's "Dancing With the Stars."
(AP, 5/22/08)
2007 May 22, Silas Rondeau,
Brazil's mines and energy minister, resigned amid accusations he was
bribed by a construction company that obtained contracts to provide
electricity to poor rural areas in a program championed by the nation's
first working class president.
(AP, 5/23/07)
2007 May 22, Prosecutors in London
accused Andrei Lugovoi, a former KGB agent, of murder in the
radioactive poisoning of fellow ex-operative Alexander Litvinenko and
sought his extradition from Russia. The Russian prosecutor-general's
office said it will not turn over Lugovoi to British authorities.
(AP, 5/22/07)
2007 May 22, Cambodian PM Hun Sen
met with junta head Senior General Than Shwe in military-ruled Myanmar,
as the two nations moved to improve tourism links.
(AP, 5/22/07)
2007 May 22, The International
Criminal Court prosecutor announced a war crimes investigation into
hundreds of rapes and other violations in the Central African Republic
in 2002 and 2003. The UN condemned the capture of two aid workers in
the north-west of the CAR, saying the worsening security was hampering
its humanitarian work in the country.
(AP, 5/22/07)
2007 May 22, Guatemala ratified
the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoptions, an international
adoption treaty, committing to bring adoptions under government
regulation and make sure babies are not bought or stolen.
(AP, 5/23/07)
2007 May 22, In India streets were
deserted and shops closed across the northern state of Punjab after
Sikh leaders called a general strike in the wake of a clashes with a
quasi-religious sect that have left one person dead. The Akali Dal, the
Sikh’s main political party, encouraged protests against the Dera Sacha
Sauda, a powerful group that had supported Congress in state assembly
elections.
(AP, 5/22/07)(Econ, 7/7/07, p.43)
2007 May 22, Iran jumped gasoline
prices 25% in a new blow to consumers already disgruntled over high
inflation, and the government said it will begin rationing fuel in two
weeks. By November inflation was running at 16%.
(AP, 5/22/07)(Econ, 11/17/07, p.56)
2007 May 22, A car bomb exploded
at an outdoor market in a Shiite area of Baghdad, killing 25 people and
wounding at least 60. Gunmen in two cars drove through the nearby
Khadra neighborhood and ambushed a civilian car carrying three
plainclothes police from the major crimes unit, killing two and
wounding the third. A police officer was killed when a roadside bomb
exploded next to a police patrol driving through eastern Baghdad.
Gunmen disguised as soldiers set up a fake checkpoint and stopped a
minibus bringing college students to the Shiite neighborhood of Sadr
City. The militants killed 8 of the students and wounded three others.
At another fake checkpoint near Baqouba gunmen killed six people from
one family, a woman, her 5-year-old son and four men and stole their
car. 2 mortar shells slammed into a teacher's college affiliated with
Baghdad University, killing three students and injuring seven. In the
Baghdad neighborhood of Dora, a sniper shot two civilians, killing one
and wounding the other. At least 100 Iraqis were killed or found dead
nationwide. They included 33 people found shot execution-style,
presumably by sectarian death squads, and their bodies scattered across
Baghdad. US soldiers and two Marines were killed in separate attacks. A
US soldiers was killed in a roadside bomb attack near Tikrit.
(AP, 5/22/07)(AP, 5/23/07)(Reuters, 5/25/07)
2007 May 22, Israeli aircraft
struck two camps used by the Islamic militant group Hamas, a day after
a Palestinian rocket attack killed an Israeli woman. Officials
suggested even Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas could
be a target.
(AP, 5/22/07)
2007 May 22, In Lebanon a convoy
of UN relief supplies was hit in renewed fighting as it tried to enter
the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr el-Bared. At least 15 civilians
were left dead or wounded. Lebanon asked the US for $280 million in
military assistance.
(AP, 5/22/07)(WSJ, 5/23/07, p.A1)
2007 May 22, The UN's top refugee
official arrived in Nepal for a visit aimed at resolving the fate of
around 100,000 refugees from Bhutan stuck in Nepal for 16 years.
(AP, 5/22/07)
2007 May 22, Pakistani security
forces backed by helicopter gunships attacked a militant training camp
near the Afghan border, killing at least four suspected militants.
(AP, 5/22/07)
2007 May 22, The Philippine
elections commission suspended the vote count from last week's polls in
southern Maguindanao province amid allegations of massive cheating by
pro-government supporters.
(AP, 5/22/07)
2007 May 22, South African
lawmakers passed amended legislation to broaden the definition of rape
in a country with sky-high rates of sex crimes and HIV/AIDS. The
heaviest snowfalls in 20 years blocked major highways, as a severe cold
snap tightened its grip on South Africa. At least 17 deaths, mostly in
Eastern Cape province, were blamed on the cold weather.
(AP, 5/22/07)(AFP, 5/22/07)(SFC, 5/26/07, p.B6)
2007 May 22, Guven Akkus (28), a
suicide bomber, carried out an attack that killed six people and
injured dozens in Ankara, using methods similar to those of a Kurdish
rebel group. Akkus had spent two years in prison for hanging illegal
posters and resisting police.
(AP, 5/23/07)
2008 May 22, The US Congress
enacted a farm bill over Pres. Bush’s veto sending new and bigger
subsidies for farmers and more food stamps to help the poor with rising
grocery prices.
(SFC, 5/23/08, p.A5)
2008 May 22, Several companies
agreed to pay a combined $24 million to pet owners to resolve lawsuits
over contaminated pet food linked to the illness and death of animals.
The settlement involving Canada-based Menu Foods Income Fund and other
pet food manufacturers and suppliers was outlined in documents filed in
the US District Court in New Jersey.
(Reuters, 5/23/08)
2008 May 22, The Summit Fire began
in the California’s Santa Cruz mountains. After 5 days it had covered
4,270 acres and destroyed 31 residences before becoming fully contained.
(SFC, 5/23/08, p.A1)(SFC, 5/28/08, p.B2)
2008 May 22, A tornado hit
northern Colorado killing one person.
(WSJ, 5/23/08, p.A1)
2008 May 22, In western
Afghanistan gunfire broke out in Ghor province at a protest against a
US sniper in Iraq who used a Quran for target practice. Two civilians
were slain and seven others were wounded. A NATO soldier from Lithuania
was killed, the first of the Baltic country's troops to die while
serving there.
(AP, 5/22/08)(AFP, 5/22/08)
2008 May 22, Bangladesh reported
its first confirmed case of human bird flu, but said the 16-month-old
victim had now recovered from the virus.
(AFP, 5/22/08)
2008 May 22, Britain’s PM Gordon
Brown called for a total ban on the use of cluster bombs by the British
military. Nicky Reilly, would-be suicide bomber, tried to detonate a
nail bomb in a restaurant in Exeter but injured only himself. He had
embraced Islam between 2002 and 2003 and called himself Mohammad Rashid
Saeed Alim. In 2009 Reilly (22) was sentenced to a minimum of 18 years
in prison.
(AFP, 5/22/08)(AP, 1/30/09)
2008 May 22, In Canada a shoe-clad
foot was discovered on a small uninhabited island south of Vancouver in
the Strait of Georgia, and is the fourth discovered in the region in
the past 10 months. Police did not know where they are coming from.
(Reuters, 5/23/08)
2008 May 22, China said the toll
of dead and missing from last week's powerful earthquake jumped to more
than 80,000, while the government appealed for millions of tents to
shelter homeless survivors.
(AP, 5/22/08)
2008 May 22, Tens of thousands of
French workers took to the streets as unions mounted a one-day show of
force against President Nicolas Sarkozy's government over pension
reforms.
(AP, 5/22/08)
2008 May 22, Partial returns and
an exit poll showed President Mikhail Saakashvili's ruling party
heading for a strong majority in Georgia's parliamentary election.
United Opposition co-leader David Gamkrelidze alleged widespread
cheating and pressure on opponents by authorities in areas outside
Tbilisi.
(AP, 5/22/08)
2008 May 22, Indonesians faced
runaway inflation and higher interest rates after the government vowed
to hike subsidized fuel prices by an average 28.7% despite widespread
protests.
(AP, 5/22/08)
2008 May 22, Pres. al-Maliki met
with the Iraq’s most influential Shiite spiritual leader, Grand
Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, to discuss his government crackdowns. Iraq's
most influential Shiite cleric has been quietly issuing religious
edicts declaring that armed resistance against US-led foreign troops is
permissible.
(AP, 5/22/08)(AP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 22, In Pakistan
unidentified gunmen shot dead Muhammad Ibrahim (44), a reporter for
Urdu-language Express newspaper, after he interviewed a spokesman for
Taliban militants in a tribal area bordering Afghanistan.
(AFP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 22, A Palestinian suicide
bomber detonated a truck loaded with explosives as he tried to ram a
crucial crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel. There were no
casualties besides the bomber.
(AP, 5/22/08)
2008 May 22, A US government
agency signed a political risk insurance deal with a Palestinian firm
to help guarantee investments in the West Bank as part of an
international effort to develop the beleaguered local economy.
(AP, 5/22/08)
2008 May 22, The South African
army mobilized in support of embattled police trying to quell a wave of
violence against immigrants that has claimed 42 lives and displaced
16,000. More than 10,000 Mozambicans have fled home from South Africa
to escape the xenophobic attacks.
(AP, 5/22/08)
2008 May 22, In Sri Lanka
government soldiers killed 11 insurgents in three separate clashes in
Vavuniya. 10 soldiers were wounded. Other battles in Jaffna, Mannar and
Welioya killed 11 rebels and two soldiers.
(AP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 22, Thailand's PM
Sundaravej pledged to sell rice to Manila at "negotiable" rates, as he
began a visit to the Philippines, which is working to boost its stocks
of the grain.
(AFP, 5/22/08)
2008 May 22, Two Turkish soldiers
were killed in an overnight clash with Kurdish rebels in southeastern
Turkey. Troops killed two Kurdish rebels near the southeastern city of
Sirnak.
(AP, 5/22/08)(AP, 5/24/08)
2009 May 22, President Obama
signed the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure
(CARD) Act of 2009, marking a turning point for American consumers and
ending the days of unfair rate hikes and hidden fees. The new rules
went into effect on Feb 22, 2010.
(http://tinyurl.com/qbhe4g)(SFC, 2/23/10, p.D2)
2009 May 22, In Pinole, Ca.,
Anthony Ramirez (23) was interrupted in an attempted robbery of a home
and escaped leaving behind his cell phone. Ramirez was a suspect in 3
recent East Bay slayings and was apprehended on May 27 following calls
to himself to retrieve his cell phone.
(SFC, 6/3/09, p.B2)
2009 May 22, The African Union
called on the UN Security Council to take "immediate measures" to
impose sanctions on Eritrea over its support for Islamist insurgents in
Somalia.
(AFP, 5/22/09)
2009 May 22, Brazil's Supreme
Court approved the extradition to the US of Pablo Rayo Montano, a
Colombian-born drug lord accused of running one of the world's largest
drug smuggling operations.
(AP, 5/22/09)
2009 May 22, In Brazil a
twin-engine plane crashed near a private airport in a northeastern
coastal resort area, killing all 11 people aboard.
(AP, 5/23/09)
2009 May 22, A Canadian court
found Desire Munyaneza (42), a Rwandan man, guilty of genocide, crimes
against humanity and war crimes for his role in the 1994 Rwanda
genocide, making him the first person convicted under Canada's war
crimes act. Munyaneza arrived in Canada in 1997 and unsuccessfully
tried to claim refugee status. Police subsequently launched an
investigation and arrested him in 2005. On Oct 29 Munyaneza was
sentenced to 25 years in prison before becoming eligible for parole.
(Reuters, 5/22/09)(Reuters, 10/29/09)
2009 May 22, A Toronto-area man
(21) convicted of belonging to a group plotting al Qaeda-inspired
attacks on Canadian landmarks was sentenced to 2-1/2 years in jail, the
first sentence handed out in the so-called "Toronto 18" case. He has
already spent two years in custody and will likely be released soon due
to credit for time already served.
(Reuters, 5/24/09)
2009 May 22, In Egypt Ayman Nour,
a prominent Egyptian dissident, was attacked by an assailant on a
motorcycle who ignited a flammable substance in his face, leaving his
head burned. Nour accused elements within the ruling party of being
behind the attack.
(AP, 5/23/09)
2009 May 22, Haiti's civil
protection department said floods have killed at least 11 people this
week as heavy rains swamp towns still rebuilding from last year's
hurricanes.
(AP, 5/22/09)
2009 May 22, In Iraq the body of
Jim Kitterman (60), an American civilian contractor, was found stabbed
to death in a vehicle in the Green Zone. Another contractor was killed
by a rocket attack near the American Embassy. An American soldier died
in a noncombat incident in Baghdad province. In June Iraqi authorities
detained 4 Americans and one Iraqi in connection with the death of
Kitterman, in what could be the first case of Americans facing local
justice under a joint security pact that took effect this year. 3 of
the detained American were soon released due to insufficient evidence.
(AP, 5/23/09)(AP, 6/7/09)(AP, 6/8/09)(AP, 6/11/09)
2009 May 22, Israeli troops
crossed into Gaza and killed two Palestinian militants who were
planting a bomb along the border fence before dawn.
(AP, 5/22/09)
2009 May 22, An Italian warship
arrested nine pirates after helping a US-flagged container vessel and
another ship evade brigands off the coast of Somalia.
(AP, 5/22/09)
2009 May 22, Police in Morocco
uncovered more than 20 tons of cannabis resin, one of the country's
largest ever hash hauls, hidden in steel crates destined for France.
(AFP, 5/23/09)
2009 May 22, Myanmar opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi pleaded not guilty at her trial and blamed the
regime's lax security for allowing an American intruder to swim
uninvited to her lakeside home.
(AP, 5/22/09)
2009 May 22, Nigeria's foreign
minister said that the military has rescued 12 hostages, eight
Filipinos and four Ukrainians, from militants being targeted by the
armed forces in the southern oil region. The military said a dozen
troops had gone missing in the region.
(AP, 5/23/09)
2009 May 22, In Pakistan a bomb
exploded at a congested marketplace in the northwestern city of
Peshawar, killing at least 5 people wounding dozens. Troops encircled
Taliban militants in their mountain base as well as the main town in
the Swat Valley, as the UN appealed for $543 million to ease the
suffering of nearly 2 million refugees from the fighting.
(AFP, 5/22/09)(AP, 5/22/09)(SFC, 5/23/09, p.A2)
2009 May 22, Russian President
Dmitry Medvedev challenged EU leaders meeting at a summit in Khabarovsk
to help Ukraine pay its gas bills in order to prevent disruption of
Russian supplies to Europe.
(Reuters, 5/22/09)
2009 May 22, Serbian authorities
said they will investigate a drug rehab facility sponsored by the
Serbian Orthodox Church after the publication of a video showing one of
the patients being severely beaten with a shovel by Orthodox priest
Branislav Peranovic. On May 27 Peranovic was removed from his job
leading the Crna Reka center in southern Serbia. On May 29 an employee
of the center, shown in another video punching a patient with brass
knuckles, was charged by police.
(AP, 5/22/09)(AP, 5/27/09)
2009 May 22, Hundreds of Somali
government troops attacked insurgent-held positions north and south of
Mogadishu and the heart of the city was heavily shelled. One witness
said a busload of fleeing civilians was hit. Fighting between Somali
government troops and Islamic insurgents killed 53 people in Mogadishu.
Residents reported that the operation had failed to dislodge the
insurgents.
(AP, 5/22/09)(AP, 5/23/09)
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