This Day in History

[Gravdigr]

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

[glatt]

I sense a tornado theme for May 22.

[Gravdigr]

May 23

1430 – Joan of Arc is captured by the Burgundians while leading an army to raise the Siege of Compiègne.

1701 – After being convicted of piracy and of murdering William Moore, Captain William Kidd is hanged in London, England.

1934 – The American bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde are ambushed by police and killed in Bienville Parish, Louisiana.

1939 – The U.S. Navy submarine USS Squalus sinks off the coast of New Hampshire during a test dive, causing the death of 24 sailors and two civilian technicians. The remaining 32 sailors and one civilian naval architect are rescued the following day.

1945 – World War II: Heinrich Himmler, the head of the Schutzstaffel (SS), commits suicide while in Allied custody.

1958 – The satellite Explorer 1 ceases transmission.

1995 – The first version of the Java programming language is released.

2004 – Part of Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport's Terminal 2E collapses, killing four people and injuring three others.

2010 – Jamaican police begin a manhunt for drug lord Christopher Coke, after the United States requested his extradition, leading to three days of violence during which at least 73 gunmen, policemen and bystanders are killed.

2013 – The Interstate 5 bridge over the Skagit River collapses in Mount Vernon, Washington.

2014 – Seven people, including the perpetrator, are killed and another 14 injured in a killing spree near the campus of University of California, Santa Barbara.

2015 – At least 46 people are killed as a result of floods caused by a tornado in Texas and Oklahoma.

If anyone could explain to me how a tornado can cause a flood, I'd be interested to hear them out.

Births

1707 – Carl Linnaeus; 1820 – James Buchanan Eads; 1824 – Ambrose Burnside; 1883 – Douglas Fairbanks; 1910 – Scatman Crothers, Artie Shaw; 1912 – John Payne; 1928 – Rosemary Clooney; 1931 – Barbara Barrie; 1933 – Joan Collins; 1934 – Robert Moog (invented the Moog synthesizer); 1936 – Charles Kimbrough (anchorman on "Murphy Brown"); 1942 – Zalman King; 1946 – Michael Morrison (porn actor); 1954 – Marvin Hagler; 1956 – Buck Showalter; 1958 – Mitch Albom, Drew Carey; 1961 – Karen Duffy ('Duff', MTV vj); 1963 – Wally Dallenbach Jr.; 1973 – Maxwell; 1974 – Jewel, Ken Jennings

Deaths

1701 – William Kidd; 1868 – Kit Carson; 1906 – Henrik Ibsen; 1934 – Clyde Barrow, Bonnie Parker; 1937 – John D. Rockefeller; 1945 – Heinrich Himmler; 1975 – Moms Mabley; 1981 – George Jessel; 1986 – Sterling Hayden; 1994 – Joe Pass; 1999 – Owen Hart; 2002 – Sam Snead