August 22

August 22 in recent years
2024 (Thursday)
2023 (Tuesday)
2022 (Monday)
2021 (Sunday)
2020 (Saturday)
2019 (Thursday)
2018 (Wednesday)
2017 (Tuesday)
2016 (Monday)
2015 (Saturday)

August 22 is the 234th day of the year (235th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 131 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

Up to 1900

392 – Arbogast is elected Roman Emperor.
476 – Odoacer is proclaimed, by West Roman mercenaries, as Rex Italiae, King of Italy.
1138 – Battle of the Standard between Scotland and England near Northallerton, Yorkshire.
1485 – The Battle of Bosworth Field decisively ends the Wars of the Roses. Richard III of England dies, and Henry VII of England takes over, starting the period with the Tudor Dynasty ruling England, lasting until 1603.
1559 – Bartholome de Carranza, Spanish archbishop, is arrested for heresy.
1639 – Madras (now Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India) is founded by the British East India Company.
1642 – Charles I calls the English Parliament traitors. Beginning of the English Civil War
1654 – Jacob Barsimson arrives in New Amsterdam. He is the first Jewish immigrant to what is later the United States
1717 – Spanish troops land on Sardinia
1770 – James Cook's expedition lands on the east coast of Australia
1775 – King George III declares the American colonies to be in open rebellion
1777 – American Revolutionary War: British forces abandon the Siege of Fort Stanwix, after hearing rumors of Continental Army reinforcements.
1780 – James Cook's ship Resolution returns to England (Cook having been killed on Hawaii during the voyage)
1791 – Beginning of the Haitian Slave Revolution
1827 – Jose de la Mar becomes President of Peru.
1832 – Dressed as an Arab, Swiss Jean Louis Burckhardt reaches Petra, the famous rock city in Jordan. In Europe, it had until then only been rumored to exist.
1848 – The United States annexes New Mexico.
1851 – Gold is discovered in Australia.
1851 – The first America's Cup is won by the yacht America.
1864 – Twelve nations sign the First Geneva Convention. The Red Cross is formed.
1875 – The Treaty of Saint Petersburg is ratified between Russia and Japan, providing for exchange between Sakhalin Island and the Kuril Islands.

From 1901

1902 – Cadillac Motor Company is founded
1902 – Theodore Roosevelt became the first President of the United States to ride in an automobile
1910 – Japan annexes Korea.
1911 – The theft of the Mona Lisa is discovered, after being stolen in the night from August 21.
1914 – In Belgium, British and German troops meet for the first time in World War I
1922 – Michael Collins, Commander-in-Chief of the Irish Free State Army is shot dead during an anti-treaty ambush at Beal na mBlath, County Cork during the Irish Civil War.
1926 – Gold is discovered in Johannesburg, South Africa.
1930 – Peruvian President Augusto B. Leguia y Salcedo is deposed in a coup led by General Luis Miguel Sanchez Cerro.
1932 – The BBC experiments with television broadcasting.
1934 – Australian Bill Woodfull becomes the first cricket captain to regain The Ashes twice. The Ashes is a series of fives matches played between Australia and England.
1941 – German troops reach Leningrad, leading to the Siege of Leningrad
1942 – Brazil declares war on the Axis powers (Germany, Italy and Japan)
1944 – Last transport of French Jews to concentration camps in Germany
1944 – 32 Spaniards and 4 Frenchmen tackle a German column (1,300 men in 60 lorries, with six tanks and two self-propelled guns), at La Madeleine, France. Three Maquis wounded, 110 Germans killed, 200 wounded.
1950 – Althea Gibson becomes the first black competitor in international tennis.
1952 – France permanently closes the Devil's Island penal colony off French Guiana. French convicts were often sent there.
1961 – Ida Siekmann falls to her death in an attempt to cross the Berlin Wall.
1962 – An attempt to assassinate French president Charles de Gaulle fails
1962 – The Savannah, the world's first nuclear-powered ship, completes its maiden voyage
1968 – Pope Paul VI arrives in Bogotá, Colombia. It is the first visit of a pope to Latin America.
1971 – Hugo Banzer takes power in Bolivia.
1972 – Rhodesia is expelled by the International Olympic Committee for its racist policies.
1973 – United States Secretary of State William P. Rogers resigns. Henry Kissinger succeeds him.
1975 – An attempt to assassinate US President Gerald Ford fails.
1978 – The Sandinista Liberation Front occupies the national palace in Managua, Nicaragua.
1981 – The Voyager 2 space probe photographs Saturn's moon Iapetus.
1985 – The Manchester Air Disaster occurs when 55 people are killed after a fire breaks out on a commercial aircraft at Manchester International Airport.
1988 – The Australian koala, the first platinum coin, is issued.
1989 – The first ring of Neptune is discovered
1989 – Nolan Ryan strikes out Rickey Henderson to become the first Major League Baseball pitcher to record 5000 strikeouts.
1992 – FBI HRT sniper Lon Horiuchi shot and killed Vicki Weaver during an 11-day siege at her home at Ruby Ridge, Idaho.
1996 – US President Bill Clinton signs welfare reform into law.
2001 – The Trojan Room coffee pot is switched off for the last time.
2004 – The Scream and The Madonna by Edvard Munch is stolen at gunpoint from a museum in Oslo, Norway.
2006 – Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise Flight 612 crashes in eastern Ukraine, killing 170 people.
2007 – Major League Baseball: The Texas Rangers defeat the Baltimore Orioles 30–3.
2011 – 2011 Libyan civil war: Rebel forces advance on Tripoli, as the war enters its final phase.
2015 – A plane at an airshow in Shoreham, Southern England, crashes onto a motorway, killing 11 people.

Births

Up to 1900

1412 – Frederick II, Elector of Saxony (d. 1464)
1485 – Beatus Rhenanus, German humanist (d. 1547)
1601 – Georges de Scudéry, French writer (d. 1667)
1647 – Denis Papin, French inventor (pressure cooker) (d. around 1712)
1724 – Jens Schielderup Sneedorff, Danish author and professor of political science (d. 1764)
1760 – Pope Leo XII (d. 1829)
1764 – Charles Percier, French architect (d. 1838)
1771 – Henry Maudslay, inventor and tool-maker (d. 1831)
1773 – Aime Bonpland, French explorer (d. 1858)
1778 – James Kirke Paulding, American politician, 11th United States Secretary of the Navy (d. 1860)
1800 – William S. Harney, American general (d. 1889)
1800 – Edward Bouverie, English theologian (d. 1882)
1818 – Carlo Pisacane, Italian politician, guerrilla and writer (d. 1857)
1820 – Manolache Costache Epureanu, Romanian politician (d. 1880)
1822 – Virginia Clemm Poe, wife of Edgar Allan Poe (d. 1847)
1834 – Samuel Pierpoint Langley, American astronomer (d. 1906)
1845 – William Lewis Douglas, 42nd Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1924)
1846 – Amalie Skram, Norwegian-Danish writer and Women's Rights activist (d. 1905)
1847 – John Forrest, Australian explorer and politician, 1st Premier of Western Australia (d. 1918)
1854 – King Milan I of Serbia (d. 1901)
1857 – Ned Hanlon, American baseball player and manager (d. 1937)
1860 – Paul Nipkow, German inventor and television pioneer (d. 1940)
1860 – Eleonore Reuss of Koestritz, Tsaritsa of Bulgaria (d. 1917)
1860 – Gustaf Fröding, Swedish poet (d. 1911)
1862 – Claude Debussy, French composer (d. 1918)
1867 – Maximilian Bircher-Benner, Swiss physician and nutritionist (d. 1939)
1873 – Alexander Bogdanov, Russian philosopher and physician (d. 1928)
1874 – Max Scheler, philosopher (d. 1928)
1880 – George Herriman, cartoonist (d. 1944)
1882 – Raymonde de Laroche, French pilot (d. 1919)
1884 – Panait Istrati, Romanian writer (d. 1935)
1885 – Thomas Cooke, American soccer player (d. 1964)
1887 – Lutz Schwerin von Krosigk, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1977)
1888 – Walther von Seydlitz-Kurzbach, German general (d. 1976)
1893 – Dorothy Parker, American writer (d. 1967)
1893 – Wilfred Kitching, 7th General of the Salvation Army (d. 1977)
1896 – Frank Loomis, American athlete (d. 1971)
1900 – Sergei Ozhegov, Russian lexicographer (d. 1964)

1901 – 1950

1902 – Leni Riefenstahl, German movie director (d. 2003)
1903 – Francis Birch, English geophysicist (d. 1992)
1904 – Deng Xiaoping, leader of the People's Republic of China (d. 1997)
1906 – Stig Wennerström, Swedish spy (d. 2006)
1908 – Henri Cartier-Bresson, French photographer (d. 2004)
1909 – Mel Hein, American football player (d. 1992)
1909 – Julius J. Epstein, American screenwriter (d. 2000)
1911 – John J. Hickey, Governor of Wyoming (d. 1970)
1913 – Bruno Pontecorvo, Italian physicist (d. 1992)
1915 – Hugh Paddick, British actor (d. 2000)
1915 – Edward Szczepanik, Polish Prime Minister (d. 2005)
1915 – James Hiller, Canadian-American scientist (d. 2007)
1917 – John Lee Hooker, American blues guitarist and singer (d. 2001)
1917 – Oscar E. Huber, American politician (d. 2017)
1918 – Said Mohamed Djohar, President of the Comoros (d. 2006)
1920 – Ray Bradbury, American writer (d. 2012)
1920 – Doctor Denton Cooley, American heart surgeon (d. 2016)
1924 – James Kirkwood Jr., novelist (d. 1989)
1924 – Ada Jafri, Pakistani poet and author (d. 2015)
1925 – Honor Blackman, British actress
1928 – Karlheinz Stockhausen, German composer (d. 2007)
1928 – Tinga Seisay, Sierra Leonean diplomat and activist
1930 – Gylmar dos Santos Neves, Brazilian footballer (d. 2013)
1932 – Gerald P. Carr, American astronaut
1933 – Sylva Koscina, Croatian–Italian actress
1933 – Michael von Albrecht, German classical scholar
1934 – Norman Schwarzkopf, American general (d. 2012)
1935 – E. Annie Proulx, Canadian Pulitzer Prize–winning writer
1936 – Petar Mladenov, Prime Minister of Bulgaria (d. 2000)
1937 – Francesco Musso, Italian boxer
1938 – Paul Maguire, American football player
1939 – George Reinholt, actor
1939 – Carl Yastrzemski, American Baseball Hall of Famer
1939 – Valerie Harper, American actress (d. 2019)
1941 – Bill Parcells, American football coach
1942 – Kathy Lennon, American singer
1942 – Ugur Mumcu, Turkish journalist and writer (d. 1993)
1942 – Joe Klein, American baseball executive (d. 2017)
1943 – Alun Michael, Welsh politician
1943 – Masatoshi Shima, Japanese computer scientist
1945 – David Chase, American screenwriter, director and producer
1945 – Ron Dante, American singer-songwriter and producer
1947 – Robert E. Cramer, American politician
1947 – Donna Godchaux, American singer (Grateful Dead)
1947 – Cindy Williams, actress
1948 – David Marks, American songwriter and musician
1950 – Lewis Libby, American White House counsel

1951 – 1975

1951 – Chandra Prakash Mainali, Nepalese politician
1953 – Paul Ellering, American weightlifter, wrestler and manager
1955 – Will Shetterly, writer
1956 – Paul Molitor, American Baseball Hall of Famer
1957 – Steve Davis, English snooker player
1958 – Colm Feore, American-Canadian actor
1958 – Vernon Reid, musician (Living Colour)
1959 – Pia Gjellerup, Danish politician
1959 – Mark Williams, English actor and screenwriter
1960 – Collin Raye, American country music singer and songwriter
1960 – Regina Taylor, American actress
1961 – Debbi Peterson, drummer (The Bangles)
1961 – Roland Orzabal, singer and guitarist (Tears for Fears)
1961 – Andrés Calamaro, Argentine musician and composer
1961 – Thomas Hoeren, German law professor
1962 – Viktor Bryzhin, Ukrainian sprinter
1962 – Ilkka Laitinen, Finnish military officer and politician (d. 2019)
1963 – Tori Amos, American singer, songwriter, and pianist
1964 – Mats Wilander, Swedish tennis player
1964 – Andrew Wilson, American actor
1966 – Paul Ereng, Kenyan athlete
1966 – Rob Witschge, Dutch footballer
1967 – Yukiko Okada, Japanese singer (d. 1986)
1967 – Layne Staley, American musician (Alice in Chains) (d. 2002)
1967 – Ty Burrell, American actor and comedian
1967 – Adewode Akinnouye-Agbaje, British actor
1968 – Elisabeth Murdoch, Australian businesswoman
1969 – Paola Epifani, Italian artist
1970 – Giada De Laurentiis, Italian-American chef and author
1971 – Richard Armitage, British actor
1972 – Paul Doucette, American singer-songwriter, guitarist and drummer
1972 – Steve Kline, American baseball player and coach
1973 – Howie Dorough, American singer-songwriter, dancer and actor (Backstreet Boys)
1973 – Kristin Wiig, American actress and comedienne
1975 – Rodrigo Santoro, Brazilian actor

From 1976

1977 – Heidar Helguson, Icelandic footballer
1977 – Jenna Leigh Green, American actress and singer
1978 – Jeff Stinco, Canadian musician (Simple Plan)
1978 – James Corden, English actor and television personality
1979 – Jennifer Finnigan, Canadian actress
1979 – Mia Audina, Indonesian–Dutch badminton player
1980 – Aya Sumika, American actress
1981 – Alex Holmes, American Football player
1982 – Marco Wölfli, Swiss footballer
1983 – Laura Breckenridge, American actress
1983 – Theo Bos, Dutch motorcycle racer
1984 – Lawrence Quaye, Ghanaian–Qatari footballer
1986 – Keiko Kitagawa, Japanese actress
1986 – Monsieur Adi, French musician, record producer and DJ
1986 – Janis Vahter, Estonian basketball player
1987 – Mischa Zverev, Russian-German tennis player
1991 – Federico Macheda, Italian footballer
1991 – Brayden Schenn, Canadian ice hockey player
1994 – Olli Maatta, Finnish ice hockey player
1995 – Dua Lipa, English singer and songwriter
1999 – Dakota Goyo, Canadian actor

Deaths

Up to 1900

408 – Stilicho, Roman general (b. 359)
1155 – Emperor Konoe of Japan (b. 1139)
1188 – Ferdinand II of Leon (b. 1137)
1241 – Pope Gregory IX
1280 – Pope Nicholas III (b. 1216)
1304 – John II, Count of Holland (b. 1247)
1350 – King Philip VI of France (b. 1293)
1358 – Isabella, Queen of England (b. 1295)
1456 – Vladislav II of Wallachia
1485 – King Richard III of England (b. 1452)
1532 – William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1450)
1553 – John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland (b. 1504)
1554 – Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, Spanish conquistador (b. 1510)
1572 – Thomas Percy, 7th Earl of Northumberland (b. 1528)
1584 – Jan Kochanowski, Polish poet (b. 1530)
1599 – Luca Marenzio, Italian composer (b. 1553)
1652 – Jacob de La Gardie, Swedish soldier and statesman (b. 1583)
1680 – John George II, Elector of Saxony (b. 1613)
1701 – John Granville, 1st Earl of Bath, English royalist statesman (b. 1628)
1752 – William Whiston, English mathematician, historian and theologian (b. 1667)
1793 – Louis de Noailles, Marshal of France (b. 1713)
1806 – Jean-Honore Fragonard, French painter (b. 1732)
1818 – Warren Hastings, English politician, 1st Governor of Bengal (b. 1732)
1850 – Nikolaus Lenau, Austrian writer (b. 1802)
1861 – Xianfeng, Chinese Emperor (b. 1830)
1890 – Vasile Alecsandri, Romanian poet, writer and politician (b. 1821)
1891 – Jan Neruda, Czech writer (b. 1834)

1901 – 2000

1903 – Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1830)
1922 – Michael Collins, Irish political leader (b. 1890)
1940 – Gerald Strickland, British statesman (b. 1861)
1940 – Isidro Goma y Tomas, Spanish cardinal (b. 1869)
1942 – Michel Fokine, Russian dancer and choreographer (b. 1880)
1944 – Luigi Maglione, Italian cardinal (b. 1877)
1958 – Roger Martin du Gard, French writer (b. 1881)
1961 – Ida Siekmann, victim of the Berlin Wall (b. 1902)
1965 – Ellen Church, American flight attendant (b. 1904)
1967 – Gregory Goodwin Pincus, American biologist (b. 1903)
1976 – Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira, President of Brazil (b. 1902)
1977 – Sebastian Cabot, English-born actor (b. 1918)
1978 – Jomo Kenyatta, President of Kenya (b. 1891)
1980 – Alfred Neubauer, German racing team manager (b. 1891)
1986 – Celal Bayar, 3rd President of Turkey (b. 1883)
1989 – Alexander Sergeyevich Yakovlev, Russian engineer (b. 1906)
1989 – Huey Newton, American activist (b. 1942)
1991 – Boris Pugo, Soviet-Latvian politician (b. 1937)
1993 – Kasdi Merbah, Algerian politician
2000 – Abulfaz Elchibey, President of Azerbaijan (b. 1938)

From 2001

2003 – Imperio Argentina, Argentine singer and actress (b. 1906)
2004 – Angus Bethune, Premier of Tasmania (b. 1908)
2005 – Luc Ferrari, French composer (b. 1929)
2008 – Rubens de Falco, Brazilian actor (b. 1931)
2010 – Stjepan Bobek, Croatian footballer (b. 1923)
2011 – Jack Layton, Canadian politician, leader of the New Democratic Party (b. 1950)
2011 – Loriot, German humorist, cartoonist, actor and writer (b. 1923)
2011 – Jerry Leiber, American songwriter (b. 1933)
2012 – Paul Shan Kuo-hsi, Chinese cardinal and archbishop (b. 1923)
2013 – Jetty Paerl, Dutch singer (b. 1921)
2014 – U. R. Ananthamurthy, Indian writer and critic (b. 1932)
2014 – Emmanuel Kriaras, Greek lexicographer and philologist (b. 1906)
2014 – John S. Waugh, American chemist (b. 1929)
2014 – Jack Harris, Australian golfer (b. 1922)
2015 – Arthur Morris, Australian cricketer (b. 1922)
2015 – Ieng Thirith, Cambodian politician (b. 1932)
2015 – Merl Reagle, American crossword compiler (b. 1950)
2015 – Jörg Schneider, Swiss actor and comedian (b. 1935)
2015 – Mariem Hassan, Sahrawi singer (b. 1958)
2016 – Sellapan Ramanathan, President of Singapore (b. 1924)
2016 – Toots Thielemans, Belgian jazz musician (b. 1922)
2017 – John Abercrombie, American jazz guitarist (b. 1944)
2017 – Alain Berbérian, Lebanese-born French film director and screenwriter (b. 1953)
2017 – Tony deBrum, Marshallese politician (b. 1945)
2017 – Rishang Keishing, Indian politician (b. 1920)
2017 – Matthew Kia Yen-wen, Taiwanese archbishop (b. 1925)
2017 – Tom Pritchard, New Zealand cricketer (b. 1917)
2017 – Jim Whelan, American politician (b. 1948)
2017 – Michael J. C. Gordon, British computer scientist (b. 1948)
2017 – Pedro Pedrossian, Brazilian politician (b. 1928)
2018 – Tullio Ilomets, Estonian chemist and science historian (b. 1921)
2018 – Ed King, American guitarist (b. 1949)
2018 – Lazy Lester, American blues guitarist (b. 1933)
2018 – Richard Kadison, American mathematician (b. 1925)
2019 – Junior Agogo, Ghanaian footballer (b. 1979)
2019 – Gary Ray Bowles, American serial killer (b. 1962)
2019 – Tim Fischer, Australian politician (b. 1946)
2019 – Tom Nissalke, American basketball coach (b. 1932)

Observances

Flag Day (Russia)