February 22

February 22 in recent years
2025 (Saturday)
2024 (Thursday)
2023 (Wednesday)
2022 (Tuesday)
2021 (Monday)
2020 (Saturday)
2019 (Friday)
2018 (Thursday)
2017 (Wednesday)
2016 (Monday)

February 22 is the 53rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 312 days remaining until the end of the year (313 in leap years).

Events

Up to 1900

1281 – Martin IV becomes Pope.
1288 – Nicholas IV becomes Pope.
1371 – Robert II of Scotland becomes King, starting the Stuart Dynasty.
1494 – King Charles VIII of France enters Naples to claim the city's throne.
1632 – Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems is published.
1651 – St. Peter's Flood: A storm surge floods the Frisian coast in present–day Germany and the Netherlands, killing about 15,000 people.
1744 – The Battle of Toulon begins.
1784 – William Herschel discovers the spiral galaxy NGC 3521.
1797 – The last invasion of the Great Britain begins when a force of 4,000 French troops lands in Fishguard, Pembrokeshire, Wales. They surrender two days later.
1819 – By the Adams–Onís Treaty, Spain sold Florida to the United States for five million U.S. dollars.
1847 – Mexican-American War: The Battle of Buena Vista – 5,000 American troops drive off 15,000 Mexican.
1848 – The French Revolution of 1848 begins, later leading to the creation of the French Second Republic.
1855 – The Pennsylvania State University is founded.
1856 – The Republican Party opens its first national meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
1857 – The Bavarian Weisswurst sausage is allegedly invented in Munich.
1862 – Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as President of the Confederate States of America in Richmond, Virginia.
1865 – Tennessee adopts a new constitution that abolishes slavery.
1872 – The Prohibition Party holds its first national convention in Columbus, Ohio, with James Black as its nominee for President of the United States.
1876 – Johns Hopkins University is founded in Baltimore, Maryland.
1879 – In Utica, New York, Frank Woolworth opens the first of many of 5 and 10–cent Woolworth stores.
1889 – President Grover Cleveland signs a bill admitting North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Washington as U.S. states.
1890 – The Walmut Grove Dam breaks in Arizona, causing a flood that kills between 50 and 150 people.
1899 – Filipino forces led by General Antonio Luna launch counter–attacks for the first time, against American forces in the Philippine-American War, though fail to retake Manila.

1901 – 2000

1901 – A Pacific mail steamer sinks in Golden Gate Harbor, killing 128 people.
1904 – UK recognises the South Orkney Islands as part of Argentina, in 1908 claims them again.
1915 – Germany institutes unrestricted submarine warfare.
1920 – In Emeryville, California, the first dog race track to employ an imitation rabbit opens.
1923 – The United States begins the first transcontinental air mail route.
1923 – Barcelona (Catalonia): Albert Einstein visits the city, invited by the scientist Esteban Terradas i Illa, as part of the monografics course of High Studies and Exchange organized by the Mancomunitat de Catalunya and conducted by Rafael de Campalans.
1924 – Calvin Coolidge becomes the first President of the United States to deliver a radio broadcast from the White House.
1940 – Then–four–year–old Tenzin Gyatso is enthroned as the 14th Dalai Lama.
1942 – World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders General Douglas MacArthur out of the Philippines as American defense collapses.
1943 – Members of White Rose are executed in Nazi Germany.
1944 – World War II: American aircraft mistakenly bomb the Dutch cities of Nijmegen, Arnhem, Enschede and Deventer, killing 800 in Nijmegen alone.
1948 – The Communist Revolution begins in Czechoslovakia.
1949 – Grady the Cow, a 1,200–pound cow gets stuck inside a silo on a farm in Yukon, Oklahoma and garners national media attention.
1956 – Elvis Presley enters the music charts for the first time, with "Heartbreak Hotel".
1957 – South Vietnamese leader Ngo Dinh Diem survives a Communist shooting assassination attempt in Ban Me Thuot.
1958 – Egypt and Syria join to form the United Arab Republic.
1959 – Lee Petty wins the first Daytona 500.
1960 – A mining accident in Zwickau, East Germany kills 123 people.
1969 – Barbara Jo Rubin wins a United States thoroughbred horse race making history as the first woman to do so.
1972 – The Official IRA detonates a car bomb in Aldershot Barracks, killing 7 people.
1973 – Cold War: Following President Richard Nixon's visit to China, the United States and the People's Republic of China agree to establish liaison offices.
1974 – The Organisation of the Islamic Conference summit begins in Lahore, Pakistan and Bangladesh is recognized by Islamabad Officials.
1979 – Independence of Saint Lucia from the United Kingdom.
1980 – The United States men's ice hockey team defeats the Soviet Union team at the 1980 Winter Olympic Games in an upset dubbed the "Miracle on Ice".
1986 – The People Power Revolution in the Philippines begins.
1987 – The first Airbus A320 lifts off.
1994 – Aldrich Ames and his wife are charged by the United States Department of Justice with spying for the Soviet Union.
1997 – In Roslin, Scotland, scientists announce that an adult sheep named Dolly had been successfully cloned.

From 2001

2002 – A MH-47E Chinook helicopter crashes into the ocean near the Philippines, killing all 10 aboard.
2004 – Ralph Nader announces his intention to run as an independent candidate for President of the United States.
2005 – An earthquake in Sarand, Iran, kills 420 people.
2006 – The Al–Askari Shrine in Samarra, Iraq, a Shi'ite Holy Site, is badly damaged in a bomb attack.
2009 – Slumdog Millionaire is the most successful movie at the 81st Academy Awards.
2011 – 2011 Canterbury earthquake: A magnitude 6.3 earthquake hits Christchurch, New Zealand, causing major damage and more than 180 deaths. Among the collapsed buildings is the spire of Christchurch cathedral.
2012 – A train crash in Buenos Aires, Argentina, kills 51 people.
2014 – Matteo Renzi is sworn in as Prime Minister of Italy, making him the youngest holder of this office, at age 39.
2014 – In Ukraine, parliament votes to remove President Viktor Yanukovych from power and to install a caretaker government. Yanukovych is reported to have fled to Eastern Ukraine, while former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is released from prison.
2015 – A ferry capsizes in Bangladesh, killing at least 70 people.
2015 – The 87th Academy Awards are held. Among the winners are Julianne Moore (Best Actress) and Eddie Redmayne (Best Actor), for playing Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything.
2017 – Scientists announce the discovery of seven planets of similar size to Earth orbiting around the dwarf star "TRAPPIST-1".

Births

Up to 1850

1300 BC – Ramesses II, Egyptian pharaoh (d. 1213 BC)
1403 – King Charles VII of France (d. 1461)
1440 – Ladislaus the Posthumous, King of Hungary and Bohemia (d. 1470)
1500 – Rodolfo Pio da Carpi, Italian cardinal (d. 1564)
1514 – Tahmasp I, Persian shah (d. 1576)
1631 – Peder Syv, Danish philologist, folklorist and priest (d. 1702)
1645 – Johann Ambrosius Bach, German composer (d. 1695)
1645 – Johann Christoph Bach, German musician (d. 1693)
1705 – Peter Arbedi, Swedish naturalist (d. 1735)
1732 – George Washington, first President of the United States (d. 1799)
1756 – Georg Friedrich von Martens, German diplomat (d. 1821)
1761 – Erik Tulindberg, Finnish composer (d. 1814)
1778 – Rembrandt Peale, American painter (d. 1860)
1785 – Jean Peltier, French physicist (d. 1845)
1788 – Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher (d. 1860)
1796 – Alexis Bachelot, French missionary (d. 1837)
1796 – Adolphe Quetelet, Belgian mathematician (d. 1874)
1806 – Jozef Kremer, Polish philosopher (d. 1875)
1817 – Carl Wilhelm Borchardt, German mathematician (d. 1880)
1819 – James Russell Lowell, American poet (d. 1891)
1823 – Robert B. Ogilvie, Governor of Illinois (d. 1888)
1824 – Pierre Janssen, French astronomer (d. 1907)
1836 – Mahesh Chandra Nyayratna Bhattacharyya, Indian Sanskrit scholar and social reformer (d. 1906)
1840 – August Bebel, German political activist (d. 1913)
1847 – Duchess Sophie Charlotte of Bavaria (d. 1897)
1849 – Nikolay Yakovlevich Sonin, Russian mathematician (d. 1915)

1851 – 1900

1857 – Heinrich Rudolf Hertz, German physicist (d. 1894)
1857 – Robert Baden-Powell, British founder of the Scout movement (d. 1941)
1864 – Jakob Jakobsen, Faroese linguist (d. 1918)
1878 – Walter Ritz, Swiss physicist (d. 1909)
1879 – Johannes Nicolaus Bronsted, Danish physical chemist (d. 1947)
1880 – Eric Lemming, Swedish athlete (d. 1930)
1881 – Joseph B. Ely, 52nd Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1956)
1882 – Eric Gill, British sculptor (d. 1940)
1883 – Marguerite Clark, American actress (d. 1940)
1887 – Savielly Tartakower, Polish chess player (d. 1956)
1888 – Owen Brewster, Governor of Maine (d. 1961)
1889 – Olave Baden-Powell, British co–founder of the Girl Guides (d. 1977)
1890 – Beatriz Michelena, Latin American movie actor (d. 1942)
1891 – Vlas Chubar, Soviet politician (d. 1937)
1892 – Edna St. Vincent Millay, American poet (d. 1950)
1895 – Victor Raul Haya del Torre, Peruvian politician (d. 1979)
1897 – Karol Swierczewski, Polish general (d. 1947)
1898 – Thillaiaadi Valliammai, South African activist (d. 1914)
1899 – George O'Hara, American actor (d. 1966)
1900 – Luis Buñuel, Spanish movie producer (d. 1983)
1900 – James Sisnett, Barbadian supercentenarian (d. 2013)

1901 – 1950

1903 – Frank Plumpton Ramsey, British mathematician (d. 1930)
1906 – Donald S. Russell, 107th Governor of South Carolina (d. 1998)
1907 – Georg Braun, Austrian footballer (d. 1963)
1907 – Sheldon Leonard, American actor (d. 1997)
1907 – Robert Young, American actor (d. 1998)
1908 – Romulo Betancourt, President of Venezuela (d. 1981)
1913 – Buddy Tate, American jazz musician (d. 2001)
1914 – Renato Dulbecco, Italian virologist (d. 2012)
1917 – Jane Bowles, American writer and playwright (d. 1973)
1918 – Sid Abel, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2000)
1918 – Robert Wadlow, tallest person in history (d. 1940)
1918 – Don Pardo, American television and radio announcer (d. 2014)
1921 – Giulietta Masina, Italian actress (d. 1994)
1921 – Sune Andersson, Swedish footballer (d. 2002)
1921 – Wayne C. Booth, American literary critic (d. 2005)
1921 – Jean-Bédel Bokassa, leader of the Central African Republic (d. 1996)
1921 – David Greene, British director (d. 2003)
1922 – Joe Wilder, American jazz trumpeter (d. 2014)
1923 – Bleddyn Williams, Welsh rugby player (d. 2009)
1925 – Kenneth Williams, English actor (d. 1988)
1925 – Cyril Leonoff, Canadian civil engineer and historian (d. 2016)
1925 – Gerald Stern, American poet
1927 – Florencio Campomanes, Filipino chess player and official (d. 2010)
1927 – Gus Douglass, American politician (d. 2015)
1928 – Bruce Forsyth, British entertainer (d. 2017)
1928 – Paul Dooley, American actor
1929 – James Hong, American actor, director, producer and screenwriter
1930 – Giuliano Montaldo, Italian movie director
1930 – Bill Mitchell, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2014)
1930 – Marni Nixon, American singer (d. 2016)
1932 – Ted Kennedy, United States Senator from Massachusetts (d. 2009)
1933 – Sheila Hancock, British actress
1933 – Katharine, Duchess of Kent
1934 – Sparky Anderson, American baseball player and manager (d. 2010)
1936 – J. Michael Bishop, American biologist
1940 – Judy Cornwell, English actress
1940 – Billy Name, American photographer and filmmaker (d. 2016)
1940 – Chet Walker, American basketball player
1941 – Hipolito Mejia, former President of the Dominican Republic
1942 – Christine Keeler, English model and showgirl (d. 2017)
1943 – Horst Koehler, former President of Germany
1944 – Robert Kardashian, American lawyer (d. 2003)
1944 – Jonathan Demme, American movie producer and screenwriter (d. 2017)
1944 – Tom Okker, Dutch tennis player
1945 – Leslie Charleson, English actress
1946 – Kresten Bjerre, Danish footballer (d. 2014)
1947 – Maurizio De Angelis, Italian singer
1949 – Olga Morozova, Russian tennis player
1949 – Niki Lauda, Austrian racing driver
1950 – Julie Walters, British actress
1950 – Julius Erving, American basketball player
1950 – Miou-Miou, French actress

1951 – 1975

1951 – Ellen Greene, American singer and actress
1952 – Bill Frist, United States Senator
1952 – Bernard Silverman, English minister, statistician and academic
1953 – Nigel Planer, English actor
1955 – David Axelrod, American political advisor
1956 – Philip Kerr, British author (d. 2018)
1958 – Dave Spitz, American musician
1959 – Kyle MacLachlan, American actor
1961 – Akira Takahashi, Japanese guitarist
1962 – Steve Irwin, Australian wildlife expert and TV personality (d. 2006)
1963 – Vijay Singh, Fijian golfer
1963 – Andrew Adonis, Baron Adonis, British politician
1963 – Devon Malcolm, English cricketer
1964 – Gigi Fernandez, Puerto Rican tennis player
1965 – Chris Dudley, American basketball player
1965 – Pat Lafontaine, American ice hockey player
1965 – Kieren Fallon, Irish jockey
1968 – Shawn Graham, Canadian politician, 31st Premier of New Brunswick
1968 – Jayson Williams, American basketball player
1969 – Brian Laudrup, Danish footballer
1969 – Marc Wilmots, Belgian footballer
1969 – Clinton Kelly, American television personality
1972 – Claudia Pechstein, German speed skater
1973 – Philippe Gaumont, French cyclist (d. 2013)
1973 – Claus Lundekvam, Norwegian footballer
1973 – Juninho Paulista, Brazilian footballer
1973 – Archil Arveladze, Georgian footballer
1973 – Shota Arveladze, Georgian footballer
1974 – Chris Moyles, British radio presenter
1974 – Markus Schopp, Austrian footballer
1974 – James Blunt, British singer
1975 – Drew Barrymore, American actress

From 1976

1977 – Hakan Yakin, Swiss footballer
1978 – Jenny Frost, British singer (Atomic Kitten), TV presenter (Snog Marry Avoid?) and model
1979 – Brett Emerton, Australian footballer
1979 – Lee Na-young, South Korean actress
1980 – Jeanette Biedermann, German singer and actress
1983 – Shaun Tait, Australian cricketer
1983 – Ragna Ingolfsdottir, Icelandic badminton player
1984 – Tommy Bowe, Irish rugby player
1984 – Branislav Ivanovic, Serbian footballer
1985 – Hameur Bouazza, Algerian footballer
1985 – Ross Hutchins, British tennis player
1985 – Larissa Riquelme, Paraguayan model
1986 – Rajon Rondo, American basketball player
1987 – Han Hyo-joo, South Korean actress and model
1987 – Sergio Romero, Argentine footballer
1987 – Enzo Pérez, Argentine footballer
1988 – Efrain Juarez, Mexican footballer
1988 – Ximena Navarrete, Mexican model and actress
1989 – Anna Sundstrand, Swedish singer
1991 – Robin Stjernberg, Swedish singer

Deaths

Up to 1900

556 – Maximilianus of Ravenna, Italian bishop (b. 499)
606 – Pope Sabinian
965 – Otto, Duke of Burgundy (b. 944)
1071 – Arnulf III, Count of Flanders (b. 1055)
1111 – Roger Borsa, King of Sicily
1371 – King David II of Scotland (b. 1324)
1512 – Amerigo Vespucci, Italian explorer (b. 1451)
1627 – Olivier van Noort, Dutch navigator (b. 1558)
1674 – Jean Chapelain, French writer (b. 1595)
1690 – Charles Le Brun, French painter (b. 1619)
1727 – Francesco Gasparini, Italian composer (b. 1661)
1731 – Frederik Ruysch, Dutch physician and anatomist (b. 1638)
1732 – Francis Atterbury, English bishop and man of letters (b. 1663)
1750 – Pietro Filippo Scarlatti, Italian composer (b. 1679)
1797 – Karl Friedrich Hieronymus Freiherr von Munchhausen, German officer and adventurer (b. 1720)
1799 – Heshen, Chinese official (b. 1750)
1816 – Adam Ferguson, Scottish philosopher (b. 1723)
1819 – Thomas Johnson, Governor of Maryland (b. 1752)
1875 – Charles Lyell, British geologist (b. 1797)
1875 – Jean-Baptiste Corot, French painter (b. 1796)
1890 – John Jacob Astor III, American businessman (b. 1822)
1897 – Charles Blondin, French tightrope walker (b. 1824)
1898 – Haungseon Daewongun, Korean king (b. 1820)

1901 – 2000

1903 – Hugo Wolf, Austrian composer (b. 1860)
1913 – Francisco I. Madero, President of Mexico (b. 1873)
1914 – Thillaiaadi Valliammai, South African activist (b. 1898)
1919 – Perito Moreno, Argentine geographer and explorer (b. 1852)
1921 – Salim Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah, Emir of Kuwait (b. 1864)
1923 – Théophile Delcasse, French statesman (b. 1852)
1927 – Judson Harmon, Governor of Ohio (b. 1846)
1930 – William Jeremiah Tuttle, American freestyle swimmer and water polo (b. 1882)
1934 – Willem Kes, Dutch conductor (b. 1856)
1939 – Antonio Machado, Spanish writer (b. 1875)
1942 – Stefan Zweig, Austrian writer (b. 1881)
1943 – White Rose Resistance Activists executed:
- Christoph Probst, German resistance activist (b. 1919)
- Hans Scholl, German resistance activist (b. 1918)
- Sophie Scholl, German resistance activist (b. 1921)
1944 – Kasturba Gandhi, wife of Mahatma Gandhi (b. 1869)
1945 – Osip Brik, Russian author and critic (b. 1888)
1958 – Abul Kalam Azad, Indian independence movement leader (b. 1888)
1961 – Nick LaRocca, American jazz musician (b. 1889)
1970 – Edward Selzer, American movie producer (b. 1893)
1973 – Jean-Jacques Bertrand, Premier of Quebec (b. 1916)
1973 – Winthrop Rockefeller, American politician, 37th Governor of Arkansas (b. 1912)
1974 – Samuel Byck, American attempted assassin of Richard Nixon (b. 1930)
1976 – Florence Ballard, American singer (b. 1943)
1980 – Oskar Kokoschka, Austrian painter (b. 1886)
1985 – Efrem Zimbalist, American violinist and composer (b. 1889)
1987 – Andy Warhol, American artist, director, and writer (b. 1928)
1989 – Moises da Costa Amaral, East Timorese politician (b. 1938)
1994 – Papa John Creach, American musician (b. 1917)
1995 – Ed Flanders, American actor (b. 1934)
1998 – Donald S. Russell, 107th Governor of South Carolina (b. 1906)
1998 – Abraham A. Ribicoff, 80th Governor of Connecticut (b. 1910)

From 2001

2002 – Roden Cutler, 32nd Governor of New South Wales (b. 1916)
2002 – Chuck Jones, American cartoonist (b. 1912)
2002 – Jonas Savimbi, Angolan politician and rebel leader (b. 1934)
2002 – Daniel Pearl, American journalist (b. 1963)
2004 – Roqué Maspoli, Uruguayan footballer (b. 1917)
2005 – Simone Simon, French actress (b. 1910)
2012 – Marie Colvin, American journalist (b. 1956)
2012 – Rémi Ochlik, French photojournalist (b. 1983)
2013 – Hasse Jeppson, Swedish footballer (b. 1925)
2013 – Wolfgang Sawallisch, German pianist and conductor (b. 1923)
2014 – Charlotte Dawson, New Zealand–born Australian television personality (b. 1966)
2014 – Leo Vroman, Dutch–American hematologist, poet and illustrator (b. 1915)
2015 – Kim Kyung-roul, South Korean billiards player (b. 1980)
2016 – Wesley A. Clark, American computer engineer (b. 1927)
2016 – Sonny James, American country singer-songwriter (b. 1929)
2016 – Hans Reffert, German musician (b. 1946)
2016 – Douglas Slocombe, English cinematographer (b. 1913)
2016 – Yochanan Sofer, Hungarian–Israeli rabbi (b. 1922)
2016 – Cara McCollum, American journalist and beauty queen (b. 1992)
2016 – Cristiana Corsi, Italian taekwondo martial artist (b. 1976)
2016 – Yolande Fox, American beauty queen, singer and activist (b. 1928)
2017 – Frank Delaney, Irish author (b. 1942)
2017 – Ricardo Dominguez, Mexican boxer (b. 1985)
2017 – Eni Faleomavaega, American Samoan politician (b. 1943)
2017 – Aleksei Petrenko, Russian actor (b. 1938)
2017 – Ed Garvey, American lawyer and politician (b. 1940)
2017 – John McCormack, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1925)
2018 – Nanette Fabray, American actress and dancer (b. 1920)
2018 – Forges, Spanish cartoonist (b. 1942)
2018 – Richard E. Taylor, Canadian physicist (b. 1929)

Observances

Independence Day (Saint Lucia)
World Thinking Day (Girl Scouts)
Founder's Day (Scout Movement)