Today in History, May 22

A chronological timetable of historical events that occurred on this day in history. Historical facts of the day in the areas of military, politics, science, music, sports, arts, entertainment and more. Discover what happened today in history as HistoryNet reported.
1246 Henry Raspe is elected anti-king by the Rhenish prelates in France.
1455 King Henry VI is taken prisoner by the Yorkists at the Battle of St. Albans, during the War of the Roses.
1804 The Lewis and Clark Expedition officially begins as the Corps of Discovery departs from St. Charles, Missouri.
1856 U.S. Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina beats Senator Charles Sumner with a cane for Sumner’s earlier condemnation of slavery, which included an insult to Brooks’ cousin, Senator Andrew Butler.
1863 Union General Ulysses S. Grant’s second attack on Vicksburg fails and a siege begins.
1868 The “Great Train Robbery” takes place as seven members of the Reno Gang make off with $98,000 in cash from a train’s safe in Indiana.
1872 The Amnesty Act restores civil rights to Southerners.
1882 The United States formally recognizes Korea.
1908 The Wright brothers register their flying machine for a U.S. patent.
1939 Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini sign a “Pact of Steel” forming the Axis powers.
1947 The Truman Doctrine brings aid to Turkey and Greece.
1967 The children’s program Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood premiers.
1972 Ceylon becomes the Republic of Sri Lanka as its constitution is ratified.
1985 Baseball player Pete Rose passes Hank Aaron as National League run scoring leader with 2,108.
1990 In the Middle East, North and South Yemen merge to become a single state.
1992 Johnny Carson’s final appearance on The Tonight Show on NBC, after 30 years as the program’s host.
2004 An EF4 tornado with a record-setting width of 2.5 miles wipes out Hallam, Nebraska, killing 1 person.
2004 Fahrenheit 9-11, directed by Michael Moore, becomes the first documentary ever to win the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
2010 Following a 200-year search for the tomb of Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus his remains are reburied in Frombork Cathedral
2011 An EF5 tornado kills at least 158 people in Joplin, Missouri, the largest death toll from a tornado since record-keeping began in 1950.
2015 The Republic of Ireland, long known as a conservative, predominantly Catholic country, becomes the first nation in the world to legalize gay marriage in a public referendum.
Born on May 22
1813 Richard Wagner, German composer.
1828 Albrecht von Graefe, German eye surgeon, founder of modern opthamology.
1844 Mary Cassatt, impressionist painter.
1859 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author, creator of the Sherlock Holmes series.
1907 Sir Laurence Olivier, actor.
1920 Thomas Gold, astronomer.
1927 Peter Matthiessen, writer.
1928 T Boone Pickens, oil magnate and financier who developed a reputation as a corporate raider in the 1980s.
1930 Harvey Milk, one of the first openly gay politicians to win public office in the United States, a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977.
1942 Theodore “Ted” Kaczynski, infamous as Unabomber terrorist.
1943 Betty Williams, Northern Irish political activist who won of the Nobel Peace Prize.