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There are many events that happened on this date in history. Here are just a few of them!

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

EVENTS

1076 – Having received a letter during the Lenten synod of 14–20 February demanding that he abdicate, Pope Gregory VII excommunicates Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor.

1632 – Ferdinando II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, the dedicatee, receives the first printed copy of Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems.

1847 – Mexican–American War: The Battle of Buena Vista: Five thousand American troops defeat 15,000 Mexican troops.

1856 – The United States Republican Party opens its first national convention in Pittsburgh.

1862 – American Civil War: Jefferson Davis is officially inaugurated for a six-year term as the President of the Confederate States of America in Richmond, Virginia. He was previously inaugurated as a provisional president on February 18, 1861.

1872 – The Prohibition Party holds its first national convention in Columbus, Ohio, nominating James Black as its presidential nominee.

1879 – In Utica, New York, Frank Woolworth opens the first of many of five-and-dime Woolworth stores.

1881 – Cleopatra's Needle, a 3,500-year-old Ancient Egyptian obelisk is erected in Central Park, New York.

1889 – President Grover Cleveland signs a bill admitting North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Washington as U.S. states.

1909 – The sixteen battleships of the Great White Fleet, led by USS Connecticut, return to the United States after a voyage around the world.

1942 – World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders General Douglas MacArthur out of the Philippines as the Japanese victory becomes inevitable.

1959 – Lee Petty wins the first Daytona 500.

1974 – Samuel Byck attempts to hijack an aircraft at Baltimore/Washington International Airport with the intention of crashing it into the White House to assassinate Richard Nixon, but is killed by police.

1980 – Miracle on Ice: In Lake Placid, New York, the United States hockey team defeats the Soviet Union hockey team 4–3.

1983 – The notorious Broadway flop Moose Murders opens and closes on the same night at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre.

BIRTHS

1715 – Charles-Nicolas Cochin, French artist (d. 1790)

1732 – George Washington, American general and politician, 1st President of the United States (d. 1799)

1778 – Rembrandt Peale, American painter and curator (d. 1860)

1805 – Sarah Fuller Flower Adams, English poet and hymnwriter (d. 1848)

1857 – Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, English general, co-founded The Scout Association (d. 1941)

1864 – Jules Renard, French author and playwright (d. 1910)

1887 – Pat Sullivan, Australian-American animator and producer (d. 1933)

1889 – Olave Baden-Powell, English scout leader, first World Chief Guide (d. 1977)

1907 – Sheldon Leonard, American actor, director, and producer (d. 1997)

1907 – Robert Young, American actor (d. 1998)

1908 – John Mills, English actor (d. 2005)

1918 – Don Pardo, American radio and television announcer (d. 2014)

1930 – Marni Nixon, American soprano and actress (d. 2016)

1932 – Ted Kennedy, American soldier, lawyer, and politician (d. 2009)

1944 – Robert Kardashian, American lawyer and businessman (d. 2003)

1944 – Christopher Meyer, English diplomat, British Ambassador to the United States (d. 2022)

1945 – Oliver, American pop singer (d. 2000)

1950 – Julius Erving, American basketball player and sportscaster

1971 – Lea Salonga, Filipino actress and singer

1975 – Drew Barrymore, American actress, director, producer, and screenwriter

DEATHS

1512 – Amerigo Vespucci, Italian cartographer and explorer (b. 1454)

1888 – Anna Kingsford, English physician and activist (b. 1846)

1890 – John Jacob Astor III, American businessman and philanthropist (b. 1822)

1973 – Winthrop Rockefeller, American colonel and politician, 37th Governor of Arkansas (b. 1912)

1985 – Efrem Zimbalist, Russian violinist, composer, and conductor (b. 1889)

1987 – Andy Warhol, American painter and photographer (b. 1928)

1994 – Papa John Creach, American violinist (b. 1917)

1995 – Ed Flanders, American actor (b. 1934)

2002 – Chuck Jones, American animator, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1912)

2005 – Simone Simon, French actress (b. 1910)

2016 – Yolande Fox, American model and singer, Miss America 1951 (b. 1928)

2016 – Sonny James, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1928)

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