July 22

Events
Up to 1950
838 Battle of Anzen: Byzantine Emperor Theophilos suffers a heavy defeat by the Abbasids.
1099 First Crusade: Godfrey de Bouillon is elected the first Defender of the Holy Sepulchre.
1209 Massacre of Beziers: The first major military action of the Albigensian Crusade.
1298 William Wallace fights the English at the Battle of Falkirk.
1456 Ottoman Wars in Europe: Siege of Belgrade - John Hunyadi, Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary defeats Mehmet II of the Ottoman Empire.
1499 Battle of Dornach: The Swiss decisively defeats the army of Emperor Maximilian I.
1587 Colony of Roanoke: A second group of English settlers arrives on Roanoke Island off present-day North Carolina to re-establish a deserted colony.
1706 The Acts of Union of 1707 are agreed upon by Commissioners from the Kingdoms of England and Scotland.
1786 Albany, New York is officially chartered as a municipality by Governor Thomas Dongan.
1793 Alexander McKenzie reaches the Pacific coast of North America, becoming the first Euro-American to cross Canada.
1796 Surveyors of the Connecticut Land Company name an area in Ohio "Cleveland", after General Moses Cleveland.
1797 Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife: Battle between Spanish and British naval forces during the French Revolutionary Wars.
1802 Gia Long conquers Hanoi and unifies modern-day Vietnam, which had experienced centuries of feudal warfare.
1805 Napoleonic Wars: War of the Third Coalition - Battle of Cape Finisterre.
1812 Napoleonic Wars: Peninsular War - Battle of Salamanca.
1864 American Civil War: Battle of Atlanta.
1894 The first-ever motor race is held in France between Paris and Rouen.
1916 A bomb explodes during a 'Preparedness Day' parade in Market Street in San Francisco, California, killing 10 people and injuring 40.
1927 Sheep herder Killar Kashirov of the Kabardin people becomes the first person to reach the top of the Eastern summit of Mount Elbrus in the Caucasus Mountains of southern Russia, considered the highest mountain in Europe.
1933 Wiley Post becomes the first person to fly solo around the world, travelling 25,099 kilometres (15,596 miles) in 7 days, 18 hours and 45 minutes.
1934 A man identified as American bank robber John Dillinger is shot dead.
1942 World War II: Start of the fighting on the Kokoda Track in New Guinea between Australia and Japan.
1943 World War II: Allied forces capture Palermo.
1944 The Polish Committee of National Liberation publishes its manifesto, starting Communist rule in Poland.
1946 A terrorist attack on the King David Hotel in Jerusalem kills at least 91 people.
From 1951
1951 Dezik and Tsygan are the first dogs to make a sub-orbital flight.
1954 Laos becomes independent from France.
1962 The Mariner 1 spacecraft flies erratically several minutes after take-off and has to be destroyed.
1969 Francisco Franco declares that the Juan Carlos will be his successor.
1976 Japan completes its last reparation to the Philippines for war crimes in World War II.
1977 Deng Xiaoping returns to power in China.
1983 Martial Law in Poland is officially revoked.
1986 The United Kingdom bans corporal punishment in schools.
1991 Jeffrey Dahmer is arrested in Milwaukee after police discover human remains in his apartment.
1992 In Medellin, Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar escapes from the luxury prison.
1993 Kaskasia, Illinois, is evacuated in the Great Flood of 1993.
1994 Gambia's President Dawda Jawara is removed from office in a coup, to be replaced by Yahya Jammeh.
2003 A US airstrike on a compound in Mosul, Iraq, kills Saddam Hussein's sons Uday Hussein, Qusay Hussein (and his son Mustapha) and a security guard.
2005 In London, officers of the Metropolitan Police shoot and kill Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes when he boards a tube train.
2005 Yelena Isinbayeva becomes the first woman to clear 5 metres in the High Jump.
2009 A Solar eclipse is seen over East Asia and the Pacific Ocean, and is the longest such event of the 21st century. It is also believed to have been witnessed by more people than any solar eclipse in history.
2010 The International Court of Justice rules that Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia was not illegal.
2011 2011 Norway attacks: An explosion in Oslo city centre kills 8 people. Two hours later, 69 people are killed in a shooting at a political youth event on the island of Utoya, carried out by Anders Behring Breivik.
2012 Bradley Wiggins becomes the first British cyclist to win the Tour de France.
2013 Two earthquakes in Gansu province, People's Republic of China, kill at least 90 people.
2013 A baby boy, Prince George of Cambridge, third in line to the British throne, is born to Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William, Duke of Cambridge. It comes just a day after nearby Belgium got its new King, Philippe.
2016 Nine people are killed in a shooting in and around a shopping mall in Munich, Germany. The attacker then kills himself.
2019 Jo Swinson becomes the first woman to be chosen to lead the British Liberal Democrats.
Births
Up to 1900
1210 Joan of England, Queen of Scots (d. 1238)
1361 Carlos III of Navarre (d. 1425)
1478 King Philip I of Castile (d. 1506)
1510 Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence (d. 1537)
1519 Pope Innocent IX (d. 1591)
1535 Katarina Stenbock, Queen of Sweden (d. 1621)
1559 Lawrence of Brindisi, Italian monk (d. 1619)
1596 Tsar Michael I of Russia (d. 1645)
1702 Alessandro Besozzi, Italian composer and oboist (d. 1775)
1711 Georg Wilhelm Richmann, German Baltic physicist (d. 1753)
1733 Mikhail Shcherbatov, Russian philosopher and historian (d. 1790)
1751 Caroline Matilda of Wales (d. 1775)
1755 Gaspard de Prony, French mathematician and engineer (d. 1839)
1784 Friedrich Bessel, German mathematician (d. 1846)
1822 Gregor Mendel, Austrian pioneering geneticist (d. 1884)
1831 Emperor Komei of Japan (d. 1867)
1844 William Archibald Spooner, known for verbal inversions called spoonerisms (d. 1930)
1848 Adolphus Frederick V, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (d. 1914)
1856 Kamran Mirza, Prime Minister of Persia (d. 1927)
1859 Emma Lazarus, American poet (d. 1887)
1877 Giovanni Giorgio Tressino, Italian horse rider (d. 1963)
1882 Edward Hopper, American painter (d. 1967)
1886 Hella Wuolijoki, Finnish author (d. 1954)
1887 Gustav Ludwig Hertz, German quantum physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics (d. 1975)
1888 Selman Waksman, Ukrainian-American biochemist (d. 1973)
1889 James Whale, English movie director, actor and screenwriter (d. 1957)
1890 Rose Kennedy, mother of John F. Kennedy (d. 1995)
1893 Jesse Haines, American baseball player (d. 1978)
1893 Karl Menninger, American psychiatrist (d. 1990)
1894 Oskar Maria Graf, writer (d. 1967)
1895 Pavel Sukhoi, Russian aircraft designer (d. 1975)
1898 Stephen Vincent Benet, American writer (d. 1943)
1898 Alexander Calder, American artist (d. 1976)
1899 Sobhuza II, King of Swaziland (d. 1982)
1901 1950
1905 Doc Cramer, American Major League Baseball player (d. 1990)
1908 Amy Vanderbilt, writer on etiquette (d. 1974)
1909 Dorino Serafini, Italian racing driver (d. 2000)
1913 Gorni Kramer, Italian bandleader and songwriter (d. 1995)
1916 Marcel Cerdan, world champion boxer (d. 1949)
1923 Bob Dole, United States Senator from Kansas, Presidential candidate (d. 2021)
1923 Mukesh, singer (d. 1976)
1923 Netti Witziers-Timmer, Dutch sprinter (d. 2005)
1923 The Fabulous Moolah, American wrestler (d. 2007)
1924 Margaret Whiting, American singer (d. 2011)
1925 Joseph Sargent, American movie director (d. 2014)
1926 Bryan Forbes, English actor (d. 2013)
1926 Wolfgang Iser, German literary scholar (d. 2007)
1927 Johan Ferner, Norwegian sailor (d. 2015)
1928 Nedelcho Beronov, Bulgarian politician (d. 2015)
1928 Jimmy Hill, English football manager and pundit (d. 2015)
1928 Orson Bean, American actor
1931 Guido de Marco, 6th President of Malta (d. 2010)
1932 Oscar de la Renta, Dominican fashion designer (d. 2014)
1934 Louise Fletcher, American Academy Award-winning actress (in 1976)
1936 Tom Robbins, American writer
1939 Terence Stamp, actor
1939 Erhard Walther, artist
1940 Alex Trebek, American game show host (d. 2020)
1941 Estelle Bennett, American singer (The Ronettes) (d. 2009)
1941 George Clinton, musician
1942 Peter Habeler, Austrian mountaineer
1943 Kay Bailey Hutchison, American politician
1943 Bobby Sherman, American singer and actor
1944 Anand Satyanand, former Governor-General of New Zealand
1944 Rick Davies, English musician
1946 Danny Glover, American actor and activist
1946 Mireille Mathieu, French singer
1946 Johnson Toribiong, former President of Palau
1946 Paul Schrader, American movie director
1947 Albert Brooks, American comedian
1947 Gilles Duceppe, Canadian politician
1947 Don Henley, drummer, singer, and songwriter
1948 Otto Waalkes, German comedian, actor and entertainer
1948 Ana de Palacio, Spanish politician
1948 Alfonso Cano, Colombian guerrilla (FARC) (d. 2011)
1949 Alan Menken, American composer
1949 Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, ruler of Dubai
1949 Lasse Viren, Finnish athlete
1950 S. E. Hinton, American writer
1951 1975
1951 Patriarch Daniel of Romania
1951 J. V. Cain, American football player (d. 1979)
1953 Rene Vandereycken, Belgian footballer
1953 Jimmy Bruno, American guitarist
1954 Al Di Meola, American guitarist
1955 Willem Dafoe, American actor
1957 Alvaro Corcuera, Mexican priest (d. 2014)
1958 Tatsunori Hara, Japanese baseball player
1959 Lon Bender, American sound editor
1960 Barbara Cassani, American businesswoman
1961 Keith Sweat, singer
1962 Alvin Robertson, American basketball player
1964 John Leguizamo, Colombian-American actor
1964 Bonnie Langford, English actress and dancer
1964 David Spade, American comedian
1965 Shawn Michaels, retired American professional wrestler
1965 Robert Aderholt, American politician
1967 Irene Bedard, American actress
1967 Rhys Ifans, Welsh actor
1969 Jason Becker, American actor
1969 Despina Vandi, Greek singer
1970 Sergei Zubov, Russian ice hockey player
1970 Devendra Fadnavis, Indian politician
1971 Kristine Lilly, American soccer player
1972 Andrew Holness, Prime minister of Jamaica
1972 Paulinho, footballer
1972 Colin Ferguson, Canadian actor
1972 Keyshawn Johnson, American football player
1973 Rufus Wainwright, Canadian singer and songwriter
1973 Daniel Jones, English-Australian musician
1974 Franka Potente, German actress
1975 Markus Metzenthin, economist
From 1976
1976 Kokia, Japanese singer
1978 Dennis Rommedahl, Danish footballer
1979 Anna Belen-Zarska, Polish tennis player
1980 Dirk Kuyt, Dutch footballer
1980 Kate Ryan, Belgian singer
1982 Anna Chicherova, Russian high jumper
1983 Sharni Vinson, Australian actress
1983 Shelby Belle, actress
1984 Stewart Downing, English footballer
1987 Charlotte Kalla, Swedish skier
1987 Joshua Small, singer, songwriter
1987 Andrey Golubev, Kazakhstani tennis player
1989 Keegan Allen, American actor
1989 Baltasar Breki Samper, Icelandic actor
1992 Selena Gomez, American singer and actress
1993 Amber Beattie, English actress
1993 Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Chechen-American suspected terrorist
1994 Emina Jonasson, Swedish handball player
1996 Skyler Gisondo, American actor
1998 Madison Pettis, American actress
2002 Prince Felix of Denmark
2013 Prince George of Cambridge, son of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge
Deaths
Up to 1900
1387 Frank Ackerman, Flemish statesman (b. 1330)
1461 Charles VII of France (b. 1403)
1525 Richard Wingfield, English diplomat (b. 1426)
1540 John Zapolya, Hungarian King
1619 Lawrence of Brindisi, Italian monk (b. 1559)
1645 Gaspar de Guzman, Count of Olivares, Duke of San Lucar (b. 1587)
1676 Pope Clement X (b. 1590)
1734 Peter King, 1st Baron King, Lord Chancellor of England (b. 1669)
1802 Marie Francois Xavier Bichet, French anatomist and physiologist (b. 1771)
1813 George Shaw, English naturalist (b. 1751)
1826 Giuseppe Piazzi, Italian astronomer, mathematician and theologian (b. 1746)
1832 Napoleon II of France (b. 1811)
1845 Count Heinrich von Bellegarde, Austrian field marshal and statesman (b. 1757)
1869 John August Roebling, German-American engineer and bridge builder (b. 1806)
1893 John Rae, Orcadian explorer (b. 1813)
1901 2000
1903 Cassius Marcellus Clay, American lawyer, publisher and politician (b. 1810)
1904 Wilson Barrett, actor (b. 1846)
1908 Randal Cremer, English politician and pacifist (b. 1828)
1909 Detlev von Liliencron, German poet and writer (b. 1844)
1915 Sandford Fleming, Scottish-Canadian inventor of Standard time (b. 1827)
1916 James Whitcomb Riley, American writer and poet (b. 1849)
1918 Indra Lal Roy, Indian flying ace (b. 1898)
1920 William Kissam Vanderbilt, American businessman and horsebreeder (b. 1849)
1922 Jokichi Takamine, chemist (b. 1854)
1932 Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., American theatrical producer (b. 1867)
1932 Errico Malatesta, Italian anarchist (b. 1853)
1932 Reginald Fessenden, Canadian inventor (b. 1866)
1934 John Dillinger, American bank robber, shot at the Biograph Theater in Chicago (b. 1903)
1936 Andreas Hinterstoisser, German mountaineer (b. 1914)
1936 Toni Kurz, German mountaineer (b. 1913)
1950 William Lyon Mackenzie King, tenth Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1874)
1967 Carl Sandburg, American poet (b. 1878)
1968 Giovannino Guareschi, Italian journalist (b. 1908)
1974 Wayne Morse, former Senator from Oregon
1979 Sandor Kocsis, Hungarian footballer (b. 1929)
1979 J. V. Cain, American football player (b. 1951)
1988 Duane Jones, American actor (b. 1936)
1989 Martti Talvela, Finnish bass (b. 1935)
1990 Manuel Puig, Argentine writer (b. 1932)
1996 Rob Collins, English keyboardist (The Charlatans) (b. 1956)
1998 Hermann Prey, German bass-baritone (b. 1929)
1998 Alan Shepard, American astronaut (b. 1923)
1999 Gar Samuelson, American drummer (Megadeth) (b. 1958)
2000 Eric Christmas, British actor (born 1916)
2000 Claude Sautet, French movie director (b. 1924)
From 2001
2001 Indro Montanelli, Italian journalist and writer (b. 1909)
2003 Wahome Muthahi, Kenyan humourist (b. 1954)
2003 Qusay Hussein of Iraq, son of Saddam Hussein (b. 1966)
2003 Uday Hussein of Iraq, son of Saddam Hussein (b. 1964)
2004 Sacha Distel, French singer (b. 1933)
2004 George Kidd, Canadian diplomat (b. 1917)
2005 Jean Charles de Menezes, Brazilian shooting victim (b. 1978)
2007 Ulrich Muhe, German actor (b. 1953)
2007 Laszlo Kovacs, Hungarian-American cinematographer (b. 1933)
2008 Estelle Getty, American actress (b. 1923)
2010 Kenny Guinn, American politician, 27th Governor of Nevada (b. 1936)
2011 Linda Christian, American actress (b. 1924)
2011 Tore Eikeland, Norwegian youth politician (b. 1989) (2011 Norway attacks)
2012 Bohdan Stupka, Ukrainian actor and former culture minister (b. 1941)
2012 George Armitage Miller, American psychologist (b. 1920)
2012 Oswaldo Paya, Cuban activist (b. 1952)
2013 Dennis Farina, American actor (b. 1944)
2013 Lawrie Reilly, Scottish footballer (b. 1928)
2014 John Blundell, English economist (b. 1952)
2015 Christopher M. Fairman, American legal scholar (b. 1960)
2015 Eddie Hardin, British rock musician (b. 1949)
2015 Jeannette Cathy, American philanthropist (b. 1923)
2016 Viktor Kryzhanivskyi, Ukrainian artist (b. 1950)
2016 Ursula Franklin, German-American scientist, author and educator (b. 1921)
2017 Kostiantyn Sytnyk, Ukrainian botanist and politician (b. 1926)
2017 Artyom Tarasov, Russian businessman and political activist (b. 1950)
2017 Jim Vance, American news anchor (b. 1942)
2017 Fritz Hellwig, German politician (b. 1912)
2018 Rene Portland, American basketball player (b. 1953)
2018 Chiyo Miyako, Japanese supercentenarian (b. 1901)
2018 Tony Sparano, American football coach (b. 1961)
2018 Tor Erling Staff, Norwegian lawyer (b. 1932)
2018 Manos Eleutheriou, Greek poet (b. 1938)
2019 Peter Hamm, German poet and journalist (b. 1937)
2019 Christopher C. Kraft Jr., American aerospace engineer (b. 1924)
2019 Brigitte Kronauer, German writer (b. 1940)
2019 Hans Lagerqvist, Swedish pole vaulter (b. 1940)
2019 Art Neville, American musician (b. 1937)
2019 Li Peng, Premier of the People's Republic of China (b. 1928)
Observances
Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene
Pi Approximation Day
Days of the year