President Harry Truman signed the legislation providing $400 million in military and economic aid to Greece and Turkey, formally implementing the Truman Doctrine and committing the United States to containing Soviet expansion.
Yorkist forces under Richard, Duke of York, defeated a Lancastrian royal army in the narrow streets of the market town of St Albans, killing the Duke of Somerset and capturing King Henry VI. The short engagement opened a thirty-year dynastic conflict that transformed English military organization and succession politics.
South Carolina Representative Preston Brooks brutally beat Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner on the Senate floor over his anti-slavery speech, deepening the sectional crisis that led to the Civil War.
Britain's worst rail disaster occurred at Quintinshill, Scotland, when a troop train carrying soldiers of the 1/7th Royal Scots crashed, killing 226 and injuring 246, devastating the battalion before it could reach Gallipoli.
German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano signed the Pact of Steel in Berlin, converting the existing Anti-Comintern Pact into a formal military alliance with automatic commitments to join each other's wars. The agreement locked Italy into the alliance structure that produced the Second World War.
Mexico formally declared war on Germany, Italy, and Japan after U-boats sank two Mexican oil tankers, making it one of only two Latin American nations to see combat in World War II.
President Truman signed the legislation providing $400 million in aid to Greece and Turkey, formally implementing the Truman Doctrine.
The most powerful earthquake ever recorded, magnitude 9.5, struck southern Chile, killing roughly 1,600 people and generating Pacific-wide tsunamis. Military forces from the United States, Argentina, Brazil, and Peru conducted one of the first coordinated multinational disaster response operations in the Western Hemisphere.
The intelligence ship USS Liberty received orders to proceed to the Eastern Mediterranean to monitor the escalating Six-Day War crisis, setting the stage for the controversial Israeli attack on June 8.
The nuclear attack submarine USS Scorpion (SSN-589) failed to arrive at Norfolk on schedule and was declared lost with 99 officers and enlisted crew. The wreck was located on the seabed near the Azores in October 1968 and remains one of only two American nuclear submarines ever lost.
The Yemen Arab Republic and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen formally merged into the Republic of Yemen in a ceremony at Aden. The unification combined two separate armed forces with incompatible equipment, doctrine, and political cultures, and the resulting integration problems produced a civil war four years later.
Military investigations into prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq expanded as additional evidence emerged, leading to courts-martial and reforms in detainee treatment policies.
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General of the Army and General of the Air Force Henry "Hap" Arnold, the only person to hold five-star rank in two services, who built the US Army Air Forces into the world's most powerful air arm during WWII.
US Navy diving officer during the Korean War who later became a pioneering civil rights leader and San Francisco politician.
Last Byzantine Emperor who died defending Constantinople against the Ottoman siege, fighting to the last in one of history's most consequential battles.
11 military events occurred on May 22, spanning multiple centuries. Key events include: Truman Signs Aid to Greece and Turkey (1947), Congressman Preston Brooks Canes Senator Sumner (1856), USS Scorpion Lost with All Hands in the Atlantic (1968), Pact of Steel Signed Between Germany and Italy (1939).
The most significant military event on May 22 is Truman Signs Aid to Greece and Turkey (1947). President Harry Truman signed the legislation providing $400 million in military and economic aid to Greece and Turkey, formally implementing the Truman Doctrine and committing the United States to containing Soviet expansion.
Notable military figures born on May 22 include Hap Arnold (1886–present), Harvey Milk (1930–present).
Events on May 22 span the Cold War, the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Modern Era, the Colonial & Revolutionary era, covering 11 events across 4 centuries of military history.
Events on May 22 involve 3 branches of the U.S. and allied armed forces, reflecting the global scope of military operations throughout history.
Explore military history from the day you were born.
June 6
The Allied invasion of Normandy, the largest amphibious assault in history.
December 7
Japan attacks the U.S. Pacific Fleet, bringing America into World War II.
September 11
The deadliest terrorist attack in history transforms U.S. national security.
August 6
The first atomic bomb is dropped on a city, ushering in the nuclear age.
May 8
Nazi Germany surrenders unconditionally, ending World War II in Europe.
November 11
Armistice Day marks the end of World War I and honors all who served.
June 4
The turning point of the Pacific War as the U.S. Navy destroys four Japanese carriers.
July 4
The Declaration of Independence is adopted, sparking the American Revolution.
The FIM-92 Stinger helped win the Cold War by turning Afghan mujahideen into a credible anti-aircraft threat. By 2023, the United States almost ran out of them, because Raytheon stopped making them for 13 years, and the first 10 months of Ukraine support burned through the remaining stockpile.
These weapons were built to fight a war that everyone prayed would never happen. The Minuteman III has been on alert since 1970. The Typhoon-class carried enough nuclear warheads to destroy a continent. The Davy Crockett could be fired by three soldiers. Most of them have been waiting for 40 years. Here are 10 Cold War weapons built exclusively for World War III.
The MiG-31 was designed to catch the SR-71 Blackbird. It is still the fastest fighter in any air force. The Foxhound's Zaslon phased-array radar, the first ever installed in a fighter, can track 10 targets and engage 4 simultaneously at ranges exceeding 200 miles. Here is why Russia still flies a 1980s interceptor, and why the MiG-31BM carrying a Kinzhal hypersonic missile has changed what the aircraft means to modern warfare.
Nineteen armies on four continents chose the Leopard 2. No other Western tank comes close to this export record, and the reasons go far beyond German engineering.
