History for May 22

History for May 22 - On-This-Day.com
Wilhelm Richard Wagner 1813 - Composer, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 1859 - Author of Sherlock Holmes detective novels, Sir Laurence Olivier (Laurence Kerr Olivier) 1907 - Actor, director, producer 


Peter Nero (Bernard Nierow) 1934 - Pianist, conductor , Paul Winfield 1939 - Actor ("Sounder"), Barbara Parkins 1942 - Actress 


1819 - The steamship Savannah became the first to cross the Atlantic Ocean. 


1841 - Henry Kennedy received a patent for the first reclining chair. 


1849 - Abraham Lincoln received a patent for the floating dry dock. 


1892 - Dr. Washington Sheffield invented the toothpaste tube. 


1906 - The Wright brothers received a patent their flying machine. 


1939 - Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini signed a military alliance between Germany and Italy known as the "Pact of Steel." 


1947 - The Truman Doctrine was enacted by the U.S. Congress to appropriate military and economic aid Turkey and Greece. 

1955 - A scheduled dance to be headlined by Fats Domino was canceled by police in Bridgeport, Connecticut because "rock and roll dances might be featured." 


1967 - "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" premiered on PBS. 


1977 - Janet Guthrie set the fastest time of the second weekend of qualifying, becoming the first woman to earn a starting spot in the Indianapolis 500 since its inception in 1911.