TODAY IN HISTORY

SUNDAY MAY 22, 2022

1964

President Lyndon B. Johnson, speaking at the University of Michigan, outlined the goals of his “Great Society,” saying that it “rests on abundance and liberty for all” and “demands an end to poverty and racial injustice.”

1939

The foreign ministers of Germany and Italy, Joachim von Ribbentrop and Galeazzo Ciano, signed a “Pact of Steel” committing the two countries to a military alliance.

1960

An earthquake of magnitude 9.5, the strongest ever measured, struck southern Chile, claiming some 1,655 lives.

1962

Continental Airlines Flight 11, en route from Chicago to Kansas City, Missouri, crashed after a bomb apparently brought on board by a passenger exploded, killing all 45 occupants of the Boeing 707.

1967

A fire at the L’Innovation department store in Brussels killed 322people. Poet and playwright Langston Hughes died in New York at age 65.

1968

The nuclear-powered submarine USS Scorpion, with 99men aboard, sank in the Atlantic Ocean.

1969

The lunar module of Apollo 10, with Thomas P. Stafford and Eugene Cernan aboard, flew to within nine miles of the moon’s surface in a dress rehearsal for the first lunar landing.

1985

U.S. sailor Michael L. Walker was arrested aboard the aircraft carrier Nimitz, two days after his father, John A. Walker Jr., was apprehended; both were later convicted of spying for the Soviet Union.

1992

After a reign lasting nearly 30years, Johnny Carson hosted NBC’s “Tonight Show” for the final time.

2006

The Department of Veterans Affairs said personal data, including Social Security numbers of 26.5 million U.S. veterans, was stolen from a VA employee after he took the information home without authorization.

2011

A tornado devastated Joplin, Missouri, with winds up to 250 mph, claiming at least 159lives and destroying about 8,000 homes and businesses.

2018

Stacey Abrams won Georgia’s Democratic gubernatorial primary, making her the first woman nominee for Georgia governor from either major party.

2020

“Full House” star Lori Loughlin and her fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli, pleaded guilty to paying half a million dollars into the University of Southern California as part of a college admissions bribery scheme.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Conductor Peter Nero is 88. Actordirector Richard Benjamin is 84. Actor Frank Converse is 84. Former CNN anchor Bernard Shaw is 82. Actor Barbara Parkins is 80. Retired MLB All-Star pitcher Tommy John is 79. Songwriter Bernie Taupin is 72. Actor-producer Al Corley is 67. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, is 65. Singer Morrissey is 63. Actor Ann Cusack is 61.