Aug. 22
Today in history
Today is Aug. 22. On this date in:
1485: The War of the Roses ended with the defeat of King Richard III by Henry Tudor at the Battle of Bosworth Field. The Tudor dynasty lasted until Queen Elizabeth died in 1603. Richard was buried nearby in an unmarked tomb that was rediscovered under a parking lot in 2012.
1864: Twelve European governments signed the Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field. It declared that medical personnel were neutral and adopted the identifying sign of a red cross on white. The organization soon became known as the International Committee of the Red Cross.
1922: Irish revolutionary and politician Michael Collins was assassinated in County Cork at the age
of 31. At one time the British had put 10,000 pounds on his head, but he was killed by Irishmen who opposed the peace treaty he had signed that gave Ireland dominion status, like Canada and Australia, in exchange for an oath of allegiance to the crown.
1932: The BBC began experimental TV broadcasts. The technology captured the image by beaming light through a spinning mechanical disc, unlike future TVs, and was silent.
1939: The United States granted its first patent for a pressurized aerosol spray device. Julius Seth Kahn’s “Apparatus for Mixing a Liquid with a Gas” envisioned whipped cream delivered from a glass soda bottle “through a constricted orifice.”
1950: Althea Gibson broke the color barrier in tennis, becoming the first Black player to compete at the U.S. Nationals. Gibson, who grew up in Harlem, went on to win Wimbledon and the U.S. Open and later became the first Black player to compete in the Ladies Professional Golf Association.
1973: President Richard Nixon announced that he was nominating Henry Kissinger as his new secretary of state. Kissinger said his goal was to solidify international successes that had been accomplished in secret.
1978: Nicaraguan rebel Sandinistas opposed to Anastasio Somoza Debayle’s government took over the country’s National Palace. They held more than 1,500 people hostage for two days and won most of their demands, including $500,000 and the return of 58 prisoners.
1989: Fashion editor Diana Vreeland died in New York City. “She was called an oracle, the high priestess of fashion, a myth maker,” The New York Times eulogized. After her magazine career, she reinvented the Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Institute.
1992: In the second day of a standoff in Ruby Ridge, Idaho, an FBI sniper opened fire on white separatist Randy Weaver, killing his wife, Vicki. The event became a byword in the militia movement, influencing Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.
1996: Having promised to “end welfare as we know it,” President Bill Clinton signed the so-called “welfare to work” bill. Infuriating liberals, the reforms required recipients to work after two years of welfare, put a five-year lifetime limit on federal welfare benefits and encouraged two-parent families.
– USA TODAY Network
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Today in history, August 22
