Feast Day (1) | Doppelgängers (9) | Birthdays (5) | Events (4) | Passed (3)

May 22, 2002

1 Feast Day

Check out yesterday too, if you missed it!

The most arduous campaign.
- Oliver Otis Howard

9 Doppelgängers Today

I track 9,188 doppelgängers out of 21,283 people in my custom software, specializing in look alikes who were born in the same week in history. Similar looking public figures are always born within a few days of each other. This is a phenommenon seen across all of documented history.

Born within 5 days in 1886

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Born within 3 days in 1891

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Born within 4 days in 1979

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Born within 4 days in 1951

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Born within 4 days in 1987

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Born within 1 day in 1942

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Born within 1 day in 1972

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Born in 1965 and 1938

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Born within 1 day in 1930

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5 Birthdays Today

4 Events
On This Day

Check out yesterday too, if you missed it!

3 People Who
Passed On This Day

The Stage now has its own page!

May 22 is the 142nd day of the year in 2026, with 223 days remaining. In 2026, it falls on a Friday. It sits in late spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and May itself is the fifth Gregorian month, traditionally linked to fertility, flowers, and Maia. (Time and Date)

Observances and feast days

International Day for Biological Diversity is observed on May 22. The UN General Assembly chose this date to mark the adoption of the text of the Convention on Biological Diversity on May 22, 1992. A perfect day for flowers, forests, beetles, birds, and the entire secret parliament of moss. (Convention on Biological Diversity)

In the Catholic calendar, May 22 is the feast of Saint Rita of Cascia, an Augustinian nun remembered as the patroness of impossible or lost causes. (Vatican News) May is also traditionally dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary in Catholic devotion. (Catholic Culture)

Historical events

337 — Constantine the Great dies. One of the most consequential emperors in Christian history, his death belongs to the long hinge between Rome, empire, and the Christian world. (On This Day)

1807 — Aaron Burr goes on trial for treason. After the Hamilton duel and political collapse, Burr faced charges connected to alleged schemes in the American West and Spanish territories; he was acquitted. (Encyclopedia Britannica)

1849 — Abraham Lincoln receives a patent. Lincoln became the only U.S. president to hold a patent, for a device meant to help boats float over shoals and obstructions. Inventor-president! Tiny mechanical riverboat wizardry! (Time)

1908 — The Wright Brothers receive their aircraft patent. A good aviation-and-invention marker for the day. (KidsKonnect)

1960 — The Great Chilean earthquake. The strongest earthquake ever recorded, magnitude 9.5, struck southern Chile and generated tsunamis across the Pacific. (AP News)

1964 — Lyndon B. Johnson outlines the “Great Society.” At the University of Michigan, Johnson described a program aimed at ending poverty and racial injustice and improving American civic life. (The American Presidency Project)

1969 — Apollo 10’s lunar module Snoopy flies near the Moon. Thomas Stafford and Eugene Cernan flew the Lunar Module Snoopy independently while John Young remained in the Command Module Charlie Brown—a glorious pop-culture-meets-spaceflight moment. (LPI)

1992 — Johnny Carson hosts his final Tonight Show. A major American television handoff moment, marking the end of one of late-night TV’s defining eras. (AP News)

Notable births

Richard Wagner — born May 22, 1813, composer of huge mythic operatic machinery. (UPI)
Mary Cassatt — born May 22, 1844, American Impressionist painter and printmaker, famous for intimate scenes of women and children. (Encyclopedia Britannica)
Arthur Conan Doyle — born May 22, 1859, creator of Sherlock Holmes. (Time)
Laurence Olivier — born May 22, 1907, one of the great Shakespearean actors of the 20th century. (Ranker)
Morrissey — born May 22, 1959, singer and lyricist of The Smiths. (AP News)
Naomi Campbell — born May 22, 1970, supermodel and fashion icon. (AP News)
Novak Djokovic — born May 22, 1987, tennis champion. (AP News)

Famous deaths

Martha Washington — died May 22, 1802.
Victor Hugo — died May 22, 1885, author of Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.
Langston Hughes — died May 22, 1967, poet, playwright, and central Harlem Renaissance figure. (Famous Birthdays)

Popular culture connection

The day’s perfect pop-culture emblem is Snoopy orbiting the Moon. Apollo 10 turned the serious dress rehearsal for the Moon landing into a Peanuts-coded cosmic adventure: Charlie Brown in the command module, Snoopy in the lunar module, and humanity rehearsing the impossible with cartoon names attached. (LPI)

Songs for the day

19th century: Wagner — Ride of the Valkyries
For Richard Wagner’s birthday: thunder, myth, horses, and the opera machine going absolutely berserk.

20th century: The Smiths — There Is a Light That Never Goes Out
For Morrissey’s birthday: gloomy, romantic, theatrical, and extremely May-22-in-a-black-cardigan.

21st century: Sufjan Stevens — Mystery of Love
For the biodiversity / Saint Rita / impossible-causes mood: delicate, floral, devotional, and full of longing.

Bible quote

“O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.”
— Psalm 104:24, KJV

A perfect verse for the International Day for Biological Diversity: the Earth as a living archive of divine variety.

Quote for May 22

“What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?”
— often attributed to Vincent van Gogh

That fits the day beautifully: Lincoln’s patent, the Wright Brothers, Apollo 10, Saint Rita, and all lost causes that refuse to stay lost.

Poem for the day

For May 22, I’d choose “Pied Beauty” by Gerard Manley Hopkins—a poem of praise for spotted, speckled, varied creation. It belongs to biodiversity day like a stained-glass beetle belongs on a leaf.

“Glory be to God for dappled things…”

A day of inventors, painters, detectives, impossible saints, lunar beagles, and the wild catalog of living things.