What happened on May 22 ?

337 - Constantine the Great, Roman Emperor (b. 272)

1068 - Emperor Go-Reizei of Japan (b. 1025)

1455 - Henry Percy, 2nd Earl of Northumberland, English politician (killed in battle)

1455 - Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset, English commander (killed in battle) (b. 1406)

1457 - Saint Rita of Cascia, Italian saint (b. 1381)

1538 - John Forrest, English Franciscan friar (martyred) (b. 1471)

1540 - Francesco Guicciardini, Italian historian (b. 1483)

1667 - Pope Alexander VII (b. 1599)

1745 - François-Marie, 1st duc de Broglie, French military leader (b. 1671)

1746 - Thomas Southerne, Irish dramatist (b. 1660)

1760 - Israel ben Eliezer, Polish-born mystical rabbi (b. 1700)

1772 - Durastante Natalucci, Italian historian (b. 1687)

1795 - Ewald Friedrich, Count von Hertzberg, Prussian statesman (b. 1725)

1859 - King Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies (b. 1810)

1868 - Julius Plücker, German mathematician and physicist (b. 1801)

1885 - Victor Hugo, French author (b. 1802)

1910 - Jules Renard, French author (b. 1864)

1932 - Lady Gregory, Irish playwright (b. 1852)

1939 - Ernst Toller, German author (b. 1893)

1939 - Jiri Mahen, Czech author (b. 1882)

1966 - Tom Goddard, English cricketer (b. 1900)

1967 - Langston Hughes, American writer (b. 1902)

1972 - Cecil Day-Lewis, Irish poet and writer (b. 1904)

1972 - Margaret Rutherford, English actress (b. 1892)

1983 - Albert Claude, Belgian biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1899)

1988 - Giorgio Almirante, Italian politician (b. 1914)

1990 - Rocky Graziano, American boxer (b. 1922)

1992 - Zellig Harris, American linguist (b. 1909)

1997 - Alfred Hershey, American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1908)

1998 - José Enrique Moyal, mathematical physicist (b. 1910)

2004 - Richard Biggs, American actor (b. 1960)

2004 - Mikhail Voronin, Russian gymnast (b. 1945)

2005 - Charilaos Florakis, Greek politician (b. 1914)

2005 - Julia Randall, American poet (b. 1924)

2005 - Thurl Ravenscroft, American voice actor and singer (b. 1914)

2006 - Lee Jong-wook, the Secretary-General of the World Health Organisation (b. 1945)

2006 - Heather Crowe, Canadian anti-tobacco activist (b. 1945)