The opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway ( L&M), often considered the dawn of modern transport, took place on 15 September 1830. Eight trains set out from Liverpool to Manchester carrying dignitaries including the Duke of Wellington, then prime minister. At Parkside the trains stopped to take on water, and former cabinet minister William Huskisson alighted and was struck by a locomotive, suffering fatal injuries. As a large crowd waiting to meet the trains in Manchester was becoming unruly, Wellington decided that the event should continue. On arrival in Manchester a hostile crowd pelted Wellington with vegetables and he ordered the trains return to Liverpool. Faults meant only three of the locomotives were still functional; the party eventually returned six and a half hours late. The accidents led to significant coverage of the opening, raising the profile of the new technology, and within a month schemes were announced to connect the industrial centres of England. ( Full article...)

Sculpture of Lady Katharine Berkeley

• ... that the first founder of a free-to-use English school was Lady Katharine Berkeley (sculpture pictured)?
• ... that the finalists from Nizi Project debuted in the Japanese girl group NiziU?
• ... that Lisa Kahn was described as a prototypical example of a German-American author?
• ... that some 5,000 white people looted a Black church for wood to burn the lynched body of John Carter, a Black man who was hanged and shot in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1927?
• ... that the Harzburger Musiktage is an annual festival founded in a German spa town in 1970 by violinist Luz Leskowitz, who first played there with colleagues from Berlin and Vienna?
• ... that financial troubles at a television station in Florida led to the bankruptcy that caused the 1994 demise of Mississippi radio station WHSY?
• ... that Hampden Park's square wooden goalposts, which were used at Scotland's national football stadium between 1903 and 1987, were later placed on the roof of an English pub?
• ... that future Bangladeshi prime minister Tajuddin Ahmad earned a degree in law after taking his law examination in prison?

Naomi Mataʻafa

• Results of the the Samoan general election are upheld by the Supreme Court, giving the majority to the opposition FAST party led by Naomi Mataʻafa (pictured).
• Darwin's Arch, a rock formation in the Galápagos Islands, collapses due to natural erosion.
• Cyclone Tauktae makes landfall in Gujarat, killing at least 122 people in India and Pakistan and forcing the evacuation of over 200,000 others.
• In association football, Leicester City win the FA Cup, and Manchester City win the Premier League.

May 22: International Day for Biological Diversity

Prayut Chan-o-cha

• 853 – Arab–Byzantine wars: The Byzantine navy began a raid on the Nile Delta port city of Damietta, whose garrison was absent at the time.
• 1766 – An earthquake registering an estimated 7.1  M_s struck Constantinople and was followed by a tsunami that caused significant damage.
• 1844 – In Shiraz, Iran, the Báb declared himself to be a messenger of God to Mullá Husayn, leading to the foundation of Bábism, considered to be a precursor to the Baháʼí Faith.
• 1958 – Ethnic riots mostly targeting the minority Sri Lankan Tamils broke out in Ceylon, resulting in at least 158 deaths over the next few days.
• 2014 – Prayut Chan-o-cha (pictured), the commander-in-chief of the Royal Thai Army, launched a coup d'état against the caretaker government following six months of political crisis.