1859, 22 May
Birth of Arthur Conan Doyle, Medic during the Second Boer War and subsequent author of the Sherlock Holmes stories.
1900, 22 May
US President McKinley says he will not intervene in the war in South Africa despite direct requests by Boer representatives visiting the White House.
1904, 22 May
American Secretary of State Hay warns Moroccan authorities that Perdicaris must be brought back alive, or his abductor, Raizuli, dead.
1916, 22 May
Defeat at Beringia for the forces of the Sultan of Dafur.
1925, 22 May
Death of H Rider Haggard (born 22 June 1856).
1941, 22 May - World War II: East Africa
Caught between a pincer movement of the 11th and 12th African Divisions, the Abyssinian town of Soddu is captured. It was the penultimate point of resistance to the Allied campaign in East Africa; only Gondar, to the north, still remains under Italian control.
1957, 22 May
USS McGowan, a destroyer, is the first US ship to use the Suez Canal since the Suez Crisis.
1967, 22 May
Egyptian premier Gamal Abdel Nasser threatens to close the Tiran Strait, on the Gulf of Aqaba, to Israeli shipping.
