Today in History: May 22

1246: Henry Raspe is elected anti-king by the Rhenish prelates in France.

1455: King Henry VI is taken prisoner by the Yorkists at the Battle of St. Albans, during the War of the Roses.

1804: The Lewis and Clark Expedition officially begins as the Corps of Discovery departs from St. Charles, Missouri.

1856: U.S. Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina beats Senator Charles Sumner with a cane for Sumner’s earlier condemnation of slavery, which included an insult to Brooks’ cousin, Senator Andrew Butler.

1863: Union General Ulysses S. Grant’s second attack on Vicksburg fails and a siege begins.

1868: The "Great Train Robbery" takes place as seven members of the Reno Gang make off with $98,000 in cash from a train’s safe in Indiana.

1872: The Amnesty Act restores civil rights to Southerners.

1882: The United States formally recognizes Korea.

1908: The Wright brothers register their flying machine for a U.S. patent.

1939: Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini sign a "Pact of Steel" forming the Axis powers.

1947: The Truman Doctrine brings aid to Turkey and Greece.

1967: The children’s program Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood premiers.

1972: Ceylon becomes the Republic of Sri Lanka as its constitution is ratified.

1985: Baseball player Pete Rose passes Hank Aaron as National League run scoring leader with 2,108.

1990: In the Middle East, North and South Yemen merge to become a single state.

1992: Johnny Carson’s final appearance on The Tonight Show on NBC, after 30 years as the program’s host.

2004: An EF4 tornado with a record-setting width of 2.5 miles wipes out Hallam, Nebraska, killing 1 person.

2004: Farenheit 9-11, directed by Michael Moore, becomes the first documentary ever to win the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

2010: Following a 200-year search for the tomb of Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus his remains are reburied in Frombork Cathedral

2011: An EF5 tornado kills at least 158 people in Joplin, Missouri, the largest death toll from a tornado since record-keeping began in 1950.

2015: The Republic of Ireland, long known as a conservative, predominantly Catholic country, becomes the first nation in the world to legalize gay marriage in a public referendum.