On This Day

Today in History, March 22nd

On March 22, 1765, Parliament passed the Stamp Act, taxing paper in the American colonies. Plus the ERA's Senate vote and the Arab League.

By Today in History Updated November 10, 2026 3 min read Sources checked

Published March 22, 2026 · Last updated November 10, 2026

March 22 is best known for 1765, when the British Parliament passed the Stamp Act, a tax on printed paper in the American colonies that set off a wave of protest. The date also saw the U.S. Senate approve the Equal Rights Amendment in 1972 and the founding of the Arab League in 1945.

The big story: Parliament Passes the Stamp Act (1765)

Britain came out of the Seven Years’ War with a much bigger empire in North America and a much bigger debt. Parliament’s answer was to have the colonists help pay for their own defense. On March 22, 1765, it passed the Stamp Act, a direct tax on the paper colonists used every day: newspapers, pamphlets, legal and commercial documents, even playing cards and dice. It followed the Sugar Act and Currency Act of 1764, and colonists were in no mood for another bill. Their objection was less about the price than the principle. They had no members in Parliament, so they argued they were being taxed without representation. Protest groups such as the Sons of Liberty sprang up in Boston and other port cities, and in October 1765 delegates from nine colonies met as the Stamp Act Congress. Parliament repealed the tax in 1766, but the argument it started did not go away.

More events on March 22

Year	What happened
1621	Plymouth’s leaders and the Wampanoag chief Massasoit agreed to a peace treaty, the first between English colonists and a Native American nation. It held for more than 50 years (Old Style date).
1622	Powhatan warriors led by Opechancanough launched coordinated attacks on Jamestown’s outlying plantations, killing about 347 colonists and starting the Powhatan War (Old Style date).
1820	Naval hero Stephen Decatur was mortally wounded in a duel with Commodore James Barron at Bladensburg, Maryland. He died hours later.
1832	Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, author of Faust and Germany’s towering literary figure, died in Weimar.
1894	The Montreal Amateur Athletic Association beat the Ottawa Generals in Montreal in the first Stanley Cup championship game.
1933	President Franklin Roosevelt signed a law allowing the sale of beer and wine, loosening Prohibition and raising tax money months before its full repeal.
1934	The first Masters golf tournament began at Augusta National in Georgia. Horton Smith won at four under par.
1945	Seven Arab states, including Egypt, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, founded the Arab League in Cairo.
1972	The U.S. Senate passed the Equal Rights Amendment and sent it to the states. It fell short of the 38 ratifications it needed.
2014	A hillside collapsed near Oso, Washington, after weeks of rain, killing 43 people and destroying 49 homes in one of the deadliest landslides in U.S. history.

Born on March 22

1599: Anthony van Dyck, Flemish Baroque painter famed for his portraits of European nobility.
1908: Louis L’Amour, best-selling author of more than 100 western novels.
1930: Stephen Sondheim, the Broadway songwriter behind West Side Story, Sweeney Todd and Into the Woods.
1948: Andrew Lloyd Webber, English composer of Cats and The Phantom of the Opera.