Daily List

Today in History, May 22nd

On May 22, 1856, Rep. Preston Brooks beat Sen. Charles Sumner with a cane in the Senate. Plus Chile's 1960 earthquake and the Joplin tornado.

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

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

May 22 is best known for 1856, when South Carolina congressman Preston Brooks beat Massachusetts senator Charles Sumner with a cane on the Senate floor, a sign of how bitter the fight over slavery had become. The date also saw one of the largest earthquakes on record strike Chile in 1960 and a deadly tornado hit Joplin, Missouri, in 2011.

The big story: A congressman canes a senator (1856)

By 1856 the Kansas Territory had become a battlefield over slavery, because the Kansas-Nebraska Act let settlers vote on whether to allow it. On May 19, Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, a fierce abolitionist, rose in the Senate and began a two-day speech on what he called the “crime against Kansas.” Along the way he insulted three fellow senators by name. One was Andrew Butler of South Carolina, who was old, ill and not even in the room. Butler’s cousin, Representative Preston Brooks, took it personally. On May 22 Brooks walked into the Senate chamber, found Sumner sitting at his desk and beat him with a cane. The desk was bolted to the floor, which trapped Sumner’s legs and left him unable to get away until other lawmakers finally pulled Brooks off. The reaction split along regional lines. Southern admirers mailed Brooks new canes, while Northerners were outraged. Sumner needed three years to recover before he returned to the Senate.

More events on May 22

Year	What happened
1455	Yorkist forces defeated King Henry VI’s Lancastrian army at St. Albans, the opening battle of England’s Wars of the Roses.
1802	Martha Washington, the first first lady, died at Mount Vernon.
1843	About a thousand pioneers set out westward on the Oregon Trail.
1849	Abraham Lincoln received a patent for a boat-lifting device. He is the only U.S. president to hold a patent.
1885	Victor Hugo, the most important of the French Romantic writers, died at 83.
1939	Germany and Italy signed the Pact of Steel, a military alliance that formally created the Axis.
1960	One of the largest earthquakes on record struck southern Chile, killing about 5,700 people.
1972	President Richard Nixon arrived in Moscow for summit talks, his first visit to the Soviet Union as president.
1990	North and South Yemen merged to form the Republic of Yemen.
1992	Johnny Carson hosted his last episode of The Tonight Show after nearly 30 years, drawing about 50 million viewers.
2011	A tornado tore through Joplin, Missouri, killing about 160 people, one of the deadliest twisters in U.S. history.
2017	A suicide bomber struck Manchester Arena in England as an Ariana Grande concert ended, killing 22 people.

Born on May 22

1813: Richard Wagner, German composer of the Ring operas, born in Leipzig.
1844: Mary Cassatt, American Impressionist painter, born in Allegheny City (now part of Pittsburgh), Pennsylvania.
1859: Arthur Conan Doyle, Scottish author who created Sherlock Holmes.
1930: Harvey Milk, San Francisco supervisor and one of the first openly gay elected officials in the U.S., born in Woodmere, New York.