Discover what happened in this year with HISTORY’s summaries of major events, anniversaries, famous births and notable deaths.
Jan
11
On January 11, 1922, 14-year-old Leonard Thompson becomes the first person to receive an injection of the hormone insulin for Type-1 diabetes—a disease that for millennia had been considered a death sentence for anyone who developed it. The breakthrough would be one of the most consequential in medical history, saving millions of lives.
Feb
02
Police discover the body of film director William Desmond Taylor in his Los Angeles bungalow. Lieutenant Tom Ziegler responded to a call about a “natural death” at the Alvarado Street home of Taylor. When he arrived they found actors, actresses and studio executives rummaging through the director’s belongings. He also found Taylor lying on the living room floor with a bullet in his back—not exactly suggesting a “natural” death.
Feb
04
Feb
27
In deciding the case Leser v. Garnett, the U.S. Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of the 19th Amendment—which, when ratified two years earlier, provided American women with the right to vote. The justices were unanimous in their decision to dismiss the challenge.
Mar
10
After years of being repeatedly arrested and detained by his country’s British colonial government for his leadership activity in India’s independence movement, activist and spiritual leader Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is arrested on March 10, 1922 in Bombay on his most serious charge yet: sedition. Gandhi—nicknamed Mahatma, which means “the great-souled one”—is sentenced to six years in prison for protesting the British colonial government.
May
30
May
30
On May 30, 1922, President Warren G. Harding becomes the first president to have his voice transmitted by radio while addressing a crowd at the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial. The broadcast heralded a revolutionary shift in how presidents addressed the American public. It was not until three years later, however, that a president would deliver a radio-specific address. That honor went to President Calvin Coolidge.
Jun
27
On June 27, 1922, the American Library Association (ALA) awards the first Newbery Medal, honoring the year’s best children’s book, to The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem van Loon. The idea for an award honoring outstanding contributions to children’s literature came from Frederic G. Melcher, a former bookseller who in 1918 became an editor of Publisher’s Weekly. Over his long career, Melcher often looked for ways to encourage reading, especially among children. In 1919, he co-founded Children’s Book Week with Franklin K. Mathiews, librarian of the Boy Scouts organization. Two years later, Melcher suggested the creation of a children’s book award at a June 1921 meeting of the Children’s Librarians’ Section of the ALA. He proposed that it should be named for John Newbery, the 18th-century English bookseller and author who was considered the father or ”inventor” of children’s literature.
Aug
22
Nov
04
Nov
26
In Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, British archaeologists Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon become the first souls to enter King Tutankhamen’s tomb in more than 3,000 years. Tutankhamen’s sealed burial chambers were miraculously intact, and inside was a collection of several thousand priceless objects, including a gold coffin containing the mummy of the teenage king.
British archaeologists Howard Carter (1874 – 1939) (left) and Arthur Callender (died 1937) carry out the systematic removal of objects from the antechamber of the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun, better known as King Tut, with the assistance of an Egyptian laborer, Valley of the Kings, Thebes, Egypt, 1923.
Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Dec
10
On December 10, 1922, the Canton Bulldogs defeat the Toledo Maroons, 19-0, and are declared the first champion of the newly renamed National Football League. Canton finishes the season 10-0-2, allowing 15 points and producing nine shutouts. The league champion is determined by best regular-season record.
Dec
30
On December 30, 1922, in post-revolutionary Russia, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) is established, comprising a confederation of Russia, Belorussia, Ukraine and the Transcaucasian Federation (divided in 1936 into the Georgian, Azerbaijan and Armenian republics). Also known as the Soviet Union, the new communist state was the successor to the Russian Empire and the first country in the world to be based on Marxist socialism.
All-Union Congress of Soviets. The beginning of the U.S.S.R. (L. Kotlyarov., oil.) The First All-Union Congress of Soviets was a congress of representatives of Soviets of workers, peasants and Red Army deputies, held on December 30, 1922 in Moscow. The congress was attended by 2215 delegates. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Universal History Archive/Univer
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