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MyWikiBiz, Author Your Legacy — Wednesday January 07, 2009

April 22 in history:

• 1997: Peruvian commandos raided and brought to an end a prolonged hostage crisis at the Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima, which had been seized by Túpac Amaru guerrillas the previous December.

• 1994: Richard M. Nixon, 37th president of the United States (1969–74) and the only one to resign from the office, died in New York City.

• 1970: Sen. Gaylord Nelson and a pack of globally thinking students organized Earth Day, now an annual worldwide event.

• 1954: The Army-McCarthy hearings, which investigated a quarrel between the Department of the Army and Republican senator Joseph R. McCarthy, began in the U.S. Senate; they were televised in their entirety, reaching an estimated 20 million people.

• 1915: Germany launched the first large-scale poison gas attack as the Second Battle of Ypres began; chlorine gas was released and carried by the wind to Allied troops, who had no means of defense at that time.

• 1889: In Oklahoma, plots in the Unassigned Lands not reserved for Indian tribes were opened for settlement; would-be landowners who jumped the gun in the land rush came to be called "sooners."

• 1509: Henry VIII, the king of England who instigated the Reformation of the church in order to secure a divorce from the first of his six wives, succeeded to the throne.