Something to think about.Something to discover.Something to remember.Every day.
⌕ My Time Capsule

Explore 22 April

Explore 22 April: Cabral’s fleet sights the coast of Brazil, Spain and Portugal divide the far side of the world at Zaragoza, chlorine gas is released at Ypres and millions of Americans mark the first Earth Day. Meet Vladimir Nabokov, Charles Mingus and Issey Miyake, born on this date, and remember Miguel de Cervantes.

This day through time →12 verified events across 4 eras

⌛12Full
Timeline ◈4Historic
Moments ♙8Born
Today ✦5Lives
Remembered ◉1Firsts &
Discoveries ☆1Sporting
Moments
Pedro Álvares Cabral, in a detail from a painting by Aurélio de Figueiredo.
Pedro Álvares Cabral, in a detail from a painting by Aurélio de Figueiredo.
Image creditAurélio de Figueiredo · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
1500

Cabral’s fleet sights the coast of Brazil

On 22 April 1500 lookouts on a Portuguese fleet bound for India saw a tall, rounded hill rising from the western sea. Pedro Álvares Cabral had swung his 13 ships far out into the Atlantic to catch the winds around Africa, and instead found a coast no European had charted.

He named the hill Monte Pascoal and the land the Island of the True Cross, sent a ship home with the news and claimed it for Portugal. The territory later took its name from brazilwood, the red dye timber that became its first export, and Brazil still marks the landing each year.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: Biblioteca Nacional (Brazil): 22 de abril de 1500 - Esquadra de Pedro Álvares Cabral chega ao Brasil ↗
A modern map of the lines dividing the Spanish and Portuguese spheres under the treaties of Tordesillas (1494) and Zaragoza (1529).
A modern map of the lines dividing the Spanish and Portuguese spheres under the treaties of Tordesillas (1494) and Zaragoza (1529).
Image creditLencer · CC BY-SA 3.0Resized and cropped for display.
1529

Spain and Portugal divide the far side of the world

On 22 April 1529 envoys of Charles V of Spain and John III of Portugal signed a treaty at Zaragoza to end their quarrel over the Moluccas, the Spice Islands of present-day Indonesia. Both crowns had claimed the islands since Magellan’s expedition reached them, because nobody could measure longitude well enough to say whose side of the world they lay on.

Spain gave up its claim in return for a large cash payment, and a line was drawn through the Pacific east of the islands. Portugal kept its grip on the clove and nutmeg trade, while Spain went on to settle the Philippines.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: Britannica: Treaty of Saragossa ↗
The Brooding Soldier at Saint-Julien, Belgium, Canada's memorial to the men who faced the first gas attacks in April 1915.
The Brooding Soldier at Saint-Julien, Belgium, Canada’s memorial to the men who faced the first gas attacks in April 1915.
Image creditBigBlobfish · CC0Resized and cropped for display.
1915

Chlorine gas is released at Ypres

Late on 22 April 1915 German troops opened thousands of cylinders along a stretch of front north of Ypres in Belgium, and a greenish-yellow cloud of chlorine drifted on the wind towards French and Algerian soldiers. It was the first large-scale use of a lethal gas on the Western Front, and it opened a wide gap in the Allied line.

The Germans were not ready to exploit the breach, and Canadian and other troops closed it over the following days. Gas masks soon became standard kit, and both sides went on to use chemical weapons for the rest of the war.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: Imperial War Museums: What you need to know about the Second Battle of Ypres ↗
The Earth Day flag designed by John McConnell, using a NASA photograph of the Earth.
The Earth Day flag designed by John McConnell, using a NASA photograph of the Earth.
Image creditJohn McConnell (design); NASA (Earth photograph); SiBr4 (image) · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
1970

The first Earth Day

On 22 April 1970 an estimated 20 million Americans took part in the first Earth Day, with teach-ins, rallies and clean-ups in schools, colleges and town centres. The idea came from Wisconsin senator Gaylord Nelson, who wanted to turn growing alarm about smog, oil spills and pesticides into a national debate.

Within months the US government had created the Environmental Protection Agency, and laws on clean air and water followed. Earth Day spread worldwide and is now marked in almost every country.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: US EPA: The Spirit of the First Earth Day ↗
♙
PEOPLE

Born Today

Ethel Smyth
Image creditAdam Cuerden · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
Born 1858

Ethel Smyth

English composer and suffragette who wrote ‘The March of the Women’.

Sidney Nolan
Image creditAlbert Tucker · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
Born 1917

Sidney Nolan

Australian painter best known for his series on the outlaw Ned Kelly.

Charles Mingus
Image creditTom Marcello Webster · CC BY-SA 2.0Resized and cropped for display.
Born 1922

Charles Mingus

American jazz bassist and composer whose fierce, sprawling music shaped modern jazz.

Jack Nicholson
Image creditGeorges Biard · CC BY-SA 3.0Resized and cropped for display.
Born 1937

Jack Nicholson

American actor with three Oscars, from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest to As Good as It Gets.

Issey Miyake
Image creditHsinhuei Chiou · CC BY-SA 4.0Resized and cropped for display.
Born 1938

Issey Miyake

Japanese fashion designer famous for pleated fabrics and technology-led clothing.

◉
IDEAS THAT CHANGED THINGS

Firsts, Science & Discoveries

The paddle steamer Sirius, around 1838, by George Atkinson.
The paddle steamer Sirius, around 1838, by George Atkinson.
Image creditGeorge Atkinson Jnr · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
1838

The Sirius steams into New York

On 22 April 1838 the small paddle steamer Sirius reached New York after 18 days at sea from Cork in Ireland, the first ship to cross the Atlantic westward under steam power throughout. The larger Great Western, built for the crossing by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, arrived only hours behind her.

The Sirius was a coastal ship pressed into the race and ran very short of fuel, though stories that her crew burned the furniture are exaggerated. The Great Western’s easier passage showed that big steamships could run a regular transatlantic service.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: IEEE Spectrum: Crossing the Atlantic ↗
☆
SPORTING HISTORY

Sporting Moments

Suhaili, Robin Knox-Johnston's ketch, at Gosport in 2018.
Suhaili, Robin Knox-Johnston’s ketch, at Gosport in 2018.
Image creditThomas Keyser · CC BY-SA 4.0Resized and cropped for display.
1969

The first solo non-stop voyage round the world

On 22 April 1969 Robin Knox-Johnston sailed his 32-foot ketch Suhaili into Falmouth in Cornwall, 312 days after he had left the same port. He had gone round the world alone without stopping or taking on supplies, something no one had done before.

He was the only one of nine starters to finish the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race, having sailed on after losing his self-steering gear in the Southern Ocean. He gave his prize money to the family of a rival who had died at sea.

Read the full storyHistory & Timeline →Source: Royal Museums Greenwich: Suhaili arriving at Falmouth at the end of her non-stop round-the-world voyage (photograph, 22 April 1969) ↗
✦
LIVES REMEMBERED

Remembered Today

Henry Campbell-Bannerman
Image creditGeorge Charles Beresford · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
Died 1908

Henry Campbell-Bannerman

British Liberal prime minister whose government began major social reforms.

Henry Royce
Image creditUnknown · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
Died 1933

Henry Royce

English engineer who founded Rolls-Royce with Charles Rolls and designed its cars and aero engines.

Käthe Kollwitz
Image creditHugo Erfurth · Public domainResized and cropped for display.
Died 1945

Käthe Kollwitz

German artist whose prints and sculptures showed the suffering of war and poverty.

HISTORY & TIMELINE

Finished the highlights?

Follow 22 April chronologically, from the Middle Ages to the modern day, with 12 verified events and the sources behind them.

This day through time →
Sources & further reading