FRIDAY, May 22, 2026

334 BC -Macedonian army of Alexander the Great defeats Darius III of Persia in the Battle of the Granicus

1570-First atlas "Theatrum Orbis Terrarum" (Theatre of the World) is published by Abraham Ortelius in Antwerp with 70 maps

1843-First wagon train departs Independence, Missouri, for Oregon with 700 to 1,000 migrants

1939-Germany's Adolf Hitler and Italy's Benito Mussolini sign the "Pact of Steel" formalizing the 1936 alliance known as the Rome-Berlin Axis

1960-A magnitude 9.4-9.6 earthquake strikes near the city of Valdivia in Chile, the strongest ever recorded, causing multiple tsunamis and killing 1,000-7,000 people

1980-Video game Pac-Man created by Toru Iwatani is first released in Japan

2014-Royal Thai Armed Forces, led by General Prayut Chan-o-cha, stage a coup in Thailand, suspend the kingdom's constitution, and take control of the government, the 12th since the country's first coup in 1932