August 22

Today in History
• 1762 - 1st female (Ann Franklin) US newspaper editor, Newport, Rhode Island, Mercury
• 1775 - King George III proclaims colonies to be in open rebellion
• 1787 - John Fitch's steamboat completes its tests, years before Fulton
• 1848 - The United States annexes New Mexico
• 1851 - Gold fields discovered in Australia
• 1865 - William Sheppard is issued the first US patent for liquid soap
• 1901 - Cadillac Motor Company is founded
• 1902 - US President Theodore Roosevelt became 1st US chief executive to ride in a car


Holidays - Traditional and Obscure
• Be An Angel Day
• Folklore Day
• National Bao Day
• National Rainbow Baby Day
• National Take Your Cat to the Vet Day
• Qixi Festival
• Russia National Flag Day
• World Plant Milk Day

Birthdays
• 1647 - Denis Papin, French physicist (Papiniaanse pot, steam machine)
• 1760 - Leo XII [Annibale Sermattei], Italian Pope (1823-29)
• 1771 - Henry Maudslay, English inventor of the metal lathe
• 1788 - Thomas Tredgold, British civil engineer (railway design)
• 1822 - George Stoneman, US Union general-major and Governor of California (1883-87)
• 1834 - Samuel Pierpont Langley, American astronomer and pioneer aviator
• 1845 - William Lewis Douglas, 42nd Governor of Massachusetts
• 1868 - Willis Rodney Whitney, chemist, founder of the General Electric research laboratory