On This Day for April 22 - First Earth Day, Miguel de Cervantes is featured, and more

This message contains graphics. If you do not see the graphics, click here to view. April 22 FEATURED BIOGRAPHY Miguel de Cervantes READ MORE   FEATURED EVENT 1970 First Earth Day READ MORE   Advertisement Advertisement   MORE EVENTS ON THIS DAY 2016: More than 170 countries signed the Paris Agreement on climate change, a landmark treaty that sought to control and reduce greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere; it took effect in November 2016. [Is climate change real?] 2004: American football player Pat Tillman, who had left his lucrative NFL career to enlist in the army following the September 11 attacks, died in Afghanistan; although initial reports claimed he was killed by enemy forces, it was eventually revealed that he had died in a friendly-fire incident. 1994: Former U.S. president Richard M. Nixon, who was the first American president to resign from office, died. [Take our U.S. presidents quiz.] 1937: American actor Jack Nicholson—one of the most prominent motion-picture actors of his generation, especially noted for his versatile portrayals of unconventional, alienated outsiders—was born. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about movie actors.] 1915: During World War I, German forces introduced the systematized use of chemical warfare when they released chlorine gas along a 4-mile (6-km) front at the Second Battle of Ypres. [ Take our quiz about wartime Germany.] 1904: American theoretical physicist and science administrator J. Robert Oppenheimer, who served as director of the Los Alamos laboratory in New Mexico during development of the atomic bomb, was born. [ Watch U.S. B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay drop a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima in 1945.] SEE ALL EVENTS ON THIS DAY ALSO BORN ON THIS DAY 1870 Vladimir Lenin prime minister of Soviet Union 1937 Jack Nicholson American actor 1724 Immanuel Kant German philosopher 1904 J. Robert Oppenheimer American physicist 1982 Kaká Brazilian football player 1986 Marshawn Lynch American football player SEE ALL BIOS ON THIS DAY   Advertisement   FOLLOW: To unsubscribe from Britannica e-mails, click here. Encyclopædia Britannica 325 N. LaSalle Street, Suite 200 Chicago, Illinois 60654 United States © 2020 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. Privacy Policy • Help