On March 22, 1779, Benjamin Franklin wrote to Lafayette, praising his energy in opposing Britain. Franklin suggested exploiting the relatively vulnerable coasts of England and Scotland by landing small forces to demand contributions from wealthy towns, which would strain British resources. He emphasized the importance of bold, unexpected strategies and capable leadership to ensure success.

Images via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

On March 22, 1790 Thomas Jefferson became the first United States Secretary of State.

Image: Miniature portrait of Thomas Jefferson by John Trumbull c. 1788 (about two years before Jefferson became U.S. Secretary of State)
via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

FDR signing the Cullen–Harrison Act or “Beer Bill” on March 22, 1933 which was enacted by U.S. Congress on the previous day.

Image via LOC, no known restrictions

A little more than 10 years before the American Revolutionary War, on March 22, 1765, the Stamp Act was approved by British Parliament. The act basically put a tax on almost every printed product to help raise funds for the British military who were stationed in America.
It was enforced in the colonies in November of that year.

Image: Bostonians reading the Stamp Act via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Born March 22, 1907 James M. Gavin served as a private in the US Army, graduated from West Point, and at 37, was the youngest major general to lead a division in WW2. He made four combat jumps, gaining the nickname “Jumpin’ Jim.” Later he served as ambassador to France and opposed US involvement in Vietnam.

Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain in the US

American WWII veteran and Academy Award winning actor Karl Malden was born on March 22, 1912 in Chicago, Illinois. His acting career spanned more than six decades.

Image: Karl Malden from the trailer for the film
“I Confess” in 1953 via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

A woodcut from 1628 by Swiss-born artist Matthäus Merian showing the massacre of nearly 400 English settlers at Jamestown, Virginia on March 22, 1622 during the Second Anglo-Powhatan War.

Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

On March 22, 1794 “An Act to prohibit the carrying on the Slave Trade from the United States to any foreign place or country” was approved by U.S. Congress.

It was the first anti-slave act by U.S. Congress and it would take another 71 years before slavery was abolished in the U.S. with the Thirteenth Amendment.

Image: View of chained African slaves in cargo hold of slave ship, measuring three feet and three inches high via NYPL Digital Collections, no known restrictions

The Marx Brothers: Chico, Harpo and Groucho in 1948

On March 22, 1887 Chico Marx was born in Manhattan, New York

Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Pittsburgh (NL) players at Hot Springs, Arkansas on March 22, 1912

via LOC, no known restrictions

Martin Luther King Jr. is welcomed with a kiss from his wife, Coretta Scott King, after leaving court in Montgomery, AL, on March 22, 1956.

via Wikimedia Commons, no known restrictions

After achieving significant success with a string of hit songs in the mid to late 1970s, the American rock band Heart faced challenges connecting with listeners during the early 1980s. Their fortunes turned around with the release of their self-titled comeback album “Heart” which included the hit song ‘These Dreams.’ On March 22, 1986, it became the #1 song in America, marking a triumphant return to the spotlight.


Image of Heart in 1977 via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Born March 22, 1799, Joseph Saxton left behind one of the earliest surviving photographs in the United States — this 1839 daguerreotype of Philadelphia’s Central High School. Though he likely made several experimental plates, this is the only one known to survive, a fragile remnant of photography’s first days in America. A watchmaker‑turned‑inventor, Saxton later built the precision balances and standards that shaped early work at the U.S. Mint. His legacy begins here, in the single plate that captured America’s first steps into photographic history.

March 22, 1820 — The Death of a Naval Hero

On the morning of March 22, 1820, two senior officers of the young U.S. Navy met on the Bladensburg Dueling Grounds just outside Washington. Commodore Stephen Decatur — already a national icon for his exploits in the Barbary Wars and the War of 1812 — faced Commodore James Barron, a rival whose grievance had festered for years. The exchange lasted only seconds. Decatur fell with a mortal wound.

He was carried back to his home on Lafayette Square, the elegant brick residence that still stands today. There, in the front room of what is now known as Decatur House, the nation’s “hero of the navy” died that night at just 41. John Quincy Adams, shaken by the news, lamented that such a life had been claimed by a “senseless custom” that honor demanded but reason could not defend.

The house remains a landmark in the capital — a place where triumph and tragedy intersect, and where the cost of an era’s unforgiving code of honor is still quietly felt.

Image: Historical plaque at Decatur House, Washington, D.C. from dbking via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 2.0

Skirmish at White River, March 22, 1863

On March 22, 1863, a mixed Union detachment of twenty‑five soldiers from the 1st Arkansas Cavalry (US) and ten local Unionist citizens halted near the headwaters of the White River in Washington County, Arkansas. They had been sent to assist a beef contractor in receiving livestock — a routine duty that required them to move slowly and, due to a chronic shortage of horses in northwest Arkansas, operate entirely on foot.

The group failed to post a picket line. Confederate scouts, alerted by a local informant, guided Major Hall S. McConnell and roughly 200 men of Brooks’s Regiment (CS) to the site. McConnell’s force had ridden up from Clarksville specifically to intercept the escort.

The Confederates struck from three sides, overwhelming the stationary Union party. Colonel Marcus LaRue Harrison later condemned the detachment’s “carelessness” for not securing its perimeter — a lapse that made the ambush decisive.

Casualties were sharply uneven:

• Union: 3 soldiers and 1 citizen killed; 7 soldiers and 8 citizens captured (15 total).
• Confederate: Only Major McConnell was killed, shot while leading the charge on horseback.

The fifteen prisoners were marched west to Elm Springs, a familiar Confederate rendezvous point in the Ozarks, where they were held after the attack.

The skirmish became a stark illustration of the region’s guerrilla war: fast‑moving mounted Confederates exploiting terrain, intelligence, and mobility against Union detachments forced to fight — and flee — on foot.

The men of the 1st Arkansas Cavalry (US) were not Northern soldiers but Southern Unionists, recruited from the hills and towns of northwest Arkansas. Their service placed them in the middle of a bitter local war, fighting Confederate guerrillas and cavalrymen who were often neighbors or former acquaintances. Their commander, Colonel Marcus LaRue Harrison, later settled in Fayetteville and served as its post‑war mayor — a reminder of how deeply this conflict was rooted in the communities where it was fought.

Image: Guidon flag used by the 1st Arkansas Cavalry via Wikimedia Commons, public domain