On July 22, 1822, botanist Gregor Mendel was born Johann Mendel in Heinzendorf, Austria.
In 1882 painter Edward Hopper was born in Nyack, N.Y.
In 1890 Rose Fitzgerald, the matriarch of the Kennedy political dynasty, was born in Boston.
In 1898 sculptor Alexander Calder was born in Lawnton, Pa.
In 1933 American aviator Wiley Post completed the first solo flight around the world in 7 days, 18 hours and 49 minutes.
In 1941 funk singer and producer George Clinton was born in Kannapolis, N.C.
In 1942 wartime gasoline rationing began along the Atlantic Seaboard.
In 1943 U.S. forces under Gen. George Patton captured Palermo, Sicily, in World War II.
In 1946 Jewish extremists blew up a wing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, killing about 100 people.
In 1967 poet Carl Sandburg died at 89 in Flat Rock, N.C.
In 1991 Milwaukee police arrested Jeffrey Dahmer after human parts were discovered in his apartment. (He was slain in prison in 1994.) Also in 1991 former White Sox owner Bill Veeck was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
In 1995 a jury in Union, S.C., convicted Susan Smith of first-degree murder for drowning her two sons. She later was sentenced to life in prison.
In 1998 Iran tested a missile capable of reaching Israel or Saudi Arabia.
In 2003 Saddam Hussein’s sons Udai and Qusai were killed by U.S. forces.
In 2004 the bipartisan commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks released its final report, criticizing the federal government’s response to the terrorist threat.
