This Day in History: May 22

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This Day In History: May 22

Take a look at all of the important historical events that took place on May 22.

On this day, May 22 …

1992: Johnny Carson hosts NBC's "Tonight Show" for the final time after a 30-year reign. (Jay Leno would take over as host three days later.)

Also on this day:

• 1868: Members of the Reno Gang make off with $96,000 in loot from a train robbery near Marshfield, Ind.
• 1955: Jack Benny completes his last live network radio show after a 23-year run.
• 1960: An earthquake of magnitude 9.5, the strongest ever measured, strikes southern Chile, claiming some 1,655 lives.
• 1964: President Lyndon B. Johnson, speaking at the University of Michigan, outlines the goals of his "Great Society," saying that it "rests on abundance and liberty for all" and "demands an end to poverty and racial injustice."
• 1981: "Yorkshire Ripper" Peter Sutcliffe is convicted in London of murdering 13 women and sentenced to life in prison.
• 1998: A federal judge rules that Secret Service agents could be compelled to testify before a grand jury in the Monica Lewinsky investigation.
• 2001: Ford Motor Co. says it plans to spend more than $2 billion to replace up to 13 million Firestone tires on its vehicles because of safety concerns.
• 2011: A tornado devastates Joplin, Mo., with winds up to 250 mph, claiming at least 159 lives and destroying about 8,000 homes and businesses.
• 2014: The U.S. House of Representatives passes legislation to end the National Security Agency's bulk collection of American phone records. (However, the USA Freedom Act would be later blocked in the Senate.)

• 2017: A suicide bomber sets off an improvised explosive device that kills 22 people at the end of an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England.

• 2018: Stacey Abrams wins Georgia's Democratic gubernatorial primary, making her the first woman nominee for Georgia governor from either major party. (Abrams, seeking to become the nation's first black female governor, would be defeated in November by Republican Brian Kemp.)

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• 2019: President Trump demands that Democrats end what he calls their "phony investigations" as he delivers a fiery statement from the Rose Garden after cutting a meeting short with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer.