Rugby athlete Bismarck du Plessis

Events in 1984 and 22-5

Events in the world in the birth year of Bismarck du Plessis

• Syria frees captured US Navy pilot, Lieut. Robert C. Goodman, Jr. (Jan. 3).
• US and Vatican exchange diplomats after 116-year hiatus (Jan. 10).
• Reagan orders US Marines withdrawn from Beirut international peacekeeping force (Feb. 7).
• Yuri V. Andropov dies at 69; Konstantin U. Chernenko, 72, named Soviet leader (Feb. 9). Background: Rulers of Russia since 1533
• Italy and Vatican agree to end Roman Catholicism as state religion (Feb. 18).
• Soviet Union withdraws from summer Olympic games in US, and other bloc nations follow (May 7 et seq.).
• José Napoleón Duarte, moderate, elected president of El Salvador (May 11).
• Three hundred slain as Indian Army occupies Sikh Golden Temple in Amritsar (June 6).
• Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi assassinated by two Sikh bodyguards; 1,000 killed in anti-Sikh riots; son Rajiv succeeds her (Oct. 31).
• Toxic gas leaks from Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India, killing 2,000 and injuring 150,000 (Dec. 3).

Birthday Bismarck du Plessis (22-5) in history

• Day 22-5 year 1455: The opening day of the 30-year War of the Roses in St. Albans.
• Day 22-5 year 1761: The first life insurance policy in the United States was signed and issued in Philadelphia.
• Day 22-5 year 1849: Abraham Lincoln received patent number 6469 for his floating dry dock.
• Day 22-5 year 1927: An earthquake near Xining, China, measuring 8.3 claimed approximately 200,000 victims.
• Day 22-5 year 1947: Harry S. Truman's Doctrine brought aid to Greece and Turkey to combat the spread of Communism.
• Day 22-5 year 1972: Ceylon became Sri Lanka.
• Day 22-5 year 1990: North Yemen and South Yemen merged to form the Republic of Yemen.
• Day 22-5 year 1992: Johnny Carson hosted the last episode of his Tonight Show.
• Day 22-5 year 2003: The UN Security Council approved a resolution lifting the economic sanctions against Iraq and supporting the U.S.-led administration in Iraq.
• Day 22-5 year 2011: At least 140 people are killed and hundreds more injured as a three-quarter-mile-wide tornado hits Joplin, Missouri. The tornado is among the deadliest in the nation's history, destroying nearly a third of the city and damaging about 2,000 buildings, including water treatment and sewage plants.
• Day 22-5 year 2012: Tokyo Skytree, which at 634 meters high is the tallest tower in the world, opened to the public.