On this day, September 22, several significant historical events have occurred:
- In 1980, the Iran-Iraq War began with Iraq invading Iran, marking one of the deadliest and longest conventional wars of the 20th century.
- In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, declaring freedom for enslaved people in Confederate states starting January 1, 1863.
- In 1776, Nathan Hale, a soldier and spy for the Continental Army during the American Revolution, was executed by the British.
- In 1957, women in Haiti voted for the first time, a major milestone in gender rights.
- In 1888, the National Geographic Society published its first magazine issue.
- In 1975, an assassination attempt on U.S. President Gerald Ford was foiled in San Francisco.
- In 1960, the Mali Federation became the independent country of Mali after Senegal opted out.
Other notable events include the last executions of the Salem witch trials in 1692, the first performance of Richard Wagner's opera Das Rheingold in 1869, and the opening of the world's first four-level freeway interchange in Los Angeles in 1953.
