1922

1845–1958	Germany [earth sciences]	German naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt lays the basis of modern geography with the publication of Kosmos/Cosmos, in which he arranges geographic knowledge in a systematic fashion.
1922	USA [clothing and fashion]	The US magazine Vanity Fair employs the term ‘flapper’ to denote an independent young woman who does not conform to traditional notions of femininity, dresses in a provocative manner, and smokes. Clara Bow, in the 1927 film It, is subsequently seen as the embodiment of the flapper.
1922	[fiction]	The Irish writer James Joyce publishes his novel Ulysses in Paris, France.
1922	[orchestral music]	The Danish composer Carl Nielsen completes his Symphony No. 5.
1922	[philosophy]	US philosopher John Dewey publishes Human Nature and Conduct.
1922	[philosophy]	Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein publishes Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus/Tract on Logic and Philosophy, a classic of 20th-century philosophy that analyses the relationship between language and reality.
1922	UK [telephone services]	The number of telephone subscribers in Britain exceeds one million.
1922	[poetry]	US-born English writer T S Eliot publishes his long poem The Waste Land in The Criterion.
1922	USA [radio]	Long-distance telephone lines are used to connect a radio station in New York City with one in Chicago, Illinois, that is broadcasting the action of a football game. It is the beginning of network broadcasting.
1922	USA [technology]	Italian physicist Guglielmo Marconi suggests that radio waves may be used to detect moving objects. The US Naval Research Laboratory tests the idea and detects a ship moving between the receiver and transmitter. It is the first example of a sophisticated radar system.
1922	[town planning]	The Swiss architect Le Corbusier (pseudonym of Charles Edouard Jeanneret) designs his project Ville Contemporaine, a total plan for a city built on rigorously logical principles.
26 January 1922	Southern Rhodesia [political events]	The legislative council of British Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) accepts a draft constitution conferring limited self-government.
5 February 1922	USA [magazines]	US publishers DeWitt Wallace and his wife Lila Acheson Wallace publish the first issue of the Reader's Digest magazine in Greenwich Village, New York City.
6 February 1922	[Catholicism]	Following the death of Pope Benedict XV on 22 January, the Italian clergyman Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti is elected Pope Pius XI.
12 March 1922	Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, RUSSIA [political events]	The communist republics of Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan combine to form the Transcaucasian Socialist Republic.
15 March 1922	Ireland, UK [political events]	The Irish nationalist leader Eamon de Valera organizes a Republican Society demanding full independence for Ireland, to fight the Pro-Treaty Party (Cumann na nGaedheal) which supports the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty.
11 April 1922	USA [boxing]	A boxing match between the US fighters Johnny (Joe) Dundee and Johnny Ray at Motor Square, Pittsburgh, USA, is the first sporting event to be broadcast on the radio.
16 April 1922	Germany, RUSSIA [treaties]	By the Rapallo Treaty between Germany and Russia, Germany recognizes Russia as ‘a great power’ and both sides waive World War I reparations claims; the treaty leads to the resumption of diplomatic and trade relations and to cooperation between the two countries' armies.
16 April 1922	[births and deaths]	Kingsley Amis, English writer, born in London, England (–1995).
12 May 1922	USA [astronomy]	A 20.3 tonne/20 ton meteorite lands in a field near Blackstone, Virginia, leaving a 46 sq m/500 sq ft hole in the ground.
16 June 1922	Ireland, UK [elections]	Elections in the Irish Free State (now the Republic of Ireland) give a majority to the Pro-Treaty (Anglo-Irish Treaty) candidates (58, against 35 anti-Treaty Republicans); anti-Treaty Republicans continue to oppose the new government, with the Irish Republican Army (IRA) taking large areas under its control.
24 June 1922	Germany [political events]	The Jewish German foreign minister Walther Rathenau is murdered by anti-Semitic nationalists.
28 June - 30 June 1922	Ireland, UK [political events]	Anti-Treaty (Anglo-Irish Treaty) republicans seize the assistant chief of staff of the Irish army, General Ginger O'Connell, in Dublin in the Irish Free State (now the Republic of Ireland) and hold him hostage in the Four Courts building; the Irish army besieges the building and the rebel forces present surrender. Fighting continues in the rest of Dublin.
20 July - 24 July 1922	Togoland, Cameroon, France, Tanganyika, Palestine, UK [colonies and mandate]	The Council of the League of Nations approves mandates for the former German colonies of Togoland (now Togo) and the Cameroons to France and Britain, and Tanganyika (now Tanzania) and Palestine to Britain.
2 August 1922	[births and deaths]	Alexander Graham Bell, Scottish-born US scientist who invented the telephone, dies in Beinn Bhreagh, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada (75).
12 August 1922	[births and deaths]	Arthur Griffith, Irish journalist and nationalist, founder of Sinn Fein 1905, president of the Dáil of the Irish Free State (now the Republic of Ireland) 1922, dies suddenly of a brain haemorrhage, in Dublin, Ireland (60).
30 August 1922	Greece, Anatolia [wars]	In the Greek–Turkish War, the Ankara Turks (nationalists) defeat the Greeks at the Battle of Afyon in Anatolia (modern Turkey).
12 September 1922	USA [Protestantism]	The US Protestant Episcopal Church changes its marriage ceremony, deleting the word ‘obey’ from the vows.
10 October 1922	Iraq, UK [political events]	The formal British mandate over Iraq is ended and an alliance between the two is concluded.
13 October 1922	Greece, Anatolia [treaties]	The Armistice of Mudania is signed, ending the Greek–Turkish War and formalizing relations between the Allies and the Turkish nationalist government in Ankara; the Allies allow Turkish troops to enter Constantinople (modern Istanbul).
14 October 1922	USA [technology]	The Bell Telephone Company installs the first mechanical switchboard system in New York City. The exchange is called ‘Pennsylvania’.
18 October 1922	UK [television]	The privately owned British Broadcasting Company (BBC) is established.It is nationalized as the British Broadcasting Corporation in 1925.
23 October 1922	UK [political events]	Andrew Bonar Law forms a Conservative government in Britain after the resignation of David Lloyd George over the ‘Chanak Crisis’ of September–October.
28 October 1922	Italy [political events]	The fascists in Italy begin the ‘March on Rome’ to bring down the government.
8 November 1922	[births and deaths]	Christiaan Barnard, South African surgeon, who performed the first successful heart transplant, born in Beaufort West, South Africa (–2001).
17 November 1922	Far Eastern Republic, Russia [political events]	The Far Eastern Republic votes for union with Russia, following the defeat of White Russian forces previously active in the region.
18 November 1922	[births and deaths]	Marcel Proust, French novelist who wrote A la recherche du temps perdu/Remembrance of Things Past (1913–27), dies in Paris, France (51).
30 December 1922	USSR [political events]	The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) is established through the confederation of Russia, Belarus, the Ukraine, and the Transcaucasian Federation.