Template:On this day - April 22

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

• 1281 – In present-day Spain, combined troops of the Banu Ashqilula, of the Marinid sultan Abu Yusuf Yaqub ibn Abd al-Haqq and of King Alfonso X of Castile attack the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada.
• 1451 – Birth of Isabella I of Castile, Queen of Castile (d. 1504).
• 1519 – In New Spain, the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés lands near the present-day port of Veracruz.
• 1529 – The Spanish Empire and the Portuguese Empire divide the islands and seas of Asia by means of the Treaty of Zaragoza, which draws an imaginary line 17 degrees east of the Moluccas.
• 1616 – Death of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Spanish soldier, novelist, poet and playwright, the greatest figure of Spanish literature and universally known for his work Don Quijote de la Mancha (b. 1547).
• 1622 – On the Island of Cuba (formerly Isla Juana), the first great fire of the Villa of Havana occurs, destroying 16 houses.
• 1692 – Death of Tomás de la Cerda, Spanish aristocrat, Viceroy of New Spain (b. 1638).
• 1779 – In the south of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata (present-day Argentina), the Spanish navigator Francisco de Viedma y Narváez founds the villages of Viedma and Carmen de Patagones.
• 1782 – An expedition commanded by General Juan Manuel de Cagigal and Francisco de Miranda sets sail from Havana (Cuba) and occupies the Bahama Islands, which were in the hands of the British Empire.
• 1810 – In Spain, the town of Astorga, after more than a month of siege, capitulates to the Napoleonic troops.
• 1819 – On the Island of Cuba, the village of Cienfuegos is founded.
• 1829 – About 30 km west of the city of Córdoba (Argentina), General José María Paz defeats Juan Bautista Bustos at the Battle of San Roque.
• 1855 – Queen Isabella II of Spain signs a law decreeing the creation of the first Spanish electrotelegraphic network.
• 1857 – In Peru, during the Government of Marshal Ramón Castilla, the National Convention presided over by the Cajamarca lawyer José Gálvez Egúsquiza raises the port of Callao to the rank of constitutional province.
• 1864 – In the Venezuelan Union, Zulia becomes the 12th state.
• 1892 – In La Pampa Province (in Argentina), Tomás Mason founds the town of Santa Rosa.
• 1898 – In Havana (Cuba), twenty U.S. ships blockade the bay, the first act of war of the United States against Spain.
• 1898 – South of the town of Camagüey (Cuba), the mambí troops occupy the village of Guayabal and set fire to its two forts.
• 1904 – Birth of María Zambrano, Spanish philosopher and essayist (d. 1991).
• 1923 – King Alfonso XIII of Spain grants the town of Pozoblanco the title of city.
• 1931 – In Madrid (Spain), Barajas Airport is inaugurated.
• 1985 – In Argentina, President Raúl Alfonsín begins the Trial of the Juntas against the military members of the civil-military dictatorship (1976-1983).
• 1997 – The military operation Chavín de Huántar is carried out to rescue hostages from members of the MRTA during the Japanese Ambassador's Residence Crisis in Peru.
• 2000 – In Miami (United States), the boy Elián González is forcibly removed by federal agents from the house of his relatives, where he had been staying since his rescue off the coast of Florida, to be returned to Cuba.
• 2007 – Death of Francisco Rodríguez Pascual, Spanish anthropologist and humanist (b. 1927).
• 2016 – Death of Alicia Zendejas, Mexican writer, literary critic, essayist, poet and cultural manager (b. 1928).