October 22
2007
Raid on Anuradhapura Air Force Base
On the night of October 22, 2007, saboteurs linked to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam struck deep inside government-held territory, breaching the perimeter of SLAF Anuradhapura, setting aircraft and maintenance areas ablaze, and withdrawing under fire. The attack inflicted notable damage to aircraft and installations, cost military lives and wounded personnel, and forced a reassessment of base security during the final phase of Sri Lanka’s civil war. Read more
2005
Bellview Airlines Flight 210
On October 22, 2005, Bellview Airlines Flight 210, a Boeing 737‑200 registered 5N‑MBD, crashed minutes after takeoff from Lagos en route to Abuja. All 117 people aboard — 111 passengers and 6 crew — were killed when the aircraft impacted near the village of Lisa in Ogun State. Investigators recovered flight recorder data but the heavily damaged cockpit voice recorder, post‑impact fire, and fragmented wreckage prevented a single, publicly definitive cause from being confirmed. The crash intensified scrutiny of Nigerian airline safety and left families and the nation searching for answers. Read more
1963
1963 BAC One-Eleven test crash
On 22 October 1963, a BAC One-Eleven prototype conducting deliberate low-speed and stall tests near Wisley Aerodrome in Surrey departed controlled flight and crashed, killing the flight-test crew and destroying the aircraft. The accident became a painful waypoint in early jet testing, sharpening industry attention on T-tail aerodynamics, stall recovery procedures, and how prototype programs capture and learn from failure. Read more
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1943
Bombing of Kassel
On the night of 22–23 October 1943, Royal Air Force Bomber Command launched a massive night raid on Kassel, a central German rail and armaments hub. Intent on disabling factories, railyards and the city's industrial heart, the attack used pathfinder marking and a mix of high‑explosive and incendiary bombs to ignite widespread fires. The raid and subsequent attacks in 1943–44 levelled much of Kassel’s centre, killed and displaced thousands, and left a scar that shaped the city’s postwar reconstruction and memory.
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1941
Execution of Guy Môquet (Châteaubriant, 22 October 1941)
Guy Môquet, a 17‑year‑old member of the Communist youth, was arrested by the French police on October 13, 1940 and held at Fresnes Prison. After the assassination of German Feldkommandant Karl Hotz on October 20, 1941, German authorities ordered reprisals. On October 22, 1941, Môquet and twenty‑six other prisoners were taken to a quarry at Châteaubriant and executed. In the decades after the war his farewell letter and name became a national symbol of youthful resistance and a contested element in French memory politics.
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