Timeline May 2022

Events in May 2022 13

• 1943 – 2022 Vangelis (1943-2022) Died 18 May 2022, aged 79 Greek composer whose electronic scores for Chariots of Fire and Blade Runner reshaped film music.
• 1948 – 2022 Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan (1948-2022) Died 13 May 2022, aged 73 President of the United Arab Emirates from 2004 until his death, and ruler of Abu Dhabi.
• 1954 – 2022 Ray Liotta (1954-2022) Died 26 May 2022, aged 67 American actor whose Henry Hill in Goodfellas is among the defining performances of American cinema.
• 2022 2022 World Snooker Championship Record Equalizing O’Sullivan equals Hendry’s record of seven world titles. Winner: Ronnie O’Sullivan; Runner-up: Judd Trump. Score: 18–13.
• 2022 Death of Jethro Cave Cave's eldest son dies at age 31 Cave's eldest son, Jethro Lazenby Cave, dies in May 2022 at the age of 31, shortly after his release from prison. The second devastating loss of a son in seven years compounds the grief already central to Cave's recent work and casts a heavy shadow over the memoir he is completing at the time. Cave speaks about the loss with characteristic openness in subsequent Red Hand Files entries and public appearances.
• 2022 bZ4X — Toyotas first mass-market battery electric vehicle Toyota launches the bZ4X — its first mass-market battery electric SUV — in May 2022. The launch is troubled: Toyota recalls all bZ4X vehicles in June 2022 when wheel hubs are found to loosen and potentially fall off. The recall damages Toyota's EV credibility at a critical moment. The bZ4X relaunches later in 2022 with fixes, but Toyota's EV programme continues to lag Chinese manufacturers (BYD, NIO) and Tesla in technology and sales volumes. Toyota's EV transition proves harder than its hybrid transition.
• 2022 Star Trek: Strange New Worlds — Season 1 Spun off from the overwhelmingly positive reception to the Anson Mount / Ethan Peck / Rebecca Romijn appearances in Discovery Season 2, Strange New Worlds is a deliberate return to episodic storytelling. Each episode is self-contained. Critics and fans respond with near-unanimous enthusiasm — the best-received Star Trek premiere in decades.
• 2022 Sweden and Finland apply to join NATO Two centuries of Swedish neutrality abandoned Finland and Sweden formally applied to join NATO on 18 May 2022, ending Finnish non-alignment and more than two hundred years of Swedish neutrality.
• 2022 Anthony Albanese becomes prime minister of Australia Labor returns after nine years Anthony Albanese led Labor to victory in the Australian federal election on 21 May 2022, ending nine years of coalition government.
• 2022 Elected to the Australian Senate Defeating a Long-Serving Incumbent At the May 2022 federal election, Pocock won a Senate seat for the Australian Capital Territory, defeating sitting Liberal senator Zed Seselja. The result made him one of the standout independent victories of that election and gave the territory crossbench representation for the first time in decades. His win was widely seen as part of a broader national shift toward independent candidates campaigning on climate and integrity.
• 2022 Uvalde school shooting Nineteen children and two teachers killed A gunman killed nineteen children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on 24 May 2022. The delayed police response became the subject of a national inquiry.
• 2022 Top Gun: Maverick #2 film of 2022 — $1.49bn worldwide Directed by Joseph Kosinski, starring Tom Cruise. After 30 years, Pete "Maverick" Mitchell trains a group of Top Gun graduates for a specialised mission.
• 2022 Top Gun: Maverick The Tomcat returns The sequel becomes Tom Cruise's highest-grossing film, with an F-14 flying a key role in its climax.