Timeline August 2022

Events in August 2022 13

• 1931 – 2022 Mikhail Gorbachev Last leader of the Soviet Union, 1985-1991 Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (March 2, 1931 – August 30, 2022) was the last leader of the Soviet Union, serving from 1985 until the USSR's dissolution in 1991. His policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) inadvertently led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990.
• 1934 – 2022 Raymond Briggs (1934-2022) Died 9 August 2022, aged 88 English illustrator and author of The Snowman and When the Wind Blows.
• 1948 – 2022 Olivia Newton-John (1948-2022) Died 8 August 2022, aged 73 British-Australian singer and actress of Grease and Physical, and a long-standing campaigner on breast cancer.
• 1969 – 2022 Anne Heche (1969-2022) Died 12 August 2022, aged 53 American actress of Donnie Brasco, Wag the Dog and Six Days Seven Nights.
• 2022 CHIPS Act — $8.5 billion for Intel The US CHIPS and Science Act, signed into law in August 2022, allocates approximately $8.5 billion in direct funding to Intel — the largest single CHIPS Act award — plus an estimated $11 billion in loans for Intel's US manufacturing expansion. The funding supports Intel's fabs in Arizona, Ohio and Oregon. Intel's argument — that the US needs a domestically owned, leading-edge chip manufacturer for national security — resonates with the Biden administration. Intel's survival as a manufacturer has become a matter of US industrial policy.
• 2022 Delivers Maiden Speech in the Senate Setting Out His Priorities In his first speech to the Senate in 2022, Pocock outlined the priorities that would define his term, including climate action, integrity in politics, and support for the ACT community. He drew on his own journey from Zimbabwe to Australia, and from professional rugby to public office, to frame his approach to the role. The speech set expectations for the independent, issues-focused style he would bring to the crossbench.
• 2022 US Open 2022 Men: Carlos Alcaraz · Women: Iga Świątek Alcaraz, 19, became the youngest US Open champion and world number 1.
• 2022 Nancy Pelosi visits Taiwan The most senior US visit in twenty-five years US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan on 2 August 2022, the most senior American visit in twenty-five years. China responded with its largest military exercises around the island to that point.
• 2022 FBI searches Mar-a-Lago Classified documents recovered from a former president's home FBI agents searched Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence on 8 August 2022 and recovered boxes of classified material, the first such search of a former president's home.
• 2022 US CHIPS Act — $52 billion for domestic semiconductor production The US CHIPS and Science Act is signed into law by President Biden on 9 August 2022, providing $52 billion in subsidies for domestic semiconductor manufacturing plus 25% tax credits for chip factory construction. The Act is explicitly aimed at reducing dependence on Taiwanese chip manufacturing and reducing China's ability to coerce Taiwan. TSMC, Samsung and Intel are the primary beneficiaries. The legislation marks the most significant US industrial policy intervention since the Manhattan Project.
• 2022 Lee Jae-yong pardoned President Yoon Suk-yeol pardons Lee Jae-yong in August 2022, freeing him from the legal cloud that has hung over Samsung's leadership since 2017. The pardon is justified on economic grounds — South Korea needs Samsung's leadership focused on investment rather than on legal proceedings. Lee Jae-yong immediately accelerates Samsung's semiconductor investment programme and pursues major international partnerships.
• 2022 Salman Rushdie attacked on stage in New York Stabbed thirty-three years after the fatwa Salman Rushdie was stabbed repeatedly before a lecture in Chautauqua, New York, on 12 August 2022, thirty-three years after Iran issued a fatwa calling for his death. He survived but lost the sight in one eye.
• 2022 Inflation Reduction Act signed into law The largest US climate investment ever made President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act on 16 August 2022, committing around $370 billion to clean energy, the largest climate investment in United States history.