  The star formation histories of four fields within the Local Group dwarf
irregular galaxy NGC 6822 are presented. Each of the fields was imaged by the
WFPC2 aboard the {\it Hubble Space Telescope} and were used to obtain $VI$
color-magnitude diagrams for each field reaching $V\simeq26$. The magnitude of
the tip of the red giant branch and the red clump were used to determine
distances to NGC 6822 that are consistent with previous ground-based
measurements. The distance, extinction and star formation history were also
determined by fitting the entire color-magnitude diagram in each field. The
distances from these fits are consistent with the other determinations within
the estimated errors once the systematic effects of uncertainties in the
age-metallicity relation are taken into account. The extinction varies among
the four fields from approximately the foreground Galactic value to $\approx
0.4$ mag higher in $V$ and roughly correlates with the $60\micron$ surface
brightness. The star formation histories in the four fields are similar for
ages $\gtrsim 1$ Gyr and are relatively constant or somewhat increasing with
time. These old star formation rates are comparable to that expected from the
typical gas surface densities at these galactocentric radii and suggest that no
large scale redistribution of gas or stars is required to account for the
inferred star formation rates. Three of the fields show a drop of a factor of
$\sim 2-4$ in the star formation rate about 600 Myr ago while the remaining
field centered on the bar shows an increase.
