February 23

February 23 is the 54th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 311 days remaining until the end of the year (312 in leap years).

Events

Up to 1900

1455 – Traditional date for the publication of the Gutenberg Bible, the first Western book printed from movable type.
1554 – In present-day Chile, Mapuche forces under leadership of Lautaro, score a victory over the Spanish at the Battle of Mairihueno.
1574 – The 5th holy war against the Huguenots begins in France.
1660 – Charles XI becomes King of Sweden.
1732 – First performance of George Frideric Handel's Orlando, in London.
1778 – American Revolution: Baron von Steuben arrives at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania to help to train the Continental Army.
1820 – Cato Street Conspiracy: A plot to murder all the British cabinet ministers is exposed.
1836 – The Siege of the Alamo begins in San Antonio, Texas.
1847 – Mexican-American War: Battle of Buena Vista – In Mexico, American troops defeat Mexican general Antonio López de Santa Anna.
1861 – President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrives secretly in Washington, DC after an assassination attempt in Baltimore, Maryland.
1870 – Military control of Mississippi ends and it is readmitted to the Union.
1874 – Walter Winfield patents a game called "sphairistike" which is more commonly called lawn tennis.
1883 – Alabama becomes the first U.S. state to enact an antitrust law.
1886 – Charles Martin Hall produces the first samples of man-made aluminium.
1887 – The French Riviera is hit by a large earthquake, killing around 2,000.
1893 – Rudolf Diesel receives a patent for the diesel engine.
1898 – Émile Zola is imprisoned in France after writing "J'accuse", a letter accusing the French government of anti-Semitism and wrongfully placing Captain Alfred Dreyfus in jail.
1900 – Battle of Hart's Hill: In South Africa the Boers and British troops battle.

1901 – 1950

1903 – Cuba leases Guantanamo Bay to the United States "in perpetuity".
1904 – For $10 million the United States gains control of the Panama Canal Zone.
1905 – Chicago, Illinois attorney Paul Harris and three other businessmen meet for lunch to form the Rotary Club, the world's first service club.
1909 – The Silver Dart makes the first powered flight in Canada and the British Empire.
1917 – Beginning of the February Revolution in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
1918 – The last monarch of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Adolphus Frederick IV, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, commits suicide.
1918 – The Red Army recruits its first soldiers.
1919 – Benito Mussolini forms the Fascist Party in Italy.
1927 – The Federal Radio Commission (later renamed the Federal Communications Commission) begins to regulate the use of radio frequencies.
1927 – German theoretical physicist Werner Heisenberg writes a letter to fellow physicist Wolfgang Pauli, in which he describes his uncertainty principle for the first time.
1934 – Léopold III becomes King of Belgium.
1940 – World War II: Soviet Union troops conquer Lasi Island.
1940 – The animated movie Pinocchio is released.
1941 – Plutonium is first produced and isolated by Glenn T. Seaborg.
1942 – World War II: Japanese submarines fire artillery shells at the California coast near Santa Barbara.
1943 – Fire breaks out in St. Joseph's Orphanage in County Cavan, Ireland, killing 35 children and one adult.
1944 – The Soviet Union begins the forced deportation of the Chechen and Ingush people from the north Caucasus to Central Asia.
1945 – Early in the Battle of Iwo Jima, a group of United States Marines reach the top of Mount Surabachi on the island and are photographed raising the American flag. The photo would later win a Pulitzer Prize.
1945 – World War II: The capital of the Philippines, Manila, is liberated by American forces.
1945 – World War II: Capitulation of German garrison in Poznań, city is liberated by Soviet and Polish forces.
1945 – World War II: The German town of Pforzheim is completely destroyed by a raid of 379 British bombers.
1947 – International Organization for Standardization(ISO) is founded.

1951 – 2000

1954 – The first mass vaccination of children against polio begins in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
1955 – First meeting of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO).
1955 – Edgar Faure becomes Prime Minister of France
1956 – Nikita Khrushchev attacks the veneration of Joseph Stalin as a "cult of personality".
1957 – The founding congress of the Senegalese Popular Bloc is opened in Dakar.
1958 – Cuban rebels kidnap 5-time world driving champion Juan Manuel Fangio.
1966 – A military coup in Syria replaces the previous government.
1970 – Forbes Burnham declares Guyana a republic, severing ties to the British crown.
1974 – The Symbionese Liberation Army demands $4 million more to release kidnap victim Patty Hearst.
1975 – In response to the energy crisis, daylight saving time commences nearly two months early in the United States.
1980 – Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini states that Iran's parliament would decide the fate of the American embassy hostages.
1981 – 23-F, Antonio Tejero attempts a coup d'état by capturing the Spanish Congress of Deputies.
1982 – In a referendum in Greenland, most voters choose to leave the European Economic Community.
1983 – The Spanish Socialist government of Felipe González and Miguel Boyer nationalizes Rumasa, a holding of José María Ruiz Mateos.
1983 – The Environmental Protection Agency announces its intent to buy out and evacuate the dioxin–contaminated community of Times Beach, Missouri.
1987 – A supernova is seen in the Large Magellanic Cloud (see Supernova 1987a).
1991 – Gulf War: Ground troops cross the Saudi Arabia border and enter Iraq, thus starting the ground-phase of the war.
1991 – Thailand: General Sunthorn Kongsompong leads a bloodless coup d'état, deposing Prime Minister Chatichai Choonhavan.
1992 – The Socialist Labour Party is founded in Georgia.
1993 – Gary Coleman wins a $1,280,000 lawsuit against his parents.
1995 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average gains 30.28 to close at 4,003.33, closing above 4,000 for the first time.
1997 – A large fire occurs in the Russian Space station, Mir, though it is extinguished after 14 minutes, without anyone on board coming to harm.
1997 – A fire disaster in Orissa, India kills over 100 people.
1998 – Tornadoes in central Florida destroy or damage 2,600 structures and kill 42.
1998 – Osama bin Laden publishes a fatwa declaring jihad against all Jews and Crusaders.
1998 – Netscape Communications Corporation announces the foundation of mozilla.org, to co-ordinate the development of the open source Mozilla web browser.
1999 – Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Öcalan is charged with treason in Ankara, Turkey.
1999 – White supremacist John William King is found guilty of kidnapping and killing African American James Byrd Jr by dragging him behind a truck for two miles.
1999 – An avalanche destroys the Austrian village of Galtür, killing 31.

From 2001

2002 – In Colombia, Ingrid Betancourt is kidnapped by FARC guerrillas.
2005 – In France, a controversial law on the teaching of French colonialism is passed. After protests, the law is abandoned about a year later.
2005 – Slovakia Summit 2005 begins, marking the first occasion when a sitting American President visits Slovakia; Bush and Putin are in attendance.
2007 – A passenger train crashes near Grayrigg, Cumbria, killing 1 person and injuring 22.
2010 – Unknown criminals pour more than 2.5 million liters of diesel oil and other hydrocarbons into the River Lambro in Northern Italy, sparking an environmental disaster.
2014 – The 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Southern Russia, end. The host nation, Russia, ends the games with the most gold medals, making it the second Winter Olympics in a row in which the host country achieves this (after Canada in 2010).
2018 – One of the biggest surprises occurs in Olympic sport occurs, when Germany defeats Canada 4–3 in their men's ice hockey semi-final at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Births

Up to 1900

1417 – Pope Paul II (d. 1471)
1443 – Matthias Corvinus of Hungary (d. 1490)
1583 – Jean-Baptiste Morin, French mathematician, astrologer and astronomer (d. 1656)
1633 – Samuel Pepys, English naval officer and diarist (d. 1703)
1646 – Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, Japanese shogun (d. 1709)
1649 – John Blow, English composer (d. 1708)
1664 – Georg Dietrich Leyding, German composer and organist (d. 1710)
1680 – Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, French Governor of Louisiana (d. 1767)
1685 – Georg Friedrich Handel, German/British Baroque composer (d. 1759)
1723 – Richard Price, Welsh philosopher (d. 1791)
1729 – Josiah Hornblower, American statesman (d. 1809)
1730 – Cristiano Giuseppe Lidarti, Austrian composer (d. 1793)
1744 – Mayer Amschel Rothschild, German-born banker (d. 1812)
1751 – Henry Dearborn, American statesman (d. 1829)
1792 – Jose Joaquin de Herrera, President of Mexico (d. 1854)
1803 – John Sutter, Swiss pioneer in California (d. 1880)
1809 – William Sprague, American minister and politician (d. 1868)
1817 – George Frederic Watts, British painter (d. 1904)
1821 – Amos T. Akerman, United States Secretary of the Treasury (d. 1880)
1842 – Karl Robert Eduard von Hartmann, German philosopher (d. 1906)
1846 – Luigi Denza, Italian composer (d. 1922)
1850 – César Ritz, Swiss hotelier (d. 1918)
1852 – Duc Duc, Emperor of Vietnam (d. 1883)
1868 – Anna Hoffman-Uddgren, Swedish director and actress (d. 1947)
1868 – W. E. B. Du Bois, American academic, writer and social activist (d. 1963)
1873 – Liang Qichao, Chinese scholar (d. 1929)
1874 – Konstantin Pats, President of Estonia (d. 1956)
1879 – Kazimir Malevich, Russian painter (d. 1935)
1883 – Karl Jaspers, German psychiatrist and philosopher (d. 1969)
1884 – Casimir Funk, Polish biochemist (d. 1967)
1889 – Victor Fleming, American movie director (d. 1949)
1889 – John Gilbert Winant, 60th Governor of New Hampshire (d. 1949)
1889 – Musidora, French actress and singer (d. 1957)
1893 – Charles Merz, American journalist (d. 1977)
1899 – Erich Kaestner, German writer (d. 1974)
1899 – Norman Taurog, American movie director (d. 1981)

1901 – 1950

1901 – Ivar Lo-Johansson, Swedish writer (d. 1990)
1904 – William L. Shirer, American historian (d. 1993)
1904 – George Docking, Governor of Kansas (d. 1964)
1906 – Samuel Joensen-Mikines, Faroese painter (d. 1979)
1908 – William McMahon, twentieth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1988)
1911 – G. Mennen Williams, Governor of Michigan (d. 1988)
1914 – Theofiel Middelkamp, Dutch cyclist (d. 2005)
1915 – Paul Tibbets, American Air Force pilot (d. 2007)
1923 – Yiannis Grevas, 87th Prime Minister of Greece (d. 2016)
1923 – Rafael Addiego Bruno, Uruguayan politician (d. 2014)
1924 – Allan McLeod Cormack, South African physicist (d. 1998)
1924 – Claude Sautet, French director (d. 2000)
1925 – Louis Stokes, American attorney and politician (d. 2015)
1927 – Willie Ormond, Scottish footballer (d. 1984)
1928 – Vasili Lazarev, Soviet cosmonaut (d. 1990)
1928 – Hans Herrmann, German racing driver
1929 – Patriarch Alexius II, Head of the Russian Orthodox Church (d. 2008)
1929 – Jaan Einasto, Estonian cosmologist
1929 – Elston Howard, American baseball player
1932 – Majel Barrett, American actress (d. 2008)
1935 – Diane Shalet, American actress (d. 2006)
1937 – Tom Osborne, American football player
1938 – Paul Morrissey, American movie director
1938 – Diane Varsi, American actress (d. 1992)
1940 – Peter Fonda, American actor (d. 2019)
1942 – Dioncounda Traoré, Malian politician
1944 – Johnny Winter, American musician (d. 2014)
1944 – Bernard Cornwell, British writer
1947 – Pia Kjaersgaard, Danish politician
1947 – Boris Kuznetsov, Russian boxer (d. 2006)
1948 – Steve Priest, British musician
1949 – Marc Garneau, Canadian astronaut and politician
1950 – Rebecca Goldstein, American writer and philosopher

1951 – 1975

1952 – Brad Whitford, American musician (Aerosmith)
1953 – Satoru Nakashima, Japanese racing driver
1953 – Adnan Polat, Turkish businessman
1954 – Viktor Yushchenko, former President of Ukraine
1955 – Flip Saunders, American basketball player and coach (d. 2015)
1955 – Francesca Simon, American writer
1956 – Paul O'Neill, American producer, composer and songwriter (d. 2017)
1956 – Reinhold Beckmann, German journalist and television presenter
1957 – Andreas Schockenhoff, German politician (d. 2014)
1958 – David Sylvain, English musician
1959 – Clayton Anderson, American astronaut
1959 – Ian Liddell-Grainger, Scottish soldier and politician
1959 – Linda Nolan, Irish singer
1959 – Graeme Morrice, Scottish politician
1960 – Emperor Naruhito of Japan
1963 – Radoslav Sikorski, Polish journalist and politician, foreign minister
1964 – John Norum, Norwegian guitarist
1965 – Michael Dell, American computer manufacturer
1966 – Alexandre Borges, Brazilian actor
1969 – Michael Campbell, New Zealand golfer
1971 – Melinda Messenger, British television presenter
1973 – Lars-Olof Johansson, Swedish musician
1975 – Wilfred Kibet Kigen, Kenyan marathon runner
1975 – Michael Cornacchia, American actor, director, producer and screenwriter

From 1976

1976 – Kelly Macdonald, Scottish actress
1976 – Satoshi Yoneyama, Japanese professional wrestler
1978 – Jo Joyner, British actress
1978 – Dan Snyder, Canadian ice hockey player
1980 – Kim Kyung-roul, South Korean billiards player (d. 2015)
1981 – Gareth Barry, English footballer
1981 – Jan Böhmermann, German satirist and comedian
1982 – Anna Chapman, Russian agent
1982 – Adam Hann-Byrd, American actor and screenwriter
1982 – Karan Singh, Indian politician
1983 – Mido, Egyptian footballer
1983 – Mirco Bergamasco, Italian rugby player
1983 – Emily Blunt, British actress
1983 – Aziz Ansari, American actor, comedian and writer
1984 – Jeong Yu-mi, South Korean actress
1986 – Skylar Grey, American singer-songwriter
1986 – Ola Svensson, Swedish pop singer
1988 – Nicolas Gaitan, Argentine footballer
1989 – Evan Bates, American ice dancer
1989 – Amara Baby, French footballer
1990 – Kevin Cheung, Mauritian swimmer
1992 – Kyriakos Papadopoulos, Greek footballer
1993 – Kasumi Ishikawa, Japanese table tennis player
1994 – Dakota Fanning, American actress
1995 – Andrew Wiggins, Canadian basketball player
2012 – Princess Estelle, Duchess of Ostergotland, second-in-line to the throne of Sweden

Deaths

Up to 1900

1011 – Willigis, Archbishop of Mainz (b. 940)
1072 – Peter Damian, theologian (b. 1007)
1100 – Emperor Zhezong of China (b. 1076)
1270 – Isabel of France (b. 1225)
1447 – Pope Eugene IV (b. 1383)
1447 – Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester (b. 1390)
1464 – Zhengtong, Emperor of China (b. 1427)
1603 – Andrea Cesalpino, Italian philosopher, physician and botanist (b. 1519)
1669 – Leo Aitzema, Dutch historian and statesman (b. 1600)
1766 – Stanislaw Leszczynski, King of Poland (b. 1677)
1781 – George Taylor, Irish-American signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1716)
1792 – Joshua Reynolds, English painter (b. 1723)
1821 – John Keats, English poet (b. 1795)
1848 – John Quincy Adams, 6th President of the United States (b. 1767)
1855 – Carl Friedrich Gauss, German mathematician, astronomer, and physicist (b. 1777)
1859 – Zymunt Krasinski, Polish-Roman poet (b. 1812)
1879 – Albrecht Graf von Roon, Prime Minister of Prussia (b. 1803)
1896 – Justo Arosemena, Colombian politician and writer (b. 1817)
1897 – Woldemar Bargiel, German composer (b. 1828)

1901 – 2000

1918 – Adolphus Frederick VI, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (b. 1882)
1925 – Samuel Berger, American heavyweight boxer (b. 1884)
1931 – Nellie Melba, Australian operatic soprano (b. 1861)
1934 – Edward Elgar, English composer (b. 1857)
1944 – Leo Hendrik Baekeland, Flemish-American chemist, inventor of Bakelite (b. 1863)
1946 – Tomoyuki Yamashita, Japanese general (b. 1885)
1948 – John Robert Gregg, Irish-born publisher and inventor (b. 1866)
1955 – Paul Claudel, French poet and playwright (b. 1868)
1960 – Arthur Legat, British racing driver (b. 1898)
1965 – Stan Laurel, English actor and comedian (b. 1890)
1969 – King Saud of Saudi Arabia (b. 1902)
1973 – Dickinson W. Richards, American physician (b. 1895)
1974 – Harry Ruby, American composer and writer (b. 1895)
1976 – L. S. Lowry, English painter (b. 1887)
1979 – W. A. C. Bennett, 25th Premier of British Columbia (b. 1900)
1983 – Hubert Howells, English composer (b. 1892)
1984 – Uwe Johnson, German writer (b. 1934)
1990 – Jose Napoleon Duarte, President of El Salvador (b. 1925)
1995 – James Herriot, British writer (b. 1916)
1995 – Melvin Franklin, American singer (b. 1942)
1996 – Helmut Schön, German football manager (b. 1915)
2000 – Stanley Matthews, English footballer (b. 1915)

From 2001

2001 – Sergio Mantovani, Italian racing driver (b. 1929)
2003 – Howie Epstein, American musician (b. 1955)
2004 – Vijay Anand, Indian movie director (b. 1934)
2004 – Sikander Bakht, Indian politician, Governor of Kerala (b. 1918)
2004 – Neil Ardley, English jazz pianist and composer (b. 1955)
2004 – Carl Liscombe, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1915)
2006 – Diane Shalet, American actress (b. 1935)
2008 – Janez Drnovsek, Slovenian politician (b. 1950)
2008 – Paul Frère, Belgian racing driver (b. 1917)
2009 – Sverre Fehn, Norwegian architect (b. 1924)
2010 – Orlando Zapata, Cuban dissident, died after hunger strike (b. 1967)
2011 – Nirmala Srivastava, Indian religious leader (b. 1923)
2013 – Julien Ries, Belgian cardinal (b. 1920)
2014 – Alice Herz-Sommer, Czech-born pianist, Holocaust survivor and supercentenarian (b. 1903)
2015 – John Rowlands, Welsh writer and novelist (b. 1938)
2016 – Ramon Castro Ruz, Cuban revolutionary (b. 1924)
2016 – Peter Lustig, German sound engineer and television presenter (b. 1937)
2016 – Donald E. Williams, American astronaut (b. 1932)
2017 – Alan Colmes, American political commentator and television presenter (b. 1950)
2017 – Sabine Oberhauser, Austrian physician and politician (b. 1963)
2017 – David Waddington, Baron Waddington, British politician (b. 1929)
2017 – Leon Ware, American musician, record producer and songwriter (b. 1940)
2018 – James Colby, American actor (b. 1961)
2018 – James Laxer, Canadian political economist (b. 1941)
2018 – Lewis Gilbert, British film director (b. 1920)

Observances

Republic Day (Guyana)
National Day (Brunei)
Defender of the Fatherland Day (Russia)