Title: April 23 Content: == Events == === Up to 1900 === *215 BC – A temple is built on the Capitoline Hill dedicated to Venus Erycina to commemorate the Roman defeat at Lake Trasimene. *711 - Dagobert III is crowned King of the Franks. *1014 – Battle of Clontarf: Brian Boru defeats Viking invaders, but is killed in battle. *1016 - Edmund Ironside becomes the Saxon king of England. *1343 - Estonia: Saint George's Nigh Uprising. *1348 – The founding of the Order of the Garter by King Edward III of England is announced on St George's Day. *1521 – Battle of Villalar: King Charles I of Spain defeats the Comuneros. *1533 – The Church of England annuls the marriage between Catherine of Aragon and Henry VIII of England. *1597 – Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor is first performed, with Queen Elizabeth I of England in attendance. *1660 – Treaty of Oliwa is established between Sweden and Poland. *1661 – King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland is crowned in Westminster Abbey. *1685 - King James II of England (James VII of Scotland) is crowned. *1827 – William Rowan Hamilton presents his Theory of systems of rays. *1867 – William Lincoln patents the zoetrope, a machine which shows animated pictures by mounting a strip of drawings in a wheel. *1889 - Swedish Social Democratic Party is established. === 1901 2000 === *1914 - The first baseball game at Wrigley Field, Chicago, takes place. *1920 – The national council in Turkey denounces the government of Sultan Mehmed VI and announces a temporary constitution. *1923 – Inauguration ceremonies take place of Gdynia as a temporary military port and fishers' shelter. *1927 - Football: Cardiff City F.C. defeats Arsenal in the FA Cup final. With Cardiff City being in Wales, it is the only time a team based outside England has won this trophy. *1929 - Turkey becomes the first country to celebrate Children's Day as a national holiday. *1932 – The 153-year old De Adriaan Windmill in Haarlem, the Netherlands burns down. *1935 – Polish Constitution of 1935 is adopted. *1940 – Rhythm Night Club fire at a dance hall in Natchez, Mississippi kills 198 people. *1941 - World War II: The Greek government and King George II of Greece evacuate Athens before the invading Wehrmacht. *1942 – World War II: Baedeker Blitz – German bombers hit Exeter, Bath and York in retaliation for the British raid on Lübeck. *1948 – 1948 Arab-Israeli War: Haifa, the major port of Israel, is captured from Palestinian forces. *1954 – Hank Aaron hits his first major league home run. *1956 – Elvis Presley makes his first appearance in Las Vegas, Nevada. *1967 – A group of young radicals are expelled from the Nicaraguan Socialist Party (PSN). This group goes on to found the Socialist Workers Party (POS). *1968 – The United Kingdom produces its first decimalised coins, a 5p and a 10p coin. *1968 – Vietnam War: Student protesters at Columbia University in New York City take over administration buildings and shut down the university. *1971 - Bangladesh Liberation War: Pakistan Army and the Razakars massacre around 3,000 Hindu emigrants in the Jathibhanga area of East Pakistan, present-day Bangladesh. *1974 – A Pan American World Airways Boeing 707 crashes in Bali, Indonesia, killing 107. *1979 – Fighting in London between the Anti-Nazi League and the Metropolitan Police's Special Patrol Group results in the death of protestor Blair Peach. *1981 – Stefano Bontade, Mafia boss in Sicily, is murdered in Palermo, the opening shot in a mob war orchestrated by Salvatore Riina. *1984 - The discovery of HIV is announced. *1985 – Coca-Cola changes its 99 year old formula to the sweeter new Coke. (It is doomed to failure and the company is later forced to reintroduce the original). *1990 – Namibia becomes the 160th member of the United Nations and the 50th member of the Commonwealth of Nations. *1990 - In a referendum in Karl Marx Stadt in then- East Germany, 76% of voters support changing their city's name back to Chemnitz. *1993 – Eritreans vote overwhelmingly for independence from Ethiopia in a United Nations-monitored referendum. *1994 – Physicists discover the top quark subatomic particle. *1995 – Association of Autonomous Astronauts founded. *1997 – Omaria massacre in Algeria; 42 villagers killed. === From 2001 === *2003 – Beijing closes all schools for two weeks due to the SARS virus. *2005 - The first YouTube video, called Me at the Zoo, is uploaded by the site's co-founder Jawed Karim. *2006 - Hungary's Socialist Party wins the most votes in the country's parliamentary election, and can continue to govern with the Alliance of Free Democrats. This is the first re-election of a Hungarian government since the end of the Cold War. *2009 - Gamma-ray burst GRB090423 is detected, coming from the most distant known astronomical object of any kind at the time. *2013 - France legalizes same-sex marriage. *2017 - French presidential election, 2017: Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen advance to the second round, as the candidates of the main parties fail to get enough votes. *2018 - A new prince, Louis, is born to Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, with Princess Charlotte becoming the first British princess not to be overtaken by a younger brother in the line of succession to the throne. *2018 - Serzh Sargsyan resigns as Prime minister of Armenia after only six days in office, following major protests in the capital, Yerevan. He had previously served ten years as President. *2018 - A white van collided with numerous pedestrians killing ten people and injuring sixteen others at Yonge Street in Toronto. The suspect is arrested by police. *2018 - Donald Trump receives his first state visit since becoming President of the United States, by Emmanuel Macron of France. == Births == === Up to 1800 === * 1141 - King Malcolm IV of Scotland (d. 1165) * 1170 – Isabelle of Hainaut, Queen of France (d. 1190) * 1185 – King Afonso II of Portugal (d. 1223) * 1464 - Joan of France, Duchess of Berry (d. 1505) * 1484 - Julius Caesar Scaliger, Italian philosopher (d. 1558) * 1516 – Georg Fabricius, German poet, historian and archaeologist (d. 1571) * 1522 - Catherine of Ricci, Italian saint (d. 1590) * 1564 – William Shakespeare, English playwright (d. 1616) * 1628 - Johann van Waveren Hudde, Dutch mathematician (d. 1704) * 1676 – King Frederick I of Sweden (d. 1751) * 1728 - Samuel Wallis, British naval officer and explorer (d. 1795) * 1758 – Philip Gidley King, third Governor of New South Wales (d. 1808) * 1775 – J. M. W. Turner, English painter (d. 1851) * 1791 – James Buchanan, 15th President of the United States (d. 1868) * 1792 - John Thomas Romney Robinson, Irish astronomer and physicist (d. 1882) * 1794 - Wei Yuan, Chinese scholar (d. 1857) === 1801 1900 === * 1804 - Marie Taglioni, Swedish ballerina (d. 1884) * 1805 – Johann Karl Friedrich Rosenkranz, German philosopher (d. 1879) * 1812 – Frederick Whitaker, Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1891) * 1813 – Stephen A. Douglas, American politician (d. 1861) * 1813 - Frédéric Ozanam, French literary scholar, lawyer and journalist (d. 1853) * 1819 - Edward Stafford, Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1901) * 1823 – Abd-ul-Mejid I, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1861) * 1828 - Albert of Saxony (d. 1902) * 1844 – Sanford Dole, American politician (d. 1926) * 1845 - Pier Andrea Saccardo, Italian botanist (d. 1920) * 1853 - Winthrop M. Crane, 40th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1920) * 1855 - Marco Fidel Suarez, President of Colombia (d. 1927) * 1857 - Ruggero Leoncavallo, Italian composer (d. 1919) * 1858 – Max Planck, German scientist (d. 1947) * 1858 - Ethel Smyth, English composer, conductor, writer and Women's Rights activist (d. 1944) * 1867 – Johannes Andreas Grib Fibiger, Danish doctor, won the 1926 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1928) * 1879 - Tom Berry, 14th Governor of South Dakota (d. 1951) * 1880 - Mikhail Fokine, Russian choreographer and dancer (d. 1942) * 1882 - Albert Coates, English composer and conductor (d. 1953) * 1883 - Clara Pontoppidan, Danish actress (d. 1975) * 1888 - Georges Vanier, 19th Governor General of Canada (d. 1967) * 1889 - Karel Doorman, Dutch admiral (d. 1942) * 1891 – Sergei Prokofiev, Russian composer (d. 1953) * 1893 - Frank Borzage, American actor and director (d. 1952) * 1894 - Cow Cow Davenport, American singer and pianist (d. 1955) * 1895 - Ngaio Marsh, New Zealand writer (d. 1982) * 1896 - Dmitry Dmitrievich Maksutov, Russian inventor (d. 1964) * 1897 – Lester Pearson, Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1972) * 1897 - Lucius D. Clay, American general (d. 1978) * 1899 - Minoru Shirota, Japanese physician and inventor of Yakult (d. 1982) * 1899 – Bertil Ohlin, Swedish economist (d. 1979)) === 1901 1950 === * 1901 - E.B. Ford, British ecological geneticist (d. 1988) * 1902 – Halldór Laxness, Icelandic Nobel Prize-winning writer (d. 1998) * 1907 - Lee Miller, American photographer (d. 1977) * 1908 - Myron Waldman, American animator and director (d. 2006) * 1910 – Simone Simon, French actress (d. 2005) * 1911 – Ronald Neame, British movie producer (d. 2010) * 1915 - Arnold Alexander Hall, British aeronautical engineer (d. 2000) * 1917 - Dorian Leigh, American model (d. 2008) * 1918 - Maurice Druon, French writer (d. 2009) * 1919 - Oleg Penkovsky, Soviet double-agent (d. 1963) * 1921 - Judy Agnew, wife of Spiro Agnew (d. 2012) * 1922 - Marjorie Cameron, American writer, painter, actress and occultist (d. 1995) * 1923 - Dolph Briscoe, Governor of Texas (d. 2010) * 1924 - Bobby Rosengarden, American drummer and bandleader (d. 2007) * 1924 - Margit Sandemo, Norwegian writer (d. 2018) * 1926 - J. P. Donleavy, Irish-American writer (d. 2017) * 1928 – Shirley Temple, American actress and political activist (d. 2014) * 1929 - George Steiner, French-American literary critic, writer and philosopher * 1936 – Roy Orbison, American singer (d. 1988) * 1939 – Lee Majors, American actor * 1939 - Stefano Bontade, Italian Mafia boss (d. 1981) * 1940 - Michael Kadosh, Israeli footballer (d. 2014) * 1941 – Paavo Lipponen, former Prime Minister of Finland * 1941 - Jacqueline Boyer, French singer and actress * 1941 - Arie den Hartog, Dutch road bicycle racer (d. 2018) * 1942 - Sandra Dee, American actress (d. 2005) * 1943 - Tony Esposito, Canadian ice hockey player * 1943 - Frans Koppelaar, Dutch artist * 1947 - Glenn Cornick, British musician (d. 2014) * 1947 - Bernadette Devlin, Irish politician * 1947 - Christer Pettersson, Swedish murder suspect (d. 2004) === 1951 1975 === * 1952 - Narada Michael Walden, American singer- songwriter, drummer and producer * 1953 - James Russo, American actor * 1954 – Michael Moore, American movie maker * 1955 - Judy Davis, Australian actress * 1955 - Tony Miles, English chess player * 1955 - Mike Smith, English television and radio presenter (d. 2014) * 1957 - Jan Hooks, American actress (d. 2014) * 1957 - Neville Brody, English graphic designer, typographer and art director * 1958 - Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson, Icelandic composer * 1958 - Magnus Andersson, Swedish footballer * 1960 – Valerie Bertinelli, American actress * 1960 - Steve Clark, English guitarist (Def Leppard) (d. 1991) * 1960 - Claude Julien, Canadian ice hockey player and coach * 1961 - Dirk Bach, German actor and television presenter (d. 2012) * 1961 - George Lopez, American comedian, actor and talk show host * 1962 - John Hannah, Scottish actor * 1962 – Hillel Slovak, American musician (Red Hot Chili Peppers) (d. 1988) * 1962 - Elaine Smith, British actress * 1963 - Paul Belmondo, French actor and racing driver * 1963 - Magnus Ver Magnusson, Icelandic powerlifter, four-times winner of World's Strongest Man title * 1963 - Robby Naish, American windsurfer * 1964 - Gianandrea Noseda, Italian conductor * 1966 - Lembit Oll, Estonian chess player (d. 1999) * 1967 - Melina Kanakaredes, American actress * 1968 – Princess Aisha bint al Hussein of Jordan * 1968 – Princess Zein bint al Hussein of Jordan * 1968 – Timothy McVeigh, American terrorist (d. 2001) * 1969 - Yelena Shushunova, Russian gymnast * 1972 - Patricia Manterola, Mexican singer, actress and fashion designer * 1973 - Patrick Poulin, Canadian ice hockey player * 1975 – Jón Thór Birgisson (Jónsi), Icelandic singer === From 1976 === * 1976 - Brendan Cole, New Zealand dancer * 1977 - Lee Young-Pyo, South Korean footballer * 1977 - John Cena, American wrestler, rapper and actor * 1979 – Barry Fratelli, Scottish musician (The Fratellis) * 1979 – Lauri Ylönen, Finnish singer (The Rasmus) * 1979 - Samppa Lajunen, Finnish skier * 1979 - Barry Hawkins, English snooker player * 1979 - Jaime King, American model and actress * 1979 - Yana Gupta, Czech model, actress and author * 1980 - Taio Cruz, English singer * 1981 - Lady Gabriella Windsor, member of the extended British Royal Family * 1982 - Andy Webster, Scottish footballer * 1983 – Daniela Hantuchova, Slovakian tennis player * 1983 - Jay Cutler, American football player * 1983 - Aaron Hill, American actor * 1984 - Alexandra Kosteniuk, Russian chess player * 1984 - Ross Ford, Scottish rugby player * 1984 - Fumihisa Yumoto, Japanese ski jumper * 1985 - Tony Martin, German cyclist * 1986 - Aleksei Rebko, Russian footballer * 1987 - Emily Fox, American cup stacker and basketball player * 1987 - Laura Mvula, English singer * 1987 - Boaz Ma'uda, Israeli singer * 1988 - Alistair Brownlee, English triathlete * 1988 - Molly Burnett, American actress and singer * 1988 - Steph Houghton, English footballer * 1988 – Victor Anichebe, Nigerian footballer * 1989 - Nicole Vaidisova, Czech tennis player * 1990 – Dev Patel, British actor * 1993 - Rina Chikano, Japanese singer (AKB48) * 1994 - Patrick Olsen, Danish footballer * 1995 - Gigi Hadid, American model * 1997 - Alex Ferris, Canadian actor * 2018 - Prince Louis of Cambridge == Deaths == === Up to 1900 === * 303 – Saint George, Christian martyr and patron Saint (date of birth unknown) * 711 - King Childebert III of the Franks (b. 670) * 725 - Wihtred, King of Kent * 871 – Ethelred of Wessex, Saxon king * 1014 - Brian Boru, High King of Ireland * 1016 – Ethelred the Unready, Saxon king (b. 968) * 1124 – Alexander I of Scotland (b. 1078) * 1217 - Inge II of Norway (b. 1185) * 1307 - Joan of Acre, daughter of Edward I of England (b. 1272) * 1605 – Tsar Boris Godunov of Russia (b. c. 1550) * 1616 - Garcilaso de la Vega, Peruvian historian and writer (b. 1539) * 1616 – Miguel de Cervantes, Spanish writer (b. 1547) * 1616 – William Shakespeare, English playwright (b. 1564) * 1625 - Maurice, Prince of Orange (b. 1567) * 1670 - Loreto Vittori, Italian singer (b. 1604) * 1794 - Guillaume-Chretien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes, French statesman (b. 1721) * 1827 – Georgios Karaiskakis, hero of the Greek War of Independence (b. 1780) * 1850 – William Wordsworth, English poet (b. 1770) * 1895 - Carl Ludwig, German physician (b. 1815) === 1901 2000 === * 1905 - Gédéon Ouimet, 2nd Premier of Quebec (b. 1823) * 1915 - Rupert Brooke, English poet (b. 1887) * 1951 – Charles G. Dawes, Vice President of the United States (b. 1865) * 1965 - George Adamski, Polish-American writer, teacher and ufologist (b. 1891) * 1969 - Krzysztof Komeda, Polish jazz pianist and composer (b. 1931) * 1975 – William Hartnell, English actor (b. 1908) * 1981 - Josep Pla, Catalan journalist and writer (b. 1897) * 1981 - Stefano Bontade, Italian Mafia boss (b. 1939) * 1983 – Buster Crabbe, American singer and actor (b. 1908) * 1984 - Red Garland, American jazz pianist (b. 1923) * 1986 – Harold Arlen, American composer (b. 1905) * 1986 - Otto Preminger, Austrian director (b. 1906) * 1990 - Paulette Goddard, American actress (b. 1910) * 1992 - Tanka Prasad Acharya, 27th Prime Minister of Nepal (b. 1912) * 1992 – Satyajit Ray, Indian movie maker (b. 1921) * 1993 – César Chávez, Mexican-American activist (b. 1927) * 1995 - Douglas Lloyd Campbell, Canadian politician, 13th Premier of Manitoba (b. 1895) * 1996 - P. L. Travers, Australian writer (b. 1899) * 1996 - Mario Luigi Ciappi, Italian cardinal (b. 1909) * 1997 - Hamani Diori, 1st President of Niger (b. 1916) * 1998 – James Earl Ray, convicted assassin of Martin Luther King, Jr. (b. 1928) * 1998 – Konstantinos Karamanlis, Greek politician (b. 1907) === From 2001 === * 2003 - Fernand Fonssagrives, French photographer (b. 1910) * 2005 – Joh Bjelke- Petersen, Australian politician, Premier of Queensland (b. 1911) * 2007 – Boris Yeltsin, former President of Russia (b. 1931) * 2007 - David Halberstam, American journalist and writer (b. 1934) * 2011 – John Sullivan, British television writer (b. 1946) * 2011 - Norio Ogha, Japanese businessman (b. 1930) * 2012 - Tommy Marth, American musician (b. 1978) * 2013 - Robert W. Edgar, American politician (b. 1943) * 2014 - Mark Shand, British travel writer and conservationist, brother of Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall (b. 1951) * 2014 - Michael Glawogger, Austrian movie director, screenwriter and cinematographer (b. 1959) * 2014 - Connie Marrero, Cuban baseball player, oldest living Major League Baseball player (b. 1911) * 2014 - Yozo Aoki, Japanese footballer (b. 1929) * 2015 - Sixto Valencia Burgos, Mexican comic artist (b. 1934) * 2015 - Sawyer Sweeten, American actor (b. 1995) * 2015 - Aziz Asli, Iranian footballer (b. 1938) * 2015 - Richard Corliss, American movie critic (b. 1944) * 2015 - Francis Tsai, American comic book, movie and video game concept artist (b. 1967) * 2015 - Pierre Claude Nolin, Canadian politician (b. 1950) * 2016 - Banharn Silpa-archa, Prime Minister of Thailand (b. 1932) * 2016 - Inge King, German-Australian sculptor (b. 1915) * 2016 - Ron Brace, American football player (b. 1986) * 2016 - Miguel Picazo, Spanish movie director (b. 1927) * 2016 - Madeleine Sherwood, Canadian actress (b. 1922) * 2017 - Isiaka Adeleke, Nigerian politician (b. 1955) * 2017 - Jerry Adriani, Brazilian singer and actor (b. 1947) * 2017 - Chris Bearde, Australian comedy writer and producer (b. 1936) * 2017 - Kathleen Crowley, Australian actress (b. 1929) * 2017 - Imre Földi, Hungarian weightlifter (b. 1938) * 2017 - Ken Sears, American basketball player (b. 1933) * 2017 - Leo Baxendale, British comics artist (b. 1930) * 2017 - Chriet Titulaer, Dutch astronomer, television presenter and writer (b. 1943) * 2017 - Michael Williams, Baron Williams of Baglan, British peer and diplomat (b. 1949) * 2018 - Haddon Donald, New Zealand army lieutenant colonel and politician (b. 1917) * 2018 - Bob Dorough, American jazz pianist, composer and singer-songwriter (b. 1923) * 2018 - Béla Magyari, Hungarian air force colonel (b. 1949) * 2018 - Jerrold Meinwald, American chemist (b. 1927) * 2018 - Leland B. Yeager, American economist (b. 1924) * 2019 - Henry W. Bloch, American businessman (b. 1922) * 2019 - Matthew Buckland, South African businessman (b. 1974) * 2019 - George Haigh, English footballer (b. 1915) * 2019 - Jean, Grand Duke of Luxembourg (b. 1921) * 2019 - Mark Medoff, American playwright and screenwriter (b. 1940) * 2019 - Juan José Muñante, Peruvian footballer (b. 1948) * 2019 - Terry Rawlings, British film editor (b. 1933) * 2019 - Peter Skipper, English footballer (b. 1958) * 2019 - David Winters, English choreographer (b. 1939) == Observances == * Saint George's Day - Patron Saint of many places, including England and Catalonia * UN English language Day * World Book Day * National Sovereignty and Children's Day (Turkey) * National Beer Day (Germany) * Latest possible date for Good Friday, in relation to Easter