Title: February 23 Content: ==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 author * 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 author 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) Category:Days of the year