October 23



Events

Up to 1900 
 42 BC - Roman civil wars: Second Battle of Philippi - Mark Antony and Octavian defeat the army of Marcus Junius Brutus, who commits suicide shortly after.
 425 – Valentinian III becomes Roman Emperor, at the age of 6.
 1086 - Battle of az-Zallaqah: The army of Yusuf ibn Tashfa defeats forces of King Alfonso VI of Castile.
 1157 - The Battle of Grathe-Heath ends the civil war in Denmark. King Sweyn III is killed and Valdemar I of Denmark takes over. 
 1295 – Scotland and France sign the first treaty of the 'Auld Alliance' in Paris, against England.
 1520 - Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor is crowned in Aachen.
 1642 – English Civil War: The Battle of Edgehill
 1707 – The first parliament of Great Britain meets.
 1739 - War of Jenkins' Ear: British Prime Minister Robert Walpole reluctantly declares war on Spain.
 1812 - Charles Francois de Malet, a French general, begins a conspiracy to overthrow then-Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, by falsely claiming that he (Napoleon) had died in his attempt to conquer Russia.
 1850 - The first National Women's Rights Convention begins in Worcester, Massachusetts.
 1864 - American Civil War: Union forces defeat the Confederates in the Battle of Westport.
 1870 - Franco-Prussian War: The Siege of Metz concludes with a decisive Prussian victory.

1901  2000 
 1906 – Alberto Santos-Dumont flies an aircraft in the first heavier-than-air flight, in Paris.
 1912 – The Battle of Kumanovo between Russian and Ottoman forces begins.
 1915 - 25,000 to 33,000 women march on Fifth Avenue in New York City to advocate their right to vote.
 1917 - Vladimir Lenin calls for the October Revolution in Russia.
 1929 – Great Depression: The first signs of panic show.
 1940 - Norwegian Hurtigruten passenger steamer Prinsesse Ragnhild sinks after an explosion off northern Norway, killing 299 people on board.
 1941 – World War II: Georgy Zhukov takes command of the Red Army operation to prevent the Nazis' further advances into Russia.
 1942 – World War II: The Second Battle of El Alamein takes place, as the British Eighth Army begins an offensive to expel the Axis armies from Egypt.
 1942 - World War II: The Battle of Henderson Field begins in the Guadalcanal Campaign, lasting until October 26.
 1944 – World War II: The Red Army enters Hungary.
 1944 - World War II: The Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Philippines.
 1946 – In New York, the UN General Assembly meets for the first time.
 1956 – The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 against Soviet rule begins.
 1958 - The Smurfs cartoons appear for the first time.
 1958 - The Springhill Mine Bump mining disaster in Nova Scotia, killing 74 people, with 100 surviving the accident.
 1970 - Gary Gabelich sets a land-speed record in a rocket-powered automobile called the Blue Flame, fueled by natural gas.
 1972 - Vietnam War: Operation Linebacker - The US ends a bombing campaign of North Vietnam following the Easter Offensive.
 1973 - A UN-sanctioned ceasefire officially ends the Yom Kippur War between Israel and Syria.
 1983 – A truck bomb hits a US barracks in Lebanon, killing 241 troops. On the same day, another truck bomb hits a French barracks, killing 58 military personnel.
 1989 – The Hungarian Republic is declared.
 1989 - The Philips Disaster in Pasadena, Texas kills 23 people.
 1992 – Akihito becomes the first Japanese Emperor to stand on Chinese soil.
 1995 - Yolanda Saldivar is convicted of murdering the singer Selena on March 31 of the same year.

From 2001 
 2001 – The iPod is released.
 2002 – The Moscow Theatre Siege begins, as Chechen terrorists take around 700 theatregoers hostage.
 2003 - The Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, California, designed by Frank Gehry, is opened.
 2004 – An earthquake in the Niigata Prefecture in Japan kills 35 people and injures around 2,200.
 2005 – Hurricane Wilma hits the Yucatán, in Mexico.
 2005 – Lech Kaczynski is elected President of Poland, ahead of Donald Tusk.
 2011 – New Zealand wins the Rugby World Cup, defeating France 8-7 in Auckland.
 2011 – Motorcycle rider Marco Simoncelli is killed in a crash at the Malaysian Moto GP.
 2011 – A powerful magnitude 7.2 earthquake hits Van Province, in eastern Turkey.
 2012 - The BBC ends its 38-year teletext service Ceefax, with Northern Ireland completing the United Kingdom's transition to digital television broadcasting.
 2015 - Hurricane Patricia is measured as the heaviest hurricane ever to hit North or Central America, as it hits the Pacific Ocean coast of Mexico.
 2015 - 43 people, mostly pensioners on a day-trip, die in a coach crash in Southwestern France, in one of the country's deadliest-ever road accidents.
 2018 - The Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge is officially opened by Chinese Communist Party general secretary Xi Jinping.
 2018 - October 2018 United States mail bombing attempts: A mail bomb addressed to former United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is caught by police, after one addressed to George Soros was caught the previous day.
 2019 - The bodies of 39 people are found in a lorry trailer at Purfleet, Essex, England.

Births

Up to 1900
 63 BC - Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, Roman general (d. 12 BC)
 1503 – Isabella of Portugal (d. 1539)
 1516 – Charlotte of Valois, French princess (d. 1524)
 1634 - Hedvig Eleonora of Holstein-Gottorp (d. 1715)
 1654 - Johann Bernhard Staudt, Austrian Jesuit composer (d. 1712)
 1713 - Pieter Burman the Younger, Dutch philologist (d. 1778)
 1715 – Tsar Peter II of Russia (d. 1730)
 1762 - Samuel Morey, American inventor (d. 1843)
 1770 - George Ramsay, 9th Earl of Dalhousie, Scottish soldier and colonial administrator (d. 1838)
 1771 - Jean-Andoche Junot, French general (d. 1813)
 1796 - Stefano Franscini, Swiss Federal Councillor (d. 1857)
 1801 – Albert Lortzing, German composer (d. 1851)
 1813 – Ludwig Leichhardt, German explorer (d. 1848)
 1815 - Joao Mauricio Wanderley, Brazilian magistrate and politician (d. 1889)
 1817 - Pierre Athanase Larousse, French lexicographer (d. 1875)
 1831 - Basil Lanneau Gilders Lane, American classical scholar (d. 1924)
 1835 – Adlai E. Stevenson, Vice President of the United States (d. 1914)
 1844 - Robert Bridges, English poet (d. 1930)
 1857 – Juan Luna, Filipino painter (d. 1899)
 1868 - Alfred Mond, 1st Baron Melchett, British industrialist, financier and politician (d. 1930)
 1869 – John Heisman, American football player and coach (d. 1936)
 1871 - Gjergj Fishta, Albanian poet (d. 1940)
 1873 - William D. Coolidge, American physicist and inventor (d. 1975)
 1875 - Gilbert N. Lewis, American chemist (d. 1946)
 1876 - Franz Schlegelberger, German politician (d. 1970)
 1880 - Una O'Connor, Irish actress (d. 1959)
 1885 - Lawren Harris, Canadian painter (d. 1970)
 1893 – Gummo Marx, American actor (d. 1977)
 1894 - Rube Bressler, American baseball player (d. 1966)
 1896 - Roman Jakobson, Russian-born linguist (d. 1982)
 1896 - Lilyan Tashman, American actress (b. 1934)

1901  1950 
 1905 – Felix Bloch, Swiss physicist (d. 1983)
 1905 – Gertrude Ederle, American swimmer (d. 2003)
 1905 - Yen Chia-han, President of the Republic of China (d. 1993)
 1908 – Ilya Frank, Russian physicist (d. 1990)
 1910 - Richard Mortensen, Danish painter (d. 1993)
 1910 - Hayden Rorke, American actor (d. 1987)
 1911 - Jack Keller, American hurdler (d. 1978)
 1918 - James Daly, American actor (d. 1978)
 1919 - Manolis Andronikos, Greek archaeologist (d. 1992)
 1920 - Lygia Clark, Brazilian artist (d. 1988)
 1920 - Bob Montana, American cartoonist (d. 1975)
 1922 - Jean Barker, Baroness Trumpington, English politician (d. 2018)
 1922 - Coleen Gray, American actress (d. 2015)
 1923 - Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, Vice President of India (d. 2010)
 1925 – Manos Hadjidakis, Greek composer (d. 1994)
 1925 – Johnny Carson, American television host (d. 2005)
 1927 - Barron Hilton, American businessman (d. 2019)
 1927 – Leszek Kolakowski, Polish philosopher (d. 2009)
 1927 - Dezso Gyarmati, Hungarian water polo player (d. 2013)
 1928 - Zhu Rongji, Chinese politician
 1929 - Shamsur Rahman, Bangladeshi poet, columnist and journalist (d. 2006)
 1931 - Diana Dors, British actress (d. 1984)
 1931 – Jim Bunning, American baseball player and politician
 1936 – Philip Kaufman, American director
 1938 – H. John Heinz III, American politician (d. 1991)
 1940 – Pelé, Brazilian footballer
 1940 - Jane Holzer, American model, actress, producer and art collector
 1941 - Lawrence Foster, American conductor
 1941 - Igor Smirnov, Moldovan politician
 1942 - Bernd Erdmann, German footballer
 1942 – Michael Crichton, American writer (d. 2008)
 1942 – Anita Roddick, British businesswoman (d. 2007)
 1945 - Maggi Hambling, British painter and sculptor
 1945 – Kim Larsen, Danish musician and singer (d. 2018)
 1945 - Michel Vautrot, French football referee
 1947 - Kazimierz Deyna, Polish footballer (d. 1989)
 1947 – Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, leader of Hamas (d. 2004)
 1948 - Gerry Robinson, Irish businessman and television presenter
 1949 – Michael Burston (Wurzel), British musician (Motorhead) (d. 2011)

1951  1975 
 1951 – Charly García, Argentine singer
 1951 – Fatmir Sejdiu, former President of Kosovo
 1951 - Angel de Andres Lopez, Spanish actor (d. 2016)
 1952 - Ken Tipton, American entrepreneur, actor, director, writer and producer
 1954 – Ang Lee, Taiwanese movie director
 1954 - Uli Stein, German footballer
 1956 - Dianne Reeves, American jazz singer
 1956 - Dwight Yoakam, American singer-songwriter, guitarist and actor
 1957 - Martin Luther King III, American activist
 1957 - Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda
 1959 - Sam Raimi, American movie director
 1959 – "Weird Al" Yankovic, American musical parodist
 1960 – Randy Pausch, American computer scientist and writer (d. 2008)
 1961 – Andoni Zubizarreta, Spanish footballer
 1962 - Stefano Colantuono, Italian footballer and coach
 1963 - Rashidi Yekini, Nigerian footballer (d. 2012)
 1964 – Robert Trujillo, American musician (Metallica)
 1967 - Omar Linares, Cuban baseball player
 1968 - Maria Darling, English voice actress
 1969 - Trudi Canavan, Australian writer
 1969 - Dolly Buster, Czech-German pornographic actress
 1970 - Matthew Barzun, American diplomat
 1971 - Bohuslav Sobotka, Czech politician, Prime Minister of the Czech Republic
 1973 – Christian Dailly, Scottish footballer
 1975 - Yoon Sun-ha, South Korean actress and singer

From 1976 
 1976 - Cat Deeley, British television personality
 1976 – Ryan Reynolds, Canadian actor
 1978 – Jimmy Bullard, English footballer
 1978 – Archie Thompson, Australian footballer
 1978 - Steve Harmison, English cricketer
 1978 - John Lackey, American baseball player
 1979 – Simon Davies, Welsh footballer
 1984 – Izabel Goulart, Brazilian model
 1984 - Meghan McCain, American columnist and author
 1985 - Masiela Lusha, Albanian-born American writer and actress
 1985 - Lachlan Gillespie, Australian musician (The Wiggles)
 1985 - Mohammed Abdellaoue, Norwegian footballer
 1986 - Briana Evigan, American actress
 1986 - Jessica Stroup, American actress
 1986 - Emilia Clarke, English actress
 1987 - Faye Hamlin, Swedish singer
 1988 - Jordan Crawford, American basketball player
 1989 - Andriy Yarmolenko, Ukrainian footballer
 1990 – Paradise Oskar, Finnish singer
 1991 – Princess Mako of Akishino of Japan
 1992 - Alvaro Morata, Spanish footballer
 1993 - Taylor Spreitler, American actress
 1994 - Georgia Toffolo, English television personality
 1997 - Daphne Blunt, American actress and singer
 1998 - Amandla Stenberg, American actress

Deaths

Up to 1900 
 42 BC – Marcus Junius Brutus (suicide) (b. 85 BC)
 877 - Ignatius, Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople (b. 797)
 891 - Yazaman al-Khadim, Arab military leader
 930 – Emperor Daigo of Japan (b. 885)
 1157 - Sweyn III of Denmark (b. 1120)
 1456 - Giovanni da Capistrano, Italian saint (b. 1381)
 1581 – Michael Neander, German mathematician and astronomer (b. 1529)
 1616 - Leonhard Hutter, German theologian (b. 1563)
 1774 - Michel Benoist, French Jesuit missionary and scientist (b. 1715)
 1869 – Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1799)
 1872 – Théophile Gautier, French writer (b. 1811)
 1885 - Charles S. West, Texan jurist and politician (b. 1829)
 1893 - Alexander Battenberg, Prince of Bulgaria (b. 1857)
 1896 - Columbus Delano, American politician (b. 1809)

1901  2000 
 1910 – Chulalongkorn (Rama V), King of Siam (now Thailand) (b. 1853)
 1915 – W. G. Grace, English cricketer (b. 1848)
 1921 – John Boyd Dunlop, Scottish inventor (b. 1840)
 1930 - Vicente Casanova y Marzol, Archbishop of Granada (b. 1854)
 1938 - Jean-Guy Gautier, French rugby player (b. 1875)
 1939 – Zane Grey, American writer (b. 1872)
 1940 - George R. Cortelyou, American politician (b. 1862)
 1944 – Charles Glover Barkla, English physicist (b. 1877)
 1944 - Hana Brady, Czech Holocaust victim (b. 1931)
 1948 - Carl Edward Bailey, Governor of Arkansas (b. 1894)
 1950 – Al Jolson, American singer and actor (b. 1886)
 1957 – Christian Dior, French fashion designer (b. 1905)
 1959 - Gerda Lundequist, Swedish actress (b. 1871)
 1979 - Antonio Caggiano, Argentine cardinal (b. 1889)
 1983 – Jessica Savitch, journalist (b. 1947)
 1984 - Oskar Werner, Austrian actor (b. 1922)
 1986 – Edward Adelbert Doisy, American biochemist, won the 1843 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1893)
 1988 - Asashio Taro III, Japanese sumo wrestler (b. 1929)
 1989 - Armida, Mexican-American actress, singer and dancer (b. 1911)
 1990 – Louis Althusser, French Marxist philosopher (b. 1918)
 1994 - Robert Lansing, American actor (b. 1928)
 1997 - Bert Haanstra, Dutch director, producer and screenwriter (b. 1916)
 2000 - Rodney Adnoa'i, Samoan-American professional wrestler (b. 1966)

From 2001 
 2003 – Tony Capstick, British actor, comedian, musician and broadcaster (b. 1944)
 2003 – Soong May-ling, widow of Chiang Kai-shek (b. 1898)
 2004 - George Silk, New Zealand-American photographer (b. 1916)
 2005 - John Muth, American economist (b. 1930)
 2009 – Lou Jacobi, Canadian actor (b. 1913)
 2010 – David Thompson, Prime Minister of Barbados (b. 1961)
 2011 - Nusrat Bhutto, former First Lady of Pakistan (b. 1929)
 2011 – Marco Simoncelli, Italian motorcycle racer (b. 1987)
 2011 – Herbert A. Hauptman, American mathematician and Nobel Prize-winning chemist (b. 1917)
 2011 – John McCarthy, American computer scientist (b. 1927)
 2011 - Bronislovas Lubys, former Prime Minister of Lithuania (b. 1938)
 2012 - Sunil Gangopadhyay, Indian novelist and poet (b. 1934)
 2012 - Wilhelm Brasse, Polish photographer (b. 1917)
 2013 - Bill Mazer, American TV and radio presenter (b. 1920)
 2013 - Anthony Caro, British sculptor (b. 1924)
 2014 - Alvin Stardust, British singer (b. 1942)
 2014 - Ghulam Azam, Bangladeshi politician (b. 1922)
 2014 - John Bramlett, American football player (b. 1941)
 2014 - Bernard Mayes, British author and broadcaster (b. 1929)
 2014 - André Piters, Belgian footballer (b. 1931)
 2014 - Tullio Regge, Italian physicist (b. 1931)
 2015 - Krunoslav Hulak, Croatian chess player (b. 1951)
 2015 - Leon Bibb, American folk singer (b. 1922)
 2015 - Paride Tumburus, Italian footballer (b. 1939)
 2015 - Jimmy Roberts, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1946)
 2016 - Jimmy Perry, English actor and screenwriter (b. 1923)
 2016 - Pete Burns, English singer-songwriter (b. 1959)
 2016 - Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani, former Emir of Qatar (b. 1932)
 2017 - Walter Lassally, German-born British-Greek cinematographer (b. 1926)
 2017 - Paul J. Weitz, American pilot and astronaut (b. 1932)
 2018 - Skip Campbell, American politician (b. 1948)
 2018 - James Karen, American actor (b. 1923)
 2018 - Alojz Rebula, Italian-Slovenian writer, playwright and essayist (b. 1924)
 2018 - Laurens van Ravens, Belgian football referee (b. 1922)
 2019 - Santos Juliá, Spanish historian and sociologist (b. 1940)
 2019 - James W. Montgomery, American Episcopalian prelate (b. 1921)
 2019 - Alfred Znamierowski, Polish vexillologist (b. 1940)

Observances 
 Mole Day (Chemists)
 Chulalongkorn Day (Thailand)
 National Day of Hungary
 Day of the Macedonian Revolutionary Struggle

Days of the year