August 23



Events

Up to 1900 
30 BC - After a successful invasion of Egypt, Octavian has Marcus Antonius Antyllus and Caesarion executed.
79 - Mount Vesuvius starts to show activity, a day before it erupted, destroying Pompeii and Herculaneum.
406 - Gothic king Radagaisus is executed after he is defeated by Roman general Stilicho.
476 - Odoacer, chieftain of the Germanic tribes, is proclaimed King of Italy by his troops.
1244 - Siege of Jerusalem: The city's citadel, the Tower of David, surrenders to the Kharezmian Empire.
1305 – William Wallace is executed.
1328 – Battle of Kassel: French troops stop an uprising of Flemish farmers
1328 – King Philip VI of France is crowned.
1382 - Siege of Moscow: The Golden Horde led by khan Tokhtamysh lays siege to the capital of the Grand Duchy of Moscow.
1521 - Christian II of Denmark is deposed as King of Sweden and Gustav Vasa is elected regent.
1540 – French explorer Jacques Cartier lands near Quebec City in his third voyage to Canada.
1566 – Calvinists are granted rights in the Netherlands.
1592 - Japanese invasions of Korea: Yeongwon Castle is besieged by the Japanese Fourth Division, led by Ito Suketaka.
1614 – The University of Groningen is established.
1617 – In London, the first one-way street is established.
1628 - George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham is assassinated by John Felton.
1651 – Charles II enters Worcester and starts a battle.
1655 - Battle of Sobota: The Swedish Empire led by Charles X Gustav defeats the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
1784 – Eastern Tennessee declares itself an independent state under the name of Franklin; the step is rejected by Congress one year later.
1793 – French Revolution: a levée en masse was decreed by the National Convention.
1799 – Napoleon leaves Egypt for France en route to seize power.
1813 – At the Battle of Grossbeeren, the Prussians under Von Bulow  repulse the French army.
1821 – Mexico gains its independence from Spain.
1833 – Slavery abolished in the British colonies.
1839 – The UK captures Hong Kong.
1858 - The Round Oak rail accident occurs in Brierley Hill in the Black Country, England.
1864 – The Union Navy captures Fort Morgan, Alabama, thus breaking Confederate dominance of all ports on the Gulf of Mexico.
1866 – Austro-Prussian War ends with the Treaty of Prague.
1873 - The Albert Bridge is opened across the Thames in Chelsea, London, England, United Kingdom.
1889 – First wireless message from a ship to the shore received.
1896 - Start of the Philippines Revolution.

1901  1950 
1904 – The automobile tire chain is patented.
1913 – A statue of the Little Mermaid is put up in Copenhagen.
1914 – World War I: Japan declares war on Germany and bombs Qingdao, China.
1921 - British airship R-38 experiences a structural failure over Kingston-Upon-Hull and crashes into the Humber estuary.
1924 – The distance between Earth and Mars is the smallest since the 10th century.
1927 – Italian anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti are executed in Boston, Massachusetts.
1929 – Arabs attack Jews in Israel.
1938 - English cricketer Len Hutton sets the world record for the highest individual test innings of 364, against Australia.
1939 – World War II: Germany and the Soviet Union sign a non-aggression treaty, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. In a secret addition to the pact, Baltic states, Finland and Poland are divided between the two nations.
1940 – World War II: The Germans start bombing London.
1942 – World War II: Beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad
1943 – World War II: Kharkov liberated.
1944 – World War II: Marseille liberated.
1944 – World War II: King Michael of Romania dismisses the pro-Nazi government of General Antonescu. Romania switches sides from the Axis to the Allies.
1944 – A US Army Air Force B-24 Liberator bomber crashes into a school in Freckleton, England killing 61 people.
1944 – World War II: Ion Antonescu, Prime Minister of Romania, is arrested and a new government is established. Romania exits the war against Russia joining the Allies.
1946 - Three states are created in the British occupation zone of post-World War II Germany: North Rhine-Westphalia, Schleswig-Holstein, and the short-lived state of Hanover.
1947 – The Maynard Midgets beat Lock Haven 16-7 to win the first-ever Little League World Series championship.
1948 – World Council of Churches is formed.
1950 - The Subansiri Dam break in India kills 532 people.

1951  2000 
1952 – The Arab League goes into effect.
1958 – Chinese Civil War: The Second Taiwan Strait crisis begins with the People's Liberation Army's bombardment of Quemoy.
1960 – In Equatorial Guinea, the world's largest frog (3.3 kg) is caught.
1962 – First live television connection between the United States and Europe, via the Telstar satellite.
1966 – Lunar Orbiter 1 takes the first photograph of Earth from orbit around the Moon.
1968 – Ringo Starr temporarily quits The Beatles
1973 – The Intelsat communication satellite is launched.
1973 - Salvador Allende, President of Chile, named Augusto Pinochet as Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Army. Just 19 days later, Pinochet takes power in a coup, overthrowing Allende, who is killed.
1975 – Successful Communist coup in Laos
1976 – A major earthquake in China kills thousands of people.
1979 – Soviet dancer Alexander Godunov defects to the United States.
1982 - Bachir Gemayel is elected President of Lebanon during his country's civil war. He will not become president, as he is killed on September 14, before he can take office.
1985 – Hans Tiedge, top counter-spy of West Germany, defects to East Germany.
1987 – Heavy rains and floods in Bangladesh kill hundreds of victims.
1989 – Singing Revolution: two million people from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania stand on the Vilnius-Tallinn road, holding hands (Baltic way).
1989 – All of Australia's 1,645 domestic airline pilots resign after the airlines threaten to sack them and sue them over a dispute.
1990 – Saddam Hussein appears on Iraqi state television with a number of Western "guests" (actually hostages to try to prevent the Gulf War).
1990 – Armenia declares its independence from the Soviet Union.
1990 – West Germany and East Germany announce that they will unite on October 3.
1991 - Tim Berners-Lee opens the World Wide Web to new users.
1992 – Hurricane Andrew hits South Florida.
1993 - The Galileo spacecraft discovers a moon orbiting around an asteroid; Dactyl orbits around the asteroid 243 Ida.
1999 – The Federal Republic of Germany is governed from Berlin from this day.
2000 – A Gulf Air Airbus A320 crashes into the Persian Gulf near Manama, Bahrain, killing 143 people.
2000 – Nicaragua becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.  This basically replaced the Buenos Aires Convention treaty, because as of this date, all members of the BA Convention were also signatories to Berne.

From 2001 
2005 – Hurricane Katrina forms as a tropical depression.
2006 – In Austria, Natascha Kampusch manages to escape from 8 years of captivity. Her captor Wolfgang Priklopil commits suicide soon after.
2010 – Nine people, including the hostage taker, are killed in a hostage crisis on board a bus in Manila, Philippines.
2011 - 2011 Virginia earthquake: A magnitude 5.8 earthquake strikes near Mineral, Virginia, and is felt all the way along the eastern seaboard of the United States. No one is killed, but damage is reported on buildings, including monuments in Washington, DC.
2018 - Sexual harassment allegations against former First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond are made public.

Births

Up to 1900 
686  Charles Martel, grandfather of Charlemagne (d. 741)
963  Richard II, Duke of Normandy (d. 1027)
1486  Sigismund von Herberstein, Austrian diplomat and historian (d. 1566)
1517  Francis I of Lorraine (d. 1545)
1524  François Hotman, French lawyer and writer (d. 1590)
1623  Stanisław Lubieniecki, Polish astronomer (d. 1675)
1724  Abraham Yates, American Continental Congressman (d. 1796)
1740  Tsar Ivan VI of Russia (d. 1764)
1741  Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse, French explorer (d. 1788)
1754  King Louis XVI of France (d. 1792)
1756  Francois Chabot, French priest and politician (d. 1794)
1757  Marie Magdalene Charlotte Ackermann, German actress (d. 1775)
1769  Georges Cuvier, French biologist and statesman (d. 1832)
1783  William Tierney Clark, English civil engineer (d. 1852)
1785  Oliver Hazard Perry, American naval officer (d. 1819)
1797  Adhemar Jean Claude Barre de Saint-Venant, French scientist (d. 1886)
1805  Anton von Schmerling, Austrian politician and jurist (d. 1893)
1811  Auguste Bravais, French physicist (d. 1863)
1814  James Roosevelt Bayley, American archbishop (d. 1877)
1829  Moritz Cantor, German mathematician (d. 1920)
1836  Marie Henriette of Austria, Queen of Belgium (d. 1902)
1839  James Geikie, Scottish geologist (d. 1915)
1846  Alexander Milne Calder, American sculptor (d. 1923)
1847  Sarah Frances Whiting, American physicist and astronomer (d. 1927)
1849  William Ernest Henley, British poet, critic, and editor (d. 1903)
1850  John Cockburn, Scottish-Australian politician, 18th Premier of South Australia (d. 1929)
1852  Arnold Toynbee, English economist and social reformer (d. 1883)
1852  Clímaco Calderón, President of Colombia (d. 1913)
1854  Moritz Moszkowski, Polish composer and pianist (d. 1925)
1864  Eleftherios Venizelos, Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1936)
1868  Edgar Lee Masters, American writer (d. 1950)
1872  Tanguturi Prakasam, Indian politician (d. 1957)
1875  William Eccles, English radio pioneer (d. 1966)
1880  Alexander Grin, Russian writer (d. 1932)
1883  Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright IV, American general (d. 1953)
1884  Will Cuppy, American humorist (d. 1949)
1887  Albert Gutterson, American athlete (d. 1965)
1887  Friedrich Zander, Baltic German rocket engineer (d. 1933)
1890  Harry Frank Guggenheim, American businessman and publisher (d. 1971)
1896  Jacques Rueff, French politician (d. 1978)
1900  Ernst Krenek, Austrian-born composer (d. 1991)

1901  1950 
1901  John Sherman Cooper, U.S. Senator from Kentucky (d. 1991)
1902  Ida Siekmann, German victim of the Berlin Wall (d. 1961)
1903  William Primrose, Scottish violist (d. 1982)
1905  Constant Lambert, British composer (d. 1951)
1909  Leila Danette, American actress (d. 2012)
1910  Giuseppe Meazza, Italian footballer (d. 1979)
1911  Birger Ruud, Norwegian athlete (d. 1998)
1911  Betty Robinson, American athlete (d. 1999)
1912  Gene Kelly, American dancer and actor (d. 1996)
1912  Alexey Sudayev, Russian inventor (d. 1946)
1912  Ed Benedict, American animator (d. 2006)
1913  Bob Crosby, American singer, actor and bandleader (d. 1993)
1917  Tex Williams, American singer (d. 1985)
1917  Antonio Innocenti, Italian cardinal (d. 2008)
1918  Bernard Fisher, American surgeon (d. 2019)
1919  Vladimir Rokhlin, Soviet mathematician (d. 1984)
1921  Kenneth Arrow, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2017)
1921  Franco Ossola, Italian footballer (d. 1949)
1922  Jean Darling, American actress and singer (d. 2015)
1922  George Kell, American baseball player (d. 2009)
1923  Edgar F. Codd, English computer scientist (d. 2003)
1924  Ephraim Kishon, Israeli writer (d. 2005)
1924  Robert Solow, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
1925  Robert Mulligan, American movie director (d. 2008)
1926  Leo Leandros, Greek singer, composer and music producer
1927  Dick Bruna, Dutch illustrator (d. 2017)
1928  Marian Seldes, American actress (d. 2014)
1929  Vera Miles, American actress
1929  Peter Thomson, Australian golfer (d. 2018)
1930  Michel Rocard, former Prime Minister of France (d. 2016)
1931  Hamilton O. Smith, American microbiologist
1932  Houari Boumédiène, President of Algeria (d. 1978)
1932  Mark Russell, American comedian, musician, and political commentator
1933  Robert Curl, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
1933  Pete Wilson, former Governor of California
1934  Barbara Eden, American actress
1934  Sonny Jurgensen, American football player
1934  Carlos Amigo Vallejo, Archbishop of Seville and cardinal
1936  Henry Lee Lucas, American serial killer (d. 2001)
1940  Thomas A. Steitz, American molecular biologist and biochemist (d. 2018)
1943  Donald Kalpokas, former Prime Minister of Vanuatu (d. 2019)
1943  Raúl Cubas Grau, former President of Paraguay
1943  Nelson DeMille, American novelist
1943  Pino Presti,  Italian bass player, arranger, composer, conductor, record producer
1944  Antonia Novello, 14th Surgeon General of the United States
1945  Bob Peck, British actor (d. 1999)
1945  Rita Pavone, Italian singer
1945  Rayfield Wright, American football player
1946  Keith Moon, English singer and drummer (The Who) (d. 1978)
1947  David Robb, British actor
1947  Willy Russell, British playwright
1948  Andrei Plesu, Romanian philosopher, journalist and politician
1949  Shelley Long, American actress
1949  Rick Springfield, Australian singer and actor
1950  Luigi Delneri, Italian football manager
1950  Roza Otunbayeva, former President of Kyrgyzstan

1951  1975 
1951  Queen Noor of Jordan
1951  Akhmad Kadyrov, President of Chechnya (d. 2004)
1951  Jimi Jamison, American rock music singer and songwriter (d. 2014)
1952  Vicky Leandros, Greek singer
1952  Santillana, Spanish footballer
1953  Bobby G, English singer (Bucks Fizz)
1953  Arturas Paulauskas, Lithuanian politician
1954  Marc Vann, American actor
1954  Halimah Yacob, 8th President of Singapore
1956  Andreas Floer, German mathematician (d. 1991)
1956  Valgerd Svarstad Haugland, Norwegian politician
1959  Edwyn Collins, Scottish singer
1959  Jorginho Putinatti, Brazilian footballer
1961  Alexandre Desplat, French composer
1961  Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, 54th Mayor of Tehran
1961  Gary Mabbutt, English footballer
1962  Martin Cauchon, Canadian lawyer and politician
1962  Shaun Ryder, British musician
1963  Park Chan-wook, South Korean film director, screenwriter and producer
1963  Richard Illingworth, English cricketer
1963  Kenny Wallace, American race car driver
1964  Johan Bruyneel, Belgian cyclist
1965  Richard Avary, Canadian movie and television producer, screenwriter and director
1966  Alberto Acosta, Argentine footballer
1966  Rik Smits, Dutch basketball player
1966  Charley Boorman, English actor and adventurer
1967  Jim Murphy, Scottish politician
1967  Ant, American comedian and actor
1968  Chris DiMarco, American golfer
1968  Laura Claycomb, American operatic soprano
1968  Hajime Moriyasu, Japanese footballer
1969  Tinus Linee, South African rugby player (d. 2014)
1970  Jay Mohr, American actor and comedian
1970  River Phoenix, American actor (d. 1993)
1971  Demetrio Albertini, Italian footballer
1971  Gretchen Whitmer, American politician, Governor of Michigan
1972  Souad Massi, Algerian singer and guitarist
1972  Mark Butcher, English cricketer
1973  Casey Blake, American baseball player
1973  Chelsi Smith, American singer and beauty pageant winner (d. 2018)
1974  Toni Brunner, Swiss politician
1974  Konstantin Novoselov, Russian-British physicist
1974  Ray Park, British actor
1974  Benjamin Limo, Kenyan athlete
1975  Eliza Carthy, English singer and fiddler

From 1976 
1978  Kobe Bryant, American basketball player (d. 2020)
1978  Julian Casablancas, American musician
1979  Jessica Bibby, Australian basketball player
1980  Diamondog, Angolan rapper and journalist
1980  Nenad Vuckovic, Serbian handball player
1981  Carlos Cuellar, Spanish footballer
1982  Natalie Coughlin, American swimmer
1982  Trevor Wright, American actor
1983  Sun Ming Ming, Chinese basketball player
1983  James Collins, Welsh footballer
1983  J. C. Bailey, American professional wrestler (d. 2010)
1984  Glen Johnson, English footballer
1984  Ashley Williams, English-Welsh footballer
1986  SkyBlu, American rapper (LMFAO)
1986  Vic Wild, American-Russian snowboarder
1986  Neil Cicierega, American comedian, actor, singer and director
1988  Carl Hagelin, Swedish ice hockey player
1988  Vaani Kapoor, Indian actress
1988  Niki Leinso, Croatian singer and songwriter
1988  Jeremy Lin, American basketball player
1988  Kim Matula, American actress
1990  Reimond Manco, Peruvian footballer
1991  Jennifer Abel, Canadian diver
1994  Roberto Bellarosa, Belgian singer
1996  David Gore, American actor

Deaths

Up to 1900 
30 BC  Marcus Antonius Antyllus, Roman soldier, eldest son of Mark Antony (b. 47 BC)
30 BC  Caesarion, last king of Egypt's Ptolemaic Dynasty, son of Cleopatra
93  Gnaeus Julius Agricola, Roman Governor of Britain (b. 40)
406  Radagaisus, Gothic king
634  Abu Bakr, Arabian caliph
1106  Magnus, Duke of Saxony (b. 1045)
1176  Emperor Rokujo of Japan (b. 1164)
1305  William Wallace, Scottish patriot (executed) (b. 1272)
1329  Frederick IV, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1282)
1387  King Olav IV of Norway (b. 1370)
1498  Isabella, Princess of Asturias (b. 1470)
1507  Jean Molinet, French writer (b. 1435)
1519  Philibert Berthelier, Swiss patriot
1540  Guillaume Budé, French scholar
1591  Luis Ponce de León, Spanish poet and mystic (b. 1527)
1618  Gerbrand Adriaensz Bredero, Dutch writer (b. 1585)
1628  George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, English statesman (b. 1592)
1652  John Byron, 1st Baron Byron, English royalist politician (b. 1600)
1723  Increase Mather, New England Puritan minister (b. 1639)
1802  Corona Schröter, German singer and actress (b. 1751)
1806  Charles Augustin de Coulomb, French physicist (b. 1736)
1813  Alexander Wilson, Scottish-born ornithologist (b. 1766)
1819  Oliver Hazard Perry, American naval officer (b. 1785)
1838  Ferenc Kolcsey, Hungarian poet and politician (b. 1790)
1865  Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller, Austrian painter (b. 1793)
1866  Auguste Barthélémy, French poet (b. 1796)
1883  Sarah Yorke Jackson, First Lady of the United States (b. 1805)
1892  Deodoro da Fonseca, 1st President of Brazil (b. 1827)
1900  Kuroda Kiyotaka, 2nd Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1844)

1901  2000 
1926  Rudolph Valentino, Italian actor (b. 1895)
1927  Nicola Sacco, Italian anarchist (executed) (b. 1891)
1927  Bartolomeo Vanzetti, Italian anarchist (executed) (b. 1888)
1933  Adolf Loos, Austrian architect (b. 1870)
1937  Albert Roussel, French composer (b. 1869)
1944  Abdülmecid II, Ottoman Caliph (b. 1868)
1958  Roger Martin du Gard, French writer (b. 1881)
1960  Oscar Hammerstein II, American lyricist (b. 1895)
1962  Walter Anderson, German folklorist (b. 1885)
1962  Hoot Gibson, American actor (b. 1892)
1966  Francis X. Bushman, American actor (b. 1883)
1977  Naum Gabo, Russian artist (b. 1890)
1982  Stanford Moore, American biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1913)
1987  Didier Pironi, French racing driver (b. 1952)
1989  R. D. Laing, Scottish psychiatrist (b. 1927)
1997  John Kendrew, British molecular biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (b. 1917)
1997  Eric Gairy, 1st Prime Minister of Grenada (b. 1922)

From 2001 
2001  Peter Maas, American novelist (b. 1929)
2002  Hoyt Wilhelm, baseball player (b. 1922)
2003  Imperio Argentina, Argentine singer and actress (b. 1906)
2003  Bobby Bonds, baseball player and manager (b. 1946)
2003  Jack Dyer, Australian footballer (b. 1913)
2005  Brock Peters, American actor (b. 1927)
2006  Wolfgang Priklopil, Austrian kidnapper (b. 1961)
2008  Thomas Huckle Weller, American bacteriologist and parasitologist (b. 1915)
2010  Satoshi Kon, Japanese movie director (b. 1963)
2012  Steve Van Buren, Honduran-born American football player (b. 1920)
2012  Jerry Nelson, American puppeteer (b. 1934)
2013  Gilbert Taylor, British cinematographer (b. 1914)
2014  Birgitta Stenberg, Swedish author (b. 1932)
2014  Annefleur Kalvenhaar, Dutch cyclist (b. 1994)
2014  Hajo Meyer, German-Dutch physicist (b. 1924)
2014  Jaume Vallcorba Plana, Spanish philologist (b. 1949)
2014  Dan Magill, American tennis coach (b. 1921)
2014  Ahti Pekkala, Finnish politician (b. 1924)
2014  Marcel Rigout, French politician (b. 1928)
2014  Philippine de Rothschild, French winemaker and baroness (b. 1933)
2014  Albert Ebossé Bodjongo, Cameroonian footballer (b. 1989)
2015  Guy Ligier, French rugby player and racing driver (b. 1930)
2015  Yosi Piamenta, Israeli musician (b. 1951)
2016  Steven Hill, American actor (b. 1922)
2016  Reinhard Selten, German economist (b. 1930)
2017  Joe Klein, American baseball executive (b. 1942)
2017  Eduardo Angeloz, Argentine politician (b. 1931)
2017  Viola Harris, American actress (b. 1926)
2017  Jack Rosenthal, Israeli-American journalist (b. 1935)
2017  Engelbert Jarek, Polish footballer (b. 1935)
2017  George A. Keyworth II, American physicist (b. 1939)
2017  Izak Parviz Nazarian, Iranian-American businessman (b. 1929)
2017  Jeannie Rousseau, French Allied intelligence agent (b. 1919)
2018  Russ Heath, American comic book artist (b. 1926)
2018  Dieter Thomas Heck, German actor and television presenter (b. 1937)
2018  Kuldip Nayar, Indian journalist (b. 1923)
2018  George Sheldon, American politician (b. 1947)
2018  George Walker, American composer (b. 1922)
2018  Franck Venaille, French poet and writer (b. 1936)
2018  Dominik Kalata, Slovakian Roman Catholic prelate (b. 1925)
2019  Amath Dansokho, Senegalese politician (b. 1937)
2019  Carlo Delle Piane, Italian actor (b. 1936)
2019  David Koch, American businessman (b. 1940)
2019  Roaring Lion, British-bred racehorse (b. 2015)
2019  Rick Loomis, American game designer (b. 1946)
2019  Massimo Mattioli, Italian cartoonist (b. 1943)
2019  Egon Zimmermann, Austrian ski racer and businessman (b. 1939)

Observances 
 International Day for Abolition of Slave Trade (UNESCO)
 European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Nazism and Stalinism (European Union)
 Liberation from Fascist Occupation Day (Romania)
 Flag Day (Ukraine)
 Father's Day (Nepal)

Days of the year