February 23

### 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.

### 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

### 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)