February 23

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 Lopez 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 - Emile 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 - Leopold 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 Poznan, 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'etat 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 Gonzalez and Miguel Boyer nationalizes Rumasa, a holding of Jose Maria 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'etat, 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 Ocalan 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 Galtur, 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 - Cesar 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 Traore, 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 Bohmermann, 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 Schon, 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 Frere, 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)
Days of the year