July 23

Events
Up to 1900
811 Byzantine Emperor Nikephoros I plunders the Bulgarian city of Pliska and captures Khan Krum's treasure.
1148 Crusades: A Crusader army starts a Siege of Damascus, lasting until July 28.
1793 The Kingdom of Prussia re-conquers Mainz from France.
1632 300 colonists leave for New France from Dieppe, France.
1677 Scanian War: Denmark-Norway captures the harbour town of Marstrand from Sweden
1783 Prussia re-conquers Mainz from France.
1829 In the US William Austin Burt patents the typographer, a precursor of the typewriter.
1840 The Province of Canada is created in an Act of Union.
1862 American Civil War: Henry Halleck takes command of the Union army.
1871 Austria-Hungary decides to use the metric system. The change becomes effective on January 1, 1876.
1881 Chile and Argentina agree on their territories in Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia.
1901 2000
1903 The Ford Motor Company sells its first car.
1914 World War I: Austria-Hungary issues an ultimatum to Serbia, demanding Serbia to allow the Austrians to determine who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Serbia does not meet Austria-Hungary's terms and war is declared on July 28.
1921 The Communist Party of China (CPC) launched the first time of Chinese National Congress, Communist party in China are established.
1927 The first station of the Indian Broadcasting Company goes on the air in Bombay.
1929 The Fascist government in Italy bans the use of foreign words.
1930 A magnitude 6.7 earthquake in Italy kills 1,425 people.
1936 The Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia is founded through the merger of the Socialist and Communist Parties.
1940 United States Secretary of State Sumner Welles issues a declaration that the United States will not recognize the Soviet Union's annexation of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
1942 Holocaust: Treblinka Extermination Camp is opened.
1942 World War II: The German offensives Operation Edelweiss and Operation Braunschweig begin.
1942 World War II: Bulgarian poet and Communist leader Nikola Vaptsarov is executed by a firing squad.
1943 World War II: British destroyers HMS Eclipse and HMS Laforey sink the Italian submarine Ascianghi in the Mediterranean Sea after she torpedoes the cruiser HMS Newfoundland.
1952 King Farouk I of Egypt is removed in a coup and a Republic is declared.
1961 The Sandinista Liberation Front is founded in Nicaragua.
1962 Telstar relays the first publicly transmitted Transatlantic TV programme, featuring Walter Cronkite.
1967 A riot in Detroit leaves 43 people dead and 342 injured.
1968 The only successful hijacking of an El Al aircraft takes place when a Boeing 707 carrying ten crew and 38 passengers is taken over by three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, en route from Lod, Israel.
1970 Sultan Qaboos of Oman removes his father, Sultan Sa'id ibn Taimur, in a bloodless coup.
1972 The United States launches Landsat 1, the first Earth-resources satellite.
1974 Constantine Karamanlis is invited to form the government of Greece after the fall of the military junta.
1976 Mario Soares is elected Prime Minister of Portugal.
1982 The International Whaling Commission decides to end commercial whaling by 1985 or 1986.
1983 The Sri Lankan Civil War begins.
1985 The Amiga computer is presented for the first time, in New York City. Celebrities such as Andy Warhol and Debbie Harry are present at the event.
1986 Prince Andrew, Duke of York marries Sarah Ferguson. Their marriage later ends in divorce.
1988 General Ne Win, effective military ruler of Burma since 1962, resigns after pro-democracy protests.
1992 Abkhazia declares independence from Georgia.
1995 Comet Hale-Bopp is discovered.
1999 Mohammed VI becomes King of Morocco.
1999 ANA Flight 61 is hijacked in Tokyo, Japan by Yuji Nishizawa.
From 2001
2001 As a result of a finance scandal, President of Indonesia Abdurrahman Wahid is forced out of office. Megawati Sukarnoputri succeeds him.
2004 The Stari Most (Old Bridge) in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, is re-opened. It had been destroyed during the Balkan War.
2005 Three bombs explode at Sharm-el-Sheikh in Egypt, killing 88 people.
2011 A train crash on the high-speed rail line between Beijing and Shanghai kills 40 people.
2011 British singer Amy Winehouse is found dead in her London home.
2012 A major solar storm begins, which narrowly misses Earth.
2014 The 2014 Commonwealth Games, taking place in Glasgow, Scotland, begin.
2015 NASA announces the discovery of the planet Kepler 452b by the Kepler probe. It is believed to be the most Earth-like planet to have been discovered.
2016 A bomb attack on a protest in Kabul, Afghanistan, kills 80 people.
2018 A dam in southern Laos breaks, killing at least 26 people and leaving over 130 missing.
2018 Massive wildfires break out in the Attica region of Greece, killing at least 85 people.
2019 Boris Johnson becomes leader of the British Conservative Party, having defeated Jeremy Hunt in the leadership election; he becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom the next day.
2021 2020 Summer Olympics open in Tokyo.
Births
Up to 1900
645 Yazid I, Arabian Caliph (d. 683)
1301 Otto, Duke of Austria (d. 1339)
1339 King Louis I of Naples (d. 1384)
1401 Francesco I Sforza, Italian ruler (d. 1466)
1503 Anne of Bohemia and Hungary (d. 1547)
1649 Pope Clement XI (d. 1721)
1746 Bernardo de Galvez y Madrid, Spanish general and politician (d. 1786)
1773 Thomas Brisbane, Scottish general and politician, 6th Governor of New South Wales (d. 1860)
1777 Philipp Otto Runge, German painter (d. 1810)
1796 Franz Berwald, Swedish composer (d. 1868)
1804 Jane Irwin Harrison, acting First Lady of the United States (d. 1845)
1820 Julia Gardiner Tyler, First Lady of the United States (d. 1889)
1823 Alexandre-Antonin Tache, Canadian archbishop (d. 1894)
1824 Kuno Fischer, German philosopher (d. 1907)
1838 Edouard Colonne, French violinist and conductor (d. 1910)
1851 Peder Severin Kroyer, Danish painter (d. 1909)
1856 Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Indian nationalist (d. 1920)
1864 Apolinario Mabini, 1st Prime Minister of the Philippines (d. 1903)
1865 Max Heindel, Dutch occultist and mystic (d. 1919)
1865 Henry Norris, English businessman, politician and football club director (d. 1934)
1866 Francesca Cilea, Italian composer (d. 1950)
1871 Tsunesaburo Makiguchi (Japanese old Lunar calendar 6 June was an incorrect date using in Gregorian calendar), Winston Lim Zhi Hao "13 Bro" former lifetime, reformed educator and philosopher, Lotus Sutra Buddhism and Soka Gakkai International (SGI) founder (d. 1944)
1872 Edward Adrian Wilson, English Antarctic explorer (d. 1912)
1878 James Thomas Milton Anderson, Canadian politician, 5th Premier of Saskatchewan (d. 1946)
1884 Emil Jannings, Swiss-German actor (d. 1950)
1885 Georges V. Matchabelli, Georgian-American businessman (d. 1935)
1886 Salvador de Madariaga, Spanish diplomat and writer (d. 1978)
1886 Walter H. Schottky, German physicist (d. 1976)
1888 Raymond Chandler, American novelist (d. 1959)
1892 Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia (d. 1975)
1894 Arthur Treacher, English-American actor and singer (d. 1975)
1895 Aileen Pringle, American actress (d. 1989)
1898 Bengt Djurberg, Swedish actor and singer (d. 1941)
1898 Red Dutton, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1987)
1899 Gustav Heinemann, President of Germany (d. 1976)
1900 John Babcock, Canadian World War I veteran (d. 2010)
1901 1950
1905 Leopold Engleitner, Austrian Holocaust survivor (d. 2013)
1906 Vladimir Prelog, Croatian chemist (d. 1998)
1906 Chandra Shekhar Azad, Indian activist (d. 1931)
1909 John William Finn, American naval officer (d. 2010)
1912 M. H. Abrams, American literary critic (d. 2015)
1913 Michael Foot, British politician (d. 2010)
1913 Coral Browne, Australian-American actress (d. 1991)
1918 Ruth Duccini, American actress (d. 2014)
1918 Pee Wee Reese, American baseball player and sportscaster (d. 1999)
1919 Hector German Oesterhell, Argentine screenwriter (d. 1977)
1920 Amalia Rodrigues, Portuguese singer (d. 1999)
1921 Robert Brown, English actor (d. 2003)
1922 Damiano Damiani, Italian director and screenwriter (d. 2013)
1923 Luis Aloma, Cuban-American baseball player (d. 1997)
1923 Morris Halle, Latvian-American linguist and academic (d. 2018)
1923 Amalia Mendoza, Mexican singer and actress (d. 2001)
1925 Tajuddin Ahmed, Bangladeshi politician (d. 1975)
1925 Alain Decaux, French historian and author (d. 2016)
1925 Gloria DeHaven, American actress and singer (d. 2016)
1925 Quett Masire, 2nd President of Botswana (d. 2017)
1926 Cedella Booker, mother of Bob Marley (d. 2008)
1926 Ludvik Vaculik, Czech writer and journalist (d. 2015)
1927 Al McCandless, American politician (d. 2017)
1928 Leon Fleisher, American pianist and conductor
1928 Vera Rubin, American astronomer (d. 2016)
1929 Danny Barcelona, American drummer (d. 2007)
1931 Queen Te Atairangikaahu of the New Zealand Maori (d. 2006)
1931 Guy Fournier, French Canadian writer and screenwriter
1931 Claude Fournier, French Canadian director and screenwriter
1932 Jorge Arvizu, Mexican voice actor (d. 2014)
1933 Bert Convy, American actor, singer and game show host (d. 1991)
1933 Richard Rogers, Italian-English architect
1934 Steve Lacy, American jazz musician (d. 2004)
1936 Anthony Kennedy, American lawyer and jurist
1936 Don Drysdale, American baseball player (d. 1993)
1938 Ronny Cox, American singer-songwriter, guitarist and actor
1938 Mickey Curtis, Japanese actor, singer and television personality
1938 Gotz George, German actor (d. 2016)
1938 Juliet Anderson, American pornographic actress (d. 2010)
1940 Don Imus, American talk show host
1940 Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, Italian banker and economist (d. 2010)
1941 Richie Evans, American racing driver (d. 1985)
1941 Sergio Mattarella, Italian lawyer, judge and politician, 12th President of Italy
1942 Myra Hindley, English murderer (d. 2002)
1944 Maria Joao Pires, Portuguese pianist
1946 Rene Ricard, American poet, art critic and painter (d. 2014)
1947 David Essex, English singer
1948 John Hall, American singer-songwriter, guitarist and musician (Orleans)
1950 Len McCluskey, English trade union leader
1951 1975
1951 Edie McClurg, American actress and voice actress
1953 Claude Barzotti, Belgian-Italian singer
1953 Najib Razak, 6th Prime minister of Malaysia
1953 Graham Gooch, English cricketer
1957 Theo van Gogh, Dutch movie director (d. 2004)
1957 Jo Brand, English comedienne, actress and presenter
1958 Frank Mill, German footballer
1961 Woody Harrelson, American actor
1961 Martin Gore, English singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer (Depeche Mode)
1962 Eriq LaSalle, American actor, director and producer
1962 Hiroshi Mikami, Japanese actor
1963 Phil Boswell, Scottish politician
1964 Uwe Barth, German politician
1964 Nick Menza, German-American drummer (d. 2016)
1965 Grace Mugabe, former First Lady of Zimbabwe
1965 Slash, English-American musician (Guns N'Roses)
1967 Philip Seymour Hoffman, American actor (d. 2014)
1967 Titiyo, Swedish singer-songwriter
1968 Elden Campbell, American basketball player
1968 Gary Payton, American basketball player and actor
1968 Stephanie Seymour, American actress and model
1969 Marco Bode, German footballer
1969 Andrew Cassels, Canadian ice hockey player
1969 David Kaufman, American voice-over artist and actor
1970 Charisma Carpenter, American actress
1971 Alison Krauss, American singer, violinist and fiddler
1972 Marlon Wayans, American actor, director, producer and screenwriter
1973 Francis Healy, British singer-songwriter and guitarist
1973 Monica Lewinsky, American White House intern
1973 Himesh Reshammiya, Indian singer-songwriter, producer, actor and director
1974 Stephanie March, American actress
1975 Alessio Tacchinardi, Italian footballer
1975 Suriya, Indian actor and producer
From 1976
1976 Judit Polgar, Hungarian chess player
1977 Kalup Linzy, American video and performance artist
1977 Shawn Thornton, Canadian ice hockey player
1978 Gail Emms, British badminton player
1978 Lauren Groff, American novelist and short story writer
1979 Sotirios Kyrgiakos, Greek footballer
1980 Michelle Williams, American singer (Destiny's Child)
1981 Steve Jocz, Canadian musician (Sum 41)
1981 Jarkko Nieminen, Finnish tennis player
1981 Natasha Yarovenko, Ukrainian actress and model
1983 Aaron Peirsol, American swimmer
1984 Walter Gargano, Uruguayan footballer
1984 Brandon Roy, American basketball player
1984 Arnor Atlason, Icelandic handball player
1985 Blake Harrison, English actor
1985 Anna Maria Muhe, German actress
1986 Ayaka Komatsu, Japanese model and actress
1986 Yelena Sokolova, Russian long jumper
1989 Daniel Radcliffe, British actor
1990 Ryan Castro, American actor
1990 Kevin Reynolds, Canadian figure skater
1990 Young JV, Filipino actor, singer, dancer and host
1991 Lauren Mitchell, Australian gymnast
1992 Danny Ings, English footballer
1996 Rachel G. Fox, American actress and singer
1996 Danielle Bradbery, American singer
Deaths
Up to 1900
1227 Qiu Chuji, Chinese religious leader (b. 1148)
1373 Saint Birgitta, Swedish saint (b. 1303)
1645 Tsar Michael I of Russia (b. 1596)
1692 Gilles Menage, French scholar (b. 1613)
1727 Simon Harcourt, 1st Viscount Harcourt, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain (b. 1661)
1757 Domenico Scarlatti, Italian composer (b. 1685)
1773 George Edwards, English naturalist (b. 1693)
1781 John Joachim Zubly, Swiss-American pastor and politician (b. 1724)
1793 Roger Sherman, signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1721)
1853 Andries Pretorius, Boer leader (b. 1798)
1875 Isaac Singer, American inventor (b. 1811)
1878 Carl von Rokitansky, Bohemian physician, pathologist and politician (b. 1804)
1885 Ulysses S. Grant, 18th President of the United States (b. 1822)
1901 2000
1901 Kliment Turnovski, Bulgarian religious leader, writer and politician (b. 1838)
1916 Sir William Ramsay, Scottish chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1852)
1919 Spyridon Lambros, Greek historian, professor and Prime Minister (b. 1851)
1920 Conrad Kohrs, German-born rancher (b. 1835)
1923 Pancho Villa, Mexican revolutionary (b. 1878)
1924 Frank Frost Abbott, American classical scholar (b. 1850)
1926 Viktor Vasnetsov, Russian painter (b. 1848)
1930 Glenn Curtiss, American pilot and engineer (b. 1878)
1932 Tenby Davies, Welsh runner (b. 1884)
1932 Alberto Santos-Dumont, Brazilian inventor (b. 1873)
1941 George Lyman Kittredge, American scholar and educator (b. 1860)
1941 Jose Quinones Gonzales, Peruvian soldier and pilot (b. 1914)
1942 Adam Czerniakow, Polish engineer (suicide) (b. 1880)
1942 Andy Ducat, English cricketer and footballer (b. 1886)
1942 Nikola Vaptsarov, Bulgarian poet and Communist leader (b. 1909)
1948 D. W. Griffith, American movie director (b. 1875)
1951 Henri Philippe Petain, leader of Vichy France (b. 1856)
1951 Robert J. Flaherty, American director and producer (b. 1884)
1952 Carl Severing, German politician (b. 1875)
1954 Hermann Groman, American runner (b. 1882)
1955 Cordell Hull, United States Secretary of State (b. 1871)
1966 Montgomery Clift, American actor (b. 1920)
1967 Ahmet Kutsi Tecer, Turkish poet and politician (b. 1901)
1968 Henry Hallett Dale, English pharmacologist, won the 1936 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, (b. 1875)
1971 Van Heflin, American actor (b. 1910)
1973 Eddie Rickenbacker, American pilot (b. 1890)
1980 Sarto Fournier, 38th Mayor of Montreal (b. 1908)
1980 Keith Godchaux, American musician (Grateful Dead) (b. 1948)
1980 Mollie Steimer, Russian exilee and political activist (b. 1897)
1982 Vic Morrow, American actor (b. 1929)
1983 Georges Auric, French composer (b. 1899)
1989 Donald Barthelme, American writer (b. 1931)
1996 Jean Muir, American actress and singer (b. 1911)
1997 Chuhei Nambu, Japanese athlete (b. 1904)
1999 King Hassan II of Morocco (b. 1929)
From 2001
2001 Eudora Welty, American writer (b. 1909)
2002 Leo McKern, Australian actor (b. 1920)
2002 Dr. William L. Pierce, American writer and activist (b. 1933)
2002 Chaim Potok, American novelist and rabbi (b. 1929)
2003 James E. Davis, New York City councilman (murdered) (b. 1962)
2004 Carlos Paredes, Portuguese musician and composer (b. 1925)
2004 Mehmood, Indian actor (b. 1932)
2007 Mohammed Zahir Shah, King of Afghanistan (b. 1914)
2007 Ernst Otto Fischer, German chemist (b. 1918)
2008 Kurt Furgler, Swiss Federal Councillor (b. 1924)
2010 Daniel Schorr, American journalist (b. 1916)
2011 Nguyen Cao Ky, South Vietnamese air force chief and Prime Minister (b. 1930)
2011 Amy Winehouse, English singer-songwriter (b. 1983)
2011 John Shalikashvili, American Chief of Staff (b. 1936)
2011 Robert Ettinger, American academic and pioneer of Cryonics (b. 1918)
2012 Sally Ride, American physicist and astronaut, first American woman in space (b. 1951)
2013 Emile Griffith, American boxer (b. 1938)
2013 Djalma Santos, Brazilian footballer (b. 1929)
2013 Jokichi Igarashi, Japanese supercentenarian (b. 1902)
2013 Rona Anderson, Scottish actress (b. 1926)
2014 Dora Bryan, English actress (b. 1923)
2014 Saado Ali Warsame, Somali politician and folk singer (b. 1950)
2014 Norman Leyden, American conductor, composer and musician (b. 1917)
2014 Ariano Suassuna, Brazilian writer (b. 1927)
2015 Jose Sazatornil, Spanish actor (b. 1925)
2015 William Wakefield Baum, American cardinal (b. 1926)
2016 Thorbjorn Falldin, Prime Minister of Sweden (b. 1926)
2016 Carl Falck, Norwegian businessman and centenarian (b. 1907)
2016 S. H. Raza, Indian artist (b. 1922)
2017 Bob DeMoss, American football player and coach (b. 1927)
2017 Thomas Fleming, American novelist (b. 1927)
2017 John Kundla, American basketball coach (b. 1916)
2017 Lau Wong-fat, Hong Kong businessman and politician (b. 1936)
2017 Waldir Peres, Brazilian footballer (b. 1951)
2017 Mervyn Rose, American tennis player (b. 1930)
2017 Flo Steinberg, American comic book publisher and secretary (b. 1939)
2017 Snooty, American manatee (b. 1948)
2018 Maryon Pittman Allen, American journalist and politician (b. 1925)
2018 Harry Gulkin, Canadian film director (b. 1927)
2018 Elbert Howard, American political activist (b. 1938)
2018 Roh Hoe-chan, South Korean politician (b. 1956)
2018 Khalid Salleh, Malaysian actor (b. 1948)
2018 Oksana Shachko, Ukrainian artist and human rights activist (b. 1987)
2019 Maxim Dadashev, Russian boxer (b. 1990)
2019 Barney Smith, American plumber, artist and museum curator (b. 1921)
2019 Ferdinand von Bismarck, German businessman and lawyer (b. 1930)
2019 Lois Wille, American journalist (b. 1931)
Observances
Birthday of Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia (Ras-Tafari Movement)
Revolution Day (Egypt)
Children's Day (Indonesia)
National Hot Dog Day (United States)
Renaissance Day (Oman)
National Remembrance Day (Papua New Guinea)