February 23

## Events
### Up to 1900 
* 1455 &ndash; Traditional date for the publication of the Gutenberg Bible, the first Western book printed from movable type.
* 1554 &ndash; In present-day Chile, Mapuche forces under leadership of Lautaro, score a victory over the Spanish at the Battle of Mairihueno.
* 1574 &ndash; The 5th holy war against the Huguenots begins in France.
* 1660 &ndash; Charles XI becomes King of Sweden.
* 1732 &ndash; First performance of George Frideric Handel's Orlando, in London.
* 1778 &ndash; American Revolution: Baron von Steuben arrives at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania to help to train the Continental Army.
* 1820 &ndash; Cato Street Conspiracy: A plot to murder all the British cabinet ministers is exposed.
* 1836 &ndash; The Siege of the Alamo begins in San Antonio, Texas.
* 1847 &ndash; Mexican-American War: Battle of Buena Vista – In Mexico, American troops defeat Mexican general Antonio López de Santa Anna.
* 1861 &ndash; President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrives secretly in Washington, DC after an assassination attempt in Baltimore, Maryland.
* 1870 &ndash; Military control of Mississippi ends and it is readmitted to the Union.
* 1874 &ndash; Walter Winfield patents a game called "sphairistike" which is more commonly called lawn tennis.
* 1883 &ndash; Alabama becomes the first U.S. state to enact an antitrust law.
* 1886 &ndash; Charles Martin Hall produces the first samples of man-made aluminium.
* 1887 &ndash; The French Riviera is hit by a large earthquake, killing around 2,000.
* 1893 &ndash; Rudolf Diesel receives a patent for the diesel engine.
* 1898 &ndash; 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 &ndash; Battle of Hart's Hill: In South Africa the Boers and British troops battle.

### 1901 &ndash; 1950 
* 1903 &ndash; Cuba leases Guantanamo Bay to the United States "in perpetuity".
* 1904 &ndash; For $10 million the United States gains control of the Panama Canal Zone.
* 1905 &ndash; Chicago, Illinois attorney Paul Harris and three other businessmen meet for lunch to form the Rotary Club, the world's first service club.
* 1909 &ndash; The Silver Dart makes the first powered flight in Canada and the British Empire.
* 1917 &ndash; Beginning of the February Revolution in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
* 1918 &ndash; The last monarch of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Adolphus Frederick IV, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, commits suicide.
* 1918 &ndash; The Red Army recruits its first soldiers.
* 1919 &ndash; Benito Mussolini forms the Fascist Party in Italy.
* 1927 &ndash; The Federal Radio Commission (later renamed the Federal Communications Commission) begins to regulate the use of radio frequencies.
* 1927 &ndash; 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 &ndash; Léopold III becomes King of Belgium.
* 1940 &ndash; World War II: Soviet Union troops conquer Lasi Island.
* 1940 &ndash; The animated movie *Pinocchio* is released.
* 1941 &ndash; Plutonium is first produced and isolated by Glenn T. Seaborg.
* 1942 &ndash; World War II: Japanese submarines fire artillery shells at the California coast near Santa Barbara.
* 1943 &ndash; Fire breaks out in St. Joseph's Orphanage in County Cavan, Ireland, killing 35 children and one adult.
* 1944 &ndash; The Soviet Union begins the forced deportation of the Chechen and Ingush people from the north Caucasus to Central Asia.
* 1945 &ndash; 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 &ndash; World War II: The capital of the Philippines, Manila, is liberated by American forces.
* 1945 &ndash; World War II: Capitulation of German garrison in Poznań, city is liberated by Soviet and Polish forces.
* 1945 &ndash; World War II: The German town of Pforzheim is completely destroyed by a raid of 379 British bombers.
* 1947 &ndash; International Organization for Standardization(ISO) is founded.

### 1951 &ndash; 2000 
* 1954 &ndash; The first mass vaccination of children against polio begins in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
* 1955 &ndash; First meeting of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO).
* 1955 &ndash; Edgar Faure becomes Prime Minister of France
* 1956 &ndash; Nikita Khrushchev attacks the veneration of Joseph Stalin as a "cult of personality".
* 1957 &ndash; The founding congress of the Senegalese Popular Bloc is opened in Dakar.
* 1958 &ndash; Cuban rebels kidnap 5-time world driving champion Juan Manuel Fangio.
* 1966 &ndash; A military coup in Syria replaces the previous government.
* 1970 &ndash; Forbes Burnham declares Guyana a republic, severing ties to the British crown.
* 1974 &ndash; The Symbionese Liberation Army demands $4 million more to release kidnap victim Patty Hearst.
* 1975 &ndash; In response to the energy crisis, daylight saving time commences nearly two months early in the United States.
* 1980 &ndash; Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini states that Iran's parliament would decide the fate of the American embassy hostages.
* 1981 &ndash; 23-F, Antonio Tejero attempts a coup d'état by capturing the Spanish Congress of Deputies.
* 1982 &ndash; In a referendum in Greenland, most voters choose to leave the European Economic Community.
* 1983 &ndash; The Spanish Socialist government of Felipe González and Miguel Boyer nationalizes Rumasa, a holding of José María Ruiz Mateos.
* 1983 &ndash; The Environmental Protection Agency announces its intent to buy out and evacuate the dioxin–contaminated community of Times Beach, Missouri.
* 1987 &ndash; A supernova is seen in the Large Magellanic Cloud (see Supernova 1987a).
* 1991 &ndash; Gulf War: Ground troops cross the Saudi Arabia border and enter Iraq, thus starting the ground-phase of the war.
* 1991 &ndash; Thailand: General Sunthorn Kongsompong leads a bloodless coup d'état, deposing Prime Minister Chatichai Choonhavan.
* 1992 &ndash; The Socialist Labour Party is founded in Georgia.
* 1993 &ndash; Gary Coleman wins a $1,280,000 lawsuit against his parents.
* 1995 &ndash; The Dow Jones Industrial Average gains 30.28 to close at 4,003.33, closing above 4,000 for the first time.
* 1997 &ndash; 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 &ndash; A fire disaster in Orissa, India kills over 100 people.
* 1998 &ndash; Tornadoes in central Florida destroy or damage 2,600 structures and kill 42.
* 1998 &ndash; Osama bin Laden publishes a fatwa declaring jihad against all Jews and Crusaders.
* 1998 &ndash; Netscape Communications Corporation announces the foundation of mozilla.org, to co-ordinate the development of the open source Mozilla web browser.
* 1999 &ndash; Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Öcalan is charged with treason in Ankara, Turkey.
* 1999 &ndash; 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 &ndash; An avalanche destroys the Austrian village of Galtür, killing 31.

### From 2001 
* 2002 &ndash; In Colombia, Ingrid Betancourt is kidnapped by FARC guerrillas.
* 2005 &ndash; In France, a controversial law on the teaching of French colonialism is passed. After protests, the law is abandoned about a year later.
* 2005 &ndash; Slovakia Summit 2005 begins, marking the first occasion when a sitting American President visits Slovakia; Bush and Putin are in attendance.
* 2007 &ndash; A passenger train crashes near Grayrigg, Cumbria, killing 1 person and injuring 22.
* 2010 &ndash; 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 &ndash; 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 &ndash; 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 &ndash; Pope Paul II (d. 1471)
* 1443 &ndash; Matthias Corvinus of Hungary (d. 1490)
* 1583 &ndash; Jean-Baptiste Morin, French mathematician, astrologer and astronomer (d. 1656)
* 1633 &ndash; Samuel Pepys, English naval officer and diarist (d. 1703)
* 1646 &ndash; Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, Japanese shogun (d. 1709)
* 1649 &ndash; John Blow, English composer (d. 1708)
* 1664 &ndash; Georg Dietrich Leyding, German composer and organist (d. 1710)
* 1680 &ndash; Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, French Governor of Louisiana (d. 1767)
* 1685 &ndash; Georg Friedrich Handel, German/British Baroque composer (d. 1759)
* 1723 &ndash; Richard Price, Welsh philosopher (d. 1791)
* 1729 &ndash; Josiah Hornblower, American statesman (d. 1809)
* 1730 &ndash; Cristiano Giuseppe Lidarti, Austrian composer (d. 1793)
* 1744 &ndash; Mayer Amschel Rothschild, German-born banker (d. 1812)
* 1751 &ndash; Henry Dearborn, American statesman (d. 1829)
* 1792 &ndash; Jose Joaquin de Herrera, President of Mexico (d. 1854)
* 1803 &ndash; John Sutter, Swiss pioneer in California (d. 1880)
* 1809 &ndash; William Sprague, American minister and politician (d. 1868)
* 1817 &ndash; George Frederic Watts, British painter (d. 1904)
* 1821 &ndash; Amos T. Akerman, United States Secretary of the Treasury (d. 1880)
* 1842 &ndash; Karl Robert Eduard von Hartmann, German philosopher (d. 1906)
* 1846 &ndash; Luigi Denza, Italian composer (d. 1922)
* 1850 &ndash; César Ritz, Swiss hotelier (d. 1918)
* 1852 &ndash; Duc Duc, Emperor of Vietnam (d. 1883)
* 1868 &ndash; Anna Hoffman-Uddgren, Swedish director and actress (d. 1947)
* 1868 &ndash; W. E. B. Du Bois, American academic, writer and social activist (d. 1963)
* 1873 &ndash; Liang Qichao, Chinese scholar (d. 1929)
* 1874 &ndash; Konstantin Pats, President of Estonia (d. 1956)
* 1879 &ndash; Kazimir Malevich, Russian painter (d. 1935)
* 1883 &ndash; Karl Jaspers, German psychiatrist and philosopher (d. 1969)
* 1884 &ndash; Casimir Funk, Polish biochemist (d. 1967)
* 1889 &ndash; Victor Fleming, American movie director (d. 1949)
* 1889 &ndash; John Gilbert Winant, 60th Governor of New Hampshire (d. 1949)
* 1889 &ndash; Musidora, French actress and singer (d. 1957)
* 1893 &ndash; Charles Merz, American journalist (d. 1977)
* 1899 &ndash; Erich Kaestner, German writer (d. 1974)
* 1899 &ndash; Norman Taurog, American movie director (d. 1981)

### 1901 &ndash; 1950 
* 1901 &ndash; Ivar Lo-Johansson, Swedish writer (d. 1990)
* 1904 &ndash; William L. Shirer, American historian (d. 1993)
* 1904 &ndash; George Docking, Governor of Kansas (d. 1964)
* 1906 &ndash; Samuel Joensen-Mikines, Faroese painter (d. 1979)
* 1908 &ndash; William McMahon, twentieth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1988)
* 1911 &ndash; G. Mennen Williams, Governor of Michigan (d. 1988)
* 1914 &ndash; Theofiel Middelkamp, Dutch cyclist (d. 2005)
* 1915 &ndash; Paul Tibbets, American Air Force pilot (d. 2007)
* 1923 &ndash; Yiannis Grevas, 87th Prime Minister of Greece (d. 2016)
* 1923 &ndash; Rafael Addiego Bruno, Uruguayan politician (d. 2014)
* 1924 &ndash; Allan McLeod Cormack, South African physicist (d. 1998)
* 1924 &ndash; Claude Sautet, French director (d. 2000)
* 1925 &ndash; Louis Stokes, American attorney and politician (d. 2015)
* 1927 &ndash; Willie Ormond, Scottish footballer (d. 1984)
* 1928 &ndash; Vasili Lazarev, Soviet cosmonaut (d. 1990)
* 1928 &ndash; Hans Herrmann, German racing driver
* 1929 &ndash; Patriarch Alexius II, Head of the Russian Orthodox Church (d. 2008)
* 1929 &ndash; Jaan Einasto, Estonian cosmologist
* 1929 &ndash; Elston Howard, American baseball player
* 1932 &ndash; Majel Barrett, American actress (d. 2008)
* 1935 &ndash; Diane Shalet, American actress (d. 2006)
* 1937 &ndash; Tom Osborne, American football player
* 1938 &ndash; Paul Morrissey, American movie director
* 1938 &ndash; Diane Varsi, American actress (d. 1992)
* 1940 &ndash; Peter Fonda, American actor (d. 2019)
* 1942 &ndash; Dioncounda Traoré, Malian politician
* 1944 &ndash; Johnny Winter, American musician (d. 2014)
* 1944 &ndash; Bernard Cornwell, British writer
* 1947 &ndash; Pia Kjaersgaard, Danish politician
* 1947 &ndash; Boris Kuznetsov, Russian boxer (d. 2006)
* 1948 &ndash; Steve Priest, British musician
* 1949 &ndash; Marc Garneau, Canadian astronaut and politician
* 1950 &ndash; Rebecca Goldstein, American writer and philosopher

### 1951 &ndash; 1975 
* 1952 &ndash; Brad Whitford, American musician (Aerosmith)
* 1953 &ndash; Satoru Nakashima, Japanese racing driver
* 1953 &ndash; Adnan Polat, Turkish businessman
* 1954 &ndash; Viktor Yushchenko, former President of Ukraine
* 1955 &ndash; Flip Saunders, American basketball player and coach (d. 2015)
* 1955 &ndash; Francesca Simon, American writer
* 1956 &ndash; Paul O'Neill, American producer, composer and songwriter (d. 2017)
* 1956 &ndash; Reinhold Beckmann, German journalist and television presenter
* 1957 &ndash; Andreas Schockenhoff, German politician (d. 2014)
* 1958 &ndash; David Sylvain, English musician
* 1959 &ndash; Clayton Anderson, American astronaut
* 1959 &ndash; Ian Liddell-Grainger, Scottish soldier and politician
* 1959 &ndash; Linda Nolan, Irish singer
* 1959 &ndash; Graeme Morrice, Scottish politician
* 1960 &ndash; Emperor Naruhito of Japan
* 1963 &ndash; Radoslav Sikorski, Polish journalist and politician, foreign minister
* 1964 &ndash; John Norum, Norwegian guitarist
* 1965 &ndash; Michael Dell, American computer manufacturer
* 1966 &ndash; Alexandre Borges, Brazilian actor
* 1969 &ndash; Michael Campbell, New Zealand golfer
* 1971 &ndash; Melinda Messenger, British television presenter
* 1973 &ndash; Lars-Olof Johansson, Swedish musician
* 1975 &ndash; Wilfred Kibet Kigen, Kenyan marathon runner
* 1975 &ndash; Michael Cornacchia, American actor, director, producer and screenwriter

### From 1976 
* 1976 &ndash; Kelly Macdonald, Scottish actress
* 1976 &ndash; Satoshi Yoneyama, Japanese professional wrestler
* 1978 &ndash; Jo Joyner, British actress
* 1978 &ndash; Dan Snyder, Canadian ice hockey player
* 1980 &ndash; Kim Kyung-roul, South Korean billiards player (d. 2015)
* 1981 &ndash; Gareth Barry, English footballer
* 1981 &ndash; Jan Böhmermann, German satirist and comedian
* 1982 &ndash; Anna Chapman, Russian agent
* 1982 &ndash; Adam Hann-Byrd, American actor and screenwriter
* 1982 &ndash; Karan Singh, Indian politician
* 1983 &ndash; Mido, Egyptian footballer
* 1983 &ndash; Mirco Bergamasco, Italian rugby player
* 1983 &ndash; Emily Blunt, British actress
* 1983 &ndash; Aziz Ansari, American actor, comedian and writer
* 1984 &ndash; Jeong Yu-mi, South Korean actress
* 1986 &ndash; Skylar Grey, American singer-songwriter
* 1986 &ndash; Ola Svensson, Swedish pop singer
* 1988 &ndash; Nicolas Gaitan, Argentine footballer
* 1989 &ndash; Evan Bates, American ice dancer
* 1989 &ndash; Amara Baby, French footballer
* 1990 &ndash; Kevin Cheung, Mauritian swimmer
* 1992 &ndash; Kyriakos Papadopoulos, Greek footballer
* 1993 &ndash; Kasumi Ishikawa, Japanese table tennis player
* 1994 &ndash; Dakota Fanning, American actress
* 1995 &ndash; Andrew Wiggins, Canadian basketball player
* 2012 &ndash; Princess Estelle, Duchess of Ostergotland, second-in-line to the throne of Sweden

## Deaths
### Up to 1900 
* 1011 &ndash; Willigis, Archbishop of Mainz (b. 940)
* 1072 &ndash; Peter Damian, theologian (b. 1007)
* 1100 &ndash; Emperor Zhezong of China (b. 1076)
* 1270 &ndash; Isabel of France (b. 1225)
* 1447 &ndash; Pope Eugene IV (b. 1383)
* 1447 &ndash; Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester (b. 1390)
* 1464 &ndash; Zhengtong, Emperor of China (b. 1427)
* 1603 &ndash; Andrea Cesalpino, Italian philosopher, physician and botanist (b. 1519)
* 1669 &ndash; Leo Aitzema, Dutch historian and statesman (b. 1600)
* 1766 &ndash; Stanislaw Leszczynski, King of Poland (b. 1677)
* 1781 &ndash; George Taylor, Irish-American signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1716)
* 1792 &ndash; Joshua Reynolds, English painter (b. 1723)
* 1821 &ndash; John Keats, English poet (b. 1795)
* 1848 &ndash; John Quincy Adams, 6th President of the United States (b. 1767)
* 1855 &ndash; Carl Friedrich Gauss, German mathematician, astronomer, and physicist (b. 1777)
* 1859 &ndash; Zymunt Krasinski, Polish-Roman poet (b. 1812)
* 1879 &ndash; Albrecht Graf von Roon, Prime Minister of Prussia (b. 1803)
* 1896 &ndash; Justo Arosemena, Colombian politician and writer (b. 1817)
* 1897 &ndash; Woldemar Bargiel, German composer (b. 1828)

### 1901 &ndash; 2000 
* 1918 &ndash; Adolphus Frederick VI, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (b. 1882)
* 1925 &ndash; Samuel Berger, American heavyweight boxer (b. 1884)
* 1931 &ndash; Nellie Melba, Australian operatic soprano (b. 1861)
* 1934 &ndash; Edward Elgar, English composer (b. 1857)
* 1944 &ndash; Leo Hendrik Baekeland, Flemish-American chemist, inventor of Bakelite (b. 1863)
* 1946 &ndash; Tomoyuki Yamashita, Japanese general (b. 1885)
* 1948 &ndash; John Robert Gregg, Irish-born publisher and inventor (b. 1866)
* 1955 &ndash; Paul Claudel, French poet and playwright (b. 1868)
* 1960 &ndash; Arthur Legat, British racing driver (b. 1898)
* 1965 &ndash; Stan Laurel, English actor and comedian (b. 1890)
* 1969 &ndash; King Saud of Saudi Arabia (b. 1902)
* 1973 &ndash; Dickinson W. Richards, American physician (b. 1895)
* 1974 &ndash; Harry Ruby, American composer and writer (b. 1895)
* 1976 &ndash; L. S. Lowry, English painter (b. 1887)
* 1979 &ndash; W. A. C. Bennett, 25th Premier of British Columbia (b. 1900)
* 1983 &ndash; Hubert Howells, English composer (b. 1892)
* 1984 &ndash; Uwe Johnson, German writer (b. 1934)
* 1990 &ndash; Jose Napoleon Duarte, President of El Salvador (b. 1925)
* 1995 &ndash; James Herriot, British writer (b. 1916)
* 1995 &ndash; Melvin Franklin, American singer (b. 1942)
* 1996 &ndash; Helmut Schön, German football manager (b. 1915)
* 2000 &ndash; Stanley Matthews, English footballer (b. 1915)

### From 2001 
* 2001 &ndash; Sergio Mantovani, Italian racing driver (b. 1929)
* 2003 &ndash; Howie Epstein, American musician (b. 1955)
* 2004 &ndash; Vijay Anand, Indian movie director (b. 1934)
* 2004 &ndash; Sikander Bakht, Indian politician, Governor of Kerala (b. 1918)
* 2004 &ndash; Neil Ardley, English jazz pianist and composer (b. 1955)
* 2004 &ndash; Carl Liscombe, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1915)
* 2006 &ndash; Diane Shalet, American actress (b. 1935)
* 2008 &ndash; Janez Drnovsek, Slovenian politician (b. 1950)
* 2008 &ndash; Paul Frère, Belgian racing driver (b. 1917)
* 2009 &ndash; Sverre Fehn, Norwegian architect (b. 1924)
* 2010 &ndash; Orlando Zapata, Cuban dissident, died after hunger strike (b. 1967)
* 2011 &ndash; Nirmala Srivastava, Indian religious leader (b. 1923)
* 2013 &ndash; Julien Ries, Belgian cardinal (b. 1920)
* 2014 &ndash; Alice Herz-Sommer, Czech-born pianist, Holocaust survivor and supercentenarian (b. 1903)
* 2015 &ndash; John Rowlands, Welsh writer and novelist (b. 1938)
* 2016 &ndash; Ramon Castro Ruz, Cuban revolutionary (b. 1924)
* 2016 &ndash; Peter Lustig, German sound engineer and television presenter (b. 1937)
* 2016 &ndash; Donald E. Williams, American astronaut (b. 1932)
* 2017 &ndash; Alan Colmes, American political commentator and television presenter (b. 1950)
* 2017 &ndash; Sabine Oberhauser, Austrian physician and politician (b. 1963)
* 2017 &ndash; David Waddington, Baron Waddington, British politician (b. 1929)
* 2017 &ndash; Leon Ware, American musician, record producer and songwriter (b. 1940)
* 2018 &ndash; James Colby, American actor (b. 1961)
* 2018 &ndash; James Laxer, Canadian political economist (b. 1941)
* 2018 &ndash; Lewis Gilbert, British film director (b. 1920)

## Observances
* Republic Day (Guyana)
* National Day (Brunei)
* Defender of the Fatherland Day (Russia)