April 23

Events
Up to 1900
215 BC - A temple is built on the Capitoline Hill dedicated to Venus Erycina to commemorate the Roman defeat at Lake Trasimene.
711 - Dagobert III is crowned King of the Franks.
1014 - Battle of Clontarf: Brian Boru defeats Viking invaders, but is killed in battle.
1016 - Edmund Ironside becomes the Saxon king of England.
1343 - Estonia: Saint George's Nigh Uprising.
1348 - The founding of the Order of the Garter by King Edward III of England is announced on St George's Day.
1521 - Battle of Villalar: King Charles I of Spain defeats the Comuneros.
1533 - The Church of England annuls the marriage between Catherine of Aragon and Henry VIII of England.
1597 - Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor is first performed, with Queen Elizabeth I of England in attendance.
1660 - Treaty of Oliwa is established between Sweden and Poland.
1661 - King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland is crowned in Westminster Abbey.
1685 - King James II of England (James VII of Scotland) is crowned.
1827 - William Rowan Hamilton presents his Theory of systems of rays.
1867 - William Lincoln patents the zoetrope, a machine which shows animated pictures by mounting a strip of drawings in a wheel.
1889 - Swedish Social Democratic Party is established.
1901 2000
1914 - The first baseball game at Wrigley Field, Chicago, takes place.
1920 - The national council in Turkey denounces the government of Sultan Mehmed VI and announces a temporary constitution.
1923 - Inauguration ceremonies take place of Gdynia as a temporary military port and fishers' shelter.
1927 - Football: Cardiff City F.C. defeats Arsenal in the FA Cup final. With Cardiff City being in Wales, it is the only time a team based outside England has won this trophy.
1929 - Turkey becomes the first country to celebrate Children's Day as a national holiday.
1932 - The 153-year old De Adriaan Windmill in Haarlem, the Netherlands burns down.
1935 - Polish Constitution of 1935 is adopted.
1940 - Rhythm Night Club fire at a dance hall in Natchez, Mississippi kills 198 people.
1941 - World War II: The Greek government and King George II of Greece evacuate Athens before the invading Wehrmacht.
1942 - World War II: Baedeker Blitz - German bombers hit Exeter, Bath and York in retaliation for the British raid on Lubeck.
1948 - 1948 Arab-Israeli War: Haifa, the major port of Israel, is captured from Palestinian forces.
1954 - Hank Aaron hits his first major league home run.
1956 - Elvis Presley makes his first appearance in Las Vegas, Nevada.
1967 - A group of young radicals are expelled from the Nicaraguan Socialist Party (PSN). This group goes on to found the Socialist Workers Party (POS).
1968 - The United Kingdom produces its first decimalised coins, a 5p and a 10p coin.
1968 - Vietnam War: Student protesters at Columbia University in New York City take over administration buildings and shut down the university.
1971 - Bangladesh Liberation War: Pakistan Army and the Razakars massacre around 3,000 Hindu emigrants in the Jathibhanga area of East Pakistan, present-day Bangladesh.
1974 - A Pan American World Airways Boeing 707 crashes in Bali, Indonesia, killing 107.
1979 - Fighting in London between the Anti-Nazi League and the Metropolitan Police's Special Patrol Group results in the death of protestor Blair Peach.
1981 - Stefano Bontade, Mafia boss in Sicily, is murdered in Palermo, the opening shot in a mob war orchestrated by Salvatore Riina.
1984 - The discovery of HIV is announced.
1985 - Coca-Cola changes its 99 year old formula to the sweeter new Coke. (It is doomed to failure and the company is later forced to reintroduce the original).
1990 - Namibia becomes the 160th member of the United Nations and the 50th member of the Commonwealth of Nations.
1990 - In a referendum in Karl Marx Stadt in then-East Germany, 76% of voters support changing their city's name back to Chemnitz.
1993 - Eritreans vote overwhelmingly for independence from Ethiopia in a United Nations-monitored referendum.
1994 - Physicists discover the top quark subatomic particle.
1995 - Association of Autonomous Astronauts founded.
1997 - Omaria massacre in Algeria; 42 villagers killed.
From 2001
2003 - Beijing closes all schools for two weeks due to the SARS virus.
2005 - The first YouTube video, called Me at the Zoo, is uploaded by the site's co-founder Jawed Karim.
2006 - Hungary's Socialist Party wins the most votes in the country's parliamentary election, and can continue to govern with the Alliance of Free Democrats. This is the first re-election of a Hungarian government since the end of the Cold War.
2009 - Gamma-ray burst GRB090423 is detected, coming from the most distant known astronomical object of any kind at the time.
2013 - France legalizes same-sex marriage.
2017 - French presidential election, 2017: Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen advance to the second round, as the candidates of the main parties fail to get enough votes.
2018 - A new prince, Louis, is born to Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, with Princess Charlotte becoming the first British princess not to be overtaken by a younger brother in the line of succession to the throne.
2018 - Serzh Sargsyan resigns as Prime minister of Armenia after only six days in office, following major protests in the capital, Yerevan. He had previously served ten years as President.
2018 - A white van collided with numerous pedestrians killing ten people and injuring sixteen others at Yonge Street in Toronto. The suspect is arrested by police.
2018 - Donald Trump receives his first state visit since becoming President of the United States, by Emmanuel Macron of France.
Births
Up to 1800
1141 - King Malcolm IV of Scotland (d. 1165)
1170 - Isabelle of Hainaut, Queen of France (d. 1190)
1185 - King Afonso II of Portugal (d. 1223)
1464 - Joan of France, Duchess of Berry (d. 1505)
1484 - Julius Caesar Scaliger, Italian philosopher (d. 1558)
1516 - Georg Fabricius, German poet, historian and archaeologist (d. 1571)
1522 - Catherine of Ricci, Italian saint (d. 1590)
1564 - William Shakespeare, English playwright (d. 1616)
1628 - Johann van Waveren Hudde, Dutch mathematician (d. 1704)
1676 - King Frederick I of Sweden (d. 1751)
1728 - Samuel Wallis, British naval officer and explorer (d. 1795)
1758 - Philip Gidley King, third Governor of New South Wales (d. 1808)
1775 - J. M. W. Turner, English painter (d. 1851)
1791 - James Buchanan, 15th President of the United States (d. 1868)
1792 - John Thomas Romney Robinson, Irish astronomer and physicist (d. 1882)
1794 - Wei Yuan, Chinese scholar (d. 1857)
1801 1900
1804 - Marie Taglioni, Swedish ballerina (d. 1884)
1805 - Johann Karl Friedrich Rosenkranz, German philosopher (d. 1879)
1812 - Frederick Whitaker, Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1891)
1813 - Stephen A. Douglas, American politician (d. 1861)
1813 - Frederic Ozanam, French literary scholar, lawyer and journalist (d. 1853)
1819 - Edward Stafford, Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1901)
1823 - Abd-ul-Mejid I, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1861)
1828 - Albert of Saxony (d. 1902)
1844 - Sanford Dole, American politician (d. 1926)
1845 - Pier Andrea Saccardo, Italian botanist (d. 1920)
1853 - Winthrop M. Crane, 40th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1920)
1855 - Marco Fidel Suarez, President of Colombia (d. 1927)
1857 - Ruggero Leoncavallo, Italian composer (d. 1919)
1858 - Max Planck, German scientist (d. 1947)
1858 - Ethel Smyth, English composer, conductor, writer and Women's Rights activist (d. 1944)
1867 - Johannes Andreas Grib Fibiger, Danish doctor, won the 1926 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1928)
1879 - Tom Berry, 14th Governor of South Dakota (d. 1951)
1880 - Mikhail Fokine, Russian choreographer and dancer (d. 1942)
1882 - Albert Coates, English composer and conductor (d. 1953)
1883 - Clara Pontoppidan, Danish actress (d. 1975)
1888 - Georges Vanier, 19th Governor General of Canada (d. 1967)
1889 - Karel Doorman, Dutch admiral (d. 1942)
1891 - Sergei Prokofiev, Russian composer (d. 1953)
1893 - Frank Borzage, American actor and director (d. 1952)
1894 - Cow Cow Davenport, American singer and pianist (d. 1955)
1895 - Ngaio Marsh, New Zealand writer (d. 1982)
1896 - Dmitry Dmitrievich Maksutov, Russian inventor (d. 1964)
1897 - Lester Pearson, Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1972)
1897 - Lucius D. Clay, American general (d. 1978)
1899 - Minoru Shirota, Japanese physician and inventor of Yakult (d. 1982)
1899 - Bertil Ohlin, Swedish economist (d. 1979))
1901 1950
1901 - E.B. Ford, British ecological geneticist (d. 1988)
1902 - Halldor Laxness, Icelandic Nobel Prize-winning writer (d. 1998)
1907 - Lee Miller, American photographer (d. 1977)
1908 - Myron Waldman, American animator and director (d. 2006)
1910 - Simone Simon, French actress (d. 2005)
1911 - Ronald Neame, British movie producer (d. 2010)
1915 - Arnold Alexander Hall, British aeronautical engineer (d. 2000)
1917 - Dorian Leigh, American model (d. 2008)
1918 - Maurice Druon, French writer (d. 2009)
1919 - Oleg Penkovsky, Soviet double-agent (d. 1963)
1921 - Judy Agnew, wife of Spiro Agnew (d. 2012)
1922 - Marjorie Cameron, American writer, painter, actress and occultist (d. 1995)
1923 - Dolph Briscoe, Governor of Texas (d. 2010)
1924 - Bobby Rosengarden, American drummer and bandleader (d. 2007)
1924 - Margit Sandemo, Norwegian writer (d. 2018)
1926 - J. P. Donleavy, Irish-American writer (d. 2017)
1928 - Shirley Temple, American actress and political activist (d. 2014)
1929 - George Steiner, French-American literary critic, writer and philosopher
1936 - Roy Orbison, American singer (d. 1988)
1939 - Lee Majors, American actor
1939 - Stefano Bontade, Italian Mafia boss (d. 1981)
1940 - Michael Kadosh, Israeli footballer (d. 2014)
1941 - Paavo Lipponen, former Prime Minister of Finland
1941 - Jacqueline Boyer, French singer and actress
1941 - Arie den Hartog, Dutch road bicycle racer (d. 2018)
1942 - Sandra Dee, American actress (d. 2005)
1943 - Tony Esposito, Canadian ice hockey player
1943 - Frans Koppelaar, Dutch artist
1947 - Glenn Cornick, British musician (d. 2014)
1947 - Bernadette Devlin, Irish politician
1947 - Christer Pettersson, Swedish murder suspect (d. 2004)
1951 1975
1952 - Narada Michael Walden, American singer-songwriter, drummer and producer
1953 - James Russo, American actor
1954 - Michael Moore, American movie maker
1955 - Judy Davis, Australian actress
1955 - Tony Miles, English chess player
1955 - Mike Smith, English television and radio presenter (d. 2014)
1957 - Jan Hooks, American actress (d. 2014)
1957 - Neville Brody, English graphic designer, typographer and art director
1958 - Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson, Icelandic composer
1958 - Magnus Andersson, Swedish footballer
1960 - Valerie Bertinelli, American actress
1960 - Steve Clark, English guitarist (Def Leppard) (d. 1991)
1960 - Claude Julien, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1961 - Dirk Bach, German actor and television presenter (d. 2012)
1961 - George Lopez, American comedian, actor and talk show host
1962 - John Hannah, Scottish actor
1962 - Hillel Slovak, American musician (Red Hot Chili Peppers) (d. 1988)
1962 - Elaine Smith, British actress
1963 - Paul Belmondo, French actor and racing driver
1963 - Magnus Ver Magnusson, Icelandic powerlifter, four-times winner of World's Strongest Man title
1963 - Robby Naish, American windsurfer
1964 - Gianandrea Noseda, Italian conductor
1966 - Lembit Oll, Estonian chess player (d. 1999)
1967 - Melina Kanakaredes, American actress
1968 - Princess Aisha bint al Hussein of Jordan
1968 - Princess Zein bint al Hussein of Jordan
1968 - Timothy McVeigh, American terrorist (d. 2001)
1969 - Yelena Shushunova, Russian gymnast
1972 - Patricia Manterola, Mexican singer, actress and fashion designer
1973 - Patrick Poulin, Canadian ice hockey player
1975 - Jon Thor Birgisson (Jonsi), Icelandic singer
From 1976
1976 - Brendan Cole, New Zealand dancer
1977 - Lee Young-Pyo, South Korean footballer
1977 - John Cena, American wrestler, rapper and actor
1979 - Barry Fratelli, Scottish musician (The Fratellis)
1979 - Lauri Ylonen, Finnish singer (The Rasmus)
1979 - Samppa Lajunen, Finnish skier
1979 - Barry Hawkins, English snooker player
1979 - Jaime King, American model and actress
1979 - Yana Gupta, Czech model, actress and author
1980 - Taio Cruz, English singer
1981 - Lady Gabriella Windsor, member of the extended British Royal Family
1982 - Andy Webster, Scottish footballer
1983 - Daniela Hantuchova, Slovakian tennis player
1983 - Jay Cutler, American football player
1983 - Aaron Hill, American actor
1984 - Alexandra Kosteniuk, Russian chess player
1984 - Ross Ford, Scottish rugby player
1984 - Fumihisa Yumoto, Japanese ski jumper
1985 - Tony Martin, German cyclist
1986 - Aleksei Rebko, Russian footballer
1987 - Emily Fox, American cup stacker and basketball player
1987 - Laura Mvula, English singer
1987 - Boaz Ma'uda, Israeli singer
1988 - Alistair Brownlee, English triathlete
1988 - Molly Burnett, American actress and singer
1988 - Steph Houghton, English footballer
1988 - Victor Anichebe, Nigerian footballer
1989 - Nicole Vaidisova, Czech tennis player
1990 - Dev Patel, British actor
1993 - Rina Chikano, Japanese singer (AKB48)
1994 - Patrick Olsen, Danish footballer
1995 - Gigi Hadid, American model
1997 - Alex Ferris, Canadian actor
2018 - Prince Louis of Cambridge
Deaths
Up to 1900
303 - Saint George, Christian martyr and patron Saint (date of birth unknown)
711 - King Childebert III of the Franks (b. 670)
725 - Wihtred, King of Kent
871 - Ethelred of Wessex, Saxon king
1014 - Brian Boru, High King of Ireland
1016 - Ethelred the Unready, Saxon king (b. 968)
1124 - Alexander I of Scotland (b. 1078)
1217 - Inge II of Norway (b. 1185)
1307 - Joan of Acre, daughter of Edward I of England (b. 1272)
1605 - Tsar Boris Godunov of Russia (b. c. 1550)
1616 - Garcilaso de la Vega, Peruvian historian and writer (b. 1539)
1616 - Miguel de Cervantes, Spanish writer (b. 1547)
1616 - William Shakespeare, English playwright (b. 1564)
1625 - Maurice, Prince of Orange (b. 1567)
1670 - Loreto Vittori, Italian singer (b. 1604)
1794 - Guillaume-Chretien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes, French statesman (b. 1721)
1827 - Georgios Karaiskakis, hero of the Greek War of Independence (b. 1780)
1850 - William Wordsworth, English poet (b. 1770)
1895 - Carl Ludwig, German physician (b. 1815)
1901 2000
1905 - Gedeon Ouimet, 2nd Premier of Quebec (b. 1823)
1915 - Rupert Brooke, English poet (b. 1887)
1951 - Charles G. Dawes, Vice President of the United States (b. 1865)
1965 - George Adamski, Polish-American writer, teacher and ufologist (b. 1891)
1969 - Krzysztof Komeda, Polish jazz pianist and composer (b. 1931)
1975 - William Hartnell, English actor (b. 1908)
1981 - Josep Pla, Catalan journalist and writer (b. 1897)
1981 - Stefano Bontade, Italian Mafia boss (b. 1939)
1983 - Buster Crabbe, American singer and actor (b. 1908)
1984 - Red Garland, American jazz pianist (b. 1923)
1986 - Harold Arlen, American composer (b. 1905)
1986 - Otto Preminger, Austrian director (b. 1906)
1990 - Paulette Goddard, American actress (b. 1910)
1992 - Tanka Prasad Acharya, 27th Prime Minister of Nepal (b. 1912)
1992 - Satyajit Ray, Indian movie maker (b. 1921)
1993 - Cesar Chavez, Mexican-American activist (b. 1927)
1995 - Douglas Lloyd Campbell, Canadian politician, 13th Premier of Manitoba (b. 1895)
1996 - P. L. Travers, Australian writer (b. 1899)
1996 - Mario Luigi Ciappi, Italian cardinal (b. 1909)
1997 - Hamani Diori, 1st President of Niger (b. 1916)
1998 - James Earl Ray, convicted assassin of Martin Luther King, Jr. (b. 1928)
1998 - Konstantinos Karamanlis, Greek politician (b. 1907)
From 2001
2003 - Fernand Fonssagrives, French photographer (b. 1910)
2005 - Joh Bjelke-Petersen, Australian politician, Premier of Queensland (b. 1911)
2007 - Boris Yeltsin, former President of Russia (b. 1931)
2007 - David Halberstam, American journalist and writer (b. 1934)
2011 - John Sullivan, British television writer (b. 1946)
2011 - Norio Ogha, Japanese businessman (b. 1930)
2012 - Tommy Marth, American musician (b. 1978)
2013 - Robert W. Edgar, American politician (b. 1943)
2014 - Mark Shand, British travel writer and conservationist, brother of Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall (b. 1951)
2014 - Michael Glawogger, Austrian movie director, screenwriter and cinematographer (b. 1959)
2014 - Connie Marrero, Cuban baseball player, oldest living Major League Baseball player (b. 1911)
2014 - Yozo Aoki, Japanese footballer (b. 1929)
2015 - Sixto Valencia Burgos, Mexican comic artist (b. 1934)
2015 - Sawyer Sweeten, American actor (b. 1995)
2015 - Aziz Asli, Iranian footballer (b. 1938)
2015 - Richard Corliss, American movie critic (b. 1944)
2015 - Francis Tsai, American comic book, movie and video game concept artist (b. 1967)
2015 - Pierre Claude Nolin, Canadian politician (b. 1950)
2016 - Banharn Silpa-archa, Prime Minister of Thailand (b. 1932)
2016 - Inge King, German-Australian sculptor (b. 1915)
2016 - Ron Brace, American football player (b. 1986)
2016 - Miguel Picazo, Spanish movie director (b. 1927)
2016 - Madeleine Sherwood, Canadian actress (b. 1922)
2017 - Isiaka Adeleke, Nigerian politician (b. 1955)
2017 - Jerry Adriani, Brazilian singer and actor (b. 1947)
2017 - Chris Bearde, Australian comedy writer and producer (b. 1936)
2017 - Kathleen Crowley, Australian actress (b. 1929)
2017 - Imre Foldi, Hungarian weightlifter (b. 1938)
2017 - Ken Sears, American basketball player (b. 1933)
2017 - Leo Baxendale, British comics artist (b. 1930)
2017 - Chriet Titulaer, Dutch astronomer, television presenter and writer (b. 1943)
2017 - Michael Williams, Baron Williams of Baglan, British peer and diplomat (b. 1949)
2018 - Haddon Donald, New Zealand army lieutenant colonel and politician (b. 1917)
2018 - Bob Dorough, American jazz pianist, composer and singer-songwriter (b. 1923)
2018 - Bela Magyari, Hungarian air force colonel (b. 1949)
2018 - Jerrold Meinwald, American chemist (b. 1927)
2018 - Leland B. Yeager, American economist (b. 1924)
2019 - Henry W. Bloch, American businessman (b. 1922)
2019 - Matthew Buckland, South African businessman (b. 1974)
2019 - George Haigh, English footballer (b. 1915)
2019 - Jean, Grand Duke of Luxembourg (b. 1921)
2019 - Mark Medoff, American playwright and screenwriter (b. 1940)
2019 - Juan Jose Munante, Peruvian footballer (b. 1948)
2019 - Terry Rawlings, British film editor (b. 1933)
2019 - Peter Skipper, English footballer (b. 1958)
2019 - David Winters, English choreographer (b. 1939)
Observances
Saint George's Day - Patron Saint of many places, including England and Catalonia
UN English language Day
World Book Day
National Sovereignty and Children's Day (Turkey)
National Beer Day (Germany)
Latest possible date for Good Friday, in relation to Easter
References
Days of the year