February 23
is the 54th day of the year in the
Gregorian Calendar. There are 311 days remaining, 312 in
leap years.
*
1455 - Traditional date for the publication of the
Gutenberg Bible, the first
Western book printed from
movable type.
*
1660 -
Charles XI becomes
King of Sweden.
*
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.
*
1854 - The official
independence of the
Orange Free State is declared.
*
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", now more commonly called
lawn tennis.
*
1883 -
Alabama becomes the first
U.S. state to enact an
antitrust law.
*
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 - In
South Africa the
Boers and
British troops fight in the
Battle of Hart's Hill.
*
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.
*
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.
*
1934 -
Léopold III becomes
King of
Belgium.
*
1940 -
World War II:
Soviet Union troops conquer
Lasi Island.
*
1941 -
Plutonium was first produced and isolated by Dr.
Glenn T. Seaborg.
*
1945 -
World War II: During 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.
*
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 - In a cosmic event known as
the great flare, the Earth was bombarded with a burst of protons and other nuclei from a
solar flare.
*
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.
*
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.
*
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 - In
Thailand,
General Sunthorn Kongsompong leads a bloodless
coup d'état, deposing
Prime Minister Chatichai Choonhavan.
*
1992 - The
Socialist Labour Party is founded in
Georgia.
*
1995 - The
Dow Jones Industrial Average gains 30.28 to close at 4,003.33, closing above 4,000 for the
first time.
*
1996 -
William Bonin, first man to be executed by
lethal injection in the state of
california*
1997 - A large fire occurs in the
Russian
Space station,
Mir.
*
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.
*
1999 -
Kurdish rebel leader
Abdullah Öcalan is charged with
treason in
Ankara,
Turkey.
* 1999 - An
avalanche destroys the
Austrian village of
Galtür, killing 31.
*
2005 -
Slovakia Summit 2005 begins, marking the first occasion when a sitting
American President visits
Slovakia;
Bush and
Putin are in attendance.:: — Vote of the controversed
French law on colonialism, repealed start of 2006.
*
1417 -
Pope Paul II (d.
1471)
*
1633 -
Samuel Pepys, English naval administrator and man of letters, posthumously famous as a diarist (d.
1703)
*
1646 -
Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, Japanese shogun (d.
1709)
*
1648 -
Arabella Churchill, English mistress of
James II of England (d.
1730)
*
1680 -
Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, French colonizer and Governor of Louisiana (d.
1767)
*
1685 -
Georg Friederich Händel, German composer (d.
1759)
*
1688 - Queen
Ulrika Eleonora of Sweden (d.
1741)
*
1723 -
Richard Price, Welsh philosopher (d.
1791)
*
1743 -
Mayer Amschel Rothschild, German-born banker (d.
1812)
*
1840 -
Carl Menger, Austrian economist (d.
1921)
*
1868 -
W.E.B. DuBois, American civil rights leader (d.
1963)
*
1873 -
Liang Qichao, Chinese scholar (d.
1929)
*
1874 -
Konstantin Päts, Estonian president (d.
1956)
*
1878 -
Kazimir Malevich, Ukrainian painter and art theorist (d.
1935)
*
1883 -
Victor Fleming, American director (d.
1949)
* 1883 -
Karl Jaspers, German philosopher (d.
1969)
*
1889 -
Musidora, French actress and director (d.
1957)
*
1899 -
Erich Kästner, German writer (d.
1974)
*
1904 -
William L. Shirer, American historian (d.
1993)
* 1904 -
Leopold Trepper, Soviet spy (d.
1982)
*
1908 -
William McMahon, twentieth
Prime Minister of Australia (d.
1988)
*
1914 -
Theofiel Middelkamp, Dutch cyclist (d.
2005)
*
1915 -
Jon Hall, American actor (d.
1979)
* 1915 -
Paul Tibbets, American pilot
*
1918 -
Richard G. Butler, American fascist (d.
2004)
*
1924 -
Allan McLeod Cormack, South-African born physicist, recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d.
1998)
*
1928 -
Vasili Lazarev, cosmonaut (d.
1990)
*
1932 -
Majel Barrett, American actress
*
1937 -
Tom Osborne, American football coach and politician
*
1938 -
Diane Varsi, American actress (d.
1992)
*
1940 -
Peter Fonda, American actor
*
1941 -
Ron Hunt, baseball player
*
1943 -
Fred Biletnikoff, American football player and coach
*
1944 -
Johnny Winter, American musician
*
1945 -
Allan Boesak, South African activist
*
1951 -
Ed Jones, American football player
* 1951 -
Patricia Richardson, American actress
*
1952 -
Brad Whitford, American musician (
Aerosmith)
*
1954 -
Viktor Yushchenko,
President of Ukraine*
1955 -
Tom Bodett, American voice actor, radio personality, and writer
* 1955 -
Howard Jones, British pop singer
*
1958 -
Tony Barrell, English writer and journalist
* 1958 -
David Sylvian, English musician
*
1959 -
Richard Dodds, British field hockey player
*
1960 -
Alan Griffin,
Australian politician and member for
Bruce in the
House of Representatives*
1963 -
Bobby Bonilla, former baseball player
*
1964 -
Dana Scully, fictional character on the tv-show
The X-Files, played by
Gillian Anderson*
1965 -
Kristin Davis, American actress
* 1965 -
Michael Dell, American computer manufacturer
* 1965 -
Helena Suková, former Czech tennis player
* 1965 -
Veronica Webb, American supermodel and actress
*
1972 -
Steve Holy, American country singer
*
1973 -
André Tanneberger, German DJ
*
1974 -
Jaime Villarreal, Mexican musician
* 1974 -
Leko, American DJ
*
1975 -
Michael Cornacchia, American actor
*
1977 -
Kristina Šmigun, Estonian cross-country skier
*
1978 -
Dan Snyder, Canadian hockey player (d.
2003)
*
1981 -
Gareth Barry, English footballer
*
1983 -
Mido, Egyptian footballer
*
1986 -
Holly Brook, American musician
*
1994 -
Dakota Fanning, American child actress
*
1100 -
Emperor Zhezong of China (b.
1077)
*
1270 -
Saint Isabel of France, daughter of
Louis VIII of France (b.
1225)
*
1447 -
Pope Eugene IV (b.
1383)
* 1447 -
Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester (b.
1390)
*
1464 -
Zhengtong, Emperor of China (b.
1427)
*
1526 -
Diego Colón, Spanish Viceroy of the Indies
*
1554 -
Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, English poltician (executed) (bc.
1515)
*
1572 -
Pierre Certon, French composer
*
1603 -
Andrea Cesalpino, Italian philosopher, physician, and botanist (b.
1519)
*
1669 -
Leo Aitzema, Dutch historian and statesman (b.
1600)
*
1704 -
Georg Muffat, French composer (b.
1653)
*
1730 -
Pope Benedict XIII (b.
1649)
*
1766 -
Stanislaw Leszczynski,
King of Poland (b.
1677)
*
1781 -
George Taylor, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (bc.
1716)
*
1792 -
Joshua Reynolds, English painter (b.
1723)
*
1800 -
Joseph Warton, English literary critic (b.
1722)
*
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)
*
1879 -
Albrecht Graf von Roon,
Prime Minister of Prussia (b.
1803)
*
1897 -
Woldemar Bargiel, German composer (b.
1828)
*
1908 -
Johannes Friedrich August von Esmarch, German surgeon (b.
1823)
*
1922 -
Albert Victor Bäcklund, Swedish physicist (b.
1845)
*
1930 -
Horst Wessel, Nazi ideologue and composer (b.
1907)
*
1934 -
Edward Elgar, English composer (b.
1857)
*
1946 -
Tomoyuki Yamashita, Japanese general (hanged) (b.
1885)
*
1948 -
John Robert Gregg, Irish-born publisher and inventor (b.
1866)
*
1955 -
Paul Claudel, French poet and playwright (b.
1868).
*
1965 -
Stan Laurel, American actor and comedian (b.
1890)
*
1969 - King
Saud of Saudi Arabia (b.
1902)
*
1973 -
Dickinson W. Richards, American physician, recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b.
1895)
*
1974 -
Harry Ruby, American composer and writer (b.
1895)
*
1979 -
W.A.C. Bennett, Canadian politician (b.
1900)
*
1990 -
José Napoleón Duarte,
President of El Salvador (b.
1925)
*
1995 -
Melvin Franklin, American singer (
The Temptations) (b.
1942)
* 1995 -
James Herriot, English writer (b.
1916)
*
1997 -
Tony Williams, American jazz drummer (b.
1945)
*
2000 -
Ofra Haza, Israeli singer (b.
1957)
* 2000 -
Stanley Matthews, English footballer (b.
1915)
*
2003 -
Robert K. Merton, American sociologist (b.
1910)
*
2004 -
Vijay Anand, Indian film director (b.
1934)
* 2004 -
Carl Anderson, American singer (b.
1945)
* 2004 -
Sikander Bakht, Governor of Kerala (b.
1918)
* 2004 -
Don Cornell, American singer (b.
1919)
* 2004 -
Carl Liscombe, Canadian hockey player (b.
1915)
*
2006 -
Benno Besson, Swiss actor and film director (b.
1922)
*
Roman Empire -
Terminalia held in honor of
Terminus.
*
Guyana -
Mashramani-Republic Day.
*
Russia -
Defender of the Fatherland Day (formerly
Red Army Day or
Day of Soviet Army and Navy).
*
Brunei -
National Day.
Liturgical feasts
*
Catholicism - Feast day of
Saint Polycarp of Smyrna (died 155)
*
Saint Lazarus (d.867)
*
Saint Milburga*
Blessed odilia of Mombeek*
BBC: On This Day*
The New York Times: On This Day*
On This Day in CanadaFebruary 22 -
February 24 -
January 23 -
March 23 --
listing of all days
