January 23
January 23 is the 23rd day of the year in the
Gregorian calendar. There are 342 days remaining, 343 in
leap years.
*
393 - Roman Emperor
Theodosius I proclaims his nine years old son
Honorius co-emperor.
*
1510 -
Henry VIII of England, then 18 years old, appears incognito in the lists at
Richmond, and is applauded for his
jousting before he reveals his identity.
*
1533 -
Anne Boleyn, mistress of
Henry VIII of England, discovers herself pregnant.
*
1546 - Having published nothing for eleven years,
Francois Rabelais brings out his sequel to
Gargantua and Pantagruel: the
Tiers Livre.
*
1556 - The deadliest
earthquake in history, the
Shaanxi earthquake, hits
Shaanxi province,
China. The death toll may have been as high as 830,000.
*
1570 - The
assassination of regent
James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray throws
Scotland into
civil war.
*
1571 - The
Royal Exchange opens in
London.
*
1579 - The
Union of Utrecht forms a
Protestant republic in the
Netherlands.
*
1719 - The
Principality of
Liechtenstein is created within the
Holy Roman Empire.
*
1789 -
Georgetown College becomes the first
Catholic college in the
United States (
Washington, DC).
*
1849 -
Elizabeth Blackwell is awarded her M.D. by the Medical Institute of
Geneva, New York, becoming the
United States' first woman doctor.
*
1855 - The first bridge over the
Mississippi River opens in what is now
Minneapolis, Minnesota, a crossing made today by the
Father Louis Hennepin Bridge.
*
1870 - In
Montana, U.S. cavalrymen kill 173
Indians, most women and children, in the
Marias Massacre.
*
1879 -
Anglo-Zulu War:
Battle of Rorke's Drift ends.
*
1897 -
Elva Zona Heaster found dead in
Greenbrier County,
West Virginia. The resulting murder trial of her husband was perhaps the only case in United States history where the alleged testimony of a ghost helped secure a conviction.
*
1899 -
Emilio Aguinaldo was sworn in as
President of the
First Philippine Republic.
*
1904 -
Ålesund Fire:
Norwegian coastal town
Ålesund is devastated by fire, leaving 10,000 people homeless and one person dead. The town where rebuild in
Jugendstil architecture.
*
1907 -
Charles Curtis from
Kansas, becomes the first
Native American US Senator.
*
1912 - The
International Opium Convention is signed at
The Hague.
*
1920 - The
Netherlands refuses to surrender ex-
Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany to the
Allies.
*
1937 - In
Moscow, 17 leading
Communists go on trial accused of participating in a plot led by
Leon Trotsky to overthrow
Joseph Stalin's regime and assassinate its leaders.
*
1941 -
Charles Lindbergh testifies before the
U.S. Congress and recommends that the
United States negotiate a neutrality pact with
Adolf Hitler.
*
1943 -
World War II:
British forces capture
Tripoli in
Libya from the
Nazis.
* 1943 - Jewish-led
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
* 1943 -
World War II:
Australian and
American forces finally defeat the
Japanese army in
Papua. This turning point in the
Pacific War marks the beginning of the end of
Japanese aggression.
* 1943 -
Duke Ellington plays at
Carnegie Hall in
New York City for the first time.
*
1945 -
World War II:
Karl Dönitz launches
Operation Hannibal.
*
1950 - The
Knesset passes a resolution that states
Jerusalem is the capital of
Israel.
*
1960 - The
bathyscaphe USS Trieste breaks a depth record by descending to the deepest point in the
Pacific Ocean. The depth was measured to be 35,813 feet (10,916 m) but later measurements show it to be 35,798 feet (10,911 m).
*
1964 - The
24th Amendment to the
United States Constitution, prohibiting the use of
poll taxes in national elections, is ratified.
*
1968 -
North Korea seizes the
USS Pueblo, claiming the ship violated their
territorial waters while spying.
*
1973 -
President Richard Nixon announces that a peace accord has been reached in
Vietnam.
* 1973 - A
volcanic eruption devastates
Heimaey in the
Vestmannaeyjar chain of islands off the south coast of
Iceland.
*
1977 - The first segment of the
Roots mini-series airs on
ABC.
*
1978 -
Sweden becomes the first nation in the world to ban
aerosol sprays, believed to be damaging to earth's protective
ozone layer.
*
1985 -
O.J. Simpson becomes the first
Heisman Trophy winner elected to the
Football Hall of Fame.
*
1986 - The
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts its first members:
Chuck Berry,
James Brown,
Ray Charles,
Fats Domino,
Everly Brothers,
Buddy Holly,
Jerry Lee Lewis and
Elvis Presley.
*
1996 - The first version of the
Java programming language is released.
*
1997 -
Madeleine Albright becomes the first woman to serve as
United States Secretary of State.
*
1999 -
Australian missionary
Graham Stewart Stains and his two sons are burned alive by radical
Hindus while sleeping in their car in
Eastern India.
*
2002 - "American
Taliban"
John Walker Lindh returns to the
United States under
FBI custody.
* 2002 - Reporter
Daniel Pearl is
kidnapped in
Karachi,
Pakistan.
*
2005 -
Viktor Yushchenko is sworn in as the third
President of Ukraine in
Kiev,
Ukraine.
*
2006 -
Stephen Harper's
Conservative Party wins the most seats in the
Canadian federal election. Harper becomes the 22nd
Prime Minister of Canada with a
minority government.
*
1350 -
Vincent Ferrer, Spanish missionary and saint (d.
1419)
*
1719 -
John Landen, English mathematician (d.
1790)
*
1737 -
John Hancock, American Revolutionist (d.
1793)
*
1745 -
William Jessop, English canal engineer (d.
1814)
*
1783 -
Stendhal, French writer (d.
1842)
*
1786 -
Auguste de Montferrand, French architect (d.
1858)
*
1813 -
Camilla Collett, Norwegian writer and feminist (d.
1895)
*
1827 -
Takamori Saigo, Samurai, leader of Satsuma rebellion (d.
1877)
*
1832 -
Edouard Manet, French artist (d.
1883)
*
1840 -
Ernst Abbe, German physicist (d.
1905)
*
1857 -
Andrija Mohorovičić, Croatian seismologist (d.
1936)
*
1862 -
David Hilbert, German mathematician (d.
1943)
*
1872 -
Goce Delchev, Bulgarian revolutionary (d.
1903)
* 1872 -
Paul Langevin, French physicist (d.
1946)
* 1872 -
Joze Plečnik, Slovenian architect (d.
1957)
*
1876 -
Otto Diels, German chemist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1954)
*
1884 -
Ralph DePalma, Italian-born race car driver (d.
1956)
*
1896 -
Charlotte, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg (d.
1985)
*
1897 -
Subhas Chandra Bose, Indian independence fighter (d.
1945)
* 1897 -
Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, Austrian architect (d.
2000)
*
1898 -
Sergei Eisenstein, Russian film director (d.
1948)
* 1898 -
Randolph Scott, American actor (d.
1987)
*
1900 -
William Ifor Jones, Welsh Conductor & Organist (d.
1988)
*
1903 -
Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, Colombian politician (d.
1948)
*
1907 -
Dan Duryea, American actor (d.
1968)
* 1907 -
Hideki Yukawa, Japanese physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1981)
*
1910 -
Django Reinhardt, Belgian guitarist (d.
1953)
*
1915 -
Arthur Lewis, British economist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1991)
* 1915 -
Potter Stewart, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (d.
1985)
*
1918 -
Gertrude B. Elion, American scientist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1999)
*
1919 -
Hans Hass, Austrian zoologist and underwater scientist
* 1919 -
Ernie Kovacs, American comedian (d.
1962)
*
1923 -
Walter M. Miller, Jr., American writer (d.
1996)
*
1928 -
Chico Carrasquel, Venezuelan
Major League Baseball player (d.
2005)
* 1928 -
Jeanne Moreau, French actress
*
1929 -
John Charles Polanyi, Canadian chemist,
Nobel Prize laureate*
1930 -
Derek Walcott, West Indian writer,
Nobel Prize laureate*
1933 -
Chita Rivera, Puerto Rican actress and dancer
*
1936 -
Jerry Kramer, American football player
*
1938 -
Shohei Baba, Japanese professional wrestler (d.
1999)
* 1938 -
Georg Baselitz, German painter and sculptor
*
1943 -
Gil Gerard, American actor
* 1943 -
Millie Jackson, American singer
*
1944 -
Rutger Hauer, Dutch actor
*
1947 -
Thomas R. Carper,
U.S. Senator from Delaware.
* 1947 -
Megawati Sukarnoputri, 5th
President of Indonesia*
1948 -
Anita Pointer, American singer
*
1950 -
Richard Dean Anderson, American actor
* 1950 -
Danny Federici, American musician (
Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band)
*
1953 -
Antonio Villaragoisa, American 52nd
Mayor of Los Angeles* 1953 -
Robin Zander, American singer (
Cheap Trick)
*
1954 -
Franco De Vita, Venezuelan singer and songwriter
*
1957 -
Princess Caroline of Monaco*
1959 -
Clive Bull Radio talk show host
*
1963 -
Gail O'Grady, American actress
*
1964 -
Mariska Hargitay, American actress
*
1967 -
Naim Suleymanoglu, Bulgarian-born, Turkish weightlifter
*
1969 -
Andrei Kanchelskis, Ukrainian-Russian footballer
* 1969 -
Brendan Shanahan, Canadian
ice hockey player
*
1972 -
Marcel Wouda, Dutch swimmer
*
1974 -
Tiffani Thiessen, American actress
*
1974 -
Richard T. Slone, British artist
*
1975 -
Tito Ortiz, American UFC Fighter
*
1979 -
Larry Hughes, American basketball player
*
1983 -
David Firth, British animator/musician
* 1983 -
George Foreman III, American
reality series star; son of
George Foreman *
1984 -
Arjen Robben, Dutch footballer
*
1985 -
Doutzen Kroes, Dutch supermodel
*
1002 -
Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor (b.
980)
*
1199 -
Yaqub, Almohad Caliph (b.
1160)
*
1548 -
Bernardo Pisano, Italian composer (b.
1490)
*
1549 -
Johannes Honter, Transylvanian Saxon humanist and theologian {b.
1498)
*
1567 -
Jiajing, Emperor of China (b.
1507)
*
1570 -
James Stewart, Earl of Moray, regent of Scotland (assassinated)
*
1622 -
William Baffin, English explorer (b.
1584)
*
1744 -
Giambattista Vico, Italian philosopher and historian (b.
1668)
*
1785 -
Matthew Stewart, Scottish mathematician (b.
1717)
*
1789 -
Frances Brooke, English writer (b.
1724)
* 1789 -
John Cleland, English novelist (b.
1709)
*
1800 -
Edward Rutledge, American statesman (b.
1749)
*
1803 -
Arthur Guinness, Irish brewer (b.
1725)
*
1805 -
Claude Chappe, French telecommunications pioneer (b.
1763)
*
1812 -
Robert Craufurd, British general (mortally wounded in battle) (b.
1764)
*
1833 -
Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth, British admiral (b.
1757)
*
1837 -
John Field, Irish composer (b.
1782)
*
1875 -
Charles Kingsley English writer (b.
1819)
*
1883 -
Gustave Doré, French artist, engraver, and illustrator (b.
1832)
*
1893 -
Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (b.
1825)
*
1922 -
Arthur Nikisch, Hungarian conductor (b.
1855)
*
1923 -
Max Nordau, Austrian author, philosopher, and Zionist leader (b.
1849)
*
1931 -
Anna Pavlova, Russian ballerina (b.
1881)
*
1937 -
Marie Prevost, Canadian actress (b.
1898)
* 1937 -
Orso Mario Corbino, Italian physicist (b.
1876)
*
1943 -
Alexander Woollcott, American actor, author, and bon vivant (b.
1887)
*
1944 -
Edvard Munch, Norwegian painter (b.
1863)
*
1971 -
Fritz Feigl, Austria-born chemist (b.
1871)
*
1973 -
Kid Ory, American jazz trombonist (b.
1886)
*
1976 -
Paul Robeson, American actor, singer, and social activist (b.
1898)
*
1978 -
Terry Kath, American musician (
Chicago) (b.
1946)
* 1978 -
Jack Oakie, American actor (b.
1903)
*
1981 -
Samuel Barber, American composer (b.
1910)
*
1983 -
Fred Bakewell, English cricketer (b.
1908)
*
1989 -
Salvador Dalí, Catalan artist (b.
1904)
*
1992 -
Freddie Bartholomew, Irish actor (b.
1924)
*
1993 -
Thomas A. Dorsey, American singer (b.
1899)
*
1994 -
Nikolai Vasilievich Ogarkov, Soviet field marshal (b.
1917)
* 1994 -
Brian Redhead, English journalist and broadcaster (b.
1929)
*
1997 -
Richard Berry, American composer and musician (b.
1935)
*
1999 -
Prince Lincoln Thompson, Jamaican musician (b.
1949)
*
2000 -
Derrick Thomas, American football player (b.
1967)
*
2002 -
Pierre Bourdieu, French sociologist (b.
1930)
* 2002 -
Paul Aars, American racecar driver (b.
1934)
* 2002 -
Robert Nozick, American philosopher (b.
1938)
*
2003 -
Nell Carter, American singer and actress (b.
1948)
*
2004 -
Bob Keeshan, American actor (b.
1927)
* 2004 -
Helmut Newton, German-born photographer (b.
1920)
*
2005 -
Morys George Lyndhurst Bruce, 4th Baron Aberdare, British politician (b.
1921)
* 2005 -
Johnny Carson, American television legend (b.
1925)
* 2005 -
Douglas Knight, American university president (b.
1921)
*
2006 -
Ernie Baron, Philippine newscaster (b.
1940)
* 2006 -
Chris McKinstry, Canadian scientist (b.
1967)
*
Roman Catholic Church:
Feast of
Blessed Marianne of Molokai* The
Saddest day of the year is January 23 according to a recent study completed by the
Cardiff University in
Cardiff, Wales (a part of the
Russell Group of
British universities). [
1]
*
Pie Day
*
BBC: On This Day*
NY Times: On this day*
On this day in Canada*
Cardiff University study on the "saddest day of the year" (and also the happiest).January 22 -
January 24 -
December 23 -
February 23 "
listing of all days
