January 23

is the 23rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 342 days remaining, 343 in leap years.

Events

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.
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 - 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 -- and subsequently murdered -- 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.

Births

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, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (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, 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 politician
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
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

Deaths

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)
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)

Holidays and observances

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). ^*
Pie Day

External links

January 22 - January 24 - December 23 - February 23 — listing of all days

Days

Gourt Home::Gourt :: January 23

Events

Births

Deaths

Holidays and observances

External links