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On this day -- January 23
By Wikipedia
Jan 23, 2006
January 23 is the 23rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 342 days remaining, 343 in leap years.
Events
- 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 himself.
- 1533 - Anne Boleyn, mistress of Henry VIII of England, discovers herself pregnant.
- 1546 - Having published nothing for 11 years, Francois Rabelais brings out his sequel to Gargantua and Pantagruel: the Tiers Libre.
- 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.
- 1904 - Ålesund Fire: Norwegian coastal town Ålesund is devastated by fire, leaving 10,000 people homeless. German Kaiser Wilhelm helps rebuild the town 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 from the Nazis.
- 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 New York City's Carnegie Hall for the first time.
- 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 ft (10,916 m) but later measurements show it to be 35,798 ft (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.
- 1975 - The TV comedy Barney Miller debuts on ABC.
- 1977 - The first segment of the Roots mini-series airs on ABC.
- 1978 - Sweden becomes the first nation to ban aerosol sprays that are thought to damage earth's protective ozone layer.
- 1983 - The A-Team debuts.
- 1984 - Hulk Hogan wins the World Wrestling Federation Championship from the Iron Sheik, in New York's Madison Square Garden. Hulkamania is born.
- 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 - Mir Aimal Kasi receives the death sentence for a 1993 assault rifle attack outside CIA headquarters that killed two and wounded three others.
- 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 - 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 - A Canadian federal election will be held after the fall of Paul Martin's Liberal minority government.
Births
- 1350 - Vincent Ferrer, Spanish missionary and saint (d. 1419)
- 1719 - John Landen, English mathematician (d. 1790)
- 1737 - John Hancock, American Revolutionist
- 1745 - William Jessop, English canal engineer (d. 1814)
- 1783 - Stendhal, French writer (d. 1842)
- 1813 - Camilla Collett, Norwegian writer and feminist (d. 1895)
- 1786 - Auguste de Montferrand, French architect (d. 1858)
- 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)
- 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
- 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)
- 1954 - Franco De Vita, Venezuelan singer and songwriter
- 1957 - Princess Caroline of Monaco
- 1963 - Gail O'Grady, American actress
- 1964 - Mariska Hargitay, American actress
- 1969 - Andrei Kanchelskis, Ukrainian-Russian footballer
- 1967 - Naim Suleymanoglu, Bulgarian-born weightlifter
- 1972 - Marcel Wouda, Dutch swimmer
- 1974 - Tiffani Thiessen, American actress
- 1983 - David Firth, British animator/musician
- 1984 - Arjen Robben, Dutch footballer
Deaths
- 1002 - Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 980)
- 1199 - Yaqub, Almohad Caliph
- 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)
- 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)
- 1990 - Allen Collins, American musician (b. 1952)
- 1991 - Northrop Frye, Canadian literary critic (b. 1912)
- 1992 - Freddie Bartholomew, Irish actor (b. 1924)
- 1993 - Thomas A. Dorsey, American singer (b. 1899)
- 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)
- 2002 - Pierre Bourdieu, French sociologist (b. 1930)
- 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 personality (b. 1925)
- 2005 - Douglas Knight, American university president (b. 1921)
Holidays and observances