See what makes August 23 special at Famous Daily.
History, birthdays, holiday, and a quote!
What happened on August 23
- August 23, 0079 "Mount Vesuvius begins stirring, on the feast day of Vulcan, the Roman god of fire."
- August 23, 1305 "William Wallace, Scottish patriot, is executed at for high treason by Edward I of England."
- August 23, 1328 Battle of Cassel: French troops stop an uprising of Flemish farmers.
- August 23, 1541 French explorer Jacques Cartier lands near Quebec City in his third voyage to Canada.
- August 23, 1541 Jacques Cartier 1491-1557 arrives at Iroquois village of Stadacona on his third trip to Canada; starts to build Charlesbourg-Royale at western tip of Cape Diamond; first French fort in Canada; first French settlement in America.
- August 23, 1555 Calvinists are granted rights in the Netherlands.
- August 23, 1577 "Frobisher Bay NWT, Martin Frobisher c1539-1594 kidnaps three Inuit, then sets sail for England."
- August 23, 1595 Michael the Brave confronts the Ottoman army in the Battle of Calugareni.
- August 23, 1614 The University of Groningen is established.
- August 23, 1617 First one-way streets established (London)
- August 23, 1617 The first one-way street is opened in London.
- August 23, 1651 Charles II of England enters Worcester and starts a fight.
- August 23, 1708 Meidingnu Pamheiba is crowned King of Manipur.
- August 23, 1784 "Western North Carolina (now eastern Tennessee) declares itself an independent state under the name of Franklin; it wasnt accepted into the United States, and only lasted for four years."
- August 23, 1793 French Revolution: a leve en masse was decreed by the National Convention.
- August 23, 1797 Emanuel Allen sold at public auction in Montreal; last slave transaction in Canada.
- August 23, 1799 Napoleon leaves Egypt for France en route to seize power.
- August 23, 1813 "At the Battle of Grossbeeren, the Prussians under Von Blow repulse the French army."
- August 23, 1818 The first steamship trip is taken on Lake Erie.
- August 23, 1833 "Britain abolishes slavery in colonies; 700,000 slaves freed"
- August 23, 1833 Slavery abolished in the British colonies.
- August 23, 1838 "Mt Holyoke Female Seminary (South Hadley, Mass) first graduating class"
- August 23, 1839 Hong Kong is taken by British in war with China.
- August 23, 1839 The United Kingdom captures Hong Kong as a base as it prepares to war with Qing China. The ensuing 3-year conflict will later be known as the First Opium War.
- August 23, 1850 "In the Lancaster Sound NWT, HMS Assistance and HMS Intrepid find first trace of lost Franklin expedition in Lancaster Sound, at Cape Riley and Beechey Island."
- August 23, 1864 Fall of Fort Morgan at Mobile
- August 23, 1864 "The Union Navy captures Fort Morgan, Alabama, thus breaking Confederate dominance of all ports on the Gulf of Mexico."
- August 23, 1866 Austro-Prussian War ends with the Treaty of Prague.
- August 23, 1866 Treaty of Prague ends Austro-Prussian war
- August 23, 1869 "The first carload of freight (boots & shoes) arrives in SF, from Boston"
- August 23, 1872 "The first Japanese commercial ship visits SF, carrying tea"
- August 23, 1889 First wireless message from a ship to the shore received.
- August 23, 1889 The first ship-to-shore wireless message received in US (SF)
- August 23, 1896 "First Cry of the Philippine Revolution is made in Pugad Lawin (Quezon City), in the province of Manila."
- August 23, 1900 National Negro Business League organizes (Boston)
- August 23, 1904 Automobile tire chain patented
- August 23, 1904 The automobile tire chain is patented.
- August 23, 1914 Japan declares war on Germany during WWI.
- August 23, 1914 "World War I: Japan declares war on Germany and bombs Qingdao, China."
- August 23, 1914 World War I: the Battle of Mons; the British Army begins withdrawal.
- August 23, 1917 "Ontario cabinet passes order-in-council allowing the city of Berlin to change its name to Kitchener, effective Sept. 1; due to wartime anti-German sentiment."
- August 23, 1917 Race riot in Houston Texas (2 blacks & 11 whites killed)
- August 23, 1919 """Gasoline Alley"" cartoon strip premiers in Chicago Tribune"
- August 23, 1921 Faisal I crowned King of Iraq.
- August 23, 1923 "Capt. Lowell Smith and Lt. John P. Richter performed the first mid-air refueling on De Havilland DH-4B, setting an endurance flight record of 37 hours."
- August 23, 1924 Mars' closest approach to Earth since the 10th century
- August 23, 1924 The distance between Earth and Mars is the smallest since the 10th century.
- August 23, 1926 Motion picture star Rudolph Valentino dies in New York at age 31.
- August 23, 1927 "Italian anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti are executed in Boston, Massachusetts after being found guilty of first degree murder."
- August 23, 1929 "Hebron Massacre: Arab attack of the Jewish community in the British Mandate of Palestine resulted in 133 Jews killed, 67 in Hebron."
- August 23, 1939 Soviet-German pact is signed by Molotov and Ribbentrop.
- August 23, 1939 USSR & Germany sign a non-agression pact
- August 23, 1942 World War II: Beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad.
- August 23, 1943 World War II: Kharkov liberated.
- August 23, 1944 "Freckleton Air Disaster - A United States Army Air Forces B-24 Liberator bomber crashes into a school in Freckleton, England killing 61 people."
- August 23, 1944 Romania liberated from Nazi occupation (National Day 1944-1990)
- August 23, 1944 "World War II King Michael of Romania dismisses the pro-Nazi government of General Antonescu, who is arrested. Romania switches sides from the Axis to the Allies."
- August 23, 1944 World War II: Marseille liberated.
- August 23, 1946 Ordinance No. 46 of the British Military Government constitutes the German Land (state) of Schleswig-Holstein.
- August 23, 1947 "Pres Truman's daughter, Margaret's first public singing concert"
- August 23, 1948 World Council of Churches formed by 147 churches from 44 countries
- August 23, 1950 West Germany & Japan readmitted to Intl Amateur Athletic Federation
- August 23, 1950 West Germany and Japan readmitted to Intl Amateur Athletic Federation.
- August 23, 1952 The Arab League is formed.
- August 23, 1953 "Phil Grate sets record for throwing a baseball (443'3®"")"
- August 23, 1956 Soviet Bolshoi Ballet dancer Alexander Godunov defects to the U.S. during a performance in New York City.
- August 23, 1956 The first non-stop transcontinental helicopter flight begins.
- August 23, 1958 Chinese Civil War: The Second Taiwan Strait crisis begins with the People's Liberation Army's bombardment of Quemoy.
- August 23, 1958 Marie Ashton completes playing piano a female record 133 hours
- August 23, 1960 World's largest frog (3.3 kg) caught (Equatorial Guinea)
- August 23, 1961 "US lunar probe Ranger 1 reaches 190 km from Earth, falls back"
- August 23, 1963 "Beatles release ""She Loves You"" in the UK"
- August 23, 1963 "Ringo admits he wrote a song ""Don't Pass Me By"""
- August 23, 1964 "Footbridge collapses over river gorge in Venezuela, and 29 people fall to their deaths in rapids below."
- August 23, 1966 Lunar Orbiter 1 takes first photograph of Earth from Moon
- August 23, 1968 "Ringo quits the Beatles over a disagreement, temporarily"
- August 23, 1969 "Audrey McElmory (US) wins World Cycling Championships, Brno, Czechoslovakia (1st American to win cycling race title since 1912)"
- August 23, 1973 Intelsat communications satellite launched
- August 23, 1973 The Intelsat communication satellite is launched.
- August 23, 1975 Successful Communist coup in Laos.
- August 23, 1977 The first man-powered flight of a mile (Bryan Allen in Gossamer Condor)
- August 23, 1977 The Gossamer Condor wins the Kremer prize for human powered flight.
- August 23, 1979 Bolshoi Ballet dancer Alexander Godunov defects in NYC
- August 23, 1979 Soviet dancer Alexander Godunov defects to the United States.
- August 23, 1979 UN's Vienna office opens
- August 23, 1980 "In the Kashmir - India Border Region a 5.2 quake killed 15 people killed, at least 40 injured and many houses damaged in the Bhaddu area, Kashmir"
- August 23, 1980 Number one hit on UK music charts - David Bowie - Ashes To Ashes
- August 23, 1982 Bachir Gemayel is elected Lebanese President amidst the raging civil war.
- August 23, 1985 Famous shipwreck RMS Titanic is found.
- August 23, 1985 "Hans Tiedge, top counter-spy of West Germany, defects to East Germany."
- August 23, 1985 "In the Southern Xinjiang, China region a 7.3 quake killed at least 71, 162 injured, about 15,000 homeless and about 85 percent of the buildings destroyed in the Wuqia-Shufu area"
- August 23, 1985 "Paul Hornung awarded $1,160,000 by a Louisville court against NCAA who barred him as a college football analyst for betting on games"
- August 23, 1985 Said Aouita of Morroco sets the 1.5k record (3:29.46) in Berlin
- August 23, 1986 Number one hit on UK music charts - Boris Gardiner - I Want to Wake Up With You
- August 23, 1987 Heavy rains and floods in Bangladesh kill hundreds of victims.
- August 23, 1988 Mike Tyson & Mitch Green brawl at 4 A.M. in Harlem
- August 23, 1989 "All of Australia's 1,645 domestic airline pilots resign after the airlines threaten to fire them and sue them over a dispute."
- August 23, 1989 "Singing Revolution: two million people from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania stand on the Vilnius-Tallinn road, holding hands (Baltic Way)."
- August 23, 1990 Armenia declares its independence from the Soviet Union.
- August 23, 1990 "Saddam Hussein appears on Iraqi state television with a number of Western ""guests"" (actually hostages) to try to prevent the Gulf War."
- August 23, 1990 West Germany and East Germany announce that they will unite on October 3.
- August 23, 1992 "More than 500 survivors return to Singapore from the cruise ship Royal Pacific, which sank after a collision with a fishing boat"
- August 23, 1995 Photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt (Life magazine) dies at age 96.
- August 23, 1996 Osama bin Laden issues message entitled 'A declaration of war against the Americans occupying the land of the two holy places.'
- August 23, 2000 "A Gulf Air Airbus A320 crashes into the Persian Gulf near Manama, Bahrain, killing 143."
- August 23, 2000 "A Gulf Air Airbus jetliner with 140 aboard crashes into the Persian Gulf near Bahrain shortly after takeoff, leaving no survivors."
- August 23, 2000 "In a 'reality TV' record an estimated 51 million US viewers tuned in for the finale of CBS' series Survivor, in which contestant Richard Hatch won the $US1 million prize."
- August 23, 2000 "Nicaragua becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty. This essentially deprecated the Buenos Aires Convention treaty, because as of this date, all members of the BA Convention were also signatories to Berne."
- August 23, 2005 "TANS Peru Flight 204 crashes near Pucallpa, Peru, killing 41."
- August 23, 2006 "Natascha Kampusch, who was abducted at the age of 10, managed to escape from her captor Wolfgang Priklopil, after 8 years of captivity."
- August 23, 2009 26 men accused of plotting attacks on tourist resorts and ships in the Suez Canal on behalf of Lebanon's Hezbollah group go on trial in an Egyptian security court.
- August 23, 2009 "A leak at an offshore oil rig that caused a large oil spill off the coast of Australia ""could take weeks"" to be plugged."
- August 23, 2009 "A new picture of Fidel Castro is published in the Juventud Rebelde state-run newspaper, apparently showing Cuba's ailing former leader in much better health."
- August 23, 2009 A severe drought in northern China leaves 5 million people short of water and damages 8.7 million hectares of farmland.
- August 23, 2009 Afghan President Hamid Karzai's main rival Abdullah Abdullah alleges fraud in the presidential election.
- August 23, 2009 England reclaim The Ashes with a 2-1 series win over Australia.
- August 23, 2009 Honduras's Supreme Court rejects a Costa Rica-brokered deal to restore ousted President Manuel Zelaya to power and orders his arrest if he returns.
- August 23, 2009 "Iraq broadcasts a video of former police chief Wissam Ali Kadhem Ibrahim, a Saddam Hussein loyalist, confessing to orchestrating a truck bombing at the finance ministry, the first of two bombings that killed 95 people and maimed hundreds more in Baghdad on 19 August."
- August 23, 2009 North Korean envoys meet the South Korean President Lee Myung-bak for the first time since he took office.
- August 23, 2009 Tens of thousands of people in the Baltic states mark the twentieth anniversary of the 'Baltic Way' - when two million people formed a human chain to protest against Soviet Union rule.
- August 23, 2009 "Tens of thousands of people protest against a new law which gives women equal rights in marriage in Bamako, Mali."
- August 23, 2009 "Thousands of people are evacuated as forest fires reach the outskirts of the Greek capital, Athens."
- August 23, 2009 "Yemeni troops claim to have killed more than 100 Shia rebels in the past two weeks, including two leaders, but the rebels deny their leaders, Mohsen Saleh Gawd and Salah Jorman, are dead and no independent confirmation is made available."
- August 23, 2009 "ZANU-PF party members walk out of a meeting of Zimbabwe cabinet members to review the work of a unity government it has formed with its opponents, over charges of electoral fraud."
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