On this day in History - Feb. 23

• 1100 - Emperor Zhezong of China dies (b. 1077).
• 1270 - Saint Isabel of France dies (b. 1225). Daughter of Louis VIII of France
• 1417 - Pope Paul II (d. 1471) was born.
• 1447 - Humphrey, Duque de Gloucester dies (b. 1390).
• 1447 - Pope Eugenius IV dies (b. 1383).
• 1455 - Traditional date for the publication of the Gutenberg Bible, the first Western book printed from movable type.
• 1464 - Zhengtong dies (b. 1427). Emperor of China.
• 1526 - Diego Colón dies. Spanish Viceroy of the Indies.
• 1535 - Tomás de Berlanga, o bispo de Castilla del Oro descubre las islas Galápagos.
• 1554 - Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk dies executed. English poltician.
• 1572 - Pierre Certon dies. French composer.
• 1574 - The 5th holy war against the Huguenots begins in France.
• 1583 - Jean-Baptiste Morin was born (d. 1656). French scientist.
• 1601 - Agostino Carraci dies. Italian painter and engraver.
• 1603 - Andrea Cesalpino (b. 6 Jun 1519). Italian physician, philosopher, and botanist who sought a philosophical and theoretical approach to plant classification based on unified and coherent principles rather than on alphabetical sequence or medicinal properties .
• 1633 - Samuel Pepys was born (d. 1703). English diarist.
• 1646 - Tokugawa Tsunayoshi was born (d. 1709). Japanese shogun.
• 1648 - Arabella Churchill was born (d. 1730). English mistress of James II of England.
• 1649 - John Blow was born. English coomposer.
• 1660 - Charles XI becomes king of Sweden.
• 1669 - Leo Aitzema dies (b. 1600). Dutch historian and statesman.
• 1680 - Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville was born (d. 1767). French colonizer and Governor of Louisiana.
• 1685 - Georg Friederich Händel was born in Halle, Germany (d. 1759). German-English Composer. Handel was one of the greatest masters of baroque music, most widely celebrated for his majestic oratorio The Messiah.
• 1688 - Queen Ulrika Eleonora of Sweden was born (d. 1741).
• 1704 - Georg Muffat dies (b. 1653). French composer.
• 1723 - Richard Price was born (d. 1791). Welsh philosopher.
• 1729 - Josiah Hornblower was born (d. 1809). American statesman.
• 1730 - Pope Benedict XIII dies (b. 1649).
• 1732 - First performance of George Frideric Handel's Orlando, in London.
• 1743 - Mayer Amschel Rothschild was born (†19 Sep 1812). German-born banker.
• 1765 - El químico y físico inglés Henry Cavendish descubre el hidrógeno, al que llamó "aire inflamable".
• 1766 - Com a morte de Estanislau Lesczcynski, duque de Lorena, este território é incorporado na França.
• 1766 - Stanislaw Leszczynski dies (b. 1677). King of Poland.
• 1778 - American Revolution: Baron von Steuben arrives at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania to help to train the Continental Army.
• 1781 - George Taylor dies. American signer of the Declaration of Independence
• 1792 - Joshua Reynolds dies. English painter.
• 1797 - French Forces launch a failed invasion of Britain. See Last Invasion of Britain
• 1800 - Joseph Warton dies (b. 1722). English literary critic.
• 1812 - Étienne-Louis Malus dies (b. 23 June 1775). French physicist who discovered that light, when reflected, becomes partially plane polarized; i.e., its rays vibrate in the same plane.
• 1813 - Cotton mill - The first cotton mill in the world in which the whole process of cotton manufacturing from spinning to weaving was carried on by power was incorporated in Waltham, Mass., U.S. with a capital of $100,000 as the Boston Manufacturing Company.
• 1817 - George Frederick Watts was born. English painter and sculptor.
• 1820 - Buenos Aires, Santa Fe y Entre Ríos firman el Tratado del Pilar.
• 1820 - Cato Street Conspiracy: A plot to murder all the British cabinet ministers is exposed.
• 1821 - The Philadelphia College of Apothecaries founds the first pharmacy college.
• 1821 - John Keats dies (b. 1795). English Romantic poet.
• 1822 - Boston was granted a charter to become a city.
• 1823 - Rebelião contra-revolucionária do general conde de Amarante, e de outros oficiais afastados do poder em finais de 1820 (Portugal).
• 1830 - Oxford, Ohio, home of Miami University, is incorporated.
• 1836 - Mexican general Santa Anna began the Siege of the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas - which was captured after 13 days and which became for Texans a symbol of heroic resistance. Only six people survived.
• 1840 - Carl Menger was born (d. 1921). Austrian economist.
• 1841 - The Chemical Society of London held its first organizational meeting. It was the first association for chemists that lasted 100 years.
• 1847 - Mexican-American War: Battle of Buena Vista - In Mexico, American troops defeat Mexican general Antonio López de Santa Anna.
• 1848 - John Quincy Adams dies (b. 1767). 6th President of the United States.
• 1849 - Rosa Damasceno was born in Porto (d. 5 Oct 1904). Portugueses actress.
• 1850 - César Ritz was born (d. 24 Oct 1918). Swiss hotelier and founder of several hotels, most famously The Ritz Hotel
• 1854 - The official independence of the Orange Free State is declared.
• 1855 - Carl Friedrich Gauss dies (b. 30 Apr 1777). German mathematician, astronomer, physicist.
• 1858 - Vicente Ramón Roca Rodríguez dies. President of Ecuador.
• 1861 - President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrives secretly in Washington, DC after an assassination attempt in Baltimore, Maryland.
• 1868 - W.E.B. DuBois was born (d. 1963). American civil rights leader and author. He was the most important African American protest leader during the first half of the 20th century, helping to create the NAACP in 1909 and editing The Crisis, its magazine, for 24 years.
• 1870 - Military control of Mississippi ends and it is readmitted to the Union.
• 1873 - Liang Qichao was born (d. 1929). Chinese scholar.
• 1874 - Walter Winfield patents a game called "sphairistike" which is more commonly called lawn tennis.
• 1874 - Konstantin Päts was born (d. 1956). Estonian president.
• 1878 - Kazimir Malevich was born (d. 1935). Ukrainian painter and art theorist.
• 1879 - Agnes Arber was born (d. 22 Mar 1960). British botanist noted chiefly for her studies in comparative anatomy of plants, especially monocotyledons.
• 1879 - Albrecht Graf von Roon dies (b. 1803). Prime Minister of Prussia.
• 1882 - B. Traven was born (allegedly) writer (d. 1969).
• 1883 - Victor Fleming was born (d. 1949). American director.
• 1883 - Karl Jaspers was born (d. 1969). German philosopher.
• 1883 - Alabama becomes the first U.S. state to enact an antitrust law.
• 1884 - Casimir Funk was born (d. 20 Nov 1967). Polish-American biochemist who coined the term "vitamine" .
• 1886 - El "London Times" publica el primer aviso clasificado.
• 1886 - Aluminium isolated : Charles M. Hall, a young U.S. chemist, completed his electrolytic process for the separation of aluminum from its ore, a mere eight months since he graduated from college.
• 1887 - The French Riviera is hit by a large earthquake, killing around 2,000.
• 1887 - Oskar Lindberg was born. Swedish composer.
• 1889 - É abolida a escravatura em todo o território Português.
• 1889 - Musidora was born (d. 1957). French actress and director.
• 1892 - Hugh Burgess dies (b. c. 1825). British-born American inventor who, with Charles Watt, developed the soda process used to turn wood pulp into paper.
• 1893 - Diesel engine patent. Rudolf Diesel received a German patent for the diesel engine. His engine burns fuel oil rather than gasoline, and uses high compressed of the gases in the cylinder rather than a spark to ignite the fuel.
• 1896 - The Tootsie Roll was introduced by Leo Hirshfield.
• 1897 - Woldemar Bargiel dies (b. 1828). German composer.
• 1898 - French novelist Emile Zola was convicted of libel and sentenced to jail for writing his "J'accuse" letter accusing the government of anti-Semitism and wrongly jailing Captain Alfred Dreyfus.
• 1899 - Erich Kästner was born (d. 1974). German writer.
• 1899 - Elisabeth Langgässer was born (d. 1950). Lyricist, narrator and novelist.
• 1900 - Battle of Hart's Hill: In South Africa the Boers and British troops battle.
• 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.
• 1904 - Leopold Trepper was born (d. 1982). Soviet spy in WWII.
• 1904 - William L. Shirer was born (d. 1993). American historian.
• 1905 - Chicago attorney Paul Harris and three other businessmen meet for lunch to form the Rotary Club, the world's first service club.
• 1907 - Roberto Cerro "Cherro", "Cabecita de Oro" was born. Argentinin player scored 100 goals for Boca Juniors.
• 1908 - Johannes Friedrich August von Esmarch dies (b. 9 Jan 1823). German surgeon who was the first to introduce a first-aid kit and triage on the battlefield. He introduced first aid training for both military and civilian personnel.
• 1908 - William McMahon was born (d. 1988). Twentieth Prime Minister of Australia.
• 1909 - The Silver Dart makes the first powered flight in Canada and the British Empire.
• 1911 - Os bispos portugueses tomam posição contra as medidas anticlericais do regime Republicano, como fossem a expulsão das congregações, a lei do divórcio e o fim do juramento religioso.
• 1912 - Albert Victor Bäcklund dies (b. 1845). Swedish physicist.
• 1914 - El Consejo de Konigsberg acuerda que los restos del filósofo Kant sean enterrados en un mausoleo de la catedral de esta ciudad.
• 1914 - Theofiel Middelkamp was born (d. 2005). Dutch cyclist.
• 1915 - Jon Hall was born (d. 1979). American actor.
• 1915 - Paul Tibbets was born. American pilot of the "Enola Gay", the plane which dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.
• 1917 - Jean-Gaston Darboux dies (b. 14 Aug 1842). French mathematician who made important contributions to geometry and analysis and after whom the Darboux integral is named.
• 1917 - O segundo contingente do Corpo expedicionário português parte para França. O primeiro contingente tinha partido em 30 de Janeiro.
• 1918 - Formation of the (Soviet) Red Army. In 1946 their name changed to "Soviet Army".
• 1918 - O governo de Sidónio pais altera a Lei da Separação entre o Estado e a Igreja, restituindo ao clero parte dos seus poderes nas questões referentes ao culto.
• 1918 - Richard G. Butler was born (d. 2004). American fascist.
• 1919 - Benito Mussolini forms the Fascist Party in Italy.
• 1920 - Paul Gérin-Lajoie was born. French Canadian politician
• 1923 - Théophile Delcassé dies (b. 1852). French statesman.
• 1924 - Allan McLeod Cormack was born (d. 7 May 1998). South African-born, American physicist who formulated the mathematical algorithms that made possible the development of a powerful new diagnostic technique, the cross-sectional X-ray imaging process known as computerized axial tomography (CAT) scanning. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1979.
• 1924 - Claude Sautet was born (d. 2000). French film director.
• 1926 - Charles Joseph Chamberlain is born (d. 5 Feb 1943). U.S. botanist whose major area of research was the cycad genera, palmlike, cone-bearing plants intermediate in appearance and structural features between tree ferns and palms .
• 1926 - Juan Llimona dies. Painter.
• 1927 - The Federal Radio Commission (later renamed the Federal Communications Commission) begins to regulate the use of radio frequencies.
• 1928 - Vasili Lazarev was born (d. 1990). Soviet cosmonaut.
• 1930 - Estalla en Santiago (República Dominicana) un movimiento revolucionario dirigido por el general Rafael Trujillo.
• 1930 - Horst Wessel dies (b. 1907). Nazi ideologue and composer .
• 1932 - Majel Barrett was born. American actress .
• 1934 - Leopold III becomes King of Belgium.
• 1934 - Edward Elgar dies (b. 1857). English composer.
• 1934 - Sophus Otto Müller dies (b. 24 May 1846). Danish paleontologist who, during the late 19th century, discovered the first of the Neolithic battle-ax cultures in Denmark.
• 1935 - Juan Joya was born. Peruvian soccer player.
• 1937 - Tom Osborne was born. American football coach and politician.
• 1938 - Diane Varsi was born (d. 1992). American actress.
• 1940 - Peter Fonda was born. American actor.
• 1940 - World War II: Soviet Union troops conquer Lasi Island.
• 1940 - The animated movie Pinocchio is released.
• 1941 - Plutonium was first produced and isolated by Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg.
• 1941 - Ron Hunt was born. Baseball player
• 1942 - Stefan Zweig dies (b. 28 Nov 1881). Austrian biographer, essayist and short story writer
• 1942 -The first Axis shelling of U.S. soil took place near Santa Barbara, California.
• 1943 - Fred Biletnikoff was born. American football player and coach.
• 1944 - Johnny Winter was born. American musician.
• 1944 - Bernard Cornwell was born. English historical novelist
• 1944 - Leo Hendrik Baekeland dies (b. 14 Nov 1863). U.S. industrial chemist who helped found the modern plastics industry through his invention of Bakelite, the first thermosetting plastic (a plastic that does not soften when heated).
• 1944 - É criado o Secretariado Nacional de Informação, Cultura Popular e Turismo (SNI), que substitui o Secretariado da Propaganda Nacional (SPN). António Ferro, director do SPN, dirige a nova estrutura (Portugal).
• 1945 - Following the American victory at 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 Poznan, 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.
• 1945 - U.S. Marines raised the American flag on Iwo Jima.
• 1945 - Allan Boesak was born. South African activist.
• 1946 - Tomoyuki Yamashita dies hanged (b. 1885). Japanese general.
• 1947 - International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is founded.
• 1948 - John Robert Gregg dies (b. 17 Jun 1867). Irish-born American inventor of a shorthand system named for him.
• 1949 - Marc Garneau was born. French Canadian astronaut.
• 1950 - Maxi was born. Irish singer and radio personality
• 1951 - Shigefumi Mori was born (d. 23 Feb 1951). Japanese mathematician who has made important contributions to the field of algebraic geometry.
• 1951 - Patricia Richardson was born. American actress.
• 1951 - Ed Jones was born. American football player.
• 1952 - Brad Whitford was born. American musician (Aerosmith)
• 1954 - Viktor Yushchenko was born. President of Ukraine
• 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.
• 1955 - Tom Bodett was born. American voice actor, radio personality, and writer
• 1955 - Howard Jones was born. British pop singer.
• 1955 - Paul Claudel dies (b. 1868). French poet, playwright and diplomat.
• 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.
• 1956 - Nikita Khrushchev attacks the veneration of Joseph Stalin as a "cult of personality".
• 1957 - The founding congress of the Senegalese Popular Bloc is opened in Dakar.
• 1957 - Dr. John F. Mahoney dies (b. 1 Aug 1889). American physician who developed penicillin treatment of syphilis. He established the Venereal Disease Research Center on Staten Island, N.Y. for the U.S. Public Health Service for laboratory and clinical studies of venereal disease.
• 1958 - Cuban rebels kidnap 5-time world driving champion Juan Manuel Fangio.
• 1958 - Arturo Frondizi gana las elecciones generales de Argentina.
• 1958 - Tony Barrell was born. English writer and journalist.
• 1958 - David Sylvian was born. English musician.
• 1959 - Primera reunión del Tribunal Europeo de Derechos Humanos.
• 1959 - Richard Dodds was born. British field hockey player
• 1960 - Alan Griffin was born. Australian politician and member for Bruce in the House of Representatives
• 1960 - Naruhito was born. Crown Prince of Japan
• 1961 - Ernesto Che Guevara é nomeado Ministro de Indústrias de Cuba. Ele, que lutou ao lado de Fidel Castro contra a ditadura de Fulgêncio Batista, virou cidadão cubano e já havia sido diretor do Banco Nacional. Deixaria o cargo mais tarde para lutar pela revolução na África.
• 1963 - Alaura O'Dell, aka Paula P-Orridge born in Westminster, London .
• 1963 - Bobby Bonilla was born. Former baseball player.
• 1965 - Michael Dell was born. American computer manufacturer.
• 1965 - Helena Suková was born. Former Czech tennis player.
• 1965 - Kristin Davis was born. American actress
• 1965 - Michael Dell was born. American computer manufacturer
• 1965 - Veronica Webb was born. American supermodel and actress
• 1965 - Stan Laurel dies (b. 1890). Actor, comedian.
• 1966 - A military coup in Syria replaces the previous government.
• 1969 - Marc Wauters was born. Belgian cyclist
• 1969 - King Saud of Saudi Arabia dies (b. 1902)
• 1970 - Independencia de Guyana.
• 1970 - Niecy Nash was born. American actress.
• 1970 - Marie-Josée Croze was born. French Canadian actress
• 1971 - Melinda Messenger was born. English television presenter
• 1971 - Jeong Chan was born. South Korean actor
• 1972 - Steve Holy was born. American country singer
• 1972 - Rondell White was born. American baseball player
• 1973 - Bryan Manchi was born. English songwriter.
• 1973 - André Tanneberger was born. German DJ.
• 1973 - Dickinson W. Richards dies (b. 30 Oct 1895). American physiologist who shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1956 with Werner Forssmann and André F. Cournand.
• 1974 - The Symbionese Liberation Army demands $4 million more to release kidnap victim Patty Hearst.
• 1974 - Leko was born. American DJ
• 1974 - Jaime Villarreal was born. Mexican musician
• 1974 - Harry Ruby dies (b. 1895). American composer and writer .
• 1975 - In response to the energy crisis, daylight saving time commences nearly two months early in the United States.
• 1975 - Michael Cornacchia was born. American actor
• 1975 - Robert Lopez was born. American composer
• 1976 - Kelly Macdonald was born. British actress
• 1976 - LS Lowry dies (b. 1887). English artist.
• 1977 - Kristina Šmigun was born. Estonian cross-country skier.
• 1977 - Heloísa Alberto Torres dies. Brazilian anthropologist.
• 1978 - Dan Snyder was born (d. 2003). Canadian hockey player.
• 1979 - W.A.C. Bennett dies (d. 1900). Canadian politician.
• 1980 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini states that Iran's parliament would decide the fate of the American embassy hostages.
• 1981 - Antonio Tejero attempts a coup d'état by capturing the Spanish Congress of Deputies.
• 1981 - Gareth Barry was born. English footballer.
• 1981 - Charles Tillman was born. American football player.
• 1982 - Austin Ryan Fuentes was born. American heir.
• 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 evauate the dioxin-contaminated community of Times Beach, Missouri.
• 1983 - Mido (Ahmed Hossam) was born in Cairo. Egyptian footballer.
• 1983 - Herbert Howells dies (b. 17 Oct 1892). English (church music) composer.
• 1986 - Holly Brook was born. American musician.
• 1986 - Kamenashi Kazuya was born. Japanese idol (member of KAT-TUN)
• 1986 - Justo Arosemena dies. Panamanian writer and politician.
• 1987 - Morre José Afonso (Zeca Afonso), natural de Aveiro, cantor, poeta, músico e resistente político português. Cantor de Grândola, Vila Morena, canção que simboliza o 25 de Abril de 1974.
• 1987 - A supernova is seen in the Large Magellanic Cloud (see Supernova 1987a).
• 1989 - Evan Bates was born. American ice dancer
• 1989 - Maria Luiza Neto Jorge dies in Lisbon (b. 10 May 1939). Portuguese poet.
• 1990 - José Napoleón Duarte dies. President of El Salvador .
• 1991 - Gulf War: Ground troops cross the Saudi Arabia border and enter Iraq, thus starting the ground-phase of the war.
• 1991 - Thailand: General Sunthorn Kongsompong leads a bloodless coup d'état, deposing Prime Minister Chatichai Choonhavan.
• 1992 - The Socialist Labour Party is founded in Georgia.
• 1992 - Portugal: Antonio Guterres is elected to leader the Socialist Party / António Guterres é eleito para líder do Partido Socialista.
• 1993 - Gary Coleman wins a $1,280,000 lawsuit against his parents.
• 1994 - Dakota Fanning was born. American child actress .
• 1995 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average gains 30.28 to close at 4,003.33, closing above 4,000 for the first time.
• 1995 - James Herriot dies (b. 1916). English writer.
• 1995 - Melvin Franklin dies (b. 1942). American singer (The Temptations).
• 1997 - Scottish scientists announced the successful cloning of a sheep, Dolly.
• 1997 - A large fire occurs in the Russian Space station, Mir.
• 1997 - La versión sin censuras de la película "La lista de Schindler", es vista por 65 millones de personas en la señal televisiva NBC de los Estados Unidos.
• 1997 - Tony Williams dies (b. 1945). American jazz drummer.
• 1998 - Tornadoes in central Florida destroy or damage 2,600 structures and kill 42.
• 1998 - Osama bin Laden publishes fatwa declaring jihad against all Jews and Crusaders.
• 1998 - Netscape Communications Corporation announced the foundation of mozilla.org, to co-ordinate the development of the open source Mozilla web browser.
• 1999 - Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Öcalan is charged with treason in Ankara, Turkey.
• 1999 - White supremacist John William King is found guilty of kidnapping and killing African American James Byrd Jr by dragging him behind a truck for two miles.
• 1999 - An avalanche destroys the Austrian vilage of Galtür, killing 31.
• 1999 - Carlos Hathcock dies (b. 1942). GySgt, USMC, Sniper.
• 2000 - Ofra Haza dies (b. 1957). Israeli singer.
• 2000 - Stanley Matthews dies (b. 1915). English soccer player.
• 2001 - Robert Enrico dies (b. 1931). French film director and screenwriter.
• 2003 - Robert K. Merton dies (b. 1910). American sociologist.
• 2003 - Howie Epstein dies (b. 1955). American bass guitarist (Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers).
• 2004 - Vijay Anand dies (b. 1934). Indian film director, brother of Dev Anand.
• 2004 - Carl Anderson dies (b. 1945). American actor (Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar).
• 2004 - Sikander Bakht dies (b. 1918). Governor of Kerala.
• 2004 - Don Cornell dies (b. 1919). American popular singer of the 1940s and 1950s
• 2004 - Carl Liscombe dies (b. 1915). (Detroit Red Wings) Canadian hockey player in the 1940s
• 2005 - Slovakia Summit 2005 begins, marking the first occasion when a sitting American President visits Slovakia; Bush and Putin are in attandance.
• 2005 - Vote of the controversial French law on colonialism, repealed start of 2006.
• 2006 - The 1 Billionth song was downloaded from the iTunes Music Store.
• 2006 - Benno Besson dies (b. 1922). Swiss actor and film director.
• Catholicism - Feast day of St Polycarp of Smyrna; Saint Lazarus (d. 867)
• Roman Empire - Terminalia held in honor of Terminus.
• Guyana - Mashramani-Republic Day.
• Italy - Feast of the Incappucciati.
• Russia - Defender of the Fatherland Day (formerly Red Army Day or Day of Soviet Army and Navy).
• Brunei - National Day.