Historical Events on March 23

Events 1 - 200 of 208

• 1026 Conrad II crowns himself King of Italy
• 1066 18th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet

• 1174 Jocelin, abbot of Melrose, is elected bishop of Glasgow
• 1490 First dated edition of Maimonides "Mishneh Torah", a code of Jewish religious law is published
• 1534 Aragonese legal code formally recognised
• 1568 Treaty of Longjumeau: French huguenots go on strike
• 1579 Friesland joins Union of Utrecht
• 1593 English Separatist Puritans John Greenwood and Henry Barrowe tried and sentenced to death on the charge of devising and circulating seditious books
• 1630 French troops occupy Pinerolo Piedmont
• 1657 France & England form alliance against Spain; England gets Dunkirk
• 1708 James Francis Edward Stuart, Prince of Wales, attempts to land at Firth of Forth, Scotland, but is turned away by the British Royal Navy

• 1752 Canada's first newspaper "Halifax Gazette" published in Halifax by John Bushell [1]
• 1752 Pope Stephen II elected to succeed Zacharias, dies 2 days later

• 1782 Novel "Les Liaisons dangereuses" (Dangerous Liaisons) by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos is published by Durand Neveu

• 1794 American inventor Josiah Pierson patents a "cold-header" (rivet) machine

• 1821 Battle and fall of city of Kalamata, Greek War of Independence
• 1839 1st recorded use of "OK" [oll korrect] (Boston's Morning Post)

• 1848 The ship John Wickliffe arrives at Port Chalmers carrying the first Scottish settlers for Dunedin, New Zealand. Otago province is founded.
• 1849 Battle of Novara (King Charles Albert vs Italian republic)
• 1856 18-year-old English chemist William Perkin accidentally produces the first synthetic aniline dye ‘mauveine’ (purple) during his Easter holiday [1]

• 1858 Streetcar patented (E A Gardner of Philadelphia)
• 1861 London's 1st tramcars, designed by Mr Train of NY, begins operating
• 1862 Battle of Kernstown Virginia, Jackson begins his Valley Campaign
• 1864 Encounter at Camden, Arkansas

• 1868 University of California founded in Oakland, California
• 1879 War of the Pacific fought between Chile and the joints forces of Bolivia and Peru. Chile successfully takes over Arica and Tarapacá, leaving Bolivia a landlocked country.
• 1880 Flour rolling mill patented (John Stevens of Wisconsin)
• 1881 Boers & Britain sign peace accord; end 1st Boer war
• 1881 Gas lamp sets fire to Théâtre Municipal” opera house in Nice, France; 70 die, and building completely destroyed
• 1882 The Edmunds Act (Edmunds Anti-Polygamy Act) is adopted by the US to suppress polygamy. 1300 men are later imprisoned under the act

• 1889 The free Woolwich Ferry officially opens in east London
• 1896 The Raines Law is passed by the New York State Legislature, restricting Sunday sale of alcohol to hotels

• 1903 The Wright brothers 1st file a patent for a flying machine, which is granted 3 years later
• 1908 American diplomat Durham Stevens is attacked by Korean assassins Jeon Myeong-un and Jang In-hwan, leading to his death in hospital two days later
• 1915 Zion Mule Corp formed by the British Army
• 1917 Tornadoes kills 211 over 4 days in Midwest US
• 1918 Alick Wickham dives 200' into Australia's Yarra River
• 1918 German forces advance 14 miles to the Somme River (WW1)
• 1918 Germany begins using long-range gun, the 'Kaiser Wilhelm Geschütz' ('Emperor William Gun'), aka 'Paris Gun' to shell Paris from Crépy-en-Laonnais, 75 miles away; over several days, 303 rounds kill 256 and wound over 600
• 1918 Lithuania proclaims independence

• 1919 Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, designated as the first autonomous republic of Soviet Russia

• 1920 Perserikatan Communist of India (PKI) political party forms
• 1921 Germany announces it will be unable to meet its Great War reparation payments
• 1922 1st airplane lands at the US Capitol in Washington, D.C.
• 1922 KMJ-AM in Fresno CA begins radio transmissions
• 1922 WEW-AM in Saint Louis MO begins radio transmissions
• 1923 Frank Silver and Irving Conn publish their hit song "Yes, We Have No Bananas"

• 1933 Kroll Opera in Berlin, Germany opens
• 1936 Italy, Austria & Hungary sign Pact of Rome

• 1937 LA Railway Co starts using PCC streetcars

• 1940 1st radio broadcast of "Truth or Consequences" on CBS
• 1940 The Lahore Resolution (Qarardad-e-Lahore), calling for independent Muslim state(s), is adopted by the All-India Muslim League
• 1942 2,500 Jews of Lublin massacred or deported
• 1942 Japanese forces occupy Andaman Islands in Indian Ocean
• 1943 German counterattack on US lines in Tunisia
• 1944 Italian resistance group bombs occupying German police at Via Rasella, Rome; killing 33 and wounding 110 of the 156 man force; retaliation kills 335 civilians

• 1945 British 7th Black Watch crosses the Rhine into Germany
• 1945 British Prime Minister Churchill visits Montgomery's headquarter in Straelen

• 1948 John Cunningham sets world altitude record (54,492' (18,133 m))
• 1949 Sidney Kingsley's play "Detective Story" premieres in NYC

• 1950 Actress Frances Farmer is released from Western State Hospital
• 1950 Sophocles Venizelos forms liberal Greek government
• 1950 UN World Meteorological Org established
• 1951 Wages in France increase 11%
• 1952 NY Rangers blow 6-2 lead, lose 7-6 to Chicago Black Hawks; Bill Mosienko scores fastest hat trick in NHL history, 21 seconds
• 1956 Pakistan proclaimed an Islamic republic in Commonwealth (National Day)
• 1956 Sudan becomes independent
• 1957 US army sells last homing pigeons
• 1960 NASA's Explorer (8) fails to reach Earth orbit

• 1962 Nawab of Pataudi captains India cricket v WI age 21 years 77 days
• 1962 Wake Forest coach "Bones" McKinney becomes 2nd person to play and coach
• 1962 William DeWitt buys Cincinnati Reds for $4,625,000
• 1963 Rolf Hochhuth's play "Der Stellvertreter" (The Representative) premieres in Berlin

• 1964 UNCTAD 1 world conference opens in Geneva
• 1965 Gemini 3 launched, 1st US 2-man space flight (Grissom & Young)
• 1965 Moroccan army shoots on demonstrators, about 100 killed
• 1966 1st official meeting after 400 years of Catholic & Anglican Church

• 1968 Rev Walter Fauntroy, is 1st non-voting congressional delegate from DC
• 1969 Rally for Decency in Miami

• 1970 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
• 1971 Dutch 2nd Chamber accept simplified divorce
• 1971 USSR performs underground nuclear test
• 1972 Geoge Harrison and Friends' "The Concert for Bangladesh" concert film, directed by Saul Swimmer released in the US
• 1972 NY Yankees agree to continue playing ball in the Bronx
• 1973 After a 5½ year run soap "Love is a Many Splendored Thing" ends
• 1973 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

• 1974 AIAW Women's Basketball Tournament, Immaculata beat Mississippi College 68-53 in Manhattan, Kansas
• 1976 International Bill of Rights goes into effect (35 nations ratifying)

• 1978 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

• 1979 Wings release "Goodnight Tonight"

• 1980 AIAW Women's Basketball Tournament, Old Dominion beat Tennessee 68-53 at Mount Pleasant

• 1980 France performs nuclear test
• 1980 Nicaraguan National Literary Crusade begins: crusade teachers swear in plazas across the country to exterminate ignorance in just five months (will successfully reduce illiteracy from 50% to 12%) [1]
• 1981 US Supreme Court rules states could require, with some exceptions, parental notification when teen-age girls sought abortions
• 1981 US Supreme Court upholds law making statutory rape a crime only for men

• 1984 Andrea Schone skates ladies world record 3 km (4:20.91)
• 1984 Ice Pairs Championship at Ottawa won by Underhill & Paul Martini (CAN)

• 1985 Julian Lennon's 1st concert (San Antonio Texas)
• 1985 Space Shuttle Discovery moves to Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center (Florida) for mating of STS 51-D mission
• 1985 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

• 1987 Soap "Bold & Beautiful" premieres
• 1987 US offers military protection to Kuwaiti ships in the Persian Gulf
• 1988 Geffen Records releases "Chalk Mark In A Rain Storm", Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell's 13th studio album
• 1989 2 Utah scientists claim they have produced fusion at room temperature
• 1989 Joel Steinberg sentenced to 25 yrs for killing his adopted daughter
• 1990 Former Exxon Valdez Captain Joseph Hazelwood ordered to help clean up Prince William Sound & pay $50,000 in restitution for 1989 oil spill
• 1991 1st World League of American Football games, London beats Frankfurt 24-11, Sacramento beats Raleigh-Dur 9-3 & Mont beats Birmingham 20-5
• 1991 20 Tornadoes kill 5 in Tennessee
• 1991 Sergei Bubka pole vaults world record indoor (6.12m)
• 1992 Florida Marlins begin selling tickets
• 1993 Belgian government of Jean-Luc Dehaene resigns
• 1993 NY Knicks & Phoenix Suns get into a major brawl

• 1994 Graeme Obree bicycles world record 10 km (11:28)
• 1994 Green Ramp disaster: Mid-air collision of USAF F-16 fighter jet and USAF C-130 Hercules transport kills 24 and injures over 100 US Army paratroopers on the ground preparing for training at Pope AFB in Cumberland County, North Carolina

• 1994 Richard Jacobs buys naming rights to Indians new ball park at Gateway for $13.8 million (renamed Jacobs Field)
• 1994 Russian Airbus A-310 crashes in Siberia (74-75 killed)

• 1995 Dollar equals 88.41 yen (record)
• 1996 Taiwan holds its first direct elections and chooses Lee Teng-hui as President.

• 1999 Gunmen assassinate Paraguay's Vice President Luis María Argaña

• 2001 The Russian Mir space station is disposed of, breaking up in the atmosphere before falling into the southern Pacific Ocean near Fiji

• 2003 ICC Men's Cricket ODI World Cup, Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg, South Africa: Australia retain trophy with 125 run win over India; Player of the Match: Ricky Ponting (AUS) 140 no (121)

• 2004 Andhra Pradesh Federation of Trade Unions holds its first conference in Hyderabad, India

• 2005 Major explosion and fire at the BP's Texas City Refinery kills 15 workers in Texas City, Texas
• 2005 The United States 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision, refuses to order the reinsertion of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube
• 2006 The Federal Reserve discontinues publishing M3 money supply

• 2007 Burnley Tunnel catastrophe occurs in Melbourne, Australia
• 2007 Iranian Navy seize Royal Navy personnel in Iraqi waters

• 2012 African Union suspends Mali's membership following a coup
• 2013 20 people are killed and 200 are injured by a tornado in Brahmanbaria, Bangladesh
• 2013 Chris Sharma becomes the second person to climb a 9b+ (5.15c) route with his ascent of La Dura Dura in Oliana, Spain
• 2013 The US Senate approves its first budget in four years by a margin of 50–49
• 2013 Walt Disney Company launches premium cable Disney Junior channel, with 24-hour programming for the 2-7 year old audience

• 2018 A Sahara sandstorm turns snow in Sochi, Russia, orange in one of the largest-ever transfers of desert sand
• 2018 Peru's Congress swears in Vice-President Martín Vizcarra as the new President after Pedro Pablo Kuczynski resigned amid corruption scandal

• 2019 More than 1 million march to demand a new EU referendum in London, England
• 2019 More than 130 Fulani people killed in Ogossagou, Mali, in attack by Dogon hunters, prompting government ban on the hunters
• 2019 Syrian Democratic Forces announce that the last Islamic State territory has been retaken raising flags in Baghuz, Syria and ending the five-year Islamic State "caliphate"
• 2020 African American Daniel Prude dies after being physically retrained by police in Rochester, New York, including having a hood put over his head
• 2020 COVID-19 lockdowns imposed in South Africa and the United Kingdom while other European nations extend and strengthen their lockdowns

• 2020 New York confirmed as new center of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US with 20,875 cases (5,707 in the last day) and 157 deaths
• 2020 WHO says the COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating, 1st 100,000 cases took 67 days, 2nd 100,000 cases 11 days, 3rd 100,000 cases 4 days

• 2021 Cargo ship Ever Given gets stuck in the Suez Canal, Egypt, a 400m megaship it completely blocks the shipping canal

• 2022 Abel Prize, mathematics' Nobel equivalent, awarded to American Dennis Sullivan for his work on topography [1]

• Previous
• 1
• 2
• Next