Historical Events on October 23

Events 1 - 200 of 201

• 425 Valentinian III is elevated to Roman Emperor, at the age of 6
• 502 The Synodus Palmaris, called by Gothic king Theodoric the Great, discharges Pope Symmachus of all charges, thus ending the schism of Antipope Laurentius.
• 585 Burgundy king Guntram opens synod of Mâcon (Mastico)
• 787 Byzantine empress Irene recovers Iconoclastic cult at Nicaea
• 1086 Battle of az-Zallaqah: Almoravid army of Yusuf ibn Tashfin defeats the forces of Castilian King Alfonso VI
• 1091 Tornado (possible T8/F4) strikes the heart of London killing two and demolishing the wooden London Bridge (OS 17 Oct) [1]
• 1157 The Battle of Grathe Heath ends the civil war in Denmark. King Sweyn III is killed and Valdemar I restores the country.
• 1229 Otto II becomes earl of Gelre

• 1588 Remnants of Medina Sidonia's Spanish Armada returns to Santander, Spain
• 1641 Outbreak of the Irish Rebellion of 1641 - Catholic uprising in Ulster

• 1644 Sea battle of Fehmarn Sont: Adm Thijssen beats Denen
• 1668 Jews of Barbados forbidden to engage in retail trade

• 1690 Revolt in Haarlem after public ban on smoking
• 1694 American colonial forces, led by Sir William Phipps, fail to seize Quebec
• 1694 Siege of Spanish-held city of Ceuta on the north African coast begun by Moroccan forces - will be the longest siege in history lasting 26 years
• 1702 Battle of Bay of Vigo: Dutch & English fleet destroy & occupy Spanish silver fleet & French squadron

• 1760 First Jewish prayer books printed in North America
• 1790 Slaves revolt in Haiti (later suppressed)
• 1805 Sailing ship "Aeneus" sinks off Newfoundland killing 340

• 1813 The Pacific Fur Company trading post in Astoria, Oregon is turned over to the rival British North West Company (the fur trade in the Pacific Northwest was dominated for the next three decades by the United Kingdom).
• 1814 One of the first modern plastic surgeries in the west performed by Joseph Carpue on a soldier's nose in England using Indian techniques
• 1819 1st ship sails through the Erie Canal from Rome, New York to Utica, New York
• 1850 First US National Women's Rights convention opens in Brinley Hall, Worcester, Massachusetts
• 1853 Maastricht-Aken railway in Netherlands opens
• 1854 English newspaper "The Times" gives precise British positions in Crimea during Crimean War
• 1864 Battle of Westport, Missouri: Union General Samuel R Curtis defeats Confederate General Stirling Price
• 1867 72 Senators are summoned by Royal Proclamation to serve as the first members of the Canadian Senate.
• 1871 Replacement yacht Sappho (US) beats Livonia (UK) by 25:27 in race 5 to win 3rd America's Cup off Newport, RI 4-1; original defender Columbia damaged so misses races 4 & 5
• 1876 New Orleans Mint reopens as an assay office
• 1888 Pelham Bay Park in Bronx vested
• 1893 C. Dazey's "In Old Kentucky" premieres in NYC (27 seasons)
• 1905 Edward Milton Royle's play "Squaw Man" premieres in NYC
• 1910 Blanche Scott becomes the first woman to fly at a public event in the US at Fort Wayne, Indiana
• 1910 Ritz Hotel in Madrid opens with 200 chambers and 100 bathtubs

• 1915 1st national horseshoe throwing championship at Kellerton, Iowa

• 1917 1st Infantry division "Big Red One" shoots 1st US shot in WW I
• 1919 Orchestra Hall, designed by C. Howard Crane opens in Detroit, Michigan; home of the Detroit Symphony, 1919-39 and 1989 to present, also known as The Paradise Theater, featuring top jazz performers and films, 1941-51
• 1919 Romberg & Atteridge's musical "Passing Show" premieres in NYC
• 1920 African demonstrators shot in Port Elizabeth, South Africa
• 1921 Green Bay Packers play 1st APFA (forerunner to NFL) game; beat Minneapolis Marines, 7-6 at Hagemeister Park, Green Bay, WI

• 1922 Channing Pollock's play "Fool" premieres in NYC

• 1923 US patent is issued to American inventor Sebastian Hinton for playground climbing structure popularly known as 'monkey bars' (No, 1471465) [1]
• 1927 Town of Netanya, Israel founded by Nathan Strauss

• 1934 Jean Piccard & Jeanette Ridlen attain record balloon height of 10.9 miles (17.5 km) over Lake Erie
• 1935 American mobsters Dutch Schultz, Abe Landau, Otto Berman, and Bernard "Lulu" Rosencrantz are fatally shot by organized crime hitmen at a saloon in Newark, New Jersey, what becomes known as "The Chophouse Massacre" to prevent them from killing the US Attorney prosecuting Schultz for tax evasion, what becomes known as "The Chophouse Massacre"
• 1935 Chicago Cubs catcher Gabby Hartnett selected NL MVP

• 1942 All 12 passengers and crewmen aboard an American Airlines DC-3 airliner killed when it is struck by a U.S. Army Air Forces bomber near Palm Springs, California. Amongst the victims is composer Ralph Rainger ("Thanks for the Memory")
• 1942 During WWII, Britain launches major offensive at El Alamein, Egypt
• 1942 First ships of invasion fleet to Morocco leave Norfolk
• 1942 German units go through Red October factory in Stalingrad
• 1943 First Jewish transport out of Rome reaches extermination camp Birkenau
• 1944 Battle of Gulf of Leyte begins - largest naval battle of WWII near the Philippines
• 1944 First Central Kitchen opens in Amsterdam

• 1944 Soviet army invades Hungary
• 1944 Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita's flagship the heavy cruiser Atago sinks during the Battle of Leyte Gulf

• 1946 UN General Assembly 2nd session convenes (1st NYC-Flushing Meadows)
• 1947 Husband & wife Carl Cori & Gerty Cori are 1st spouses to be awarded joint Nobel Prizes for Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of the course of the catalytic conversion of glycogen" (alongside Bernardo Alberto Houssay)
• 1947 NAACP petition on racism "An Appeal to the World" presented to UN

• 1953 France grants Laos' sovereignty
• 1953 German FR applies to NATO
• 1953 WTRF TV channel 7 in Wheeling-Steubenville, WV (CBS) 1st broadcast
• 1954 Britain, France & US agree to end occupation of Germany
• 1954 Pakistan Governor-General Ghoelan Mohammed disbands parliament
• 1954 WSAU TV channel 7 in Wausau, WI (CBS) begins broadcasting
• 1955 Dominican Professional Baseball League moves to winter play for first time
• 1956 First video recording on magnetic tape televised coast-to-coast
• 1956 Thousands of Hungarians protest against the government and Soviet occupation. (The Hungarian Revolution is crushed on November 4).
• 1957 First test firing of Vanguard satellite launch vehicle, TV-3
• 1958 De Gaulle offers Algerians defiance "peace of the brave"

• 1958 The Springhill Mine Bump - underground earthquake traps 174 miners in No. 2 colliery at Springhill, Nova Scotia, deepest coal mine in North America. By 1st November rescuers had dug out 100 victims, with death toll at 74.
• 1959 Chinese troops move into India, 17 die
• 1961 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR

• 1962 USAF Major Robert A Rushworth takes X-15 to 40,800m
• 1962 WCIV TV channel 4 in Charleston, South Carolina (NBC) begins broadcasting

• 1964 Czech gymnast Věra Čáslavská wins the balance beam at the Tokyo Olympics; her 3rd gold medal of the Games with individual all-round and vault victories
• 1964 Dutch 10th dan judoka Anton Geesink wins Open gold medal in the first ever Olympic judo competition in Tokyo; prevents clean sweep of the gold medals by Japan

• 1964 Hungary beats Czechoslovakia 2-1 to win the men's football gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics
• 1964 Japan beats the Soviet Union 3-0 to claim the inaugural Olympic women's volleyball gold medal in Tokyo; undefeated in 6-team round robin competition
• 1964 Japanese gymnast Yukio Endo wins the parallel bars gold medal in the Tokyo Olympics; his 3rd gold medal of the Games (individual all-round and team); 4th career gold (1960, 64)

• 1964 Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia finish 8-1 in inaugural Olympic men's volleyball competition in Tokyo; Soviets win 10 team round robin on count back of sets won-lost
• 1964 Time Magazine uses term "op art" for 1st time
• 1966 Australian Jack Brabham is first to win F1 World Drivers Championship and International Cup for Constructors Championship in the same year; 2nd in season ending Mexican Grand Prix at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez
• 1967 NJ Americans (later NY/NJ Nets) play 1st ABA game
• 1968 American swimmer Kaye Hall sets a world record 1:06.2 to beat Canadian Elaine Tanner by 0.5s and win the 100m backstroke gold medal at the Mexico City Olympics
• 1970 Charles Haughey and two others are found not guilty of illegal arms importation by a Dublin jury; the 'Arms Trial' began on 28 May 1970
• 1970 Gary Gabelich sets auto speed record 622.4 mph (1,001 kph)
• 1971 Three Catholic civilians are shot dead by the British Army during an attempted robbery in Newry, County Down
• 1971 Two female members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) are shot dead by the British Army in the Lower Falls area of Belfast
• 1971 WXLT (now WWSB) TV channel 40 in Sarasota-Bradenton, FL (ABC) begins

• 1972 Access credit cards introduced in Great Britain
• 1972 Loyalist paramilitaries carry out raid on an Ulster Defence Regiment
• 1972 WNJS TV channel 23 in Camden, NJ (PBS) begins broadcasting

• 1973 Arab oil embargo extended to the Netherlands

• 1973 UN's revised International Telecommunication Convention adopted
• 1973 Yankee GM & President Lee MacPhail named AL president
• 1974 Chicago Cubs trade 6-time MLB All Star outfielder Billy Williams to Oakland A's for second baseman Manny Trillo and 2 pitchers
• 1974 Lake Isaac in Cleveland Metroparks' Big Creek Reservation dedicated
• 1975 Battle between Cuba & South Africa troops in Angola
• 1975 Islander Glenn Resch's 5th shut-out opponent-Flyers 3-0
• 1975 Women take the day off in Iceland to commemorate “International Women’s Year”, shutting the country down for a day

• 1977 Paleontologist Elso Barghoorn announces discovery of a 3.4-billion year old one-celled fossil, one of the earliest life forms on Earth
• 1977 Panamanians vote 2:1 to approve new Canal treaties
• 1978 CBS raises LP prices to $8.98
• 1978 China & Japan formally ends 4 decades of dissension

• 1981 US national debt hits $1 trillion
• 1983 400,000 demonstrate in Brussels, against cruise missile
• 1983 Suicide terrorist truck bomb kills 243 US personnel in Beirut
• 1984 Chicago Cubs Rick Sutcliffe, selected as a unanimous choice as NL Cy Young
• 1984 NBC airs BBC footage of Ethiopian famine
• 1984 STS 51-A launch vehicle moves to launch pad

• 1987 Dutch government gives Fokker's Aircraft Ÿ212 million credit
• 1987 France performs nuclear test at Mururoa atoll
• 1987 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
• 1987 US Senate rejects Robert Bork's nomination to the Supreme Court by a bipartisan vote of 58-42
• 1988 Boston Celtics play Spain in Madrid
• 1989 Browns' Bernie Kosar sets club record with a 97-yard TD pass

• 1989 Hungary proclaims itself a republic & declares communist rule ended
• 1989 US 62nd manned space mission STS 34 (Atlantis 5) returns from space
• 1989 William Nicholson's "Shadowlands" premieres in London
• 1990 Iraq announces release of 330 French hostages

• 1993 Paramilitia kills 22 demonstrators at Bijbihara in Indian-controlled Kashmir
• 1993 Seven people killed by IRA bomb attack in Belfast
• 1995 "The MacNeil-Lehrer Report" becomes "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer", upon Robert MacNeil's retirement (currently known as "PBS NewsHour") on PBS
• 1997 "Triumph of Love" opens at Royale Theater NYC
• 1997 At 6:11 AM San Francisco experiences a power blackout due to sabotage
• 1997 Dow Jones drops 186.88 pts
• 1997 Les Alexander, owner of Houston Rockets buys NHL's Edmonton Oilers

• 2000 "Monday Night Miracle", down 30-7 at the end of the third quarter, New York Jets pull together an improbable comeback with 4 touchdowns and a field goal in the fourth quarter, eventually defeating the Miami Dolphins 40-37 in overtime
• 2001 Apple releases the iPod
• 2001 The Provisional Irish Republican Army of Northern Ireland commences disarmament after peace talks
• 2002 Moscow Theatre Siege begins: Chechen rebels seize the House of Culture theater in Moscow and take approximately 700 theater-goers hostage
• 2004 A powerful earthquake and its aftershocks hit Niigata prefecture, northern Japan, killing 35 people, injuring 2,200, and leaving 85,000 homeless or evacuated.

• 2009 The UK markets had contracted by 0.4% in the third quarter against what was expected to be a period of growth, as a result of unexpectedly poor performance by the service sector
• 2009 The United Nations "Rotterdam Rules" convention regulating international maritime carriage of goods is ratified with its twentieth signature.
• 2011 7th Rugby World Cup Final, Eden Park, Auckland: Tournament favourites New Zealand edge France, 8-7; crowd 61,079
• 2011 A powerful 7.2 magnitude earthquake strikes Van Province, Turkey, killing 582 people and injuring thousands.

• 2012 12 people are killed and 40 are injured in a hospital fire in Tainan, Taiwan

• 2018 European Commission rejects Italy's budget, first country to be rejected

• 2018 Megyn Kelly is criticized after making comments supporting blackface on her NBC show
• 2018 Microplastics found in human stools for the first time by Austrian scientists

• 2018 World's oldest intact shipwreck, ancient Greek vessel 2,400 years old, found at bottom of the Black Sea by archaeologists

• 2019 Google research lab claims it has achieved Quantum Supremacy, performing calculation in 3 mins that wold take a supercomputer 10,000 years
• 2019 Hong Kong Legislative Council scraps the extradition bill that sparked months of protests and unrest
• 2019 Lorry containing 39 bodies of Vietnamese nationals found in Essex, England, man arrested for people smuggling and murder

• 2021 Capture of Colombia's most-wanted drug lord, Dairo Antonio Usuga 'Otoniel', in Colombia's Uraba region, announced live on TV [1]
• 2022 Brock Purdy plays against the Kansas City Chiefs, throwing for 66 yards and an interception
• 2022 Xi Jinping secures record third term as general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party with a new seven-member Politburo Standing Committee, at the 20th National Party Congress in Beijing [1]

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