SomeFacts | February 23

On this day - February 23

303 — Roman emperor Diocletian orders the destruction of the ...

532 — Byzantine emperor Justinian I lays the foundation stone of a ...

628 — Khosrow II, Shahanshah of the Sasanian Empire, is overthrown.

705 — Empress Wu Zetian abdicates the throne, restoring the Tang ...

1455 — Traditionally the date of publication of the Gutenberg Bible, ...

1725 — J. S. Bach leads his Tafel-Music Shepherd Cantata for the ...

1763 — Berbice slave uprising in Guyana: The first major slave revolt ...

1778 — American Revolutionary War: Baron von Steuben arrives at ...

1820 — Cato Street Conspiracy: A plot to murder all the British ...

1836 — Texas Revolution: The Siege of the Alamo (prelude to the ...

1847 — Mexican–American War: Battle of Buena Vista: In Mexico, ...

1854 — The official independence of the Orange Free State, South ...

1861 — President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrives secretly in ...

1870 — Reconstruction Era: Post-U.S. Civil War military control of ...

1883 — Alabama becomes the first U.S. state to enact an anti-trust ...

1885 — Sino-French War: French Army gains an important victory in the ...

1886 — Charles Martin Hall produced the first samples of aluminium ...

1887 — The French Riviera is hit by a large earthquake, killing ...

1898 — Émile Zola is imprisoned in France after writing ...

1900 — Second Boer War: During the Battle of the Tugela Heights, the ...

1903 — Cuba leases Guantánamo Bay to the United States "in ...

1905 — Chicago attorney Paul Harris and three other businessmen meet ...

1909 — The AEA Silver Dart makes the first powered flight in Canada ...

1917 — First demonstrations in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The ...

1927 — German theoretical physicist Werner Heisenberg writes a letter ...

1927 — U.S. President Calvin Coolidge signs a bill by Congress ...

1934 — Leopold III becomes King of Belgium.

1941 — Plutonium is first produced and isolated by Dr. Glenn T. ...

1942 — World War II: Japanese submarines fire artillery shells at the ...

1943 — Greek Resistance: The United Panhellenic Organization of Youth ...

1943 — The Cavan Orphanage fire kills thirty-five girls and an ...

1944 — The Soviet Union begins the forced deportation of the Chechen ...

1945 — American Airlines Flight 009 crashes near Rural Retreat, ...

1945 — World War II: The German town of Pforzheim is annihilated in a ...

1945 — World War II: Capitulation of German garrison in Poznań. The ...

1945 — World War II: The capital of the Philippines, Manila, is ...

1945 — World War II: The 11th Airborne Division, with Filipino ...

1945 — World War II: During the Battle of Iwo Jima, a group of United ...

1947 — International Organization for Standardization is founded.

1950 — General elections are held in the United Kingdom.

1954 — The first mass inoculation of children against polio with the ...

1958 — Five-time Argentine Formula One champion Juan Manuel Fangio is ...

1966 — In Syria, Ba'ath Party member Salah Jadid leads an ...

1971 — Operation Lam Son 719: South Vietnamese General Do Cao Tri was ...

1974 — The Symbionese Liberation Army demands $4 million more to ...

1980 — Iran hostage crisis: Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah ...

1981 — In Spain, Antonio Tejero attempts a coup d'état by ...

1983 — The United States Environmental Protection Agency announces ...

1987 — Supernova 1987a is seen in the Large Magellanic Cloud.

1988 — Saddam Hussein begins the Anfal genocide against Kurds and ...

1991 — In Thailand, General Sunthorn Kongsompong leads a bloodless ...

1998 — In the United States, tornadoes in central Florida destroy or ...

1999 — An avalanche buries the town of Galtür, Austria, killing 31.

1999 — Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Öcalan is charged with treason ...

2002 — An Ariane 4 rocket is launched from the Guiana Space Centre ...

2007 — A train derails on an evening express service near Grayrigg, ...

2008 — The Japanese WINDS satellite is launched.

2008 — A United States Air Force B-2 Spirit bomber crashes on Guam, ...

2010 — Unknown criminals pour more than 2+1⁄2 million liters of ...

2012 — A series of attacks across Iraq leave at least 83 killed and ...

2017 — The Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army captures Al-Bab from ISIL.

2018 — Parliamentary elections are held in Djibouti.

2019 — Atlas Air Flight 3591, a Boeing 767 freighter, crashes into ...

2020 — Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old African-American citizen, is shot ...

2021 — Four simultaneous prison riots leave at least 62 people dead ...

2025 — A snap election is held in Germany.