23 April History


Month:                           Date:     

  • 1348    -    The first English order of knighthood is founded.
  • 1500    -    Pedro Cabal claims Brazil for Portugal.
  • 1521    -    The Comuneros are crushed by royalist troops in Spain.
  • 1661    -    Charles II is formally crowned king, returning the monarchy to Britain, albeit with greatly reduced powers.
  • 1759    -    British forces seize Basse-Terre and Guadeloupe from France.
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  • 1789    -    President George Washington moves into Franklin House, New York.
  • 1826    -    Missolonghi falls to Egyptian forces.
  • 1856    -    Free Stater J.N. Mace in Westport, Kansas shoots pro-slavery sheriff Samuel Jones in the back.
  • 1865    -    Union cavalry units continue to skirmish with Confederate forces in Henderson, North Carolina and Munsford Station, Alalbama.
  • 1895    -    Russia, France, and Germany force Japan to return the Liaodong peninsula to China.
  • 1896    -    Motion pictures premiere in New York City.
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  • 1915    -    The ACA becomes the National Advisory Council on Aeronautics (NACA), the forerunner of NASA.
  • 1920    -    The Turkish Grand National Assembly has first meeting in Ankara.
  • 1924    -    The U.S. Senate passes the Soldiers' Bonus Bill.
  • 1945    -    The Soviet Army fights its way into Berlin.
  • 1950    -    Chiang Kai-shek evacuates Hainan, leaving mainland China to Mao Zedong and the communists.
  • 1954    -    The Army-McCarthy hearings begin.
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  • 1966    -    President Lyndon Johnson publicly appeals for more nations to come to the aid of South Vietnam.
  • 1969    -    Sirhan Sirhan is sentenced to death for killing Senator Robert Kennedy.
  • 1971    -    The Soviet Union launches Soyuz 10, becoming the first in Salyut 1 space station.

  • 23 April Birthdays

  • 1547    -    Miguel de Cervantes, Spanish author (Don Quixote).
  • 1564    -    William Shakespeare, English playwright and poet.
  • 1791    -    James Buchanan, 15th President of the United States (1857-1861).
  • 1813    -    Stephen A. Douglas, American politician.
  • 1897    -    Lucius D. Clay, U.S. military governor of occupied Berlin.
  • 1902    -    Halldór Laxness, Nobel Prize-winning Icelandic novelist (The Fish Can Sing, Paradise Reclaimed).
  • 1926    -    J.P. Donlevey, American-born Irish writer (The Ginger Man).
  • 1926    -    Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, Mercury and Gemini astronaut, died in an accident on Apollo 1.
  • 1928    -    Shirley Temple Black, child actress, later U.S. ambassador.
  • 1932    -    Jim Fixx, runner and writer who popularized running as a form of exercise in the 1970s.