23 May History


Month:                           Date:     

  • 1430    -    Burgundians capture Joan of Arc and sell her to the English.
  • 1533    -    Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon is declared null and void.
  • 1618    -    The Thirty Years War begins.
  • 1701    -    Captain William Kidd, the Scottish pirate, is hanged on the banks of the Thames.
  • 1785    -    Benjamin Franklin announces his invention of bifocals.
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  • 1788    -    South Carolina becomes the eighth state to ratify U.S. Constitution.
  • 1861    -    Pro-Union and pro-Confederate forces clash in western Virginia.
  • 1862    -    Confederate General "Stonewall" Jackson takes Front Royal, Virginia.
  • 1864    -    Union General Ulysses Grant attempts to outflank Confederate Robert E. Lee in the Battle of North Anna, Virginia.
  • 1900    -    Civil War hero Sgt. William H. Carney becomes the first African American to receive the Medal of Honor, thirty-seven years after the Battle of Fort Wagner.
  • 1901    -    American forces capture Filipino rebel leader Emilio Aguinaldo.
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  • 1915    -    Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary.
  • 1934    -    Gangsters Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow are killed by Texas Rangers.
  • 1945    -    Heinrich Himmler, the head of the Nazi Gestapo, commits suicide after being captured by Allied forces.
  • 1949    -    The Federal Republic of West Germany is proclaimed.
  • 1960    -    Israel announces the capture of Nazi Adolf Eichmann in Argentina.

  • 23 May Birthdays

  • 1707    -    Carolus Linnaeus [Carl von Linné], Swedish botanist.
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  • 1734    -    Friedrich Anton Mesmer, physician and hypnotist.
  • 1810    -    Margaret Fuller, writer and critic.
  • 1820    -    James Buchanan Eads, engineer of the Eads Bridge in St. Louis
  • 1875    -    Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., president and chairman of the board for General Motors.
  • 1891    -    Par Lagerkvist, Swedish writer (The Dwarf, Barabbas).
  • 1908    -    John Bardeen, physicist, co-inventor of the transistor.
  • 1910    -    Artie Shaw, bandleader and clarinetist.
  • 1920    -    Helen O'Connell, big band vocalist.
  • 1928    -    Rosemary Clooney, singer.
  • 1934    -    Robert A. Moog, electrical engineer, creator of the Moog synthesizer.
  • 1947    -    Jane Kenyon, poet (Let Evening Come, Otherwise).