23 July History
- 1540 - Thomas Cromwell is beheaded on Tower Hill in England.
- 1627 - Sir George Calvert arrives in Newfoundland to develop his land grant.
- 1637 - King Charles of England hands over the American colony of Massachusetts to Sir Fernando Gorges, one of the founders of the Council of New England.
- 1664 - Wealthy, non-church members in Massachusetts are given the right to vote.
- 1793 - The French garrison at Mainz, Germany, falls to the Prussians.
- 1803 - Irish patriots throughout the country rebel against Union with Great Britain.
- 1829 - William A. Burt patents his "typographer," an early typewriter.
- 1849 - German rebels in Baden capitulate to the Prussians.
- 1863 - Bill Andeson and his Confederate Bushwackers gut the railway station at Renick, Missouri.
- 1865 - William Booth founds the Salvation Army.
- 1868 - The 14th Amendment is ratified, granting citizenship to African Americans.
- 1885 - Ulysses S. Grant dies of throat cancer at the age of 63.
- 1894 - Japanese troops take over the Korean imperial palace.
- 1903 - The Ford Motor Company sells its first automobile, the Model A.
- 1944 - Soviet troops take Lublin, Poland as the German army retreats.
- 1962 - The Geneva Conference on Laos forbids the United States to invade eastern Laos.
- 1995 - Two astronomers, Alan Hale in New Mexico and Thomas Bopp in Arizona, almost simultaneouly discover a comet.
23 July Birthdays
- 1834 - James Gibbons, American religious leader and founder of Catholic University.
- 1886 - Arthur Whitten Brown, British aviator.
- 1888 - Raymond Chandler, detective writer, creator of Philip Marlow.
- 1891 - Haile Selassi, Emperor of Ethiopia.
- 1906 - Marston Bates, American zoologist, author (The Nature of Natural History).
- 1939 - Nicholas Gage, journalist and author (Eleni).
- 1940 - John Nichols, novelist and essayist (The Milagro Beanfield War).
- 1944 - Lisa Alther, novelist (Kinflicks).