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Today August 23rd in history click read more below to view detail events, deaths, births, Holidays and observances, and video clips in hisotry. Please comments, last database updated: Jan 17th, 2009
Events
79 – Mount Vesuvius begins stirring, on the feast day of Vulcan, the Roman god of fire.
1305 – William Wallace, Scottish patriot, is executed for high treason by Edward I of England.
1328 – Battle of Cassel: French troops stop an uprising of Flemish farmers.
1514 – Battle of Chaldiran ended with a decisive victory for the Sultan Selim I, Ottoman Empire, over the Shah Ismail I, Safavids founder.
1541 – French explorer Jacques Cartier lands near Quebec City in his third voyage to Canada.
1555 – Calvinists are granted rights in the Netherlands.
1595 – Michael the Brave confronts the Ottoman army in the Battle of Calugareni.
1708 – Meidingnu Pamheiba is crowned King of Manipur.
1775 – King George III declares that the American colonies exist in a state of open and avowed rebellion.
1784 – Western North Carolina (now eastern Tennessee) declares itself an independent state under the name of Franklin; it wasn’t accepted into the United States, and only lasted for four years.
1793 – French Revolution: a levée en masse was decreed by the National Convention.
1799 – Napoleon leaves Egypt for France en route to seize power.
1813 – At the Battle of Grossbeeren, the Prussians under Von Bülow repulse the French army.
1839 – The United Kingdom captures Hong Kong as a base as it prepares to war with Qing China. The ensuing 3-year conflict will later be known as the First Opium War.
1864 – The Union Navy captures Fort Morgan, Alabama, thus breaking Confederate dominance of all ports on the Gulf of Mexico.
1866 – Austro-Prussian War ends with the Treaty of Prague.
1896 – First Cry of the Philippine Revolution is made in Pugad Lawin (Quezon City), in the province of Manila.
1904 – The automobile tire chain is patented.
1914 – World War I: Japan declares war on Germany and bombs Qingdao, China.
1914 – World War I: the Battle of Mons; the British Army begins withdrawal.
1923 – Capt. Lowell Smith and Lt. John P. Richter performed the first mid-air refueling on De Havilland DH-4B, setting an endurance flight record of 37 hours.
1927 – Sacco and Vanzetti are executed.
1929 – Hebron Massacre: Arab attack of the Jewish community in the British Mandate of Palestine resulted in 133 Jews killed, 67 in Hebron.
1939 – World War II: Germany and the Soviet Union sign a non-aggression treaty, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. In a secret addition to the pact, the Baltic states, Finland, Romania, and Poland are divided between the two nations.
1942 – World War II: Beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad.
1942 – World War II: The last cavalry charge in history takes place at Izbushensky.
1943 – World War II: Kharkov liberated.
1944 – World War II: Marseille liberated.
1944 – World War II King Michael of Romania dismisses the pro-Nazi government of General Antonescu, who is arrested. Romania switches sides from the Axis to the Allies.
1944 – Freckleton Air Disaster – A United States Army Air Forces B-24 Liberator bomber crashes into a school in Freckleton, England killing 61 people.
1946 – Ordinance No. 46 of the British Military Government constitutes the German Land (state) of Schleswig-Holstein.
1948 – World Council of Churches is formed.
1952 – The Arab League is formed.
1954 – First flight of the C-130 Hercules transport aircraft.
1958 – Chinese Civil War: The Second Taiwan Strait crisis begins with the People s Liberation Army s bombardment of Quemoy.
1966 – Lunar Orbiter 1 takes the first photograph of Earth from orbit around the Moon.
1975 – Successful Communist coup in Laos.
1977 – The Gossamer Condor wins the Kremer prize for human powered flight.
1979 – Soviet dancer Alexander Godunov defects to the United States.
1982 – Bachir Gemayel is elected Lebanese President amidst the raging civil war.
1985 – Hans Tiedge, top counter-spy of West Germany, defects to East Germany.
1989 – Singing Revolution: two million people from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania stand on the Vilnius-Tallinn road, holding hands (Baltic Way).
1989 – All of Australia s 1,645 domestic airline pilots resign after the airlines threaten to fire them and sue them over a dispute.
1990 – Saddam Hussein appears on Iraqi state television with a number of Western guests (actually hostages) to try to prevent the Gulf War.
1990 – Armenia declares its independence from the Soviet Union.
1990 – West Germany and East Germany announce that they will unite on October 3.
1996 – Osama bin Laden issues message entitled A declaration of war against the Americans occupying the land of the two holy places.
2000 – A Gulf Air Airbus A320 crashes into the Persian Gulf near Manama, Bahrain, killing 143.
2000 – Nicaragua becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty. This essentially deprecated the Buenos Aires Convention treaty, because as of this date, all members of the BA Convention were also signatories to Berne.
2005 – TANS Peru Flight 204 crashes near Pucallpa, Peru, killing 41.
2006 – Natascha Kampusch, who was abducted at the age of 10, managed to escape from her captor Wolfgang Priklopil, after 8 years of captivity.
Births
686 – Charles Martel, grandfather of Charlemagne (d. 741)
1486 – Sigismund von Herberstein, Austrian diplomat and historian (d. 1566)
1524 – François Hotman, French lawyer and writer (d. 1590)
1623 – Stanislaw Lubieniecki, Polish astronomer (d. 1675)
1724 – Abraham Yates, American Continental Congressman (d. 1796)
1741 – Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse, French explorer (d. 1788)
1754 – King Louis XVI of France (d. 1793)
1769 – Georges Cuvier, French biologist and statesman (d. 1832)
1783 – William Tierney Clark, English civil engineer (d. 1852)
1785 – Oliver Hazard Perry, American naval officer (d. 1819)
1805 – Anton von Schmerling, Austrian statesman (d. 1893)
1814 – James Roosevelt Bayley, American religious leader (d. 1877)
1829 – Moritz Cantor, German mathematician (d. 1920)
1836 – Marie Henriette of Austria, Queen of the Belgians (d. 1902)
1843 – William Southam, Canadian newspaper publisher (d. 1932)
1846 – Alexander Milne Calder, American sculptor (d. 1923)
1847 – Sarah Frances Whiting, American physicist and astronomer (d. 1927)
1849 – William Ernest Henley, British poet, critic, and editor (d. 1903)
1852 – Arnold Toynbee, English economist and social reformer (d. 1883)
1852 – Clímaco Calderón, President of Colombia. (d. 1913)
1854 – Moritz Moszkowski, Polish/German composer (d. 1925)
1864 – Eleftherios Venizelos, Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1936)
1868 – Edgar Lee Masters, American author (d. 1950)
1875 – William Eccles, English radio pioneer (d. 1966)
1875 – Eugene Lanceray, Russian artist (d. 1946)
1880 – Alexander Grin, Russian writer (d. 1932)
1883 – Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright IV, American general (d. 1953)
1884 – Will Cuppy, American humorist (d. 1949)
1884 – Ogden L. Mills, American Secretary of the Treasury (d. 1937)
1900 – Ernst Krenek, Austrian-born composer (d. 1991)
1900 – Malvina Reynolds, American folk singer/songwriter (d. 1978)
1901 – John Sherman Cooper, American politician (d. 1991)
1903 – William Primrose, Scottish violist (d. 1982)
1905 – Constant Lambert, British composer (d. 1951)
1908 – Hannah Frank, Scottish artist
1909 – Syd Buller, English cricketer (d. 1970)
1910 – Giuseppe Meazza, Italian footballer (d. 1979)
1911 – Birger Ruud, Norwegian ski-jumper (d. 1998)
1912 – Gene Kelly, American dancer and actor (d. 1996)
1917 – Tex Williams, American singer (d. 1985)
1919 – Vladimir Abramovich Rokhlin, Russian mathematician (d. 1984)
1921 – Kenneth Arrow, American economist, Bank of Sweden Prize winner
1921 – Sam Cook, England cricketer (d. 1996)
1922 – George Kell, American baseball player
1922 – Jean Darling, American child actress
1922 – Pierre Gauvreau, Quebec painter, television writer and producer
1923 – Edgar F. Codd, English computer scientist (d. 2003)
1924 – Ephraim Kishon, Israeli writer (d. 2005)
1924 – Robert Solow, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
1925 – Robert Mulligan, American movie and television director
1926 – Clifford Geertz, American anthropologist, (d. 2006)
1927 – Dick Bruna, Dutch illustrator
1928 – Marian Seldes, American actress
1929 – Vera Miles, American actress
1930 – Michel Rocard, French politician
1931 – Hamilton O. Smith, American microbiologist, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
1932 – Houari Boumedienne, President of Algeria (d. 1978)
1932 – Mark Russell, American comedian and political commentator
1933 – Robert Curl, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
1933 – Pete Wilson, American politician
1934 – Barbara Eden, American actress and singer
1934 – Sonny Jurgensen, American football player
1936 – Henry Lee Lucas, American serial killer (d. 2001)
1943 – Nelson DeMille, American novelist
1944 – Antonia Novello, former United States Surgeon General
1945 – Rayfield Wright, American football player
1946 – Keith Moon, English musician (The Who) (d. 1978)
1947 – Willy Russell, British playwright
1947 – David Robb, British actor
1948 – Andrei Plesu, Romanian writer, essayist
1948 – Daniel Ruettiger, American motivational speaker
1949 – Katiana Balanika, Greek actress and singer
1949 – Geoff Capes, English strongman
1949 – Shelley Long, American actress
1949 – Rick Springfield, Australian singer and actor
1951 – Akhmad Kadyrov, President of Chechnya (d. 2004)
1951 – Queen Noor of Jordan
1951 – Jimi Jamison, American singer (Survivor)
1952 – Vicky Leandros, Greek singer and politician
1953 – Bobby G, British singer (Bucks Fizz)
1954 – Charles Busch, American director, writer, actor and drag queen
1956 – Andreas Floer, German mathematician (d. 1991)
1956 – Valgerd Svarstad Haugland, Norwegian politician
1956 – Skipp Sudduth, American actor
1957 – Tasos Mitropoulos, Greek footballer and politician
1958 – Julio Franco, Dominican baseball player
1959 – George Kalovelonis, Greek tennis player
1960 – Rodney Alan Greenblat, American graphic artist
1960 – Chris Potter, Canadian actor
1961 – Dean DeLeo, American musician (Stone Temple Pilots)
1961 – Gary Mabbutt, English footballer
1962 – Martin Cauchon, Canadian politician
1963 – Hans-Henning Fastrich, German field hockey player
1963 – Kenny Wallace, American race car driver
1963 – Park Chan-wook, Korean director and screenwriter
1963 – Richard Illingworth, England cricketer
1964 – Johan Bruyneel, Belgian cyclist
1964 – Kong Hee, Singaporean pastor
1964 – Yoshikazu Taru, Japanese professional wrestler
1965 – Roger Avary, Canadian screenwriter, director, and producer
1966 – Rik Smits, Dutch-American basketball player
1967 – Richard Petrie, New Zealand cricketer
1968 – Chris DiMarco, American golfer
1969 – Keith Tyson, English artist
1969 – Jeremy Schaap, American sportswriter
1969 – Geneviève Brouillette, Quebec television and film actress
1970 – Jay Mohr, American actor and comedian
1970 – River Phoenix, American actor (d. 1993)
1970 – Lawrence Frank, American head coach
1970 – Brad Mehldau, American pianist
1971 – Demetrio Albertini, Italian footballer
1971 – BoneCrusher, American rapper
1972 – Martin Grainger, English footballer
1972 – Raul Casanova, Puerto Rican baseball player
1972 – Mark Butcher, England cricketer
1973 – Casey Blake, American baseball player
1973 – Kerry Walmsley, New Zealand cricketer
1973 – Malaika Arora Khan, Indian actress and model
1974 – Ray Park, Scottish actor
1974 – Shifty, American musician (Crazy Town)
1974 – Benjamin Limo, Kenyan runner
1974 – Christian Beranek, American graphic novelist and actor
1975 – Eliza Carthy, English singer and fiddler
1975 – Jarkko Ruutu, Finnish ice hockey player
1976 – Scott Caan, American actor
1977 – Douglas Sequeira, Costa Rican footballer
1978 – Kobe Bryant, American basketball player
1978 – Julian Casablancas, American musician
1979 – Edgar Sosa, Mexican boxer
1979 – Ritchie Neville, British musician
1980 – Denny Bautista, Dominican baseball player
1980 – Rex Grossman, American football player
1981 – Ozzy Lusth, American Survivor contestant
1981 – Stephan Loboué, Ivorian footballer
1981 – Carmen Luvana, American pornographic actress.
1981 – Carlos Cuéllar, Spanish footballer
1982 – Natalie Coughlin, American swimmer
1982 – YTCracker, American musician
1982 – Scott Palguta, American soccer player
1982 – Erin Foster, American-born Canadian actress
1983 – Sun Ming Ming, Chinese basketball player
1984 – Glen Johnson, English footballer
1986 – Neil Cicierega, American cartoonist and musician
1986 – Josh Morris and Brett Morris, Australian rugby players
1987 – Nikki Gil, Filipina actress and host
1988 – Daniel Schwaab, German footballer
Deaths
93 – Gnaeus Julius Agricola, Roman Governor of Britain (b. 40)
634 – Abu Bakr, Arabian caliph
1106 – Magnus, Duke of Saxony
1176 – Emperor Rokujo of Japan (b. 1164)
1305 – William Wallace, Scottish patriot
1387 – King Olav IV of Norway (b. 1370)
1507 – Jean Molinet, French writer (b. 1435)
1519 – Philibert Berthelier, Swiss patriot
1540 – Guillaume Budé, French scholar
1591 – Luis Ponce de León, Spanish poet and mystic (b. 1527)
1618 – Gerbrand Adriaensz Bredero, Dutch writer (b. 1585)
1628 – George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, English statesman (b. 1592)
1652 – John Byron, 1st Baron Byron, English royalist politician (b. 1600)
1706 – Colonel Edward Nott, Esq., British Crown Governor of Virginia (b. 1654)
1723 – Increase Mather, New England Puritan minister (b. 1639)
1806 – Charles Augustin de Coulomb, French physicist (b. 1736)
1813 – Alexander Wilson, Scottish-born ornithologist (b. 1766)
1819 – Oliver Hazard Perry, American naval officer (b. 1785)
1853 – Alexander Calder, first mayor of Beaumont, Texas (b. 1806)
1867 – Auguste-Marseille Barthélemy, French poet (b. 1796)
1892 – Deodoro da Fonseca, 1st President of Brazil (b. 1827)
1926 – Rudolph Valentino, Italian actor (b. 1895)
1927 – Nicola Sacco, Italian anarchist (b. 1891)
1927 – Bartolomeo Vanzetti, Italian anarchist (b. 1888)
1937 – Albert Roussel, French composer (b. 1869)
1955 – Reginald Tate, British actor (b. 1896)
1960 – Oscar Hammerstein II, American lyricist (b. 1895)
1962 – Walter Anderson, German folklorist (b. 1885)
1962 – Hoot Gibson, American actor (b. 1892)
1963 – Glen Gray, American jazz musician and leader of the Casa Loma Orchestra (b. 1900)
1966 – Francis X. Bushman, American actor (b. 1883)
1967 – Georges Berger, Belgian racing driver (b. 1918)
1971 – The original Shamu, Sea World orca
1974 – Roberto Assagioli, Italian psychiatrist (b. 1888)
1977 – Naum Gabo, Russian artist (b. 1890)
1982 – Stanford Moore, American biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1913)
1987 – Didier Pironi, French racing car driver (b. 1952)
1989 – Mohammed Abed Elhai, Sudanese writer and academic (b. 1944)
1989 – R. D. Laing, Scottish psychiatrist (b. 1927)
1990 – David Rose, American composer and orchestra leader (b. 1910)
1995 – Dwayne Goettel, Canadian musician (Skinny Puppy)(b. 1964)
1997 – John Kendrew, British molecular biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (b. 1917)
1999 – Norman Wexler, American screenwriter (b. 1926)
1999 – James White, Northern Irish writer (b. 1928)
2000 – John Anthony Kaiser, Roman Catholic priest (b. 1932)
2001 – Kathleen Freeman, American actress (b. 1919)
2001 – Peter Maas, American novelist (b. 1929)
2002 – Hoyt Wilhelm, American baseball player (b. 1922)
2003 – Bobby Bonds, American baseball player and manager (b. 1946)
2003 – Jack Dyer, Australian rules footballer (b. 1913)
2003 – John Geoghan, American Catholic priest (b. 1935)
2005 – Brock Peters, American actor (b. 1927)
2005 – Ninjalicious, Canadian author and urban explorer (b. 1973)
2006 – Maynard Ferguson, Canadian jazz trumpeter and bandleader (b. 1928)
2007 – Robert Symonds, American actor (b. 1926)
2008 – John Russell, British-born American art critic and author (b. 1919)
Holidays and observances
Roman festivals – Vulcanalia.
RC Saints – Saint Rose of Lima, Philip Benitius
Romania – Liberation Day (1944).
Swaziland – Umhlanga Day.
Ukraine – Flag Day.
International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition
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