April 23

April 23 is the 113th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (114th in leap years). There are 252 days remaining.

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Events

• 215 BC – A temple is built on the Capitoline Hill dedicated to Venus Erycina to commemorate the Roman defeat at Lake Trasimene.
• 1014 – Battle of Clontarf: Brian Boru defeats Viking invaders, but is killed in battle.
• 1348 – The founding of the Order of the Garter by King Edward III of England is announced on St George's Day.
• 1521 – Battle of Villalar: King Charles I of Spain defeats the Comuneros.
• 1533 – The Church of England annuls the marriage between Catherine of Aragon and Henry VIII of England.
• 1597 – Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor is first performed, with Queen Elizabeth I of England in attendance.
• 1660 – Treaty of Oliwa is established between Sweden and Poland.
• 1661 – King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland is crowned in Westminster Abbey.
• 1827 – William Rowan Hamilton presents his Theory of systems of rays.
• 1867 – William Lincoln patents the zoetrope, a machine which shows animated pictures by mounting a strip of drawings in a wheel.
• 1920 – The national council in Turkey denounces the government of Sultan Mehmed VI and announces a temporary constitution.
• 1923 – Inauguration ceremonies take place of Gdynia as a temporary military port and fishers' shelter.
• 1932 – The 153-year old De Adriaan Windmill in Haarlem, the Netherlands burns down.
• 1935 – Polish Constitution of 1935 is adopted.
• 1940 – A fire at a dance hall in Natchez, Mississippi kills 198 people.
• 1942 – World War II: Baedeker Blitz – German bombers hit Exeter, Bath and York in retaliation for the British raid on Lübeck.
• 1948 – 1948 Arab-Israeli War: Haifa, the major port of Israel, is captured from Palestinian forces.
• 1954 – Hank Aaron hits his first major league home run.
• 1956 – Elvis Presley makes his first appearance in Las Vegas, Nevada.
• 1968 – The United Kingdom produces its first decimalised coins, a 5p and a 10p coin.
• 1968  – Vietnam War: Student protesters at Columbia University in New York City take over administration buildings and shut down the university.
• 1974 – A Pan American World Airways Boeing 707 crashes in Bali, Indonesia, killing 107.
• 1979 – Fighting in London between the Anti-Nazi League and the Metropolitan Police's Special Patrol group results in the death of protestor Blair Peach.
• 1985 – New Coke, a marketing disaster is introduced.
• 1990 – Namibia becomes the 160th member of the United Nations and the 50th member of the British Commonwealth.
• 1993 – Eritreans vote overwhelmingly for independence from Ethiopia in a United Nations-monitored referendum.
• 1994 – Physicists discover the top quark subatomic particle.
• 1997 – Omaria massacre in Algeria; 42 villagers killed.
• 2001 – Intel introduces the Pentium 4 Processor.
• 2003 – Beijing closes all schools for two weeks due to the SARS virus.

Births

Prior to 1900

• 1185 – King Afonso II of Portugal (d. 1233)
• 1516 – Georg Fabricius, German poet, historian and archaeologist (d. 1571)
• 1564 – William Shakespeare, English playwright, actor; traditional birth date, Actual date unknown (d. 1616)
• 1598 – Maarten Tromp, admiral in the Dutch navy (d. 1653)
• 1676 – King Frederick I of Sweden (d. 1751)
• 1720 – The Vilna Gaon
• 1775 – William Turner, ornithologist (d. 1851)
• 1791 – James Buchanan, 15th President of the United States (d. 1868)
• 1792 – John Thomas Romney Robinson, Irish astronomer and physicist (d. 1882)
• 1805 – Johann Karl Friedrich Rosenkranz, German philosopher (d. 1879)
• 1813 – Stephen A. Douglas, Senator from Illinois, candidate for President of the United States (d. 1861)
• 1823 – Abd-ul-Mejid, future Ottoman sultan (d. 1861)
• 1858 – Max Planck, physicist and recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics 1918 (d. 1947)
• 1861 – Edmund Henry Hynman Allenby, British general (d. 1936)
• 1882 – Albert Coates, British composer (d. 1953)
• 1889 – Karel Doorman, Dutch admiral
• 1891 – Sergei Prokofiev, Soviet composer (d. 1953)
• 1893 – Allen Dulles, CIA director (d. 1969)
• 1893  – Frank Borzage, director (d. 1952)
• 1895 – Ngaio Marsh, New Zealand writer (d. 1982)
• 1897 – Lester B. Pearson, fourteenth Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1972)
• 1897 – Lucius Clay, American general (d. 1978)
• 1899 – Dame Ngaio Marsh, author (d. 1982)
• 1899  – Vladimir Nabokov, Russian-American author (d. 1977)

Since 1900

• 1900 – Joseph Green, Jewish actor/director
• 1901 – E.B. Ford British ecological geneticist (d. 1988)
• 1902 – Halldór Laxness, author (d. 1998)
• 1904 – Duncan Renaldo, Spanish-American actor (d. 1985)
• 1910 – Simone Simon, French actress (d. 2005)
• 1916 – Bud Wilkinson, American football coach (d. 1994)
• 1921 – Warren Spahn, Baseball Hall of Famer (d. 2003)
• 1921 – Janet Blair, American actress
• 1923 – Dolph Briscoe, former governor of Texas
• 1923  – Avram Davidson, science fiction writer (d. 1993)
• 1926 – Ruth Leuwerik, actress
• 1928 – Shirley Temple (Shirley Temple Black), American actress and politician
• 1932 – Halston, fashion designer (d. 1990)
• 1932 – Jim Fixx, American athlete, writer (d. 1984)
• 1932 – Estelle Harris, American actress
• 1935 – Bunky Green, jazz musician
• 1935 – Ray Peterson, American singer (d. 2005)
• 1936 – Roy Orbison, American singer and musician (d. 1988)
• 1939 – Lee Majors, actor
• 1939 – David Birney, American actor
• 1941 – Paavo Lipponen, Prime Minister of Finland
• 1941 – Jacqueline Boyer, French singer, Eurovision Song Contest winner
• 1942 – Sandra Dee, actress (d. 2005)
• 1943 – Hervé Villechaize, French actor (d. 1993)
• 1943 – Tony Esposito, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1947 – Christer Pettersson, suspected assassin of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme (d. 2004)
• 1947 – Bernadette Devlin, Northern Ireland politician
• 1949 – Joyce DeWitt, actress
• 1954 – Michael Moore, filmmaker
• 1955 – Judy Davis, actress
• 1955  – Tony Miles, chess player (d. 2001)
• 1960 – Steve Clark, Def Leppard guitarist
• 1960  – Valerie Bertinelli, actress
• 1961 – George Lopez, actor, comedian
• 1967 – Melina Kanakaredes, American actress
• 1968 – Timothy McVeigh, American terrorist (d. 2001)
• 1972 – Patricia Manterola, Mexican singer
• 1979 – Jaime King, actress
• 1983 – Daniela Hantuchova, Slovak tennis player

Deaths

•   303 – Saint George, Roman soldier and Christian martyr
•   725 – Wihtred, King of Kent
•   871 – Ethelred of Wessex
• 1014 – Brian Boru, High King of Ireland (killed in battle)
• 1016 – Ethelred II of England
• 1124 – King Alexander I of Scotland (b. 1078)
• 1616 – William Shakespeare, English writer and actor (b. 1564)
• 1616 – Miguel Cervantes, Spanish author (b. 1547)
• 1792 – Karl Friedrich Bahrdt, German theologian and adventurer (b. 1741)
• 1850 – William Wordsworth, English poet (b. 1770)
• 1889 – Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly, French writer (b. 1808)
• 1951 – Charles G. Dawes, Vice President of the United States (b. 1865)
• 1970 – Herb Shriner, American humorist, television host
• 1975 – William Hartnell, actor (b. 1908)
• 1979 – Blair Peach, anti-fascist (b. 1946)
• 1983 – Buster Crabbe, swimmer and actor (b. 1908)
• 1984 – Red Garland, American jazz pianist (b. 1923)
• 1985 – Sam Ervin, American politician
• 1986 – Jim Laker, cricketer (b. 1922)
• 1986 – Otto Preminger, film director (b. 1906)
• 1986 – Harold Arlen, American composer
• 1990 – Paulette Goddard, actress
• 1990 – Albert Salmi, American actor
• 1991 – Johnny Thunders, American musician
• 1991 – William Dozier, American actor, film producer
• 1992 – Satyajit Ray, Indian filmmaker (b. 1921)
• 1993 – César Chávez, American labor activist (b. 1927)
• 1995 – Howard Cosell, sports journalist (b. 1918)
• 1995 – John C. Stennis, U.S. Senator from Mississippi (b. 1904)
• 1996 – P. L. Travers, author (b. 1899)
• 1997 – Denis Compton, English cricketer (b. 1918)
• 1998 – James Earl Ray, assassin (b. 1928)
• 2002 – Linda Lovelace, film actress (b. 1949)
• 2003 – James H. Critchfield, American Central Intelligence agent (b. 1917)
• 2005 – Al Grassby, Australian immigration minister (b. 1928)
• 2005 – Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, Premier of Queensland, Australia (b. 1911)
• 2005 – Sir John Mills, English actor (b. 1908)
• 2005 – Romano Scarpa, comic artist (b. 1927)
• 2005 – Earl Wilson, Major League Baseball player (b. 1934)

Holidays and observances

• Feast Day of Saint George:
  • National Day of England
  • celebrated as St. Jordi's Day in Catalonia, presents of books and roses.
• Turkey – National Sovereignty and Children's Day (1920)
• Israel – Yom Ha'atzma'ut (Israeli Independence Day) for 2007: (the observed date of this national holiday is determined by the Jewish Calendar).
• Jurgi festival, in ancient Latvia
• Independence Day for the Conch Republic
• UNESCO International Day of the Book
• National Beer Day in Germany

External links

• BBC: On This Day

April 22 – April 24 – March 23 – May 23 – listing of all days