July 23Birthdays & History

On this day: July 23 in history

Oldest first. Tap a year to see it on the World Chronicle timeline.

1. 685The election of Pope John V following the death of Pope Benedict II two months prior.Europe
2. 811Byzantine emperor Nikephoros I plunders the Bulgarian capital of Pliska and captures Khan Krum's treasury.Europe
3. 1319A Knights Hospitaller fleet scores a crushing victory over an Aydinid fleet off Chios.Middle EastEurope
4. 1632Three hundred colonists bound for New France depart from Dieppe, France.Europe
5. 1677Scanian War: Denmark–Norway captures the harbor town of Marstrand from Sweden.Europe
6. 1711The treaty of Pruth between the Ottoman and Russian Empire is signed.Middle EastEurope
7. 1793Kingdom of Prussia re-conquers Mainz from France.Europe
8. 1813Sir Thomas Maitland is appointed as the first Governor of Malta, transforming the island from a British protectorate to a de facto colony.Europe
9. 1821While the Mora Rebellion continues, Greeks capture Monemvasia Castle. Turkish troops and citizens are transferred to Asia Minor's coasts.Middle EastAsia
10. 1829In the United States, William Austin Burt patents the typographer, a precursor to the typewriter.North America
11. 1840The Province of Canada is created by the Act of Union.North America
12. 1862Begin of the Hyde Park Riots.Europe
13. 1862American Civil War: Henry Halleck becomes general-in-chief of the Union Army.North America
14. 1874Aires de Ornelas e Vasconcelos is appointed the Archbishop of the Portuguese colonial enclave of Goa, India.EuropeAsia
15. 1881The Boundary Treaty of 1881 between Chile and Argentina is signed in Buenos Aires.Latin America
16. 1900Pressed by expanding immigration, Canada closes its doors to paupers and criminals.North America
17. 1903The Ford Motor Company sells its first car.North America
18. 1906The Amsden Building collapse in Framingham, Massachusetts, U.S., claims 12 lives.North America
19. 1908The Second Constitution is accepted by the Ottomans.Middle East
20. 1914July Crisis: Austria-Hungary issues a series of demands in an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia demanding Serbia to allow the Austrians to determine who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Serbia accepts all but one of those demands and Austria declares war on July 28.Europe
21. 1919Prince Regent Aleksander Karađorđević signs the decree establishing the University of Ljubljana.Europe
22. 1921The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is established at the founding National Congress.AsiaNorth America
23. 1926Fox Film buys the patents of the Movietone sound system for recording sound onto film.North America
24. 1927The first station of the Indian Broadcasting Company goes on the air in Bombay.Asia
25. 1936In Catalonia, Spain, the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia is founded through the merger of Socialist and Communist parties.Europe
26. 1940The United States' Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles issues a declaration on the U.S. non-recognition policy of the Soviet annexation and incorporation of three Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.North AmericaEurope
27. 1942Bulgarian poet and communist activist Nikola Vaptsarov is executed by firing squad.Europe
28. 1942World War II: The German offensives Operation Edelweiss and Operation Braunschweig begin on the Eastern Front.Europe
29. 1943World War II: The British destroyers HMS Eclipse and HMS Laforey sink the Italian submarine Ascianghi in the Mediterranean after she torpedoes the cruiser HMS Newfoundland.EuropeNorth America
30. 1943The Rayleigh bath chair murder occurs in Rayleigh, Essex, England.Europe
31. 1945The post-war legal processes against Philippe Pétain, the former president of Vichy France begin.Europe
32. 1952General Muhammad Naguib leads the Free Officers Movement (formed by Gamal Abdel Nasser, the real power behind the coup) in overthrowing King Farouk of Egypt.Middle East
33. 1961The Sandinista National Liberation Front is founded in Nicaragua.Latin America
34. 1962Jackie Robinson becomes the first African American to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.AfricaNorth America
35. 1962Telstar relays the first publicly transmitted, live trans-Atlantic television program, featuring Walter Cronkite.North AmericaEurope
36. 1962The International Agreement on the Neutrality of Laos is signed.Asia
37. 1967Detroit Riots: In Detroit, one of the worst riots in United States history begins on 12th Street in the predominantly African American inner city. It ultimately kills 43 people, injures 342 and burns about 1,400 buildings.North AmericaAfrica
38. 1968The only successful hijacking of an El Al aircraft takes place when a Boeing 707 carrying ten crew and 38 passengers is taken over by three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The aircraft was en route from Rome, Italy to Lod, Israel.Middle EastEurope
39. 1968Glenville shootout: In Cleveland, Ohio, a violent shootout between a Black Militant organization and the Cleveland Police Department occurs. During the shootout, a riot begins and lasts for five days.North America
40. 1970Qaboos bin Said al Said becomes Sultan of Oman after overthrowing his father, Said bin Taimur initiating massive reforms, modernization programs and end to a decade long civil war.Middle East
41. 1972The United States launches Landsat 1, the first Earth-resources satellite.North America
42. 1974The Greek military junta collapses, and former Prime Minister Konstantinos Karamanlis is invited to lead the new government, beginning Greece's metapolitefsi era.Europe
43. 1980Phạm Tuân becomes the first Vietnamese citizen and the first Asian in space when he flies aboard the Soyuz 37 mission as an Intercosmos Research Cosmonaut.Asia
44. 1982Outside Santa Clarita, California, actor Vic Morrow and two children are killed when a helicopter crashes onto them while shooting a scene from Twilight Zone: The Movie.North America
45. 1983Thirteen Sri Lanka Army soldiers are killed after a deadly ambush by the militant Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.Asia
46. 1983Gimli Glider: Air Canada Flight 143 runs out of fuel and makes a deadstick landing at Gimli, Manitoba.North America
47. 1988General Ne Win, effective ruler of Burma since 1962, resigns after pro-democracy protests.Asia
48. 1992Abkhazia declares independence from Georgia.Europe
49. 1992A Vatican commission, led by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, establishes that limiting certain rights of homosexual people and non-married couples is not equivalent to discrimination on grounds of race or gender.Europe
50. 1993China Northwest Airlines Flight 2119 crashes during takeoff from Yinchuan Xihuayuan Airport in Yinchuan, Ningxia, China, killing 55 people.Asia
51. 1995Comet Hale–Bopp is discovered; it becomes visible to the naked eye on Earth nearly a year later.World
52. 1997Digital Equipment Corporation files antitrust charges against chipmaker Intel.North America
53. 1999Space Shuttle Columbia launches on STS-93, with Eileen Collins becoming the first female space shuttle commander. The shuttle also carried and deployed the Chandra X-ray Observatory.World
54. 1999ANA Flight 61 is hijacked in Tokyo, Japan by Yuji Nishizawa.Asia
55. 2001Megawati Sukarnoputri was sworn in as the first female president of Indonesia following her predecessor's impeachment.Asia
56. 2005Three bombs explode in the Naama Bay area of Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, killing 88 people.Middle East
57. 2010The English-Irish boy band One Direction were formed while auditioning for the 2010 series of the British singing competition The X Factor.Europe
58. 2011A high-speed train rear-ends another on a viaduct on the Yongtaiwen railway line in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, China, resulting in 40 deaths.Asia
59. 2012The Solar storm of 2012 was an unusually large coronal mass ejection that was emitted by the Sun which barely missed the Earth by nine days. If it hit, it would have caused up to US$2.6 trillion in damages to electrical equipment worldwide.North America
60. 2014TransAsia Airways Flight 222 crashes in Xixi village near Huxi, Penghu, during approach to Penghu Airport. Forty-eight of the 58 people on board are killed and five more people on the ground are injured.Asia
61. 2015NASA announces discovery of Kepler-452b by the Kepler space telescope.North America
62. 2018A wildfire in East Attica kills at least 102 people. It is the deadliest wildfire in the history of Greece.Europe

Source: Wikipedia "July 23" / CC BY-SA 4.0