On this day: 23 January
Events, births and deaths on 23 January. Every date is checked against Wikidata.
Years ago today
1 year ago2025
Nothing recorded for that year.
10 years ago2016
Nothing recorded for that year.
100 years ago1926
- Births · Bal Thackeray
1000 years ago1026
Within 100 years of that
- 1002 · Deaths · Otto III
- 989 · Deaths · Adalberon
Events · 23
- 1264(Julian date)Mise of Amiens — 1264 settlement between King Henry III of England and Simon de Montfort
- 1556(Julian date)1556 Shaanxi earthquake — Magnitude 8 Earthquake (23 Janaury 1556) in Shaanxi, China; regarded as deadliest earthquake in recorded history
- 1576(Julian date)Roman Catholic Diocese of Macau — diocese of the Catholic Church in China
- 1579(Julian date)Union of Utrecht — treaty signed in Utrecht, unifying the northern provinces of the Netherlands, until then under the control of Habsburg Spain
- 1789Georgetown University — private university in Washington, D.C., United States
- 1793Second Partition of Poland — 1793 division of Poland
- 1795Capture of the Dutch fleet at Den Helder — battle where French forces captured Dutch ships using cavalry
- 1870Marias Massacre — 1870 massacre
- 1899First Philippine Republic — self-proclaimed independent republic, 1899–1901
- 1900Battle of Spion Kop — 1900 battle of the Second Boer War
- 1904Ålesund Fire — 1904 fire which destroyed Ålesund, Norway
- 1909Tottenham Outrage — Armed robbery in London
- 1912International Opium Convention — 1912 document which became the first international drug control treaty
- 1942New Guinea campaign — 1942 to 1945 campaign of the Pacific Theater of World War II
- 1942Battle of Rabaul — 1942 battle
- 19581958 Venezuelan coup d'état — overthrow of Venezuelan dictator Marcos Pérez Jiménez
- 1963Guinea-Bissau War of Independence — 1963-1974 armed conflict in Portuguese Guinea
- 1967Milton Keynes — city in Buckinghamshire, England, United Kingdom
- 1982World Airways Flight 30 — 1982 aviation accident
- 2001Tiananmen Square self-immolation incident — 2001 incident in China
- 20182018 Gulf of Alaska earthquake — 2018 earthquake in the Gulf of Alaska.
- 2020COVID-19 lockdown in China — Chinese quarantine effort in Hubei Province in response to the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak
- 2022January 2022 Burkina Faso coup d'état — 2022 coup d'état in Burkina Faso
Births · 60
- 1350(Julian date)Vincent Ferrer — Spanish Dominican preacher and saint (1350–1419)
- 1688Ulrika Eleonora I of Sweden — queen regnant of Sweden from 1718 to 1720 (1688–1741)
- 1734Wolfgang von Kempelen — Austrian dramatic, graphic, constructer, linguist, painter, writer, inventor and nobleman (1734-1804)
- 1737John Hancock — American Patriot and statesman during the American Revolution (1737–1793)
- 1752Muzio Clementi — Italian-born English composer, pianist, pedagogue, conductor, music publisher, editor, and piano manufacturer
- 1783Stendhal — French writer (1783–1842)
- 1813Camilla Collett — Norwegian author and women's rights activist
- 1828Saigō Takamori — samurai of the Satsuma domain, supreme commander of Japanese army, one of the three great nobles who led the Meiji Restoration (1828-1877)
- 1832Édouard Manet — French painter (1832–1883)
- 1840Ernst Abbe — German physicist (1840-1905)
- 1855John Browning — firearms designer of the United States (1855-1926)
- 1857Andrija Mohorovičić — Croatian seismologist (1857–1936)
- 1862David Hilbert — German mathematician (1862–1943)
- 1872Paul Langevin — French physicist, philosopher of science and pedagogue (1872-1946)
- 1872Jože Plečnik — Slovenian architect
- 1876Otto Diels — German chemist (1876–1954)
- 1897Subhas Chandra Bose — Indian nationalist leader (1897-1945)
- 1898Randolph Scott — American actor (1898–1987)
- 1907
- 1910Django Reinhardt — Romani-Belgian /French jazz musician (1910–1953)
- 1915Arthur Lewis — Saint Lucian economist (1915–1991)
- 1918Gertrude B. Elion — American biochemist and pharmacologist (1918–1999)
- 1919Bob Paisley — English footballer and manager (1919–1996)
- 1920Gottfried Böhm — German architect (1920-2021)
- 1926Bal Thackeray — Indian politician (1926-2012)
Deaths · 60
- 667(Julian date)Ildephonsus of Toledo — scholar and theologian
- 1002Otto III — Holy Roman Emperor from 996 to 1002
- 1199Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur — Ruler of the Almohad Caliphate from 1184 to 1199
- 1252(Julian date)Isabella I, Queen of Armenia — queen regnant of Cilician Armenia
- 1423Margaret of Bavaria — Regent of the Burgundian low countries (1363-1423)
- 1516(Julian date)Ferdinand II of Aragon — King of Aragon, Sicily, Naples, and Valencia (1452-1516)
- 1567(Julian date)Jiajing Emperor of Ming — Emperor of the Ming dynasty from 1521 to 1567
- 1570(Julian date)James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray — regent of Scotland, natural son of James V, king of Scots (1531-1570)
- 1622William Baffin — British explorer
- 1744Giambattista Vico — Italian philosopher, rhetorician, historian and jurist
- 1789John Cleland — British writer (1709-1789)
- 1789Frances Brooke — English novelist, essayist, playwright and translator (1724-1789)
- 1800Edward Rutledge — American politician, youngest signer of the Declaration of Independence (1749-1800)
- 1803Arthur Guinness — Irish brewer and the founder of the Guinness brewery business and family (1725–1803)
- 1805Claude Chappe — French inventor
- 1806William Pitt the Younger — British statesman (1759–1806)
- 1810Johann Wilhelm Ritter — German chemist, physicist and philosopher
- 1820Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn — British prince (1767-1820); fourth son of George III
- 1837John Field — Irish pianist, composer, and teacher
- 1866Thomas Love Peacock — English novelist, poet, and official of the East India Company (1785–1866)
- 1875Charles Kingsley — British clergyman, historian and novelist (1819–1875)
- 1883Gustave Doré — French illustrator and painter (1832–1883)
- 1893José Zorrilla — Spanish poet, writer, fighter (1817–1893)
- 1921Mykola Leontovych — Ukrainian composer, ethnomusicologist, and conductor (1877–1921)
- 1922Arthur Nikisch — Hungarian conductor (1855-1922)
Dates verified against Wikidata (CC0). Titles and descriptions come from Wikidata.