On this day: 23 May
Events, births and deaths on 23 May. 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 · Joe Slovo
- Births · Aileen Hernandez
1000 years ago1026
Within 100 years of that
- 1052 · Births · Philip I of France
- 1125 · Deaths · Henry V
- 1100 · Births · Emperor Qinzong of Song
Events · 26
- 1040(Julian date)Battle of Dandanaqan — 1040 battle of the Seljuk-Ghaznavid Wars
- 1308(Julian date)Battle of Inverurie — 1308 battle in the Wars of Scottish Independence
- 1568(Julian date)Eighty Years' War — 16th- and 17th-century Dutch revolt against the Habsburgs
- 1568Battle of Heiligerlee — 1568 battle
- 1706Battle of Ramillies — 1706 battle
- 1788South Carolina — state of the United States of America
- 1793Battle of Famars — 1793 battle during the War of the First Coalition
- 1862Battle of Front Royal — 1862 battle of the American Civil War
- 1863Social Democratic Party of Germany — centre-left political party in Germany
- 1873Royal Canadian Mounted Police — Canadian federal police service
- 1873North-West Mounted Police — former Canadian police force (1873–1920)
- 1895New York Public Library — public library system in New York City
- 1949West Germany — Federal Republic of Germany in the period between its formation on 23 May 1949 and German reunification on 3 October 1990
- 1949Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany — constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany
- 1951Seventeen Point Agreement — 1951 agreement between China and the Dalai Lama
- 1971Aviogenex Flight 130 — 1971 aviation accident
- 19781978 Yegoryevsk Tu-144 crash — 1978 Soviet aircraft accident
- 1991Aeroflot Flight 8556 — aviation accident
- 19931993 Cambodian general election — Election resulting in a hung parliament
- 1999Over the Edge — 1999 World Wrestling Federation pay-per-view event
- 20102010 Jiangxi derailment — railway accident in Fuzhou, Jiangxi, China
- 2013I-5 Skagit River Bridge collapse — road bridge collapse in Mount Vernon, Washington
- 20142014 Isla Vista killings — 2014 spree killing in Isla Vista, California, US
- 2017Siege of Marawi — 2017 battle in the Philippines
- 2021Ryanair Flight 4978 — 2021 aviation incident over Belarus and arrest of journalist Roman Pratasevich
- 2021Stresa-Mottarone cable car disaster — cable car disaster on 23 May 2021 in Piedmont, Italy
Births · 60
- 1052(Julian date)Philip I of France — king of the Franks from 1060 to 1108
- 1208(Julian date)Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester — Anglo-Norman nobleman who led a rebellion against King Henry III of England (1208-1265)
- 1707
- 1729Giuseppe Parini — Italian poet
- 1734Franz Anton Mesmer — German physician
- 1790Jules Dumont d'Urville — French Navy officer and explorer (1790–1842)
- 1810Margaret Fuller — American writer and women's activist (1810–1850)
- 1824Ambrose Burnside — American general and politician (1824–1881)
- 1844ʻAbdu'l-Bahá — son of Bahá'u'lláh and leader of the Bahá'í Faith
- 1848Otto Lilienthal — German aviation pioneer (1848-1896)
- 1865Epitácio Pessoa — Brazilian politician and judge (1865-1942)
- 1883Douglas Fairbanks — American actor, screenwriter, director, and producer (1883–1939)
- 1884Corrado Gini — Italian statistician (1884–1965)
- 1891Pär Lagerkvist — Swedish writer (1891–1974)
- 1896Felix Steiner — German SS commander ; affiant in Pohl Trial (NMT 4)
- 1898Josef Terboven — German politician (1898–1945)
- 1900Hans Frank — German lawyer, Nazi politician, General Governor of Nazi occupied Poland and convicted war criminal (1900–1946)
- 1908John Bardeen — American physicist and engineer (1908–1991)
- 1910Artie Shaw — American clarinetist, composer, and bandleader (1910-2004)
- 1917Edward Norton Lorenz — American mathematician and meteorologist (1917–2008)
- 1919Betty Garrett — American actress, comedian, singer, and dancer (1919–2011)
- 1924Karlheinz Deschner — German writer and activist (1924-2014)
- 1925Joshua Lederberg — American molecular biologist (1925–2008)
- 1928Rosemary Clooney — American singer and actress (1928–2002)
- 1931Barbara Barrie — American actress and author (born 1931)
Deaths · 60
- 230(Julian date)Urban I — 3rd‑century Roman bishop of Rome, Catholic saint, pope during the reign of Alexander Severus
- 1125(Julian date)Henry V — King of Germany and Holy Roman Emperor, the fourth and last ruler of the Salian dynasty
- 1370(Julian date)Toghon Temür — Yuan and Northern Yuan emperor from 1333 to 1370
- 1423(Julian date)Benedict XIII — cardinal, antipope from 1394 to 1423 (1328-1423)
- 1498(Julian date)Girolamo Savonarola — Italian Dominican friar and preacher (1452-1498)
- 1523(Julian date)Ashikaga Yoshitane — Tenth shōgun of the Ashikaga shogunate of Japan (1490–1493, 1508–1521)
- 1524Ismail I — founder and first shah of Safavid Iran
- 1670Ferdinando II de' Medici — Grand Duke of Tuscany
- 1691Adrien Auzout — French astronomer
- 1701William Kidd — Scottish sailor who was tried and executed for piracy after returning from a voyage to the Indian Ocean
- 1701Anne Hilarion de Tourville — French naval commander who served under King Louis XIV
- 1754John Wood — English architect, working in Bath, Somerset
- 1783James Otis — lawyer in colonial Massachusetts (1725-1783)
- 1813Géraud Duroc — French general, diplomat and politician (1772-1813)
- 1815Gotthilf Heinrich Ernst Muhlenberg — United States botanist and Lutheran clergyman (1753-1815)
- 1841Franz Xaver von Baader — German philosopher and theologian (1765-1841)
- 1857Augustin-Louis Cauchy — French mathematician (1789–1857)
- 1868Kit Carson — American frontiersman and Union Army general (1809-1868)
- 1886Leopold von Ranke — German historian and founder of modern source-based history (1795-1886)
- 1893Anton von Schmerling — Austrian statesman (1805–1893)
- 1895Franz Ernst Neumann — German physicist and mineralogist (1798-1895)
- 1906Henrik Ibsen — Norwegian playwright and theatre director (1828–1906)
- 1908François Coppée — French poet and novelist (1842–1908)
- 1920Svetozar Boroević — Austro-Hungarian field marshal
- 1921August Nilsson — Swedish athlete (1872–1921)
Dates verified against Wikidata (CC0). Titles and descriptions come from Wikidata.