Wikipedia: May 23

May 23
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

May 23 is the 143rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (144th in leap years). There are 222 days remaining.

Events

1430 - Joan of Arc is captured by Burgundians at Compiegne and is later sold to the English.
1533 - The marriage of King Henry VIII of England to Catharine of Aragon is declared null and void.
1541 - Jacques Cartier departs St-Malo France on his third voyage.
1555 - Paul IV becomes Pope.
1609 - Official ratification of the Second Charter of Virginia.
1618 - The Second Defenstration of Prague precipitates the Thirty Years' War.
1701 - After being convicted of murdering William Moore and for piracy, Captain William Kidd is hanged in London.
1788 - South Carolina becomes the 8th U.S. state to ratify the United States Constitution.
1865 - Parade down Pennsylvania Ave in Washington, DC to celebrate the ending of the American Civil War.
1873 - The Canadian Parliament establishes the North West Mounted Police (which will be renamed the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 1920).
1900 - Sergeant William Harvey Carney becomes the first African American to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor (awarded for heroism in the Battle of Fort Wagner during the American Civil War).
1911 - Dedication ceremony for the New York Public Library.
1915 - World War I: Italy joins the Allies after they declare war on Austria-Hungary.
1934 - Near their hide-out in Black Lake, Louisiana, bank robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow are ambushed and shot dead by Texas Rangers.
1945 - World War II: Heinrich Himmler, the head of the Gestapo, commits suicide while in Allied custody.
1949 - The Federal Republic of Germany is established.
1960 - Prime Minister of Israel David Ben-Gurion announces that Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann has been captured.
1962 - Drilling for new Montreal, Quebec subway commences
1985 - Thomas Patrick Cavanagh is sentenced to life in prison for attempting to sell stealth bomber secrets to the Soviet Union.
1995 - Official announcement of the Java programming language.
1995 - Oklahoma City bombing: In Oklahoma City the remains of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building is imploded.
1998 - Explorer I ceases transmission.
1999 - In Kansas City, Missouri, Owen Hart (Blue Blazer) falls 90 feet to his death while being lowered into a World Wrestling Federation ring.
2003 - Mountain climbing: 25-year-old Nepalese Sherpa, Pemba Dorjie Sherpa, makes world's fastest ever ascent of Mount Everest, in 12 hours 45 minutes.
2004 - Last day of the 4th EJCF.

Births

1707 - Carolus Linnaeus, Swedish botanist (+ 1778)
1790 - Jules Dumont d'Urville, explorer (+ 1842)
1810 - Margaret Fuller, journalist, feminist (+ 1850)
1824 - Ambrose Burnside, American Civil War general (+ 1881)
1848 - Otto Lilienthal, engineer (+ 1896)
1879 - Dezső Lauber, Hungarian sportsman
1883 - Douglas Fairbanks, Sr, actor, cofounder of United Artists (+ 1939)
1888 - Zack Wheat, Baseball Hall of Famer (+ 1972)
1890 - Herbert Marshall, actor (+ 1966)
1898 - Scott O'Dell, author (+ 1989)
1908 - John Bardeen, physicist (+ 1991)
1910 - Scatman Crothers, actor, musician (+ 1986)
1910 - Artie Shaw, clarinetist, bandleader
1910 - Sir Hugh Casson, architect, painter (+ 1999)
1912 - John Payne, actor (+ 1989)
1919 - Betty Garrett, actress, dancer
1920 - Helen O'Connell, singer
1921 - James Blish, science fiction author (+ 1975)
1921 - Humphrey Lyttelton, jazz musician
1927 - Dieter Hildebrandt, cabaret artiste
1928 - Nigel Davenport, actor
1928 - Rosemary Clooney, singer, actress (+ 2002)
1929 - Julian Euell, jazz musician
1933 - Joan Collins, actress
1934 - Dr. Robert Moog, inventor of Moog synthesizer
1939 - Reinhard Hauff, film director
1943 - John Newcombe, tennis player
1946 - David Graham, golf champion
1951 - Anatoly Karpov, chess world champion
1952 - Marvelous Marvin Hagler, boxer
1958 - Drew Carey comedian, actor
1975 - Jewel, singer
1977 - Ilia Kulik, figure skating champion
1989 - Freddy Adu, soccer prodigy
2003 - Dewey, the first cloned deer

Deaths

1125 - Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor
1701 - Captain Kidd, pirate
1841 - Franz Xaver von Baader, philosopher, theologian
1855 - Charles Robert Malden explorer
1868 - Kit Carson, trapper, scout, Indian agent, soldier, legend
1886 - Leopold von Ranke. prominent 19th century German historian
1933 - Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, outlaws
1937 - John D. Rockefeller, entrepreneur
1945 - Heinrich Himmler, Nazi official
1975 - Moms Mabley, comedienne
1986 - Sterling Hayden
1992 - Giovanni Falcone, judge
2002 - Sam Snead, golfer

Holidays and Observances

Bahá'í Faith: Declaration of the Báb

See Also:

May 22 - May 24 - April 23 - June 23 -- listing of all days

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December