Today's 23 January Major Events in History

Photo for the article Today's 23 January Major Events

393 Roman Emperor Theodosius I proclaims his nine year old son Honorius co-emperor

909 Bulgarian Saint John of Rila [Saint Ivan] performs the miracle of the two pies - uses two pies to feed the poor
971 War elephant corps of the Southern Han defeated at Shao by crossbow fire from Song Dynasty troops forcing the Southern Han state to submit to the Song Dynasty. First regular war elephant corps in the Chinese army.
1265 First English Parliament not summoned by the monarch formally convenes

Ming Dynasty Begins

1368 In a coronation ceremony, Zhu Yuanzhang, aged 40, ascends to the throne of China as the Hongwu Emperor, initiating Ming Dynasty rule over China that lasts for three centuries

Titulus Regis

1484 Parliament of English King Richard III opens, passes Titulus Regis, (Richard's right to the throne)

1490 First printing of Ramban's Sha'ar ha-Gemul
1546 Having published nothing for eleven years, Francois Rabelais publishes the Tiers Livre, his sequel to Gargantua and Pantagruel

1552 Second version of the Book of Common Prayer becomes mandatory in England

1556 Shaanxi Earthquake, the deadliest ever recorded, kills 830,000 in Shaanxi Province, China
1570 The Regent of Scotland, the Earl of Moray, is assassinated, triggering a civil war

1579 Union of Utrecht signed by Northern Habsburg counties of Holland and Zeeland, and provinces of Utrecht and Groningen, marking the beginning of protestant Dutch Republic
1631 France and Sweden sign the anti-German Treaty of Bärwalde
1637 Dutch governor Johan Mauritius lands in Pernambuco, Brazil

Battle of Leeds

1643 New Model Army led by Thomas Fairfax captures Leeds for the Parliamentarians in the English Civil War

Lettres provinciales

1656 French philosopher and theologian Blaise Pascal publishes the first of his "Lettres provinciales"

1668 England, Netherlands & Sweden sign Triple Alliance against French
1719 Liechtenstein becomes a member state of the Holy Roman Empire

Messier Adds to his Catalog

1779 French astronomer Charles Messier catalogs M56 (globular cluster in Lyra)

1781 Niccolò Piccinni's tragédie lyrique opera "Iphigénie en Tauride" (Iphigeneia in Tauris) first performed by Académie royale de musique at the Paris Opéra
1789 Georgetown, the first US Catholic college, is founded
1793 Humane Society of Philadelphia is organized (first aid society)
1793 Prussia and Russia sign the Treaty of Grodno, later known as the 2nd Partition of Poland, ceding large portions of Poland to their bigger neighbors

1795 War of the First Coalition: French cavalry captures 14 Dutch ships and 850 guns near the port of Den Helder - rare instance of cavalry capturing a fleet

1796 Armand-Gaston Camus becomes chairman of the Council of 500
1812 7.8 earthquake shakes New Madrid, Missouri
1833 Joseph Pease becomes the first Quaker to be admitted to the UK Parliament on his affirmation
1845 Uniform US election day for President & VP authorized
1846 Tunisia becomes the first Arab nation to outlaw slavery in decree issued by Ahmed I Bey [1]

First Woman Earns US Medical Degree

1849 Elizabeth Blackwell becomes the first woman in the US to earn a medical degree, graduating from New York's Geneva Medical College

1849 US Patent granted for an envelope-making machine to Jesse K. Park and Cornelius S. Watson

John Wilkes Booth Baptized

1853 John Wilkes Booth is baptized at St. Timothy's Protestant Episcopal Church

1855 First bridge over the Mississippi River in what is now Minneapolis, Minnesota, opens; today known as the Father Louis Hennepin Bridge
1856 American sidewheel steamer SS Pacific leaves Liverpool, England on what becomes her final voyage; lost at sea enroute to New York with 186 on board
1859 Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii begins an eruption that lasts 300 days
1862 Agoston Haraszthy, the first vintner in Sonoma Valley, California, imports 10,000 grapevine cuttings
1865 -Jan 25th) Battle of City Point, Virginia (James River, Trent's Reach)
1870 Marias Massacre: Approximately 200 Piegan Blackfeet Indians (mostly women, children, and elderly men) killed by US Army, in Montana Territory, spawning outrage and preventing the military from regaining control of the Bureau of Indian Affairs [1] [2]
1879 US National Archery Association forms in Crawfordsville, Indiana

First Non-segregated US Hospital

1889 Daniel Hale Williams forms the Provident Hospital in Chicago, the first non-segregated hospital in the US

1894 G. W. Bunbury of Dublin sets shorthand record of 250 wpm for 10 min
1896 Edward Macdowell's 2nd Suite in E premieres
1897 Elva Zona Heaster is found dead in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. Resulting murder trial of her husband perhaps only case in US history where the alleged testimony of a ghost helped secure a conviction.

Emilio Aguinaldo President

1899 Emilio Aguinaldo is sworn in as President of the First Philippine Republic

Ålesund Fire

1904 Norwegian coastal town of Ålesund is devastated by fire, leaving 10,000 people homeless and one person dead. Kaiser Wilhelm II funds the rebuilding of the town in Jugendstil style.

Great Powers Pressure Belgium

1908 US and UK demand an end to atrocities in the Congo under King Leopold II’s rule, prompting Belgium to annex it

1909 First radio rescue at sea using the CQD distress code by the British Royal Mail steamship Republic off Nantucket Island
1912 The International Opium Convention is signed at The Hague

The Young Turks

1913 The 'Young Turks' lead a coup d'etat against the Turkish Government, assassinating Minister of War Nazim Pasha

1916 Temperature falls from 44°F (7°C) to -56°F (49°C) night of 23-24, Browning, Montana
1920 Dutch refuse to turn over ex-Emperor William II of Germany to allies
1923 Taxi strike in Amsterdam begins (through March 9th)

The Adventure of the Good Soldier Schweik

1928 A stage version of the Czech novel "The Adventure of the Good Soldier Schweik" produced and directed by Erwin Piscator with the help of Bertolt Brecht premieres in Berlin

1930 Clyde Tombaugh photographs dwarf planet Pluto
1930 George Washington Birthplace National Monument, Virginia established
1930 WIS-AM (now WOMG) in Columbia SC begins radio transmissions
1932 El Salvador army kills 4,000 protesting farmers
1933 20th amendment, which changed the date of US presidential inaugurations to 20th January, is ratified
1934 New York Rangers' left wing Murray Murdoch plays his 400th straight NHL game in a 5-2 win over Ottawa Senators at Madison Square Garden, NYC; streak reaches 508 consecutive games
1936 Catholic People's Party (KVP) of Curacao forms

The Great Purge

1937 Karl Radek and sixteen others go on trial in Moscow as part of the Great Purge, many are sentenced to death

1941 1st mass killing of Jews in Romania during three days of riots, between 115 and 130 people are murdered
1941 Groundbreaking for NACA (now NASA) Lewis Research Center
1941 WOR-AM in Newark NJ moves to NYC
1942 Battle of Rabaul: Japanese attack Australian air base in Rabaul, New Britain
1942 Tank battle at Adzjedabia, Africa Korp vs British 8th army
1943 Detroit Red Wings scores NHL record 8 goals in 1 period

Ellington's Carnegie Debut

1943 Duke Ellington plays at Carnegie Hall in New York City for the first time

1943 Japanese Mount Austen on Guadalcanal captured
1943 The fall of Tripoli: British 8th army and Commonwealth forces march into Tripoli, as the German army is pushed back to Tunisia
1944 Detroit Red Wings score 15 goals against New York Rangers with an NHL record 37 points; also record consecutive goals & most lopsided game, 15-0
1945 Dutch Prime Minister Pieter Sjoerds Gerbrandy, exiled in London, tenders his resignation

Operation Hannibal

1945 World War II: Karl Dönitz launches Operation Hannibal to evacuate German soldiers and civilians from Prussia by sea

1946 Rear Admiral Sidney W. Souers, USNR, becomes 1st director of CIA
1950 3rd edition of Joseph Kane's Famous 1st Facts published
1950 AP picks "Miracle Braves" of 1914 as greatest sports upset
1950 Israeli Knesset declares Jerusalem the capital of Israel
1950 NFL rule changes open way for 2-platoon system (offense & defense)
1950 Rebel army of Dutch military officer Raymond Westerling occupies Bandung, Java
1951 3rd Emmy Awards: Alan Young Show, Alan Young and Gertrude Berg win
1953 NFL Dallas Texans become Baltimore Colts (now Indianapolis Colts)
1953 NFL's National & American conference become Eastern & Western conference
1954 Equal longest undefeated streak in Toronto Maple Leaf history ends - 18 games, 16 wins, 2 ties
1954 Harry van Thorn chosen chairman of Dutch KVP
1955 Express train travelling from York to Bristol derails, killing 14 and injuring many other passengers
1955 KORK (now KVBC) TV channel 3 in Las Vegas, Nevada (NBC) 1st broadcast
1957 Indian nationalist V. K. Krishna Menon begins the longest ever speech defending India's stand on Kashmir at the UN - 8 hours over 2 days
1957 Wham-O Company acquires rights to the "Pluto Platter" plastic flying disc toy from inventor Walter Frederick Morrison; they rename it "Frisbee" in 1958 as a nod to the Frisbie Pie Company, whose empty tins were tossed by Yale University students (including Morrison) in the 1930s
1958 Dictator Marcos Perez Jiménez flees Venezuela, Larrazabal takes power

Longest Innings in Test History

1958 Pakistani cricket batsman Hanif Mohammad scores record 337 runs in 970 minutes in drawn 1st Test v West Indies at Bridgetown, longest innings in Test history

1960 US Navy bathyscaphe "Trieste", crewed by Swiss oceanographer Jacques Piccard and USN Lieutenant Don Walsh, becomes first manned vessel to reach bottom of Pacific Ocean (10,916 m) in the Mariana Trench; craft was designed by Auguste Piccard, father of the pilot, in 1953 for the French Navy [1]
1961 US Supreme Court rules cities and states have the right to censor films
1961 Venezuela adopts constitution

Philby Defects

1962 British intelligence officer Kim Philby defects to USSR

1962 Film "Jules et Jim", based on the novel by Henri-Pierre Roché, directed by François Truffaut and starring Jeanne Moreau is released
1962 Libya, Morocco, Algeria. and Tunisia plan to form United Arab Maghreb; planning continues until an agreement is reached in 1989
1964 24th Amendment to the United States Constitution ratified, barring poll tax in federal elections

1965 Musical variety program "King Family Show", featuring big band vocal group The King Sisters, premieres on ABC TV

Musial Manages Cardinals

1967 Stan Musial named General Manager of MLB team St. Louis Cardinals

1968 Spy ship USS Pueblo & 83-man crew seized in Sea of Japan by North Korea
1969 Cream releases their last album "Goodbye"
1970 Australia's 1st amateur radio satellite (Oscar 5) launched (California)
1970 Member of Dutch feminist group Dolle Mina burn their bras in Amsterdam
1970 US launches second generation weather satellite, ITOS 1
1970 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1971 -80°F (-62°C) in Prospect Creek Camp, Alaska (US record)
1971 Britain allowed to sell arms to South Africa, after Commonwealth Conference in Singapore ends in compromise
1971 Riots break out in the Shankill Road area of Belfast, North Ireland
1971 UCLA loses to Notre Dame, UCLA then wins next 88 games in a row

Schenk European Champion

1972 Ard Schenk becomes European all-round skating champion

1972 Bootlegger sells wood alcohol to a wedding party, killing 100 in New Delhi
1972 Entire population of Istanbul is placed under 24 hour house arrest
1973 Boeing 707, operated by Alia Royal Jordanian and chartered by Nigeria Airways crashes while trying to land at Kano International Airport in Nigeria, killing 176 Muslim pilgrims and crew
1973 Helgafell volcano on island of Heimaey Iceland erupts for 1st time in 7,000 yrs

Shah Announces Oil Agreement End

1973 Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi announces that the 1954 operating agreement between a consortium of oil companies and Iran will not be renewed when it expires in 1979

1973 US President Richard Nixon announces an accord has been reached to end the Vietnam War

1974 1st edition of women's magazine "Story"
1975 "Barney Miller" premieres on ABC TV
1976 Ian Redpath hits his only 2 sixes in Cricket Tests, v WI Adelaide

Station to Station

1976 RCA releases "Station to Station", David Bowie's 10th studio album, recorded in Los Angeles; it peaks in the U.S. charts at No.3, and No. 5 in the U.K.

1976 The Provisional Irish Republican Army truce of February 1975 is officially brought to an end
1976 The results to U.S. advice columnist Ann Landers' question (if they could do it all over, would parents still become parents) state that 70% of 10,000 responding parents were negative about being parents
1976 Washington Capitals end 25 game winless streak (0-22-3) beat NY Rangers 7-5
1977 $1.5-million Serge Lepage dress exhibited, Paris
1977 Miniseries "Roots" premieres on ABC
1978 Belgian industrial Haron Empain kidnapped in Paris
1978 Sweden becomes the first nation in the world to ban aerosol sprays, due to their harmful effect on the earth's ozone layer

Richard Nixon Museum

1981 First Richard Nixon museum opens in San Clemente in California

1981 Jochem Bird elected mayor of West Berlin

Bossy Scores 50 in 50

1981 NHL New York Islanders Mike Bossy becomes 1st in NHL to score 50 goals in 50 games

1982 Urbe Blanca (cow) produces record 110 kg of milk, Cuba (approx date)
1982 World Airways DC-10 skids at Boston Logan Airport killing 2
1983 Cerebral Palsy telethon raises $14.7 million
1983 Russian radioactive satellite falls into Indian Ocean
1983 Schone skates ladies world record 5 km (7:40.97)

The A-Team

1983 TV series "The A-Team" with George Peppard and Mr T premieres on NBC

1984 Buffalo Sabres become the first team in NHL history to win 10 straight road games with a 5-3 victory at Boston
1984 Greatest unpaced 1-hr bicycle distance, F Moser (Italy), 51.15 km
1985 Britains House of Lords debate 1st televised
1986 Columbia returns to Kennedy Space Center via Davis-Monthan AFB

1987 Dow Jones Industrial Average rises 64 points then drops 110 points (44.15 pt loss)
1987 Japan 1st exceeds military spending cap of 1% of GNP ($23 billion)
1988 Bob Benoit bowls 1st 300-pt game in a televised title match
1989 100s feared dead after a powerful earthquake strikes the Soviet Central Asian republic of Tajikistan
1989 Challenge to "who is a Jew" law filed in Israeli Supreme Court
1989 NBA New Jersey Nets begin a 32+ game road losing streak
1991 Bagogwe Massacre of Tutsi in and around Ruhengeri, Northern Rwanda
1991 World's largest oil spill, caused by embattled Iraqi forces in Kuwait
1993 Indian Airlines B737 crashes at Aurangabad, killing 61

Bob Packwood Accused

1993 NY Newsday reports US Senator from Oregon Bob Packwood sexually harassed 23 women

1994 Worldwide Day for Peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina
1996 The first version of the Java programming language released
1998 Denver Nuggets tie the NBA single-season record of 23 consecutive losses set by the Vancouver Grizzlies in 1995-96; streak ends with a 99-81 win the next day against the LA Clippers

Jordan's 800th Game

1998 Michael Jordan scores in double figures for 800th consecutive game in a 100-98 OT win over New Jersey; adds 40 more double-figure scoring games to his NBA record before retiring for the second time (1998)

Pope Condemns Cuba Embargo

1998 Pope John Paul II condemns US embargo against Cuba

2000 Dallas' Don Nelson becomes the 6th coach in NBA history to win 900 career games when the Mavericks defeat the Detroit Pistons, 99-91 at The Palace of Auburn Hills
2001 Cave-in at coal mine leads to two methane gas explosions, kills 13 miners in Brookwood, Alabama
2001 Five people set themselves on fire in Tiananmen Square, CCP uses the incident to escalate the persecution of Falun Gong
2002 "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh returns to the United States in FBI custody
2002 Reporter Daniel Pearl kidnapped in Karachi, Pakistan, and subsequently murdered.
2003 Final communication between Earth and NASA space probe Pioneer 10 then 7.6 billion miles (12.23 billion kilometers) from Earth

Black Cadillac

2006 Capitol Records releases "Black Cadillac", the eleventh studio album by singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash; the album is dedicated to the memory of her recently deceased parents and step-mother, and co-produced by her husband John Leventhal and Bill Bottrell

2009 Dendermonde nursery attack occurs in Dendermonde, Belgium
2009 UK officially enters recession as GDP falls by 1.5% in the last quarter of 2008 following a 0.6% drop in the third quarter, with unemployment growing by 131,000 to 1.92 million (6.1%)
2012 European Union agrees to embargo Iranian oil in protest against Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program
2013 18 people are killed in a market shooting in Damboa, Nigeria
2013 23 people are killed in a mosque suicide bombing in Tuz Khormato, Iraq
2013 US armed forces overturns 1994 ban on women serving in combat

Thompson's Record Game

2015 Golden State guard Klay Thompson scores the most NBA points in a quarter (37) and most 3-pointers in a quarter (9) in Warrior's 126-101 win over Sacramento Kings

King Tut's Beard Badly Glued

2016 8 museum workers from Egyptian Museum, Cairo referred for prosecution for reattaching Tutankhamun's beard with inappropriate glue

2016 Category 5 blizzard delivers record 3ft of snow to the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast US, killing 55 and incurring estimated $500m - $3bn economic losses
2016 Zika virus outbreak in Brazil prompts Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador and Jamaica to recommend women delay pregnancies for up to 2 years

Ecclestone Ousted as F1 CEO

2017 Formula One Group removes Bernie Ecclestone as CEO, making him chairman emeritus, as Liberty Media completes $8 billion takeover of the organization

2017 Most expensive house in the US worth $250 million goes on the market in Bel Air, Los Angeles
2017 Thunderstorms and tornadoes in Georgia and Mississippi leave at least 18 dead in the US

Diamond Retires from Touring

2018 American singer-songwriter Neil Diamond abruptly retires from touring after being diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease

2018 Chinese researchers report they have cloned two monkeys, using the same technology as Dolly the Sheep

LeBron's 30,000 Milestone

2018 LeBron James becomes the seventh and youngest player (33 years, 24 days) to reach the 30,000 NBA point milestone during a 114-102 loss to the San Antonio Spurs

2018 Twelve camels disqualified from the King Abdulaziz Camel beauty contest, Saudi Arabia after their owners used botox on their lips
2019 New record for most expensive US property, $238 million for penthouse condominium overlooking Central Park, NY, bought by hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin

Pelosi Disinvites Trump

2019 US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi disinvites President Donald Trump from making a State of the Union address in Congress citing government shutdown

Guaido Declares Himself President

2019 Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido declares himself acting President amid widespread violent protests against President Nicolas Maduro's regime

2020 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp marked by an international forum in Jerusalem, Israel

Sciorra Testifies Against Weinstein

2020 Actress Annabella Sciorra testifies in court that movie mogul Harvey Weinstein raped her 25 years ago at his trial in New York City

2020 China locks down the city of Wuhan and its 9 million people in a belated but ultimately successful effort to control the city's COVID-19 outbreak

2020 Voice of a 3,000 year old Egyptian priest recreated by scientists 3D printing his vocal tract published in "Scientific Reports"
2022 Buffalo wide receiver Gabriel Davis scores an NFL playoff record 4 TDs in the Bills' epic 42-36 overtime loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in their divisional-round playoff at Arrowhead Stadium
2023 American Richard Barnett, who was pictured with his feet on Nancy Pelosi's desk during the Jan 6 riots, convicted on eight counts in a Washington court [1]

Kishida Addresses Falling Birth Rate

2023 Japan on the brink of not being able to function as a society, because of its falling birth rate and high life expectancy, says Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, in speech to Japanese parliament [1]

Leonard Sets Record

2024 Kawhi Leonard records his second career triple-double in a win against the Los Angeles Lakers

2024 The Doomsday Clock remains set 90 seconds to midnight by the by Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, siting threat of a new nuclear arms race, the Ukraine war and climate change [1]
2025 Former US representative John Ratcliffe is confirmed by the US Senate as Director of the CIA [1]
2025 Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family who own the company agree to pay $7.4 billion to settle new lawsuits over the harm caused by the opioid epidemic [1]
2025 Storm Éowyn hits Ireland and the UK with record-high winds of 114 mph (184 km/h), leaving hundreds of thousands without electricity in Northern Ireland and one person dead [1]
2025 Thailand becomes the 38th country and the first in Southeast Asia to legalize same-sex marriage, with more than 1,800 same-sex couples marrying

Trump Pardons Activists

2025 US President Donald Trump issues pardons to 23 anti-abortion activists convicted of illegally blocking access to clinics [1]

3268 Beginning of the second Julian Period (1/1 OS)