October 23

Historic Events

2022

Xi Jinping is elected as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party by the Central Committee, beginning a third term of the paramount leader of China. ›

2022

Myanmar Air Force airstrikes a concert in Hpakant Township, Kachin state killing at least 80 people, including senior Kachin Independence Organisation officials, in the Hpakant massacre. ›

2020

Second Libyan Civil War: The Second Libyan Civil War comes to an end as all parties to the 5+5 Joint Libyan Military Commission agree to a ceasefire. ›

2017

War against the Islamic State: Philippine defense secretary Delfin Lorenzana declares the end of the Siege of Marawi. ›

2015

The lowest sea-level pressure in the Western Hemisphere, and the highest reliably-measured non-tornadic sustained winds, are recorded in Hurricane Patricia, which strikes Mexico hours later, killing at least 13 and causing over $280 million in damages. ›

2011

A powerful 7.2 magnitude earthquake strikes Van Province, Turkey, killing 582 people and injuring thousands. ›

2011

The Libyan National Transitional Council deems the Libyan Civil War over. ›

2007

A storm causes the Mexican Kab 101 oil platform to collide with a wellhead, leading to the death and drowning of 22 people during rescue operations after evacuation of the platform. ›

2007

Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on STS-120, with Pamela Melroy becoming the second female space shuttle commander. ›

2004

A powerful earthquake and its aftershocks hit Niigata Prefecture in northern Japan, killing 35 people, injuring 2,200, and leaving 85,000 homeless or evacuated. ›

2002

Second Chechen War: Chechen separatist terrorists seize the House of Culture theater in Moscow and take approximately 700 theater-goers hostage. ›

2001

Apple Computer releases the iPod. ›

1998

Israel and the Palestinian Authority sign the Wye River Memorandum. ›

1995

Yolanda Saldívar is found guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting death of popular Latin singer Selena. ›

1993

The Troubles: A Provisional IRA bomb prematurely detonates in Belfast, killing the bomber and nine civilians. ›

1991

Signing of the Paris Peace Accords which ends the Cambodian–Vietnamese War. ›

1989

The Hungarian Republic officially replaces the communist Hungarian People's Republic. ›

1989

Bankruptcy of Wärtsilä Marine, the biggest bankruptcy in the Nordic countries up until then. ›

1989

An explosion at the Houston Chemical Complex in Pasadena, Texas, which registered a 3.5 on the Richter magnitude scale, kills 23 and injures 314. ›

1983

Lebanese Civil War: The U.S. Marines Corps barracks in Beirut is hit by a truck bomb, killing 241 U.S. military personnel. A French Army barracks in Lebanon is also hit that same morning, killing 58 troops. ›

1982

A gunfight breaks out between police officers and members of a religious cult in Arizona. The shootout leaves two cultists dead and dozens of cultists and police officers injured. ›

1978

Aeroflot Flight 6515 crashes off Syvash, killing all 26 people aboard. ›

1972

Vietnam War: Operation Linebacker, a US bombing campaign against North Vietnam in response to its Easter Offensive, ends after five months. ›

1970

Gary Gabelich sets a land speed record in a rocket-powered automobile called the Blue Flame, fueled with natural gas. ›

1965

Vietnam War: The 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), in conjunction with the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, launches an operation seeking to destroy Communist forces during the siege of Plei Me. ›

1959

Aeroflot Flight 200 crashes while attempting to land at Vnukovo International Airport, killing 28. ›

1958

Canada's Springhill mining disaster kills seventy-five miners, while ninety-nine others are rescued. ›

1958

Belgian artist Peyo's comic characters, the Smurfs, make their debut in Spirou magazine. ›

1956

Secret police shoot several anti-communist protesters, igniting the Hungarian Revolution. ›

1955

Prime Minister Ngô Đình Diệm defeats former emperor Bảo Đại in a referendum and founds the Republic of Vietnam. ›

1955

The people of the Saar region vote in a referendum to unite with West Germany instead of France. ›

1945

Jackie Robinson of the Kansas City Monarchs signs a contract with the Brooklyn Dodger's minor league team, the Montreal Royals, breaking Major League Baseball's color barrier. ›

1944

World War II: The Battle of Leyte Gulf begins. ›

1942

World War II: Allied forces commence the Second Battle of El Alamein, which proves to be the key turning point in the North African campaign. ›

1942

All 12 passengers and crewmen aboard American Airlines Flight 28 are killed when it collides with a U.S. Army Air Force bomber near Palm Springs, California. ›

1942

World War II: The Battle for Henderson Field begins on Guadalcanal. ›

1941

The Holocaust: Nazi Germany prohibits Jews from emigrating, including in its occupied territories. ›

1940

Adolf Hitler and Francisco Franco meet at Hendaye to discuss the possibility of Spain entering the Second World War. ›

1927

The Imatra Cinema is destroyed in a fire in Tampere, Finland, during showing the 1924 film Wages of Virtue; 21 people die in the fire and almost 30 are injured. ›

1924

Second Zhili–Fengtian War: Warlord Feng Yuxiang, with the covert support of the Empire of Japan, stages a coup in Beijing against his erstwhile superiors in the Zhili clique, crippling their nearly victorious war effort against the Fengtian clique and forcing them to withdraw from northern China. ›

1923

German October: Due to a miscommunication with the party leadership, a militant section of the Communist Party of Germany launches an insurrection in Hamburg. ›

1912

First Balkan War: The Battle of Kumanovo between the Serbian and Ottoman armies begins. ›

1911

The Italo-Turkish War sees the first use of an airplane in combat when an Italian pilot makes a reconnaissance flight. ›

1906

Alberto Santos-Dumont flies an airplane in the first heavier-than-air flight in Europe. ›

1882

Assommoir bombing: Anarchists such as Fanny Madignier commit the first deadly anarchist attack in France. ›

1868

Meiji Restoration: Having taken the shogunate's seat of power at Edo and declared it his new capital as Tokyo, Mutsuhito proclaims the start of the new Meiji era. ›

1864

American Civil War: The Battle of Westport is the last significant engagement west of the Mississippi River, ending in a Union victory. ›

1856

Second Opium War: Dissatisfied with imperial commissioner Ye Mingchen's reparations for the alleged slighting of a British-owned vessel and at Consul Harry Parkes's urging, British Rear-Admiral Michael Seymour launches an assault on the Barrier Forts outside Canton in the first military engagement of the Second Opium War. ›

1850

The first National Women's Rights Convention begins in Worcester, Massachusetts. ›

1812

General Claude François de Malet begins a conspiracy to overthrow Napoleon, claiming that the Emperor died in the Russian campaign. ›

1798

The forces of Ali Pasha of Janina defeat the French and capture the town of Preveza in the Battle of Nicopolis. ›

1707

The First Parliament of the Kingdom of Great Britain convenes. ›

1666

The most intense tornado on record in English history, an F4 storm on the Fujita scale or T8 on the TORRO scale, strikes the county of Lincolnshire, with winds of more than 213 miles per hour (343 km/h). ›

1642

The Battle of Edgehill is the first major battle of the English Civil War. ›

1641

Irish Catholic gentry from Ulster attempt to seize control of Dublin Castle, the seat of English rule in Ireland, so as to force concessions. ›

1448

Scotland wins a decisive victory over England at the Battle of Sark, the last pitched battle to be fought between the two kingdoms during the Medieval period. ›

1295

The first treaty forming the Auld Alliance between Scotland and France against England is signed in Paris. ›

1157

The Battle of Grathe Heath ends the Danish Civil War. ›

1086

Spanish Reconquista: At the Battle of Sagrajas, the Almoravids defeat the Castilians, but are unable to take advantage of their victory. ›

502

The Synodus Palmaris, called by Gothic king Theoderic, absolves Pope Symmachus of all charges, thus ending the schism of Antipope Laurentius. ›

425

Valentinian III is elevated as Roman emperor at the age of six. ›

42 BC

Liberators' civil war: Mark Antony and Octavian decisively defeat an army under Brutus in the second part of the Battle of Philippi, with Brutus committing suicide and ending the civil war. ›

4004 BC

James Ussher's purported creation date of the world according to the Bible. ›