July 23

July 23 is the 204th day of the year (205th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 161 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

Up to 1900

• 811 – Byzantine Emperor Nikephoros I plunders the Bulgarian city of Pliska and captures Khan Krum's treasure.
• 1148 – Crusades: A Crusader army starts a siege of Damascus, lasting until July 28.
• 1793 – The Kingdom of Prussia re–conquers Mainz from France.
• 1632 – 300 colonists leave for New France from Dieppe, France.
• 1677 – Scanian War: Denmark-Norway captures the harbour town of Marstrand from Sweden
• 1783 – Prussia re–conquers Mainz from France.
• 1829 – In the United States, William Austin Burt patents the typographer, a precursor of the typewriter.
• 1840 – The Province of Canada is created in an Act of Union.
• 1862 – American Civil War: Henry Halleck takes command of the Union Army.
• 1871 – Austria-Hungary decides to use the metric system. The change becomes effective on January 1, 1876.
• 1881 – Chile and Argentina agree on their territories in Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia.

1901 – 2000

• 1903 – The Ford Motor Company sells its first car.
• 1914 – World War I: Austria-Hungary issues an ultimatum to Serbia, demanding Serbia to allow the Austrians to determine who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Serbia does not meet Austria–Hungary's terms and war is declared on July 28.
• 1921 – The Communist Party of China (CPC) launched the first time of Chinese National Congress, Communist party in China are established.
• 1927 – The first station of the Indian Broadcasting Company goes on the air in Bombay.
• 1929 – The Fascist government in Italy bans the use of foreign words.
• 1930 – A magnitude 6.7 earthquake in Italy kills 1,425 people.
• 1936 – The Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia is founded through the merger of the Socialist and Communist parties.
• 1940 – United States Secretary of State Sumner Welles issues a declaration that the United States will not recognize the Soviet Union's annexation of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
• 1942 – Holocaust: Treblinka extermination camp is opened.
• 1942 – World War II: The German offensives Operation Edelweiss and Operation Braunschweig begin.
• 1942 – World War II: Macedonian poet from Bulgaria and Communist leader Nikola Vapcarov is executed by a Bulgarian firing squad.
• 1943 – World War II: British destroyers HMS Eclipse and HMS Laforey sink the Italian submarine Ascianghi in the Mediterranean Sea after she torpedoes the cruiser HMS Newfoundland.
• 1952 – King Farouk I of Egypt is removed in a coup and a republic is declared.
• 1961 – The Sandinista National Liberation Front is founded in Nicaragua.
• 1962 – Telstar relays the first publicly transmitted Transatlantic TV programme, featuring Walter Cronkite.
• 1967 – A riot in Detroit leaves 43 people dead and 342 injured.
• 1968 – The only successful hijacking of an El Al aircraft takes place when a Boeing 707 carrying ten crew and 38 passengers is taken over by three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, en route from Lod, Israel.
• 1970 – Sultan Qaboos of Oman removes his father, Sultan Sa'id ibn Taimur, in a bloodless coup.
• 1972 – The United States launches Landsat 1, the first Earth–resources satellite.
• 1974 – Constantine Karamanlis is invited to form the government of Greece after the fall of the military junta.
• 1976 – Mario Soares is elected Prime Minister of Portugal.
• 1982 – The International Whaling Commission decides to end commercial whaling by 1985 or 1986.
• 1983 – The Sri Lankan Civil War begins.
• 1985 – The Amiga computer is presented for the first time, in New York City. Celebrities including Andy Warhol and Debbie Harry are present at the event.
• 1986 – Andrew Mountbatten Windsor marries Sarah Ferguson. Their marriage later ends in divorce.
• 1988 – General Ne Win, effective military ruler of Burma since 1962, resigns after pro–democracy protests.
• 1992 – Abkhazia declares independence from Georgia.
• 1995 – Comet Hale-Bopp is discovered.
• 1999 – Mohammed VI becomes King of Morocco.
• 1999 – All Nippon Airways Flight 61 is hijacked in Tokyo, Japan by Yuji Nishizawa.

From 2001

• 2001 – As a result of a finance scandal, President of Indonesia Abdurrahman Wahid is forced out of office. Megawati Sukarnoputri becomes the new president.
• 2004 – The Stari Most (Old Bridge) in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, is re–opened. It had been destroyed during the Balkan War.
• 2005 – Three bombs explode at Sharm–el–Sheikh in Egypt, killing 88 people.
• 2011 – A train crash on the high-speed rail line between Beijing and Shanghai kills 40 people.
• 2011 – British singer Amy Winehouse is found dead in her London home.
• 2012 – A major solar storm begins, which narrowly misses Earth.
• 2014 – The 2014 Commonwealth Games, taking place in Glasgow, Scotland, begin.
• 2015 – NASA announces the discovery of the planet Kepler 452b by the Kepler probe. It is believed to be the most Earth–like planet to have been discovered.
• 2016 – A bomb attack on a protest in Kabul, Afghanistan, kills 80 people.
• 2018 – A dam in southern Laos breaks, killing at least 26 people and leaving over 130 missing.
• 2018 – Massive wildfires break out in the Attica region of Greece, killing at least 85 people.
• 2019 – Boris Johnson becomes leader of the British Conservative Party, having defeated Jeremy Hunt in the leadership election; he becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom the next day.
• 2021 – 2020 Summer Olympics open in Tokyo.

Births

Up to 1900

• 645 – Yazid I, Arabian Caliph (d. 683)
• 1301 – Otto, Duke of Austria (d. 1339)
• 1339 – King Louis I of Naples (d. 1384)
• 1401 – Francesco I Sforza, Italian ruler (d. 1466)
• 1503 – Anne of Bohemia and Hungary (d. 1547)
• 1649 – Pope Clement XI (d. 1721)
• 1746 – Bernardo de Galvez y Madrid, Spanish general and politician (d. 1786)
• 1773 – Thomas Brisbane, Scottish general and politician, 6th Governor of New South Wales (d. 1860)
• 1777 – Philipp Otto Runge, German painter (d. 1810)
• 1796 – Franz Berwald, Swedish composer (d. 1868)
• 1804 – Jane Irwin Harrison, acting First Lady of the United States (d. 1845)
• 1820 – Julia Gardiner Tyler, First Lady of the United States (d. 1889)
• 1823 – Alexandre-Antonin Taché, Canadian archbishop (d. 1894)
• 1824 – Kuno Fischer, German philosopher (d. 1907)
• 1838 – Edouard Colonne, French violinist and conductor (d. 1910)
• 1851 – Peder Severin Kroyer, Danish painter (d. 1909)
• 1856 – Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Indian nationalist (d. 1920)
• 1864 – Apolinario Mabini, 1st Prime Minister of the Philippines (d. 1903)
• 1865 – Max Heindel, Dutch occultist and mystic (d. 1919)
• 1865 – Henry Norris, English businessman, politician and football club director (d. 1934)
• 1866 – Francesca Cilea, Italian composer (d. 1950)
• 1871 – Tsunesaburō Makiguchi (Japanese old Lunar calendar 6 June was an incorrect date using in Gregorian calendar), Winston Lim Zhi Hao "13 Bro" former lifetime, reformed educator and philosopher, Lotus Sutra Buddhism and Soka Gakkai International (SGI) founder (d. 1944)
• 1872 – Edward Adrian Wilson, English Antarctic explorer (d. 1912)
• 1878 – James Thomas Milton Anderson, Canadian politician, 5th Premier of Saskatchewan (d. 1946)
• 1884 – Emil Jannings, Swiss–German actor (d. 1950)
• 1885 – Georges V. Matchabelli, Georgian–American businessman (d. 1935)
• 1886 – Salvador de Madariaga, Spanish diplomat and writer (d. 1978)
• 1886 – Walter H. Schottky, German physicist (d. 1976)
• 1888 – Raymond Chandler, American novelist (d. 1959)
• 1892 – Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia (d. 1975)
• 1894 – Arthur Treacher, English–American actor and singer (d. 1975)
• 1895 – Aileen Pringle, American actress (d. 1989)
• 1898 – Bengt Djurberg, Swedish actor and singer (d. 1941)
• 1898 – Red Dutton, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1987)
• 1899 – Gustav Heinemann, President of Germany (d. 1976)
• 1900 – John Babcock, Canadian World War I veteran (d. 2010)

1901 – 1950

• 1905 – Leopold Engleitner, Austrian Holocaust survivor (d. 2013)
• 1906 – Vladimir Prelog, Croatian chemist (d. 1998)
• 1906 – Chandra Shekhar Azad, Indian activist (d. 1931)
• 1909 – John William Finn, American naval officer (d. 2010)
• 1912 – M. H. Abrams, American literary critic (d. 2015)
• 1913 – Michael Foot, British politician (d. 2010)
• 1913 – Coral Browne, Australian–American actress (d. 1991)
• 1918 – Ruth Duccini, American actress (d. 2014)
• 1918 – Pee Wee Reese, American baseball player and sportscaster (d. 1999)
• 1919 – Héctor German Oesterhell, Argentine screenwriter (d. 1977)
• 1920 – Amalia Rodrigues, Portuguese singer (d. 1999)
• 1921 – Robert Brown, English actor (d. 2003)
• 1922 – Damiano Damiani, Italian director and screenwriter (d. 2013)
• 1923 – Luis Aloma, Cuban–American baseball player (d. 1997)
• 1923 – Morris Halle, Latvian–American linguist and academic (d. 2018)
• 1923 – Amalia Mendoza, Mexican singer and actress (d. 2001)
• 1925 – Tajuddin Ahmed, Bangladeshi politician (d. 1975)
• 1925 – Alain Decaux, French historian and author (d. 2016)
• 1925 – Gloria DeHaven, American actress and singer (d. 2016)
• 1925 – Quett Masire, 2nd President of Botswana (d. 2017)
• 1926 – Cedella Booker, mother of Bob Marley (d. 2008)
• 1926 – Ludvik Vaculik, Czech writer and journalist (d. 2015)
• 1927 – Al McCandless, American politician (d. 2017)
• 1928 – Leon Fleisher, American pianist and conductor
• 1928 – Vera Rubin, American astronomer (d. 2016)
• 1929 – Danny Barcelona, American drummer (d. 2007)
• 1931 – Queen Te Atairangikaahu of the New Zealand Maori (d. 2006)
• 1931 – Guy Fournier, French Canadian writer and screenwriter
• 1931 – Claude Fournier, French Canadian director and screenwriter
• 1932 – Jorge Arvizu, Mexican voice actor (d. 2014)
• 1933 – Bert Convy, American actor, singer and game show host (d. 1991)
• 1933 – Richard Rogers, Italian–English architect
• 1934 – Steve Lacy, American jazz musician (d. 2004)
• 1936 – Anthony Kennedy, American lawyer and jurist
• 1936 – Don Drysdale, American baseball player (d. 1993)
• 1938 – Ronny Cox, American singer-songwriter, guitarist and actor
• 1938 – Mickey Curtis, Japanese actor, singer and television personality
• 1938 – Götz George, German actor (d. 2016)
• 1938 – Juliet Anderson, American pornographic actress (d. 2010)
• 1940 – Don Imus, American talk show host
• 1940 – Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, Italian banker and economist (d. 2010)
• 1941 – Richie Evans, American racing driver (d. 1985)
• 1941 – Sergio Mattarella, Italian lawyer, judge and politician, 12th President of Italy
• 1942 – Myra Hindley, English murderer (d. 2002)
• 1944 – Maria Joao Pires, Portuguese pianist
• 1946 – Rene Ricard, American poet, art critic and painter (d. 2014)
• 1947 – David Essex, English singer
• 1948 – John Hall, American singer-songwriter, guitarist and musician (Orleans)
• 1950 – Len McCluskey, English trade union leader

1951 – 1975

• 1951 – Edie McClurg, American actress and voice actress
• 1953 – Claude Barzotti, Belgian–Italian singer
• 1953 – Najib Razak, 6th Prime Minister of Malaysia
• 1953 – Graham Gooch, English cricketer
• 1957 – Theo van Gogh, Dutch movie director (d. 2004)
• 1957 – Jo Brand, English comedienne, actress and presenter
• 1958 – Frank Mill, German footballer
• 1961 – Woody Harrelson, American actor
• 1961 – Martin Gore, English singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer (Depeche Mode)
• 1962 – Eriq LaSalle, American actor, director and producer
• 1962 – Hiroshi Mikami, Japanese actor
• 1963 – Phil Boswell, Scottish politician
• 1964 – Uwe Barth, German politician
• 1964 – Nick Menza, German–American drummer (d. 2016)
• 1965 – Grace Mugabe, former First Lady of Zimbabwe
• 1965 – Slash, English–American musician (Guns N'Roses)
• 1967 – Philip Seymour Hoffman, American actor (d. 2014)
• 1967 – Titiyo, Swedish singer-songwriter
• 1968 – Elden Campbell, American basketball player
• 1968 – Gary Payton, American basketball player and actor
• 1968 – Stephanie Seymour, American actress and model
• 1969 – Marco Bode, German footballer
• 1969 – Andrew Cassels, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1969 – David Kaufman, American voice-over artist and actor
• 1970 – Charisma Carpenter, American actress
• 1971 – Alison Krauss, American singer, violinist and fiddler
• 1972 – Marlon Wayans, American actor, director, producer and screenwriter
• 1973 – Francis Healy, British singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 1973 – Monica Lewinsky, American White House intern
• 1973 – Himesh Reshammiya, Indian singer-songwriter, producer, actor and director
• 1974 – Stephanie March, American actress
• 1975 – Alessio Tacchinardi, Italian footballer
• 1975 – Suriya, Indian actor and producer

From 1976

• 1976 – Judit Polgár, Hungarian chess player
• 1977 – Kalup Linzy, American video and performance artist
• 1977 – Shawn Thornton, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1978 – Gail Emms, British badminton player
• 1978 – Lauren Groff, American novelist and short story writer
• 1979 – Sotirios Kyrgiakos, Greek footballer
• 1980 – Michelle Williams, American singer (Destiny's Child)
• 1981 – Steve Jocz, Canadian musician (Sum 41)
• 1981 – Jarkko Nieminen, Finnish tennis player
• 1981 – Natasha Yarovenko, Ukrainian actress and model
• 1983 – Aaron Peirsol, American swimmer
• 1984 – Walter Gargano, Uruguayan footballer
• 1984 – Brandon Roy, American basketball player
• 1984 – Arnór Atlason, Icelandic handball player
• 1985 – Blake Harrison, English actor
• 1985 – Anna Maria Mühe, German actress
• 1986 – Ayaka Komatsu, Japanese model and actress
• 1986 – Yelena Sokolova, Russian long jumper
• 1989 – Daniel Radcliffe, British actor
• 1990 – Ryan Castro, American actor
• 1990 – Kevin Reynolds, Canadian figure skater
• 1990 – Young JV, Filipino actor, singer, dancer and host
• 1991 – Lauren Mitchell, Australian gymnast
• 1992 – Danny Ings, English footballer
• 1996 – Rachel G. Fox, American actress and singer
• 1996 – Danielle Bradbery, American singer

Deaths

Up to 1900

• 1227 – Qiu Chuji, Chinese religious leader (b. 1148)
• 1373 – Saint Birgitta, Swedish saint (b. 1303)
• 1645 – Tsar Michael I of Russia (b. 1596)
• 1692 – Gilles Ménage, French scholar (b. 1613)
• 1727 – Simon Harcourt, 1st Viscount Harcourt, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain (b. 1661)
• 1757 – Domenico Scarlatti, Italian composer (b. 1685)
• 1773 – George Edwards, English naturalist (b. 1693)
• 1781 – John Joachim Zubly, Swiss–American pastor and politician (b. 1724)
• 1793 – Roger Sherman, signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1721)
• 1853 – Andries Pretorius, Boer leader (b. 1798)
• 1875 – Isaac Singer, American inventor (b. 1811)
• 1878 – Carl von Rokitansky, Bohemian physician, pathologist and politician (b. 1804)
• 1885 – Ulysses S. Grant, 18th President of the United States (b. 1822)

1901 – 2000

• 1901 – Kliment Turnovski, Bulgarian religious leader, writer and politician (b. 1838)
• 1916 – Sir William Ramsay, Scottish chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1852)
• 1919 – Spyridon Lambros, Greek historian, professor and Prime Minister (b. 1851)
• 1920 – Conrad Kohrs, German–born rancher (b. 1835)
• 1923 – Pancho Villa, Mexican revolutionary (b. 1878)
• 1924 – Frank Frost Abbott, American classical scholar (b. 1850)
• 1926 – Viktor Vasnetsov, Russian painter (b. 1848)
• 1930 – Glenn Curtiss, American pilot and engineer (b. 1878)
• 1932 – Tenby Davies, Welsh runner (b. 1884)
• 1932 – Alberto Santos-Dumont, Brazilian inventor (b. 1873)
• 1941 – George Lyman Kittredge, American scholar and educator (b. 1860)
• 1941 – José Quiñones Gonzales, Peruvian soldier and pilot (b. 1914)
• 1942 – Adam Czerniakow, Polish engineer (suicide) (b. 1880)
• 1942 – Andy Ducat, English cricketer and footballer (b. 1886)
• 1942 – Nikola Vapcarov, Macedonian poet from Bulgaria and Communist activist (b. 1909)
• 1948 – D. W. Griffith, American movie director (b. 1875)
• 1951 – Henri Philippe Pétain, leader of Vichy France (b. 1856)
• 1951 – Robert J. Flaherty, American director and producer (b. 1884)
• 1952 – Carl Severing, German politician (b. 1875)
• 1954 – Hermann Groman, American runner (b. 1882)
• 1955 – Cordell Hull, United States Secretary of State (b. 1871)
• 1966 – Montgomery Clift, American actor (b. 1920)
• 1967 – Ahmet Kutsi Tecer, Turkish poet and politician (b. 1901)
• 1968 – Henry Hallett Dale, English pharmacologist, won the 1936 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, (b. 1875)
• 1971 – Van Heflin, American actor (b. 1910)
• 1973 – Eddie Rickenbacker, American pilot (b. 1890)
• 1980 – Sarto Fournier, 38th Mayor of Montreal (b. 1908)
• 1980 – Keith Godchaux, American musician (Grateful Dead) (b. 1948)
• 1980 – Mollie Steimer, Russian exilee and political activist (b. 1897)
• 1982 – Vic Morrow, American actor (b. 1929)
• 1983 – Georges Auric, French composer (b. 1899)
• 1989 – Donald Barthelme, American writer (b. 1931)
• 1996 – Jean Muir, American actress and singer (b. 1911)
• 1997 – Chuhei Nambu, Japanese athlete (b. 1904)
• 1999 – King Hassan II of Morocco (b. 1929)

From 2001

• 2001 – Eudora Welty, American writer (b. 1909)
• 2002 – Leo McKern, Australian actor (b. 1920)
• 2002 – Dr. William L. Pierce, American writer and activist (b. 1933)
• 2002 – Chaim Potok, American novelist and rabbi (b. 1929)
• 2003 – James E. Davis, New York City councilman (murdered) (b. 1962)
• 2004 – Carlos Paredes, Portuguese musician and composer (b. 1925)
• 2004 – Mehmood, Indian actor (b. 1932)
• 2007 – Mohammed Zahir Shah, King of Afghanistan (b. 1914)
• 2007 – Ernst Otto Fischer, German chemist (b. 1918)
• 2008 – Kurt Furgler, Swiss Federal Councillor (b. 1924)
• 2010 – Daniel Schorr, American journalist (b. 1916)
• 2011 – Nguyen Cao Ky, South Vietnamese air force chief and Prime Minister (b. 1930)
• 2011 – Amy Winehouse, English singer-songwriter (b. 1983)
• 2011 – John Shalikashvili, American Chief of Staff (b. 1936)
• 2011 – Robert Ettinger, American academic and pioneer of cryonics (b. 1918)
• 2012 – Sally Ride, American physicist and astronaut, first American woman in space (b. 1951)
• 2013 – Emile Griffith, American boxer (b. 1938)
• 2013 – Djalma Santos, Brazilian footballer (b. 1929)
• 2013 – Jokichi Igarashi, Japanese supercentenarian (b. 1902)
• 2013 – Rona Anderson, Scottish actress (b. 1926)
• 2014 – Dora Bryan, English actress (b. 1923)
• 2014 – Saado Ali Warsame, Somali politician and folk singer (b. 1950)
• 2014 – Norman Leyden, American conductor, composer and musician (b. 1917)
• 2014 – Ariano Suassuna, Brazilian writer (b. 1927)
• 2015 – José Sazatornil, Spanish actor (b. 1925)
• 2015 – William Wakefield Baum, American cardinal (b. 1926)
• 2016 – Thorbjorn Falldin, Prime Minister of Sweden (b. 1926)
• 2016 – Carl Falck, Norwegian businessman and centenarian (b. 1907)
• 2016 – S. H. Raza, Indian artist (b. 1922)
• 2017 – Bob DeMoss, American football player and coach (b. 1927)
• 2017 – Thomas Fleming, American novelist (b. 1927)
• 2017 – John Kundla, American basketball coach (b. 1916)
• 2017 – Lau Wong-fat, Hong Kong businessman and politician (b. 1936)
• 2017 – Waldir Peres, Brazilian footballer (b. 1951)
• 2017 – Mervyn Rose, American tennis player (b. 1930)
• 2017 – Flo Steinberg, American comic book publisher and secretary (b. 1939)
• 2017 – Snooty, American manatee (b. 1948)
• 2018 – Maryon Pittman Allen, American journalist and politician (b. 1925)
• 2018 – Harry Gulkin, Canadian movie director (b. 1927)
• 2018 – Elbert Howard, American political activist (b. 1938)
• 2018 – Roh Hoe-chan, South Korean politician (b. 1956)
• 2018 – Khalid Salleh, Malaysian actor (b. 1948)
• 2018 – Oksana Shachko, Ukrainian artist and human rights activist (b. 1987)
• 2019 – Maxim Dadashev, Russian boxer (b. 1990)
• 2019 – Barney Smith, American plumber, artist and museum curator (b. 1921)
• 2019 – Ferdinand von Bismarck, German businessman and lawyer (b. 1930)
• 2019 – Lois Wille, American journalist (b. 1931)

Observances

• Birthday of Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia (Ras–Tafari Movement)
• Revolution Day (Egypt)
• Children's Day (Indonesia)
• National Hot Dog Day (United States)
• Renaissance Day (Oman)
• National Remembrance Day (Papua New Guinea)