Historical Events on May 23

Events 1 - 200 of 208

• 1420 Jews of Syria and Austria expelled
• 1421 Jews of Austria imprisoned & expelled

• 1536 Pope Paul III installs Portuguese inquisition

• 1568 Battle of Heiligerlee, Groningen: Dutch rebels beat Spanish, thousands killed
• 1568 The Netherlands declares independence from Spain

• 1609 Official ratification of the Second Charter of Virginia takes place
• 1611 Matthias von Habsburg chosen King of Bohemia
• 1618 Second Defenestration of Prague: Two Catholic Lords Regent and their secretary are thrown out of a window and amazingly are not seriously injured by the 70 foot (21m) fall. Triggers the Thirty Years' War.
• 1644 Johan Mauritius van Nassau resigns as head of Civil rights activists
• 1647 William II Prince of Orange sworn in as Stadtholder of Holland

• 1667 King Afonso VI of Portugal flees

• 1750 Carlo Goldoni's play "Il Bugiardo" (The Liar) premieres in Mantua
• 1774 Chestertown tea party occurs (tea dumped into Chester River)

• 1844 Declaration of Bab (Baha'i festival) ('Azamat 7, 1)
• 1845 New York City Police Department (NYPD) is formed, replacing an old night watch system
• 1853 Buenos Aires gains independence from Argentina (reunited 1859)
• 1861 Three Virginia slaves Frank Baker, Shepard Mallory and James Townsend escape, rowing across Hampton Roads to Fort Monroe, Virginia - declared 1st contraband of war the next day [1]
• 1861 Virginia citizens vote 3 to 1 in favor of secession from the Union

• 1863 Organization of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Battle Creek, Michigan
• 1864 Battle of North Anna, Virginia, 1st of 3 days of fighting
• 1865 -24] Victory parade in Washington, D.C. (Grand Review)
• 1865 Flag flown at full mast over White House for the first time since Lincoln was shot

• 1873 1st Preakness Stakes: G. Barbee aboard Survivor wins in 2:43 at Pimlico Race Course, Baltimore, Maryland
• 1873 Canada's North West Mounted Police Force forms (it doesn't get the "Royal" until 1904)
• 1873 Postal cards sold in San Francisco for 1st time
• 1878 Attorney John Henry Smyth named US minister to Liberia
• 1882 6" of snow falls in eastern Iowa
• 1887 1st transcontinental train arrives in Vancouver, British Columbia
• 1894 William Love hosts groundbreaking ceremonies for Love Canal, a planned community on shores of Lake Ontario
• 1898 1st Philippine Expeditionary Troops sail from San Francisco
• 1900 William Harvey Carney becomes the first African-American soldier awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in the Civil War at the Battle of Fort Wagner
• 1901 Ottawa Mint Act receives Royal Assent

• 1903 1st automobile trip across US leaves San Francisco for New York, (arrives July 26)
• 1903 1st direct primary election law in US adopted, by Wisconsin
• 1907 The single chamber Parliament of Finland gathers for its first plenary session.
• 1908 Dirigible explodes over San Francisco Bay, 16 passengers fall, none killed

• 1914 Dutch socialist Henk Sneevliet co-founds The Indies Social Democratic Association (Communist Party) in Dutch Indonesia
• 1915 Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary during WW I
• 1917 Dutch 2nd Chamber approves 1908 conscription draft
• 1918 King Oil/Shell refinery on Curacao officially opens
• 1920 Pope Benedictus XV publishes encyclical Pacem Dei
• 1922 Comedic play "Abie's Irish Rose" premieres at Fulton Theatre, NYC; runs for 2,327 performances (longest run at the time)
• 1922 Future World Heavyweight boxing champion Gene Tunney suffers his only professional defeat in 15-round unanimous points decision against Harry Greb at Madison Square Garden, NY

• 1923 Launch of Belgium's SABENA airline: first flight from Brussels to Lympne, England

• 1926 Lebanese constitution forms under French mandate
• 1928 Bomb attack on Italian embassy in Buenos Aires, 22 die
• 1931 Whipsnade Zoo opens in Bedfordshire, England
• 1932 Australian cyclist Hubert Opperman sets paced world records 1,384km in 24 hours, and 1,609km (1,000 miles) in 28 hours, 55 minutes, 39 seconds at Melbourne Motordrome

• 1934 The Auto-Lite Strike culminates in the "Battle of Toledo", a five-day melée between 1,300 troops of the Ohio National Guard and 6,000 picketers
• 1935 1st scheduled night game postponed due to rain (Cincinnati)

• 1939 British parliament plans to make Palestine independent by 1949

• 1939 Submarine USS Squalus sinks in the Gulf of Maine, drowning 26, 33 remaining crew rescued from a depth of 243 ft (74 m) by divers using newly developed heliox air systems (divers later awarded the Medal of Honor)
• 1940 1st great dogfight between Spitfires and Luftwaffe

• 1943 -24] 826 Allied bombers attack Dortmund

• 1944 British and Canadian troops occupy Pontecorvo, Italy
• 1944 Chinese counter offensive at Hunan front
• 1944 Operation Buffalo: Allied break out from Anzio bridgehead
• 1945 German island of Helgoland in the North Sea surrenders to British

• 1947 PC Hooft prize forms for literature

• 1948 Ramat Rahel gateway to Jerusalem is repossessed by Israel
• 1949 Federal Republic of [West] Germany created out of the American, British and French occupation zones

• 1951 Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet signed in Beijing, formally establishes Chinese sovereignty over Tibet
• 1953 WHIZ TV channel 18 in Zanesville, OH (NBC/ABC) begins broadcasting
• 1956 World Trade Center dedicated in Ferry Building, San Francisco
• 1958 Explorer 1 ceases transmission - 1st US satellite launched into space January 1958

• 1958 US schools 1st use Cliff's Notes
• 1960 "Got A Girl" by The Four Preps hits #24

• 1960 WGTV TV channel 8 in Athens-Atlanta, GA (PBS) begins broadcasting
• 1960 WKBM TV (now WLII) channel 11 in Caguas/San Juan, PR 1st broadcast
• 1960 WRCA radio changes call letters back to WNBC (NYC)
• 1962 15th Cannes Film Festival: "Keeper of Promises" directed by Anselmo Duarte wins the Palme d'Or
• 1962 French OAS leader general Raoul Salan sentenced to life in prison (pardoned 1968)

• 1963 NBC purchases 1963 AFL championship game TV rights for $926,000
• 1964 Dale Greig runs female marathon world record (3:27:45)
• 1965 Franz Jonas elected President of Austria
• 1965 Pontoon ferry overturned on Shire River, Malawi, kills 150
• 1967 Government bans submarines near South Africa
• 1968 Beatles open 2nd Apple Boutique at 161 New Kings Road, London
• 1969 22nd Cannes Film Festival: "If..." directed by Lindsay Anderson wins the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film

• 1969 Lauwerszee Dike in Holland closes
• 1969 Track Records releases The Who's double album rock opera "Tommy" in the UK
• 1970 A fire breaks out in the Britannia Bridge over the Menai Straits in north Wales contributing to its partial destruction and causing approximately £1,000,000 worth of fire damage
• 1970 Grateful Dead's 1st performance outside US, as part of 'The Hollywood Rock Music Festival', in Newcastle under Lyme, England
• 1970 San Diego Padres beat SF Giants 17-16 in 15 innings
• 1970 USSR performs nuclear test (underground)
• 1971 American rock group Iron Butterfly ("In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida") disbands
• 1974 Great Britain performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
• 1974 Italian Red Brigade officer Mario Sossi freed
• 1975 28th Cannes Film Festival: "Chronicle of the Years of Fire" directed by Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina wins the Palme d'Or
• 1977 Benin adopts its constitution
• 1977 Moluccan extremists hold 105 schoolchildren and 50 others hostage on a hijacked train in the Netherlands, children released May 27, siege ends June 11

• 1978 AL approves transfer of Red Sox to Jean Yawkey for $15M
• 1978 General strike in Peru
• 1979 1st edition of "Wisden Cricket Monthly"

• 1979 West-Germany elects Karl Carstens president

• 1980 ABC Masters Bowling Tournament won by Neil Burton

• 1981 Barcelona fascists take 200 people hostage
• 1981 NASA launches Intelsat V satellite, no. 501

• 1982 BBC warns Britain will bomb Argentina
• 1982 Colin Wilson rides a surfboard 294 miles

• 1983 Radio Moscow announcer Vladimir Danchev praises Afghanistan Muslims standing up to Russia; he is removed from the air

• 1984 Detroit Tigers win AL record tying 16th straight road game

• 1986 US & Western Europe veto heavier sanctions against South Africa
• 1988 41st Cannes Film Festival: "Pelle erobreren" directed by Bille August wins the Palme d'Or
• 1988 Maryland stops sale of cheap pistols on Jan 1, 1990

• 1989 Cleveland loses and drop to 21-22, this is the latest a sub .500 team is in 1st place (AL East)
• 1989 Lincoln Square in Bronx named
• 1990 Cost of rescuing savings & loan failures is put at up to $130 billion
• 1990 Dow Jones average hits a record 2,856.26
• 1990 NY Yankees hit 6 home runs to beat Minnesota Twins 12-0
• 1991 Last Cubans troops leave Angola
• 1991 Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Tommy Greene no-hits Montreal Expos, 2-0
• 1991 San Diego Sockers win 4th consecutive Major Soccer League championship
• 1991 US Supreme Court bars subsidized clinics from discussing abortion
• 1992 NY Yankees play in their 4th straight extra inning game
• 1992 Sicilian Mafia bombs motorcade killing anti-mob prosecutor Giovanni Falcone, his wife, and three police escorts on Highway A29, near Capaci, Sicily

• 1994 "Star Trek: The Next Generation" finale airs this week in syndication
• 1994 270 pilgrims die in the bustle round Mina, Saudi-Arabia

• 1994 Roman Herzog elected President of Germany
• 1995 47th time opposing pitchers hit HRs, K Foster (Cubs)/M Freeman (Rocks)
• 1996 Fred Norris of the Howard Stern show changes his name legally to Eric
• 1997 "King David" closes at New Amsterdam Theater NYC
• 1997 Mel Karmazin replaces Peter Lund as CEO of CBS TV
• 1998 The Good Friday Agreement is accepted in a referendum in Northern Ireland with 75% voting yes
• 1999 52nd Cannes Film Festival: "Rosetta" directed by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne wins the Palme d'Or

• 2001 Marco Siffredi becomes the first person to snowboard down Mount Everest via the Norton Couloir (some share record accreditation with Stefan Gatt)
• 2002 The "55 parties" clause of the Kyoto protocol is reached after its ratification by Iceland
• 2003 The Euro exceeds its initial trading value as it hits $1.18 for the first time since its introduction in 1999
• 2004 Part of Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport's Terminal 2E collapses, killing four people and injuring three others.

• 2008 The International Court of Justice (ICJ) awards Middle Rocks to Malaysia and Pedra Branca (Pulau Batu Puteh) to Singapore, ending a 29-year territorial dispute between the two countries.
• 2010 63rd Cannes Film Festival: "Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives" directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul wins the Palme d'Or

• 2014 Jason Koumas signs a one-year extension with Tranmere Rovers
• 2014 Russia and China veto the U.N. Security Council resolution to establish an International Criminal Court for war crimes in Syria
• 2016 Chinese archaeologists announce findings of earliest use of barley in China to make beer, Shaanxi province 3400-2900 BC
• 2017 Library of Al-Qarawiyyin, the world's oldest continually operating library, reopens after a major restoration by King Mohammed VI in Fez, Morocco [1]

• 2017 UK raises terror threat level to critical following Manchester bombing

• 2018 Hamburg, Germany, becomes the first city to ban diesel cars on some roads
• 2018 NFL owners approve new NFL national anthem policy whereby players required to stand if they choose to be on the field for pre-game presentations
• 2019 Brazilian cosmetics group Natura buys UK's Avon for $2 billion, creating the world's fourth-largest cosmetics company
• 2019 Fifty children rescued from an international paedophile ring on the dark web in Thailand, Australia and the US by Interpol under Operation Blackwrist, main organizer sentenced to 146 years

• 2019 More than 170 tornadoes reported in a week in US states of Missouri, Oklahoma and Iowa, killing seven and causing widespread damage
• 2019 Prototype of new high-speed train that will float above the track, capable of travelling 600km an hour (370 mph), unveiled by Chinese Railway Rolling Stock Corporation in Qingdao
• 2019 Six migrant children have now died in US custody in eight months prompting calls for an investigation

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