23 April - Definition and Overview

April 23 is the 113th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (114th in leap years). There are 252 days remaining.

Events

300 BC-AD 1899

• 215 BC - A temple is built on the Capitoline Hill dedicated to Venus Erycina to commemorate the Roman defeat at Lake Trasum.
• AD 303 - Saint George is put to death because of his strong faith in Christianity.
• 1014 - Battle of Clontarf: Brian Boru defeats Viking invaders, but is killed in battle.
• 1348 - The founding of the Order of the Garter by King Edward III of England was announced (it was St George's Day).
• 1521 - Battle of Villalar: King Charles I of Spain defeats the Comuneros.
• 1533 - The Church of England annuls the marriage between Catherine of Aragon and Henry VIII of England.
• 1597 - The Merry Wives of Windsor is first performed; Queen Elizabeth I of England was in attendance.
• 1660 - Treaty of Oliva between Sweden and Poland.
• 1661 - King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland is crowned in Westminster Abbey.
• 1827 - William Rowan Hamilton presented his Theory of systems of rays.
• 1867 - William Lincoln patents the Zoetrope, a machine which shows animated pictures by mounting a strip of drawings in a wheel.
• 1876 - April Uprising in Perushtitsa, Bulgaria

1900-1999

• 1920 - The national council in Turkey denounces the government of Sultan Mehmed VI and announces a temporary constitution.
• 1923 - Ceremonial inauguration of Gdynia Seaport.
• 1932 - Windmill De Adriaan burns down in Haarlem, the Netherlands
• 1933 - The Gestapo is established in Germany.
• 1934 - An FBI raid in northern Wisconsin goes wrong when George Nelson, aka "Baby Face", kills Special Agent H. Carter Baum.
• 1935 - Polish Constitution of 1935 passed
• 1942 - World War II: Baedeker Raids - German bombers hit Exeter, Bath and York, England in retaliation for the British raid on Lübeck.
• 1948 - 1948 Arab-Israeli War: Haifa, the major port of Israel, is captured from Palestinian forces.
• 1954 - Hank Aaron hits his first major league home run.
• 1956 - Elvis Presley makes his first appearance in Las Vegas, Nevada.
• 1967 - Soyuz 1 is launched into orbit, carrying a single cosmonaut, Colonel Vladimir Komarov, who is killed when the spacecraft crashes after returning to earth.
• 1968 - The United Kingdom produces its first decimalised coins, a 5p and a 10p coin.
• 1968 - Vietnam War: Student protesters at Columbia University in New York City take over administration buildings and shut down the university.
• 1971 - The Rolling Stones release the classic album Sticky Fingers
• 1974 - A Pan American World Airways Boeing 707 crashes in Bali, Indonesia killing 107.
• 1975 - Vietnam War: At Tulane University, U.S. President Gerald Ford states that the war is over as far as the United States is concerned.
• 1979 - fighting in London between the Anti-Nazi League and the Metropolitan Police's Special Patrol group results in the death of protestor Blair Peach.
• 1983 - In Munich, Germany, Corinne Hermès wins the twenty-eighth Eurovision Song Contest for Luxembourg singing "Si la vie est cadeau" (If life is a gift).
• 1985 - New Coke, a marketing disaster, was introduced.
• 1990 - Namibia becomes the 160th member of the United Nations and the 50th member of the British Commonwealth.
• 1993 - Eritreans vote overwhelmingly for independence from Ethiopia in a United Nations-monitored referendum.
• 1994 - Physicists discover the top quark subatomic particle.

2000-2099

• 2001 - Intel introduces the Pentium 4 Processor.
• 2003 - Beijing closes all schools for two weeks due to the SARS virus.

Births

1100-1899

• 1185 - King Afonso II of Portugal (d. 1233)
• 1516 - Georg Fabricius, German poet, historian and archaeologist (d. 1571)
• 1564 - William Shakespeare, English playwright, actor - traditional birth date, Actual date unknown (d. 1616)
• 1598 - Maarten Tromp, admiral in the Dutch navy (d. 1653)
• 1676 - King Frederick I of Sweden (d. 1751)
• 1720 - The Vilna Gaon
• 1775 - William Turner, painter (d. 1851)
• 1791 - James Buchanan, 15th President of the United States (d. 1868)
• 1792 - John Thomas Romney Robinson, Irish astronomer and physicist (d. 1882)
• 1813 - Stephen A. Douglas, Senator from Illinois, candidate for President of the United States (d. 1861)
• 1823 - Abd-ul-Mejid, future Ottoman sultan (d. 1861)
• 1858 - Max Planck, physicist and recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics 1918 (d. 1947)
• 1861 - Edmund Henry Hynman Allenby, British general (d. 1936)
• 1882 - Albert Coates, British composer (d. 1953)
• 1889 - Karel Doorman, Dutch admiral
• 1891 - Sergei Prokofiev, Soviet composer (d. 1953)
• 1893 - Allen Dulles, CIA director (d. 1969)
• 1893 - Frank Borzage, director (d. 1952)
• 1897 - Lester B. Pearson, fourteenth Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1972)
• 1899 - Dame Ngaio Marsh, author (d. 1982)

1900-1999

• 1901 - E.B. Ford British ecological geneticist (d. 1988)
• 1902 - Halldór Laxness, author (d. 1998)
• 1916 - Bud Wilkinson, American football coach
• 1921 - Warren Spahn, Baseball Hall of Famer (d. 2003)
• 1923 - Dolph Briscoe, former governor of Texas
• 1923 - Avram Davidson, science fiction writer (d. 1993)
• 1926 - Ruth Leuwerik, actress
• 1928 - Shirley Temple (Shirley Temple Black), American actress and politician
• 1932 - Halston, fashion designer (d. 1990)
• 1935 - Bunky Green, jazz musician
• 1936 - Roy Orbison, American singer and musician (d. 1988)
• 1939 - Lee Majors, actor
• 1941 - Paavo Lipponen, Prime Minister of Finland
• 1941 - Jacqueline Boyer, French singer, Eurovision Song Contest winner
• 1942 - Sandra Dee, actress
• 1949 - Joyce DeWitt, actress
• 1954 - Michael Moore, filmmaker
• 1955 - Judy Davis, actress
• 1955 - Tony Miles, chess player (d. 2001)
• 1960 - Steve Clark, Def Leppard guitarist
• 1960 - Valerie Bertinelli, actress
• 1961 - George Lopez, actor, comedian
• 1968 - Timothy McVeigh, American terrorist (d. 2001)
• 1972 - Patricia Manterola, Mexican singer
• 1979 - Jaime King, actress
• 1984 - Douglas Waltz

Deaths

• 303 - Saint George, soldier of the Roman Empire and later Christian martyr

1000-1899

• 1014 - Brian Boru, High King of Ireland during the Battle of Clontarf (b. c. 940)
• 1124 - King Alexander I of Scotland (b. 1078)
• 1616 (Julian calendar) - William Shakespeare, English playwright and actor (b. 1564)
• 1616 (Gregorian calendar) - Miguel Cervantes, Spanish author (b. 1547)
• 1792 - Karl Friedrich Bahrdt, German theologian and adventurer (b. 1741)
• 1850 - William Wordsworth, English poet (b. 1770)

1900-1999

• 1951 - Charles G. Dawes, Vice President of the United States for Calvin Coolidge (b 1865)
• 1975 - William Hartnell, actor (b. 1908)
• 1979 - Blair Peach, anti-fascism campaigner (b. 1946)
• 1983 - Buster Crabbe, Olympics swimming gold medalist, actor
• 1986 - Otto Preminger, film director (b. 1906)
• 1986 - Jim Laker, cricketer (b. 1922
• 1990 - Paulette Goddard, actress
• 1992 - Satyajit Ray, Indian filmmaker (b. 1921)
• 1993 - César Chávez, labor activist (b. 1927)
• 1995 - Howard Cosell, sports journalist (b. 1918)
• 1996 - Pamela L. Travers, author (b. 1899)
• 1997 - Denis Compton, English cricketer (b. 1918)
• 1998 - James Earl Ray, assassin (b. 1928)

2000-

• 2002 - Linda Lovelace, pornographic film star (b. 1949)
• 2003 - James H. Critchfield, CIA Cold Warrior
• 2003 - Bernard Katz, biophysicist, Nobel Prize winner

Holidays and observances

• Jurgi festival, in ancient Latvia
• Feast Day of Saint George:
  • National Day of England
  • celebrated as St. Jordi's Day in Catalonia, presents of books and roses.
• Independence Day for the Conch Republic
• National Sovereignty and Children's Day in Turkey (1920)

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