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May 23 is the 143rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (144th in leap years). There are 222 days remaining.
Events
- 1430 - Joan of Arc is captured by the Burgundians while leading an army to relieve Compiègne
- 1498 - Girolamo Savonarola is executed on the orders of Pope Alexander VI
- 1533 - The marriage of King Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon is declared null and void.
- 1541 - Jacques Cartier leaves St-Malo, France on his third voyage.
- 1555 - Paul IV becomes Pope.
- 1609 - Official ratification of the Second Charter of Virginia.
- 1618 - The Second Defenstration of Prague precipitates the Thirty Years' War.
- 1701 - After being convicted of murdering William Moore and for piracy, Captain William Kidd is hanged in London.
- 1788 - South Carolina becomes the 8th U.S. state to ratify the United States Constitution.
- 1865 - A parade is held in Pennsylvania Ave in Washington, DC to celebrate the ending of the American Civil War.
- 1873 - The Canadian Parliament establishes the North West Mounted Police (which will be renamed the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 1920).
- 1900 - Sergeant William Harvey Carney becomes the first African American to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor (awarded for heroism in the Battle of Fort Wagner during the American Civil War).
- 1911 - Dedication ceremony for the New York Public Library.
- 1915 - World War I: Italy joins the Allies after they declare war on Austria-Hungary.
- 1934 - Near their hide-out in Black Lake, Louisiana, bank robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow are ambushed and shot dead by Texas Rangers.
- 1945 - Heinrich Himmler, the head of the Gestapo, commits suicide while in Allied custody.
- 1949 - The Federal Republic of Germany is established.
- 1958 - Explorer I ceases transmission.
- 1960 - Prime Minister of Israel David Ben-Gurion announces that Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann has been captured.
- 1962 - Drilling for the Montreal, Quebec subway commences.
- 1969 - Rock band The Who release Tommy, the first rock opera.
- 1985 - Thomas Patrick Cavanagh is sentenced to life in prison for attempting to sell stealth bomber secrets to the Soviet Union.
- 1995 - Official announcement of the Java programming language.
- 1995 - Oklahoma City bombing: In Oklahoma City the remains of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building is imploded.
- 1999 - In Kansas City, Missouri, Owen Hart (Blue Blazer) falls 90 feet to his death while being lowered into a World Wrestling Federation ring.
- 2003 - Mountain climbing: 25-year-old Nepalese Sherpa, Pemba Dorjie Sherpa, makes the fastest ever ascent of Mount Everest, in 12 hours 45 minutes. This is broken by his rival Sherpa Lakpa Gelu only three days later.
- 2004 - Last day of the 4th European Festival of Youth Choirs (EJCF).
- 2004 - Part of Paris Charles De Gaulle International Airport Terminal 2E collapses, killing five people and injuring three others.
Births
- 1052 - Philip I, King of France (d. 1108
- 1707 - Carolus Linnaeus, Swedish botanist (d. 1778)
- 1718 - William Hunter (anatomist) (d.1783)
- 1790 - Jules Dumont d'Urville, explorer (d. 1842)
- 1810 - Margaret Fuller, journalist, feminist (d. 1850)
- 1824 - Ambrose Burnside, American Civil War general (d. 1881)
- 1844 - `Abdu'l-Bahá, Bahá'í central figure (d. 1921)
- 1848 - Otto Lilienthal, engineer (d. 1896)
- 1879 - Dezső Lauber, Hungarian sportsman (d. 1966)
- 1883 - Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., actor, cofounder of United Artists (d. 1939)
- 1888 - Zack Wheat, Baseball Hall of Famer (d. 1972)
- 1890 - Herbert Marshall, actor (d. 1966)
- 1898 - Scott O'Dell, author (d. 1989)
- 1908 - John Bardeen, physicist (d. 1991)
- 1910 - Margaret Wise Brown, children's author (d. 1952)
- 1910 - Sir Hugh Casson, architect, painter (d. 1999)
- 1910 - Scatman Crothers, actor, musician (d. 1986)
- 1910 - Artie Shaw, clarinetist, bandleader
- 1912 - John Payne, actor (d. 1989)
- 1918 - Denis Compton, English cricketer (d. 1997)
- 1919 - Betty Garrett, actress, dancer
- 1920 - Helen O'Connell, singer (d. 1993)
- 1921 - James Blish, science fiction author (d. 1975)
- 1921 - Humphrey Lyttelton, jazz musician
- 1927 - Dieter Hildebrandt, cabaret artiste
- 1928 - Rosemary Clooney, singer, actress (d. 2002)
- 1928 - Nigel Davenport, actor
- 1929 - Julian Euell, jazz musician
- 1931 - Barbara Barrie, actress
- 1933 - Joan Collins, actress
- 1934 - Dr. Robert Moog, inventor of Moog synthesizer
- 1936 - Charles Kimbrough, American actor (Murphy Brown)
- 1939 - Reinhard Hauff, film director
- 1943 - John Newcombe, tennis player
- 1945 - Padmarajan, eminent director of malayalam cinema
- 1946 - David Graham, golf champion
- 1951 - Anatoly Karpov, chess world champion
- 1951 - Judy Rodman, country music singer
- 1952 - Marvelous Marvin Hagler, boxer
- 1956 - Buck Showalter, baseball player, manager
- 1956 - Ursula Plassnik, Austrian politician
- 1958 - Mitch Albom, author (Tuesdays With Morrie, The Five People You Meet in Heaven)
- 1958 - Drew Carey, actor (The Drew Carey Show, Whose Line Is It Anyway?)
- 1961 - Karen Duffy, actress
- 1967 - Phil Selway, musician
- 1972 - Brian McComas, country music singer
- 1974 - Ken Jennings, Jeopardy! champion
- 1974 - Jewel, singer
- 1977 - Ilia Kulik, figure skating champion
- 1982 - Malene Mortensen, Danish singer
- 1984 - Adam Wylie, actor
Deaths
- 1125 - Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1081)
- 1498 - Girolamo Savonarola, priest, ruler of Florence (b. 1452)
- 1523 - Ashikaga Yoshitane, Ashikaga shogun (b. 1466)
- 1701 - Captain Kidd, pirate (b. 1645)
- 1841 - Franz Xaver von Baader, philosopher, theologian (b. 1765)
- 1855 - Charles Robert Malden, explorer (b. 1797)
- 1868 - Kit Carson, trapper, scout, Indian agent, soldier, legend (b. 1809)
- 1886 - Leopold von Ranke, German historian (b. 1795)
- 1933 - Clyde Barrow (b. 1909) and Bonnie Parker (b. 1910), outlaws
- 1937 - John D. Rockefeller, entrepreneur (b. 1839)
- 1945 - Heinrich Himmler, Nazi official (b. 1900)
- 1986 - Sterling Hayden, American actor
- 1991 - Wilhelm Kempff, German pianist and composer (b. 1895)
- 1992 - Giovanni Falcone, Italian judge (b. 1939)
- 1999 - Owen Hart, professional wrestler (b. 1965)
- 2002 - Sam Snead, golfer (b. 1912)
Holidays and observances
May 22 - May 24 - April 23 - June 23 - listing of all days
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