Historical Events on Saturday, 23rd August

23/08/2023

Chandrayaan-3 mission initiated first Moon landing in Indian history.

Chandrayaan-3 is the third mission in the Chandrayaan programme, a series of lunar-exploration missions developed by ISRO. The mission consists of Vikram, a lunar lander, and Pragyan, a lunar rover, as replacements for the equivalents on Chandrayaan-2, which had crashed on landing in 2019.

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A business jet carrying key leadership members of the Russian private military company Wagner Group crashes, killing all ten people on board.

The Wagner Group, officially known as PMC Wagner, is a Russian state-funded private military company (PMC) that was controlled until 2023 by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a former close ally of Russia's president Vladimir Putin, and since then by Pavel Prigozhin. The Wagner Group has used infrastructure of the Russian Armed Forces. Evidence suggests that Wagner has been used as a proxy by the Russian government, allowing it to have plausible deniability for military operations abroad, and hiding the true casualties of Russia's foreign interventions.

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23/08/2013

A riot at the Palmasola prison complex in Santa Cruz, Bolivia kills 31 people.

On August 23, 2013, a prison riot broke out at Palmasola, a maximum-security prison in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. The riot started when members of one cell block attacked a rival gang in another, using propane tanks as flame throwers. Thirty-one people were killed, including an 18-month-old child who was living at the prison. Thirty-seven others were seriously injured. The riot led to calls for reform in the Bolivian prison system, which is plagued by overcrowding and long delays in the trial system.

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23/08/2012

A hot-air balloon crashes near the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana, killing six people and injuring 28 others.

On 23 August 2012, a hot air balloon on a commercial sightseeing flight crashed in stormy weather on the Ljubljana Marsh in central Slovenia, killing 6 of the 32 people on board.

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23/08/2011

A magnitude 5.8 (class: moderate) earthquake occurs in Virginia. Damage occurs to monuments and structures in Washington, D.C. and the resulted damage is estimated at 200 million–300 million USD.

On August 23, 2011, a magnitude 5.8 earthquake hit the Piedmont region of the U.S. state of Virginia at 1:51:04 p.m. EDT. The epicenter, in Louisa County, was 38 mi (61 km) northwest of Richmond and 5 mi (8 km) south-southwest of the town of Mineral. It was an intraplate earthquake with a maximum perceived intensity of VIII (Severe) on the Mercalli intensity scale. Several aftershocks, ranging up to 4.5 Mw in magnitude, occurred after the main tremor.

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Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is overthrown after the National Transitional Council forces take control of Bab al-Azizia compound during the Libyan Civil War.

Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi was a Libyan military officer, revolutionary, politician, and political theorist who ruled Libya from 1969 until his overthrow by Libyan rebel forces in 2011 during the First Libyan Civil War. He came to power through a bloodless military coup, first becoming Revolutionary Chairman of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977, Secretary General of the General People's Congress from 1977 to 1979, and then the Brotherly Leader of the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1979 to 2011. Initially ideologically committed to Arab nationalism and Arab socialism, Gaddafi later ruled according to his own Third International Theory.

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23/08/2010

The Manila hostage crisis occurred near the Quirino Grandstand in Manila, Philippines killing 9 people including the perpetrator while injuring 9 others.

The Manila hostage crisis, officially known as the Rizal Park hostage-taking incident, took place in Rizal Park, Manila, Philippines, on August 23, 2010. A tourist bus carrying 25 people, consisting of 21 Hong Kongers and four Filipinos, was hijacked by Rolando Mendoza, a former officer of the Philippine National Police. Mendoza claimed that he had been unfairly dismissed from his job, and demanded a fair hearing to defend himself.

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23/08/2007

The skeletal remains of Russia's last royal family members Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia, and his sister Grand Duchess Anastasia are discovered near Yekaterinburg, Russia.

Alexei Nikolaevich was the last Russian tsesarevich. He was the youngest child and only son of Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna. He was born with haemophilia, which his parents tried treating with the methods of peasant faith healer Grigori Rasputin.

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23/08/2006

Natascha Kampusch, who had been abducted at the age of ten, escapes from her captor Wolfgang Přiklopil, after eight years of captivity.

Natascha Maria Kampusch is an Austrian author and former talk show host. At the age of 10, on 2 March 1998, she was abducted and held in a secret cellar by her kidnapper, Wolfgang Přiklopil, for more than eight years, until she escaped on 23 August 2006. Upon her escape, Přiklopil died by suicide by train at a nearby station. She has written a book about her ordeal, 3,096 Days (2010), which was later adapted into a film and released in 2013.

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23/08/2000

Gulf Air Flight 072 crashes into the Persian Gulf near Manama, Bahrain, killing 143.

Gulf Air Flight 072 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Cairo International Airport, Egypt, to Bahrain International Airport, Bahrain, operated by Gulf Air. On 23 August 2000 at 19:30 Arabia Standard Time (UTC+3), the Airbus A320 crashed minutes after executing a go-around following a failed attempt to land on Runway 12. The flight crew suffered from spatial disorientation during the go-around and crashed into the shallow waters of the Persian Gulf 2 km (1 nmi) from the airport. All 143 people on board the aircraft were killed in what remains the deadliest aviation accident in Bahraini and Gulf Air history, and was the deadliest accident involving an Airbus A320 at the time, which was later surpassed by TAM Airlines Flight 3054.

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23/08/1994

Eugene Bullard, the only African American pilot in World War I, is posthumously commissioned as Second Lieutenant in the United States Air Force.

Eugene Jacques Bullard was one of the first African-American military pilots, although Bullard flew for France, not the United States. Bullard was one of the few black combat pilots during World War I, along with Pierre Réjon from France, William Robinson Clarke, a Jamaican who flew for the Royal Flying Corps, Domenico Mondelli from Italy, and Ahmet Ali Çelikten of the Ottoman Empire. Also a boxer and a jazz musician, he was called "L'Hirondelle noire" in French.

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23/08/1991

The World Wide Web is opened to the public.

The World Wide Web is a public interconnected information system that enables content sharing over the Internet. It facilitates access to documents and other web resources according to specific rules of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).

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23/08/1990

Saddam Hussein appears on Iraqi state television with a number of Western "guests" (actually hostages) to try to prevent the Gulf War.

Saddam Hussein was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 until his overthrow in 2003 during the United States-led invasion of Iraq. He previously served as the vice president from 1968 to 1979 and also as the prime minister from 1979 to 1991 and later from 1994 to 2003. A leading member of the Ba'ath Party, he was a proponent of Ba'athism, a mix of Arab nationalism and Arab socialism. The policies and ideologies he championed are collectively known as Saddamism, a right-wing variant of Ba'athism.

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Armenia declares its independence from the Soviet Union.

Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia to the north, Azerbaijan to the east, and Iran and the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan to the south. Yerevan is the capital, largest city and financial center.

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West and East Germany announce that they will reunite on October 3.

German reunification, also known as the expansion of the Federal Republic of Germany (BRD), was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single sovereign state, which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the German Democratic Republic and the integration of its re-established constituent federated states into the Federal Republic of Germany to form present-day Germany. This date was chosen as the customary German Unity Day, and has thereafter been celebrated each year as a national holiday. On the same date, East and West Berlin were also reunified into a single city, which eventually became the capital of Germany.

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23/08/1989

Singing Revolution: Two million people from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania stand on the Vilnius–Tallinn road, holding hands.

The Singing Revolution was a series of events from 1987 to 1991 that led to the restoration of independence of the three Soviet-occupied Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania at the end of the Cold War. The Soviet Union annexed the Baltics around 1940, following the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, though this annexation was not widely recognized. During the subsequent occupation the Soviet Union suppressed local languages, religious institutions, and cultural expression, and carried out large-scale deportations and political repression.

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23/08/1985

Hans Tiedge, top counter-spy of West Germany, defects to East Germany.

Hans-Joachim Tiedge was a head of West Germany's counter-intelligence in the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) in Cologne. His defection to the East on 19 August 1985 revealed him to be an East German spy. He had been recruited by Markus Wolf.

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23/08/1975

The start of the Wave Hill walk-off by Gurindji people in Australia, lasting eight years, a landmark event in the history of Indigenous land rights in Australia, commemorated in a 1991 Paul Kelly song and an annual celebration.

The Wave Hill walk-off, also known as the Gurindji strike, was a walk-off and strike by 200 Gurindji stockmen, house servants and their families, starting on 23 August 1966 and lasting for seven years. It took place at Wave Hill, a cattle station in Kalkarindji, Northern Territory, Australia, and was led by Gurindji man Vincent Lingiari.

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The Pontiac Silverdome opens in Pontiac, Michigan, 30 miles (48 km) northwest of Detroit, Michigan

The Pontiac Silverdome was a multi-purpose stadium in Pontiac, Michigan, United States. It opened in 1975 and sat on 199 acres (51 ha) of land. When the stadium opened, it featured a fiberglass fabric roof held up by air pressure, the first use of the architectural technique in a major athletic facility. With a seating capacity of over 82,600, it was the largest National Football League (NFL) stadium until 2000.

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23/08/1973

A bank robbery gone wrong in Stockholm, Sweden, turns into a hostage crisis; over the next five days the hostages begin to sympathise with their captors, leading to the term "Stockholm syndrome".

The Norrmalmstorg robbery was a bank robbery and hostage crisis that occurred at the Norrmalmstorg Square in Stockholm, Sweden, in August 1973 and was the first crime in Sweden to be covered by live television. It is best known as the origin of the term "Stockholm syndrome".

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23/08/1970

Organized by Mexican American labor union leader César Chávez, the Salad Bowl strike, the largest farm worker strike in U.S. history, begins.

Mexican Americans are Americans of full or partial Mexican descent. In 2022, Mexican Americans made up 11.2% of the US population and 58.9% of all Hispanic Americans. In 2019, 71% of Mexican Americans were born in the United States. Mexicans born outside the US make up 53% of the total population of foreign-born Hispanic Americans and 25% of the total foreign-born population. Chicano is a term used by some to describe the unique identity held by Mexican-Americans. The United States is home to the second-largest Mexican community in the world, behind only Mexico.

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23/08/1966

Lunar Orbiter 1 takes the first photograph of Earth from orbit around the Moon.

The 1966 Lunar Orbiter 1 robotic spacecraft mission, part of NASA's Lunar Orbiter program, was the first American spacecraft to orbit the Moon. It was designed primarily to photograph smooth areas of the lunar surface for selection and verification of safe landing sites for the Surveyor and Apollo missions. It was also equipped to collect selenodetic, radiation intensity, and micrometeoroid impact data.

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23/08/1958

Chinese Civil War: The Second Taiwan Strait Crisis begins with the People's Liberation Army's bombardment of Quemoy.

The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and the forces of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Armed conflict continued intermittently from 1 August 1927 until Communist victory resulted in their near-complete control over mainland China on 10 December 1949.

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23/08/1954

The first flight of the Lockheed C-130 multi-role aircraft takes place.

The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is an American four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed and built by Lockheed. Capable of using unprepared runways for takeoffs and landings, the C-130 was designed as a troop, medevac, and cargo transport aircraft. The versatile airframe has found uses in other roles, including as a gunship (AC-130), for airborne assault, search and rescue, scientific research support, weather reconnaissance, aerial refueling, maritime patrol, and aerial firefighting. It is the main tactical airlifter for many military forces worldwide. More than 40 variants of the Hercules, including civilian versions marketed as the Lockheed L-100, operate in more than 60 nations.

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The Cruise of the Kings, a royal cruise organised by the Queen Consort of Greece, Frederica of Hanover, departs from Marseille, France.

The Cruise of the Kings was a royal cruise around the Mediterranean Sea in the summer of 1954, organised by Queen Frederica and King Paul of Greece.

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23/08/1948

The World Council of Churches is formed by 147 churches from 44 countries.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a worldwide Christian inter-church organization founded in 1948 to work for the cause of ecumenism. Its full members today include the Assyrian Church of the East, most jurisdictions of the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, the Union of Utrecht, the Lutheran World Federation, the Anglican Communion, the Mennonite churches, the World Methodist Council, the Baptist World Alliance, the World Communion of Reformed Churches, the Moravian Church, the Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church, and several Pentecostal churches. The Catholic Church is not a full member, but it sends delegates who have observer status to meetings.

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23/08/1946

Ordinance No. 46 of the British Military Government constitutes the German Länder (states) of Hanover and Schleswig-Holstein.

Ordinance No. 46, effective 23 August 1946, was an ordinance issued by the British Military Government (CCG/BE) in the British Zone of Allied-occupied Germany by which, among others, the Prussian Province of Schleswig-Holstein became the State of Schleswig-Holstein, and the Province of Hanover turned into the State of Hanover.

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23/08/1945

World War II: Soviet–Japanese War: The USSR State Defense Committee issues Decree no. 9898cc "About Receiving, Accommodation, and Labor Utilization of the Japanese Army Prisoners of War".

The Soviet–Japanese War was a campaign of the Second World War that began with the Soviet invasion of Manchuria following the Soviet declaration of war against Japan on 8 August 1945. The Soviet Union and Mongolian People's Republic toppled the Japanese puppet states of Manchukuo in Manchuria and Mengjiang in Inner Mongolia, as well as northern Korea, Karafuto on the island of Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands. The defeat of Japan's Kwantung Army helped bring about the Japanese surrender and the end of World War II. The Soviet entry into the war showed that the Soviet Union would not act as a third party in negotiating a conditional end to hostilities, and thus was a factor in the Japanese government's decision to surrender unconditionally.

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23/08/1944

World War II: Marseille is liberated by the Allied forces.

Marseille is a city in southern France, the prefecture of the department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the Provence region, it is located on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, near the mouth of the Rhône river. Marseille is the second-most populous city proper in France, after Paris, with 886,040 inhabitants in 2023 over a municipal territory of 241 km2 (93 sq mi). Together with its suburbs and exurbs, the Marseille metropolitan area, which extends over 3,972 km2 (1,534 sq mi), had a population of 1,900,957 at the January 2022 census. The cities of Marseille, Aix-en-Provence, and 90 suburban municipalities have formed since 2016 the Aix-Marseille-Provence Metropolis, an indirectly elected metropolitan authority now in charge of wider metropolitan issues, with a population of 1,922,626 at the January 2022 census.

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World War II: King Michael of Romania dismisses the pro-Nazi government of Marshal Antonescu, who is later arrested. Romania switches sides from the Axis to the Allies.

Michael I was the last king of Romania, reigning from 20 July 1927 to 8 June 1930 and again from 6 September 1940 until his forced abdication on 30 December 1947.

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Freckleton air disaster: A United States Army Air Forces B-24 Liberator bomber crashes into a school in Freckleton, England, killing 61 people.

On 23 August 1944, a United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) Consolidated B-24H Liberator crashed during a test flight into the centre of the village of Freckleton, Lancashire, England, killing all three crewmen aboard the aircraft and 58 individuals on the ground, including 38 children aged four to six.

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23/08/1943

World War II: Kharkiv is liberated by the Soviet Red Army for the second time after the Battle of Kursk.

Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest city in Ukraine. Located in the northeast of the country, it is the largest city of the historic region of Sloboda Ukraine. Kharkiv is the administrative center of Kharkiv Oblast and Kharkiv Raion. Prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, it had an estimated population of 1,421,125.

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23/08/1942

World War II: Beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad.

The Battle of Stalingrad was a major battle on the Eastern Front of World War II, beginning when Nazi Germany and its Axis allies attacked and became locked in a protracted struggle with the Soviet Union for control over the Soviet city of Stalingrad in southern Russia. The battle was characterized by fierce close-quarters combat and direct assaults on civilians in aerial raids; the battle epitomized urban warfare, and it was the single largest and costliest urban battle in military history. It was the bloodiest and fiercest battle of the entirety of World War II — and arguably in all of human history—as both sides suffered tremendous casualties amidst ferocious fighting in and around the city. The battle is commonly regarded as the turning point in the European theatre of World War II, as Germany's Oberkommando der Wehrmacht was forced to withdraw a considerable amount of military forces from other regions to replace losses on the Eastern Front. By the time the hostilities ended, the German 6th Army and 4th Panzer Army had been destroyed and Army Group B was routed. The Soviets' victory at Stalingrad shifted the Eastern Front's balance of power in their favour, while also boosting the morale of the Red Army.

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23/08/1939

World War II: Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union sign the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. In a secret protocol to the pact, Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Romania are divided into German and Soviet "spheres of influence".

World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major roles, the latter enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the only nuclear weapons used in war. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing the death of 60 to 75 million people. Millions died as a result of massacres, starvation, disease, and genocides including the Holocaust. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.

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23/08/1929

Hebron Massacre during the 1929 Palestine riots: Arab attacks on the Jewish community in Hebron in the British Mandate of Palestine occur, continuing until the next day, resulting in the death of 65–68 Jews and the remaining Jews being forced to leave the city.

Sixty-seven or sixty-nine Jews were massacred on 24 August 1929 in Hebron, Mandatory Palestine. The event also left scores seriously wounded or maimed. Jewish homes were pillaged and synagogues were ransacked.

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23/08/1927

Italian anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti are executed after a lengthy, controversial trial.

Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were Italian immigrants and anarchists, controversially accused of murdering Alessandro Berardelli and Frederick Parmenter, a guard and a paymaster, during the April 15, 1920, armed robbery of the Slater and Morrill Shoe Company in Braintree, Massachusetts, United States. Seven years later, they were executed in the electric chair at Charlestown State Prison. Most historians consider their conviction unfair due to prejudice against immigrants and radicals.

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23/08/1923

Captain Lowell Smith and Lieutenant John P. Richter perform the first mid-air refueling on De Havilland DH-4B, setting an endurance flight record of 37 hours.

Captain in the U.S. Army (USA), U.S. Marine Corps (USMC), U.S. Air Force (USAF), and U.S. Space Force (USSF) is a company-grade officer rank, with the pay grade of O-3. It ranks above first lieutenant and below major. It is equivalent to the rank of lieutenant in the Navy/Coast Guard officer rank system and is different from the higher Navy/Coast Guard rank of captain. The insignia for the rank consists of two silver bars, with slight stylized differences between the Army/Air Force version and the Marine Corps version.

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23/08/1921

British airship R-38 experiences structural failure over Hull in England and crashes in the Humber Estuary; of her 49 British and American training crew, only four survive.

The R.38 class of rigid airships was designed for Britain's Royal Navy during the final months of the First World War, intended for long-range patrol duties over the North Sea. Four similar airships were originally ordered by the Admiralty, but orders for three of these were cancelled after the armistice with Germany and R.38, the lead ship of the class, was sold to the United States Navy in October 1919 before completion.

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23/08/1914

World War I: The British Expeditionary Force and the French Fifth Army begin their Great Retreat before the German Army.

World War I, or the First World War, also known as The Great War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Central Powers. Major areas of conflict included Europe and the Middle East, as well as parts of Africa and the Asia-Pacific. The war saw important developments in weaponry including tanks, aircraft, artillery, machine guns, and chemical weapons. One of the deadliest conflicts in history, it resulted in an estimated 15 to 22 million military and civilian casualties and genocide. The movement of large numbers of people was a major factor in the deadly Spanish flu pandemic.

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World War I: Japan declares war on Germany.

Japan participated in World War I from 1914 to 1918 as a member of the Allies/Entente and played an important role against the Imperial German Navy. Politically, the Japanese Empire seized the opportunity to expand its sphere of influence in China, and to gain recognition as a great power in postwar geopolitics.

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23/08/1904

The automobile tire chain is patented.

Snow chains, or tire chains, are devices fitted to the tires of vehicles to provide increased traction when driving through snow and ice.

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23/08/1898

The Southern Cross Expedition, the first British venture of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, departs from London.

The Southern Cross Expedition, otherwise known as the British Antarctic Expedition, 1898–1900, was the first British venture of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, and the forerunner of the more celebrated journeys of Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton. The brainchild of the Norwegian explorer Carsten Borchgrevink, it was the first expedition to over-winter on the Antarctic mainland, the first to visit the Great Ice Barrier—later known as the Ross Ice Shelf—since Sir James Clark Ross's groundbreaking expedition of 1839 to 1843, and the first to effect a landing on the Barrier's surface. It also pioneered the use of dogs and sledges in Antarctic travel.

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23/08/1873

The Albert Bridge in Chelsea, London opens.

Albert Bridge is a road bridge over the River Thames connecting Chelsea on the north bank to Battersea on the south. Designed and built by Rowland Mason Ordish in 1873 as an Ordish–Lefeuvre system modified cable-stayed bridge, it proved to be structurally unsound, so between 1884 and 1887 Sir Joseph Bazalgette incorporated some of the design elements of a suspension bridge. In 1973 the Greater London Council (GLC) added two concrete piers, which transformed the central span into a simple beam bridge. As a result, today the bridge is an unusual hybrid of three design styles. It is an English Heritage Grade II* listed building.

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23/08/1866

The Austro-Prussian War ends with the Treaty of Prague.

The Austro-Prussian War was fought in 1866 between the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia, with each also being aided by various allies within the German Confederation. Prussia had also allied with the Kingdom of Italy, linking this conflict to the Third Independence War of Italian unification. The Austro-Prussian War was part of the wider rivalry between Austria and Prussia, and resulted in Prussian dominance over the German states, having confirmed Prussia's superior military organization and technology compared to Austria at the time.

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23/08/1864

American Civil War: The Union Navy captures Fort Morgan, Alabama, thus breaking Confederate dominance of all ports on the Gulf of Mexico except Galveston, Texas.

The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States between the Union and the Confederacy, which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union to preserve slavery in the United States, which they saw as threatened because of the election of Abraham Lincoln and the growing abolitionist movement in the North. The war lasted a little over four years, ending with Union victory, the dissolution of the Confederacy and the abolition of slavery, freeing four million African Americans.

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23/08/1839

The United Kingdom captures Hong Kong as a base as it prepares for the First Opium War with Qing China.

The First Opium War, also known as the Anglo-Chinese War, was a series of military engagements fought between the British Empire and the Chinese Qing dynasty between 1839 and 1842. The immediate issue was the Chinese enforcement of their ban on the opium trade by seizing private opium stocks from mainly British merchants at Guangzhou and threatening to impose the death penalty for future offenders. Despite the opium ban, the British government supported the merchants' demand for compensation for seized goods, and insisted on the principles of free trade and equal diplomatic recognition with China.

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23/08/1831

Nat Turner's rebellion of enslaved Virginians is suppressed.

Nat Turner's Rebellion, historically known as the Southampton Insurrection, was a slave rebellion that took place in Southampton County, Virginia, in August 1831. Led by Nat Turner, the rebels, made up of enslaved African Americans, killed between 55 and 65 White people, making it the deadliest slave revolt for the latter racial group in U.S. history. The rebellion was effectively suppressed within a few days, at Belmont Plantation on the morning of August 23, but Turner survived in hiding for approximately ten weeks afterward: six weeks only leaving his hiding place "in the dead of night" for water; two weeks eavesdropping on the neighborhood at night, for the purpose of gathering intelligence, and returning to his hiding place before dawn; and two weeks being "pursued almost incessantly", having been discovered by a dog.

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23/08/1813

At the Battle of Großbeeren, the Prussians under Von Bülow repulse the French army.

The Battle of Großbeeren occurred on 23 August 1813 in neighboring Blankenfelde and Sputendorf between the Prussian III Corps under Friedrich von Bülow and the Franco-Saxon VII Corps under Jean Reynier. Napoleon had hoped to drive the Prussians out of the Sixth Coalition by capturing their capital, but the swamps south of Berlin combined with rain and marshal Nicolas Oudinot's ill health all contributed to the French defeat.

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23/08/1799

Napoleon Bonaparte leaves Egypt for France en route to seizing power.

Napoleon Bonaparte, later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was Emperor of the French from 18 May 1804 until his first abdication in 1814, with a brief restoration during the Hundred Days in 1815. He rose to prominence as a general during the French Revolution and led a series of military campaigns across Europe and North Africa during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. As a statesman, he implemented numerous legal and administrative reforms in France and Europe.

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23/08/1784

Western North Carolina (now eastern Tennessee) declares itself an independent state under the name of Franklin; it is not accepted into the United States, and only lasts for four years.

North Carolina is a state in the Southeastern and South Atlantic regions of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia to the southwest, and Tennessee to the west. The state is the 28th-largest and ninth-most populous of the United States. Along with South Carolina, it makes up the Carolinas region of the East Coast. At the 2020 census, the state had a population of 10,439,388. Raleigh is the state's capital and Charlotte is its most populous and one of the fastest growing cities in the United States. The Charlotte metropolitan area, with an estimated population of 2,883,370 in 2024, is the most populous metropolitan area in North Carolina, the 21st-most populous in the United States, and the largest banking center in the nation after New York City. The Research Triangle, with an estimated population of 2,368,947 in 2023, is the second-most populous combined metropolitan area in the state, 31st-most populous in the United States, and is home to the largest research park in the United States, Research Triangle Park.

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23/08/1782

British forces under Edward Despard complete the reconquest of the Black River settlements on the Mosquito Coast from the Spanish.

Edward Marcus Despard, an Irish officer of French descent in the service of the British Crown, gained notoriety as a colonial administrator for refusing to recognise race as a distinction in English law and, following his recall to London, as a republican conspirator. Despard's associations with the London Corresponding Society, the United Irishmen and United Britons led to his trial and execution in 1803 as the alleged ringleader of a plot to assassinate the King.

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23/08/1775

American Revolutionary War: King George III delivers his Proclamation of Rebellion to the Court of St James's stating that the American colonies have proceeded to a state of open and avowed rebellion.

The American Revolutionary War, also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which American Patriot forces organized as the Continental Army and commanded by George Washington defeated the British Army. The conflict was fought in North America, the Caribbean, and the Atlantic Ocean. The war's outcome seemed uncertain for most of the war, but Washington and the Continental Army's decisive victory in the Siege of Yorktown in 1781 led King George III and the Kingdom of Great Britain to negotiate an end to the war. In 1783, in the Treaty of Paris, the British monarchy acknowledged the independence of the Thirteen Colonies, leading to the establishment of the United States as an independent and sovereign nation.

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23/08/1703

Edirne event: Sultan Mustafa II of the Ottoman Empire is dethroned.

The Edirne Incident was a janissary revolt that began in Constantinople in 1703. The revolt was a reaction to the consequences of the Treaty of Karlowitz and Sultan Mustafa II's absence from the capital. The rising power of the Sultan’s former tutor, Şeyhülislam Feyzullah Efendi and the empire's declining economy caused by tax farming were also causes of the revolt. As a result of the Edirne Incident, Şeyhülislam Feyzullah Efendi was killed, and Sultan Mustafa II was ousted from power. The Sultan was replaced by his brother, Sultan Ahmed III. The incident contributed to the decline of the power of the sultanate and the increasing power of the janissaries and kadis.

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23/08/1655

Battle of Sobota: The Swedish Empire led by Charles X Gustav defeats the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

The Battle of Sobota took place near Sobota, Poland, on 23 August 1655, between the armies of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth on the one hand and of Sweden on the other.

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23/08/1628

George Villiers, the first Duke of Buckingham, is assassinated by John Felton.

George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, was an English courtier, statesman, and notable patron of the arts. He was a favourite and self-described "lover" of King James VI and I. Buckingham remained at the height of royal favour for the first three years of the reign of James's son, Charles I, until he was assassinated.

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23/08/1600

Battle of Gifu Castle: The eastern forces of Tokugawa Ieyasu defeat the western Japanese clans loyal to Toyotomi Hideyori, leading to the destruction of Gifu Castle and serving as a prelude to the Battle of Sekigahara.

The Battle of Gifu Castle took place in September 1600 that led to the destruction of Gifu Castle in Gifu, Mino Province, Japan. The battle served as a prelude to the Battle of Sekigahara the following month. It pitted Oda Hidenobu of the Ishida Mitsunari western forces against Ikeda Terumasa, Ikeda Sen, and Fukushima Masanori of the eastern forces and loyal to Tokugawa Ieyasu. The castle was destroyed as a result of the battle.

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23/08/1595

Long Turkish War: Wallachian prince Michael the Brave confronts the Ottoman army in the Battle of Călugăreni and achieves a tactical victory.

The Long Turkish War, or Thirteen Years' War, was an indecisive land war between the Holy Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire, primarily over the principalities of Wallachia, Transylvania, and Moldavia. It was waged from 1593 to 1606, but in Europe, especially in Hungary, it is called the Fifteen Years' War, reckoning from the 1591–1592 Turkish campaign that captured Bihać in the Kingdom of Croatia. In Turkey, it is called the Ottoman–Austrian War of 1593–1606.

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23/08/1572

French Wars of Religion: Mob violence against thousands of Huguenots in Paris results in the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre.

The French Wars of Religion were a series of civil wars between French Catholics and Protestants from 1562 to 1598. Between two and four million people died from violence, famine or disease directly caused by the conflict, and it severely damaged the power of the French monarchy. The fighting ended with a compromise in 1598, when Henry of Navarre, who converted to Catholicism in 1593, was proclaimed King Henry IV of France and issued the Edict of Nantes, which granted substantial rights and freedoms to the Huguenots. However, Catholics continued to disapprove of Protestants and of Henry, and his assassination in 1610 triggered a fresh round of Huguenot rebellions in the 1620s.

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23/08/1541

French explorer Jacques Cartier lands near Quebec City in his third voyage to Canada.

Jacques Cartier was a French maritime explorer from Brittany. Jacques Cartier was the first European to describe and map the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the shores of the Saint Lawrence River, which he named "Canada" after the Iroquoian names for the two big settlements he saw at Stadacona and at Hochelaga.

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23/08/1521

Christian II of Denmark is deposed as king of Sweden and Gustav Vasa is elected regent.

Christian II, a monarch under the Kalmar Union, reigned as King of Denmark and Norway from 1513 until 1523. He was briefly King of Sweden from 1520 until 1521. As king of Denmark and Norway, he was concurrently Duke of Schleswig and Holstein in joint rule with his uncle Frederick.

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23/08/1514

The Battle of Chaldiran ends with a decisive victory for the Sultan Selim I, Ottoman Empire, over the Shah Ismail I, founder of the Safavid dynasty.

The Battle of Chaldiran took place on 23 August 1514 and ended with a decisive victory for the Ottoman Empire over the Safavid Empire. As a result, the Ottomans annexed Eastern Anatolia and Upper Mesopotamia from Safavid Iran. It marked the first Ottoman expansion into Eastern Anatolia, and the halt of the Safavid expansion to the west. The Battle of Chaldiran was just the beginning of 41 years of destructive war, which only ended in 1555 with the Peace of Amasya. Though the Safavids eventually reconquered Mesopotamia and Eastern Anatolia under the reign of Abbas the Great, they would be permanently ceded to the Ottomans by the 1639 Treaty of Zuhab.

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23/08/1382

The Golden Horde, led by Khan Tokhtamysh, begins the Siege of Moscow, which ends four days later with the storming of the city and the death of Muscovite Prince Ostei.

The Golden Horde, or Ulus of Jochi, self-designated as Ulug Ulus, was originally a Mongol and later Turkicized khanate established in the 13th century, originating from the northwestern part of the Mongol Empire. After the division of the Mongol Empire in 1259, it became a functionally independent khanate. It is also known as the Kipchak Khanate, and replaced the earlier, less organized Cuman–Kipchak confederation.

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23/08/1328

Battle of Cassel: French troops stop an uprising of Flemish farmers.

On 23 August 1328, the Battle of Cassel took place near the city of Cassel, 30 km south of Dunkirk in present-day France. Philip VI fought Nicolaas Zannekin, a wealthy farmer from Lampernisse. Zannekin was the leader of a band of Flemish rebels. The fighting erupted over taxation and punitive edicts of the French over the Flemish. The battle was won decisively by the French. Zannekin and about 3,200 Flemish rebels were killed in the battle.

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23/08/1268

The Battle of Tagliacozzo: The army of Prince Conradin is nearly destroyed by Charles of Anjou, ending Hohenstaufen control over the Kingdom of Sicily and leaving the Angevins in control.

The Battle of Tagliacozzo was fought on 23 August 1268 between the Ghibelline supporters of Conradin of Hohenstaufen and the Guelph army of Charles of Anjou. The battle represented the last act of Hohenstaufen power in Italy. The capture and execution of Conradin several months after the battle also marked the fall of the family from the Imperial and Sicilian thrones, leading to the new chapter of Angevin domination in Southern Italy.

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23/08/1244

Siege of Jerusalem: The city surrenders to the Khwarazmiyya, ending Christian control of the Jerusalem for the next 672 years.

The siege of Jerusalem of 1244 took place after the Sixth Crusade, when a Khwarazmian army conquered the city on July 15, 1244.

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23/08/0476

Odoacer, chieftain of the Germanic tribes (Herulic – Scirian foederati), is proclaimed rex Italiae ("King of Italy") by his troops.

Odoacer, also spelled Odovacer or Odovacar, was a barbarian soldier and statesman from the Middle Danube who was an officer of the Roman army and deposed the Western Roman child emperor Romulus Augustulus to become the ruler of Italy (476–493). Odoacer's overthrow of Romulus Augustulus is traditionally understood as marking the end of the Western Roman Empire.

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23/08/0079

Mount Vesuvius begins stirring, on the feast day of Vulcan, the Roman god of fire.

AD 79 (LXXIX) was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Titus and Vespasianus. The denomination AD 79 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

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