Tuesday, 23rd December 2025

23rd December in the Stars – Star Sign Capricorn

Today, the zodiac sign Capricorn celebrates its birthday.

Personality Profile

Personality Those born on 23rd December blend Capricorn's steadfast nature with Mercury's intellectual agility. They appear calm and thoughtful, yet their minds constantly work on practical solutions. These individuals build their world methodically, thoughtfully, and rarely impulsively.

Strengths & Weaknesses Their greatest strength lies in combining discipline with sharp communication – they explain and execute complex plans effectively. Weakness includes occasional over-thinking that complicates emotional intimacy; they can seem overly critical.

Love In relationships, they display loyal devotion but require intellectual stimulation and space. Emotional expression doesn't come naturally; partners appreciate their reliable, attentive nature and steady commitment.

Caree & Finance Career success comes naturally – the numerological 8 amplifies ambition and drive. They excel in management, planning, and intellectual roles. Financial security builds methodically and patiently through calculated decisions.

Health These people thrive with structured routine and regular movement. They tend toward nervousness through excessive thinking; relaxation techniques and mental breaks are essential for balance.

That night, the moon was in its waning gibbous phase.

Chinese year of the Snake (Wood).

Fun Facts About 23rd December

Name Days in Your Language: Hart, Hartman, Latoya, Wade

Someone born on this day would be just 182 days old today — roughly 4,381 hours, 262,876 minutes, or 15,772,587 seconds spent on Earth so far.

It's the 357. day of the year. In 2025, 23rd December falls on a Tuesday.

There are 8 days still to come.

We’re currently in Week 52 — the year marches on.

Famous Birthdays on 23rd December

On this day, 224 notable people were born on 23rd December — spanning from 968 to 2002. From world leaders to artists and scientists, discover who shares this birthday.

23/12/2002

Finn Wolfhard, Canadian actor and musician

Finn Michael Wolfhard is a Canadian actor, musician, and film director. He received international attention for playing Mike Wheeler on the Netflix series Stranger Things (2016–2025). He also played Richie Tozier in the horror film It (2017) and its sequel It Chapter Two (2019), and Trevor Spengler in the supernatural comedy Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) and its sequel Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024).

23/12/2000

Victor Boniface, Nigerian footballer

Victor Okoh Boniface is a Nigerian professional footballer who plays as a striker for Bundesliga club Werder Bremen, on loan from Bayer Leverkusen, and the Nigeria national team.

23/12/1999

Samuel Lino, Brazilian footballer

Samuel Dias Lino is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a left winger or wing-back for Campeonato Brasileiro Série A club Flamengo and the Brazil national team.

23/12/1996

Bartosz Kapustka, Polish footballer

Bartosz Kapustka is a Polish professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Ekstraklasa club Legia Warsaw and the Poland national team.

23/12/1994

Reed Alexander, American actor

Reed Alexander is an American actor, journalist, and author. He is currently a correspondent for Insider, formerly “Business Insider,” covering the business of entertainment and the global media industry. Among his most recognizable credentials from his time as an actor is his role as Nevel Papperman in Nickelodeon's iCarly. He reprised the role of Nevel on an episode of Sam & Cat as well as the Paramount+ revival of iCarly.

23/12/1992

Spencer Daniels, American actor

Spencer Eli Daniels is an American film and television actor born in Tarzana, Los Angeles. He began acting professionally at the age of ten and has appeared in over 30 films and TV series including The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) and Star Trek (2009). He portrayed Tyler Lomand in a recurring role on the Starz series Crash (2008-2009). In 2013, he appeared in The Midnight Game which was released by Anchor Bay Entertainment.

Mbwana Samatta, Tanzanian footballer

Mbwana Ally Samatta is a Tanzanian professional footballer who plays as a striker for Ligue 1 club Le Havre, and captains the Tanzania national team.

Jeff Schlupp, German footballer

Jeffrey Schlupp is a professional footballer who plays for EFL Championship club Norwich City. A versatile player, Schlupp has played as a left-back, central midfielder, left winger or forward in his career.

23/12/1991

Kyren Wilson, English snooker player

Kyren Wilson is an English professional snooker player from Kettering. He is a former World Snooker Champion and has won 10 ranking titles.

23/12/1990

Brice Dja Djédjé, Ivorian footballer

Brice Florentin Dja Djédjé is an Ivorian professional footballer who plays as a right back or wing back for Championnat National 3 club ES Fosséenne.

Mitch Haniger, American baseball player

Mitchell Evan Haniger is an American professional baseball outfielder who is a free agent. He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Arizona Diamondbacks, Seattle Mariners, and San Francisco Giants.

Anna Maria Perez de Tagle, American actress and singer

Anna Maria Francesca Enriquez Kline is an American actress and singer. She is known for her roles as Ashley Dewitt on Hannah Montana and Ella Pador on Camp Rock and Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam. She also played Miracle Ross on Cake and was in the 2009 film Fame, in which she starred as Joy Moy. In November 2011, she began starring on Broadway in the Godspell revival at the Circle in the Square theater in New York City.

23/12/1989

David Szymanski, American video game developer

David Szymanski is an American video game developer. Szymanski is known for having developed games such as Dusk, Iron Lung, and Gloomwood.

23/12/1988

Mallory Hagan, American beauty queen, Miss America 2013

Mallory Hytes Hagan Stramara is an American former news anchor and beauty queen. She won Miss America 2013 as Miss New York 2012 and campaigned unsuccessfully for the Alabama House of Representatives in 2018.

23/12/1987

Tommaso Bellazzini, Italian footballer

Tommaso Bellazzini is an Italian footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder or winger for Aglianese.

Owen Franks, New Zealand rugby player

Owen Thomas Franks is a New Zealand former rugby player who last played for Crusaders in the Super Rugby competition. His usual position is tighthead prop.

Jori Lehterä, Finnish ice hockey player

Jori Jonatan Lehterä is a Finnish professional ice hockey player who is a centre for HIFK of the Liiga. He was selected by the St. Louis Blues in the third round, 65th overall, of the 2008 NHL entry draft. He won a bronze medal with Finland at the 2014 Winter Olympics.

23/12/1986

Thomas Bourgin, French motorcycle racer (died 2013)

Thomas Bourgin was a French motorcycle racer. He was in 68th place in the overall ranking of his first Dakar Rally.

Beau Champion, Australian rugby league player

Beau Champion is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer. He played for the South Sydney Rabbitohs, Melbourne Storm, Gold Coast Titans and Parramatta Eels in the National Rugby League. He is the second cousin of teammate Greg Inglis. Champion's preferred playing position is at Centre after being groomed as a halfback in his debut year. Champion has represented City in the 2010 City v Country Origin as well as making the 2010 Indigenous All-Stars Squad.

Balázs Dzsudzsák, Hungarian footballer

Balázs Dzsudzsák is a Hungarian professional footballer who plays as a winger for Nemzeti Bajnokság I club Debreceni VSC.

T. J. Oshie, American ice hockey player

Timothy Leif "T. J." Oshie is an American former professional ice hockey right winger. He was selected by the St. Louis Blues in the first round of the 2005 NHL entry draft, as the 24th overall pick. He then spent the first seven years of his NHL career with the Blues before being traded to the Washington Capitals in 2015. Oshie won the Stanley Cup as a member of the Capitals in 2018.

23/12/1985

Dev Hynes (also known as Blood Orange and formerly Lightspeed Champion), English singer, songwriter, producer, and composer

Devonté Hynes, also known as Blood Orange and formerly Lightspeed Champion, is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, composer and director based in New York City. From 2004 to 2006, Hynes was a member of the band Test Icicles, playing guitar, synth, and occasionally performing vocals. They released one full-length album in 2005. Hynes went on to release two solo studio albums as Lightspeed Champion, and subsequently five more as Blood Orange, between 2008 and 2025.

Harry Judd, English drummer and songwriter

Harry Mark Christopher Judd is an English musician who is the drummer for the rock band McFly.

Alison Sudol, American actress and singer-songwriter

Alison Sudol is an American actress, singer and songwriter. She was formerly known as the singer A Fine Frenzy, and is known for her role as Queenie Goldstein in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016), as well as its sequels The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018) and The Secrets of Dumbledore (2022). Her music has been featured in numerous television shows and movies.

23/12/1984

Dudu Aharon, Israeli singer-songwriter

Dudu Aharon is a singer-songwriter, musician, and composer from Israel.

Bernard Pollard, American football player

Bernard Karmell Pollard is an American former professional football player who was a safety in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Purdue Boilermakers, and was selected by the Kansas City Chiefs in the second round of the 2006 NFL draft. He has also played for the Houston Texans, Baltimore Ravens and Tennessee Titans. Pollard was dubbed "the Bonecrusher" while at Purdue for his hard hits and tackles, and acquired the nickname "Patriot-Killer" as a professional, after inflicting injuries which would ultimately alter four New England Patriots seasons, including ending Patriots quarterback Tom Brady's 2008 season.

Josh Satin, American baseball player

Joshua Blake Satin is an American former professional baseball corner infielder. Satin played first base, second base, and third base. During his career, he played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Mets, as well as in the Cincinnati Reds and San Diego Padres organizations.

Sebastian Werle, German rugby player

Sebastian Werle is a retired German international rugby union player, having last playing for the RG Heidelberg in the Rugby-Bundesliga and the German national rugby union team.

23/12/1983

Michael Chopra, English footballer

Rocky Michael Chopra is an English former professional footballer who played as a striker.

Lisa Dobriskey, English runner

Lisa Jane Dobriskey is a retired English middle-distance runner. She was the Commonwealth Games champion in the 1500 m in 2006 and won a silver medal in the same distance at the 2009 World Championships.

Hanley Ramírez, Dominican baseball player

Hanley Ramírez is a Dominican-American former professional baseball shortstop. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Boston Red Sox, Florida / Miami Marlins, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Cleveland Indians. Ramírez is a three-time MLB All-Star and received the 2006 National League Rookie of the Year Award. While he played the majority of his career at shortstop, he also played first base, third base and left field.

23/12/1982

Zbyněk Michálek, Czech ice hockey player

Zbyněk Michálek is a Czech former professional ice hockey defenceman. He most recently played for Sparta Praha of the Czech Extraliga (ELH). Michálek has also previously played in the NHL for the Minnesota Wild, Arizona Coyotes, Pittsburgh Penguins, and St. Louis Blues. He is the older brother of former NHL star Milan Michálek.

Shaone Morrisonn, Canadian-Croatian ice hockey player

Shaone Morrisonn is a Canadian-Croatian former professional ice hockey defenceman. He played for the Boston Bruins, Washington Capitals and the Buffalo Sabres during his eight-year NHL career. He currently serves as a European professional scout for the New York Rangers.

Thomas Rohregger, Austrian cyclist

Thomas Rohregger is an Austrian former professional road bicycle racer, who competed as a professional between 2005 and 2013. Over his career, Rohregger competed for Elk Haus–Simplon, Team Milram and RadioShack–Leopard.

23/12/1981

Maritza Correia, Puerto Rican-American swimmer

Maritza Correia, also known by her married name Maritza McClendon, is a former Olympic swimmer from Puerto Rico who swam representing the United States. When she qualified for the U.S. Olympic team in 2004, she became the first Puerto Rican of African descent to be a member of the U.S. Olympic swimming team. She was the first female African-American swimmer for the United States to win an Olympic medal. She also became the first black American swimmer to set an American and world swimming record.

Yuriorkis Gamboa, Cuban boxer

Yuriorkis Gamboa Toledano is a Cuban professional boxer. He held the World Boxing Association (WBA) featherweight title from 2009 to 2011, and the International Boxing Federation (IBF) featherweight title from 2010 to 2011. As an amateur, he won a gold medal in the flyweight division at the 2004 Olympics, and a bronze in the featherweight division at the 2005 World Championships.

Hiro Fujiwara, Japanese manga artist

Hiro Fujiwara is a Japanese manga artist.

Agnes Milowka, Polish-Australian diver, explorer, photographer, and author (died 2011)

Agnes Milowka was an Australian technical diver, underwater photographer, author, maritime archaeologist and cave explorer. She gained international recognition for penetrating deeper than previous explorers into cave systems across Australia and Florida, and as a public speaker and author on the subjects of diving and maritime archaeology. She died aged 29 while diving in a confined space.

Mario Santana, Argentine footballer

Mario Alberto Santana is an Argentine football coach and former professional player, in the role of winger, currently working as the head coach of amateur club Palermo Calcio Popolare.

23/12/1980

Cody Ross, American baseball player

Cody Joseph Ross, nicknamed "Toy Cannon" and "Ross the Boss," is an American former professional baseball outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for 12 seasons; with the Detroit Tigers (2003), Los Angeles Dodgers (2005–2006), Cincinnati Reds (2006), Florida Marlins (2006–2010), San Francisco Giants (2010–2011), Boston Red Sox (2012), Arizona Diamondbacks (2013–2014) and Oakland Athletics (2015). Ross won a World Series with the San Francisco Giants in 2010. He is one of the few Major League players to bat right-handed and throw left-handed.

23/12/1979

Johan Franzén, Swedish ice hockey player

Johan Marcus Gunnar Franzén is a Swedish former professional ice hockey winger who played 11 seasons for the Detroit Red Wings of the National Hockey League (NHL). His career ended early in the 2015–16 season due to post-concussion syndrome. He also played for Linköpings HC in the Elitserien.

Scott Gomez, American ice hockey player

Scott Carlos Gomez is an American ice hockey coach and former player. He is the current head coach of the Chicago Steel of the United States Hockey League (USHL).

Holly Madison, American model, television personality, and actress

Holly Madison is an American television personality, actress and model best known as a former girlfriend of Hugh Hefner and for her appearance in the reality television show The Girls Next Door. She also starred in her own reality series, Holly's World, which ran from 2009 to 2011. She has released two books, Down the Rabbit Hole in 2015, about her life in the Playboy Mansion and her relationship with Hefner, and The Vegas Diaries: Romance, Rolling the Dice, and the Road to Reinvention in 2016.

Megan Mayhew Bergman, American author and educator

Megan Mayhew Bergman is an American writer and environmental journalist, author of the books Almost Famous Women, Birds of a Lesser Paradise, and How Strange a Season, and a forthcoming biography on the International Sweethearts of Rhythm. In 2015, she won the Garrett Award for Fiction.

Kenny Miller, Scottish footballer

Kenneth Miller is a Scottish professional football coach and former player, who is currently the interim head coach of Israeli Premier League club Maccabi Tel Aviv. Miller, who played as a striker, is one of only five post-war players to have played for both Rangers and Celtic.

Yukifumi Murakami, Japanese javelin thrower

Yukifumi Murakami is a Japanese javelin thrower. He was the first Japanese athlete to win a World Championship medal in the javelin, taking bronze at the 2009 edition with a throw of 82.97 metres.

23/12/1978

Esthero, Canadian-American singer-songwriter and producer

Esthero is a Canadian singer-songwriter who lives in Los Angeles, California. The name Esthero refers both to the singer and formerly to the two-person team of herself and producer Doc McKinney. Esthero is a portmanteau of "Esther the hero"; she claims to have gotten the name by combining the name of the heroine (Esther) and last line of the film from Sylvia Plath's only novel, The Bell Jar (1963).

Aleš Kotalík, Czech ice hockey player

Aleš Kotalík is a Czech former professional ice hockey right winger who played nine seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Buffalo Sabres, Edmonton Oilers, New York Rangers, and Calgary Flames.

Víctor Martínez, Venezuelan baseball player

Víctor Jesús Martínez, also known by his nickname "V-Mart", is a Venezuelan former professional baseball catcher and designated hitter. Martínez played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Cleveland Indians, Boston Red Sox, and Detroit Tigers. After joining the Tigers, he played mostly as a designated hitter.

23/12/1977

Matt Baker, English television presenter

Matthew James Baker is a British television presenter. He co-presented the children's television show Blue Peter from 1999 until 2006, BBC One's Countryfile since 2009 and The One Show from 2011 to 2020, with Alex Jones.

Alge Crumpler, American football player

Algernon Darius Crumpler is an American former professional football player who was a tight end in the National Football League (NFL) for ten seasons. He was selected by the Atlanta Falcons in the second round of the 2001 NFL draft. Crumpler also played for the Tennessee Titans and New England Patriots. He is a four-time Pro Bowl selection. He played college football for North Carolina.

Tore Johansen, Norwegian trumpeter and composer

Tore Johansen is a Norwegian jazz trumpeter and the younger brother of drummer Roger Johansen. He has worked with Chick Corea, Karin Krog, Kenny Wheeler, Steve Swallow, Lars Jansson, Hal Galper, Siri Gellein, and Jan Gunnar Hoff.

Jari Mäenpää, Finnish singer-songwriter and guitarist

Jari Mäenpää is a Finnish singer, guitarist, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter. He is the founder of the melodic death metal band Wintersun for which he sings and records the majority of instruments except the drums. Before forming Wintersun, Mäenpää was also known for his role in the folk metal band Ensiferum, which he joined in 1996 after leaving his prior band named Immemorial. Wintersun was initially planned as a parallel project alongside Ensiferum, but in January 2004 he was forced to leave Ensiferum due to clashes between their touring schedule and the studio recording time he had booked for Wintersun.

23/12/1976

Joanna Hayes, American hurdler and coach

Joanna Dove Hayes is an American hurdler, who won the gold medal in the 100 metres hurdles at the 2004 Summer Olympics.

Brad Lidge, American baseball player

Bradley Thomas Lidge, nicknamed "Lights Out", is an American former professional baseball pitcher. Lidge played 11 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), from 2002 to 2012. He played for the Houston Astros, Philadelphia Phillies, and Washington Nationals.

Jamie Noble, American wrestler and producer

James Gibson is an American retired professional wrestler better known by the ring name Jamie Noble. He is signed to WWE, where he works as a producer. In addition to his work with WWE, Noble is known for his tenures in World Championship Wrestling (WCW), New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), and Ring of Honor (ROH), where he is a former one-time ROH World Champion.

Mikael Samuelsson, Swedish ice hockey player

Karl Mikael Samuelsson is a Swedish former professional ice hockey player and current player development coach for the Vancouver Canucks of the National Hockey League (NHL).

23/12/1975

Lady Starlight, American singer-songwriter

Colleen Martin, known professionally as Lady Starlight, is an American DJ and musical performer. Based in New York City's Lower East Side, she is best known for her numerous collaborations with Lady Gaga. Starlight released her debut extended play, Untitled, in 2017. The following year, she released her second extended play, Which One of Us Is Me?. Besides her own performances, she also sometimes performs with Surgeon.

23/12/1974

Agustín Delgado, Ecuadorian footballer and politician

Agustín Javier Delgado Chalá is an Ecuadorian politician and former professional footballer who played as a forward. Nicknamed El Tín, he was the all-time top scorer for the Ecuador national team with 31 goals in 71 games before being overtaken by Enner Valencia. Delgado played professional club football in Ecuador, Mexico and England.

Mieszko Talarczyk, Polish-Swedish singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (died 2004)

Mieszko Talarczyk was the lead singer and guitarist of the Swedish grindcore band Nasum, Genocide Superstars, and Krigshot. Known for his engineering and production abilities, he co-founded Soundlab studios with Millencolin guitarist Mathias Färm.

23/12/1972

Morgan, Italian singer-songwriter and composer

Marco Castoldi, better known by his stage name Morgan, is an Italian singer, songwriter and musician. His musical genres are mainly alternative rock and electronic rock, sometimes experimental rock and synth-pop. He has also been a judge for eight seasons in the Italian version of The X Factor, winning five of them through acts he mentored: Aram Quartet, Matteo Becucci, Marco Mengoni, Chiara Galiazzo and Michele Bravi. He was also a coach on The Voice of Italy in 2019.

Christian Potenza, Canadian actor, voice actor and singer

Anthony Christian Potenza is a Canadian actor, comedian and teacher. He has voiced Jude Lizowski on 6teen as well as Brando Beaver and both of the Bison Brothers in Pikwik Pack. From 2007 to 2022, Potenza was the voice actor for Chris McLean in Total Drama.

23/12/1971

Corey Haim, Canadian actor (died 2010)

Corey Ian Haim was a Canadian actor who rose to fame in the 1980s as a teen heartthrob. He starred in Silver Bullet (1985), Murphy's Romance (1985), Lucas (1986), License to Drive (1988) and Dream a Little Dream (1989). His role in The Lost Boys (1987) made him a household name.

Jo Johnson, English banker, journalist, and politician

Joseph Edmund Johnson, Baron Johnson of Marylebone is a British politician and peer who was Minister of State for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation from 2015 to 2018, and from July to September 2019. A member of the Conservative Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Orpington from 2010 to 2019. He currently sits in the House of Lords. His older brother, Boris Johnson, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom between 2019 and 2022.

Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, English model, actress, and author (died 2017)

Tara Claire Palmer-Tomkinson was an English socialite and television personality. She appeared in several television shows, including the reality programme I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!. She died from a perforated ulcer on 8 February 2017.

23/12/1970

Catriona LeMay Doan, Canadian speed skater and sportscaster

Catriona Ann Le May Doan is a retired Canadian speed skater and a double Olympic champion in the 500 m. She served as the chef de mission for Team Canada at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

Karine Polwart, Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist

Karine Polwart is a Scottish singer-songwriter. She writes and performs music with a strong folk and roots feel, her songs dealing with a variety of issues from alcoholism to genocide. She has been most recognised for her solo career, winning three awards at the BBC Folk Awards in 2005, and was previously a member of Malinky and Battlefield Band.

23/12/1968

Karyn Bryant, American journalist, actress, producer, and screenwriter

Karyn Bryant is an American actress, writer, and television personality.

Barry Kooser, American painter and animator

Barry R. Kooser is an American artist, painter, and educator who worked at Walt Disney Feature Animation Studios between 1992 and 2003 as a background artist on films such as The Lion King, Pocahontas, Mulan, Lilo & Stitch, and as background supervisor on Brother Bear. After leaving Disney, he worked independently as a painter exhibiting and selling fine art in galleries around the US. While teaching animation and story-boarding at Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design, he met Worker Studio founder Michael "Ffish" Hemschoot, and became a partner at the Colorado animation studio. Barry has since left Worker Studio. He is the Founder, Executive Producer and Director at Many Hoops Productions.

Manuel Rivera-Ortiz, Puerto Rican-American photographer

Manuel Rivera-Ortiz is a stateside Puerto Rican photographer. He is best known for his social documentary photography of people's living conditions in less developed nations. Rivera-Ortiz lives in Rochester, New York, and in Zurich.

René Tretschok, German footballer and manager

René Tretschok is a German former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. As a player of Borussia Dortmund he was part of their Champions League victory in 1997. He scored an important goal in the semi-final of their victorious campaign against Manchester United, giving Dortmund a crucial 1–0 lead going into the second leg. He was then rewarded with a place on the bench in the final, however he remained unused for the entire match.

23/12/1967

Carla Bruni, Italian-French singer-songwriter and model

Carla Bruni-Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa is an Italian and French singer, songwriter and fashion model who served as the first lady of France from 2008—when she married then president Nicolas Sarkozy—to 2012.

Otis Grant, Jamaican-Canadian boxer, coach, and manager

Otis Grant is a Canadian retired boxer. As an amateur he won a silver medal for Canada at the 1987 Pan American Games, losing to Cuba's Angel Espinosa in the final. He is a two-time North American Boxing Federation (NABF) middleweight title holder, as well as recognized for being the first black Quebecer to win a WBO championship.

23/12/1966

Badi Assad, Brazilian singer-songwriter and guitarist

Badi Assad is a Brazilian singer, composer and guitarist in the jazz and worldbeat genres.

23/12/1964

Eddie Vedder, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

Eddie Jerome Vedder is an American musician, and songwriter. He is the lead vocalist, primary lyricist, and one of three guitarists for the rock band Pearl Jam. He was previously a guest vocalist for supergroup Temple of the Dog, a tribute band dedicated to singer Andrew Wood.

23/12/1963

Jim Harbaugh, American football player and coach

James Joseph Harbaugh is an American professional football coach and former quarterback who is the head coach for the Los Angeles Chargers of the National Football League (NFL). He previously served as the head coach at the University of Michigan from 2015 to 2023, the San Francisco 49ers from 2011 to 2014, Stanford University from 2007 to 2010, and the University of San Diego from 2004 to 2006. Harbaugh played college football at Michigan from 1983 to 1986 and in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons from 1987 to 2000, with his longest tenure (1987–1993) as a player with the Chicago Bears.

Jess Harnell, American singer-songwriter and voice actor

Jess Harnell is an American voice actor and singer. His roles include Wakko Warner in Animaniacs, Captain Hero in Drawn Together, Taxicrab in Jungle Junction, Chilly in Doc McStuffins, Cedric in Sofia the First, Texas in Motorcity, Grim Gloom in The 7D, Jerry in the first two seasons of Totally Spies!, Ironhide in the first three Transformers films directed by Michael Bay, Wooton Bassett in the Christian radio program Adventures in Odyssey, and the titular character in the Crash Bandicoot franchise. Harnell has also been the announcer for America's Funniest Home Videos since 1998.

Donna Tartt, American author

Donna Louise Tartt is an American novelist. She wrote the novels The Secret History (1992), The Little Friend (2002), and The Goldfinch (2013), which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and was adapted into a 2019 film of the same name. She was included in Time magazine's 2014 "100 Most Influential People" list.

Ante Zelck, German businessman

Ante Zelck is a German entrepreneur and hostel pioneer.

23/12/1962

Bertrand Gachot, Belgian race car driver

Bertrand Jean Louis Gachot is a former racing driver and businessman who competed in Formula One from 1989 to 1995. In endurance racing, Gachot won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1991 with Mazda.

Stefan Hell, Romanian-German physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize laureate

Stefan Walter Hell is a Romanian-German physicist and one of the directors of the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences in Göttingen, and of the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg, both of which are in Germany. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2014 "for the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy", together with Eric Betzig and William Moerner.

Kang Je-gyu, South Korean director, producer, and screenwriter

Kang Je-gyu is a South Korean filmmaker, active as a director, scriptwriter, and producer. He rose to international prominence with his action thriller Shiri (1999) and further solidified his reputation with the critically acclaimed war epic Taegukgi: The Brotherhood of War (2004), both of which achieved box office success.

Keiji Mutoh, Japanese wrestler and actor

Keiji Muto is a Japanese professional wrestling executive, actor and retired professional wrestler. He is known for his work under his real name and as his alter ego The Great Muta in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), as well as World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and during the 1980s and 1990s, and from his runs in other Japanese, American, Puerto Rican, and Mexican promotions. He was the president of All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) from 2002 to 2013 and representative director of Wrestle-1 (W-1) from 2013 until its closure in 2020.

23/12/1961

Ezzat el Kamhawi, Egyptian journalist and author

Ezzat El Kamhawi is an Egyptian novelist and journalist. In December 2012, El Kamhawi was awarded the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature for his novel House of the Wolf. In June 2022 he was awarded the Samir Kassir Award for Freedom of the Press for his article "Suspicious architecture: The obsession with grand buildings and wide streets".

Ketan J. Patel, Kenyan-English biologist and academic

Ketan Jayakrishna Patel is a British–Kenyan scientist who is Director of the MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine and the MRC Molecular Haematology Unit at the University of Oxford. Until 2020 he was a tenured principal investigator at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB).

Carol Smillie, Scottish model and actress

Carol Patricia Smillie is a Scottish former television presenter, actress and model from Glasgow. Smillie became famous as a television presenter during the 1990s and early 2000s. She was best known for assisting Nicky Campbell on the UK version of the game show Wheel of Fortune between 1989 and 1994. Between 1996 and 2003, she was the main presenter on the BBC One home makeover show Changing Rooms.

Lorna Tolentino, Filipino actress and producer

Victoria Lorna Perez Aluquin-Fernandez, better known by her stage name Lorna Tolentino, sometimes known as L.T., an abbreviation of her screen name, is a Filipino actress, model, film producer and television personality. Dubbed as the "Prime Star", she is known for her dramatic roles in film and television and was the fourth actress to achieve the Grandslam status for her performance in the film Narito ang Puso Ko (1992). With a career spanning five decades, she has already appeared in 100 motion pictures and is cited by critics as one of the greatest Filipino actresses in Philippine cinema. She has received numerous accolades including seven FAMAS Awards, four Luna Awards, a Gawad Urian Award and two commendations from Asian Television Award.

23/12/1958

Joan Severance, American actress

Joan Marie Severance is an American actress and former fashion model.

Victoria Williams, American singer-songwriter

Victoria Williams is an American singer, songwriter, and musician, from Shreveport, Louisiana, although she has resided in Southern California throughout her musical career. Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in the early 1990s, Williams was the catalyst for the Sweet Relief Musicians Fund.

23/12/1957

Dan Bigras, Canadian singer-songwriter

Dan Bigras is a francophone rock singer and actor from Canada. He has released a number of albums of rock music, beginning with Ange Animal in 1990.

Peter Wynn, Australian rugby league player and businessman

Peter Wynn is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. He played for the Parramatta Eels in the New South Wales Rugby League premiership competition.

23/12/1956

Michele Alboreto, Italian race car driver (died 2001)

Michele Alboreto was an Italian racing driver, who competed in Formula One from 1981 to 1994. Alboreto was runner-up in the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in 1985 with Ferrari, and won five Grands Prix across 14 seasons. In endurance racing, Alboreto won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1997 with Joest, as well as the 12 Hours of Sebring in 2001 with Audi.

Dave Murray, English guitarist and songwriter

David Michael Murray is an English guitarist, best known as a member of the heavy metal band Iron Maiden. He joined Iron Maiden early in its history, and is the second-longest serving member of the band after founder Steve Harris. He and Harris are the only members of Iron Maiden to have appeared on all of the band's studio albums.

23/12/1955

Carol Ann Duffy, Scottish poet and playwright

Dame Carol Ann Duffy is a Scottish poet and playwright. She is a professor of contemporary poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University, and was appointed Poet Laureate in May 2009, serving in this position until her term ended in 2019. She was the first female, the first Scottish-born and the first openly lesbian poet to hold the Poet Laureate position.

Grace Knight, English-Australian singer-songwriter

Grace Ethel Knight is an English-born Australian vocalist and songwriter. During the 1980s she was a mainstay of pop group Eurogliders which formed in Perth, Western Australia. Knight later became a solo jazz singer and musician based in Sydney. In 1984, Eurogliders released an Australian top ten album, This Island, which spawned their No. 2 hit single, "Heaven ". "Heaven" also peaked at No. 21 on the United States' Billboard Mainstream Rock charts and appeared on the Hot 100. The song, written by Eurogliders' guitarist and cofounder, Bernie Lynch, and vocals by Knight, was their only hit in United States. Knight and Lynch married in 1985 but separated soon after. Another Australian top ten album, Absolutely, followed for Eurogliders in 1985, which provided three further local top ten singles, "We Will Together", "The City of Soul" and "Can't Wait to See You".

23/12/1954

Raivo Järvi, Estonian radio host and politician (died 2012)

Raivo Järvi, commonly known under the pseudonym of Onu Raivo was an Estonian artist, radio personality and politician.

Brian Teacher, American tennis player

Brian David Teacher is an American former professional tennis player. He reached career-high rankings of world No. 7 in singles and world No. 5 in doubles, both in 1981. Teacher is best remembered for being a major singles champion, triumphing at the 1980 Australian Open. He won eight career singles titles and 16 doubles titles.

23/12/1953

Andres Alver, Estonian architect and academic

Andres Alver is an Estonian architect.

Gerrit W. Gong, American religious leader and academic

Gerrit Walter Gong is an American religious leader and former academic serving as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He has been a general authority since 2010 and served as a member of the church's Presidency of the Seventy from October 2015 until his calling to the Quorum of the Twelve in March 2018. He is the LDS Church's first apostle of Asian descent. Prior to becoming a general authority, he served as assistant to the president of Brigham Young University (BYU) for planning and assessment. As a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Gong is accepted by the church as a prophet, seer, and revelator. Currently, he is the eleventh most senior apostle in the church.

23/12/1952

William Kristol, American journalist, publisher, activist, and pundit

William Kristol is an American neoconservative writer. A frequent commentator on several networks including CNN, he was the founder and editor-at-large of the political magazine The Weekly Standard. Kristol is editor-at-large of the center-right publication The Bulwark and is among the editors of its Substack publication that bears the same name. Since 2014, he has been the host of Conversations with Bill Kristol, an interview web program.

23/12/1951

Anthony Phillips, English guitarist and songwriter

Anthony Edwin Phillips is an English musician, songwriter, and composer who co-founded the progressive rock band Genesis. He served as the group's original lead guitarist from 1967 until his departure in 1970, performing on their formative studio albums From Genesis to Revelation (1969) and Trespass (1970). His early 12-string acoustic guitar arrangements heavily shaped the band's signature pastoral sound. Phillips voluntarily left the group on the eve of their mainstream breakthrough due to increasing stage fright and health complications. This exit has frequently led music critics to compare his trajectory to that of other early departed band members.

23/12/1950

Michael C. Burgess, American obstetrician and politician

Michael Clifton Burgess is an American physician and politician who represented Texas's 26th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 2003 to 2025. The district is anchored in Denton County, a suburban county north of Dallas and Fort Worth. He is a member of the Republican Party.

Richard Dannatt, Baron Dannatt, English general

General Francis Richard Dannatt, Baron Dannatt, is a retired senior British Army officer and member of the House of Lords. He was Chief of the General Staff from 2006 to 2009. Dannatt was commissioned into the Green Howards in 1971, and his first tour of duty was in Belfast as a platoon commander. During his second tour of operations, also in Northern Ireland, Dannatt was awarded the Military Cross. Following a major stroke in 1977, Dannatt considered leaving the army, but was encouraged by his commanding officer to stay. After Staff College, he became a company commander and eventually assumed command of the Green Howards in 1989. He attended and then commanded the Higher Command and Staff Course, after which he was promoted to brigadier. Dannatt was given command of the 4th Armoured Brigade in 1994 and in the following year commanded the British component of the Implementation Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Vicente del Bosque, Spanish footballer and manager

Vicente del Bosque González, 1st Marquess of Del Bosque is a Spanish retired football manager and former player. He is regarded as one of the greatest managers of all time and is to date the only football manager to have won the World Cup, the Champions League, the European Championship and the Intercontinental Cup.

Ilchi Lee, South Korean author and educator

Lee Seung-Heun, better known as Ilchi Lee, is a South Korean author and the founder of a variety of mind-body training methods, including Body & Brain, Brain Wave Vibration, Kookhak Qigong, and DahnMuDo, all falling under the umbrella name "Brain Education". Lee started teaching his methods in a park in the 1980s, and since then, the practice has developed into an international network of for-profit and non-profit entities. Lee's practices have been criticized as pseudoscience.

23/12/1949

Adrian Belew, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

Robert Steven "Adrian" Belew is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. A multi-instrumentalist primarily known as a guitarist and singer, he is noted for his unusual approach to the instrument, his playing cited as fluid, expressive, and often resembling "animal noises or mechanical rumblings".

Reinhold Weege, American screenwriter and producer (died 2012)

Reinhold Charles Weege was an American television writer, producer and director.

23/12/1948

David Davis, English politician, Minister of State for Europe

Sir David Michael Davis is a British Conservative Party politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Goole and Pocklington. He was previously the MP for Haltemprice and Howden and, before that, for Boothferry, where he was first elected in 1987. He served as Shadow Home Secretary from 2003 to 2008 and Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union from 2016 to 2018. Davis was sworn of the Privy Council in the 1997 New Year Honours, while serving as Minister of State for Europe, a role he held from 1994 to 1997.

Jim Ferguson, American guitarist, composer, and journalist

James Edwin Ferguson is an American guitarist, composer, journalist, and educator.

Jack Ham, American football player and sportscaster

Jack Raphael Ham Jr. is an American former professional football player who was a linebacker for the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League (NFL) from 1971 to 1982. He is considered one of the greatest outside linebackers in the history of the NFL. Ham was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1988 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 1990. He played college football for the Penn State Nittany Lions. In mid-2019 the newsletter of the PSU Alumni Association rated Ham first among the 100 greatest athletes, considering all sports and all previous football players, in University history.

Rick Wohlhuter, American runner

Rick Wohlhuter is a retired American middle-distance runner.

23/12/1947

Bill Rodgers, American runner

William Henry Rodgers is an American runner, Olympian, and former record holder in the marathon. Rodgers is best known for his four victories in both the Boston Marathon, including three straight from 1978 to 1980, and 4 straight wins in the New York City Marathon, between 1976 and 1979.

23/12/1946

Robbie Dupree, American singer-songwriter

Robert Dupuis, known professionally as Robbie Dupree, is an American singer best known for his hit songs "Steal Away" and "Hot Rod Hearts".

Edita Gruberová, Slovak soprano and actress (died 2021)

Edita Gruberová was a Slovak coloratura soprano. She made her stage debut in Bratislava in 1968 as Rosina in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia, and successfully auditioned at the Vienna State Opera the following year, which became her base. She received international recognition for roles such as Mozart's Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte and Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos by Richard Strauss.

Susan Lucci, American actress

Susan Victoria Lucci is an American actress. She is best known for portraying Erica Kane on the ABC daytime drama All My Children during that show's entire network run from 1970 to 2011. The character is considered an icon, and she was called "Daytime's Leading Lady" by TV Guide, with The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times citing her as the highest-paid actor in daytime television. As early as 1991, her salary had been reported as over $1 million a year. During her run on All My Children, Lucci was nominated 21 times for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. She won only once, in 1999, after the 19th nomination; her status as a perpetual nominee for the award had attracted significant media attention since the late 1980s.

John Sullivan, English screenwriter, producer, and composer (died 2011)

John Richard Thomas Sullivan was an English television scriptwriter responsible for several British sitcoms, including Only Fools and Horses, Citizen Smith and Just Good Friends.

23/12/1945

Adly Mansour, Egyptian lawyer, judge, and politician, President of Egypt

Adly Mahmoud Mansour is an Egyptian judge and politician who served as the president of the Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt. He also served as interim president of Egypt from 4 July 2013 to 8 June 2014 following the 2013 Egyptian coup d'état by the military which deposed President Mohamed Morsi. Several secular and religious figures, such as the Grand Imam of al-Azhar, the Coptic Pope, and Mohamed ElBaradei supported the coup against President Morsi and the military appointed Mansour interim-president until an election could take place. Morsi refused to acknowledge his removal as valid and continued to maintain that only he could be considered the legitimate President of Egypt. Mansour was sworn into office in front of the Supreme Constitutional Court on 4 July 2013.

Geoffrey Wheatcroft, English journalist and author

Geoffrey Albert Wheatcroft is a British journalist, author, and historian.

23/12/1944

Wesley Clark, American general

Wesley Kanne Clark, SSM, BVO, KBE is a retired United States Army officer. He graduated as valedictorian of the class of 1966 at West Point and was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford, where he obtained a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. He later graduated from the Command and General Staff College with a master's degree in military science. He commanded an infantry company in the Vietnam War, where he was shot four times and awarded a Silver Star for gallantry in combat. Clark served as the Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO from 1997 to 2000, commanding Operation Allied Force during the Kosovo War. He spent 34 years in the U.S. Army, receiving many military decorations, several honorary knighthoods, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

23/12/1943

Ron Allen, American baseball player

Ronald Frederick Allen is an American former professional baseball player. He played part of the 1972 season in Major League Baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals, primarily as a first baseman. He was a switch-hitter and threw right-handed.

Mikhail Leonidovich Gromov, Russian-French mathematician and academic

Mikhael Leonidovich Gromov is a Russian-French mathematician known for his work in geometry, analysis and group theory. He is a permanent member of Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques in France and a professor of mathematics at New York University.

Terry Peder Rasmussen, American serial killer (died 2010)

Terry Peder Rasmussen was an American convicted murderer and suspected serial killer who was convicted of one murder, and linked to at least six more in a series of crimes that stretched across the contiguous United States between 1978 and 2002. Due to his use of many aliases, most notably "Bob Evans", Rasmussen is known as the Chameleon Killer.

Harry Shearer, American actor, voice artist, and comedian

Harry Julius Shearer is an American actor, comedian, musician, radio host, writer, and producer. Born in Los Angeles, California, Shearer began his career as a child actor. From 1969 to 1976, Shearer was a member of The Credibility Gap, a radio comedy group. Following the breakup of the group, Shearer co-wrote the film Real Life (1979) with Albert Brooks and worked as a writer on Martin Mull's television series Fernwood 2 Night.

Queen Silvia of Sweden

Silvia is Queen of Sweden as the wife of King Carl XVI Gustaf. She has held this title since her marriage to Carl XVI Gustaf in 1976. The king and queen have three children: Crown Princess Victoria, Prince Carl Philip, and Princess Madeleine.

23/12/1942

Quentin Bryce, Australian lawyer and politician, 25th Governor-General of Australia

Dame Quentin Alice Louise Bryce is an Australian academic who served as the 25th governor-general of Australia from 2008 to 2014. She is the first woman to have held the position. She was previously the 24th governor of Queensland from 2003 to 2008.

23/12/1941

Peter Davis, English businessman

Sir Peter John Davis is a British businessman, who was, from 2000 to 2004, the CEO of J Sainsbury plc, which operates the UK supermarket chain Sainsbury's.

Tim Hardin, American folk singer-songwriter and musician (died 1980)

James Timothy Hardin was an American folk music and blues singer-songwriter and guitarist. In addition to his own success, his songs "If I Were a Carpenter", "Reason to Believe", "Misty Roses" and "The Lady Came from Baltimore" were hits for other artists.

23/12/1940

Mamnoon Hussain, Pakistani businessman and politician, 12th President of Pakistan (died 2021)

Mamnoon Hussain was a Pakistani politician, industrialist and statesman who served as the 12th president of Pakistan from 2013 to 2018. He also served as the governor of Sindh from June 1999 until being deposed in a coup d'état in October 1999, when the federal and all provincial governments were overthrown by Pervez Musharraf.

Jorma Kaukonen, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

Jorma Ludwik Kaukonen Jr. is an American blues, folk, and rock guitarist. Kaukonen performed with Jefferson Airplane, and still performs regularly on tour with Hot Tuna, which started as a side project with bassist Jack Casady, and as of early 2024 has continued for 55 years. Rolling Stone magazine ranked him No. 54 on its list of "100 Greatest Guitarists". He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 as a member of Jefferson Airplane.

Robert Labine, Canadian politician (died 2021)

Robert "Bob" Labine was a politician in Gatineau, Quebec. He was best known for being mayor of the former city of Gatineau between 1988 and 1994 and again between 1999 and 2001.

Jeanie Lambe, Scottish jazz singer (died 2020)

Jeanie Lambe was a Scottish jazz singer. She was married to jazz tenor saxophonist Danny Moss.

Kevin Longbottom, Australian rugby league player (died 1986)

Kevin Longbottom was an Aboriginal Australian professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1960s. Longbottom was known by the nickname "Lummy" and was renowned for his long-range goal kicking, sometimes even kicking goals from further than the halfway line. A large, barrel-chested man, he won a premiership with the South Sydney Rabbitohs in 1967, and played on the 1965 team that were runners up. He played Fullback for most of his career.

Eugene Record, American soul singer-songwriter (died 2005)

Eugene Booker Record was an American singer, songwriter, arranger, and record producer. He was best known as the lead vocalist of the Chicago-based vocal group The Chi-Lites. He had international hits with "Oh Girl," "Have You Seen Her," "Soulful Strut," and "(For God's Sake) Give More Power to the People". His writing contributions earned him a Grammy Award.

23/12/1939

Nancy Graves, American sculptor and painter (died 1995)

Nancy Graves was an American sculptor, painter, printmaker, and filmmaker known for her focus on natural phenomena like camels or maps of the Moon. Her works are included in many public collections, including those of the National Gallery of Art, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the National Gallery of Australia (Canberra), the Des Moines Art Center, Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), and the Museum of Fine Arts. When Graves was just 29, she was given a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art. At the time she was the youngest artist, and fifth woman to achieve this honor.

23/12/1938

Bob Kahn, American computer scientist and engineer, co-developed the Transmission Control Protocol

Robert Elliot Kahn is an American electrical engineer who, along with Vint Cerf, first proposed the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and the Internet Protocol (IP), the fundamental communication protocols at the heart of the Internet.

23/12/1937

Barney Rosenzweig, American screenwriter and producer

Barney Rosenzweig is an American television producer.

Nelson Shanks, American painter, historian, and educator (died 2015)

John Nelson Shanks was an American artist and painter. His best known works include his portrait of Diana, Princess of Wales, first shown at Hirschl & Adler Gallery in New York City, April 24 to June 28, 1996, and the portrait of president Bill Clinton for the National Portrait Gallery.

23/12/1936

Frederic Forrest, American actor (died 2023)

Frederic Fenimore Forrest Jr. was an American actor. A figure of the New Hollywood movement, Forrest was best known for his collaborations with director Francis Ford Coppola, playing featured roles in The Conversation (1974), Apocalypse Now (1979), One from the Heart (1982), and Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988). He was nominated for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a New York Film Critics Circle Award, and received a National Society of Film Critics for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Huston Dyer in the musical drama The Rose (1979), an honor that was also shared with his performance as Jay "Chef" Hicks in Apocalypse Now.

Bobby Ross, American football player and coach

Robert Joseph Ross is an American former football coach. He served as the head football coach at The Citadel (1973–1977), the University of Maryland, College Park (1982–1986), Georgia Tech (1987–1991), and the United States Military Academy (2004–2006), compiling a career college football coaching record of 103–101–2. Ross was also the head coach of the National Football League's San Diego Chargers from 1992 to 1996 and the Detroit Lions from 1997 to 2000, tallying a career NFL mark of 77–68. He guided his 1990 Georgia Tech squad to the UPI national championship and coached the 1994 San Diego Chargers to an appearance in Super Bowl XXIX.

Willie Wood, American football player (died 2020)

William Vernell Wood Sr. was an American professional football player and coach. He played as a safety with the Green Bay Packers in the National Football League (NFL). Wood was an eight-time Pro Bowler and a nine-time All-Pro. In 1989, Wood was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

23/12/1935

Paul Hornung, American football player and sportscaster (died 2020)

Paul Vernon Hornung, nicknamed "the Golden Boy", was an American professional football halfback and kicker who played for the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL) from 1957 to 1966.

Johnny Kidd, English singer-songwriter (died 1966)

Frederick Albert Heath, known professionally as Johnny Kidd, was an English singer-songwriter, best remembered as the lead vocalist for the rock and roll band Johnny Kidd & the Pirates. He was one of the few pre-Beatles British rockers to achieve worldwide fame, mainly for his 1960 hit, "Shakin' All Over".

Abdul Ghani Minhat, Malaysian footballer and manager (died 2012)

Tan Sri Datuk Abdul Ghani bin Minhat was an association football player who represented Selangor FA and Negeri Sembilan FA from the 1950s to the late 1960s. He played as a striker and winger for both the Malaya and the Malaysia national teams. He was widely known by the nickname Raja Bola and is regarded as one of Malaysia's greatest football players.

Esther Phillips, American R&B singer (died 1984)

Esther Phillips was an American singer, best known for her R&B vocals. She rose to prominence in 1950, scoring several major R&B hits including "Double Crossing Blues" and "Mistrustin' Blues" under the moniker "Little Esther." In the 1960s, she achieved chart success with the country song "Release Me" and recorded in the pop, jazz, blues and soul genres. Phillips received four Grammy nominations, including for her album From a Whisper to a Scream in 1973, as well as for the album that featured her disco recording of "What a Diff'rence a Day Makes," which was a major hit in 1975. She died from liver and kidney failure due to long-term drug abuse in 1984.

23/12/1933

Akihito, Emperor of Japan

Akihito is a member of the Imperial House of Japan who reigned as the 125th emperor of Japan from 7 January 1989 until his abdication on 30 April 2019. The era of his rule was named the Heisei era, Heisei being an expression of achieving peace worldwide.

Noella Leduc, American baseball player (died 2014)

Noella Leduc was an American pitcher and outfielder who played from 1951 through 1954 in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). Listed at 5 ft 5 in (1.65 m), 130 lb, Leduc batted and threw right-handed. She was born in Graniteville, Westford, Massachusetts.

23/12/1932

Richard Clark Barkley, American soldier, academic, and diplomat, United States Ambassador to East Germany (died 2015)

Richard Clark Barkley was a United States diplomat. From December 1988 until October 1990, he was the last United States Ambassador to East Germany. After that, from 1991 to 1994, he was the United States Ambassador to Turkey.

23/12/1931

Ronnie Schell, American comedian and actor

Ronald Ralph Schell was an American actor and stand-up comedian. He appeared on the May 28, 1959, episode of the TV quiz show You Bet Your Life, hosted by Groucho Marx. Schell demonstrated a comic barrage of beatnik jive talk. As a stand-up comedian, he first developed his act at the hungry i nightclub in San Francisco, California, and is heard introducing the Kingston Trio at the start of the group's 1962 College Concert album. Schell is probably best known for his 1960s television role as Duke Slater in Gomer Pyle – USMC.

23/12/1929

Chet Baker, American jazz trumpet player, flugelhorn player, and singer (died 1988)

Chesney Henry Baker Jr. was an American jazz trumpeter and vocalist. He is known for major innovations in cool jazz that led him to be nicknamed the "Prince of Cool".

Dick Weber, American professional bowler (died 2005)

Richard Anthony Weber was an American professional bowler and founding member of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA). Along with Don Carter, Weber is widely regarded as professional bowling's first superstar. He was the first player in history to earn 30 PBA Tour titles, a level reached by only seven other players since.

23/12/1926

Robert Bly, American poet and essayist (died 2021)

Robert Elwood Bly was an American poet, essayist, activist and leader of the mythopoetic men's movement. His best-known prose book is Iron John: A Book About Men (1990), which spent 62 weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list, and is a key text of the mythopoetic men's movement. He won the 1968 National Book Award for Poetry for his book The Light Around the Body.

Harold Dorman, American singer-songwriter (died 1988)

Harold Kenneth Dorman was an American rock and roll singer and songwriter.

23/12/1925

Duncan Hallas, English author and politician (died 2002)

Duncan Hallas was a prominent member of the Trotskyist movement and a leading member of the Socialist Workers Party in Great Britain.

Rayner Unwin, English publisher (died 2000)

Rayner Stephens Unwin CBE was an English publisher. He served as the chairman of the publishing firm George Allen & Unwin, which had been founded by his father Sir Stanley Unwin.

23/12/1924

Bob Kurland, American basketball player and politician (died 2013)

Robert Albert Kurland was an American basketball player, who played for the two-time NCAA champion Oklahoma A&M Aggies. Standing 7-foot (2.1 m) tall, he has been credited as the first person to dunk in a college basketball game. He led the U.S. basketball team to gold medals in two Summer Olympics, and led his AAU team to three national titles. He is a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

23/12/1923

Onofre Marimón, Argentinian race car driver (died 1954)

Onofre Agustín Marimón was an Argentine racing driver, who competed in Formula One at 12 Grands Prix between 1951 and 1954.

Günther Schifter, Austrian journalist and radio host (died 2008)

Günther Schifter was an Austrian journalist, radio presenter and record collector.

James Stockdale, American admiral and pilot, Medal of Honor recipient (died 2005)

James Bond Stockdale was a U.S. Navy vice admiral, aviator, and Stoic philosopher who received the Medal of Honor in 1976 for his leadership as a POW for more than seven years during the Vietnam War.

23/12/1922

Micheline Ostermeyer, French discus thrower, shot putter, and pianist (died 2001)

Micheline Ostermeyer was a French athlete and concert pianist. She won three medals at the 1948 Summer Olympics in shot put, discus throw, and high jump. After retiring from sports in 1950, she became a full-time pianist for fifteen years and then turned to teaching afterwards.

23/12/1921

Guy Beaulne, Canadian actor and director (died 2001)

Guy Beaulne, was a French Canadian actor and theatre director.

23/12/1919

Kenneth M. Taylor, American general and pilot (died 2006)

Kenneth Marlar Taylor was a United States Air Force officer and a flying ace of World War II. He was a new United States Army Air Corps second lieutenant pilot stationed at Wheeler Field during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Along with his fellow pilot and friend George Welch, Taylor managed to get a fighter plane airborne under fire. Taylor claimed to have shot down four Japanese dive bombers but only two were confirmed. Taylor was injured during the incident and received several awards for his efforts, including the Distinguished Service Cross and the Purple Heart.

23/12/1918

José Greco, Italian-American dancer and choreographer (died 2000)

José Greco was an Italian-born American flamenco dancer and choreographer known for popularizing Spanish dance on the stage and screen in America mostly in the 1950s and 1960s.

Helmut Schmidt, German soldier, economist, and politician, 5th Chancellor of Germany (died 2015)

Helmut Heinrich Waldemar Schmidt was a German politician and member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), who served as the chancellor of West Germany from 1974 to 1982. He was the longest lived chancellor in German history and had the longest post-chancellorship, at over 33 years.

23/12/1916

Dino Risi, Italian director and screenwriter (died 2008)

Dino Risi was an Italian film director. With Mario Monicelli, Luigi Comencini, Nanni Loy, and Ettore Scola, he was one of the masters of commedia all'italiana.

23/12/1912

Anna J. Harrison, American organic chemist and academic (died 1998)

Anna Jane Harrison was an American organic chemist and a professor of chemistry at Mount Holyoke College for nearly forty years. She was the first female president of the American Chemical Society, and the recipient of twenty honorary degrees. She was nationally known for her teaching and was active nationally and internationally as a supporter of women in science.

23/12/1911

James Gregory, American actor (died 2002)

James Gregory was an American character actor who played roles such as Schaffer in Al Capone (1959), the McCarthy-like Sen. John Iselin in The Manchurian Candidate (1962), General Ursus in Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970), and Inspector Frank Luger in the television sitcom Barney Miller (1975–1982).

Niels Kaj Jerne, English-Danish physician and immunologist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1994)

Niels Kaj Jerne, FRS was a Danish immunologist. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1984 with Georges J. F. Köhler and César Milstein "for theories concerning the specificity in development and control of the immune system and the discovery of the principle for production of monoclonal antibodies".

23/12/1910

Kurt Meyer, German SS general and convicted war criminal (died 1961)

Kurt Meyer was an SS commander and convicted war criminal of Nazi Germany. He served in the Waffen-SS and participated in the Battle of France, Operation Barbarossa, and other engagements during World War II. Meyer commanded the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend during the Allied invasion of Normandy, and was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords.

23/12/1908

Gertrude Bancroft, American economist (died 1985)

Gertrude Bancroft McNally was an American economist who was chief of the economic statistics section of the United States Census Bureau until 1951. She was later associated with the Social Science Research Council and special assistant to the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Yousuf Karsh, Armenian-Canadian photographer (died 2002)

Yousuf Karsh was a Canadian photographer known for his portraits of notable individuals. He has been described as one of the greatest portrait photographers of the 20th century.

23/12/1907

Manuel Lopes, Cape Verdean author and poet (died 2005)

Manuel António de Sousa Lopes was a Cape Verdean novelist, poet and essayist. With Baltasar Lopes da Silva and Jorge Barbosa he was a founder of the journal Claridade, which contributed to the rise of Cape Verdean literature. Manuel Lopes wrote in Portuguese, using expressions typical for Cape Verdean Portuguese and Cape Verdean Creole. He was one of those responsible for describing world calamities of the droughts that caused several deaths in São Vicente and Santo Antão.

James Roosevelt, American general and politician (died 1991)

James Roosevelt II was an American businessman, Marine officer, activist, and Democratic Party politician. The eldest son of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt, he served as an official Secretary to the President for his father and was later elected to the United States House of Representatives representing California, serving five terms from 1955 to 1965. Roosevelt received the Navy Cross while serving as a Marine Corps officer during World War II.

Avraham Stern, Polish Zionist leader (died 1942)

Avraham Stern, alias Yair (יאיר), was one of the leaders of the Jewish paramilitary organization Irgun. In September 1940, he founded a breakaway militant Zionist group named Lehi, called the "Stern Gang" by the British authorities and by the mainstream in the Yishuv Jewish establishment. The group referred to its members as terrorists and admitted to having carried out terrorist attacks.

23/12/1902

Norman Maclean, American author and academic (died 1990)

Norman Fitzroy Maclean was an American professor at the University of Chicago who, following his retirement, became a major figure in American literature. Maclean is known for his collection of novellas A River Runs Through It and Other Stories (1976), and the creative nonfiction book Young Men and Fire (1992).

Charan Singh, Indian lawyer and politician, 5th Prime Minister of India (died 1987)

Chaudhary Charan Singh was an Indian politician, peasant leader, author and an independence activist who briefly served as the prime minister of India from July 1979 to January 1980. Singh was principally known for his land and agricultural reform initiatives, and was Member of Parliament (MP) for Baghpat. During his premiership, he was a member of the Janata Party (Secular). He served as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh as a member of Bharatiya Kranti Dal. He also briefly served as the deputy prime minister of India from January 1979 to July 1979 as a member of the Janata Party. Singh is widely regarded as the "Champion of Farmers", dedicated to advocating for the well being and rights of farmers.

23/12/1901

Viktor Gutić, Croatian fascist official (died 1947)

Viktor Gutić was the Ustaše commissioner for Banja Luka and the Grand Prefect of Pokuplje in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), an Axis puppet state during World War II. He was responsible for the persecution of Serbs, Jews and Roma in the Bosanska Krajina region between 1941 and 1942.

23/12/1900

Merle Barwis, American-Canadian supercentenarian (died 2014)

This article lists Canadian supercentenarians. The oldest verified Canadian person ever was Marie-Louise Meilleur, who died in 1998 aged 117 years, 230 days. As of 22 June 2026, the oldest living Canadian person is Katherine Baumchen, who was born in Saskatchewan on 10 February 1915 but currently resides in the United States, aged 111 years, 132 days. The oldest known living person in Canada is Marie Rosa, born 17 September 1915, aged 110 years, 278 days.

Marie Bell, French actress and stage director (died 1985)

Marie Bell, born Marie-Jeanne Bellon-Downey, was a French tragedian, comic actor and stage director. She was the director of the Théâtre du Gymnase in Paris from 1962 onwards, and this theatre now bears her name.

Otto Soglow, American cartoonist (died 1975)

Otto Soglow was an American cartoonist best known for his comic strip The Little King.

23/12/1896

Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, Italian lieutenant and author (died 1957)

Giuseppe Tomasi, 11th Prince of Lampedusa, 12th Duke of Palma, GE, known as Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, was a Sicilian writer, as well as the last generation of Tomasi Princes of Lampedusa before the family's and their titles' extinction.

23/12/1895

Nola Luxford, New Zealand-American actress and broadcaster (died 1994)

Nola Luxford was a New Zealand-born American film actress, spanning from the silent film era to the 1930s. During the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, she was also a writer and pioneer broadcaster, providing a daily radio programme for audiences in Australia and New Zealand.

23/12/1894

Arthur Gilligan, English cricketer (died 1976)

Arthur Edward Robert Gilligan was an English first-class cricketer who captained the England cricket team nine times in 1924 and 1925, winning four Test matches, losing four and drawing one. In first-class cricket, he played as an amateur, mainly for Cambridge University and Sussex, and captained the latter team between 1922 and 1929. A fast bowler and hard-hitting lower order batsman, Gilligan completed the double in 1923 and was one of Wisden's Cricketers of the Year for 1924. When his playing career ended, he held several important positions in cricket, including that of England selector and president of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). A popular figure within cricket, he was widely regarded as sporting and friendly.

23/12/1885

Pierre Brissaud, French illustrator, painter, and engraver (died 1964)

Pierre Brissaud was a French Art Deco illustrator, painter, and engraver. He was born in Paris and trained at the École des Beaux-Arts and Atelier Fernand Cormon in Montmartre, Paris. His father was Dr. Édouard Brissaud, a student of Dr. Jean-Martin Charcot. His fellow students at Cormon were his brother Jacques, André-Édouard Marty, Charles Martin, and Georges Lepape. Students at the workshop drew, painted and designed wallpaper, furniture and posters. Earlier, Toulouse-Lautrec, van Gogh, and Henri Matisse had studied and worked there. Pierre's older brother Jacques Brissaud was a portrait and genre painter and his uncle Maurice Boutet de Monvel illustrated the fables of La Fontaine, songbooks for children and a life of Joan of Arc. A first cousin was the celebrated artist and celebrity portrait painter Bernard Boutet de Monvel.

23/12/1878

Stephen Timoshenko, Ukrainian-American engineer and academic (died 1972)

Stepan Prokopovich Timoshenko, later known as Stephen Timoshenko, was a Ukrainian and later an American engineer and academician.

23/12/1870

John Marin, American painter (died 1953)

John Marin was an early American modernist visual artist. He is known for his abstract landscape paintings and watercolors.

23/12/1867

Madam C. J. Walker, American businesswoman and philanthropist (died 1919)

Madam C. J. Walker, Mrs. Charles Joseph Walker upon her third marriage, was an American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and political and social activist. Walker is recorded as the first female self-made millionaire in America in the Guinness Book of World Records. Multiple sources mention that although other women might have been the first, their wealth is not as well-documented.

23/12/1865

James M. Canty, American educator, school administrator, and businessperson (died 1964)

James Munroe Canty was an American educator, school administrator, and businessperson. Canty was an acting principal of the West Virginia Colored Institute in 1898 and is considered by West Virginia State as an acting president. Canty also served as the superintendent of Mechanical Industries for West Virginia Colored Institute from 1893 through 1914.

23/12/1861

Edgar P. Rucker, American lawyer, politician, and businessman (died 1908)

Edgar Parks Rucker was an American lawyer, politician, and businessman in the U.S. state of West Virginia. He was a Republican who served as the 12th attorney general of West Virginia from March 4, 1897, until March 3, 1901.

23/12/1854

Henry B. Guppy, English botanist and author (died 1926)

Henry Brougham Guppy was a British surgeon, geologist, botanist and photographer. He was awarded the Linnean Medal in 1917.

23/12/1843

Richard Conner, American sergeant, Medal of Honor recipient (died 1924)

Richard Conner was an American Civil War Union Army soldier who received the Medal of Honor for his bravery in action.

23/12/1839

János Murkovics, Slovene-Hungarian author and educator (died 1917)

János Murkovics was a Slovene teacher, musician, and writer in Hungary.

23/12/1828

Mathilde Wesendonck, German poet and author (died 1902)

Agnes Mathilde Wesendonck was a German poet and author. The words of five of her verses were the basis of Richard Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder; the composer was infatuated with her, and his wife Minna blamed Mathilde for the break-up of their marriage.

23/12/1822

Wilhelm Bauer, German engineer (died 1875)

Wilhelm Bauer was a German marine engineer and inventor who built several hand-powered submarines.

23/12/1819

Jan Jakob Lodewijk ten Kate, Dutch pastor and poet (died 1889)

Jan Jakob Lodewijk ten Kate was a Dutch divine, prose writer and poet.

23/12/1812

Samuel Smiles, Scottish-English author (died 1904)

Samuel Smiles was a British author and government reformer. Although he campaigned on a Chartist platform, he promoted the idea that more progress would come from new attitudes than from new laws. His primary work, Self-Help (1859), promoted thrift and claimed that poverty was caused largely by irresponsible habits, while also attacking materialism and laissez-faire government. It has been called "the bible of mid-Victorian liberalism" and had lasting effects on British political thought.

Henri-Alexandre Wallon, French historian and statesman (died 1904)

Henri-Alexandre Wallon was a French historian and statesman whose decisive contribution to the creation of the Third Republic led him to be called the "Father of the Republic". He was the grandfather of psychologist and politician Henri Wallon.

23/12/1810

Edward Blyth, English zoologist (died 1873)

Edward Blyth was an English zoologist who worked for most of his life in India as a curator of zoology at the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal in Calcutta. He catalogued the specimens in the collection in his Catalogue of the Birds of the Asiatic Society in 1849. He did not collect specimens himself but received and described bird specimens from A.O. Hume, Samuel Tickell, Robert Swinhoe among others. His Natural History of the Cranes was published posthumously in 1881.

Karl Richard Lepsius, German Egyptologist (died 1884)

Karl Richard Lepsius was a German Egyptologist, linguist and modern archaeologist.

23/12/1807

Anthony Mary Claret, Spanish Roman Catholic archbishop and missionary (died 1870)

Anthony Mary Claret, was a Spanish Catholic prelate and missionary who served as Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba and was the confessor of Queen Isabella II. He founded the congregation of Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, commonly called the Claretians.

23/12/1805

Joseph Smith, American religious leader, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement (died 1844)

Joseph Smith Jr. was an American religious and political leader and the founder of Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint movement. Publishing the Book of Mormon at the age of 24, Smith attracted tens of thousands of followers by the time of his death fourteen years later. The religious movement he founded is followed by millions of global adherents and several churches, the largest of which is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

23/12/1804

Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve, French author, critic, and academic (died 1869)

Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve was a French literary critic.

23/12/1793

Dost Mohammad Khan, emir of Afghanistan (died 1863)

Dost Mohammad Khan Barakzai, nicknamed the Great Emir, was the founder of the Barakzai dynasty and one of the prominent rulers of Afghanistan during the First Anglo-Afghan War. With the decline of the Durrani dynasty, he succeeded his brother Sultan Mohammad Khan, and became the Emir of Afghanistan in 1826. An ethnic Pashtun, he belonged to the Mohammadzai branch of the Barakzai tribe. He was the 11th son of Payandah Khan, chief of the Barakzai Pashtuns, who was killed in 1800 by King Zaman Shah Durrani.

23/12/1790

Jean-François Champollion, French philologist, orientalist, and scholar (died 1832)

Jean-François Champollion, also known as Champollion le jeune, was a French philologist and orientalist, known primarily as the decipherer of Egyptian hieroglyphs and a founding figure in the field of Egyptology. Partially raised by his brother, the scholar Jacques Joseph Champollion-Figeac, Champollion was a child prodigy in philology, giving his first public paper on the decipherment of Demotic in his late teens. As a young man he was renowned in scientific circles, and read Coptic, Ancient Greek, Latin, Hebrew and Arabic.

23/12/1782

William Armstrong, American lawyer, civil servant, politician, and businessperson (died 1865)

William Armstrong was an American lawyer, civil servant, politician, and businessperson. He represented Hampshire County in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1818 to 1820, and Virginia's 16th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1825 to 1833.

23/12/1777

Alexander I of Russia (died 1825)

Alexander I of Russia, nicknamed "the Blessed", was Emperor of Russia from 1801, the first King of Congress Poland from 1815, and the Grand Duke of Finland from 1809 to his death in 1825. He ruled Russia during the chaotic period of the Napoleonic Wars.

23/12/1766

Wilhelm Hisinger, Swedish physicist and chemist (died 1852)

Wilhelm Hisinger was a Swedish physicist and chemist who in 1807, working in coordination with Jöns Jakob Berzelius, noted that in electrolysis any given substance always went to the same pole, and that substances attracted to the same pole had other properties in common. This showed that there was at least a qualitative correlation between the chemical and electrical natures of bodies.

23/12/1758

Nathan Wilson, American soldier and politician (died 1834)

Nathan Wilson was a United States representative from New York. Born in Bolton, Worcester County, Massachusetts, he moved with his family to Greenwich, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, where he attended school. He served two enlistments in Massachusetts regiments during the Revolutionary War in 1777 and 1780 and moved to New Perth, Washington County, New York. He enlisted as a private in the Sixteenth Regiment, Albany County Militia and was appointed by Governor George Clinton in 1791 adjutant in Washington County Militia Regiment. He was town collector in 1801 and 1802 and sheriff of Washington County from 1802 to 1806.

23/12/1750

Frederick Augustus I of Saxony (died 1827)

Frederick Augustus I of Saxony was a member of the House of Wettin who reigned as the last Elector of Saxony from 1763 to 1806 and as the first King of Saxony from 1806 to 1827. He was also Duke of Warsaw from 1807 to 1815, a short-lived disputed Grand Duke of Lithuania in 1812, and a legitimate candidate to the Polish throne.

23/12/1732

Richard Arkwright, English businessman and inventor, invented the Water frame and Spinning frame (died 1792)

Sir Richard Arkwright was an English inventor and a leading entrepreneur during the early Industrial Revolution. He is credited as the driving force behind the development of the spinning frame, known as the water frame after it was adapted to use water power; and he patented a rotary carding engine to convert raw cotton to 'cotton lap' prior to spinning. He was the first to develop factories housing both mechanised carding and spinning operations.

23/12/1713

Maruyama Gondazaemon, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 3rd Yokozuna (died 1749)

Maruyama Gondazaemon was a Japanese sumo wrestler, who is formally recognised as the third yokozuna. His real name was Haga Gindayu . He came from Mutsu Province in the Sendai Domain.

23/12/1690

Pamheiba, Indian emperor (died 1751)

Gharib Niwaz, also known as Pamheiba, was the ruler of the Manipur Kingdom, ruling from c. 1709 until his death in 1748. He introduced Hinduism as the state religion of his kingdom (1717) and changed the name of the kingdom from "Kangleipaak" to the Sanskrit Manipur (1724). He changed his royal name from his birth name Pamheipa to the Persianate "Gharib Niwaz". During most of his reign he was engaged in warfare against the weakened Burmese Toungoo Dynasty.

23/12/1689

Joseph Bodin de Boismortier, French composer (died 1755)

Joseph Bodin de Boismortier was a French baroque composer of chamber music, cantatas, opéra-ballets, and vocal music. Boismortier was one of the first composers to have no patrons: having obtained a royal licence for engraving music in 1724, he made enormous sums of money by publishing his music for sale to the public.

23/12/1621

Heneage Finch, 1st Earl of Nottingham, English lawyer and politician, Lord Chancellor of England (died 1682)

Heneage Finch, 1st Earl of Nottingham,, Lord Chancellor of England, was descended from the old family of Finch, many of whose members had attained high legal eminence, and was the eldest son of Sir Heneage Finch, Recorder of London, by his first wife Frances Bell, daughter of Sir Edmond Bell of Beaupre Hall, Norfolk.

Edmund Berry Godfrey, English lawyer and judge (died 1678)

Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey was an English magistrate whose mysterious death caused anti-Catholic uproar in England. Contemporary documents also spell the name Edmundbury Godfrey.

23/12/1613

Carl Gustaf Wrangel, Swedish field marshal and politician, Lord High Constable of Sweden (died 1676)

Fältmarskalk Carl Gustaf Wrangel was a Swedish statesman and military commander who commanded the Swedish forces in the Thirty Years' War, as well as the Torstenson, Bremen, Second Northern and Scanian Wars.

23/12/1605

Tianqi Emperor, Chinese emperor (died 1627)

The Tianqi Emperor, personal name Zhu Youjiao, was the 16th and penultimate emperor of the Ming dynasty, reigning from 1620 to 1627. He was the eldest son of the Taichang Emperor and an elder half-brother of the Chongzhen Emperor, who succeeded him.

23/12/1597

Martin Opitz, German poet and composer (died 1639)

Martin Opitz von Boberfeld was a German poet, regarded as the greatest of that nation during his lifetime.

23/12/1582

Severo Bonini, Italian organist and composer (died 1663)

Severo Bonini was an Italian composer, organist, and writer on music.

23/12/1573

Giovanni Battista Crespi, Italian painter, sculptor and architect (died 1632)

Giovanni Battista Crespi, called Il Cerano, was an Italian painter, sculptor, and architect. He is one of the most prominent of the Milanese artists of the early 17th century whose work represents a transitional phase between Mannerism and Baroque. He was highly esteemed in his day and patronized by the Fabbrica of Milan Cathedral, the civic authorities and highly distinguished private patrons, such as the Borromeo and Gonzaga families and the House of Savoy.

23/12/1544

Anna of Saxony, only child and heiress of Maurice, Elector of Saxony (died 1577)

Anna of Saxony was the daughter of Maurice, Elector of Saxony, and Agnes of Hesse. Her wealth drew many suitors; she ultimately accepted the proposal of widowed William the Silent, and they were married on 25 August 1561. They had to flee the Netherlands in 1567 in the face of the Habsburg army dispatched to suppress the Dutch Revolt.

23/12/1525

John Albert I, duke of Mecklenburg (died 1576)

John Albert I, in older literature known as John or Johann, was the reigning duke of Mecklenburg-Güstrow from 1547 to 1556 and of Mecklenburg-Schwerin from 1556 to 1576. In 1549, John Albert I saw to it that the parliament of Mecklenburg carried through the Reformation for the entire duchy.

23/12/1513

Thomas Smith, English scholar and diplomat (died 1577)

Sir Thomas Smith was an English scholar, parliamentarian and diplomat.

23/12/1173

Louis I, duke of Bavaria (died 1231)

Louis I, called the Kelheimer or of Kelheim, since he was born and died at Kelheim, was the Duke of Bavaria from 1183 and Count Palatine of the Rhine from 1214. He was the only surviving son of Otto I, Duke of Bavaria by his wife Agnes of Loon. He married Ludmilla of Bohemia, a daughter of Duke Frederick of Bohemia.

23/12/0968

Emperor Zhenzong of Song, emperor of the Song dynasty (died 1022)

Emperor Zhenzong of Song, personal name Zhao Heng, was the third emperor of the Song dynasty of China. He reigned from 997 to his death in 1022. His personal name was originally Zhao Dechang, but was changed to Zhao Yuanxiu in 983, Zhao Yuankan in 986, and finally Zhao Heng in 995. He was the third son of his predecessor, Emperor Taizong, and was succeeded by his sixth son, Emperor Renzong at the end of his reign. From 1020 he was seriously ill, but retained power despite this. Because of his illness, day-to-day rule of China was often placed in the hands of his third wife, Empress Liu.

Lives Remembered on 23rd December

On 23rd December, 108 remarkable people passed away — from 423 to 2024. Remember the lives and legacies of those we lost on this day.

23/12/2024

Shyam Benegal, Indian director and screenwriter (born 1934)

Shyam Benegal was an Indian film director, screenwriter and documentary filmmaker. Often regarded as a pioneer of parallel cinema, he is considered as one of the greatest filmmakers post 1970s. He has received several accolades, including eighteen National Film Awards, a Filmfare Award and a Nandi Award. In 2005, he was honoured with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, India's highest award in the field of cinema. In 1976, he was honoured by the Government of India with the Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian honour of the country, and in 1991, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian honour for his contributions in the field of arts. He died on 23 December 2024, aged 90, at Wockhardt Hospital in Mumbai, where he was receiving treatment for chronic kidney disease.

Dési Bouterse, Surinamese general and politician, 9th President of Suriname (born 1945)

Desiré "Desi" Delano Bouterse was a Surinamese military officer, politician, and convicted drug trafficker, who served as the eighth president of Suriname from 2010 to 2020, having previously led the country twice after a coup as a military dictator from 1980 to 1987 and again from 1990 to 1991. He was the founding president of the National Democratic Party (NDP) from 1987 to 2024.

Sophie Hediger, Swiss snowboarder (born 1998)

Sophie Anna Hediger was a Swiss snowboarder. She competed in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, in women's snowboard cross, and in the mixed team snowboard cross.

23/12/2023

William Pope.L, American performance artist (born 1955)

William Pope.L, also known as Pope.L, was an accomplished American visual artist recognized for his contributions to performance art and interventionist public art. He also created pieces in painting, photography, and theater. He was featured in the 2002 Whitney Biennial and was the recipient of the Creative Capital Visual Arts Award, as well as a Guggenheim Fellow. Notably, Pope.L was also highlighted in the 2017 Whitney Biennial for his work.

23/12/2022

Brandon Montrell, American TikTok personality and stand-up comedian (born 1979)

Brandon Montrell, known professionally as Boogie B, was a comedian from New Orleans, Louisiana.

23/12/2021

Joan Didion, American writer (born 1934)

Joan Didion was an American writer and journalist. She is considered one of the pioneers of New Journalism, along with Gay Talese, Truman Capote, Norman Mailer, Hunter S. Thompson and Tom Wolfe.

23/12/2020

Leslie West, American singer and guitarist (born 1945)

Leslie Abel West was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. He was the co-founder, guitarist and co-lead vocalist of the rock band Mountain. West was named the 245th greatest guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone in 2023.

23/12/2017

Maurice Hayes, Irish educator and politician (born 1927)

Maurice Hayes was an Irish public servant and, late in life, an independent member of both the 21st and 22nd Seanad. Hayes was nominated by the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, in 1997 and re-nominated in 2002. He also served, at the Taoiseach's request, as Chairman of the National Forum on Europe in the Republic of Ireland.

23/12/2015

Alfred G. Gilman, American pharmacologist and biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1941)

Alfred Goodman Gilman was an American pharmacologist and biochemist. He and Martin Rodbell shared the 1994 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for their discovery of G-proteins and the role of these proteins in signal transduction in cells."

Don Howe, English footballer and manager (born 1935)

Donald Howe was an English football player, coach, manager and pundit. As a right back Howe featured for clubs West Bromwich Albion and Arsenal together with the England national football team in his playing career. He also went on to manage sides West Brom, Arsenal, Galatasaray, Queens Park Rangers and Coventry City. Howe was also a successful coach and has been described as one of the most influential figures of the English footballing game.

Jean-Marie Pelt, French biologist, pharmacist, and academic (born 1933)

Jean-Marie Pelt was a French biologist, botanist and pharmacist with degrees in both biology and pharmacy.

Bülent Ulusu, Turkish admiral and politician, 18th Prime Minister of Turkey (born 1923)

Saim Bülend Ulusu was a Turkish admiral who was Prime Minister of Turkey from the time of the 1980 military coup to the time that elections were allowed in 1983.

23/12/2014

Edward Greenspan, Canadian lawyer and author (born 1944)

Edward Leonard Greenspan, was one of Canada's most famous defence lawyers, and a prolific author of legal volumes. His fame was owed to numerous high-profile clients and to his national exposure on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio series Scales of Justice (1982–1994).

Robert V. Hogg, American statistician and academic (born 1924)

Robert Vincent Hogg was an American statistician and professor of statistics of the University of Iowa. Hogg is known for his widely used textbooks on statistics and on mathematical statistics. Hogg has received recognition for his research on robust and adaptive nonparametric statistics and for his scholarship on total quality management and statistics education.

23/12/2013

Chryssa, Greek-American sculptor (born 1933)

Chryssa Vardea-Mavromichali was a Greek American artist who worked in a wide variety of media. An American art pioneer in light art and luminist sculpture, known for her neon, steel, aluminum and acrylic glass installations, she always used the mononym Chryssa professionally. She worked from the mid-1950s in New York City studios and worked since 1992 in the studio she established in Neos Kosmos, Athens, Greece.

Mikhail Kalashnikov, Russian general and weapons designer, designed the AK-47 rifle (born 1919)

Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov was a Soviet and Russian lieutenant general, inventor, military engineer, writer, and small arms designer. He is most famous for developing the AK-47 assault rifle and its improvements, the AKM and AK-74, as well as the RPK light machine gun and PK machine gun.

Yusef Lateef, American saxophonist, composer, and educator (born 1920)

Yusef Abdul Lateef was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist, composer, and prominent figure among the Ahmadiyya Community in the United States.

Ricky Lawson, American drummer and composer (born 1954)

William Riser III, better known as Ricky Lawson or Ricky Remo, was an American drummer and composer. A native of Detroit, Michigan, he worked extensively as a session musician, collaborating with Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Whitney Houston, Steely Dan, Earl Klugh, Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds and other artists. He co-founded the jazz-fusion band Yellowjackets and won the 1987 Grammy Award for Best R&B Instrumental Performance for "And You Know That" from their album Shades.

G. S. Shivarudrappa, Indian poet and educator (born 1926)

Guggari Shanthaveerappa Shivarudrappa, or colloquially GSS, was an Indian Kannada poet, writer, and researcher who was awarded the title of Rashtrakavi by the Government of Karnataka in 2006.

Robert W. Wilson, American philanthropist and art collector (born 1928)

Robert Warne Wilson was an American hedge fund manager, philanthropist, and art collector.

23/12/2012

Jean Harris, American educator and murderer (born 1923)

Jean Struven Harris was the headmistress of The Madeira School for girls in McLean, Virginia, who made US news in the early 1980s when she was tried and convicted of the murder of her ex-lover, Herman Tarnower, a well-known cardiologist and author of the best-selling book The Complete Scarsdale Medical Diet.

Eduardo Maiorino, Brazilian mixed martial artist and kick-boxer (born 1979)

Eduardo "Morpheus" Maiorino was a Brazilian professional kickboxer and mixed martial artist. He was a three time Brazilian Heavyweight Muay Thai Champion, the K-1 Brazil 2004 Tournament finalist and champion, and a World Muay Thai Association (WMA) Super Heavyweight World Champion.

23/12/2011

Aydın Menderes, Turkish economist and politician (born 1946)

Aydın Menderes was a Turkish politician. He was a deputy, who represented various parties from 1977 to 2002. He was the youngest son of former Prime Minister Adnan Menderes.

23/12/2010

Fred Hargesheimer, American soldier and pilot (born 1916)

Major Fred Hargesheimer was a former pilot of the United States Army Air Forces who was shot down during World War II over Papua New Guinea in June 1943. He later became a philanthropist who helped out the village that had hidden him from the Japanese.

K. Karunakaran, Indian lawyer and politician, 7th Chief Minister of Kerala (born 1918)

Kannoth Karunakaran was an Indian politician, political strategist, decision maker and statesman who served as the chief minister of Kerala in 1977, from 1981 to March 1982, from May 1982 to 1987 and from 1991 to 1995. He is the founder of the Indian National Congress (INC)-led United Democratic Front (UDF) coalition, which governed the state in the periods of 1982-87, 1991–96, 2001–06 and 2011–16; and currently is the ruling alliance in Kerala since 2026. He has also served as the Union Minister for Industry from 1995 to 1996 and served as the Leader of the Opposition in the Kerala Legislative Assembly for four terms- 1967 to 1969, 1978 to 1979, 1980 to 1981 and 1987 to 1991. He also has the distinction of being one of the longest serving Congress Legislature Party (CLP) Leaders in the country, holding that post from 1967 to 1995.

23/12/2009

Robert L. Howard, American colonel, Medal of Honor recipient (born 1939)

Robert Lewis Howard was a United States Army Special Forces officer and recipient of the Medal of Honor for his actions in the Vietnam War. He was wounded 14 times over 54 months of combat, was awarded the Medal of Honor, eight Purple Hearts, a Distinguished Service Cross, a Silver Star, and four Bronze Stars.

Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme, Tibetan general and politician (born 1910)

Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme was a Tibetan senior official who assumed various military and political responsibilities both before and after 1951 in Tibet. He is often known simply as Ngapoi in English sources.

Edward Schillebeeckx, Belgian theologian and academic (born 1914)

Edward Cornelis Florentius Alfonsus Schillebeeckx was a Belgian Catholic theologian born in Antwerp. He taught at the Catholic University of Nijmegen. He was a member of the Dominican Order. His books on theology have been translated into many languages, and his contributions to the Second Vatican Council made him known throughout the world.

23/12/2007

William Francis Ganong, Jr., American physiologist and academic (born 1924)

William Francis Ganong Jr. was an American physiologist at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and was one of the first scientists to trace how the brain controls important internal functions of the body.

Michael Kidd, American dancer and choreographer (born 1915)

Michael Kidd was an American film and stage choreographer, dancer and actor, whose career spanned five decades, and who staged some of the leading Broadway and film musicals of the 1940s and 1950s. Kidd, strongly influenced by Charlie Chaplin and Léonide Massine, was an innovator in what came to be known as the "integrated musical", in which dance movements are integral to the plot.

Oscar Peterson, Canadian pianist and composer (born 1925)

Oscar Emmanuel Peterson was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. As a virtuoso who is considered to be one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time, Peterson released more than 200 recordings, won eight Grammy Awards, as well as a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy, and received numerous other awards and honours. He played thousands of concerts worldwide in a career lasting more than 60 years. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, simply "O.P." by his friends, and was informally known in the jazz community as "the King of inside swing".

23/12/2006

Charlie Drake, English actor (born 1925)

Charles Edward Springall, known professionally as Charlie Drake, was an English comedian, actor, writer and singer.

Timothy J. Tobias, American pianist and composer (born 1952)

Timothy John Tobias was an American composer and musician. He died aged 54 of lymphoma.

Johnny Vincent, English footballer (born 1947)

John Victor Vincent was an English professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder or inside forward. He made nearly 300 appearances and scored 59 goals in the Football League. After a spell in non-League football he finished his playing career in the United States.

23/12/2005

Lajos Baróti, Hungarian footballer and manager (born 1914)

Lajos Baróti was a Hungarian football player and manager. With eleven major titles he is one of the most outstanding coaches of his time.

Yao Wenyuan, Chinese writer and politician, member of the Gang of Four (born 1931)

Yao Wenyuan was a Chinese literary critic, politician, and member of the Gang of Four during China's Cultural Revolution.

23/12/2004

P. V. Narasimha Rao, Indian lawyer and politician, 9th Prime Minister of India (born 1921)

Pamulaparthi Venkata Narasimha Rao was an Indian independence activist, lawyer, and statesman from the Indian National Congress who served as the prime minister of India from 1991 to 1996. He was the first person from South India and the second person from a non-Hindi speaking background to be prime minister. He is known for his role in initiating India's economic liberalisation following an economic crisis in 1991, a process that has been sustained and expanded by every successive prime minister of the country.

23/12/2001

Bola Ige, Nigerian lawyer and politician, 3rd Governor of Oyo State (born 1930)

Chief James Ajibola Idowu Ige SAN ; 13 September 1930 – 23 December 2001), popularly known as Bola Ige, was a Nigerian lawyer and politician. He served as Federal Minister of Justice of Nigeria from January 2000 until his assassination in December 2001. He had previously served as governor of Oyo State from 1979 to 1983 during the Nigerian Second Republic.

23/12/2000

Billy Barty, American actor (born 1924)

Billy Barty was an American actor and activist. In adult life, he stood 3 ft 9 in (1.14 m) tall because of cartilage–hair hypoplasia dwarfism and so was often cast in films opposite taller performers for comic effect. He specialized in outspoken or wisecracking characters. During the 1950s, he became a television actor, appearing regularly in the Spike Jones ensemble. In the early 1970s, he appeared often in a variety of roles in children's TV programs produced by Sid and Marty Krofft. As an activist for people with dwarfism, he founded the Little People of America organization in 1957.

Victor Borge, Danish-American comedian, pianist, and conductor (born 1909)

Børge Rosenbaum, known professionally as Victor Borge, was a Danish-American actor, comedian, and pianist who achieved great popularity in radio and television in both North America and Europe. His blend of music and comedy earned him the nicknames "The Clown Prince of Denmark," "The Unmelancholy Dane," and "The Great Dane."

23/12/1998

Joe Orlando, Italian-American author and illustrator (born 1927)

Joseph Orlando was an Italian-American illustrator, writer, editor and cartoonist during a lengthy career spanning six decades. He was the associate publisher of Mad and the vice president of DC Comics, where he edited numerous titles and ran DC's Special Projects department.

23/12/1995

Patric Knowles, English actor (born 1911)

Patric Knowles was an English film actor. Born in Horsforth, West Riding of Yorkshire, he later changed his name to reflect his Irish heritage. He made his film debut in 1932, and played either first or second film leads throughout his career. He appeared in films from the 1930s to the 1970s.

23/12/1994

Sebastian Shaw, English actor, director, and playwright (born 1905)

Sebastian Lewis Shaw was an English actor, theatre director, novelist, playwright and poet. During his seven-decade career, he appeared in dozens of stage performances and more than 40 film and television productions.

23/12/1992

Vincent Fourcade, French interior designer (born 1934)

Vincent Gabriel Fourcade was a French interior designer and the business and life partner of Robert Denning. "Outrageous luxury is what our clients want," he once said.

23/12/1984

Joan Lindsay, Australian author and playwright (born 1896)

Joan à Beckett Weigall, Lady Lindsay was an Australian novelist, playwright, essayist, and visual artist. Trained in her youth as a painter, she published her first literary work in 1936 at age forty under a pseudonym, a satirical novel titled Through Darkest Pondelayo. Her second novel, Time Without Clocks, was published nearly thirty years later, and was a semi-autobiographical account of the early years of her marriage to artist Sir Daryl Lindsay.

23/12/1983

Colin Middleton, Irish painter and illustrator (born 1910)

Colin Middleton was a Northern Irish landscape artist, figure painter, and surrealist. Middleton's prolific output in an eclectic variety of modernist styles is characterised by an intense inner vision, augmented by his lifelong interest in documenting the lives of ordinary people. He has been described as 'Ireland's greatest surrealist.'

23/12/1982

Jack Webb, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1920)

John Randolph Webb was an American actor, television producer, director, and screenwriter, most famous for his role as Joe Friday in the Dragnet franchise, which he created. He was also the founder of his own production company, Mark VII Limited.

23/12/1979

Peggy Guggenheim, American-Italian art collector (born 1898)

Marguerite "Peggy" Guggenheim was an American art collector, bohemian, and socialite. Born to the wealthy New York City Guggenheim family, she was the daughter of Benjamin Guggenheim, who went down with the Titanic in 1912, and the niece of Solomon R. Guggenheim, who established the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Guggenheim collected art in Europe and America between 1938 and 1946. She exhibited this collection as she built it. In 1949, she settled in Venice, where she lived and exhibited her collection for the rest of her life. The Peggy Guggenheim Collection is a modern art museum on the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy, and is one of the most visited attractions in the city.

23/12/1973

Irna Phillips, American screenwriter, created Guiding Light and As the World Turns (born 1901)

Irna Phillips was an American scriptwriter, screenwriter, casting agent, and actress who pioneered a style of daytime soap opera in the United States geared specifically toward women. Phillips created, produced, and wrote several radio and television daytime serials throughout her career, including Guiding Light, As the World Turns, and Another World. She was also a mentor to several other pioneers of the American daytime soap opera, including Agnes Nixon, William J. Bell and Ted Corday.

23/12/1972

Andrei Tupolev, Russian engineer, designed the Tupolev Tu-95 and Tupolev Tu-104 (born 1888)

Andrei Nikolayevich Tupolev was a Russian and later Soviet aeronautical engineer known for his pioneering aircraft designs as the director of the Tupolev Design Bureau.

23/12/1970

Charles Ruggles, American actor (born 1886)

Charles Sherman Ruggles was an American comic character actor. In a career spanning six decades, Ruggles appeared in close to 100 feature films, often in mild-mannered and comic roles. He was also the elder brother of director, producer, and silent film actor Wesley Ruggles (1889–1972).

Aleksander Warma, Estonian lieutenant and politician, Prime Minister of Estonia in exile (born 1890)

Aleksander Warma VR I/3 was an Estonian navy officer, diplomat, and painter.

23/12/1961

Carolyn Sherwin Bailey, American author (born 1875)

Carolyn Sherwin Bailey was an American children's author.

Kurt Meyer, German SS general and convicted war criminal (born 1910)

Kurt Meyer was an SS commander and convicted war criminal of Nazi Germany. He served in the Waffen-SS and participated in the Battle of France, Operation Barbarossa, and other engagements during World War II. Meyer commanded the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend during the Allied invasion of Normandy, and was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords.

23/12/1954

René Iché, French soldier and sculptor (born 1897)

René Iché was a 20th-century French sculptor.

23/12/1953

Lavrentiy Beria, Soviet general and politician, head of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (born 1899)

Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria was a Soviet politician and one of the longest-serving and most influential of Joseph Stalin's secret police chiefs, serving as head of the NKVD from 1938 to 1945 during the country's involvement in the Second World War.

23/12/1950

Vincenzo Tommasini, Italian composer (born 1878)

Vincenzo Tommasini was an Italian composer.

23/12/1948

Executions resulting from convictions at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal

Kenji Doihara was a Japanese general and intelligence officer. He was instrumental in the Japanese invasion of Manchuria and the establishment of Manchukuo.

Executions resulting from convictions at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal

Kōki Hirota was a Japanese diplomat and politician who served as prime minister of Japan from 1936 to 1937. He was executed for war crimes committed during the Second Sino-Japanese War at the Tokyo Trials.

Executions resulting from convictions at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal

General Seishirō Itagaki was a Japanese military officer and politician who served as a general in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II and War Minister from 1938 to 1939.

Executions resulting from convictions at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal

Heitarō Kimura was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army. He was convicted of war crimes and sentenced to death by hanging.

Executions resulting from convictions at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal

Iwane Matsui was a Japanese general in the Imperial Japanese Army and the commander of the expeditionary force sent to China in 1937. He was convicted of war crimes and executed by the Allies for his involvement in the Nanjing Massacre.

Executions resulting from convictions at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal

Akira Mutō was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. He was convicted of war crimes and was executed by hanging. Mutō was implicated in both the Nanjing Massacre and the Manila massacre.

Executions resulting from convictions at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal

Hideki Tojo was a Japanese military officer and politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1941 to 1944 during World War II. His leadership was marked by widespread state violence and mass killings perpetrated in the name of Japanese nationalism.

23/12/1946

John A. Sampson, American gynecologist and academic (born 1873)

John Albertson Sampson was a gynecologist who studied endometriosis.

23/12/1939

Anthony Fokker, Indonesia-born Dutch pilot and engineer, designed the Fokker Dr.I and Fokker D.VII (born 1890)

Anton Herman Gerard "Anthony" Fokker was a Dutch aviation pioneer, aviation entrepreneur, aircraft designer, and aircraft manufacturer. He produced fighter aircraft in Germany during the First World War such as the Eindecker monoplanes, the Dr.1 triplane and the D.VII biplane.

23/12/1931

Wilson Bentley, American meteorologist and photographer (born 1865)

Wilson Alwyn Bentley, also known as Snowflake Bentley, was an American meteorologist and photographer, who was the first known person to take detailed photographs of snowflakes and record their features. He perfected a process of catching flakes on black velvet such that their images could be captured before they either melted or sublimated, and elaborated the theory that no two snowflakes are identical.

23/12/1930

Mustafa Fehmi Kubilay, Turkish lieutenant and educator (born 1906)

Mustafa Fehmi Kubilay was a Turkish military officer and teacher. He is a symbolic figure of the series of events known as the Kubilay Incident, which began with the killing of lieutenant Kubilay, guard Hasan, and guard Şevki by an anti-republican group in Menemen on December 23, 1930. The events continued with the trial of the perpetrators and spanned the months of January and February 1931.

23/12/1926

Swami Shraddhanand, Indian monk, missionary, and educator (born 1856)

Shraddhanand, born Munshi Ram, was an Indian independence activist and Arya Samaj sannyasi who propagated the teachings of Dayananda Saraswati. This included the establishment of educational institutions, like the Gurukul Kangri University, and played a key role on the Sangathan and the Shuddhi (purification), a Hindu reform movement in the 1920s.

23/12/1912

Otto Schoetensack, German anthropologist and academic (born 1850)

Otto Karl Friedrich Schoetensack was a German industrialist and later professor of anthropology, having retired from the chemical firm which he had founded. During a 1908 archeological dig, he oversaw the worker Daniel Hartmann who found the lower jaw of a hominid, the oldest human fossil then known, which Schoetensack later described formally as Homo heidelbergensis.

23/12/1906

Mdungazwe Ngungunyane Nxumalo, last emperor of the Gaza Empire (born c.1850)

Ngungunyane, also known as Mdungazwe Ngungunyane Nxumalo, N'gungunhana, or Gungunhana Reinaldo Frederico Gungunhana, was a king of the Gaza Empire and vassal of the Portuguese Empire, who rebelled, was defeated by General Joaquim Mouzinho de Albuquerque and lived out the rest of his life in exile, first in Lisbon, but later on the island of Terceira, in the Azores.

23/12/1902

Frederick Temple, English archbishop and academic (born 1821)

Frederick Temple was an English academic, teacher and churchman, who served as Bishop of Exeter (1869–1885), Bishop of London (1885–1896) and Archbishop of Canterbury (1896–1902).

23/12/1892

Frederick Tracy Dent, Brigadier General in the Regular United States Army, brother in law to President Ulysses S. Grant.

Frederick Tracy Dent was an American general.

23/12/1889

Constance Naden, English poet and philosopher (born 1858)

Constance Caroline Woodhill Naden was an English writer, poet and philosopher. She studied, wrote and lectured on philosophy and science, alongside publishing two volumes of poetry. Several collected works were published following her death at the young age of 31. In her honour, Robert Lewins established the Constance Naden Medal and had a bust of her installed at Mason Science College. William Ewart Gladstone considered her one of the nineteenth century's foremost female poets.

23/12/1884

John Chisum, American businessman and poker player (born 1824)

John Simpson Chisum was a wealthy cattle baron on the frontier in the American West in the mid-to-late 19th century. As a rancher, he established large herds throughout the New Mexico territory, becoming known as the "Cattle King of the Pecos"; though his business ventures embroiled him in various conflicts, such as the Pecos War and the Lincoln County War. He is remembered as one of the most influential American cattlemen, and his name and life were remembered through memorials, books, films and shows.

23/12/1834

Thomas Robert Malthus, English economist and demographer (born 1766)

Thomas Robert Malthus was an English economist, cleric, and scholar influential in the fields of political economy and demography.

23/12/1805

Pehr Osbeck, Swedish explorer and author (born 1723)

Pehr Osbeck was a Swedish explorer, naturalist and an apostle of Carl Linnaeus. He was born in the parish of Hålanda on Västergötland and studied at Uppsala with Carolus Linnaeus.

23/12/1795

Henry Clinton, English general and politician (born 1730)

General Sir Henry Clinton, KB was a British Army officer and politician who sat in the House of Commons of Great Britain between 1772 and 1795. He is best known for his service as a general during the American War of Independence. He arrived in Boston in May 1775 and was the British Commander-in-Chief in America from 1778 to 1782. He was a Member of Parliament for many years due to the influence of his cousin Henry Pelham-Clinton, 2nd Duke of Newcastle. Late in life, he was named Governor of Gibraltar, but he died before assuming the post.

23/12/1789

Charles-Michel de l'Épée, French priest and educator (born 1712)

Charles-Michel de l'Épée was an 18th-century French Catholic priest and philanthropic educator who advocated for sign language as the preferred method of teaching deaf people, and has become known as the "Father of the Deaf". He founded the Institut National de Jeunes Sourds de Paris, the first public school for the deaf, in 1760.

23/12/1779

Augustus Hervey, 3rd Earl of Bristol, English admiral and politician, Chief Secretary for Ireland (born 1724)

Vice-Admiral Augustus John Hervey, 3rd Earl of Bristol, PC was a Royal Navy officer and politician. He commanded the sixth-rate HMS Phoenix at the Battle of Minorca in May 1756 as well as the third-rate HMS Dragon at the Capture of Belle Île in June 1761, the Invasion of Martinique in January 1762 and the Battle of Havana in June 1762 during the Seven Years' War. He went on to be Chief Secretary for Ireland and then First Naval Lord.

23/12/1771

Marie-Marguerite d'Youville, Canadian nun and saint, founded Grey Nuns (born 1701)

Marguerite d'Youville, SGM was a French Canadian widow who founded the Sisters of Charity of Montreal, commonly known as the "Grey Nuns". She was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1990, becoming the first native-born Canadian to be declared a saint.

23/12/1761

Alastair Ruadh MacDonnell, Scottish spy (born 1725)

Alastair Roy MacDonell of Glengarry (ca 1725–1761; Scottish Gaelic: Alasdair Ruadh MacDomhnaill, was the 13th chief of Clan MacDonell of Glengarry. Brought up as a Catholic and largely educated in France, he was arrested in November 1745 on his way to join the 1745 Jacobite Rising.

23/12/1722

Pierre Varignon, French mathematician and academic (born 1654)

Pierre Varignon was a French mathematician. He was educated at the Jesuit College and the University of Caen, where he received his M.A. in 1682. He took Holy Orders the following year.

23/12/1675

Caesar, duc de Choiseul, French general and diplomat (born 1602)

César de Choiseul, 1st Duke of Choiseul, comte du Plessis-Praslin was a Marshal of France and French diplomat, generally known for the best part of his life as the Maréchal (Marshal) du Plessis-Praslin.

23/12/1652

John Cotton, English minister and theologian (born 1585)

John Cotton was a clergyman in England and the American colonies, and was considered the preeminent minister and theologian of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He studied for five years at Trinity College, Cambridge, and nine years at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He had already built a reputation as a scholar and outstanding preacher when he accepted the position of minister at St. Botolph's Church, Boston, in Lincolnshire, in 1612.

23/12/1646

François Maynard, French poet and academic (born 1582)

François Maynard, sometimes seen as "de Maynard" was a French poet who spent much of his life in Toulouse.

23/12/1638

Barbara Longhi, Italian painter (born 1552)

Barbara Longhi was an Italian painter. She was much admired in her lifetime as a portraitist, although most of her portraits are now lost or unattributed. Her work, such as her many Madonna and Child paintings, earned her a fine reputation as an artist.

23/12/1631

Michael Drayton, English poet and playwright (born 1563)

Michael Drayton was an English poet who came to prominence in the Elizabethan era, continuing to write through the reign of James I and into the reign of Charles I. Many of his works consisted of historical poetry. He was also the first English-language author to write odes in the style of Horace. He died in 1631 in London.

23/12/1588

Henry I, duke of Guise (born 1550)

Henri I de Lorraine, Duke of Guise, Prince of Joinville, Count of Eu, sometimes called Le Balafré ('Scarface'), was the eldest son of François, Duke of Guise, and Anna d'Este. His maternal grandparents were Ercole II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, and Renée of France. Through his maternal grandfather, he was a descendant of Lucrezia Borgia and Pope Alexander VI.

23/12/1575

Akiyama Nobutomo, Japanese samurai (born 1531)

Akiyama Nobutomo was a samurai during the Sengoku period in Japan. He is known as one of the "Twenty-Four Generals of Takeda Shingen". Nobutomo also served under Shingen's son, Takeda Katsuyori.

23/12/1572

Johann Sylvan, German theologian (executed; date of birth unknown)

Johann Sylvan was a Reformed German theologian who was executed for his heretical Antitrinitarian beliefs.

23/12/1556

Nicholas Udall, English cleric, playwright, and educator (born 1504)

Nicholas Udall was an English playwright, cleric, schoolmaster, the author of Ralph Roister Doister, generally regarded as the first comedy written in the English language.

23/12/1392

Isabella of Castile, duchess of York (born 1355)

Isabella of Castile, Duchess of York was the daughter of King Peter and his mistress María de Padilla. She accompanied her elder sister, Constance, to England after Constance's marriage to John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, and married Gaunt's younger brother, Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York.

23/12/1384

Thomas Preljubović, ruler of Epirus

Thomas Preljubović was ruler of the Despotate of Epirus in Ioannina from 1367 to his death in 1384. Thomas was an unpopular ruler and is appraised very negatively by his contemporaries. On December 23, 1384 he was stabbed to death by his guards at dawn. The conspiracy of the faction which overthrew him involved his wife Maria Angelina who succeeded him.

23/12/1383

Beatrice of Bourbon, Queen of Bohemia (born 1320)

Beatrice of Bourbon was by marriage Queen of Bohemia and Countess of Luxembourg. Initially betrothed to Philip, Despot of Romania, she later married King John of Bohemia. By 1337 she had given birth to a son, Wenceslaus, and then promptly left Prague, residing in Luxembourg. After being widowed in 1346, Beatrice married Eudes II, Lord of Grancey in 1347. She died 27 December 1383 and was buried at the Couvent des Jacobins.

23/12/1304

Matilda of Habsburg, duchess regent of Bavaria (born 1253)

Matilda of Habsburg or Melchilde was a duchess consort of Bavaria. She was regent of Upper Bavaria during the minority of her younger son, Louis IV in 1294–1301.

23/12/1230

Berengaria of Navarre, queen of England (born 1165)

Berengaria of Navarre was Queen of England as the wife of Richard I of England. She was the eldest daughter of Sancho VI of Navarre and Sancha of Castile. As is the case with many of the medieval English queens, little is known of her life.

23/12/1193

Thorlak, patron saint of Iceland (born 1133)

Thorlak Thorhallsson is the patron saint of Iceland. He was Bishop of Skálholt from 1178 until his death. Thorlak's relics were translated to the Cathedral of Skalholt in 1198, not long after his successor, Páll Jónsson, announced at the Althing that vows could be made to Thorlak.

23/12/1172

Ugo Ventimiglia, Italian cardinal

Ugo Ventimiglia was an Italian cardinal. His name is listed also as Ottone. He was born in Ventimiglia. He was ordained Cardinal-Bishop of Palestrina by Pope Alexander III in the consistory celebrated in Sens in 1164. Several catalogs of the bishops of Palestrina do not mention him because he does not appear among signatories of any papal bulls issued during his cardinalate.

23/12/0940

Ar-Radi, Abbasid caliph (born 909)

Abu'l-Abbas Muhammad ibn Ja'far al-Muqtadir, usually simply known by his regnal name al-Radi bi'llah, was the twentieth Caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate, reigning from 934 to his death. He died on 23 December 940 at the age of 31. His reign marked the end of the caliph's political power and the rise of military strongmen, who competed for the title of amir al-umara.

23/12/0918

Conrad I, king of East Francia (born 890)

Conrad I, called the Younger, was the king of East Francia from 911 to 918. He was the first king not of the Carolingian dynasty, the first to be elected by the nobility and the first to be anointed. He was chosen as the king by the rulers of the East Frankish stem duchies after the death of young King Louis the Child. Ethnically Frankish, prior to this election he had ruled the Duchy of Franconia from 906.

23/12/0910

Naum of Preslav, Bulgarian missionary and scholar

Naum, also known as Naum of Ohrid or Naum of Preslav, was a medieval Bulgarian writer and missionary among the Slavs, considered one of the Seven Apostles of the First Bulgarian Empire. He was among the disciples of Cyril and Methodius and is associated with the creation of the Glagolitic and Cyrillic script. Naum was among the founders of the Pliska Literary School. Afterwards Naum worked at the Ohrid Literary School. He was among the first saints declared by the Bulgarian Orthodox Church after its foundation in the 9th century. The mission of Naum played significant role by transformation of the local Early Slavs into Bulgarians.

23/12/0889

Solomon II, bishop of Constance

Solomon II was the Bishop of Constance from 875 until his death. He was a relative of his predecessor and namesake Solomon I and stood in the middle of an "episcopal dynasty." He was commended for his life when the Annales Fuldenses record his death. He was succeeded by his own namesake and another relative, Solomon III.

23/12/0761

Gaubald, Frankish bishop (born 700)

Gaubald was the first bishop of Regensburg after the foundation of the diocese of Regensburg. He has been beatified. His name is also spelled Gawibald, Geupald, or Gaibald.

23/12/0679

Dagobert II, Frankish king (probable; b. 650)

Year 679 (DCLXXIX) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 679 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.

23/12/0668

Gabriel of Beth Qustan, bishop and saint (born 594)

Saint Gabriel of Beth Qustan, also known as Saint Gabriel of Qartmin, was the Bishop of Tur Abdin until his death in 648. He is venerated as a saint in the Oriental Orthodox Church and his feast day is 23 December.

23/12/0484

Huneric, Vandal king

Huneric, Hunneric or Honeric was king of the Vandals and Alans and the second king of the North African Vandal Kingdom, ruling from 477–484 AD, and the oldest son of his predecessor Gaiseric. He abandoned the imperial politics of his father and concentrated mainly on internal affairs. He was married to Eudocia, daughter of western Roman Emperor Valentinian III and his wife Licinia Eudoxia. The couple had one child, the future king Hilderic.

23/12/0423

Ming Yuan Di, ruler of Northern Wei (born 392)

Emperor Mingyuan of Northern Wei ( 魏明元帝), Chinese name Tuoba Si (拓跋嗣), Xianbei name Mumo (木末), was an emperor of the Xianbei-led Northern Wei dynasty of China. He was the oldest son of the founding emperor Emperor Daowu. During his reign, Northern Wei's territory did not expand as much as it did under either his father's reign or the reign of his son Emperor Taiwu, but he helped the state stabilize over northern China, and started the tradition of meeting with important imperial officials to listen to their advice and make final decisions. He is generally regarded by historians to be an intelligent and rational ruler.

Celebrations & Special Days Worldwide on 23rd December

Birthday of the Queen Silvia, an official flag flying day (Sweden)

By an ordinance issued by the government of Sweden, a number of days of the calendar year are designated as official flag flying days when the Swedish flag is flown on all public flagpoles and buildings. Hoisting of the Swedish flag on private flagpoles on these days is strongly encouraged but not mandatory.

Children's Day (South Sudan and Sudan)

Children's Day is a commemorative date celebrated annually in honour of children, whose date of observance varies by country. In 1925, International Children's Day was first proclaimed in Geneva during the World Conference on Child Welfare. Since 1950, it is celebrated on 1 June in many countries that were part of the Eastern Bloc and Non-Aligned Movement, which follow the suggestion from Women's International Democratic Federation. World Children's Day is celebrated on 20 November to commemorate the issuance of the Declaration of the Rights of the Child by the UN General Assembly on 20 November 1959, along with the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child on that date in 1989. In some countries, it is Children's Week and not Children's Day.

Christian Feast Day: Abassad (Coptic Church)

Abassad was a bishop and martyr of the early Christian church. After being tortured, he was beheaded by the command of Arrianus under Diocletian. His feast day is December 23.

Christian Feast Day: Behnam, Sarah, and the Forty Martyrs (Coptic Church)

Saints Behnam, Sarah, and the Forty Martyrs were 4th-century Christians who suffered martyrdom during the reign of Zoroastrian King Shapur II. They are venerated as saints in the Oriental Orthodox Churches and their lives are described in writings known as the Persian martyr acts.

Christian Feast Day: Dagobert II

Dagobert II was a Merovingian king of the Franks, ruling in Austrasia from 675 or 676 until his death. He is one of the more obscure Merovingians. He has been considered a martyr since at least the ninth century.

Christian Feast Day: John Cantius

John Cantius was a Polish Catholic priest, scholastic philosopher, physicist and theologian.

Christian Feast Day: O Emmanuel

The O Antiphons are antiphons used at Vespers during the Magnificat on the last seven days of Advent in Western Christian traditions. They likely date to sixth-century Italy, when Boethius refers to the text in The Consolation of Philosophy. They subsequently became one of the key musical features of the days leading up to Christmas.

Christian Feast Day: Psote (Coptic Church)

Psote, also known as Bisada, Besada, Psate/Psati, Abashadi, Abassadius, or Beshada, was a bishop of Ebsay in Upper Egypt. He was martyred by beheading at Antinoe. St. Apa Psote was a revered Coptic Orthodox bishop from the city of Psoi, known for his devout faith and martyrdom during the Diocletianic Persecution, a time of severe repression against Christians in the Roman Empire.

Christian Feast Day: Thorlac Thorhallsson, patron saint of Iceland; The last day of preparations before Christmas.

Thorlak Thorhallsson is the patron saint of Iceland. He was Bishop of Skálholt from 1178 until his death. Thorlak's relics were translated to the Cathedral of Skalholt in 1198, not long after his successor, Páll Jónsson, announced at the Althing that vows could be made to Thorlak.

Christian Feast Day: Victoria

Saints Victoria, Anatolia, and Audax are venerated as martyrs and saints by the Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church.

Christian Feast Day: December 23 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

December 22 - Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar - December 24

Day of all level operational control structures servicemen (Ukraine)

The Armed Forces of Ukraine are the military forces responsible for the defence of Ukraine and its national interests. They consist of the Ground Forces, the Air Force, the Navy, the Air Assault Forces, the Marine Corps, the Special Operations Forces, the Unmanned Systems Forces, and the Territorial Defense Forces. Ukraine's navy includes its own Naval Aviation, and the National Guard serves as a paramilitary reserve component of the Armed Forces. With a total strength of 4,900,000, the AFU is the fifth largest armed force in the world.

Festivus, a secular holiday made popular by the sitcom Seinfeld

Festivus is a secular holiday celebrated on December 23 as an alternative to the perceived pressures and commercialism of the Christmas season. Originally created by author Daniel O'Keefe, Festivus entered popular culture after it was made the focus of the 1997 Seinfeld episode "The Strike", which O'Keefe's son Dan O'Keefe co-wrote.

HumanLight (Secular humanism in United States)

HumanLight is a Humanist holiday celebrated annually on December 23. HumanLight was first celebrated in 2001, and was created to provide a specifically Humanist celebration during the western world's holiday season. The New Jersey Humanist Network founded the holiday in 2001 to aid secular people in commemorating the December holiday season without encroaching on other adjacent events—both religious ones such as Christmas and secular ones such as Solstice. The inaugural event involved only the founding organization, but is now celebrated by many secular organizations and individuals across the United States and other countries. Various organizations have recognized the holiday, including the American Humanist Association in 2004. The HumanLight Committee maintains the official HumanLight webpage and engages with humanist organizations and the media about the holiday.

Kisan Diwas (Uttar Pradesh, India)

Chaudhary Charan Singh was an Indian politician, peasant leader, author and an independence activist who briefly served as the prime minister of India from July 1979 to January 1980. Singh was principally known for his land and agricultural reform initiatives, and was Member of Parliament (MP) for Baghpat. During his premiership, he was a member of the Janata Party (Secular). He served as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh as a member of Bharatiya Kranti Dal. He also briefly served as the deputy prime minister of India from January 1979 to July 1979 as a member of the Janata Party. Singh is widely regarded as the "Champion of Farmers", dedicated to advocating for the well being and rights of farmers.

Night of the Radishes (Oaxaca City, Mexico)

The Night of the Radishes is an annual event held on December 23 in Oaxaca, Mexico, dedicated to the carving of oversized radishes to create scenes that compete for prizes in various categories.

Tibb's Eve (Newfoundland and Labrador)

Tibb's Eve is a folk expression for a day which will never arrive. A celebration held on 23 December in Newfoundland and Labrador is also known as Tibb's/Tipp's Eve.

Tom Bawcock's Eve (Mousehole, Cornwall)

Tom Bawcock's Eve is an annual festival, held on 23 December, in Mousehole, Cornwall.

Victory Day (Egypt)

Public holidays are celebrated by the entire population of Egypt. Holidays in Egypt have many classifications. Some holidays are religious and others are secular, while some can be fixed holidays on the calendar while others are movable. There are four Islamic holidays and two Christian holidays. The National Day of Egypt is celebrated on July, 23 which coincides with the annual celebration of the Egyptian revolution of 1952 when the modern republic of Egypt was declared, ending the period of the Kingdom of Egypt.

What Happened on 23rd December?

48 significant events took place on Saturday, 23rd December — stretching from 484 to 2025. Explore the moments that shaped history on this day.

23/12/2025

The crash of Harmony Jets Flight 185 killed all eight people on board, including the Libyan Army chief Mohammed al-Haddad in Ankara, Turkey.

Harmony Jets Flight 185 was a charter flight from Ankara Esenboğa Airport, Turkey to Mitiga International Airport, Tripoli, Libya. On 23 December 2025, the aircraft operating the flight, a Dassault Falcon 50, crashed shortly after takeoff. The aircraft was carrying the Libyan Army chief Mohammed Ali Ahmed al-Haddad, three crew members, and four other passengers. All passengers and crew were killed.

23/12/2023

A series of massacres targeting Berom civilians unfold in the Plateau State in Nigeria, killing over 200 people and further injuring over 500. No group claims responsibility.

A series of armed attacks occurred between 23 and 25 December 2023 in Plateau State in central Nigeria. They affected at least 17 rural communities in the Nigerian local government areas of Bokkos and Barkin Ladi, resulting in at least 200 deaths and injuries to more than 500 people as well as significant property damage. Although no group claimed responsibility for the attacks, they are believed to have been committed by Fulani militias.

23/12/2015

A bomb explodes at Istanbul's Sabiha Gökçen Airport, killing one airport cleaner. The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks claim responsibility for the attack four days later.

The Sabiha Gökçen Airport bombing took place on 23 December 2015 in the apron area of Sabiha Gökçen International Airport in Istanbul, Turkey. The explosion, which occurred at approximately 02:05 local time, wounded two airport cleaners, one of whom later died after being taken to hospital. Flights from the terminal resumed as normal while Binali Yıldırım, the Minister of Transport, Maritime and Communication, claimed that there had been no security lapses at the airport. Witnesses initially claimed that they heard three successive blasts, though their cause was unknown and investigators refused to rule out terrorism as a motive. The Daily Telegraph claimed that the blast was most likely caused by a bomb.

23/12/2008

A coup d'état occurs in Guinea hours after the death of President Lansana Conté.

On 23 December 2008, a coup d'état occurred in Guinea, shortly after the death of long-time president Lansana Conté. A junta called the National Council for Democracy and Development, headed by Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, seized power and announced that it planned to rule the country for two years prior to a new presidential election. Camara did indeed step down after Alpha Condé was elected in the 2010 election.

23/12/2007

An agreement is made for the Kingdom of Nepal to be abolished and the country to become a federal republic with the Prime Minister becoming head of state.

The Kingdom of Nepal, also known as the Gorkha Empire, was a Hindu monarchy in South Asia that existed from 1768 to 2008. The kingdom was formed out of the expansion of the Gorkha Kingdom by King Prithvi Narayan Shah, a Gorkha monarch of the Shah dynasty who claimed to be of Thakuri origin from chaubisi.

23/12/2005

An Antonov An-140, Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 217 from Baku, Azerbaijan, to Aktau, Kazakhstan, heading across the Caspian Sea, crashes, killing 23 people.

The Antonov An-140 is a turboprop regional airliner, designed by the Ukrainian Antonov ASTC bureau as a successor to the Antonov An-24, with extended cargo capacity and the ability to use unprepared airstrips.

23/12/2003

An explosion at the PetroChina Chuandongbei natural gas field in Kai County, Chongqing, China, kills at least 234.

PetroChina Company Limited is a Chinese oil and gas company and is the listed arm of state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), headquartered in Dongcheng District, Beijing. The company is currently Asia's largest oil and gas producer. Traded in Hong Kong and New York, the mainland enterprise announced its plans to issue stock in Shanghai in November 2007, and subsequently entered the constituent of SSE 50 Index. In the 2020 Forbes Global 2000, PetroChina was ranked as the 32nd-largest public company in the world.

23/12/2002

A U.S. MQ-1 Predator is shot down by an Iraqi MiG-25 in the first combat engagement between a drone and conventional aircraft.

The General Atomics MQ-1 Predator is an American remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) built by General Atomics that was used primarily by the United States Air Force (USAF) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Conceived in the early 1990s for aerial reconnaissance and forward observation roles, the Predator carries cameras and other sensors. It was modified and upgraded to carry and fire two AGM-114 Hellfire missiles or other munitions. The aircraft entered service in 1995, and saw combat in the war in Afghanistan, Pakistan, the NATO intervention in Bosnia, the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, the Iraq War, Yemen, the 2011 Libyan civil war, the 2014 intervention in Syria, and Somalia.

23/12/1990

History of Slovenia: In a referendum, 88.5% of Slovenia's overall electorate vote for independence from Yugoslavia.

The history of Slovenia chronicles the period of the Slovenian territory from the 5th century BC to the present. In the Early Bronze Age, Proto-Illyrian tribes settled an area stretching from present-day Albania to the city of Trieste. The Slovenian territory was part of the Roman Empire, and it was devastated by the Migration Period's incursions during late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. The main route from the Pannonian plain to Italy ran through present-day Slovenia. Alpine Slavs, ancestors of modern-day Slovenians, settled the area in the late 6th Century AD. The Holy Roman Empire controlled the land for nearly 1,000 years. Between the mid-14th century through 1918 most of Slovenia was under Habsburg rule. In 1918, most Slovene territory became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, and in 1929 the Drava Banovina was created within the Kingdom of Yugoslavia with its capital in Ljubljana, corresponding to Slovenian-majority territories within the state. The Socialist Republic of Slovenia was created in 1945 as part of federal Yugoslavia. Slovenia gained its independence from Yugoslavia in June 1991, and today it is a member of the European Union and NATO.

23/12/1986

Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, lands at Edwards Air Force Base in California becoming the first aircraft to fly non-stop around the world without aerial or ground refueling.

The Rutan Model 76 Voyager is an aircraft designed by Burt Rutan that became the first to fly around the world without stopping or refueling. It was piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager. The flight took off from Edwards Air Force Base's 15,000 foot runway in the Mojave Desert on December 14, 1986, and ended 9 days, 3 minutes and 44 seconds later on December 23, setting a flight endurance record. The aircraft flew westbound 26,366 statute miles at an average altitude of 11,000 feet (3,350 m).

23/12/1984

After experiencing an engine fire, Aeroflot Flight 3519 attempts to make an emergency landing at Krasnoyarsk International Airport but crashes, killing 110 of the 111 people on board.

Aeroflot Flight 3519 was a scheduled flight, operated by a Tupolev Tu-154 that crashed on December 23, 1984, due to an engine failure. 110 occupants were killed; one passenger survived the accident.

23/12/1979

Soviet–Afghan War: Soviet Union forces occupy Kabul, the Afghan capital.

The Soviet–Afghan War took place in Afghanistan from December 1979 to February 1989. Marking the beginning of the 47-year-long Afghan conflict, it saw the Soviet Union and the Communist-led Afghan military fight against the rebelling Afghan mujahideen, aided by Pakistan. While backed by various countries and organizations, the majority of the mujahideen's support came from Pakistan, the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Iran, and the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, in addition to a large influx of foreign fighters known as the Afghan Arabs. American and British involvement on the side of the mujahideen escalated the Cold War, ending a short period of relaxed Soviet Union–United States relations.

23/12/1978

Alitalia Flight 4128 crashes into the Tyrrhenian Sea while on approach to Falcone Borsellino Airport in Palermo, Italy, killing 108.

Alitalia Flight 4128 was a scheduled flight from Leonardo da Vinci Airport, in Rome, Italy, to Palermo International Airport in Palermo, Italy, with 129 on board. On 23 December 1978, the McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 crashed into the Tyrrhenian Sea about 3 km (1.9 mi) north of Palermo while on approach.

23/12/1972

The Immaculate Reception is caught by Franco Harris to win the Pittsburgh Steelers their first ever playoff victory, after defeating the Oakland Raiders.

The Immaculate Reception is one of the most famous plays in the history of American football. It was a touchdown which occurred in the AFC divisional playoff game of the National Football League (NFL), between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Oakland Raiders at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on December 23, 1972.

A 6.5 magnitude earthquake strikes the Nicaraguan capital of Managua killing more than 10,000.

The 1972 Nicaragua earthquake occurred at 12:29:44 a.m. local time on 23 December near Managua, the capital of Nicaragua. It had a moment magnitude of 6.3 and a maximum MSK intensity of IX (Destructive). The epicenter was 28 km (17 mi) northeast of the city centre with a depth of about 10 km (6.2 mi). The earthquake caused widespread casualties among Managua's residents: 4,000–11,000 were killed, 20,000 were injured and over 300,000 were left homeless.

The 16 survivors of the Andes flight disaster are rescued after 73 days, surviving by cannibalism.

Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 was the chartered flight of a Fairchild FH-227D from Montevideo, Uruguay, to Santiago, Chile, that crashed in the Andes mountains in Argentina on 13 October 1972. The accident and subsequent survival became known as both the Andes flight disaster and the Miracle of the Andes.

23/12/1970

The North Tower of the World Trade Center in Manhattan, New York, New York is topped out at 417 metres (1,368 ft), making it the tallest building in the world.

The original One World Trade Center was one of the Twin Towers of the original World Trade Center complex in New York City. It started construction in 1968 and completed in 1972. It stood at a height of 1,368 feet (417.0 m), and was the tallest building in the world until 1973, when surpassed by the Sears Tower in Chicago. On the 106th and 107th floors of this building were a complex of dining, meeting, and entertainment venues known as Windows on the World.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo officially becomes a one-party state.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo and formerly named Zaire, is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is the second-largest country in Africa and the eleventh-largest in the world. With a population of around 124 million people, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the fourth-most populous country in Africa and the most populous Francophone country in the world. French is the official and most widely spoken language. There are over 200 indigenous languages, of which Lingala is the most widely spoken. The capital, largest city, and economic center is Kinshasa. The DRC is bordered by the Republic of the Congo, the Cabinda exclave of Angola, and the South Atlantic Ocean to the west; the Central African Republic and South Sudan to the north; Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania to the east; and Zambia and Angola to the south. Centered on the Congo Basin, most of the DRC's terrain is covered by dense rainforests and is crossed by many rivers. The east and southeast are mountainous.

23/12/1968

The 82 sailors from the USS Pueblo are released after eleven months of internment in North Korea.

USS Pueblo (AGER-2) is a Banner-class technical research ship, placed into service during World War II, then converted to a spy ship in 1967 by the United States Navy. She gathered intelligence and oceanographic information, monitoring electronic and radio signals from North Korea. On 23 January 1968, the ship was attacked and captured by a North Korean vessel, in what became known as the "Pueblo incident".

23/12/1960

Hilkka Saarinen née Pylkkänen is murdered in the so-called "oven homicide" case in Krootila, Kokemäki, Finland.

The oven homicide refers to the homicide of Hilkka Hillevi Saarinen née Pylkkänen, in the village of Krootila in Kokemäki, Finland in December 1960. It is one of Finland's best-known homicide cases, and the killer has never been officially identified.

23/12/1955

The first film adaptation of Väinö Linna's novel The Unknown Soldier, directed by Edvin Laine, premieres.

The Unknown Soldier is a Finnish war film directed by Edvin Laine that premiered in December 1955. It is based on The Unknown Soldier, a novel by Väinö Linna. The story is about the Continuation War between Finland and the Soviet Union as told from the viewpoint of ordinary Finnish soldiers.

23/12/1954

First successful kidney transplant is performed by J. Hartwell Harrison and Joseph Murray.

Kidney transplant or renal transplant is the organ transplant of a kidney into a patient with end-stage kidney disease (ESRD). Kidney transplant is typically classified as deceased-donor or living-donor transplantation depending on the source of the donor organ. Living-donor kidney transplants are further characterized as genetically related (living-related) or non-related (living-unrelated) transplants, depending on whether a biological relationship exists between the donor and recipient. The first successful kidney transplant was performed in 1954 by a team including Joseph Murray, the recipient's surgeon, and Hartwell Harrison, surgeon for the donor. Murray was awarded a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1990 for this and other work. In 2018, an estimated 95,479 kidney transplants were performed worldwide, 36% of which came from living donors.

23/12/1950

Korean War: General Walton Walker dies in a jeep accident and is replaced by General Matthew Ridgway in the Eighth United States Army.

The Korean War was an armed conflict fought on the Korean Peninsula between North Korea and South Korea and their allies. North Korea was supported by China and the Soviet Union, while South Korea was supported by the United Nations led by the United States under the auspices of the United Nations Command (UNC).

23/12/1948

Seven Japanese military and political leaders convicted of war crimes by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East are executed by Allied occupation authorities at Sugamo Prison in Tokyo, Japan.

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asian mainland, it is bordered to the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea in the south. The Japanese archipelago consists of four major islands alongside 14,121 smaller islands. Japan is divided into 47 administrative prefectures and eight traditional regions, and around 75% of its terrain is mountainous and heavily forested, concentrating its agriculture and highly urbanized population along its eastern coastal plains. With a population of almost 123 million as of 2026, it is the world's 11th most populous country. Tokyo is the country's capital and largest city.

23/12/1947

The transistor is first demonstrated at Bell Laboratories.

A transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify or switch electrical signals and power. It is one of the basic building blocks of modern electronics. It is composed of semiconductor material, usually with at least three terminals for connection to an electronic circuit. A voltage or current applied to one pair of the transistor's terminals controls the current through another pair of terminals. Because the controlled (output) power can be higher than the controlling (input) power, a transistor can amplify a signal. Some transistors are packaged individually, but many more in miniature form are found embedded in integrated circuits. Because transistors are the key active components in practically all modern electronics, they are considered one of the 20th century's greatest inventions.

23/12/1941

World War II: After 15 days of fighting, the Imperial Japanese Army occupies Wake Island.

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.

23/12/1936

Colombia becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country located in South America, with insular regions in North America. Colombia's mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuela to the east, Brazil to the southeast, Peru and Ecuador to the south and southwest, the Pacific Ocean to the west, and Panama to the northwest. Colombia is divided into 32 departments. The Capital District of Bogotá is the country's largest city hosting the main financial and cultural hub. Other urban areas include Medellín, Cali, Barranquilla, Cartagena, Bucaramanga, Pereira, Santa Marta, Cúcuta, Ibagué, Villavicencio and Manizales. It covers an area of 1,141,748 square kilometers and has a population of around 52 million. Its rich cultural heritage—including language, religion, cuisine, and art—reflects its history as a colony, fusing cultural elements brought by immigration from Europe and the Middle East, with those brought by the African diaspora, as well as with those of Indigenous civilizations that predate colonization. Spanish is the official language, although Creole, English and 64 other languages are recognized regionally.

Spanish Civil War: The Spanish Republic legalizes the Regional Defence Council of Aragon.

The Spanish Civil War was fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republicans and the Nationalist rebels. Republicans loyal to the left-leaning Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic included socialists, anarchists, communists, and separatists, supported by the Soviet Union. The opposing Nationalists were an alliance of fascist Falangists, monarchists, conservatives, and traditionalists, supported by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Initially led by a military junta, until General Francisco Franco was appointed supreme leader on 1 October 1936 of what he called the Spanish State. Due to the international political climate at the time, the war was variously viewed as class struggle, religious struggle, or struggle between republican democracy and dictatorship, revolution and counterrevolution, or between fascism and communism. The Nationalists won the war in early 1939, and ruled Spain until Franco's death in November 1975.

23/12/1919

Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 becomes law in the United Kingdom, allowing women to serve as lawyers, civil servants, and in other professions, as well as to serve on juries.

The Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It became law when it received royal assent on 23 December 1919. The act enabled women to join the professions and professional bodies, to sit on juries and be awarded degrees. It was a government compromise, a replacement for a more radical private members' bill, the Women's Emancipation Bill.

23/12/1916

World War I: Battle of Magdhaba: Allied forces defeat Turkish forces in the Sinai Peninsula.

The Battle of Magdhaba took place on 23 December 1916 during the Defence of Egypt section of the Sinai and Palestine Campaign in the First World War. The attack by the Anzac Mounted Division took place against an entrenched Ottoman Army garrison to the south and east of Bir Lahfan in the Sinai desert, some 18–25 miles (29–40 km) inland from the Mediterranean coast. This Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) victory against the Ottoman Empire garrison also secured the town of El Arish after the Ottoman garrison withdrew.

23/12/1914

World War I: Australian and New Zealand troops arrive in Cairo, Egypt.

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.

World War I: During the Battle of Sarikamish, Ottoman forces mistook one another for Russian troops. The following friendly fire incident leaves 2,000 Ottomans dead and many more wounded.

The Battle of Sarikamish was an engagement between the Russian and Ottoman Empires during World War I. It took place from 22 December 1914, to 17 January 1915, as part of the Caucasus campaign.

23/12/1913

The Federal Reserve Act is signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson, creating the Federal Reserve System.

The Federal Reserve Act was passed by the 63rd United States Congress and signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson on December 23, 1913. The law created the Federal Reserve System, the central banking system of the United States.

23/12/1905

The Tampere conference, where Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin meet for the first time, is held in Tampere, Finland.

The first conference of the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) took place in Tampere (Tammerfors), Grand Duchy of Finland, in December 1905. Held between the 1905 London and 1906 Stockholm party congresses at the Tampere Workers' Hall, the conference was an unofficial meeting of the Bolsheviks. It is particularly remembered for playing host to the first meeting of Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin. The conference resolved to forgo participation in the new State Duma, as did most of the far left parties. They later reversed this decision in 1907.

23/12/1893

The opera Hansel and Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck is first performed.

Hansel and Gretel is an opera by nineteenth-century composer Engelbert Humperdinck, who described it as a Märchenoper. The libretto was written by Humperdinck's sister, Adelheid Wette, based on the Grimm brothers' fairy tale of the same name. It is much admired for its folk music-inspired themes, one of the most famous being the "Abendsegen" from act 2.

23/12/1876

First day of the Constantinople Conference which resulted in agreement for political reforms in the Balkans.

The 1876–77 Constantinople Conference of the Great Powers was held in Constantinople from 23 December 1876 until 20 January 1877. Following the beginning of the Herzegovinian Uprising in 1875 and the April Uprising in April 1876, the Great Powers agreed on a project for political reforms in Bosnia and in the Ottoman territories with a majority-Bulgarian population. The Ottoman Empire refused the proposed reforms, leading to the Russo-Turkish War a few months later.

23/12/1823

The poem "Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas," also known as "'Twas the Night Before Christmas," is published anonymously in the Troy Sentinel.

"A Visit from St. Nicholas" is a poem, first published anonymously under the title "Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas", in 1823. Authorship has been attributed to Clement Clarke Moore, who claimed authorship in 1837; but it has also been suggested that Henry Livingston Jr. wrote it.

23/12/1815

The novel Emma by Jane Austen is first published.

Emma is a novel written by English author Jane Austen. It is set in the fictional Surrey village of Highbury and the surrounding estates of Hartfield, Randalls, and Donwell Abbey, and involves the relationships among people from a small number of families. The novel was first published in December 1815, although the title page is dated 1816. As in her other novels, Austen explores the concerns and difficulties of genteel women living in Georgian–Regency England. Emma is a comedy of manners.

23/12/1793

The Battle of Savenay: A decisive defeat of the royalist counter-revolutionaries in War in the Vendée during the French Revolution.

The Battle of Savenay took place on 23 December 1793, and marks the end of the Virée de Galerne operational phase of the first war in the Vendée after the French Revolution. A Republican force of approximately 18,000 decisively defeated the Armée Catholique et Royale force of 6,000 at Savenay.

23/12/1783

George Washington resigns as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army at the Maryland State House in Annapolis, Maryland.

George Washington was a Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot forces to victory in the American Revolutionary War against the British Empire. He is commonly known as the Father of His Country for his role in bringing about American independence.

23/12/1773

Moscow State Academy of Choreography is founded under the reign of Catherine II. It is the second ballet school in Russia after Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet.

The Moscow State Academy of Choreography, commonly known as The Bolshoi Ballet Academy, is one of the oldest and most prestigious schools of ballet in the world, located in Moscow, Russia. It is the affiliate school of the Bolshoi Ballet. Founded on December 23, 1773 as the second ballet school in Russia, it entered into a contract with the Italian teacher-choreographer Filippo Becari, regarded as “the most capable of teaching” children to learn “to dance with all possible precision and to show themselves publicly in all pantomime ballets”.

23/12/1688

As part of the Glorious Revolution, King James II of England flees from England to Paris after being deposed in favor of his son-in-law and nephew, William of Orange and his daughter Mary.

The Glorious Revolution was the deposition of King James II in November 1688. He was replaced by his daughter Mary II and her Dutch husband, James's nephew William III of Orange. The two ruled as joint monarchs of England, Scotland, and Ireland until Mary's death in 1694, when William became ruler in his own right. Jacobitism, the political movement that aimed to restore the exiled James or his descendants of the House of Stuart to the throne, persisted into the late 18th century. Some historians consider it the last successful invasion of England.

23/12/1598

Arauco War: Governor of Chile Martín García Óñez de Loyola is killed in the Battle of Curalaba by Mapuches led by Pelantaru.

The Arauco War was a long-running conflict between colonial Spaniards and the Mapuche people, mostly fought in the Araucanía region of Chile. The conflict began at first as a reaction by the Mapuche to the Spanish conquerors attempting to establish cities and force the natives into servitude. It subsequently evolved over time into phases comprising drawn-out sieges, slave-hunting expeditions, pillaging raids, punitive expeditions, and renewed Spanish attempts to secure lost territories. Abduction of women and war rape was common on both sides.

23/12/1299

The Ilkhanate ruler Ghazan defeats a Mamluk army that opposes his invasion into Syria in the Battle of Wadi al-Khaznadar near Homs.

The Ilkhanate or Il-khanate was a Mongol khanate founded in the southwestern territories of the Mongol Empire. It was ruled by the Il-Khans or Ilkhanids, and known to the Mongols as Hülegü Ulus. The Ilkhanid realm was officially known as the Land of Iran (Irānzamin) or simply Iran. It was established after Hülegü, the son of Tolui and grandson of Genghis Khan, inherited the West Asian and Central Asian part of the Mongol Empire after his brother Möngke Khan died in 1259.

23/12/0962

The Sack of Aleppo as part of the Arab–Byzantine wars: Under the future Emperor Nicephorus Phocas, Byzantine troops storm the city of Aleppo.

The sack of Aleppo in December 962 was carried out by the Byzantine Empire under Nikephoros Phokas. Aleppo was the capital of the Hamdanid emir Sayf al-Dawla, the Byzantines' chief antagonist at the time.

23/12/0583

Maya queen Yohl Ik'nal is crowned ruler of Palenque.

Yohl Ikʼnal, also known as Lady Kan Ik, Lady Kʼanal Ikʼnal, and sometimes rendered as Ix Yohl Ikʼnal, was queen regnant of the Maya city-state of Palenque. She acceded to the throne on 23 December 583 CE and ruled until her death in 604.

23/12/0558

Chlothar I is crowned King of the Franks.

Chlothar I, sometime called "the Old", also anglicised as Clotaire from the original French version, was a king of the Franks of the Merovingian dynasty and one of the four sons of Clovis I.

23/12/0484

The Arian Vandal Kingdom ceases its persecution of Nicene Christianity.

Arianism is a Christological doctrine that rejects the traditional notion of the Trinity, teaching that Jesus was created by God and is therefore distinct from God. It is named after its proponent Arius and is regarded as heretical by most modern mainstream branches of Christianity. Arianism is held by a minority of modern denominations, although some of these groups espouse related doctrines such as Socinianism, and others avoid the term "Arian" because of its historically negative connotations. Modern denominations sometimes associated with the teaching include Jehovah's Witnesses and some churches within the Churches of Christ.