Saturday, 23rd May 2026 in London
Welcome to your daily snapshot of London! It's World Turtle Day. Explore 54 historical events, birthdays, deaths, and milestones that shaped this day in London. From remarkable moments in local and world history to the people who left their mark — find out what makes today special. Today's weather in London brings cloudy with temperatures between 18°C and 30°C. Tonight's moon is in its waning gibbous phase, and the zodiac sign of the day is Gemini. If you're curious about the history of a day — this page brings together everything worth knowing about this Saturday, 23rd May in London, GB.
London, located in the United Kingdom, is experiencing cloudy conditions on this Saturday. The date falls under the zodiac sign of Gemini, which governs those born between late May and mid-June. The moon is in its waning gibbous phase, having recently passed its full stage and gradually decreasing in illumination.
On this day
On 23 May 2021, a catastrophic cable car accident killed 14 people near Lake Maggiore in northern Italy, one of Europe's deadliest such incidents in recent years. The same year witnessed another significant event when Belarusian authorities forcibly diverted a Ryanair Flight 4978, detaining dissident journalist Roman Protasevich aboard, an action that drew international condemnation and raised concerns about press freedom in Eastern Europe.
Looking further back, Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, annulled Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon on this date in 1533, a decision that set in motion the English Reformation and fundamentally altered the religious and political landscape of England.
World Turtle Day
World Turtle Day is observed annually on 23 May to raise awareness of turtle conservation and the threats these reptiles face in their natural habitats. The day was established in 2000 by American Tortoise Rescue to promote the protection of wild turtles and tortoises worldwide. It encourages individuals and organisations to undertake conservation efforts ranging from habitat restoration to reducing plastic pollution. The observance has grown to include educational initiatives across schools and wildlife organisations globally.
DayAtlas provides comprehensive information for any date and location, displaying current weather conditions, historical events, and notable births and deaths to offer users a complete picture of what occurred on their chosen day.
Find out what's happening today in London.
What the Weather Had in Store for London on 23rd May 2026
Air currents shift before visible clouds gather.
Fortune of the Day
23rd May in the Stars – Star Sign Gemini
Personality Profile
Personality People born on 23 May embody the curious Gemini with an innovative twist. Mercury grants them sharp intellect and eloquence, while Uranus pushes their thinking in unexpected directions. They're pioneers who question conventions and explore unconventional paths.
Strengths & Weaknesses Their strengths include flexibility, intellectual brilliance, and original thinking—they inspire others with infectious enthusiasm. However, they risk appearing superficial, becoming impatient, or scattering themselves across too many unfinished projects.
Love In relationships, these individuals crave intellectual stimulation above all. They need partners who share their curiosity and respect their need for independence. Superficiality and commitment hesitation pose challenges, though genuine emotional connection is achievable.
Caree & Finance Careers in technology, journalism, education, or innovation suit them well. Their entrepreneurial spirit and trend-spotting ability open doors. Financial stability requires discipline, as they readily invest in new ventures.
Health These active people require mental engagement and physical movement to thrive. Nervousness and restlessness can disrupt sleep patterns. Regular routines, mindfulness practices, and balancing activities help maintain inner equilibrium.
That night, the moon was in its waning gibbous phase.
Chinese year of the Horse (Fire).
Fun Facts About 23rd May
Name Days in Your Language: Allard, Desirae, Desire, Desiree
Someone born on this day would be just 8 days old today — roughly 208 hours, 12,510 minutes, or 750,614 seconds spent on Earth so far.
It's the 143. day of the year. In 2026, 23rd May falls on a Saturday.
There are 222 days still to come.
We’re currently in Week 21 — the year marches on.
Famous Birthdays on 23rd May
On this day, 218 notable people were born on 23rd May — spanning from 635 to 2007. From world leaders to artists and scientists, discover who shares this birthday.
23/05/2007
Rayane Messi, French footballer
Rayane Messi Tanfouri is a French footballer who plays as a left winger for Saudi Pro League club Neom, on loan from Strasbourg.
23/05/2005
Alexandra Eala, Filipino tennis player
Alexandra Maniego Eala is a Filipino professional tennis player. She achieved a career-high WTA singles ranking of world No. 29 on March 16, 2026, making her the highest-ranked Filipino in WTA Tour history. Eala is the first Filipino to break into the WTA top 30, have multiple wins over top-10 players and major champions, and reach a tour-level final in the Open Era.
23/05/2001
Brennan Johnson, Welsh footballer
Brennan Price Johnson is a professional footballer who plays as a winger or attacking midfielder for Premier League club Crystal Palace and the Wales national team.
23/05/2000
Felipe Drugovich, Brazilian-Italian racing driver
Felipe Drugovich Roncato is a Brazilian racing driver who competes in Formula E for Andretti.
Israel Reyes, Mexican footballer
Israel Reyes Romero is a Mexican professional footballer who plays as a centre-back, right-back and defensive midfielder for Liga MX club América and the Mexico national team.
23/05/1999
James Charles, American internet personality
James Charles Dickinson is an American YouTuber and makeup artist. While working as a local makeup artist in his hometown of Bethlehem, New York, Charles started a YouTube channel, where he began uploading makeup tutorials. In 2016, he became the first male brand ambassador for CoverGirl after a tweet featuring his makeup went viral online.
Trinidad Cardona, American singer and songwriter
Trinidad Cardona is an American singer, songwriter and social media personality. He first went viral for his song "Jennifer" released in 2017. His single, "Dinero", peaked at 46 on the Billboard Global 200 after becoming viral on TikTok. In 2022, he released the song "Love Me Back", which went viral on TikTok. His 2022 song, "Hayya Hayya ", was included on the 2022 FIFA World Cup Soundtrack.
Sandro Mamukelashvili, Georgian-American basketball player
Alexander "Sandro" Mamukelashvili is a Georgian-American professional basketball player for the Toronto Raptors of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Seton Hall Pirates.
23/05/1998
Sérgio Sette Câmara, Brazilian racing driver
Sérgio Santos Sette Câmara Filho is a Brazilian racing driver who currently competes in the 2025 European Le Mans Series with Nielsen Racing. He previously competed in Formula E, having previously raced for Dragon / Penske and ERT Formula E Team. Sette Câmara was part of the Red Bull Junior Team from 2015 to 2017, then again in 2020. In that time, he signed with the McLaren Driver Development Programme in late 2018 to take part in the 2019 season as a development driver.
Salwa Eid Naser, Bahraini track and field sprinter
Salwa Eid Naser is a Nigerian-born Bahraini sprinter who specialises in the 400 meter race. She was the 2019 World champion, with the fifth-fastest time in history of 48.14 seconds, becoming the youngest-ever champion in the event and the first woman representing an Asian nation to win it at a World Championships. At the time, the time placed her only behind the contested results of Marita Koch and Jarmila Kratochvílová. At 19, Naser was the 2017 World 400 metre silver medallist. As a member of the Bahraini mixed-gender 4 × 400 m relay team, she also won the 2019 World Championships bronze medal.
Luca de la Torre, American soccer player
Lucas Daniel de la Torre is an American professional soccer player who plays as a midfielder for Major League Soccer side Charlotte FC and the United States national team.
23/05/1997
Pedro Chirivella, Spanish footballer
Pedro Chirivella Burgos is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for Greek Super League club Panathinaikos.
Coy Craft, American footballer
Coy Craft is an American former soccer player.
Joe Gomez, English footballer
Joseph Dave Gomez is an English professional footballer who plays as a defender for Premier League club Liverpool and the England national team. He is Liverpool’s longest-serving player, having joined the club from Charlton Athletic in 2015.
Maximilian Kilman, English footballer
Maximilian William Kilman is an English professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Premier League club West Ham United.
Gustaf Nilsson, Swedish footballer
Håkan Gustaf Nilsson is a Swedish professional footballer who plays as a forward for Belgian Pro League club Club Brugge and the Sweden national team.
Sam Timmins, New Zealand basketball player
Samuel Alexander William Timmins is a New Zealand professional basketball player for the Southland Sharks of the New Zealand National Basketball League (NZNBL). He played college basketball for the Washington Huskies. In 2022, he helped the Otago Nuggets win the NZNBL championship.
23/05/1996
Katharina Althaus, German ski jumper
Katharina Schmid is a German ski jumper. She is a seven-time world champion, including one individual title and six team titles, as well as a two-time Olympic silver medalist, making her one of the most decorated athletes in the history of ski jumping.
Emmanuel Boateng, Ghanaian footballer
Emmanuel Okyere Boateng is a Ghanaian footballer who plays as a striker for Israeli Premier League club Hapoel Tel Aviv and the Ghana national football team.
Răzvan Marin, Romanian footballer
Răzvan Gabriel Marin is a Romanian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Super League Greece club AEK Athens and the Romania national team.
Çağlar Söyüncü, Turkish footballer
Çağlar Söyüncü is a Turkish professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Süper Lig club Fenerbahçe and the Turkey national team.
23/05/1992
Laerte do Vando, Brazilian politician
Laerte Leandro de Araújo Fernandes, better known as Laerte do Vando, is a Brazilian politician serving as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Bahia since 2019. He is the son of Vando.
23/05/1991
Aaron Donald, American football player
Aaron Charles Donald is an American former professional football defensive tackle who played 10 seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He spent his entire career playing for the St. Louis / Los Angeles Rams and is widely considered to be one of the greatest defensive players of all time.
Lena Meyer-Landrut, German singer-songwriter
Lena Johanna Therese Meyer-Landrut, also known by the mononym Lena, is a German singer. She rose to fame after representing Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 in Oslo, winning the event with the song "Satellite". Both "Satellite" and her debut album My Cassette Player (2010) debuted at number one in Germany and became platinum sellers. With her three entries from the German national final Unser Star für Oslo, Meyer-Landrut set an all-time chart record in her home country by debuting with three songs in the top five of the German Singles Chart. She represented Germany for the second consecutive time in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 in Düsseldorf with the song "Taken by a Stranger", finishing in tenth place.
César Pinares, Chilean footballer
César Ignacio Pinares Tamayo is a Chilean footballer who plays as a midfielder.
23/05/1990
Dan Evans, British tennis player
Daniel Evans is a British professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 21 in singles by the ATP, which he achieved on 7 August 2023. He reached a career-high ranking of No. 52 in doubles on 26 April 2021. In 2015, he was part of the winning British Davis Cup team.
Kristína Kučová, Slovak tennis player
Kristína Kučová is a former Slovak tennis player. On 12 September 2016, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 71. On 5 October 2009, she peaked at No. 168 in the WTA doubles rankings. She won one singles title on the WTA Challenger Tour with eleven singles titles and five doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit. She retired at the 2023 Jasmin Open in Monastir.
Oliver Venno, Estonian volleyball player
Oliver Venno is an Estonian volleyball player currently playing for Kuwait SC of the Kuwaiti Volleyball League. He mostly plays at the opposite hitter position but has also played at the outside hitter position on numerous occasions.
23/05/1989
Ezequiel Schelotto, Italian footballer
Ezequiel Matías Schelotto is an Argentine-Italian footballer who plays for FC Paradiso in the Swiss Promotion League. A versatile player on the right flank, he started his career as a winger and was later converted into a full-back.
23/05/1988
Rosanna Crawford, Canadian biathlete
Rosanna Crawford is a Canadian biathlete.
Angelo Ogbonna, Italian footballer
Obinze Angelo Ogbonna is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a centre-back. He is currently a free agent.
Morgan Pressel, American golfer
Morgan Pressel is an American professional golfer and golf commentator who played on the LPGA Tour. In 2001, as a 12-year-old, she became the youngest player to qualify for the U.S. Women's Open. She was the 2005 American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) Player of the Year, and won the 2006 AJGA Nancy Lopez Award. She turned pro at age 17, and is the youngest-ever winner of a modern LPGA major championship, when at age 18 she won the 2007 Kraft Nabisco Championship and vaulted to a career-high fourth in the world rankings. In early March 2021, she announced she had joined the Golf Channel and NBC Sports to be an analyst and on-course reporter in the 2021 season, while continuing to compete.
23/05/1987
Gracie Otto, Australian actress, director, producer, and screenwriter
Gracie Otto is an Australian film and television director.
Bray Wyatt, American wrestler (died 2023)
Windham Lawrence Rotunda, better known by his ring name Bray Wyatt, was an American professional wrestler. He was best known for his tenures in WWE from 2009 to 2021 and again from 2022 until his death in 2023.
23/05/1986
Ryan Coogler, American film director and screenwriter
Ryan Kyle Coogler is an American filmmaker. His accolades include an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Grammy Award, a Golden Globe Award, four Black Reel Awards, and ten NAACP Image Awards.
Alexei Sitnikov, Russian-Azerbaijani figure skater
Alexei Alexandrovich Sitnikov is a former competitive ice dancer. Competing for Azerbaijan with Julia Zlobina, he is the 2013 Golden Spin of Zagreb champion, 2013 Volvo Open Cup champion, 2012 Nebelhorn Trophy silver medalist, and 2013 Winter Universiade silver medalist. They competed at the 2014 Winter Olympics, finishing 12th, and have placed as high as sixth at the European Championships (2014).
Alice Tait, Australian swimmer
Alice Mary Tait, is an Australian former swimmer who represented Australia at the 2004 Athens Olympics and the 2008 Beijing Olympics winning two relay gold medals and a bronze.
Ruben Zadkovich, Australian footballer
Ruben Anton Zadkovich is an Australian football manager and former player and former head coach of Broadmeadow Magic, Hills United, Perth Glory and Brisbane Roar. He played for six clubs in a career that spanned between England and Australia. Zadkovich was also capped for Australia, representing the Socceroos on three occasions.
23/05/1985
Sebastián Fernández, Uruguayan footballer
Sebastián Bruno Fernández Miglierina is a Uruguayan professional footballer who plays as a forward for Danubio.
Teymuraz Gabashvili, Russian tennis player
Teymuraz Besikovich Gabashvili is a Russian-Georgian former professional tennis player. He has a career-high singles ranking of World No. 43 achieved on 1 February 2016. He has reached the fourth round of the 2010 and 2015 French Open.
Wim Stroetinga, Dutch cyclist
Willem Stroetinga is a Dutch former professional racing cyclist.
Ross Wallace, Scottish footballer
Ross Wallace is a Scottish former professional footballer who played as a winger. He played for Celtic, Sunderland, Preston North End, Burnley, Sheffield Wednesday, Fleetwood Town, and once played in a full international match for Scotland. After retiring from professional football, Wallace re–joined Burnley as an assistant coach of the youth team and following a stint as first-team coach at Fleetwood Town, he became the interim head coach of Burnley F.C. Women.
23/05/1984
Hugo Almeida, Portuguese footballer
Hugo Miguel Pereira de Almeida is a Portuguese former professional footballer who played as a centre-forward, currently a manager.
23/05/1983
Silvio Proto, Belgian-Italian footballer
Silvestro "Silvio" Proto is a Belgian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.
23/05/1981
Tim Robinson, American comedian, actor, and screenwriter
Tim Robinson is an American comedian, actor, and screenwriter. He first became known as a writer and performer on Saturday Night Live (2012–2016) before gaining wider recognition as the co-creator, co-writer, and star of the comedy series Detroiters (2017–2018), I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson (2019–2023) and The Chair Company (2025). He also starred in the A24 comedy film Friendship (2024).
23/05/1980
Theofanis Gekas, Greek footballer
Theofanis Gekas is a Greek professional football official, coach and former player who played as a striker.
Chris Gethard, American actor, comedian and writer
Christopher Paul Gethard ( GETH-ərd; born May 23, 1980) is an American actor, comedian and writer. He was the host of The Chris Gethard Show, a talk show based in New York City, which aired from 2011 to 2018. He hosts the podcasts Beautiful Stories From Anonymous People and New Jersey is the World.
Ben Ross, Australian rugby league player
Benjamin David "Ben" Ross is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 2000s and 2010s. A Queensland State of Origin representative forward, he played in the National Rugby League for the St. George Illawarra Dragons, Penrith Panthers, with whom he won the 2003 NRL Premiership, the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks and the South Sydney Rabbitohs.
23/05/1979
Rasual Butler, American basketball player (died 2018)
Rasual Butler was an American professional basketball player. In his 14-year National Basketball Association (NBA) career, he played for the Miami Heat, New Orleans Hornets, Los Angeles Clippers, Chicago Bulls, Toronto Raptors, Indiana Pacers, Washington Wizards and San Antonio Spurs. Butler was born in Philadelphia, and raised in the Point Breeze area of South Philadelphia. After playing college basketball with the La Salle Explorers, he was drafted in the second round of the 2002 NBA draft by the Heat. On January 31, 2018, Butler was behind the wheel when he and his girlfriend, Leah LaBelle, died in a single vehicle car crash in Los Angeles.
Brian Campbell, Canadian ice hockey player
Brian Wesley Campbell is a Canadian former professional ice hockey defenceman. He played for the Buffalo Sabres, San Jose Sharks, Chicago Blackhawks and Florida Panthers of the National Hockey League (NHL). He won the Stanley Cup with the Blackhawks in 2010, assisting on the deciding goal.
23/05/1978
Scott Raynor, American drummer
Scott William Raynor Jr. is an American former musician best known as a founding member and the original drummer of the band Blink-182. Born in Poway, California, Raynor first approached the drums in his preteens; he joined Blink-182 at only 14 years old, and played with the band for six years. With Raynor, the group recorded their first demo, Buddha (1994), their debut album, Cheshire Cat (1995), as well as the gold-certified Dude Ranch (1997). Raynor was dismissed from the group in 1998, and was replaced by Travis Barker.
23/05/1977
Richard Ayoade, British actor, director and writer
Richard Ayoade is a British comedian, actor, writer, director, and presenter. He played the role of socially awkward IT technician Maurice Moss in Channel 4 sitcom The IT Crowd (2006–2013), for which he won the 2014 BAFTA for Best Male Comedy Performance.
Ilia Kulik, Russian figure skater
Ilya Alexandrovich Kulik is a Russian figure skater. He is the 1998 Olympic Champion, the 1995 European Champion, the 1997–1998 Grand Prix Final champion, and the 1995 World Junior champion.
23/05/1976
Ricardinho, Brazilian footballer and manager
Ricardo Luis Pozzi Rodrigues, better known as Ricardinho, is a Brazilian football manager and retired footballer.
Andy Selva, Sammarinese footballer and manager
Andy Selva is a Sammarinese former footballer who is currently the manager of Campionato Sammarinese club Cosmos. During his playing career he played as a forward and captained the San Marino national team, finishing his career as their record goal scorer.
23/05/1974
Jewel, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, actress, and poet
Jewel Kilcher is an American singer-songwriter. She has been nominated for four Grammy Awards and has sold over 30 million albums worldwide as of 2024.
Manuela Schwesig, German politician, German Federal Minister of Family Affairs
Manuela Schwesig is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party serving as Minister President of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern since 4 July 2017, becoming the first woman to serve in that post. Previously she served as Federal Minister of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth in the third cabinet of Angela Merkel from 2013 to 2017. She was President of the Bundesrat from 1 November 2023 to 31 October 2024.
23/05/1973
Maxwell, American singer-songwriter and producer
Gerald Maxwell Rivera, known mononymously as Maxwell, is an American singer-songwriter and record producer. He rose to prominence following the release of his debut studio album Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite (1996), which received widespread acclaim and spawned the hit singles "Ascension " and "Sumthin' Sumthin'". Through the album and its follow ups, Maxwell has been credited—alongside Lauryn Hill, D'Angelo, and Erykah Badu—with popularizing neo soul for mainstream audiences in the late 1990s.
23/05/1972
Rubens Barrichello, Brazilian race car driver
Rubens Gonçalves Barrichello is a Brazilian racing driver and broadcaster, who competes in the Stock Car Pro Series for Full Time Sports. Nicknamed "Rubinho", Barrichello competed in Formula One from 1993 to 2011, and twice finished runner-up in the World Drivers' Championship in 2002 and 2004 with Ferrari; he won eleven Grands Prix across nineteen seasons. In stock car racing, Barrichello is a two-time champion of the Stock Car Pro Series in 2014 and 2022 with Full Time Sports.
Poppy King, Australian entrepreneur
Poppy Cybele King is an Australian entrepreneur. She is best known for her company Poppy Industries and the range of cosmetics available at Poppy Stores in Australia, during the 1990s.
Martin Saggers, English cricketer and umpire
Martin John Saggers is an English county cricket umpire and a retired English cricketer. He played international cricket for the England cricket team, including appearing in three Test matches and spent the majority of his first-class cricket career at Kent County Cricket Club. Saggers was born in King's Lynn in Norfolk.
23/05/1971
George Osborne, English journalist and politician, former Chancellor of the Exchequer
George Gideon Oliver Osborne is a British retired politician and newspaper editor who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2010 to 2016 and First Secretary of State from 2015 to 2016 in the Cameron government. A member of the Conservative Party, he was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tatton from 2001 to 2017.
23/05/1970
Bryan Herta, American race car driver and businessman, co-founded Bryan Herta Autosport
Bryan John Herta is an American race strategist and former race car driver. He currently runs his own team, Bryan Herta Autosport in the NTT IndyCar Series and is the strategist for the No. 27 for Andretti Autosport in the same series. His team won the 2011 Indianapolis 500 with driver Dan Wheldon and the 2016 Indianapolis 500 with driver Alexander Rossi. He is the father and former strategist of IndyCar driver Colton Herta.
23/05/1968
Guinevere Turner, American actress and screenwriter
Guinevere Jane Turner is an American actress, screenwriter, and film director. She wrote the films American Psycho and The Notorious Bettie Page and played the lead role of the dominatrix Tanya Cheex in Preaching to the Perverted. She was a story editor and played recurring character Gabby Deveaux on Showtime's The L Word.
23/05/1967
Luís Roberto Alves, Mexican footballer
Luis Roberto Alves dos Santos Gavranić is a Mexican former professional footballer who played as a forward. He is best known as Zague, in honor to his father.
Anna Ibrisagic, Swedish politician
Anna Ibrisagic is a Swedish politician for the Moderate Party.
Philip Selway, English musician
Philip James Selway is an English musician and the drummer of the rock band Radiohead. He combines rock drumming with electronic percussion. Selway was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Radiohead in 2019.
23/05/1966
H. Jon Benjamin, American actor, comedian, writer, and producer
Harry Jon Benjamin is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and musician. He is known for his voice roles in adult animated series, including Sterling Archer in Archer, Bob Belcher in Bob's Burgers, Ben in Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist, Kevin in O'Grady, Carl Graves in Family Guy, Satan in Lucy, the Daughter of the Devil, and Coach McGuirk and Jason Penopolis in Home Movies, starring as the voice of Boy in the film Boy Kills World (2023) and its spin-off video game Super Dragon Punch Force 3 (2024). Benjamin was named 2014's male comedy performer of the year at Vulture's TV Awards for his work in Bob's Burgers and Archer. He also appeared in the 2001 satirical comedy film Wet Hot American Summer; its subsequent 2015 television series, Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp; and the final installment of the franchise, the 2017 miniseries Wet Hot American Summer: 10 Years Later.
Graeme Hick, Zimbabwean-English cricketer and coach
Graeme Ashley Hick is a Zimbabwean-born former England cricketer who played 65 Test matches and 120 One Day Internationals for England. He was born in Rhodesia, and as a young man played international cricket for Zimbabwe. He played English county cricket for Worcestershire for his entire English domestic career, a period of well over twenty years, and in 2008 surpassed Graham Gooch's record for the most matches in all forms of the game combined. He was a part of the English squad which finished as runners-up at the 1992 Cricket World Cup.
Gary Roberts, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
Gary R. Roberts is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player who played 21 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Calgary Flames, Carolina Hurricanes, Toronto Maple Leafs, Florida Panthers, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Tampa Bay Lightning. Renowned for his physical fitness during his career, Roberts has become a high performance trainer for players at all levels of the sport.
23/05/1965
Manuel Sanchís Hontiyuelo, Spanish footballer
Manuel Sanchís Hontiyuelo is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a sweeper.
Tom Tykwer, German director, producer, screenwriter, and composer
Tom Tykwer is a German film director, producer, screenwriter, and composer. He is best known internationally for directing the thriller films Run Lola Run (1998), Heaven (2002), Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006), and The International (2009). He collaborated with The Wachowskis as co-director for the science fiction film Cloud Atlas (2012) and the Netflix series Sense8 (2015–2018), and worked on the score for Lana Wachowski's The Matrix Resurrections (2021). Tykwer is also well known as the co-creator of the internationally acclaimed German television series Babylon Berlin (2017–).
Melissa McBride, American actress
Melissa Suzanne McBride is an American actress. She made her acting debut in 1993, and went onto appear in Walker, Texas Ranger (1997) and Dawson's Creek (1998). In 2007, she also starred in the film The Mist (2007). Her breakout role was Carol Peletier on the AMC series The Walking Dead (2010–2022), and later the series' spinoff The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon (2023–present). She has garnered critical acclaim and received multiple awards and nominations for her role on the show. Originally cast in a minor role, McBride's role expanded over time to a main cast member and, from 2020, she was the second billed cast member in the opening credits of the show, and one of only two cast members to appear in every season.
Paul Sironen, Australian rugby league player
Paul Sironen is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer of Finnish descent who was a prominent Second-row forward for the Balmain Tigers during the late 1980s, and early 1990s. He was part of the team that played in successive Grand Finals in 1988 and 1989, and included other representative players Steve "Blocker" Roach, Wayne Pearce, Benny Elias and Garry Jack. He made a number of appearances for both New South Wales in State of Origin, and also for Australia, and has been named as part of the Wests Tigers Team of the Century.
23/05/1964
Ruth Metzler, Swiss lawyer and politician
Ruth Metzler is a Swiss politician who served as a Member of the Swiss Federal Council from 1999 to 2003. A member of the Christian Democratic People's Party (CVP/PDC), she headed the Federal Department of Justice and Police.
23/05/1963
Viviane Baladi, Swiss mathematician
Viviane Baladi is a mathematician who works as a director of research at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) in France. Originally Swiss, she has become a naturalized citizen of France. Her research concerns dynamical systems.
23/05/1962
Karen Duffy, American actress
Karen "Duff" Duffy is an American writer, model, television personality, and actress. She is a certified hospital chaplain, a former Coney Island Mermaid Queen, and one of People Magazine's "50 Most Beautiful Women" in 1993. In 1995, Duffy was diagnosed with a rare form of the disease sarcoidosis called neurosarcoidosis. Since then, she has written two books about her experience living with chronic pain and is a member of the Alliance for the Ethical Treatment of Pain Patients.
23/05/1961
Daniele Massaro, Italian footballer and manager
Daniele Emilio Massaro is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a forward.
Norrie May-Welby, Scottish Australian gender activist
Norrie, also known by the pseudonym Norrie May-Welby, is a Scottish-Australian transgender person who pursued the legal status of being neither a man nor a woman, between 2010 and 2014. The High Court of Australia ruled in April 2014 that it was in the power of the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages to record in the register that the sex of Norrie was "non-specific".
23/05/1960
Linden Ashby, American actor
Clarence Linden Garnett Ashby III is an American actor. On television, he portrayed Brett Cooper on the final two seasons of the Fox soap opera Melrose Place (1997–1999) and Sheriff Noah Stilinski on all six seasons of the MTV supernatural drama Teen Wolf (2011–2017). He is also known for portraying Johnny Cage in the 1995 film Mortal Kombat, an adaptation of the video game franchise of the same name.
23/05/1959
Marcella Mesker, Dutch tennis player and sportscaster
Marcella Mesker is a former professional tennis player from the Netherlands.
23/05/1958
Mitch Albom, American journalist, author, and screenwriter
Mitchell David Albom is an American author, sports journalist, talk show host and philanthropist. As of 2021, his books are reported to have sold 40 million copies worldwide. Having achieved national recognition as a sports journalist early on in his writing career, Albom turned to writing inspirational stories and themes—a preeminent early one being Tuesdays with Morrie.
Drew Carey, American actor, game show host, and entrepreneur
Drew Allison Carey is an American comedian, game show host, and actor.
Lea DeLaria, American actress and singer
Lea DeLaria is an American comedian, actress, and jazz singer. She portrayed Carrie "Big Boo" Black on the Netflix original series Orange Is the New Black (2013–2019) and Psychic Madame Delphina on the ABC daytime drama One Life to Live from 1999 to 2011. She also starred in the Broadway productions POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive in 2022 and the 2000 revival of The Rocky Horror Show. She was the first openly gay comic to appear on American television in a 1993 appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show.
23/05/1956
Andrea Pazienza, Italian illustrator and painter (died 1988)
Andrea Michele Vincenzo Ciro Pazienza was an Italian comics artist and painter.
Ursula Plassnik, Austrian politician and diplomat, Foreign Minister of Austria
Ursula Plassnik is an Austrian diplomat and politician. She was Foreign Minister of Austria between October 2004 and December 2008. She has served as the Austrian ambassador to Switzerland from 2016 to 2021.
Buck Showalter, American baseball player, coach, and manager
William Nathaniel "Buck" Showalter III is an American professional baseball manager. He served as manager of the New York Yankees (1992–1995), Arizona Diamondbacks (1998–2000), Texas Rangers (2003–2006), Baltimore Orioles (2010–2018) and New York Mets (2022–2023). He also is a former professional Minor League Baseball player and television analyst for ESPN and the YES Network.
23/05/1955
Luka Bloom, Irish singer-songwriter and guitarist
Kevin Barry Moore, known professionally as Luka Bloom, is an Irish folk singer-songwriter. He is the younger brother of folk singer Christy Moore.
23/05/1954
Gerry Armstrong, Northern Irish international footballer
Gerard Joseph Armstrong is a Northern Irish former footballer who played for Tottenham Hotspur.
Marvelous Marvin Hagler, American boxer and actor (died 2021)
Marvelous Marvin Hagler was an American professional boxer who competed from 1973 to 1987. He reigned as the undisputed champion of the middleweight division from 1980 to 1987, making twelve successful title defenses, all but one by knockout. Hagler also holds the highest knockout percentage of all undisputed middleweight champions at 78 percent. His undisputed middleweight championship reign of six years and seven months is the second-longest active reign of the 20th century. He holds the record for the sixth longest reign as champion in middleweight history. Nicknamed "The Marv" and annoyed that network announcers often did not refer to him as "Marvelous", Hagler legally changed his name to "Marvelous Marvin Hagler" in 1982.
23/05/1952
Martin Parr, English photographer and journalist
Martin Parr was an English documentary photographer and photojournalist. He was known for his photographic projects that take an intimate, satirical and anthropological look at aspects of modern life, in particular documenting the social classes of England, and more broadly the wealth of the Western world.
23/05/1951
Anatoly Karpov, Russian chess player
Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov is a Russian and former Soviet chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion, and politician. He was the 12th World Chess Champion from 1975 to 1985, a three-time FIDE World Champion, twice World Chess champion as a member of the USSR team, a six-time winner of Chess Olympiads as a member of the USSR team, and the 1st World Rapid Chess Champion (1988). The International Association of Chess Press awarded him nine Chess Oscars.
Antonis Samaras, Greek economist and politician, 185th Prime Minister of Greece
Antonis Samaras is a Greek politician who served as Prime Minister of Greece from 2012 to 2015. A member of the New Democracy party, he was its president from 2009 until 2015. He also founded the Political Spring party, which he led as president from 1993 to 2004, when he returned to New Democracy. He has been Member of the Greek Parliament (MP) for Messenia since 2007, having previously served at the same role from 1977 to 1996. He was also a Member of the European Parliament for Greece from 2004 to 2007. Samaras started his national political career as Minister of Finance in 1989; he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1989 to 1992 and Minister of Culture in 2009. Samaras was expelled from the ruling conservative party in November 2024.
23/05/1950
Martin McGuinness, Irish republican and Sinn Féin politician, Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland (died 2017)
James Martin Pacelli McGuinness was an Irish republican politician and statesman for Sinn Féin and a leader within the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) during The Troubles. He was the deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland from May 2007 to January 2017.
Richard Chase, American serial killer (died 1980)
Richard Trenton Chase was an American serial killer, cannibal and necrophile known as the Vampire of Sacramento, the Dracula Killer and the Vampire Killer, who killed six people between December 1977 and January 1978 in Sacramento, California.
23/05/1949
Daniel DiNardo, American cardinal
Daniel Nicholas DiNardo is an American Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Galveston-Houston from 2006 to 2025. He previously served as Coadjutor and later Bishop of Sioux City from 1997 to 2004.
Alan García, Peruvian lawyer and politician, twice President of Peru (died 2019)
Alan Gabriel Ludwig García Pérez was a Peruvian politician who served as President of Peru for two non-consecutive terms, from 1985 to 1990 and from 2006 to 2011. He was the second leader of the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance (APRA), and its only member to serve as president. Mentored by the APRA's founder, Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre, he served in the Constituent Assembly of 1978–1979. Elected to the Peruvian Congress in 1980, he rose to the position of General Secretary of the APRA in 1982, and was elected to the presidency in 1985 in a landslide.
23/05/1948
Myriam Boyer, French actress, director, and producer
Myriam Boyer is a French actress. She appeared in more than eighty films and television shows since 1970. At the age of 18, she married Roger Cornillac with whom she had a son, Clovis Cornillac. From 1975 until his death in 1999 she was married to John Berry with whom she had one son, Arny Berry.
23/05/1947
Jane Kenyon, American poet and translator (died 1995)
Jane Kenyon was an American poet and translator. Her work is often characterized as simple, spare, and emotionally resonant. Kenyon was the second wife of poet, editor, and critic Donald Hall who made her the subject of many of his poems.
23/05/1946
David Graham, Australian golfer
Anthony David Graham, AM is an Australian golfer. Graham turned pro as a teenager and had much success on the Australasian circuits in his youth, winning several tournaments. In 1972, he joined the PGA Tour where he continued with good play, winning several tournaments. This culminated with major tournament wins at the 1979 PGA Championship and 1981 U.S. Open. As a senior, Graham won five times on the Senior PGA Tour.
23/05/1945
Padmarajan, Indian director, screenwriter, and author (died 1991)
Padmarajan Padmanabhan Pillai, better known as P. Padmarajan was an Indian film maker, screenwriter and author who was known for his works in Malayalam literature and Malayalam cinema. Considered as one of the greatest directors and screenwriters of all time, he founded a new school of film making in Malayalam cinema, along with Bharathan and K. G. George, in the 1980s.
23/05/1944
John Newcombe, Australian tennis player and sportscaster
John David Newcombe AO OBE is an Australian former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the world No. 1 in both men's singles and men's doubles. Newcombe won a combined 26 major titles: seven in singles, a former record 17 in men's doubles, and two in mixed doubles. He also contributed to five Davis Cup titles for Australia during an age when the Davis Cup was deemed as significant as the majors.
23/05/1943
Peter Kenilorea, Solomon Islands politician, 1st Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands (died 2016)
Sir Peter Kenilorea was a Solomon Islander politician, officially styled The Rt Hon. Sir Peter Kenilorea as a member of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom. He was the first prime minister of an independent Solomon Islands, from 1978 to 1981, and also served a second term from 1984 to 1986.
23/05/1942
Gabriel Liiceanu, Romanian philosopher, author, and academic
Gabriel Liiceanu is a Romanian philosopher.
Kovelamudi Raghavendra Rao, Indian director, screenwriter, and choreographer
Kovelamudi Raghavendra Rao is an Indian film director, screenwriter, choreographer, and producer known primarily for his work in Telugu cinema, besides a few Hindi film and Kannada films. Over a career spanning more than four decades, he has directed over a hundred films across various genres, including romantic dramas, romantic comedies, fantasies, melodramas, action thrillers, and biographical dramas. He has received numerous accolades, including the National Film Award, ten state Nandi Awards and ten Filmfare Awards South.
23/05/1941
Zalman King, American director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2012)
Zalman King was an American film director, writer, actor and producer. His films are known for incorporating sexuality, and are often categorized as erotica.
Rod Thorn, American basketball player, coach, and executive
Rodney King Thorn is an American basketball executive and a former professional player, coach and Olympic Committee Chairman with a career spanning over 50 years. In 2018, Thorn was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
23/05/1940
Bjørn Johansen (musician), Norwegian saxophonist (died 2002)
Bjørn John Johansen was a Norwegian jazz musician, known from a number of recordings and international cooperation. He has been one of the most influential Norwegian saxophonists of all time and has been the inspiration for a generations of musicians, among them Jan Garbarek.
Gérard Larrousse, French race car driver
Gérard Gilles Marie Armand Larrousse is a former sports car racing, rallying and Formula One driver from France. His greatest success as a driver was winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1973 and 1974, driving a Matra-Simca MS670. After the end of his career as racing car driver, he continued to be involved in Formula One as a team manager for Renault. He later founded and ran his own Formula One team, Larrousse, from 1987 to 1994.
Cora Sadosky, Argentinian mathematician and academic (died 2010)
Cora Susana Sadosky de Goldstein was an Argentine mathematician and Professor of Mathematics at Howard University.
23/05/1939
Michel Colombier, French-American composer and conductor (died 2004)
Michel Colombier was a French composer, arranger, and conductor.
Reinhard Hauff, German director and screenwriter
Reinhard Hauff is a German film director. His works, which were mostly carried out in the late 1960s to early 1990s, are known for their social and political commentary. Stammheim, which is based on the activities of the Red Army Faction won the Golden Bear award at the 36th Berlin International Film Festival in 1986. In 1987, he was a member of the jury at the 37th Berlin International Film Festival. His 1970 film Mathias Kneissl was entered into the 7th Moscow International Film Festival.
23/05/1936
Ingeborg Hallstein, German soprano and actress
Ingeborg Hallstein is a German coloratura soprano, known for the purity and range of her voice. She had an international career as a guest singer on the opera houses of Europe and was a member of the Bavarian State Opera from 1961 to 1973. Her signature roles were the Queen of the Night in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte and Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos by Richard Strauss. She created roles including Scolatella in Henze's König Hirsch.
Charles Kimbrough, American actor (died 2023)
Charles Mayberry Kimbrough was an American actor. He was best known for his role as the straight-faced anchorman Jim Dial on Murphy Brown. In 1990, his performance in the role earned him a nomination for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.
23/05/1935
Lasse Strömstedt, Swedish author (died 2009)
Folke Lars-Olov Strömstedt, better known as Lasse Strömstedt, was a Swedish writer who wrote of and about his own life in prison and drug abuse. Strömstedt was born in Gävle in 1935. He was a casual laborer whose working life was frequently disrupted by imprisonment. After 1971 he changed his life and became a writer, debater and actor. In 1974, Strömsted published his first novel, Grundbulten, written together with reporter Christer Dahl under the pseudonym Kennet Ahl. Strömstedt was married to Swedish singer and writer Ann-Christine Bärnsten. He died aged 74 of natural causes in Gränna on 4 July 2009.
23/05/1934
Robert Moog, electronic engineer and inventor of the Moog synthesizer (died 2005)
Robert Arthur Moog was an American electronics engineer and electronic music pioneer. He was the founder of the synthesizer manufacturer Moog Music and the inventor of the first commercial synthesizer, the Moog synthesizer, which debuted in 1964. In 1970, Moog released a more portable model, the Minimoog, described as the most famous and influential synthesizer in history. Among Moog's honors are a Technical Grammy Award, received in 2002, and an induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
23/05/1933
Joan Collins, English actress
Dame Joan Henrietta Collins is an English actress, author and columnist. She is the recipient of several accolades, including a Golden Globe Award, a People's Choice Award, two Soap Opera Digest Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. In 1983, Collins was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She has been recognised for her philanthropy, particularly her advocacy towards causes relating to children, which has earned her many honours. In 2015, she was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II for her charitable services, presented to her by then Prince of Wales, Charles III.
Ove Fundin, Swedish motorcycle racer
Ove Fundin is a Swedish former professional motorcycle speedway rider. He competed in the Speedway World Championships from 1951 to 1970. Fundin is notable for winning the Speedway World Championship Final five times, a record bettered only by New Zealand's Ivan Mauger and fellow Swede Tony Rickardsson who each won six World Championships. He finished runner-up in the championship 3 times (1957–59) and was third in 1962, 1964 and 1965, meaning that from his first win in 1956 until his last in 1967, Fundin did not finish lower than a podium place in a record eleven World Finals. He was known by the nickname the "Flying Fox" or just "the Fox" because of his red hair. He earned 99 caps for the Sweden national speedway team.
23/05/1932
Kevork Ajemian, Syrian-French journalist and author (died 1998)
Kevork Vartani Ajemian (Adjemian) was a prominent Syrian-Armenian writer, journalist, novelist, theorist and public activist, and long-time publisher of the Beirut-based literary, artistic and general publication Spurk. Ajemian was a co-founder of the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) military organization.
23/05/1931
Barbara Barrie, American actress
Barbara Barrie is an American actress and author.
23/05/1930
Friedrich Achleitner, German poet and critic (died 2019)
Friedrich Achleitner was an Austrian poet and architecture critic. As a member of the Wiener Gruppe, he wrote concrete poems and experimental literature. His magnum opus is a multi-volume documentation of 20th-century Austrian architecture. Written over several decades, Achleitner made a personal visit to each building described. He was a professor of the history and theory of architecture at the University of Applied Arts Vienna.
23/05/1929
Ulla Jacobsson, Swedish-Austrian actress (died 1982)
Ulla Jacobsson was a Swedish actress. She had the lead role in One Summer of Happiness (1951) and played the only female speaking role in the film Zulu (1964).
23/05/1928
Rosemary Clooney, American singer and actress (died 2002)
Rosemary Clooney was an American singer and actress. She came to prominence in the early 1950s with the song "Come On-a My House", which was followed by other pop numbers such as "Botch-a-Me", "Mambo Italiano", "Tenderly", "Half as Much", "Hey There", "This Ole House", and "Sway". She also had success as a jazz vocalist.
Nigel Davenport, English actor (died 2013)
Arthur Nigel Davenport was an English stage, television and film actor, best known for his film roles as the Duke of Norfolk in A Man for All Seasons, and Lord Birkenhead in Chariots of Fire.
Nina Otkalenko, Russian runner (died 2015)
Nina Grigoryevna Otkalenko, née Pletnyova, was a Soviet middle-distance runner. She won a European title in the 800 m at the inaugural 1954 European Athletics Championships and set multiple world records in this event in 1951–54. She missed the 1952 and 1956 Olympics, where women's middle-distance events were not part of the program, and the 1960 Olympics due to an injury.
23/05/1926
Basil Salvadore D'Souza, Indian bishop (died 1996)
Basil Salvadore D'Souza was the Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Mangalore from 22 March 1965 until his death on 5 September 1996. He was the longest-serving bishop in the diocese's history.
Joe Slovo, Lithuanian-South African activist and politician (died 1995)
Yossel Mashel "Joe" Slovo was a South African politician and anti-apartheid activist. A Marxist-Leninist, he was a long-time leader and theorist in the South African Communist Party (SACP), a leading member of the African National Congress (ANC), and a commander of the ANC's military wing uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK).
Aileen Hernandez, American union organizer and civil rights activist (died 2017)
Aileen Hernandez was an African-American union organizer, civil rights activist, and women's rights activist. She served as the president of the National Organization for Women (NOW) between 1970 and 1971, and was the first woman to serve on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
23/05/1925
Joshua Lederberg, American biologist and geneticist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2008)
Joshua Lederberg was an American molecular biologist known for his work in microbial genetics, artificial intelligence, and the United States space program. He was 33 years old when he won the 1958 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering that bacteria can mate and exchange genes work that was conducted alongside his wife Esther who was uncredited for her contributions. He shared the prize with Edward Tatum and George Beadle, who won for their work with genetics.
23/05/1924
Karlheinz Deschner, German author and activist (died 2014)
Karl Heinrich Leopold Deschner was a German researcher and writer who achieved public attention in Europe for his trenchant and fiercely critical treatment of Christianity in general and the Catholic Church in particular, as expressed in several articles and books, culminating in his 10 volume Christianity's Criminal History.
23/05/1923
Alicia de Larrocha, Catalan-Spanish pianist (died 2009)
Alicia de Larrocha y de la Calle was a Spanish pianist and composer. She was considered one of the great piano legends of the 20th century. Reuters called her "the greatest Spanish pianist in history", Time "one of the world's most outstanding pianists", and The Guardian "the leading Spanish pianist of her time".
Irving Millman, American virologist and microbiologist (died 2012)
Irving Millman was a noted virologist and microbiologist. He was a member of the U.S. Army's Eighth Armored Division during the Second World War, earning a Bronze Star. In 1948, Millman earned a bachelor's degree from the City College of New York. He did his graduate work at the University of Kentucky and Northwestern University's School of Medicine.
23/05/1921
Humphrey Lyttelton, British jazz musician and broadcaster (died 2008)
Humphrey Richard Adeane Lyttelton, also known as Humph, was an English jazz musician and broadcaster from the Lyttelton family.
23/05/1920
Helen O'Connell, American singer (died 1993)
Helen O'Connell was an American singer, actress, and hostess, described as "the quintessential big band singer of the 1940s".
23/05/1919
Robert Bernstein, American author and playwright (died 1988)
Robert Bernstein, sometimes credited as R. Berns, was an American comic book writer, playwright and concert impresario, notable as the founder of the Island Concert Hall recital series which ran for 15 years on Long Island.
Ruth Fernández, Puerto Rican contralto and a member of the Puerto Rican Senate (died 2012)
Ruth Fernández was a Puerto Rican contralto and a member of the Puerto Rican Senate. According to the "Comisiones Nacionales para la Celebración del Quinto Centenario" (National Commission for the Celebration of the Fifth Centennial), she is said to be one of three artists whose contributions have helped unite Latin America. The other two artists named were Libertad Lamarque from Argentina and Pedro Vargas from Mexico.
Betty Garrett, American actress, singer, and dancer (died 2011)
Betty Garrett was an American actress, comedian, singer and dancer. She originally performed on Broadway, and was then signed to a film contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. She appeared in several musical films, then returned to Broadway and made guest appearances on several television series.
23/05/1918
Denis Compton, English cricketer and sportscaster (died 1997)
Denis Charles Scott Compton was an English multi-sportsman. As a cricketer he played in 78 Test matches and spent his whole career with Middlesex. As a footballer, he played as a winger and spent most of his career at Arsenal, where he would win both the top flight and F.A. Cup.
23/05/1917
Edward Norton Lorenz, American mathematician and meteorologist (died 2008)
Edward Norton Lorenz was an American mathematician and meteorologist who established the theoretical basis of weather and climate predictability, as well as the basis for computer-aided atmospheric physics and meteorology. He founded modern chaos theory, a branch of mathematics focusing on the behavior of dynamical systems that are highly sensitive to initial conditions.
23/05/1915
S. Donald Stookey, American physicist and chemist, invented CorningWare (died 2014)
Stanley Donald Stookey was an American inventor. He had 60 patents in his name related to glass and ceramics. His discoveries and inventions have contributed to the development of ceramics, eyeglasses, sunglasses, cookware, defense systems, and electronics.
23/05/1914
Harold Hitchcock, English visionary landscape artist (died 2009)
Harold Hitchcock, born Raymond Hitchcock, was an English visionary landscape artist.
Celestine Sibley, American journalist and author (died 1999)
Celestine Sibley was an American newspaper reporter, syndicated columnist, and novelist in Atlanta, Georgia, for nearly sixty years.
Barbara Ward, Baroness Jackson of Lodsworth, English economist, journalist, and prominent Catholic layperson (died 1981)
Barbara Mary Ward, Baroness Jackson of Lodsworth, was a British economist and writer interested in the problems of developing countries. She urged Western governments to share their prosperity with the rest of the world and in the 1960s turned her attention to environmental questions as well. She was an early advocate of sustainable development before this term became familiar and was well known as a journalist, lecturer and broadcaster. Ward was adviser to policymakers in the UK, United States and elsewhere. She was the founder of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).
23/05/1912
Jean Françaix, French pianist and composer (died 1997)
Jean René Désiré Françaix was a French neoclassical composer, pianist, and orchestrator known for his prolific output and vibrant style. Françaix composed for various genres, and is particularly known for his chamber works for piano as well as wind instruments.
John Payne, American actor (died 1989)
John Howard Payne was an American film actor who is mainly remembered from film noir crime stories and 20th Century Fox musical films, and for his leading roles in Miracle on 34th Street and the NBC Western television series The Restless Gun.
23/05/1911
Lou Brouillard, Canadian boxer (died 1984)
Lucien Pierre Brouillard, better known as Lou Brouillard,, was a Canadian professional boxer who held the Undisputed World Welterweight and Undisputed World Middleweight Titles. Statistical boxing website BoxRec ranks Brouillard as the 14th best middleweight of all-time and the 3rd best Canadian boxer ever. During his career he faced the likes of Mickey Walker, Young Corbett III, Jimmy McLarnin, Marcel Thil, and Fred Apostoli. Brouillard was inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame in 2000 and the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2006.
Paul Augustin Mayer, German cardinal (died 2010)
Paul Augustin Mayer, OSB was a German Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He held various positions in the Roman Curia from 1971 to 1991.
Betty Nuthall, English tennis player (died 1983)
Betty May Nuthall Shoemaker was an English tennis player. Known for her powerful forehand, according to Wallis Myers of The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail, Nuthall was ranked in the world's top 10 in 1927, 1929 through 1931, and 1933, reaching a career high of world no. 4 in 1929. In 1930, Nuthall won the women's singles title at the U.S. Championships.
23/05/1910
Margaret Wise Brown, American author and educator (died 1952)
Margaret Wise Brown was an American writer of children's books, including Goodnight Moon (1947) and The Runaway Bunny (1942), both illustrated by Clement Hurd. She has been called "the laureate of the nursery" for her achievements. Besides her real name, she also used the noms-de-plume Golden MacDonald for Doubleday and Company, Timothy Hay for Harper & Brothers and Juniper Sage for William R. Scott, Inc.
Hugh Casson, English architect and academic (died 1999)
Sir Hugh Maxwell Casson was a British architect, also active as an interior designer, an artist, and a writer and broadcaster on twentieth-century design. He was the director of architecture for the 1951 Festival of Britain. From 1976 to 1984, he was president of the Royal Academy.
Scatman Crothers, American actor and comedian (died 1986)
Benjamin Sherman "Scatman" Crothers was an American actor and musician. He is known for playing Louie the Garbage Man on the TV show Chico and the Man, and Dick Hallorann in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining (1980). He was also a prolific voice actor who provided the voices of Meadowlark Lemon in the Harlem Globetrotters animated TV series, Jazz the Autobot in The Transformers and The Transformers: The Movie (1986), the title character in Hong Kong Phooey, and Scat Cat in the Disney animated film The Aristocats (1970).
Franz Kline, American painter and academic (died 1962)
Franz Kline was an American painter. He is associated with the Abstract Expressionist movement of the 1940s and 1950s. Kline, along with other action painters like Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Robert Motherwell, John Ferren, and Lee Krasner, as well as local poets, dancers, and musicians, came to be known as the informal group, the New York School. Although he explored the same innovations to painting as the other artists in this group, Kline's work is distinct in itself and has been revered since the 1950s.
Artie Shaw, American clarinet player, composer, and bandleader (died 2004)
Artie Shaw was an American clarinetist, composer, bandleader, and author of both fiction and non-fiction.
23/05/1908
John Bardeen, American physicist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1991)
John Bardeen was an American physicist. He is the only person to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics twice: first in 1956 with William Shockley and Walter Brattain for their invention of the transistor; and again in 1972 with Leon Cooper and John Robert Schrieffer for their microscopic theory of superconductivity, known as the BCS theory.
Hélène Boucher, French pilot (died 1934)
Hélène Boucher was a well-known French pilot in the early 1930s, when she set several women's world speed records and the all-comers record for 1,000 km in 1934. She was killed in an accident in the same year.
Tomiko Itooka, Japanese supercentenarian (died 2024)
Tomiko Itooka was a Japanese supercentenarian who was recognized as the world's oldest verified living person in September 2024. She managed her family's textile business during World War II and lived to the age of 117 years and 220 days.
Annemarie Schwarzenbach, Swiss author and photographer (died 1942)
Annemarie Minna Renée Schwarzenbach was a Swiss writer, journalist and photographer. Her bisexual mother brought her up in a masculine style, and her androgynous image suited the bohemian Berlin society of the time, in which she indulged enthusiastically. Her anti-fascist campaigning forced her into exile, where she became close to the family of novelist Thomas Mann. She would live much of her life abroad as a photo-journalist, embarking on many lesbian relationships, and experiencing a growing morphine addiction. In America, the young Carson McCullers was infatuated with Schwarzenbach, to whom she dedicated Reflections in a Golden Eye. Schwarzenbach reported on the early events of World War II, but died of a head injury, following a fall.
23/05/1900
Hans Frank, German lawyer and politician (died 1946)
Hans Michael Frank was a German Nazi politician, lawyer and convicted war criminal who served as the head of the General Government, an entity created by Germany on part of the German-occupied Polish lands during the Second World War.
Franz Leopold Neumann, German lawyer and theorist (died 1954)
Franz Leopold Neumann was a German political activist, Western Marxist theorist, and labor lawyer who became a political scientist in exile and is best known for his theoretical analyses of Nazism. He studied in Germany and the United Kingdom, and spent the last phase of his career in the United States, where he worked for the Office of Strategic Services from 1943 to 1945 writing the Secret Reports on Nazi Germany. During the Second World War, Neumann spied for the Soviet Union under the code-name "Ruff". Together with Ernst Fraenkel and Arnold Bergstraesser, Neumann is considered to be among the founders of modern political science in Germany.
23/05/1899
Jeralean Talley, American super-centenarian (died 2015)
Jeralean Talley was an American supercentenarian who was, aged 116 years, 25 days, the world's verified oldest living person. She was previously thought to be the oldest living American, from the death of Elsie Thompson on March 21, 2013, until Gertrude Weaver was verified to be older in July 2014. Upon Weaver's death on April 6, 2015, Talley was recognised as the oldest living person in the world. Talley received letters from U.S. President Barack Obama on her 114th and 116th birthdays acknowledging her status.
23/05/1898
Scott O'Dell, American soldier, journalist, and author (died 1989)
Scott O'Dell was an American writer of 26 novels for young people, along with three novels for adults and four nonfiction books. He wrote historical fiction, primarily, including several children's novels about historical California and Mexico. For his contribution as a children's writer he received the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1972, the highest recognition available to creators of children's books. He received The University of Southern Mississippi Medallion in 1976 and the Catholic Libraries Association Regina Medal in 1978.
Josef Terboven, German soldier and politician (died 1945)
Josef Antonius Heinrich Terboven was a German Nazi Party official and politician who was the long-serving Gauleiter of Gau Essen and the Reichskommissar for Norway during the German occupation.
23/05/1897
Jimmie Guthrie, Scottish motorcycle racer (died 1937)
James Guthrie was a Scottish motorcycle racer.
23/05/1896
Felix Steiner, Russian-German SS officer (died 1966)
Felix Martin Julius Steiner was a German SS commander during the Nazi era. During World War II, he served in the Waffen-SS, the combat branch of the SS, and commanded several SS divisions and corps. He was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords. Together with Paul Hausser, he contributed significantly to the development and transformation of the Waffen-SS into a combat force made up of volunteers and conscripts from both occupied and un-occupied lands.
23/05/1892
Albert Spencer, 7th Earl Spencer, British peer (died 1975)
Albert Edward John Spencer, 7th Earl Spencer,, styled The Honourable Albert Spencer until 1910 and Viscount Althorp from 1910 to 1922, and known less formally as Jack Spencer, was a British peer. He was the paternal grandfather of Diana, Princess of Wales.
23/05/1891
Pär Lagerkvist, Swedish novelist, playwright, and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1974)
Pär Fabian Lagerkvist was a Swedish author who received the 1951 Nobel Prize in Literature.
23/05/1890
Herbert Marshall, English-American actor and singer (died 1966)
Herbert Brough Falcon Marshall was an English actor of stage, screen, and radio. He starred in many popular and well-regarded Hollywood films in the 1930s and 1940s. After a successful theatrical career in the United Kingdom and North America, he became an in-demand Hollywood leading man, frequently appearing in romantic melodramas and occasional comedies. In his later years, Marshall turned to character acting.
23/05/1889
Ernst Niekisch, German educator and politician (died 1967)
Ernst Niekisch was a German writer and political theorist. Initially a member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and of the Old Social Democratic Party of Germany (ASPD), he later became a prominent exponent of the National revolutionary branch of the Conservative Revolution and National Bolshevism.
23/05/1888
Adriaan Roland Holst, Dutch writer (died 1976)
Adriaan Roland Holst was a Dutch writer, nicknamed the "Prince of Dutch Poets". He was the second winner, in 1948, of the Constantijn Huygens Prize. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1961.
Zack Wheat, American baseball player and police officer (died 1972)
Zachariah Davis Wheat, nicknamed "Buck", was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a left fielder from 1909 to 1927, most notably as a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers who were known as the Robins at that time. After 18 seasons in Brooklyn, he played his final season with the Philadelphia Athletics.
23/05/1887
Thoralf Skolem, Norwegian mathematician and theorist (died 1963)
Thoralf Albert Skolem was a Norwegian mathematician who worked in mathematical logic, set theory, and number theory.
Nikolai Vekšin, Estonian-Russian sailor and captain (died 1951)
Nikolai Vekšin was a Russian and Estonian sailor and helmsman of the bronze-medallist Estonian team at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympic Games.
C. R. M. F. Cruttwell, English historian (died 1941)
Charles Robert Mowbray Fraser Cruttwell was a British historian and academic who served as dean and later principal of Hertford College, Oxford. His field of expertise was modern European history, his most notable work being A History of the Great War, 1914–18. He is mainly remembered, however, for the vendetta pursued against him by the novelist Evelyn Waugh, in which Waugh showed his distaste for his former tutor by repeatedly using the name "Cruttwell" in his early novels and stories to depict a sequence of unsavoury or ridiculous characters. The prolonged minor humiliation thus inflicted may have contributed to Cruttwell's eventual mental breakdown.
23/05/1884
Corrado Gini, Italian sociologist and demographer (died 1965)
Corrado Gini was an Italian statistician, demographer and sociologist who developed the Gini coefficient, a measure of the income inequality in a society. Gini was a proponent of organicism and applied it to nations. Gini was a eugenicist, and prior to and during World War II, he was an advocate of Italian Fascism. Following the war, he founded the Italian Unionist Movement, which advocated for the annexation of Italy by the United States.
23/05/1883
Douglas Fairbanks, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (died 1939)
Douglas Elton Fairbanks Sr. was an American actor and filmmaker best known for being the first actor to play the masked vigilante Zorro and other swashbuckling roles in silent films. One of the biggest stars of the silent era, Fairbanks was referred to as "The King of Hollywood". He was also a founding member of United Artists as well as the Motion Picture Academy and hosted the 1st Academy Awards in 1929.
23/05/1882
William Halpenny, Canadian pole vaulter (died 1960)
William Halpenny was a Canadian track and field athlete who competed in the 1912 Summer Olympics. He was born in Prince Edward Island. In 1912, he won a bronze medal in the pole vault event.
23/05/1875
Alfred P. Sloan, American businessman and philanthropist (died 1966)
Alfred Pritchard Sloan Jr. was an American business executive in the automotive industry. He was a longtime president, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of General Motors (GM). First as a senior executive and later as the head of the company, Sloan presided over the growth of General Motors into one of the largest corporations in the world. During this period, GM spearheaded the adoption of the annual model change, brand architecture, industrial engineering, automotive design (styling), and planned obsolescence within the automobile industry. Such developments forever changed lifestyles as well as the built environment in America and throughout the globe.
23/05/1865
Epitácio Pessoa, Brazilian jurist and politician, 11th President of Brazil (died 1942)
Epitácio Lindolfo da Silva Pessoa was a Brazilian politician and jurist who served as the 11th president of Brazil between 1919 and 1922, when Rodrigues Alves was unable to take office due to illness, after being elected in 1918. His government was marked by the beginning of the tenentist movement that would culminate in the Revolution of 1930, which brought Getúlio Vargas to power.
23/05/1864
William O'Connor, American fencer (died 1939)
William Scott O'Connor was an American épée and foil fencer who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics. He won the silver medal in the singlestick competition. He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and died in Manhattan.
23/05/1863
Władysław Horodecki, Polish architect (died 1930)
Władysław Horodecki was a Polish architect active in the Russian Empire and later in the Second Polish Republic. He is best known for his contributions in the urban development of Kyiv, with buildings such as the House with Chimaeras, the St. Nicholas Roman Catholic Cathedral, the Karaite Kenesa, and the National Art Museum of Ukraine.
23/05/1861
József Rippl-Rónai, Hungarian painter (died 1927)
József Rippl-Rónai was a Hungarian painter. He was among the first Hungarian exponents of artistic modernism.
23/05/1855
Isabella Ford, English author and activist (died 1924)
Isabella Ormston Ford was an English social reformer, suffragist and writer. She became a public speaker and wrote pamphlets on issues related to socialism, feminism and workers' rights. After becoming concerned with the rights of female mill workers at an early age, Ford became involved with trade union organisation in the 1880s. A member of the National Administrative Council of the Independent Labour Party, she was the first woman recorded as speaking at a Labour Representation Committee conference.
23/05/1848
Otto Lilienthal, German pilot and engineer (died 1896)
Karl Wilhelm Otto Lilienthal was a German pioneer of aviation who became known as the "flying man". He was the first person to make well-documented, repeated, successful flights with gliders, therefore making the idea of heavier-than-air aircraft a reality. Newspapers and magazines published photographs of Lilienthal gliding, favourably influencing public and scientific opinion about the possibility of flying machines becoming practical.
23/05/1844
ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, Iranian religious leader (died 1921)
ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, born ʻAbbás, was the eldest son of Baháʼu'lláh, founder of the Bahá’í Faith, who designated him to be his successor and head of the Baháʼí Faith from 1892 until 1921. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá was later cited as the last of three "central figures" of the religion, along with Baháʼu'lláh and the Báb, and his writings and authenticated talks are regarded as sources of Baháʼí sacred literature.
23/05/1840
George Throssell, Irish-Australian politician, 2nd Premier of Western Australia (died 1910)
George Throssell was the second Premier of Western Australia. He served for just three months, from 15 February to 27 May 1901, during a period of great instability in Western Australian politics.
23/05/1838
Amaldus Nielsen, Norwegian painter (died 1932)
Amaldus Clarin Nielsen was a Norwegian painter.
23/05/1837
Anatole Mallet, Swiss mechanical engineer and inventor (died 1919)
Jules Theodore Anatole Mallet was a Swiss mechanical engineer, who was the inventor of the first successful compound system for a railway steam locomotive, patented in 1874. He is known for having invented three important forms of compound locomotive.
Józef Wieniawski, Polish pianist and composer (died 1912)
Józef Wieniawski was a Polish pianist, composer, conductor and teacher. He was born in Lublin, the younger brother of the famous violinist Henryk Wieniawski. After Franz Liszt, he was the first pianist to publicly perform all the études by Chopin. He appeared with Liszt in recitals in Paris, London, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Brussels, Leipzig and Amsterdam.
23/05/1834
Jānis Frīdrihs Baumanis, Latvian architect (died 1891)
Jānis Frīdrihs Baumanis was a Latvian, Baltic German architect. He was the first professional Latvian architect. Baumanis designed the Riga Circus in 1888. He was responsible for a number of important public buildings of eclectic design constructed in the second half of the 19th century in Riga.
Carl Bloch, Danish painter and academic (died 1890)
Carl Heinrich Bloch was a Danish painter.
23/05/1824
Ambrose Burnside, American general and politician, 30th Governor of Rhode Island (died 1881)
Ambrose Everts Burnside was an American army officer and politician who became a senior Union general in the American Civil War and a three-time governor of Rhode Island, as well as being an inventor and industrialist.
23/05/1820
James Buchanan Eads, American engineer, designed the Eads Bridge (died 1887)
James Buchanan Eads was an American civil engineer and inventor. He held more than 50 patents and was known internationally. He designed and built the Eads Bridge over the Mississippi River in St. Louis, which was designated a National Historic Landmark.
Lorenzo Sawyer, American lawyer and judge (died 1891)
Lorenzo Sawyer was an American lawyer and judge who was appointed to the Supreme Court of California in 1860 and served as the ninth Chief Justice of California from 1868 to 1870. He served as a United States circuit judge of the United States Circuit Courts for the Ninth Circuit and of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He is best known for handing down the verdict in the case of Woodruff v. North Bloomfield Gravel Mining Company; his verdict is frequently referred to as the "Sawyer Decision."
23/05/1817
Manuel Robles Pezuela, Unconstitutional Mexican interim president (died 1862)
Manuel Robles Pezuela was a military engineer, military commander, and eventually interim president of Mexico during a civil war, the Reform War, being waged between conservatives and liberals, in which he served as president of the Conservatives, in opposition to President Benito Juárez, head of the Liberals.
23/05/1810
Margaret Fuller, American journalist and critic (died 1850)
Sarah Margaret Fuller, sometimes referred to as Margaret Fuller Ossoli, was an American journalist, editor, critic, translator, and women's rights advocate associated with the American transcendentalism movement. She was the first American female war correspondent and full-time book reviewer in journalism. Her book Woman in the Nineteenth Century is considered the first major feminist work in the United States.
23/05/1800
Rómulo Díaz de la Vega, Mexican general and president (1855) (died 1877)
José María Rómulo Díaz de la Vega Fuentes was a Mexican military officer and politician. As commander of the garrison in Mexico City, he was the de facto president of Mexico in 1855, after the resignation of President Martin Carrera during the revolutionary Plan of Ayutla left a power vacuum.
23/05/1795
Charles Barry, English architect, designed the Upper Brook Street Chapel and Halifax Town Hall (died 1860)
Sir Charles Barry was an English architect best known for his role in the rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster in London during the mid-19th century, but also responsible for numerous other buildings and gardens. He is known for his major contribution to the use of Italianate architecture in Britain, especially the use of the Palazzo as basis for the design of country houses, city mansions and public buildings. He also developed the Italian Renaissance garden style for the many gardens he designed around country houses.
23/05/1794
Ignaz Moscheles, Czech pianist and composer (died 1870)
Isaac Ignaz Moscheles was a Bohemian piano virtuoso and composer. He was based initially in London and later in Leipzig, where he joined his friend and sometime pupil Felix Mendelssohn as professor of piano in the Conservatory.
23/05/1790
Jules Dumont d'Urville, French admiral and explorer (died 1842)
Jules Sébastien César Dumont d'Urville was a French explorer and naval officer who explored the south and western Pacific, Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica. As a botanist and cartographer, he gave his name to several seaweeds, plants and shrubs and to places such as d'Urville Island in New Zealand.
James Pradier, French neoclassical sculptor (died 1852)
James Pradier was a Genevan-born French sculptor best known for his work in the neoclassical style.
23/05/1789
Franz Schlik, Austrian earl and general (died 1862)
Franz Joseph von Schlik of Bassano and Weisskirchen was a count and general in the Austrian Empire. He was one of the most successful Austrian generals during the Hungarian Revolution of 1848.
23/05/1741
Andrea Luchesi, Italian organist and composer (died 1801)
Andrea Luca Luchesi was an Italian composer. He knew Mozart and Beethoven.
23/05/1734
Franz Mesmer, German physician and astrologer (died 1815)
Franz Anton Mesmer was a German physician with an interest in astronomy. He theorized the existence of a process of natural energy transference occurring between all animate and inanimate objects; this he called "animal magnetism", later referred to as mesmerism. Mesmer's theory attracted a wide following between about 1780 and 1850, and continued to have some influence until the end of the 19th century. In 1843, the Scottish doctor James Braid proposed the term "hypnotism" for a technique derived from animal magnetism; today the word "mesmerism" generally functions as a synonym of "hypnosis". Mesmer also supported the arts, specifically music; he was on friendly terms with Haydn and Mozart.
23/05/1730
Prince Augustus Ferdinand of Prussia, Prussian prince and general (died 1813)
Prince Augustus Ferdinand of Prussia was a Prussian prince and general, as well as Herrenmeister of the Bailiwick of Brandenburg of the Order of Saint John. He belonged to the House of Hohenzollern, and was the youngest son of Frederick William I of Prussia by his wife, Queen Sophia Dorothea.
23/05/1729
Giuseppe Parini, Italian poet and educator (died 1799)
Giuseppe Parini was an Italian satirist and Neoclassical poet.
23/05/1718
William Hunter, Scottish-English anatomist and physician (died 1783)
William Hunter was a Scottish anatomist and physician. He was a leading teacher of anatomy, and the outstanding obstetrician of his day. His guidance and training of his equally famous brother, John Hunter, was also of great importance.
23/05/1707
Carl Linnaeus, Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist (died 1778)
Carl Linnaeus, also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné, was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming organisms. He is known as the "father of modern taxonomy". Many of his writings were in Latin; his name is rendered in Latin as Carolus Linnæus and, after his 1761 ennoblement, as Carolus a Linné.
23/05/1629
William VI, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, noble of Hesse-Kassel (died 1663)
Wilhelm VI, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, known as William the Just, was Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel from 1637 to 1663.
23/05/1617
Elias Ashmole, English astrologer and politician (died 1692)
Elias Ashmole was an English antiquary, politician, officer of arms, astrologer, freemason and student of alchemy. Ashmole supported the royalist side during the English Civil War, serving in the artillery of Lord Astley's Regiment of Foot. He held the military rank of a captain. At the restoration of Charles II, Ashmole was rewarded with several lucrative offices. In his later years, he collected notes on his life in diary form to serve as source material for a biography. His diary was posthumously published in 1717.
23/05/1614
Bertholet Flemalle, Flemish Baroque painter (died 1675)
Bertholet Flemalle, Flemal, or Flamael (1614–1675) was a Liège Baroque painter.
23/05/1606
Juan Caramuel y Lobkowitz, Spanish mathematician and philosopher (died 1682)
Juan Caramuel y Lobkowitz was a Spanish Catholic scholastic philosopher, ecclesiastic, mathematician, polyglot, and writer. He is believed to be a great-grandson of Jan Popel y Lobkowicz.
23/05/1586
Paul Siefert, German composer and organist (died 1666)
Paul Siefert was a German composer and organist associated with the North German school.
23/05/1330
Gongmin of Goryeo, Korean ruler (died 1374)
Gongmin, also known by his Mongolian name, Bayan Temür, was 31st ruler of Goryeo from 1351 to 1374. He was the second son of King Chungsuk.
23/05/1127
Uijong of Goryeo, Korean monarch of the Goryeo dynasty (died 1173)
Uijong, personal name Wang Hyŏn, was the 18th king of the Goryeo dynasty of Korea.
23/05/1100
Emperor Qinzong of Song (died 1161)
Emperor Qinzong of Song, personal name Zhao Huan, was the ninth emperor of the Song dynasty of China and the last emperor of the Northern Song dynasty.
23/05/1052
Philip I of France (died 1108)
Philip I, called the Amorous, was King of the Franks from 1060 to 1108. His reign of nearly 48 years, like that of most of the early Capetians, was extraordinarily long for the time. The monarchy began a modest recovery from the low it had reached during the reign of his father, Henry I, and he added the Vexin region and the viscountcy of Bourges to his royal domaine.
23/05/0675
Perumbidugu Mutharaiyar II, King of Mutharaiyar dynasty, Tamil Nadu, India
Perumbidugu Mutharaiyar, also known as Suvaran Maran and Perarasar Perumbidugu Mutharaiyar, was a king of Thanjavur from the Mutharaiyar dynasty. He ruled over Thanjavur, Trichy, Pudukkottai, Perambalur and Thiruvarur as a feudatory of the Pallava dynasty. He attended the coronation of Nandivarman II.
23/05/0635
Kʼinich Kan Bahlam II, Mayan king (died 702)
Kʼinich Kan Bahlam II, also known as Chan Bahlum II, was ajaw of the Maya city-state of Palenque, in what is now the state of Chiapas, Mexico. He acceded to the throne in January, 684, several months after the death of his father and predecessor, Kʼinich Janaabʼ Pakal and ruled until his death.
Lives Remembered on 23rd May
On 23rd May, 92 remarkable people passed away — from 230 to 2024. Remember the lives and legacies of those we lost on this day.
23/05/2024
Caleb Carr, American military historian and author (born 1955)
Caleb Carr was an American military historian and author. Carr was the second of three sons born to Lucien Carr and Francesca Von Hartz.
Morgan Spurlock, American filmmaker (born 1970)
Morgan Valentine Spurlock was an American documentary filmmaker, writer and television producer. He directed 23 films and was the producer of nearly 70 films throughout his career. Spurlock received acclaim for directing the documentary Super Size Me (2004), which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film. He produced What Would Jesus Buy? (2007) and directed Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden? (2008), POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold (2011), Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope (2011), and One Direction: This Is Us (2013).
23/05/2021
Ron Hill, English long-distance runner (born 1938)
Ronald Hill MBE was a British runner and clothing entrepreneur. He was the second man to break 2:10 in the marathon; he set world records at four other distances, and laid claim to the marathon world record. He ran two Olympic Marathons, and achieved a personal marathon record of 2:09:28. In 1970, Hill won the 74th Boston Marathon in a course record 2:10:30. He also won gold medals for the marathon at the European Championships in 1969 and the Commonwealth Games in 1970. Hill laid claim to the longest streak of consecutive days running – every day for 52 years and 39 days from 1964 to 2017.
Eric Carle, American children's book designer, illustrator, and writer best known for The Very Hungry Caterpillar (born 1929)
Eric Carle was an American author, designer and illustrator of children's books. His picture book The Very Hungry Caterpillar, first published in 1969, has been translated into more than 66 languages and sold more than 50 million copies. Carle's career as an illustrator and children's book author accelerated after he collaborated on Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?. Carle illustrated more than 70 books, most of which he also wrote, and more than 145 million copies of his books have been sold around the world.
23/05/2020
Hana Kimura, Japanese professional wrestler (born 1997)
Hana Kimura was a Japanese professional wrestler. She worked for Japanese promotions such as World Wonder Ring Stardom and Wrestle-1, in addition to making appearances for foreign companies such as Ring of Honor, Pro-Wrestling: EVE, and some independent promotions in Mexico. She was a second-generation wrestler as the daughter of Kyoko Kimura.
23/05/2017
Roger Moore, English actor (born 1927)
Sir Roger George Moore was an English actor. He was the third actor to portray Ian Fleming's fictional secret agent James Bond in the Eon Productions/MGM Studios film series, playing the character in seven feature films: Live and Let Die (1973), The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), Moonraker (1979), For Your Eyes Only (1981), Octopussy (1983) and A View to a Kill (1985). Moore's seven appearances as Bond are the most of any actor in the Eon-produced entries.
23/05/2015
Anne Meara, American actress, comedian and playwright (born 1929)
Anne Meara was an American comedian and actress. Along with her husband Jerry Stiller, she was one-half of the prominent 1960s comedy team Stiller and Meara. Their son is actor, director, and producer Ben Stiller. She was also featured on stage, on television, and in numerous films and later became a playwright. During her career, Meara was nominated for four Emmy Awards and a Tony Award, and she won a Writers Guild Award as a co-writer for the television movie The Other Woman.
Aleksey Mozgovoy, Pro-Russian Ukrainian separatist leader (born 1975)
Aleksey Borisovich Mozgovoy was a commander of the Russian-installed separatist Luhansk People's Republic in Ukraine. He was the leader of the pro-Russian Prizrak Brigade.
Alicia Nash, Salvadoran-American physicist and engineer (born 1933)
Alicia Esther Nash was a Salvadoran-American physicist. The wife of mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr., she was a mental-health care advocate, who gave up her professional aspirations to support her husband and son, who were both diagnosed with schizophrenia.
John Forbes Nash Jr., American mathematician and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1928)
John Forbes Nash Jr., known and published as John Nash, was an American mathematician who made fundamental contributions to game theory, real algebraic geometry, differential geometry, and partial differential equations. Nash and fellow game theorists John Harsanyi and Reinhard Selten were awarded the 1994 Nobel Prize in Economics. In 2015, Louis Nirenberg and he were awarded the Abel Prize for their contributions to the field of partial differential equations.
23/05/2014
Mikhail Egorovich Alekseev, Russian linguist and academic (born 1949)
Mikhail Egorovich Alekseev was a Soviet and Russian linguist specializing in Nakh-Daghestanian languages.
Madhav Mantri, Indian cricketer (born 1921)
Madhav Krishnaji Mantri was an Indian cricketer who played in four Test matches between 1951 and 1955. Born in Nasik, Maharashtra, he was a right-handed opening batsman and specialist wicket-keeper who represented Mumbai. He captained Mumbai to victory in three Ranji Trophy finals: 1951–52, 1955–56 and 1956–57. He captained Associated Cement Company to victory in the Moin-ud-Dowlah Gold Cup Tournament in 1962–63.
23/05/2013
Epy Guerrero, Dominican baseball player, coach, and scout (born 1942)
Epifanio Obdulio "Epy" Guerrero was a Dominican baseball scout who signed more than 50 Major League Baseball (MLB) players for the Houston Astros, New York Yankees, Toronto Blue Jays and Milwaukee Brewers. Epy was the brother of former shortstop Mario Guerrero, and had two sons, Epy Jr. (Sandy) and Mike, who played and Coached minor league ball.
Hayri Kozakçıoğlu, Turkish police officer and politician, 15th Governor of Istanbul Province (born 1938)
Hayri Kozakçıoğlu was a Turkish high-ranking civil servant and politician. He served as district governor, police chief, province governor in various administrative divisions. He was known as the first regional governor in the state of emergency ("OHAL") imposed in the provinces of Southeastern Anatolia and governor of Istanbul Province. He was found dead on the morning of May 23, 2013, in his house at Sarıyer, Istanbul.
Georges Moustaki, Egyptian-French singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1934)
Georges Moustaki was an Egyptian-French singer-songwriter of Greek-Jewish origin. He wrote about 300 songs for some of the most popular singers in France, including Édith Piaf, Dalida, Françoise Hardy, Yves Montand, Barbara, Brigitte Fontaine, Herbert Pagani, France Gall, Cindy Daniel, Juliette Gréco, Pia Colombo, and Tino Rossi, as well as for himself.
Flynn Robinson, American basketball player (born 1941)
Flynn James Robinson was an American professional basketball player.
23/05/2012
Paul Fussell, American historian, author, and academic (born 1924)
Paul Fussell Jr. was an American cultural and literary historian, author and university professor. His writings cover a variety of topics, from scholarly works on eighteenth-century English literature to commentary on America's class system.
23/05/2011
Xavier Tondo, Spanish cyclist (born 1978)
Xavier Tondo Volpini was a Spanish professional road racing cyclist who specialized in mountain stages of bicycle races.
23/05/2010
José Lima, Dominican-American baseball player (born 1972)
José Desiderio Rodriguez Lima was a Dominican right-handed pitcher who spent 13 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) with the Detroit Tigers, Houston Astros (1997–2001), Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Dodgers (2004) and New York Mets (2006). His best year in the majors was 1999, when he won 21 games for the Astros and pitched in his only All-Star Game.
Simon Monjack, English director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1970)
Simon Mark Monjack was an English screenwriter, film director, producer and make-up artist. He was the husband and later widower of Brittany Murphy.
23/05/2009
Roh Moo-hyun, South Korean soldier and politician, 9th President of South Korea (born 1946)
Roh Moo-hyun was a South Korean politician and lawyer who served as the ninth president of South Korea from 2003 to 2008.
23/05/2008
Iñaki Ochoa de Olza, Spanish mountaineer (born 1967)
Iñaki Ochoa de Olza was a Spanish climber. Ochoa de Olza took part in more than thirty separate climbing expeditions in the Himalayas over the course of his career, and was involved in more than 200 expeditions as a guide. He climbed 12 of the world's 14 tallest mountains without using oxygen. Ochoa went on record as saying that he did not believe in using oxygen to climb mountains, claiming "if you use oxygen, you are not an alpinist; you are more of an astronaut or a scuba diver.". He died of pulmonary edema in May 2008 while climbing Annapurna.
Utah Phillips, American singer-songwriter and poet (born 1935)
Bruce Duncan "Utah" Phillips was an American labor organizer, folk singer, storyteller and poet. He described the struggles of labor unions and the power of direct action, self-identifying as an anarchist. He often promoted the Industrial Workers of the World in his music, actions, and words.
23/05/2006
Lloyd Bentsen, American colonel and politician, 69th United States Secretary of the Treasury (born 1921)
Lloyd Millard Bentsen Jr. was an American politician who served as the 69th United States secretary of the treasury under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1994. He served as a United States senator from Texas from 1971 to 1993 and was the Democratic Party nominee for vice president in 1988 on the Michael Dukakis ticket.
Kazimierz Górski, Polish footballer and manager (born 1921)
Kazimierz Klaudiusz Górski was a Polish professional football manager. He was also a football player, capped once for Poland.
23/05/2002
Big Bill Neidjie, Australian activist and last speaker of the Gaagudju language (born c. 1920)
Bill Neidjie, nicknamed "Kakadu Man", was the last surviving speaker of the Gaagudju language, an Aboriginal Australian language from northern Kakadu, after which Kakadu National Park is named. He was an elder of the Gaagudju people and a custodian of the land, who cared deeply about preserving his culture and land.
Sam Snead, American golfer and journalist (born 1912)
Samuel Jackson Snead was an American professional golfer who was one of the top players in the world for the better part of four decades and widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time. Snead was awarded a record 94 gold medallions, for wins in PGA of America Tour events and later credited with winning a record 82 PGA Tour events tied with Tiger Woods, including seven majors. He never won the U.S. Open, though he was runner-up four times. Snead was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974.
23/05/1999
Owen Hart, Canadian-American wrestler (born 1965)
Owen James Hart was a Canadian professional wrestler who worked for several promotions including Stampede Wrestling, New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). He received most of his success in the WWF, where he wrestled under both his own name and the ring names The Blue Angel and The Blue Blazer.
23/05/1998
Telford Taylor, American general and lawyer (born 1908)
Telford Taylor was an American lawyer and professor. Taylor was known for his role as lead counsel in the prosecution of war criminals after World War II, his opposition to McCarthyism in the 1950s, and his outspoken criticism of American actions during the Vietnam War.
23/05/1996
Kronid Lyubarsky, Russian journalist and activist (born 1934)
Kronid Arkadyevich Lyubarsky was a Russian journalist, dissident, human rights activist and political prisoner.
23/05/1994
Olav Hauge, Norwegian poet (born 1908)
Olav Håkonson Hauge was a Norwegian horticulturist, translator and poet.
23/05/1992
Kostas Davourlis, Greek footballer (born 1948)
Konstantinos Davourlis born in Agyia, Patras, popularly nicknamed The Black Prince, was a former Greek footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. A gifted and talented player, he was voted by the Greek sports magazine "Ethnosport" as one of the 50 best Greek football players ever.
Giovanni Falcone, Italian lawyer and judge (born 1939)
Giovanni Falcone was an Italian judge and prosecuting magistrate. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, Sicily, he spent most of his professional life trying to overthrow the power of the Sicilian Mafia. After a long and distinguished career, culminating in the Maxi Trial in 1986–1987, on 23 May 1992, Falcone was assassinated by the Corleonesi Mafia in the Capaci bombing, on the A29 motorway near the town of Capaci.
23/05/1991
Wilhelm Kempff, German pianist and composer (born 1895)
Wilhelm Walter Friedrich Kempff was a German pianist, teacher and composer. Although his repertoire included Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt and Brahms, Kempff was particularly well known for his interpretations of the music of Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert, recording the complete sonatas of both composers. He is considered to have been one of the chief exponents of the Germanic tradition during the 20th century.
Jean Van Houtte, Belgian academic and politician, 50th Prime Minister of Belgium (born 1907)
Jean Marie Joseph "Jan", Baron Van Houtte was a Belgian politician who served as the Prime Minister of Belgium from 1952 to 1954.
Fletcher Markle, Canadian director, screenwriter, and producer (born 1921)
Fletcher Markle was a Canadian actor, screenwriter, television producer and director. Markle began a radio career in Canada, then worked in radio, film and television in the United States.
23/05/1989
Georgy Tovstonogov, Russian director and producer (born 1915)
Georgy Aleksandrovich Tovstonogov was a Russian-Georgian theatre director.
Karl Koch, German computer hacker (born 1965)
Karl Werner Lothar Koch was a German hacker in the 1980s, who called himself "hagbard", after Hagbard Celine. He was involved in a Cold War computer espionage incident.
23/05/1986
Sterling Hayden, American actor (born 1916)
Sterling Walter Hayden was an American actor. A leading man for most of his career, he specialized in Westerns and film noir throughout the 1950s, in films such as John Huston's The Asphalt Jungle (1950), Nicholas Ray's Johnny Guitar (1954), and Stanley Kubrick's The Killing (1956). In the 1960s, he became noted for supporting roles, perhaps most memorably as General Jack D. Ripper in Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964).
23/05/1981
Gene Green, American baseball player (born 1933)
Gene Leroy Green was an American Major League Baseball outfielder and catcher who played all or portions of seven MLB seasons for the St. Louis Cardinals (1957–1959), Baltimore Orioles (1960), Washington Senators (1961), Cleveland Indians (1962–1963) and Cincinnati Reds (1963). A right-handed batter and thrower, he stood 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 m) tall and weighed 200 pounds (91 kg).
Rayner Heppenstall, English author and poet (born 1911)
John Rayner Heppenstall was a British novelist, poet, diarist, and a BBC radio producer.
George Jessel, American actor, singer, and producer (born 1898)
George Albert "Georgie" Jessel was an American actor, singer, songwriter, and film producer. He was famous in his lifetime as a multitalented comedic entertainer, achieving a level of recognition that transcended his limited roles in movies. He was widely known by his nickname, the "Toastmaster General of the United States," for his frequent role as the master of ceremonies at political and entertainment gatherings. Jessel originated the title role in the stage production of The Jazz Singer.
David Lewis, Belarusian-Canadian lawyer and politician (born 1909)
David Lewis was a Canadian labour lawyer and social democratic politician. He was national secretary of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) from 1936 to 1950 and one of the key architects of the New Democratic Party (NDP) in 1961. In 1962, he was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP), in the House of Commons of Canada, for York South. While an MP, he was elected the NDP's national leader and served from 1971 until 1975.
23/05/1979
S. Selvanayagam, Sri Lankan geographer and academic (born 1932)
Somasundaram Selvanayagam was a Ceylon Tamil geographer, academic and head of the Department of Geography at the University of Jaffna.
23/05/1975
Moms Mabley, American comedian and actor (born 1894)
Loretta Mary Aiken, known by her stage name Jackie "Moms" Mabley, was an American stand-up comedian and actress. Mabley began her career on the theater stage in the 1920s and became a veteran entertainer of the Chitlin' Circuit of black vaudeville. Mabley later recorded comedy albums and appeared in films and on television programs including The Ed Sullivan Show and The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.
23/05/1965
David Smith, American sculptor (born 1906)
Roland David Smith was an American abstract expressionist sculptor and painter known for creating large steel abstract geometric sculptures.
23/05/1963
August Jakobson, Estonian author and politician (born 1904)
August Jakobson was an Estonian writer and politician. He was one of the few Estonian playwright among his contemporaries whose plays were untouched by Soviet censorship and reached other Soviet states. He has been described as the leading Stalinist in Soviet Estonian drama. In the 1960s his work was described as "ideologically militant".
23/05/1962
Louis Coatalen, French engineer (born 1879)
Louis Hervé Coatalen was an automobile engineer and racing driver born in Brittany who spent much of his adult life in Britain and took British nationality. He was a pioneer of the design and development of internal combustion engines for cars and aircraft.
23/05/1960
Georges Claude, French engineer and inventor, created Neon lighting (born 1870)
Georges Claude was a French engineer and inventor. He is noted for his early work on the industrial liquefaction of air, for the invention and commercialization of neon lighting, and for a large experiment on generating energy by pumping cold seawater up from the depths. He has been considered by some to be "the Edison of France". The Claude process for manufacturing ammonia was named for him.
23/05/1956
Gustav Suits, Latvian-Estonian poet and politician (born 1883)
Gustav Suits is considered one of the greatest Estonian poets. He was also an early leader of the literary movement group Noor-Eesti.
23/05/1949
Jan Frans De Boever, Belgian painter and illustrator (born 1872)
Jan Frans De Boever was a Belgian Symbolist painter, known for his paintings of voluptuous nude women in morbid contexts. Skeletons, death and eroticism flood his oeuvre. He made illustrations in gouache for Charles Baudelaire's famous Les Fleurs du mal for the Ghent collector and art patron Léon Speltinckx with 157 gouaches. While he was a successful artist during most of his lifetime, his megalomaniac character made him a solitary and isolated individual.
23/05/1947
Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz, Swiss author and poet (born 1878)
Charles Ferdinand Ramuz was a French-speaking Swiss writer.
23/05/1945
Heinrich Himmler, German commander and politician, Reich Minister of the Interior and head of the SS (born 1900)
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was a German Nazi politician and military leader. He was the 4th Reichsführer of the Schutzstaffel from 1929 to 1945. He was a leading member of the Nazi Party, and one of the most powerful figures in Nazi Germany. He was also one of the main architects of the Holocaust, the genocide of European Jews during World War II.
23/05/1942
Panagiotis Toundas, Greek composer and conductor (born 1886)
Panagiotis Toundas was a Greek composer of the early 20th century.
23/05/1938
Frederick Ruple, Swiss-American painter (born 1871)
Frederick Ruple was a 20th-century Swiss-American painter, primarily of portraits. He was commissioned to paint Confederate Civil War battle scenes and murals. At times Ruple lived in Arkansas and Oklahoma where he traveled to study American Indians and early settlement in the Midwest. The Oklahoma Land Run of 1889 inspired Ruple to create his most famous painting "The Spirit of '89".
23/05/1937
John D. Rockefeller, American businessman and philanthropist, founded the Standard Oil Company and Rockefeller University (born 1839)
John Davison Rockefeller Sr. was an American businessman and philanthropist. He was one of the wealthiest Americans of all time and one of the richest people in modern history. Rockefeller was born into a large family in Upstate New York who moved several times before eventually settling in Cleveland, Ohio. He became an assistant bookkeeper at age 16 and went into several business partnerships beginning at age 20, concentrating his business on oil refining. Rockefeller founded the Standard Oil Company in 1870. He ran it until 1897 and remained its largest shareholder. In his retirement, he focused his energy and wealth on philanthropy, especially regarding education, medicine, higher education, and modernizing the Southern United States.
23/05/1934
Clyde Barrow, American criminal (born 1909)
Bonnie Elizabeth Parker and Clyde Chestnut "Champion" Barrow were American outlaws who traveled the Central United States with their gang during the Great Depression, committing a series of criminal acts such as bank robberies, kidnappings and murders between 1932 and 1934. The couple were known for their bank robberies and multiple murders, although they preferred to rob small stores or rural gas stations. Their exploits captured the attention of the American press and its readership during what is occasionally referred to as the "public enemy era" between 1931 and 1934. On May 23, 1934, they were ambushed and killed on Louisiana Highway 154 in Bienville Parish, Louisiana, by a law enforcement posse led by retired Texas Ranger Frank Hamer. They are believed to have murdered at least nine police officers and three civilians.
Mihkel Martna, Estonian journalist and politician (born 1860)
Mihkel Martna was an Estonian politician and journalist.
Bonnie Parker, American criminal (born 1910)
Bonnie Elizabeth Parker and Clyde Chestnut "Champion" Barrow were American outlaws who traveled the Central United States with their gang during the Great Depression, committing a series of criminal acts such as bank robberies, kidnappings and murders between 1932 and 1934. The couple were known for their bank robberies and multiple murders, although they preferred to rob small stores or rural gas stations. Their exploits captured the attention of the American press and its readership during what is occasionally referred to as the "public enemy era" between 1931 and 1934. On May 23, 1934, they were ambushed and killed on Louisiana Highway 154 in Bienville Parish, Louisiana, by a law enforcement posse led by retired Texas Ranger Frank Hamer. They are believed to have murdered at least nine police officers and three civilians.
23/05/1921
August Nilsson, Swedish shot putter and tug of war competitor (born 1872)
August Nilsson was a Swedish track and field athlete and tug of war competitor who competed at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris, France.
23/05/1920
Svetozar Boroević, Croatian-Austrian field marshal (born 1856)
Svetozar Boroević von Bojna was an Austro-Hungarian field marshal who was described as one of the finest defensive strategists of the First World War. He commanded Austro-Hungarian forces in the Isonzo front, for which he was nicknamed the "Lion of Isonzo".
23/05/1908
François Coppée, French poet and author (born 1842)
François Édouard Joachim Coppée was a French poet and novelist.
23/05/1906
Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian director, playwright, and poet (born 1828)
Henrik Johan Ibsen was a Norwegian playwright. He is considered one of the world's pre-eminent writers of the 19th century and is often referred to as "the father of modern drama". He pioneered theatrical realism but also wrote lyrical epic works. His major works include Brand, Peer Gynt, Emperor and Galilean, A Doll's House, Ghosts, An Enemy of the People, The Wild Duck, Rosmersholm, Hedda Gabler, The Master Builder, and When We Dead Awaken. In 2014 Ibsen was considered the most frequently performed dramatist in the world after Shakespeare. Store norske leksikon describes him as "the center of the Norwegian literary canon".
23/05/1895
Franz Ernst Neumann, German mineralogist, physicist, and mathematician (born 1798)
Franz Ernst Neumann was a German mineralogist and physicist. He devised the first formulas to calculate inductance. He also formulated Neumann's law for molecular heat. In electromagnetism, he is credited for introducing the magnetic vector potential.
23/05/1893
Anton von Schmerling, Austrian politician (born 1805)
Anton Ritter von Schmerling was an Austrian statesman.
23/05/1886
Leopold von Ranke, German historian and academic (born 1795)
Leopold von Ranke was a German historian and a founder of modern source-based history. He was able to implement the seminar teaching method in his classroom and focused on archival research and the analysis of historical documents. Building on the methods of the Göttingen school of history, he was the first to establish a historical seminar. Ranke set the standards for much of later historical writing, introducing such ideas as reliance on primary sources (empiricism), an emphasis on narrative history and especially international politics (Außenpolitik). He was ennobled in 1865, with the addition of a "von" to his name.
23/05/1868
Kit Carson, American general (born 1809)
Christopher Houston Carson, popularly known as Kit Carson, was an American frontiersman, fur trapper, wilderness guide, Indian agent and U.S. Army officer.
23/05/1857
Augustin-Louis Cauchy, French mathematician and academic (born 1789)
Baron Augustin-Louis Cauchy was a French mathematician, engineer, and physicist. He was one of the first to rigorously state and prove the key theorems of calculus, pioneered the field complex analysis, and the study of permutation groups in abstract algebra. Cauchy also contributed to a number of topics in mathematical physics, notably continuum mechanics.
23/05/1855
Charles Robert Malden, English lieutenant and explorer (born 1797)
Charles Robert Malden was a nineteenth-century British naval officer, surveyor and educator. He is the discoverer of Malden Island in the central Pacific, which is named in his honour. He also founded Windlesham House School at Brighton, England.
23/05/1841
Franz Xaver von Baader, German philosopher and theologian (born 1765)
Benedict Franz von Baader, born Benedikt Franz Xaver Baader, was a Catholic theologian, philosopher, and mining engineer from Germany. Resisting the empiricism of his day, he denounced most Western philosophy since Descartes as trending into atheism and has been considered a revival of the Scholastic school. He was an important theorist of androgyny.
23/05/1815
Gotthilf Heinrich Ernst Muhlenberg, American clergyman and botanist (born 1753)
Gotthilf Heinrich Ernst Muhlenberg was an American clergyman and botanist.
23/05/1813
Géraud Duroc, French general and diplomat (born 1772)
Géraud Christophe Michel Duroc, Duke of Frioul, was a French general and diplomat who fought in the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. He was noted for his friendship with Napoleon Bonaparte, who appointed him as the first Grand marshal of the palace, the head of the Emperor's military household. He is sometimes referred to as ‘Napoleon's shadow’.
23/05/1783
James Otis Jr., American lawyer and politician (born 1725)
James Otis Jr. was an American lawyer, politician, and activist who was an early supporter of patriotic causes in the Province of Massachusetts Bay at the beginning of the American Revolution. Otis was a fervent opponent of the writs of assistance introduced in 1761 which allowed law enforcement officials to search private property without cause. He later criticized British plans to introduce new taxes in the Thirteen Colonies. As a result, Otis is often credited with coining the slogan "taxation without representation is tyranny".
23/05/1754
John Wood, the Elder, English architect, designed The Circus and Queen Square (born 1704)
John Wood, the Elder was an English architect, working mainly in Bath.
23/05/1752
William Bradford, English-American printer (born 1663)
William Bradford was an early American colonial printer and publisher in British America. Bradford is best known for establishing the first printing press in the Middle Colonies of the Thirteen Colonies, founding the first press in Pennsylvania in 1685 and the first press in New York in 1693. Bradford operated continuously printing establishments for sixty-two years, heading a family that would include printers and publishers for 140 years. He was also known for controversies regarding freedom of the press. Starting his printing career in London, Bradford emigrated to America in 1685. He established, with others, the first paper mill to appear in the Thirteen American Colonies.
23/05/1749
Abraham ben Abraham, Polish martyr (born 1700)
Abraham ben Abraham, also known as Count Valentine Potocki, was a Polish nobleman (szlachta) of the Potocki family who converted to Judaism and was burned at the stake by the Roman Catholic Church for apostasy. According to Jewish oral traditions, he was known to the revered Talmudic sage, the Vilna Gaon, and his ashes were interred in the relocated grave of the Vilna Gaon in Vilna's new Jewish cemetery. Although the Orthodox Jewish community accepts the teachings about Abraham ben Abraham, including the involvement of the Vilna Gaon, secular scholars have so far concluded the story is apocryphal.
23/05/1701
William Kidd, Scottish pirate (born 1645)
William Kidd, also known as Captain William Kidd or simply Captain Kidd, was a Scottish privateer. Conflicting accounts exist regarding his early life, but he was likely born in Dundee and later settled in New York City. By 1690, Kidd had become a highly successful privateer, commissioned to protect English interests in the Thirteen Colonies in North America and the West Indies.
23/05/1691
Adrien Auzout, French astronomer and instrument maker (born 1622)
Adrien Auzout French pronunciation: [ozu.(t‿)] was a French astronomer.
23/05/1670
Ferdinando II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (born 1610)
Ferdinando II de' Medici was Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1621 to 1670. He was the eldest son of Cosimo II de' Medici and Maria Maddalena of Austria. Remembered by his contemporaries as a man of culture and science, he actively participated in the Accademia del Cimento, the first official scientific society in Italy, formed by his younger brother, Leopoldo de' Medici. His 49-year rule was punctuated by the beginning of Tuscany's long economic decline, which was further exacerbated by his successor, Cosimo III de' Medici. He married Vittoria della Rovere, a first cousin, with whom he had two children who reached adulthood: the aforementioned Cosimo III, and Francesco Maria de' Medici, Duke of Rovere and Montefeltro, a cardinal.
23/05/1662
John Gauden, English bishop (born 1605)
John Gauden was an English cleric. He was Bishop of Exeter then Bishop of Worcester. He was also a writer, and the reputed author of the important Royalist work Eikon Basilike.
23/05/1591
John Blitheman, English organist and composer (born 1525)
John Blitheman was an English composer and organist.
23/05/1524
Ismail I, First Emperor of Safavid Empire (born 1487)
Ismail I was the founder and first shah of Safavid Iran, ruling from 1501 until his death in 1524. His reign is one of the most vital in the history of Iran, and the Safavid era is often considered the beginning of modern Iranian history. Under Ismail, Iran was unified under native rule for the first time since the Islamic conquest of the country eight-and-a-half centuries earlier.
23/05/1523
Ashikaga Yoshitane, Japanese shōgun (born 1466)
Ashikaga Yoshitane , also known as Ashikaga Yoshiki , was the 10th shōgun of the Ashikaga shogunate who headed the shogunate first from 1490 to 1493 and then again from 1508 to 1521 during the Muromachi period of Japan.
23/05/1498
Girolamo Savonarola, Italian friar and preacher (born 1452)
Girolamo Savonarola, OP, also referred to as Jerome Savonarola, was an Italian ascetic Dominican friar from Ferrara and a preacher active in Renaissance Florence. He became known for his prophecies of civic glory, his advocacy of the destruction of secular art and culture, and his calls for Christian renewal. He denounced clerical corruption, despotic rule, and the exploitation of the poor.
23/05/1423
Antipope Benedict XIII (born 1328)
Pedro Martínez de Luna y Pérez de Gotor, known as el Papa Luna or Pope Luna, was an Aragonese nobleman who was antipope with the regnal name Benedict XIII during the Western Schism.
23/05/1370
Toghon Temür, Mongol emperor (born 1320)
Toghon Temür, also known by his temple name as Emperor Huizong of Yuan and by his posthumous name as Emperor Shun of Yuan, was the last emperor of the Yuan dynasty and the first emperor of the Northern Yuan dynasty. He was a son of Kusala.
23/05/1338
Alice de Warenne, Countess of Arundel, English noble (born 1287)
Alice de Warenne, Countess of Arundel was an English noblewoman and heir apparent to the Earldom of Surrey. In 1305, she married Edmund FitzAlan, 2nd Earl of Arundel.
23/05/1304
Jehan de Lescurel, French poet and composer
Jehan de Lescurel was a composer-poet of late medieval music. Jehan's extensive surviving oeuvre is an important and rare examples of the formes fixes before the time of Guillaume de Machaut; it consists of 34 works: 20 ballades, 12 rondeaus and two long narrative poems, diz entés. All but one of his compositions is monophonic, representing the end of the trouvère tradition and the beginning of the polyphonic ars nova style centered around the formes fixes.
23/05/1125
Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor (born 1086)
Henry V was King of Germany and Holy Roman Emperor, as the fourth and last ruler of the Salian dynasty. He was made co-ruler by his father, Henry IV, in 1098.
23/05/0962
Guibert of Gembloux, Frankish abbot (born 892)
Wicbert or Guibert was a nobleman who became a hermit and founded Gembloux Abbey. He was canonized as a saint in 1211. Saint Guibert's feast day is observed on 23 May.
23/05/0922
Li Sizhao, Chinese general and governor
Li Sizhao, né Han (韓), known at one point as Li Jintong (李進通), courtesy name Yiguang (益光), formally the Prince of Longxi (隴西王), was a Chinese military general and politician. He served as major general under Li Keyong and Li Keyong's son and successor Li Cunxu, the princes of the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period state Jin. He was an adoptive nephew of Li Keyong's, and served Li Keyong both before and after the destruction of the Tang dynasty.
23/05/0230
Urban I, pope of the Catholic Church
Pope Urban I, also known as Saint Urban (175?–230), was the bishop of Rome from 222 to 23 May 230. He was born in Rome and succeeded Callixtus I, who had been martyred. It was believed for centuries that Urban I was also martyred. However, recent historical discoveries now lead scholars to believe that he died of natural causes.
Celebrations & Special Days Worldwide on 23rd May
Aromanian National Day
The Aromanian National Day is the national day of the Aromanians, an ethnic group of the Balkans scattered in Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, North Macedonia, Romania and Serbia. It is normally celebrated by Aromanians from various countries in which they are native and also by the Aromanian diaspora, but many Greek-Aromanians do not observe it.
Christian feast day: Aaron the Illustrious (Syriac Orthodox Church)
The Martyrology of Rabban Sliba is a book containing the names and feast days of a number of martyrs of the Syriac Orthodox Church.
Christian feast day: Desiderius of Vienne
Desiderius of Vienne was a martyred archbishop of Vienne and a chronicler.
Christian feast day: Giovanni Battista de' Rossi
Giovanni Battista de' Rossi was an Italian Roman Catholic priest. He served as the canon of Santa Maria in Cosmedin after his cousin, who was a priest serving there, died. He was a popular confessor despite his initial fears that his epileptic seizures could manifest in the Confessional. Rossi opened a hospice for homeless women not long after his ordination, and he became known for his work with prisoners and ill people, to whom he dedicated his entire ecclesial mission.
Christian feast day: Julia of Corsica
Julia of Corsica, also known as Julia of Carthage, and more rarely Julia of Nonza, was a virgin and martyr who is venerated as a saint. Her death occurred most probably in AD 439 or thereafter. She and Devota are the patron saints of Corsica in the Catholic Church. Julia was declared a patroness of Corsica by the church on 5 August 1809; Devota, on 14 March 1820. Both were martyred in pre-Christian Corsica under Roman rule. Julia's feast day is 23 May in the Western liturgical calendar and 16 July in the East.
Christian feast day: Michael of Synnada
Michael of Synnada or Michael the Confessor was a metropolitan bishop of Synnada from 784/7 to 815. He represented Byzantium in diplomatic missions to Harun al-Rashid and Charlemagne. He was exiled by Emperor Leo V the Armenian because of his opposition to iconoclasm, and died on 23 May 826. He is honoured as a saint by the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches, his feast day is May 23.
Christian feast day: Nicolaus Copernicus and Johannes Kepler (Episcopal Church (USA))
Nicolaus Copernicus was a Renaissance polymath who formulated a model of the universe that placed the Sun rather than Earth at its center. The publication of Copernicus's model in his book De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, just before his death in 1543, was a major event in the history of science, triggering the Copernican Revolution and making a pioneering contribution to the Scientific Revolution. Though a similar heliocentric model had been developed eighteen centuries earlier by Aristarchus of Samos, an ancient Greek astronomer, Copernicus likely arrived at his model independently.
Christian feast day: Quintian, Lucius and Julian
Quintian (Quinctianus), Lucius and Julian (Julianus) are venerated as saints and martyrs by the Roman Catholic Church. According to the Roman Martyrology, they were inhabitants of North Africa who were killed during the persecutions of the Vandal king Huneric, who was an Arian. However, the date of their martyrdom may be conjectural. They are the only ones named in a group of sixteen martyrs, which included several women.
Christian feast day: William of Perth
Saint William of Perth, also known as Saint William of Rochester or Saint Liam was a Scottish saint who was martyred in England. He is the patron saint of adopted children. Following his death, he gained local acclaim and was canonised by Pope Alexander IV in 1256.
Christian feast day: May 23 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
May 22 - Eastern Orthodox Church calendar - May 24
Constitution Day (Germany)
Constitution Day is a holiday to honour the constitution of a country. Constitution Day is often celebrated on the anniversary of the signing, promulgation or adoption of the constitution, or in some cases, to commemorate the change to constitutional monarchy.
Labour Day (Jamaica)
Labour Day is an official public holiday in many countries. In most countries, Labour Day is synonymous with, or linked with, International Workers' Day, which happens on 1 May. It was originally chosen to commemorate the 1886 general strike which culminated in the Haymarket affair. In the United States and Canada, it is a public holiday on the first Monday in September.
Students' Day (Mexico)
In Mexico, there are three major kinds of public holidays:Statutory holiday: holidays observed all around Mexico. Employees are entitled to a day off with regular pay and schools are closed for the day of the holiday. Civic holiday: These holidays are observed nationwide, but employees are not entitled to the day off with pay, and schools still continue. Festivities: These are traditional holidays to honor religious events, such as Carnival, Holy Week, Easter, etc. or public celebrations, such as Mother's Day, Father's Day, Valentine's Day, etc.
World Turtle Day
World Turtle Day is an annual observance held every May 23rd. It began in 2000 and is sponsored by American Tortoise Rescue. The day was created as a yearly observance to help people celebrate and protect turtles and tortoises and their disappearing habitats, as well as to encourage human action to help them survive and thrive. A study on the effects of biodiversity awareness days listed World Turtle Day as an example of how they increase the internet search traffic on the protected species.
What Happened on 23rd May?
54 significant events took place on Tuesday, 23rd May — stretching from 1040 to 2022. Explore the moments that shaped history on this day.
23/05/2022
Anthony Albanese of the Australian Labor Party is sworn in as the 31st Prime Minister of Australia after winning the 2022 Australian federal election, ending 9 years of conservative rule.
Anthony Norman Albanese is an Australian politician who has served as the 31st prime minister of Australia since 2022. He has been the leader of the Labor Party since 2019 and the member of parliament (MP) for the New South Wales division of Grayndler since 1996.
23/05/2021
A cable car falls from a mountain near Lake Maggiore in northern Italy, killing 14 people.
On 23 May 2021, an aerial tram on the Stresa–Alpino–Mottarone Cable Car crashed to the ground after a traction or haulage cable snapped about five metres (16 ft) from the summit of Mottarone, a mountain near Lake Maggiore in northern Italy. Normally, a hydraulic safety brake would have stopped the runaway car immediately but the cable car was operating illegally with the brake disabled. The crash killed fourteen passengers in the cable car, and seriously injured one child.
Ryanair Flight 4978 is forced to land by Belarusian authorities to detain dissident journalist Roman Protasevich.
Ryanair Flight 4978 was a regularly scheduled international passenger flight from Athens International Airport, Greece, to Vilnius Airport, Lithuania, operated by Buzz, a Polish subsidiary of the Irish airline Ryanair. On 23 May 2021, while in Belarusian airspace, it was diverted by the Belarusian government to Minsk National Airport due to alleged claims of a Hamas bombing attempt, where two of its passengers, opposition activist and journalist Roman Protasevich and his then girlfriend Sofia Sapega, were arrested by authorities. The aircraft was allowed to depart after seven hours, reaching Vilnius eight and a half hours behind schedule.
23/05/2017
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declares martial law in Mindanao, following the Maute's attack in Marawi.
Rodrigo Roa Duterte is a Filipino lawyer and politician who served as the 16th president of the Philippines from 2016 to 2022. He had served as the mayor of Davao City in the past. Duterte is the first Philippine president from Mindanao, and is the oldest person to assume office, beginning his term at age 71. Duterte is the chairman of Partido Demokratiko Pilipino, the ruling party during his presidency.
23/05/2016
Two suicide bombings, conducted by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, kill at least 45 potential army recruits in Aden, Yemen.
The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and by its Arabic acronym Daesh, is a transnational Salafi jihadist militant organisation and internationally unrecognised quasi-state. IS occupied a significant amount of territory in Iraq and Syria from 2013 to 2016, but lost most of it between 2017 and 2019. In 2014, the group proclaimed itself to be a worldwide caliphate and claimed religious and political authority over all Muslims worldwide, a claim not accepted by the vast majority of Muslims. It is designated as a terrorist organisation by the United Nations and many countries around the world, including Muslim countries.
Eight bombings are carried out by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria in Jableh and Tartus, coastline cities in Syria. One hundred eighty-four people are killed and at least 200 people injured.
The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and by its Arabic acronym Daesh, is a transnational Salafi jihadist militant organisation and internationally unrecognised quasi-state. IS occupied a significant amount of territory in Iraq and Syria from 2013 to 2016, but lost most of it between 2017 and 2019. In 2014, the group proclaimed itself to be a worldwide caliphate and claimed religious and political authority over all Muslims worldwide, a claim not accepted by the vast majority of Muslims. It is designated as a terrorist organisation by the United Nations and many countries around the world, including Muslim countries.
23/05/2015
At least 30 people are killed as a result of floods and tornadoes in Texas, Oklahoma, and northern Mexico.
Preceded by more than a week of heavy rain, a slow-moving storm system dropped tremendous precipitation across much of Texas and Oklahoma during the nights of May 24–26, 2015, triggering record-breaking floods. Additionally, many areas reported tornado activity and lightning. Particularly hard hit were areas along the Blanco River in Hays County, Texas, where entire blocks of homes were leveled. On the morning of May 26, the National Weather Service issued a flash flood emergency for southwest Harris County and northeast Fort Bend County. The system also produced deadly tornadoes in parts of Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma. This flood significantly contributed to the wettest month ever for Texas and Oklahoma.
23/05/2014
Seven people, including the perpetrator, are killed and another 14 injured in a killing spree near the campus of University of California, Santa Barbara.
On the evening of May 23, 2014, multiple misogynistic terrorist attacks occurred in Isla Vista, California, United States. Elliot Rodger murdered six people and injured fourteen others by gunshot, stabbing, and vehicle ramming near the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), before fatally shooting himself.
23/05/2013
A freeway bridge carrying Interstate 5 over the Skagit River collapses in Mount Vernon, Washington.
Interstate 5 (I-5) is an Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States that serves as the region's primary north–south route. It spans 277 miles (446 km) across the state of Washington, from the Oregon state border at Vancouver, through the Puget Sound region, to the Canadian border at Blaine. Within the Seattle metropolitan area, the freeway connects the cities of Tacoma, Seattle, and Everett.
23/05/2008
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) awards Middle Rocks to Malaysia and Pedra Branca (Pulau Batu Puteh) to Singapore, ending a 29-year territorial dispute between the two countries.
The International Court of Justice, or colloquially the World Court, is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations (UN). It settles legal disputes submitted to it by states and provides advisory opinions on legal questions referred to it by other UN organs and specialized agencies. The ICJ is the only international court that adjudicates general disputes between countries, with its rulings and opinions serving as primary sources of international law. It is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations.
23/05/2006
Alaskan stratovolcano Mount Cleveland erupts.
A stratovolcano, also known as a composite volcano, is a typically conical volcano built up by many alternating layers (strata) of hardened lava and tephra. Unlike shield volcanoes, stratovolcanoes are characterized by a steep profile with a summit crater and explosive eruptions. Some have collapsed summit craters called calderas. The lava flowing from stratovolcanoes typically cools and solidifies before spreading far, due to high viscosity. The magma forming this lava is often felsic, having high to intermediate levels of silica, with lesser amounts of less viscous mafic magma. Extensive felsic lava flows are uncommon, but can travel as far as 8 kilometres.
23/05/2002
The "55 parties" clause of the Kyoto Protocol is reached after its ratification by Iceland.
The Kyoto Protocol (Japanese: 京都議定書, Hepburn: Kyōto Giteisho) was an international treaty which extended the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that commits state parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, based on the scientific consensus that global warming is occurring and that human-made CO2 emissions are driving it. The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in Kyoto, Japan, on 11 December 1997 and entered into force on 16 February 2005. There were 192 parties (Canada withdrew from the protocol, effective December 2012) to the Protocol in 2020.
23/05/1998
The Good Friday Agreement is accepted in a referendum in Northern Ireland with roughly 75% voting yes.
The Good Friday Agreement (GFA) or Belfast Agreement is a pair of agreements signed on 10 April 1998 that ended most of the violence of the Troubles, an ethnic and national conflict in Northern Ireland since the late 1960s. It was a major development in the Northern Ireland peace process of the 1990s. It is made up of the Multi-Party Agreement between most of Northern Ireland's political parties, and the British–Irish Agreement between the British and Irish governments. Northern Ireland's present devolved system of government is based on the agreement.
23/05/1995
The first version of the Java programming language is released.
Java is a high-level, general-purpose, memory-safe, object-oriented programming language. It is intended to let programmers write once, run anywhere (WORA), meaning that compiled Java code can run on all platforms that support Java without the need to recompile. Java applications are usually compiled to bytecode that can run on any Java virtual machine (JVM) regardless of the underlying computer architecture. The syntax of Java is similar to C and C++, but has fewer low-level facilities than either of them. The Java runtime provides dynamic abilities usually unavailable in traditional compiled languages.
23/05/1992
Italy's most prominent anti-mafia judge Giovanni Falcone, his wife and three body guards are killed by the Corleonesi clan with a half-ton bomb near Capaci, Sicily. His friend and colleague Paolo Borsellino will be assassinated less than two months later, making 1992 a turning point in the history of Italian Mafia prosecutions.
Giovanni Falcone was an Italian judge and prosecuting magistrate. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, Sicily, he spent most of his professional life trying to overthrow the power of the Sicilian Mafia. After a long and distinguished career, culminating in the Maxi Trial in 1986–1987, on 23 May 1992, Falcone was assassinated by the Corleonesi Mafia in the Capaci bombing, on the A29 motorway near the town of Capaci.
23/05/1991
Aeroflot Flight 8556 crashes at Pulkovo Airport, killing 13.
Aeroflot Flight 8556 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Sukhumi to Leningrad. It crashed 13 meters short of the runway on approach killing 13 passengers.
23/05/1980
The Shining, the psychological horror film directed by Stanley Kubrick, is premiered on 10 screens in New York City and Los Angeles on the Memorial Day weekend.
The Shining is a 1980 psychological horror film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick and co-written with novelist Diane Johnson. It is based on Stephen King's 1977 novel and stars Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd and Scatman Crothers. The film presents the descent into insanity of a recovering alcoholic and aspiring novelist who takes a job as winter caretaker for a mountain resort hotel with his wife and clairvoyant son.
23/05/1978
A Tupolev Tu-144 crashes near the Russian town of Yegoryevsk, killing two.
The Tupolev Tu-144 is a Soviet supersonic passenger airliner designed by Tupolev that operated commercially from 1975 to 1983, including 1977–1978 passenger service.
23/05/1971
Seventy-eight people are killed when Aviogenex Flight 130 crashes on approach to Rijeka Airport in present-day Rijeka, Croatia (then the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia).
Aviogenex Flight 130 was an international charter passenger flight from Gatwick Airport, London to Rijeka Airport, Yugoslavia. On 23 May 1971, the Tupolev Tu-134A servicing the flight suffered structural failure during landing. The aircraft flipped over and caught fire, killing 78 out of 83 people. There were 5 survivors. The crash became the first fatal accident of the Tupolev Tu-134 since the aircraft entered service.
The Intercontinental Hotel in Bucharest opens, becoming the second-tallest building in the city.
The Grand Hotel Bucharest is a 24-story 87 m (285 ft) high-rise five-star hotel situated near University Square, Bucharest, in Sector 1. Opened in 1971 as the Inter-Continental Bucharest, it is a city landmark.
23/05/1960
A tsunami caused by an earthquake in Chile the previous day kills 61 people in Hilo, Hawaii.
A tsunami is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and underwater explosions above or below water all have the potential to generate a tsunami. Unlike normal ocean waves, which are generated by wind, or tides, which are in turn generated by the gravitational pull of the Moon and the Sun, a tsunami is generated by the displacement of water from a large event.
23/05/1951
Tibetans sign the Seventeen Point Agreement with China.
Tibet is a region in the southwestern part of China, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau. It is the homeland of the Tibetans. Other ethnic groups also reside on the plateau, including Mongols, the Lhoba, Monpa, Qiang, Sherpa, and since the 20th century, Han and Hui peoples. Tibet is the highest region on Earth, with an average elevation of 4,380 m (14,000 ft). Lying within the Himalayas, the highest point in Tibet is Mount Everest – the highest peak on Earth, standing 8,848 m (29,000 ft) above sea level.
23/05/1949
Cold War: The Western occupying powers approve the Basic Law and establish a new German state, the Federal Republic of Germany.
The entirety of Germany was occupied and administered by the Allies of World War II, from the Berlin Declaration on 5 June 1945 to the establishment of West Germany on 23 May 1949. Nazi Germany was stripped of its sovereignty and its government was entirely dissolved. After Germany formally surrendered on Tuesday, 8 May 1945, the four countries representing the Allies asserted joint authority and sovereignty through the Allied Control Council (ACC).
23/05/1948
Thomas C. Wasson, the US Consul-General, is assassinated in Jerusalem, Israel.
Thomas Campbell Wasson was an American diplomat who was assassinated while serving as the Consul General for the United States in Jerusalem. He was also a member of the United Nations Truce Commission.
23/05/1946
The start of a two-day tornado outbreak across the Central United States that spawned at least 15 significant tornadoes.
On May 23–24, 1946, a tornado outbreak occurred across the Central and Midwestern United States. Over two days at least 15 significant tornadoes struck parts of Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma, killing four people and injuring 42 others. The storm system also caused numerous other impacts including hail, heavy rains, and damaging lightning strikes.
23/05/1945
World War II: Heinrich Himmler, head of the Schutzstaffel, commits suicide while in Allied custody.
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was a German Nazi politician and military leader. He was the 4th Reichsführer of the Schutzstaffel from 1929 to 1945. He was a leading member of the Nazi Party, and one of the most powerful figures in Nazi Germany. He was also one of the main architects of the Holocaust, the genocide of European Jews during World War II.
World War II: Germany's Flensburg Government under Karl Dönitz is dissolved when its members are arrested by British forces.
The Flensburg Government, also known as the Flensburg Cabinet, the Dönitz Government, or the Schwerin von Krosigk Cabinet, was the rump government of Nazi Germany during a period of three weeks around the end of World War II in Europe. The government was formed following the suicide of Adolf Hitler on 30 April 1945 during the Battle of Berlin. It was headed by Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz as Reichspräsident and Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk as the Leading Minister. The administration was referred to as the "Flensburg Government" because Dönitz's command relocated to Flensburg in northern Germany and near the Denmark–Germany border on 3 May 1945. The sports school at the Mürwik Naval School was used as the government headquarters. The cabinet was not legitimised according to the Weimar Constitution, which was still formally in force.
23/05/1941
World War II: German paratroopers start a series of mass executions of Greek civilians in Missiria for their participation in the ongoing Battle of Crete.
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.
23/05/1939
The U.S. Navy submarine USS Squalus sinks off the coast of New Hampshire during a test dive, causing the death of 24 sailors and two civilian technicians. The remaining 32 sailors and one civilian naval architect are rescued the following day.
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and is designated as the navy of the United States in the Constitution. With 290 combat vessels, it is the world's second largest navy, behind the People's Liberation Army Navy, and by far the largest by displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft carrier fleet, with eleven in service, one undergoing trials, two new carriers under construction, and six other carriers planned as of 2024. The Navy is a part of the Department of Defense and is one of six armed forces and eight uniformed services of the United States.
23/05/1934
American bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde are ambushed by police and killed in Bienville Parish, Louisiana.
Bank robbery is the criminal act of stealing from a bank, specifically while bank employees and customers are subjected to force, violence, or a threat of violence. This refers to robbery of a bank branch or teller, as opposed to other bank-owned property, such as a train, armored car, or (historically) stagecoach. It is a federal crime in the United States.
The Auto-Lite strike culminates in the "Battle of Toledo", a five-day melée between 1,300 troops of the Ohio National Guard and 6,000 picketers.
The Toledo Auto-Lite strike was a strike by a federal labor union of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) against the Electric Auto-Lite company of Toledo, Ohio, from April 12 to June 3, 1934.
23/05/1932
In Brazil, four students are shot and killed during a manifestation against the Brazilian dictator Getúlio Vargas, which resulted in the outbreak of the Constitutionalist Revolution several weeks later.
Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is also the world's fifth-largest country by area and the seventh-largest by population, with over 213 million people. Brazil is a federation composed of 26 states and a Federal District, which hosts the capital, Brasília. Its most populous city is São Paulo, followed by Rio de Janeiro. Brazil has the most Portuguese speakers in the world and is the only country in the Americas where Portuguese is an official language.
23/05/1919
Sheikh Mahmud Barzanji, a Kurdish sheikh and at-the-time governor of the Slêmanî Province of British Iraq, initiates the first Mahmud Barzanji revolt.
Sheikh Mahmud Barzanji, also known as Mahmud Hafid Zadeh was a Kurdish leader of a series of Kurdish uprisings against the British Mandate of Iraq. He was sheikh of a Qadiriyah Sufi family of the Barzanji clan from the city of Sulaymaniyah, which is now in Kurdistan Region. He was named King of Kurdistan during several of these uprisings.
23/05/1915
World War I: Italy joins the Allies, fulfilling its part of the Treaty of London.
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.
23/05/1911
The New York Public Library is dedicated.
The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second-largest public library in the United States behind the Library of Congress and one of the largest public libraries in the world. It is a private, non-governmental, independently managed, nonprofit corporation operating with both private and public financing.
23/05/1907
The unicameral Parliament of Finland gathers for its first plenary session.
Unicameralism is a type of legislature consisting of one house or assembly that legislates and votes as one. Unicameralism has become an increasingly common type of legislature, making up nearly 60% of all national legislatures and an even greater share of subnational legislatures.
23/05/1905
Abdul Hamid II, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, publicly announces the creation of the Ullah millet for the Aromanians of the empire, which had been established one day earlier. For this reason, the Aromanian National Day is usually celebrated on May 23, although some do so on May 22 instead.
Abdülhamid II or Abdul Hamid II was the 34th sultan of the Ottoman Empire, from 1876 to 1909, and the last sultan to exert effective control over the fracturing state. He oversaw a period of decline with rebellions, and presided over an unsuccessful war with the Russian Empire (1877–78), the loss of Egypt, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, Tunisia, and Thessaly from Ottoman control (1877–1882), followed by a successful war against Greece in 1897, though Ottoman gains were tempered by subsequent Western European intervention.
23/05/1900
American Civil War: Sergeant William Harvey Carney is awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism in the Assault on the Battery Wagner in 1863.
The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States between the Union and the Confederacy, which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union to preserve slavery in the United States, which they saw as threatened because of the election of Abraham Lincoln and the growing abolitionist movement in the North. The war ended with Union victory, the dissolution of the Confederacy and the abolition of slavery, freeing four million African Americans.
23/05/1873
The Canadian Parliament establishes the North-West Mounted Police, the forerunner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
The North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) was a Canadian paramilitary police force, established in 1873, to maintain order in the new Canadian North-West Territories (NWT) following the 1870 transfer of Rupert's Land and North-Western Territory from the Hudson's Bay Company to Canada. The Red River Rebellion and reports of lawlessness in the West, demonstrated by the subsequent Cypress Hills Massacre and fears of United States military incursions into Canada's new hinterland had pushed the Canada government to provide the means of enforcement of law and order. The NWMP, later renamed the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, combined military, police and judicial functions along similar lines to the Royal Irish Constabulary. A small, mobile police force was chosen as the best way to reduce potential for tensions with the United States and with First Nations. The NWMP uniforms included red coats deliberately reminiscent of British and Canadian military uniforms.
23/05/1863
The General German Workers' Association, a precursor of the modern Social Democratic Party of Germany, is founded in Leipzig, Kingdom of Saxony.
The General German Workers' Association was a German political party founded on 23 May 1863 in Leipzig, Kingdom of Saxony by Ferdinand Lassalle. It was the first organized mass working-class party in history.
23/05/1846
Mexican–American War: President Mariano Paredes of Mexico unofficially declares war on the United States.
The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the United States intervention in Mexico, was an invasion of Mexico by the United States. It followed the 1845 American annexation of Texas, which Mexico still considered its territory because it refused to recognize the Treaties of Velasco, signed by President Antonio López de Santa Anna after he was captured by the Texian Army during the 1836 Texas Revolution. The Republic of Texas was de facto an independent country, but most of its Anglo-American citizens who had moved from the United States to Texas after 1822 wanted to be annexed by the United States.
23/05/1844
Báb: A merchant of Shiraz announces that he is a Prophet and founds a religious movement. He is considered to be a forerunner of the Baháʼí Faith.
The Báb was an Iranian religious leader who founded Bábism, and is also one of the central figures of the Baháʼí Faith. The Báb gradually and progressively revealed his claim in his extensive writings to be a Manifestation of God, of a status as great as Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad, receiving revelations as profound as the Torah, Gospel, and Quran. This new revelation, he claimed, would release the creative energies and capacities necessary for the establishment of global unity and peace.
23/05/1829
Accordion patent granted to Cyrill Demian in Vienna, Austrian Empire.
Accordions are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type. The essential characteristic of the accordion is to combine in one instrument a melody section, also called the diskant, usually on the right-hand keyboard, with an accompaniment or Basso continuo functionality on the left-hand. The musician normally plays the melody on buttons or keys on the right-hand side, and the accompaniment on bass or pre-set chord buttons on the left-hand side. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist.
23/05/1793
Battle of Famars during the Flanders Campaign of the War of the First Coalition.
The Battle of Famars was fought on 23 May 1793 during the Flanders Campaign of the War of the First Coalition. An Allied Austrian, Hanoverian, and British army under Prince Josias of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld defeated the French Army of the North led by François Joseph Drouot de Lamarche. The battle occurred near the village of Famars in northern France, five km south of Valenciennes.
23/05/1788
South Carolina became the eighth state to ratify the United States Constitution.
South Carolina is a state in the Southeastern, South Atlantic and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia to the west and south across the Savannah River. Along with North Carolina, it makes up the Carolinas region of the East Coast. South Carolina is the 11th-smallest and 23rd-most populous U.S. state, with a population of 5.12 million at the 2020 census. South Carolina is composed of 46 counties. Its capital is Columbia, while its most populous city is Charleston. Other urban areas include the Upstate, the state's largest metropolitan area which includes Greenville and Spartanburg, as well as Myrtle Beach.
23/05/1706
John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, defeats a French army under Marshal François de Neufville, duc de Villeroy at the Battle of Ramillies.
General John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, 1st Prince of Mindelheim, 1st Count of Nellenburg, Prince of the Holy Roman Empire was a British army officer and statesman. From a gentry family, he served as a page at the court of the House of Stuart under James, Duke of York, through the 1670s and early 1680s, earning military and political advancement through his courage and diplomatic skill. He is known for never having lost a battle.
23/05/1618
The Third Defenestration of Prague precipitates the Thirty Years' War.
The Defenestrations of Prague were three incidents in the history of Bohemia in which people were defenestrated. Though already existing in Middle French, the word defenestrate is believed to have first been used in English in reference to the episodes in Prague in 1618 when the disgruntled Protestant estates threw two royal governors and their secretary out of a window of the Hradčany Castle and wrote an extensive apologia explaining their action. In the Middle Ages and early modern times, defenestration was not uncommon—the act carried elements of lynching and mob violence in the form of murder committed together.
23/05/1609
Official ratification of the Second Virginia Charter takes place.
The Second Virginia Charter, also known as the Charter of 1609, is a document that provided "a further Enlargement and Explanation of the said [first] Grant, Privileges, and Liberties", which gave the London Company adventurers influence in determining the policies of the company, extended the Company's rights to land extending "up into the Land throughout from Sea to Sea", and allowed English merchant companies and individuals to invest in the colonization effort. The charter includes a detailed list of the names of some 650 noblemen, gentlemen, officials, companies, and individuals who subscribed as investors.
23/05/1568
Dutch rebels led by Louis of Nassau defeat Jean de Ligne and his loyalist troops in the Battle of Heiligerlee, opening the Eighty Years' War.
Louis of Nassau was a Dutch nobleman, the third son of William I, Count of Nassau-Siegen and Juliana of Stolberg, and the younger brother of Prince William of Orange Nassau.
23/05/1533
The marriage of King Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon is declared null and void.
Henry VIII was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 22 April 1509, and King of Ireland from 18 June 1542, until his death in 1547.
23/05/1498
Girolamo Savonarola is burned at the stake in Florence, Italy.
Girolamo Savonarola, OP, also referred to as Jerome Savonarola, was an Italian ascetic Dominican friar from Ferrara and a preacher active in Renaissance Florence. He became known for his prophecies of civic glory, his advocacy of the destruction of secular art and culture, and his calls for Christian renewal. He denounced clerical corruption, despotic rule, and the exploitation of the poor.
23/05/1430
Joan of Arc is captured at the Siege of Compiègne by troops from the Burgundian faction.
Joan of Arc is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the coronation of Charles VII of France during the Hundred Years' War. Stating that she acted under divine guidance, she became a military leader who gained recognition as a savior of France.
23/05/1308
Robert the Bruce, king of Scots, defeats John Comyn, earl of Buchan, decisively in the battle of Inverurie.
Robert I, popularly known as Robert the Bruce, was King of Scots from 1306 until his death in 1329. Robert led Scotland during the First War of Scottish Independence against England. He fought successfully during his reign to restore Scotland to an independent kingdom and is regarded in Scotland as a national hero. Robert was a fourth-great-grandson of King David I of Scotland, and his grandfather, Robert de Brus, 5th Lord of Annandale, was one of the claimants to the Scottish throne during the "Great Cause".
23/05/1040
The Seljuks defeat the Ghaznavids in the battle of Dandanaqan.
The Seljuk dynasty, or Seljukids alternatively spelled as Saljuqids or Seljuk Turks, was an Oghuz Turkic, Sunni Muslim dynasty that culturally became Persianate and contributed to Turco-Persian culture.