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February 23: Today in History – Historical Events
Early Centuries – February 23 Historic Events – Before the 1700s
1. 23rd Feb 1348: The first English Order of Knighthood, Order of Garter, was founded on this day.
2. 23rd Feb 1500: Pedro Cabral landed in Brazil and annexed Brazil on this day.
3. 23rd Feb 1516: The “German Beer Purity Law” (Reinheitsgebot) was on this day endorsed by Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria. Standards for the sale of Beer were also added to it.
4. 23rd Feb 1616: Netherlands buys De Briel/Vlissingen/Fort Ramekins from England.
5. 23rd Feb 1633: Sweden along with the Protestant German Monarchy formed the Union of Heilbronn on this day.
6. 23rd Feb 1635: Boston Latin School, the oldest public institution was founded on this day.
7. 23rd Feb 1661: This day marks the Crowning of English king Charles II in London.
8. 23rd Feb 1662: Connecticut was on this day chartered as an English colony.
18th Century – What Happened on February 23 – The 1700s
9. 23rd Feb 1789: President-elect George Washington on this day moved into Franklin House in New York.
10. 23rd Feb 1792: The Humane Society of Massachusetts was incorporated today. It erected life-saving stations for distressed mariners.
11. 23rd Feb 1795: William Hastings was acquitted of charges of high treason in London today.
19th Century – February 23 This Day That Year – The 1800s
12. 23rd Feb 1821: The 1st US Pharmaceutical college “College of Apothecaries” was on this day organized in Philadelphia.
13. 23rd Feb 1822: Boston was on this day granted a charter to incorporate as a city.
14. 23rd Feb 1827: The theory of Systems of rays was on this day presented by William Rowan Hamilton.
15. 23rd Feb 1851: Canada issued its first postage stamp on this day.
16. 23rd Feb 1867: Queen Victoria and Napoleon III on this day turned down plans for the construction of the Channel Tunnel.
17. 23rd Feb 1891: Jews were expelled from Moscow, Russia on this day.
20th Century – Important Events On This Day February 23rd – The 1900s
18. 23rd Feb 1904: Korean sovereignty was guaranteed by Japan in exchange for military assistance.
19. 23rd Feb 1904: The US on this day acquired the control of Panama Canal Zone by paying $10 million.
20. 23rd Feb 1905: The Rotary Club was on this day formed on this day by a lawyer Paul Percy Harris and three friends in Chicago.
21. 23rd Feb 1905: The American Academy of Arts and Letters was formed on this day.
22. 23rd Feb 1908: The North Sea accord was on this day signed by Denmark, Germany, Britain, France, Netherlands, and Sweden.
23. 23rd Feb 1909: The Afro-American Mardi Gras Association and the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Society made their first appearance as Zulus in the New Orleans Mardi Gras Parade.
24. 23rd Feb 1910: International Exhibition opened today in Brussels.
25. 23rd Feb 1915: The US ships Carib and Evelyn were on this day torpedoed and sunk by the Germans. They also torpedoed the Norwegian ship Regin.
26. 23rd Feb 1916: The US Secretary of State Lansing on this day hinted that the US may have to shelve the policy of avoiding “entangling foreign alliances”.
27. 23rd Feb 1917: The February Revolution began on this day in Russia.
28. 23rd Feb 1919: Benito Mussolini, on this day formed the Fascist Party in Italy.
29. 23rd Feb 1920: The first meeting of the Turkish Grand National Assembly takes place today in Ankara.
30. 23rd Feb 1920: On this day proposals were made by France to hand over some of the colonies to the US.
31. 23rd Feb 1921: The first transcontinental airmail plane today created a record of 33 hours and 20 minutes from San Francisco to New York.
32. 23rd Feb 1924: The British Empire Exhibition opened today in Wembley.
33. 23rd Feb 1926: President Coolidge of the United States was opposed to a large air force as he believed that it would be a menace to world peace.
34. 23rd Feb 1927: The Federal Radio Commission which was the forerunner of the Federal Communications Commission was on this day established by President Coolidge signing the Radio Act.
35. 23rd Feb 1929: Chinese Rebels on this day sized Hunan today.
36. 23rd Feb 1935: The Polish constitution of 1935 was adopted on this day.
37. 23rd Feb 1936: An unmanned balloon on this day rose to a record height of 25 miles in Russia.
38. 23rd Feb 1938: Bombs were dropped on Japan on this day by twelve Chinese fighter planes.
39. 23rd Feb 1938: Sudeten Germans in Czechoslovakia on this day demanded self-government.
40. 23rd Feb 1942: An oil refinery in Ellwood near Santa Barbara, California was shelled by a Japanese submarine. They were the first Axis bombs to hit American soil.
41. 23rd Feb 1943: The German troops on this day pulled back through the Kasserine Pass in Tunisia.
42. 23rd Feb 1944: A mass deportation of Caucasian Muslim nations was ordered by Stalin for resisting Soviet rule and abetting Germans.
43. 23rd Feb 1945: Eisenhower on this day opened a large-scale offensive in Rhineland.
44. 23rd Feb 1945: The US on this day took over the Japanese-held volcanic island Iowa Jima, four days after landing on the island.
45. 23rd Feb 1946: After being found guilty by the US military commission of war crimes, Japanese General Tomoyuki Yamashita was on this day hanged in Manila in the Philippines.
46. 23rd Feb 1946: Anti-British demonstrations in India drew large crowds. About 300,000 people participated in the demonstration.
47. 23rd Feb 1947: General Eisenhower on this day opened a drive on this day to raise $170 million in aid of European Jews.
48. 23rd Feb 1947: The US and British forces arrest several hundred Nazi organizers in Frankfurt.
49. 23rd Feb 1954: Egyptian President Naguib resigned. He was reinstated as President because of popular outcry. Nasser took the position of Prime Minister, which was previously held by Naguib.
50. 23rd Feb 1954: A group of children from Arsenal Elementary School in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania were administered the first injections of the new Polio Vaccine developed by Dr Johns Salk.
51. 23rd Feb 1955: The first SEATO council was held on this day in Bangkok with eight nations, United States, Australia, Great Britain, France, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, and Thailand.
52. 23rd Feb 1956: The Communist Party leader of Russia Nikita Khrushchev attacked the memory of Stalin today.
53. 23rd Feb 1959: British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan visited Russia on this day to have peace talks with Russian Prime Minister Nikita Khrushchev.
54. 23rd Feb 1964: The new Zanzibar government was on this day recognized by the United States and Britain.
55. 23rd Feb 1964: In one of the biggest drug busts, the boss of the mob was identified as the Mexican ambassador to Bolivia. In a rapid response, Mexico sacked the ambassador who was arrested upon losing his diplomatic immunity.
56. 23rd Feb 1966: Leftist army officers threw out the Socialist government in a military coup in Syria and they closed the country’s borders.
57. 23rd Feb 1967: American troops on this day launched its largest offensive of the war near the Cambodian border.
58. 23rd Feb 1969: President Nixon on this day ordered the secret bombing of Cambodia.
59. 23rd Feb 1970: Guyana became a republic on this day.
60. 23rd Feb 1972: Palestinian hijackers, who had hijacked a Lufthansa Jet a couple of days ago, released the crew and surrendered at an airstrip in Yemen today.
61. 23rd Feb 1972: The amendment proposed by Harold Breazeale to by bill intended to initiate changes in the education system of South Carolina was on this day.
62. 23rd Feb 1981: There was an attempted coup in Spain when some 200 members of the civil guard and some members of the military invaded parliament and took lawmakers hostages. The attempt collapsed after 18 hours.
63. 23rd Feb 1982: In a consultative referendum, Greenland which became a member of the European community as part of Denmark opted to withdraw from the community.
64. 23rd Feb 1985: Edwin Meese III was on this day confirmed as attorney general by the US Senate.
65. 23rd Feb 1987: The light from the gigantic exploding star Supernova 1987A which is estimated to have exploded 170,000 years ago at a distance of nearly one million trillion miles from Earth, started reaching the Earth today.
66. 23rd Feb 1988: President Regan on this day named William L Ball III as the new Navy Secretary. He succeeded James H Webb.
67. 23rd Feb 1989: The Armed Services Committee of the US Senate today voted against recommending the nomination of John Tower to become the secretary of defense.
68. 23rd Feb 1991: President George W Bush on this day announced that the allied group offensive against the Iraqi forces had begun.
69. 23rd Feb 1991: The French forces unofficially started the Gulf ground war by crossing the Saudi-Iraqi border.
70. 23rd Feb 1992: The XVI Winter Olympics games ended on this day in Albertville in France.
71. 23rd Feb 1992: Thousands of pro-communist demonstrators clashed with the police today in Moscow. Some of the demonstrators were shouting down at the Russian Government.
72. 23rd Feb 1993: President Clinton on this day won the support of the United Nations for air-dropping of relief and supplies to starving Bosnians during his meeting with the UN Secretary-General in his Oval Office.
73. 23rd Feb 1994: A truce was signed in Bosnia between the military leaders of the Muslim-led government and their second strongest foes Bosnia’s Croats.
74. 23rd Feb 1994: The Russian parliament took a swipe at Boris Yeltsin when it granted to leaders of the 1991 Soviet coup and the hardliners who fought him in 1993.
75. 23rd Feb 1994: An explosion occurred in a train in Assiut in Egypt. Six foreign tourists were hurt in the explosion. The militant Islamic group Gama’a al-Islamia claimed responsibility.
76. 23rd Feb 1996: Two Iraqi defectors were killed today in Bagdad reportedly by members of their clan. They were accused of betraying Saddam Hussein by fleeing to Jordan.
77. 23rd Feb 1996: FBI agents arrested Robert Lipka, a former army clerk at the National Security Agency for espionage in the late 1960s.
78. 23rd Feb 1996: Chechen rebels on this day blew up a big gas pipeline in southern Chechen. Ahead of today’s anniversary of the mass deportation of Chechens to Central Asia during World War II, troops were being brought in by Russia.
79. 23rd Feb 1997: A group of white men attacked a black family in the Grays Ferry section of Philadelphia. Nine men were tried in 1998 and six were convicted on various counts.
80. 23rd Feb 1997: Benjamin Chavis who was a leader of the National Association for Advancement of Colored People on this day announced that he had joined the Nation of Islam led by ailing Louis Farrakhan.
81. 23rd Feb 1997: “Schindler’s List” a movie about saving the lives of Jewish factory workers in Germany was aired on NBC today. This was the first time that a movie was shown on the TV without commercial interruptions.
82. 23rd Feb 1997: A Palestinian teacher, Ali Hassan Abu Kamal opened fire on the observation deck of the Empire State Building in New York killing one person and wounding six others before he killed himself. He was said to have acted on his motive and not associated with any political group.
83. 23rd Feb 1997: China’s legislature on this day voted for the dilution of Hong Kong’s civil liberties laws.
84. 23rd Feb 1997: A fire broke out in Baripada in Eastern India during the 46th annual festival in honor of the late Swamy Nigamananda. 190 worshippers lost their lives in the fire.
85. 23rd Feb 1998: In Andhra Pradesh in India leftist guerillas set off a mine that killed five soldiers who had been sent to guard a polling station.
86. 23rd Feb 1998: In Columbia President Samper denied his weekend offer to resign to improve relations with the U.S.
87. 23rd Feb 1998: In Florida about 6-10 tornadoes killed 42 people. About 2600 homes were damaged.
88. 23rd Feb 1998: The Supreme Court of California today ruled that anybody can sue a corner store or a gas station for selling cigarettes to minors.
89. 23rd Feb 1998: A bomb exploded under a passing train near El Affroune in Algeria. It killed ten and 25 more were injured.
90. 23rd Feb 1998: President Clinton gave cautious approval to a U.N. agreement between Secretary Kofi Annan and Saddam Hussain for monitoring suspected weapon sites in Iraq.
91. 23rd Feb 1999: Homes in Galtur were buried in an Avalanche in Austria. 25 people lost their lives.
92. 23rd Feb 1999: On this day John Wilkin King, an accused in the dragging death of a black man James Byrd Jr, was convicted of kidnapping and murder and sentenced to death by a jury in Jasper Texas.
21st Century – February 23 This Day In History – The 2000s
93. 23rd Feb 2004: Today the army cancelled the Boeing/Sikorsky RAH 66 Comanche helicopter program after spending $8 billion over 21 years. The reason given was the growing popularity in the army for the use of unmanned Arial vehicles for reconnaissance.
94. 23rd Feb 2006: The owner of a Bio-medical supply house on this day was charged with three of his associates carving up corpses and selling them for use in transplants. They obtained bodies from funeral parlors and forged death certificates as well as organ donor consent forms.
95. 23rd Feb 2007: The Supreme Court of Canada, struck down the Canadian immigration security certificate system as it failed to meet the standards of fundamental justice under the Canadian Charter of Rights.
96. 23rd Feb 2007: The United States and South Korea on this day reached a deal to hand full control of South Korea’s military back to Seoul by 2012. This ended the fifty-year pact which gave America the wartime command of South Korea’s military.
97. 23rd Feb 2009: The US shares had fallen sharply to their lowest in the last twelve years with concerns about the government’s latest efforts to rectify bank faults.
98. 23rd Feb 2010: A new United Nations survey reported on this day that about 4.6 billion in total or ⅔ of the world’s population own and use mobile phones now.
99. 23rd Feb 2012: Argentina on this day experienced one of the worst train accidents in its history. A train hit the end of the platform in Bones Aires killing fifty in the crash and over 600 were injured.
100. 23rd Feb 2014: Ukraine’s parliament on this day named Oleksandr Turchynov as the interim President of the country after former President Viktor Yanukovych was removed from office.
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