May 23
Events
Pre-1600
- 1430 - Joan of Arc is captured at the Siege of Compiègne by troops from the Burgundian faction.
- 1498 - Girolamo Savonarola is burned at the stake in Florence, Italy.
- 1533 - The marriage of King Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon is declared null and void.
- 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.
1601–1900
- 1609 - Official ratification of the Second Virginia Charter takes place.
- 1618 - The Third Defenestration of Prague precipitates the Thirty Years' War.
- 1706 - John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, defeats a French army under Marshal François de Neufville, duc de Villeroy at the Battle of Ramillies.
- 1788 - South Carolina became the eighth state to ratify the United States Constitution.
- 1793 - Battle of Famars during the Flanders Campaign of the War of the First Coalition.
- 1829 - Accordion patent granted to Cyrill Demian in Vienna, Austrian Empire.
- 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.
- 1846 - Mexican–American War: President Mariano Paredes of Mexico unofficially declares war on the United States.
- 1863 - The General German Workers' Association, a precursor of the modern Social Democratic Party of Germany, is founded in Leipzig, Kingdom of Saxony.
- 1873 - The Canadian Parliament establishes the North-West Mounted Police, the forerunner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
- 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.
1901–present
- 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.
- 1907 - The unicameral Parliament of Finland gathers for its first plenary session.
- 1911 - The New York Public Library is dedicated.
- 1915 - World War I: Italy joins the Allies, fulfilling its part of the Treaty of London.
- 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.
- 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.
- 1934 - American bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde are ambushed by police and killed in Bienville Parish, Louisiana.
- 1934 - 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 1945 - World War II: Heinrich Himmler, head of the Schutzstaffel, commits suicide while in Allied custody.
- 1945 - World War II: Germany's Flensburg Government under Karl Dönitz is dissolved when its members are arrested by British forces.
- 1946 - The start of a two-day tornado outbreak across the Central United States that spawned at least 15 significant tornadoes.
- 1948 - Thomas C. Wasson, the US Consul-General, is assassinated in Jerusalem, Israel.
- 1949 - Cold War: The Western occupying powers approve the Basic Law and establish a new German state, the Federal Republic of Germany.
- 1951 - Tibetans sign the Seventeen Point Agreement with China.
- 1960 - A tsunami caused by an earthquake in Chile the previous day kills 61 people in Hilo, Hawaii.
- 1971 - Seventy-eight people are killed when Aviogenex Flight 130 crashes on approach to Rijeka Airport in present-day Rijeka, Croatia.
- 1971 - The Intercontinental Hotel in Bucharest opens, becoming the second-tallest building in the city.
- 1978 - A Tupolev Tu-144 crashes near the Russian town of Yegoryevsk, killing two.
- 1991 - Aeroflot Flight 8556 crashes at Pulkovo Airport, killing 13.
- 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.
- 1995 - The first version of the Java programming language is released.
- 1998 - The Good Friday Agreement is accepted in a referendum in Northern Ireland with roughly 75% voting yes.
- 2002 - The "55 parties" clause of the Kyoto Protocol is reached after its ratification by Iceland.
- 2006 - Alaskan stratovolcano Mount Cleveland erupts.
- 2008 - The International Court of Justice awards Middle Rocks to Malaysia and Pedra Branca to Singapore, ending a 29-year territorial dispute between the two countries.
- 2013 - A freeway bridge carrying Interstate 5 over the Skagit River collapses in Mount Vernon, Washington.
- 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.
- 2015 - At least 30 people are killed as a result of floods and tornadoes in Texas, Oklahoma, and northern Mexico.
- 2016 - Two suicide bombings, conducted by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, kill at least 45 potential army recruits in Aden, Yemen.
- 2016 - 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.
- 2017 - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declares martial law in Mindanao, following the Maute's attack in Marawi.
- 2021 - A cable car falls from a mountain near Lake Maggiore in northern Italy, killing 14 people.
- 2021 - Ryanair Flight 4978 is forced to land by Belarusian authorities to detain dissident journalist Roman Protasevich.
- 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.
Births
Pre-1600
- 635 - Kʼinich Kan Bahlam II, Mayan king
- 675 - Perumbidugu Mutharaiyar II, King of Mutharaiyar dynasty, Tamil Nadu, India
- 1052 - Philip I of France
- 1100 - Emperor Qinzong of Song
- 1127 - Uijong of Goryeo, Korean monarch of the Goryeo dynasty
- 1330 - Gongmin of Goryeo, Korean ruler
- 1586 - Paul Siefert, German composer and organist
1601–1900
- 1606 - Juan Caramuel y Lobkowitz, Spanish mathematician and philosopher
- 1614 - Bertholet Flemalle, Flemish Baroque painter
- 1617 - Elias Ashmole, English astrologer and politician
- 1629 - William VI, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, noble of Hesse-Kassel
- 1707 - Carl Linnaeus, Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist
- 1718 - William Hunter, Scottish-English anatomist and physician
- 1729 - Giuseppe Parini, Italian poet and educator
- 1730 - Prince Augustus Ferdinand of Prussia, Prussian prince and general
- 1734 - Franz Mesmer, German physician and astrologer
- 1741 - Andrea Luchesi, Italian organist and composer
- 1789 - Franz Schlik, Austrian earl and general
- 1790 - Jules Dumont d'Urville, French admiral and explorer
- 1790 - James Pradier, French neoclassical sculptor
- 1794 - Ignaz Moscheles, Czech pianist and composer
- 1795 - Charles Barry, English architect, designed the Upper Brook Street Chapel and Halifax Town Hall
- 1800 - Rómulo Díaz de la Vega, Mexican general and president
- 1810 - Margaret Fuller, American journalist and critic
- 1817 - Manuel Robles Pezuela, Unconstitutional Mexican interim president
- 1820 - James Buchanan Eads, American engineer, designed the Eads Bridge
- 1820 - Lorenzo Sawyer, American lawyer and judge
- 1824 - Ambrose Burnside, American general and politician, 30th Governor of Rhode Island
- 1834 - Jānis Frīdrihs Baumanis, Latvian architect
- 1834 - Carl Bloch, Danish painter and academic
- 1837 - Anatole Mallet, Swiss mechanical engineer and inventor
- 1837 - Józef Wieniawski, Polish pianist and composer
- 1838 - Amaldus Nielsen, Norwegian painter
- 1840 - George Throssell, Irish-Australian politician, 2nd Premier of Western Australia
- 1844 - ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, Iranian religious leader
- 1848 - Otto Lilienthal, German pilot and engineer
- 1855 - Isabella Ford, English author and activist
- 1861 - József Rippl-Rónai, Hungarian painter
- 1863 - Władysław Horodecki, Polish architect
- 1864 - William O'Connor, American fencer
- 1865 - Epitácio Pessoa, Brazilian jurist and politician, 11th President of Brazil
- 1875 - Alfred P. Sloan, American businessman and philanthropist
- 1882 - William Halpenny, Canadian pole vaulter
- 1883 - Douglas Fairbanks, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1884 - Corrado Gini, Italian sociologist and demographer
- 1887 - Thoralf Skolem, Norwegian mathematician and theorist
- 1887 - Nikolai Vekšin, Estonian-Russian sailor and captain
- 1887 - C. R. M. F. Cruttwell, English historian
- 1888 - Adriaan Roland Holst, Dutch writer
- 1888 - Zack Wheat, American baseball player and police officer
- 1889 - Ernst Niekisch, German educator and politician
- 1890 - Herbert Marshall, English-American actor and singer
- 1891 - Pär Lagerkvist, Swedish novelist, playwright, and poet, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1892 - Albert Spencer, 7th Earl Spencer, British peer
- 1896 - Felix Steiner, Russian-German SS officer
- 1897 - Jimmie Guthrie, Scottish motorcycle racer
- 1898 - Scott O'Dell, American soldier, journalist, and author
- 1898 - Josef Terboven, German soldier and politician
- 1899 - Jeralean Talley, American super-centenarian
- 1900 - Hans Frank, German lawyer and politician
- 1900 - Franz Leopold Neumann, German lawyer and theorist