August 23

August 23 is the 235th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (236th in leap years), with 130 days remaining.

Table of contents

1 Events

Events

1328 - Battle of Kassel: French troops stop an uprising of Flemish farmers
1566 - Calvinists are granted rights in the Netherlands
1614 - The University of Groningen is established
1617 - In London, the first one-way street is established
1784 - Eastern Tennessee declares itself an independent state under the name of Franklin; the step is rejected by Congress one year later
1821 - Mexico gains its independence from Spain
1833 - Slavery abolished in the British colonies
1839 - The UK captures Hong Kong
1864 - The Union Navy captures Fort Morgan, Alabama, thus breaking Confederate dominance of all ports on the Gulf of Mexico
1866 - Austro-Prussian War ends with the Treaty of Prague
1889 - First wireless message from a ship to the shore received

1904 - The automobile tire chain is patented
1914 - Japan declares war on Germany and bombs Qingdao, China
1923 - Edgar F. Codd, founder of theory of relational databases
1924 - The distance between Earth and Mars is the smallest since the 10th century
1927 - Italian anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti are executed
1939 - Germany and the Soviet Union sign a non-aggression treaty, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. In a secret addition to the pact, Poland is divided between the two nations
1940 - The Germans start bombing London
1942 - Beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad
1943 - Kharkov liberated
1944 - Marseilles liberated
1944 - The Romanian pro-Nazi government is dismissed. Romania switches sides from the Axis to the Allies
1944 - United States Air Force B-24 Liberator bomber crashed and hit a school in Freckleton, England killing 61 people
1947 - The Maynard Midgets beat Lock Haven 16-7 to win the first-ever Little League World Series championship.
1948 - World Council of Churches is formed

1952 - The Arab League goes into effect
1958 - Chinese Civil War: The Second Taiwan Strait crisis begins with the People's Liberation Army's bombardment of Quemoy.
1960 - In Equatorial Guinea, the world's largest frog (3.3 kg) is caught
1962 - First live television connection between the United States and Europe, via the Telstar satellite
1966 - Lunar Orbiter 1 takes the first photograph of Earth from orbit around the Moon
1973 - The Intelsat communication satellite is launched
1975 - Successful Communist coup in Laos
1976 - A major earthquake in China kills thousands of people
1979 - Soviet dancer Alexander Godunov defects to the United States
1985 - Hans Tiedge, top counter-spy of West Germany, defects to East Germany
1987 - Heavy rains and floods in Bangladesh kill hundreds of victims
1988 - Singing Revolution: two million people from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania stood on the Vilnius-Tallinn road, holding hands
1990 - Saddam Hussein appears on Iraqi state television with a number of Western "guests" (actually hostages to try to prevent the Gulf War)
1990 - Armenia declares its independence from the Soviet Union
1990 - West Germany and East Germany announce that they will unite on October 3
2000 - A Gulf Air Airbus A320 crashes into the Persian Gulf near Manama, Bahrain killing 143

1900 - Ernst Krenek, composer (d. 1991)
1901 - John Sherman Cooper, Senator from Kentucky (d. 1991)
1905 - Constant Lambert, composer (d. 1951)
1912 - Gene Kelly, dancer, actor (d. 1996)
1914 - Harold Truscott, composer (d. 1992)
1917 - Tex Williams, singer
1921 - Eadie Del Rubio (d. 1996), Elena Del Rubio (d. 2001), and Milly Del Rubio, the Del Rubio Triplets, singers, musicians, actresses
1922 - George Kell, Baseball Hall of Famer
1924 - Ephraim Kishon, Israeli writer
1927 - Houari Boumendienne, president of Algeria (1965-1978)
1927 - Dick Bruna, illustrator
1929 - Vera Miles, actress
1929 - Peter Thompson, golfer