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February 23 is the 54th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 311 days remaining, 312 in leap years.
Events
1455 - Traditional date for the publication of the Gutenberg Bible, the first Western book printed from movable type.
1574 - The 5th holy war against the Huguenots begins in France.
1660 - Charles XI becomes king of Sweden.
1732 - First performance of George Frideric Handel's Orlando, in London.
1778 - American Revolution: Baron von Steuben arrives at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania to help to train the Continental Army.
1820 - Cato Street Conspiracy: A plot to murder all the British cabinet ministers is exposed.
1821 - The Philadelphia College of Apothecaries founds the first pharmacy college.
1836 - The Siege of the Alamo begins in San Antonio, Texas.
1847 - Mexican-American War: Battle of Buena Vista - In Mexico, American troops defeat Mexican general Antonio López de Santa Anna.
1861 - President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrives secretly in Washington, DC after an assassination attempt in Baltimore, Maryland.
1870 - Military control of Mississippi ends and it is readmitted to the Union.
1874 - Walter Winfield patents a game called "sphairistike" which is more commonly called lawn tennis.
1883 - Alabama becomes the first U.S. state to enact an antitrust law.
1887 - The French Riviera is hit by a large earthquake, killing around 2,000.
1893 - Rudolf Diesel receives a patent for the diesel engine.
1898 - Émile Zola is imprisoned in France after writing J'accuse which was a letter accusing the French government of anti-Semitism and wrongfully placing Alfred Dreyfus in jail.
1900 - Battle of Hart's Hill: In South Africa the Boers and British troops battle.
1903 - Cuba leases Guantanamo Bay to the United States "in perpetuity".
1904 - For $10 million the United States gains control of the Panama Canal Zone.
1905 - Chicago attorney Paul Harris and three other businessmen meet for lunch to form the Rotary Club, the world's first service club.
1909 - The Silver Dart makes the first powered flight in Canada and the British Empire.
1917 - The Russian Revolution begins.
1919 - Benito Mussolini forms the Fascist Party in Italy.
1927 - The Federal Radio Commission (later renamed the Federal Communications Commission) begins to regulate the use of radio frequencies.
1934 - Leopold III becomes King of Belgium.
1940 - World War II: Soviet Union troops conquer Lasi Island.
1940 - The animated movie Pinocchio is released.
1945 - Following the American victory at the Battle of Iwo Jima, a group of United States Marines reach the top of Mount Surabachi on the island and are photographed raising the American flag. The photo would later win a Pulitzer Prize.
1945 - World War II: The capital of the Philippines, Manila, is liberated by American forces.
1945 - World War II: Capitulation of German garrison in Poznan, city is liberated by Soviet and Polish forces.
1947 - International Organization for Standardization(ISO) is founded.
1950-1999
1954 - The first mass vaccination of children against polio begins in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
1955 - First meeting of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO).
1955 - Edgar Faure becomes Prime Minister of France
1956 - Nikita Khrushchev attacks the veneration of Joseph Stalin as a "cult of personality".
1958 - Cuban rebels kidnap 5-time world driving champion Juan Manuel Fangio.
1963 - Alaura O'Dell, aka Paula P-Orridge born in Westminster, London
1966 - A military coup in Syria replaces the previous government.
1974 - The Symbionese Liberation Army demands $4 million more to release kidnap victim Patty Hearst.
1980 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini states that Iran's parliament would decide the fate of the American embassy hostages.
1981 - Antonio Tejero attempts a coup d'état by capturing the Spanish Congress of Deputies.
1982 - The Spanish Socialist government of Felipe González and Miguel Boyer nationalizes Rumasa, a holding of José María Ruiz Mateos.
1983 - The Environmental Protection Agency announces its intent to buy out and evacuate the dioxin-contaminated community of Times Beach, Missouri.
1987 - A supernova is seen in the Large Magellanic Cloud (see Supernova 1987a).
1991 - Gulf War: Ground troops cross the Saudi Arabia border and enter Iraq, thus starting the ground-phase of the war.
1991 - Thailand: General Sunthorn Kongsompong leads a bloodless coup d'état, deposing Prime Minister Chatichai Choonhavan.
1993 - Gary Coleman wins a $1,280,000 lawsuit against his parents.
1998 - Tornadoes in central Florida destroy or damage 2,600 structures and kill 42.
1998 - Osama bin Laden publishes fatwa declaring jihad against all Jews and Crusaders.
1998 - Netscape Communications Corporation announced the foundation of mozilla.org, to co-ordinate the development of the open source Mozilla web browser.
1999 - Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Öcalan is charged with treason in Ankara, Turkey.
1999 - White supremacist John William King is found guilty of kidnapping and killing African American James Byrd Jr by dragging him behind a truck for two miles.
1999 - An avalanche destroys the Austrian vilage of Galtür, killing 31.
Births
1418 - Pope Paul II (d. 1471)
1633 - Samuel Pepys, diarist (d. 1703)
1685 - Georg Friederich Händel, composer (d. 1759)
1743 - Mayer Amschel Rothschild, banker (d. 1812)
1840 - Carl Menger, economist (d. 1921)
1868 - W.E.B. DuBois, civil rights leader (d. 1963)
1882 (allegedly) - B. Traven, writer (d. 1969)
1883 - Victor Fleming, director (d. 1949)
1883 - Karl Jaspers, philosopher (d. 1969)
1899 - Erich Kästner, lyricist and narrator (d. 1974)
1899 - Elisabeth Langgässer, lyricist, narrator and novelist (d. 1950)
1904 - Leopold Trepper, Soviet spy in WWII (d. 1982)
1908 - William McMahon, twentieth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1988)
1915 - Paul Tibbets, pilot of the "Enola Gay", the plane which dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan
1928 - Vasili Lazarev, cosmonaut (d. 1990)
1932 - Majel Barrett, actress
1939 - Peter Fonda, actor
1943 - Fred Biletnikoff, American football star, coach
1944 - Johnny Winter, musician
1951 - Patricia Richardson, actress
1954 - Viktor Yushchenko, Ukraine, President
1955 - Howard Jones, musician
1958 - David Sylvian, musician
1994 - Dakota Fanning, actress
Deaths
1447 - Pope Eugenius IV (b. 1383)
1730 - Pope Benedict XIII (b. 1649)
1766 - Stanislaw Leszczynski, King of Poland (b. 1677)
1821 - John Keats, English Romantic poet (b. 1795)
1848 - John Quincy Adams, 6th President of the United States (b. 1767)
1855 - Carl Friedrich Gauss, mathematician, astronomer, physicist (b. 1777)
1923 - Théophile Delcassé, French statesman (b. 1852)
1930 - Horst Wessel, Nazi ideologue, composer
1934 - Edward Elgar, composer (b. 1857)
1965 - Stan Laurel, actor, comedian (b. 1890)
1974 - Harry Ruby, composer, writer
1979 - W.A.C. Bennett, British Columbia politician (b. 1900)
1990 - José Napoleón Duarte, President of El Salvador
1995 - James Herriot, writer (b. 1916)
2000 - Ofra Haza, Israeli singer (b. 1957)
2003 - Robert K. Merton, sociologist (b. 1910)
2003 - Marcel Prawy, jurist
2004 - Vijay Anand, Bollywood film director
Holidays and observances
Roman Empire - Terminalia held in honor of Terminus
Catholicism - Feast day of St Polycarp.
Guyana - National Day
Russia - Day of Motherland's Defensor (formerly Red Army Day or Day of Soviet Army and Navy)
February 22 - February 24 - January 23 - March 23 -- listing of all days
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