January 23

Events

• 1556 - The deadliest earthquake in history kills 830,000 people in Shanxi Province, China.
• 1570 - The assassination of regent James Stewart, Earl of Moray throws Scotland into civil war.
• 1571 - The Royal Exchange opens in London.
• 1579 - The Union of Utrecht forms a Protestant republic in the Netherlands.
• 1719 - The Principality of Liechtenstein is created within the Holy Roman Empire.
• 1789 - Georgetown College becomes the first Catholic college in the United States (Washington, DC).
• 1849 - Elizabeth Blackwell is awarded her MD by the Medical Institute of Geneva, New York, thus becoming the United States' first woman doctor.
• 1851 - The flip of a coin determines whether a new city in Oregon is named after Boston, Massachusetts, or Portland, Maine, with Portland winning.
• 1904 - Norwegian coastal town Ålesund is devastated by fire, leaving 10,000 people homeless. German Kaiser Wilhelm helps rebuild the town in Jugendstil architecture.
• 1907 - Charles Curtis from Kansas, becomes the first Native American US Senator.
• 1920 - The Netherlands refuses to surrender ex-Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany to the Allies.
• 1937 - In Moscow, 17 leading Communists go on trial accused of participating in a plot led by Leon Trotsky to overthrow Joseph Stalin's regime and assassinate its leaders.
• 1941 - Charles Lindbergh testifies before the United States Congress and recommends that the United States negotiate a neutrality pact with Adolf Hitler.
• 1943 - World War II: British forces capture Tripoli from the Nazis.
• 1943 - Duke Ellington plays at New York City's Carnegie Hall for the first time.
• 1950 - The Knesset passes a resolution that states Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.
• 1960 - The bathyscaphe USS Trieste breaks a depth record when it descends 35,820 feet (10,750 meters) in the Pacific Ocean.
• 1964 - Thirteen years after its proposal and nearly two years after the measure had been passed by the United States Senate 77-16, the 24th Amendment to the United States Constitution, prohibiting the use of poll taxes in national elections, is ratified.
• 1968 - North Korea seizes the USS Pueblo, claiming the ship violated their territorial waters while spying.
• 1973 - President Richard Nixon announces that a peace accord has been reached in Vietnam.
• 1975 - Barney Miller debuts on ABC.
• 1977 - The first segment of the Roots mini-series airs on ABC.
• 1978 - Sweden becomes the first nation to ban aerosol sprays that are thought to damage earth's protective ozone layer.
• 1983 - The A-Team debuts.
• 1985 - O. J. Simpson becomes the first Heisman Trophy winner elected to the Football Hall of Fame.
• 1986 - The first induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Fats Domino, Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley)
• 1997 - Mir Aimal Kasi receives the death sentence for a 1993 assault rifle attack outside CIA headquarters that killed two and wounded three others.
• 1997 - Madeleine Albright becomes the first woman to serve as United States Secretary of State.
• 2002 - "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh returns to the United States under FBI custody.

Births

• 1737 - John Hancock, statesman and U.S. revolutionary, (d. 1793)
• 1745 - William Jessop, canal engineer (d. 1814)
• 1783 - Stendhal, writer, (d. 1842)
• 1786 - Auguste de Montferrand, architect, (d. 1858)
• 1832 - Edouard Manet, impressionist artist, (d. 1883)
• 1857 - Andrija Mohorovičić, Croatian seismologist, (d. 1936)
• 1862 - David Hilbert, Mathematician, (d. 1943)
• 1872 - Joze Plečnik, architect, (d. 1957)
• 1897 - Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, architect, (d. 2000)
• 1898 - Sergei Eisenstein, director, (d. 1948)
• 1903 - Randolph Scott, actor, (d. 1987)
• 1907 - Dan Duryea, actor, (d. 1968)
• 1910 - Django Reinhardt, guitarist, (d. 1953)
• 1919 - Hans Haas, zoologist and underwater scientist
• 1919 - Ernie Kovacs, comedian, (d. 1962)
• 1920 - Ray Abrams, tenor saxophonist
• 1920 - Gottfried Böhm, architect
• 1923 - Walter M. Miller Jr., science fiction writer, (d. 1996)
• 1928 - Jeanne Moreau, actress
• 1930 - Derek Walcott, author
• 1933 - Chita Rivera, actress, dancer
• 1936 - Jerry Kramer, American football star
• 1938 - Georg Baselitz, painter and sculptor
• 1944 - Rutger Hauer, actor
• 1950 - Richard Dean Anderson, actor
• 1957 - Earl Falconer, bassist
• 1957 - Princess Caroline of Monaco
• 1963 - Gail O'Grady, actress
• 1974 - Tiffani-Amber Thiessen, actress
• 1980 - Jay Debanth, martial artist
• 1991 - Erika Winner, ski racer

Deaths

• 1002 - Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor, (b. 980)
• 1570 - James Stewart, Earl of Moray, Regent of Scotland, (b. c. 1531)
• 1789 - John Cleland, novelist, (b. 1709)
• 1805 - Claude Chappe, telecommunications pioneer (semaphores), (b. 1763)
• 1837 - John Field, composer, (b. 1782)
• 1875 - Charles Kingsley, English writer, (b. 1819)
• 1893 - Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar, the only United States Supreme Court justice from Mississippi, (b. 1825)
• 1931 - Anna Pavlova, ballerina, (b. 1881)
• 1937 - Marie Prevost, actress, (b. 1898)
• 1943 - Alexander Woolcott, bon vivant
• 1973 - Kid Ory, musician, (b. c. 1886)
• 1976 - Paul Robeson, actor, singer, social activist, (b. 1898)
• 1978 - Jack Oakie, actor
• 1978 - Terry Kath, musician ("Chicago")
• 1981 - Samuel Barber, American composer, (b. 1910)
• 1983 - George Cukor, director, (b. 1899)
• 1989 - Salvador Dalí, artist, (b. 1904)
• 1991 - Northrop Frye, literary critic, (b. 1912)
• 1992 - Freddie Bartholomew, actor
• 1993 - Thomas Dorsey, gospel music singer
• 2002 - Robert Nozick, philosopher, (b. 1938)
• 2002 - Pierre Bourdieu, French sociologist, (b. 1930)
• 2004 - Bob Keeshan, actor ("Captain Kangaroo"), (b. 1927)
• 2004 - Helmut Newton, photographer, (b. 1920)

Holidays and observances

January 22 - January 24 - December 23 - February 23 -- listing of all days

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

Referenced By