Historical Events on October 23

Victory in Battle

42 BC Roman Republican civil wars: Second Battle of Philippi - Brutus's army is decisively defeated by Mark Antony and Octavian. Brutus commits suicide.

  • 425 Valentinian III is elevated to Roman Emperor, at the age of 6
  • 502 The Synodus Palmaris, called by Gothic king Theodoric the Great, discharges Pope Symmachus of all charges, thus ending the schism of Antipope Laurentius.
  • 585 Burgundy king Guntram opens synod of Mâcon (Mastico)
  • 787 Byzantine empress Irene recovers Iconoclastic cult at Nicaea
  • 1086 Battle of az-Zallaqah: Almoravid army of Yusuf ibn Tashfin defeats the forces of Castilian King Alfonso VI
  • 1091 Tornado (possible T8/F4) strikes the heart of London killing two and demolishing the wooden London Bridge (OS 17 Oct)
  • 1157 The Battle of Grathe Heath ends the civil war in Denmark. King Sweyn III is killed and Valdemar I restores the country.
  • 1229 Otto II becomes earl of Gelre

Royal Coronation

1520 King Carlos I crowned German emperor Charles V

  • 1588 Remnants of Medina Sidonia's Spanish Armada returns to Santander, Spain
  • 1641 Outbreak of the Irish Rebellion of 1641 - Catholic uprising in Ulster

Victory in Battle

1642 Battle of Edgehill (Warwickshire): King Charles I beat English parliamentarian forces

  • 1644 Sea battle of Fehmarn Sont: Adm Thijssen beats Denen
  • 1668 Jews of Barbados forbidden to engage in retail trade

Event of Interest

1679 Meal Tub Plot against James Duke of York (future James II of England)

Event of Interest

1684 English King Charles II revokes the Massachusetts Bay Colony charter due to repeated violations of the charter’s terms including trading with other countries and running an illegal mint

  • 1690 Revolt in Haarlem after public ban on smoking
  • 1694 American colonial forces, led by Sir William Phipps, fail to seize Quebec
  • 1694 Siege of Spanish-held city of Ceuta on the north African coast begun by Moroccan forces - will be the longest siege in history lasting 26 years
  • 1702 Battle of Bay of Vigo: Dutch & English fleet destroy & occupy Spanish silver fleet & French squadron

Declaration of War

1739 War of Jenkins' Ear starts: British Prime Minister, Robert Walpole, reluctantly declares war on Spain

  • 1760 First Jewish prayer books printed in North America
  • 1790 Slaves revolt in Haiti (later suppressed)
  • 1805 Sailing ship "Aeneus" sinks off Newfoundland killing 340

Coup d'état

1812 Failed coup against French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte

  • 1813 The Pacific Fur Company trading post in Astoria, Oregon is turned over to the rival British North West Company (the fur trade in the Pacific Northwest was dominated for the next three decades by the United Kingdom).
  • 1814 One of the first modern plastic surgeries in the west performed by Joseph Carpue on a soldier's nose in England using Indian techniques
  • 1819 1st ship sails through the Erie Canal from Rome, New York to Utica, New York
  • 1850 First US National Women's Rights convention opens in Brinley Hall, Worcester, Massachusetts
  • 1853 Maastricht-Aken railway in Netherlands opens
  • 1854 English newspaper "The Times" gives precise British positions in Crimea during Crimean War
  • 1864 Battle of Westport, Missouri: Union General Samuel R Curtis defeats Confederate General Stirling Price
  • 1867 72 Senators are summoned by Royal Proclamation to serve as the first members of the Canadian Senate.
  • 1871 Replacement yacht Sappho (US) beats Livonia (UK) by 25:27 in race 5 to win 3rd America's Cup off Newport, RI 4-1; original defender Columbia damaged so misses races 4 & 5
  • 1876 New Orleans Mint reopens as an assay office
  • 1886 "World Championship" Baseball Series, Sportsman's Park, St. Louis: St.L Browns edge Chicago White Stockings, 4-3 in 10 innings in Game 6 to take series, 4-2
  • 1888 Pelham Bay Park in Bronx vested
  • 1893 C. Dazey's "In Old Kentucky" premieres in NYC (27 seasons)
  • 1905 Edward Milton Royle's play "Squaw Man" premieres in NYC
  • 1910 Blanche Scott becomes the first woman to fly at a public event in the US at Fort Wayne, Indiana
  • 1910 Ritz Hotel in Madrid opens with 200 chambers and 100 bathtubs
  • 1910 World Series Baseball: Philadelphia A's beat Chicago Cubs, 7-2 at West Side Park, Chicago to win their first Championship, 4-1

Italo-Turkish War

1911 1st aerial reconnaissance mission is flown by an Italian pilot over Turkish lines during the Italo-Turkish War

  • 1915 1st national horseshoe throwing championship at Kellerton, Iowa

Women's Suffrage March on Fifth Ave, New York

1915 An estimated 25,000 supporters in a women's suffrage march on New York's Fifth Ave, led by Dr. Anna Shaw and Carrie Chapman Catt, founder of the League of Women Voters

  • 1917 1st Infantry division "Big Red One" shoots 1st US shot in WW I
  • 1919 Orchestra Hall, designed by C. Howard Crane opens in Detroit, Michigan; home of the Detroit Symphony, 1919-39 and 1989 to present, also known as The Paradise Theater, featuring top jazz performers and films, 1941-51
  • 1919 Romberg & Atteridge's musical "Passing Show" premieres in NYC
  • 1920 African demonstrators shot in Port Elizabeth, South Africa
  • 1920 Chicago grand jury indicts Abe Attell, Hal Chase, & Bill Burns as go-betweens in "Black Sox" 1919 World Series Baseball scandal
  • 1921 Green Bay Packers play 1st APFA (forerunner to NFL) game; beat Minneapolis Marines, 7-6 at Hagemeister Park, Green Bay, WI

Music Premiere

1921 Leos Janacek's opera "Kat'a Kabanova" premieres in Brno

  • 1922 Channing Pollock's play "Fool" premieres in NYC

Event of Interest

1922 Conservative Andrew Bonar Law forms government in United Kingdom, replacing David Lloyd George's Liberal government

Sports History

1923 Legendary Yankees slugger Babe Ruth makes a postseason exhibition appearance in a rival Giants uniform as NY beats Baltimore Orioles, 9-0 in a benefit game for former Giants owner John Day

  • 1927 Town of Netanya, Israel founded by Nathan Strauss

Radio Premiere

1932 Radio comedy program "The Fred Allen Show" premieres

Event of Interest

1933 John Dillinger and his gang rob Central National Bank, in Greencastle, Indiana. They take $75, 000.

  • 1934 Jean Piccard & Jeanette Ridlen attain record balloon height of 10.9 miles (17.5 km) over Lake Erie
  • 1935 American mobsters Dutch Schultz, Abe Landau, Otto Berman, and Bernard "Lulu" Rosencrantz are fatally shot by organized crime hitmen at a saloon in Newark, New Jersey, what becomes known as "The Chophouse Massacre" to prevent them from killing the US Attorney prosecuting Schultz for tax evasion, what becomes known as "The Chophouse Massacre"
  • 1935 Chicago Cubs catcher Gabby Hartnett selected NL MVP

Election of Interest

1935 Mackenzie King is elected as Prime Minister of Canada for the third time

Dumbo

1941 Walt Disney's animated film "Dumbo" released

  • 1942 All 12 passengers and crewmen aboard an American Airlines DC-3 airliner killed when it is struck by a U.S. Army Air Forces bomber near Palm Springs, California. Amongst the victims is composer Ralph Rainger ("Thanks for the Memory")
  • 1942 During WWII, Britain launches major offensive at El Alamein, Egypt
  • 1942 First ships of invasion fleet to Morocco leave Norfolk
  • 1942 German units go through Red October factory in Stalingrad
  • 1943 First Jewish transport out of Rome reaches extermination camp Birkenau
  • 1944 Battle of Gulf of Leyte begins - largest naval battle of WWII near the Philippines
  • 1944 First Central Kitchen opens in Amsterdam
  • 1944 Soviet army invades Hungary
  • 1944 Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita's flagship the heavy cruiser Atago sinks during the Battle of Leyte Gulf

Contract of Interest

1945 American baseball player Jackie Robinson signs contract with Montreal Royals, minor league farm team of Brooklyn Dodgers

  • 1946 UN General Assembly 2nd session convenes (1st NYC-Flushing Meadows)
  • 1947 Husband & wife Carl Cori & Gerty Cori are 1st spouses to be awarded joint Nobel Prizes for Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of the course of the catalytic conversion of glycogen" (alongside Bernardo Alberto Houssay)
  • 1947 NAACP petition on racism "An Appeal to the World" presented to UN

Event of Interest

1950 Filipino President Elpidio Quirino issues Executive Order No. 355 replacing the National Land Settlement Administration with Land Settlement Development Corporation (LASEDECO)

Event of Interest

1951 English chemist Rosalind Franklin first identifies the two types of carbon produced by temperature, in paper published by the Royal Society [1]

Limelight

1952 Charlie Chaplin's "Limelight", starring himself and Claire Bloom, with an appearance by Buster Keaton, premieres in New York City; Not released in Los Angeles until 1972, winning Chaplin his only competitive Academy Award for original score

  • 1953 France grants Laos' sovereignty
  • 1953 German FR applies to NATO
  • 1953 WTRF TV channel 7 in Wheeling-Steubenville, WV (CBS) 1st broadcast
  • 1954 Britain, France & US agree to end occupation of Germany
  • 1954 Pakistan Governor-General Ghoelan Mohammed disbands parliament
  • 1954 WSAU TV channel 7 in Wausau, WI (CBS) begins broadcasting
  • 1955 Dominican Professional Baseball League moves to winter play for first time
  • 1956 First video recording on magnetic tape televised coast-to-coast
  • 1956 Thousands of Hungarians protest against the government and Soviet occupation. (The Hungarian Revolution is crushed on November 4).
  • 1957 First test firing of Vanguard satellite launch vehicle, TV-3
  • 1958 De Gaulle offers Algerians defiance "peace of the brave"

Nobel Prize

1958 Soviet novelist Boris Pasternak, wins Nobel Prize for Literature

The Smurfs TV Debut

1958 The Smurfs first appear in the story "Johan and Pirlouit" by Belgium cartoonist Peyo

  • 1958 The Springhill Mine Bump - underground earthquake traps 174 miners in No. 2 colliery at Springhill, Nova Scotia, deepest coal mine in North America. By 1st November rescuers had dug out 100 victims, with death toll at 74.
  • 1958 USSR lends money to UAR to build a Aswan High Dam
  • 1959 Chinese troops move into India, 17 die
  • 1961 "Kwamina" opens at 54th St Theater NYC for 32 performances
  • 1961 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR

United Nations Speech

1962 Adlai Stevenson speaks at the United Nations about the Cuba crisis

  • 1962 USAF Major Robert A Rushworth takes X-15 to 40,800m
  • 1962 WCIV TV channel 4 in Charleston, South Carolina (NBC) begins broadcasting

Barefoot in the Park

1963 Neil Simon's stage play "Barefoot in the Park" starring Robert Redford and Elizabeth Ashley opens at the Biltmore Theatre, NYC; runs for 1530 performances

Sports History

1963 New York Yankees name Yogi Berra as manager, replacing Ralph Houk who becomes the team's general manager

  • 1964 Czech gymnast Věra Čáslavská wins the balance beam at the Tokyo Olympics; her 3rd gold medal of the Games with individual all-round and vault victories
  • 1964 Dutch 10th dan judoka Anton Geesink wins Open gold medal in the first ever Olympic judo competition in Tokyo; prevents clean sweep of the gold medals by Japan

Olympic Gold

1964 Future undisputed world heavyweight boxing champion Joe Frazier dominates German Hans Huber for an easy points win and the Olympic heavyweight gold medal in Tokyo

  • 1964 Hungary beats Czechoslovakia 2-1 to win the men's football gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics
  • 1964 Japan beats the Soviet Union 3-0 to claim the inaugural Olympic women's volleyball gold medal in Tokyo; undefeated in 6-team round robin competition
  • 1964 Japanese gymnast Yukio Endo wins the parallel bars gold medal in the Tokyo Olympics; his 3rd gold medal of the Games (individual all-round and team); 4th career gold (1960, 64)

Olympic Gold

1964 Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina wins the floor exercise gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics; her 2nd gold of the Games (team) and career 9th (1956, 1960, 1964), a gymnastics record

  • 1964 Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia finish 8-1 in inaugural Olympic men's volleyball competition in Tokyo; Soviets win 10 team round robin on count back of sets won-lost
  • 1964 Time Magazine uses term "op art" for 1st time
  • 1966 Australian Jack Brabham is first to win F1 World Drivers Championship and International Cup for Constructors Championship in the same year; 2nd in season ending Mexican Grand Prix at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez
  • 1967 "Henry, Sweet Henry" opens at Palace Theater NYC for 80 performances
  • 1967 NJ Americans (later NY/NJ Nets) play 1st ABA game
  • 1968 "Maggie Flynn" opens at ANTA Theater NYC for 82 performances
  • 1968 American swimmer Kaye Hall sets a world record 1:06.2 to beat Canadian Elaine Tanner by 0.5s and win the 100m backstroke gold medal at the Mexico City Olympics
  • 1969 "Jimmy" opens at Winter Garden Theater NYC for 84 performances
  • 1970 Charles Haughey and two others are found not guilty of illegal arms importation by a Dublin jury; the 'Arms Trial' began on 28 May 1970
  • 1970 Gary Gabelich sets auto speed record 622.4 mph (1,001 kph)
  • 1971 Three Catholic civilians are shot dead by the British Army during an attempted robbery in Newry, County Down
  • 1971 Two female members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) are shot dead by the British Army in the Lower Falls area of Belfast
  • 1971 WXLT (now WWSB) TV channel 40 in Sarasota-Bradenton, FL (ABC) begins
  • 1972 "I'm Still in Love with You" 5th studio album by Al Green is released (Billboard Album of the Year 1973)
  • 1972 Access credit cards introduced in Great Britain
  • 1972 Loyalist paramilitaries carry out raid on an Ulster Defence Regiment

Music Premiere

1972 Stephen Schwartz' musical "Pippin", starring Ben Vereen; Irene Ryan, and Jill Clayburgh, and directed by Bob Fosse, opens at Imperial Theater, NYC; runs for 1944 performances, winning 5 Tony Awards

  • 1972 WNJS TV channel 23 in Camden, NJ (PBS) begins broadcasting

Sports History

1973 19 year old American tennis star Chris Evert retains her WTA Tour Championship at Boca Raton, Florida; beats Nancy Richey Gunter 6-3, 6-3 in the final

  • 1973 Arab oil embargo extended to the Netherlands

Agreement of Interest

1973 Richard Nixon agrees to turn over White House tape recordings to Judge John Sirica

  • 1973 UN's revised International Telecommunication Convention adopted
  • 1973 Yankee GM & President Lee MacPhail named AL president
  • 1974 Chicago Cubs trade 6-time MLB All Star outfielder Billy Williams to Oakland A's for second baseman Manny Trillo and 2 pitchers
  • 1974 Lake Isaac in Cleveland Metroparks' Big Creek Reservation dedicated
  • 1975 Battle between Cuba & South Africa troops in Angola
  • 1975 Islander Glenn Resch's 5th shut-out opponent-Flyers 3-0
  • 1975 Women take the day off in Iceland to commemorate “International Women’s Year”, shutting the country down for a day

F1 World Champion

1977 Despite not driving in season ending Japanese Grand Prix, Austrian Niki Lauda wins his second Formula 1 World Drivers Championship by 17 points from Jody Scheckter of South Africa

New York City Marathon

1977 New York City Marathon: defending champion Bill Rodgers wins in 2:11:38; Miki Gorman retains women's title in 2:43:10

  • 1977 Paleontologist Elso Barghoorn announces discovery of a 3.4-billion year old one-celled fossil, one of the earliest life forms on Earth
  • 1977 Panamanians vote 2:1 to approve new Canal treaties
  • 1978 CBS raises LP prices to $8.98
  • 1978 China & Japan formally ends 4 decades of dissension

Music History

1978 Punk rock singer Sid Vicious attempts suicide while at Riker's Detention Center in NYC

  • 1980 "Tintypes" opens at John Golden Theater NYC for 93 performances

Event of Interest

1980 Nikolai Tikhonov succeeds Alexei Kosygin as Premier of the Soviet Union, due to illness

  • 1980 Rick McCosker (168) and John Dyson (152) make record 319 opening stand in a Sheffield Shield cricket match for NSW v WA in Sydney

Music Premiere

1981 "Concerto for Orchestra" by American composer Roger Sessions premieres with Seiji Ozawa conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra

  • 1981 US national debt hits $1 trillion

NYC Women's Marathon

1983 13th NYC Women's Marathon won by Grete Waitz in 2:27:00

  • 1983 14th NYC Marathon won by Rod Dixon in 2:08:59
  • 1983 400,000 demonstrate in Brussels, against cruise missile
  • 1983 Suicide terrorist truck bomb kills 243 US personnel in Beirut
  • 1984 Cubs Rick Sutcliffe, selected as a unanimous choice as NL Cy Young
  • 1984 NBC airs BBC footage of Ethiopian famine
  • 1984 STS 51-A launch vehicle moves to launch pad

Event of Interest

1986 Artist Keith Haring commissioned to paint a mural on the Berlin wall by Checkpoint Charlie Museum 300 metres long

  • 1987 Dutch government gives Fokker's Aircraft Ÿ212 million credit
  • 1987 France performs nuclear test at Mururoa atoll
  • 1987 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
  • 1987 US Senate rejects Robert Bork's nomination to the Supreme Court by a bipartisan vote of 58-42
  • 1988 Boston Celtics play Spain in Madrid
  • 1989 Browns' Bernie Kosar sets club record with a 97-yard TD pass

Best of Dark Horse 1976-89

1989 George Harrison releases "Best of Dark Horse 1976-89" album

  • 1989 Hungary proclaims itself a republic & declares communist rule ended
  • 1989 US 62nd manned space mission STS 34 (Atlantis 5) returns from space
  • 1989 William Nicholson's "Shadowlands" premieres in London
  • 1990 Iraq announces release of 330 French hostages
  • 1991 "Les Miserables" opens at Mogador Theatre, Paris

Event of Interest

1991 Clarence Thomas sworn in as US Supreme Court Justice

Event of Interest

1991 Dr Jack Kevorkian's suicide machine assists 2 women to commit suicide

Event of Interest

1992 Emperor Akihito becomes the first Emperor of Japan to stand on Chinese soil

Sports History

1993 Baseball World Series: Defending champion Toronto Blue Jays beat Philadelphia Phillies, 8-6 at the SkyDome, Toronto to clinch series, 4-2; MVP: Blue Jays infielder Paul Molitor

  • 1993 Paramilitia kills 22 demonstrators at Bijbihara in Indian-controlled Kashmir
  • 1993 Seven people killed by IRA bomb attack in Belfast
  • 1994 Solheim Cup Women's Golf, The Greenbrier: US regains Cup; beats Europe, 13-7; Americans Dottie Mochrie & Bradie Burton both win their 3 matches
  • 1995 "The MacNeil-Lehrer Report" becomes "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer", upon Robert MacNeil's retirement (currently known as "PBS NewsHour") on PBS
  • 1996 New York Yankees set record recovering from 0-6 in Baseball World Series game to beat Braves, 8-6 in Game 4 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium; record 7th straight post-season road win
  • 1997 "Triumph of Love" opens at Royale Theater NYC
  • 1997 At 6:11 AM San Francisco experiences a power blackout due to sabotage
  • 1997 Dow Jones drops 186.88 pts
  • 1997 Les Alexander, owner of Houston Rockets buys NHL's Edmonton Oilers

Baby One More Time

1998 Britney Spears releases her debut single "Baby One More Time"

Agreement of Interest

1998 Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat reach a "land for peace" agreement.

  • 2000 "Monday Night Miracle", down 30-7 at the end of the third quarter, New York Jets pull together an improbable comeback with 4 touchdowns and a field goal in the fourth quarter, eventually defeating the Miami Dolphins 40-37 in overtime
  • 2001 Apple releases the iPod
  • 2001 The Provisional Irish Republican Army of Northern Ireland commences disarmament after peace talks
  • 2002 Moscow Theatre Siege begins: Chechen rebels seize the House of Culture theater in Moscow and take approximately 700 theater-goers hostage
  • 2004 A powerful earthquake and its aftershocks hit Niigata prefecture, northern Japan, killing 35 people, injuring 2,200, and leaving 85,000 homeless or evacuated.

Irreplaceable

2006 "Irreplaceable" single released by Beyonce (Soul Train Music Awards Best R&B/Soul Single 2007, Billboard Song of the Year 2007)

The Black Parade

2006 "The Black Parade" 3rd studio album by My Chemical Romance is released

Raising Sand

2007 Rounder Records releases "Raising Sand", a collaborative album by American bluegrass singer Alison Krauss and British rock vocalist Robert Plant; tops the chart in Norway, peaks at #2 in US, UK, and Sweden

NHL Record

2008 Joe Sakic scores his final career goal (#625) against the Edmonton Oilers

  • 2009 The UK markets had contracted by 0.4% in the third quarter against what was expected to be a period of growth, as a result of unexpectedly poor performance by the service sector
  • 2009 The United Nations "Rotterdam Rules" convention regulating international maritime carriage of goods is ratified with its twentieth signature.
  • 2010 MLB National League Championship: San Francisco Giants beat Philadelphia Phillies, 4 games to 2
  • 2011 7th Rugby World Cup Final, Eden Park, Auckland: Tournament favourites New Zealand edge France, 8-7; crowd 61,079
  • 2011 A powerful 7.2 magnitude earthquake strikes Van Province, Turkey, killing 582 people and injuring thousands.

Skyfall

2012 "Skyfall", 23rd James Bond film, directed by Sam Mendes and starring Daniel Craig and Javier Bardem premieres in London