On This Day — 23 February
2000s
2025
A snap election is held in Germany.
2025 German federal election
2021
Four simultaneous prison riots leave at least 62 people dead in Ecuador.
February 2021 Ecuadorian prison riots
2020
Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old African-American citizen, is shot and murdered by three white men after visiting a house under construction while jogging at a neighborhood in Satilla Shores near Brunswick in Glynn County, Georgia.
Murder of Ahmaud Arbery
2019
Atlas Air Flight 3591, a Boeing 767 freighter, crashes into Trinity Bay near Anahuac, Texas, killing all three people on board.
Atlas Air Flight 3591
2018
Parliamentary elections are held in Djibouti.
2018 Djiboutian parliamentary election
2017
The Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army captures Al-Bab from ISIL.
Free Syrian Army
2012
A series of attacks across Iraq leave at least 83 killed and more than 250 injured.
23 February 2012 Iraq attacks
2010
Unknown criminals pour more than 2+1⁄2 million liters of diesel oil and other hydrocarbons into the river Lambro, in northern Italy, sparking an environmental disaster.
Diesel fuel
2008
A United States Air Force B-2 Spirit bomber crashes on Guam, marking the first operational loss of a B-2.
United States Air Force
2008
The Japanese WINDS satellite is launched.
WINDS
2007
A train derails on an evening express service near Grayrigg, Cumbria, England, killing one person and injuring 88. This results in hundreds of points being checked over the UK after a few similar accidents.
Grayrigg derailment
2002
An Ariane 4 rocket is launched from the Guiana Space Centre carrying Intelsat 904.
Ariane 4
1900s
1999
Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Öcalan is charged with treason in Ankara, Turkey.
Kurds
1999
An avalanche buries the town of Galtür, Austria, killing 31.
Avalanche
1998
In the United States, tornadoes in central Florida destroy or damage 2,600 structures and kill 42 people.
1998 Central Florida tornado outbreak
1991
In Thailand, General Sunthorn Kongsompong leads a bloodless coup d'état, deposing Prime Minister Chatichai Choonhavan.
Thailand
1988
Saddam Hussein begins the Anfal genocide against Kurds and Assyrians in northern Iraq.
Anfal campaign
1987
Supernova 1987a is seen in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
SN 1987A
1983
The United States Environmental Protection Agency announces its intent to buy out and evacuate the dioxin-contaminated community of Times Beach, Missouri.
United States Environmental Protection Agency
1981
In Spain, Antonio Tejero attempts a coup d'état by capturing the Spanish Congress of Deputies.
Antonio Tejero
1980
Iran hostage crisis: Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini states that Iran's parliament will decide the fate of the American embassy hostages.
Iran hostage crisis
1974
The Symbionese Liberation Army demands $4 million more to release kidnap victim Patty Hearst.
Symbionese Liberation Army
1971
Operation Lam Son 719: South Vietnamese General Do Cao Tri was killed in a helicopter crash en route to taking control of the faltering campaign.
Operation Lam Son 719
1966
In Syria, Ba'ath Party member Salah Jadid leads an intra-party military coup that replaces the previous government of General Amin al-Hafiz, also a Baathist.
Syria
1958
Five-time Argentine Formula One champion Juan Manuel Fangio is kidnapped by rebels involved in the Cuban Revolution, on the eve of the Cuban Grand Prix. He was released the following day after the race.
Formula One
1954
The first mass inoculation of children against polio with the Salk vaccine begins in Pittsburgh.
Polio
1950
General elections are held in the United Kingdom.
Elections in the United Kingdom
1947
International Organization for Standardization is founded.
International Organization for Standardization
1945
World War II: During the Battle of Iwo Jima, a group of United States Marines reach the top of Mount Suribachi on the island and are photographed raising the American flag.
Battle of Iwo Jima
1945
World War II: The 11th Airborne Division, with Filipino guerrillas, free all 2,147 captives of the Los Baños internment camp, in what General Colin Powell later would refer to as "the textbook airborne operation for all ages and all armies".
11th Airborne Division
1945
World War II: The capital of the Philippines, Manila, is liberated by combined Filipino and American forces.
Philippines
1945
World War II: Capitulation of German garrison in Poznań. The city is liberated by Soviet and Polish forces.
Nazi Germany
1945
World War II: The German town of Pforzheim is annihilated in a raid by 379 British bombers.
Pforzheim
1945
American Airlines Flight 009 crashes near Rural Retreat, Virginia, killing 17.
American Airlines Flight 009
1944
The Soviet Union begins the forced deportation of the Chechen and Ingush people from the North Caucasus to Central Asia.
Soviet Union
1943
The Cavan Orphanage fire kills thirty-five girls and an elderly cook.
Cavan Orphanage fire
1943
Greek Resistance: The United Panhellenic Organization of Youth is founded in Greece.
Greek resistance
1942
World War II: Japanese submarines fire artillery shells at the coastline near Santa Barbara, California.
World War II
1941
Plutonium is first produced and isolated by Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg.
Plutonium
1934
Leopold III becomes King of Belgium.
Leopold III of Belgium
1927
U.S. President Calvin Coolidge signs a bill by Congress establishing the Federal Radio Commission (later replaced by the Federal Communications Commission) which was to regulate the use of radio frequencies in the United States.
Calvin Coolidge
1927
German theoretical physicist Werner Heisenberg writes a letter to fellow physicist Wolfgang Pauli, in which he describes his uncertainty principle for the first time.
Theoretical physics
1917
First demonstrations in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The beginning of the February Revolution (March 8 in the Gregorian calendar).
Saint Petersburg
1909
The AEA Silver Dart makes the first powered flight in Canada and the British Empire.
AEA Silver Dart
1905
Chicago attorney Paul Harris and three other businessmen meet for lunch to form the Rotary Club, the world's first service club.
Paul Harris (Rotary)
1903
Cuba leases Guantánamo Bay to the United States "in perpetuity".
Cuba
1900
Second Boer War: During the Battle of the Tugela Heights, the first British attempt to take Hart's Hill fails.
Second Boer War
1800s
1898
Émile Zola is imprisoned in France after writing J'Accuse...!, a letter accusing the French government of antisemitism and wrongfully imprisoning Captain Alfred Dreyfus.
Émile Zola
1887
The French Riviera is hit by a large earthquake, killing around 2,000.
French Riviera
1886
Charles Martin Hall produced the first samples of aluminium from the electrolysis of aluminium oxide, after several years of intensive work. He was assisted in this project by his older sister, Julia Brainerd Hall.
Charles Martin Hall
1885
Sino-French War: French Army gains an important victory in the Battle of Đồng Đăng in the Tonkin region of Vietnam.
Sino-French War
1883
Alabama becomes the first U.S. state to enact an anti-trust law.
Alabama
1870
Reconstruction Era: Post-U.S. Civil War military control of Mississippi ends and it is readmitted to the Union.
Reconstruction era
1861
President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrives secretly in Washington, D.C., after the thwarting of an alleged assassination plot in Baltimore, Maryland.
Abraham Lincoln
1854
The official independence of the Orange Free State, South Africa is declared.
Orange Free State
1847
Mexican–American War: Battle of Buena Vista: In Mexico, American troops under future president General Zachary Taylor defeat Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna.
Mexican–American War
1836
Texas Revolution: The Siege of the Alamo (prelude to the Battle of the Alamo) begins in San Antonio, Texas.
Texas Revolution
1820
Cato Street Conspiracy: A plot to murder all the British cabinet ministers is exposed and the conspirators arrested.
Cato Street Conspiracy
Before 1800
1778
American Revolutionary War: Baron von Steuben arrives at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, to help train the Continental Army.
American Revolutionary War
1763
Berbice slave uprising in Guyana: The first major slave revolt in South America.
Berbice Rebellion
1725
J. S. Bach leads his Tafel-Music Shepherd Cantata for the birthday of Christian, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels.
Johann Sebastian Bach
1455
Traditionally the date of publication of the Gutenberg Bible, the first Western book printed with movable type.
Gutenberg Bible
705
Empress Wu Zetian abdicates the throne, restoring the Tang dynasty.
Wu Zetian
628
Khosrow II, Shahanshah of the Sasanian Empire, is overthrown.
Khosrow II
532
Byzantine emperor Justinian I lays the foundation stone of a new Orthodox Christian basilica in Constantinople – the Hagia Sophia.
List of Byzantine emperors
303
Roman emperor Diocletian orders the destruction of the Christian church in Nicomedia, beginning eight years of Diocletianic Persecution.
Roman emperor