On This Day — 23 July

2000s

2018

A wildfire in East Attica kills at least 102 people. It is the deadliest wildfire in the history of Greece.

2018 Attica wildfires

2015

NASA announces discovery of Kepler-452b by the Kepler space telescope.

NASA

2014

TransAsia Airways Flight 222 crashes in Xixi village near Huxi, Penghu, during approach to Penghu Airport. Forty-eight of the 58 people on board are killed and five more people on the ground are injured.

TransAsia Airways Flight 222

2012

The Solar storm of 2012 was an unusually large coronal mass ejection that was emitted by the Sun which barely missed the Earth by nine days. If it hit, it would have caused up to US$2.6 trillion in damages to electrical equipment worldwide.

July 2012 solar storm

2011

A high-speed train rear-ends another on a viaduct on the Yongtaiwen railway line in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, China, resulting in 40 deaths.

High-speed rail

2010

The English-Irish boy band One Direction were formed while auditioning for the 2010 series of the British singing competition The X Factor.

One Direction

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2005

Three bombs explode in the Naama Bay area of Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, killing 88 people.

2005 Sharm El Sheikh bombings

2001

Megawati Sukarnoputri was sworn in as the first female president of Indonesia following her predecessor's impeachment.

Megawati Sukarnoputri

1900s

1999

ANA Flight 61 is hijacked in Tokyo, Japan by Yuji Nishizawa.

All Nippon Airways Flight 61

1999

Space Shuttle Columbia launches on STS-93, with Eileen Collins becoming the first female space shuttle commander. The shuttle also carried and deployed the Chandra X-ray Observatory.

Space Shuttle Columbia

1997

Digital Equipment Corporation files antitrust charges against chipmaker Intel.

Digital Equipment Corporation

1995

Comet Hale–Bopp is discovered; it becomes visible to the naked eye on Earth nearly a year later.

Comet Hale–Bopp

1993

China Northwest Airlines Flight 2119 crashes during takeoff from Yinchuan Xihuayuan Airport in Yinchuan, Ningxia, China, killing 55 people.

China Northwest Airlines Flight 2119

1992

A Vatican commission, led by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, establishes that limiting certain rights of homosexual people and non-married couples is not equivalent to discrimination on grounds of race or gender.

Catholic Church

1992

Abkhazia declares independence from Georgia.

Abkhazia

1988

General Ne Win, effective ruler of Burma since 1962, resigns after pro-democracy protests.

Ne Win

1983

Thirteen Sri Lanka Army soldiers are killed after a deadly ambush by the militant Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

Sri Lanka Army

1983

Gimli Glider: Air Canada Flight 143 runs out of fuel and makes a deadstick landing at Gimli, Manitoba.

Gimli Glider

1982

Outside Santa Clarita, California, actor Vic Morrow and two children are killed when a helicopter crashes onto them while shooting a scene from Twilight Zone: The Movie.

Santa Clarita, California

1980

Phạm Tuân becomes the first Vietnamese citizen and the first Asian in space when he flies aboard the Soyuz 37 mission as an Intercosmos Research Cosmonaut.

Phạm Tuân

1974

The Greek military junta collapses, and former Prime Minister Konstantinos Karamanlis is invited to lead the new government, beginning Greece's metapolitefsi era.

Greek junta

1972

The United States launches Landsat 1, the first Earth-resources satellite.

Landsat 1

1970

Qaboos bin Said al Said becomes Sultan of Oman after overthrowing his father, Said bin Taimur initiating massive reforms, modernization programs and end to a decade long civil war.

Qaboos bin Said

1968

Glenville shootout: In Cleveland, Ohio, a violent shootout between a Black Militant organization and the Cleveland Police Department occurs. During the shootout, a riot begins and lasts for five days.

Glenville shootout

1968

The only successful hijacking of an El Al aircraft takes place when a Boeing 707 carrying ten crew and 38 passengers is taken over by three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The aircraft was en route from Rome, to Lod, Israel.

El Al

1967

Detroit Riots: In Detroit, one of the worst riots in United States history begins on 12th Street in the predominantly African American inner city. It ultimately kills 43 people, injures 342 and burns about 1,400 buildings.

1967 Detroit riot

1962

Telstar relays the first publicly transmitted, live trans-Atlantic television program, featuring Walter Cronkite.

Telstar

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1962

The International Agreement on the Neutrality of Laos is signed.

International Agreement on the Neutrality of Laos

1962

Jackie Robinson becomes the first African American to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Jackie Robinson

1961

The Sandinista National Liberation Front is founded in Nicaragua.

Sandinista National Liberation Front

1952

General Muhammad Naguib leads the Free Officers Movement (formed by Gamal Abdel Nasser, the real power behind the coup) in overthrowing King Farouk of Egypt.

Mohamed Naguib

1945

The post-war legal processes against Philippe Pétain begin.

Philippe Pétain

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1943

The Rayleigh bath chair murder occurred in Rayleigh, Essex, England.

Rayleigh bath chair murder

1943

World War II: The British destroyers HMS Eclipse and HMS Laforey sink the Italian submarine Ascianghi in the Mediterranean after she torpedoes the cruiser HMS Newfoundland.

HMS Eclipse (H08)

1942

World War II: The German offensives Operation Edelweiss and Operation Braunschweig begin on the Eastern Front.

World War II

1942

Bulgarian poet and Communist leader Nikola Vaptsarov is executed by firing squad.

Bulgaria

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1940

The United States' Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles issues a declaration on the U.S. non-recognition policy of the Soviet annexation and incorporation of three Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

United States Under Secretary of State

1936

In Catalonia, Spain, the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia is founded through the merger of Socialist and Communist parties.

Catalonia

1927

The first station of the Indian Broadcasting Company goes on the air in Bombay.

All India Radio

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1926

Fox Film buys the patents of the Movietone sound system for recording sound onto film.

Fox Film

1921

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is established at the founding National Congress.

Chinese Communist Party

1919

Prince Regent Aleksander Karađorđević signs the decree establishing the University of Ljubljana

Alexander I of Yugoslavia

1914

July Crisis: Austria-Hungary issues a series of demands in an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia demanding Serbia to allow the Austrians to determine who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Serbia accepts all but one of those demands and Austria declares war on July 28.

July Crisis