On This Day — 23 October

2022

Xi Jinping is elected as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party by the Central Committee, beginning a third term of the paramount leader of China.

Xi Jinping

2022

Myanmar Air Force airstrikes a concert in Hpakant Township, Kachin state killing at least 80 people, including senior Kachin Independence Organisation officials, in the Hpakant massacre.

Myanmar Air Force

2020

Second Libyan Civil War: The Second Libyan Civil War comes to an end as all parties to the 5+5 Joint Libyan Military Commission agree to a ceasefire.

Libyan civil war (2014–2020)

2017

War against the Islamic State: Philippine defense secretary Delfin Lorenzana declares the end of the Siege of Marawi.

War against the Islamic State

2015

The lowest sea-level pressure in the Western Hemisphere, and the highest reliably-measured non-tornadic sustained winds, are recorded in Hurricane Patricia, which strikes Mexico hours later, killing at least 13 and causing over $280 million in damages.

Atmospheric pressure

2011

A powerful 7.2 magnitude earthquake strikes Van Province, Turkey, killing 582 people and injuring thousands.

2011 Van earthquakes

2011

The Libyan National Transitional Council deems the Libyan Civil War over.

National Transitional Council

2007

A storm causes the Mexican Kab 101 oil platform to collide with a wellhead, leading to the death and drowning of 22 people during rescue operations after evacuation of the platform.

Kab 101

2007

Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on STS-120, with Pamela Melroy becoming the second female space shuttle commander.

Space Shuttle Discovery

2004

A powerful earthquake and its aftershocks hit Niigata Prefecture in northern Japan, killing 35 people, injuring 2,200, and leaving 85,000 homeless or evacuated.

2004 Chūetsu earthquake

2002

Second Chechen War: Chechen separatist terrorists seize the House of Culture theater in Moscow and take approximately 700 theater-goers hostage.

Second Chechen War

2001

Apple Computer releases the iPod.

Apple Inc.

1998

Israel and the Palestinian Authority sign the Wye River Memorandum.

Israel

1995

Yolanda Saldívar is found guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting death of popular Latin singer Selena.

Yolanda Saldívar

1993

The Troubles: A Provisional IRA bomb prematurely detonates in Belfast, killing the bomber and nine civilians.

The Troubles

1991

Signing of the Paris Peace Accords which ends the Cambodian–Vietnamese War.

1991 Paris Peace Agreements

1989

The Hungarian Republic officially replaces the communist Hungarian People's Republic.

End of communism in Hungary

1989

Bankruptcy of Wärtsilä Marine, the biggest bankruptcy in the Nordic countries up until then.

Wärtsilä Marine

1989

An explosion at the Houston Chemical Complex in Pasadena, Texas, which registered a 3.5 on the Richter magnitude scale, kills 23 and injures 314.

Phillips disaster of 1989

1983

Lebanese Civil War: The U.S. Marines Corps barracks in Beirut is hit by a truck bomb, killing 241 U.S. military personnel. A French Army barracks in Lebanon is also hit that same morning, killing 58 troops.

Lebanese Civil War

1982

A gunfight breaks out between police officers and members of a religious cult in Arizona. The shootout leaves two cultists dead and dozens of cultists and police officers injured.

Miracle Valley shootout

1978

Aeroflot Flight 6515 crashes off Syvash, killing all 26 people aboard.

Aeroflot Flight 6515

1972

Vietnam War: Operation Linebacker, a US bombing campaign against North Vietnam in response to its Easter Offensive, ends after five months.

Operation Linebacker

1970

Gary Gabelich sets a land speed record in a rocket-powered automobile called the Blue Flame, fueled with natural gas.

Gary Gabelich

1965

Vietnam War: The 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), in conjunction with the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, launches an operation seeking to destroy Communist forces during the siege of Plei Me.

Vietnam War

1959

Aeroflot Flight 200 crashes while attempting to land at Vnukovo International Airport, killing 28.

Aeroflot Flight 200

1958

Canada's Springhill mining disaster kills seventy-five miners, while ninety-nine others are rescued.

Springhill mining disasters

1958

Belgian artist Peyo's comic characters, the Smurfs, make their debut in Spirou magazine.

Belgium

1956

Secret police shoot several anti-communist protesters, igniting the Hungarian Revolution.

Hungarian Revolution of 1956

1955

Prime Minister Ngô Đình Diệm defeats former emperor Bảo Đại in a referendum and founds the Republic of Vietnam.

Ngo Dinh Diem

1955

The people of the Saar region vote in a referendum to unite with West Germany instead of France.

Saarland

1945

Jackie Robinson of the Kansas City Monarchs signs a contract with the Brooklyn Dodger's minor league team, the Montreal Royals, breaking Major League Baseball's color barrier.

Jackie Robinson

1944

World War II: The Battle of Leyte Gulf begins.

Battle of Leyte Gulf

1942

World War II: Allied forces commence the Second Battle of El Alamein, which proves to be the key turning point in the North African campaign.

World War II

1942

All 12 passengers and crewmen aboard American Airlines Flight 28 are killed when it collides with a U.S. Army Air Force bomber near Palm Springs, California.

American Airlines Flight 28

1942

World War II: The Battle for Henderson Field begins on Guadalcanal.

Battle for Henderson Field

1941

The Holocaust: Nazi Germany prohibits Jews from emigrating, including in its occupied territories.

The Holocaust

1940

Adolf Hitler and Francisco Franco meet at Hendaye to discuss the possibility of Spain entering the Second World War.

Adolf Hitler

1927

The Imatra Cinema is destroyed in a fire in Tampere, Finland, during showing the 1924 film Wages of Virtue; 21 people die in the fire and almost 30 are injured.

Imatra (cinema)

1924

Second Zhili–Fengtian War: Warlord Feng Yuxiang, with the covert support of the Empire of Japan, stages a coup in Beijing against his erstwhile superiors in the Zhili clique, crippling their nearly victorious war effort against the Fengtian clique and forcing them to withdraw from northern China.

Second Zhili–Fengtian War

1923

German October: Due to a miscommunication with the party leadership, a militant section of the Communist Party of Germany launches an insurrection in Hamburg.

German October

1912

First Balkan War: The Battle of Kumanovo between the Serbian and Ottoman armies begins.

First Balkan War

1911

The Italo-Turkish War sees the first use of an airplane in combat when an Italian pilot makes a reconnaissance flight.

Italo-Turkish War

1906

Alberto Santos-Dumont flies an airplane in the first heavier-than-air flight in Europe.

Alberto Santos-Dumont

1882

Assommoir bombing: Anarchists such as Fanny Madignier commit the first deadly anarchist attack in France.

Assommoir bombing

1868

Meiji Restoration: Having taken the shogunate's seat of power at Edo and declared it his new capital as Tokyo, Mutsuhito proclaims the start of the new Meiji era.

Meiji Restoration

1864

American Civil War: The Battle of Westport is the last significant engagement west of the Mississippi River, ending in a Union victory.

American Civil War

1856

Second Opium War: Dissatisfied with imperial commissioner Ye Mingchen's reparations for the alleged slighting of a British-owned vessel and at Consul Harry Parkes's urging, British Rear-Admiral Michael Seymour launches an assault on the Barrier Forts outside Canton in the first military engagement of the Second Opium War.

Second Opium War

1850

The first National Women's Rights Convention begins in Worcester, Massachusetts.

National Women's Rights Convention

1812

General Claude François de Malet begins a conspiracy to overthrow Napoleon, claiming that the Emperor died in the Russian campaign.

Claude François de Malet

1798

The forces of Ali Pasha of Janina defeat the French and capture the town of Preveza in the Battle of Nicopolis.

Ali Pasha of Yanina

1707

The First Parliament of the Kingdom of Great Britain convenes.

First Parliament of Great Britain

1666

The most intense tornado on record in English history, an F4 storm on the Fujita scale or T8 on the TORRO scale, strikes the county of Lincolnshire, with winds of more than 213 miles per hour (343 km/h).

Fujita scale

1642

The Battle of Edgehill is the first major battle of the English Civil War.

Battle of Edgehill

1641

Irish Catholic gentry from Ulster attempt to seize control of Dublin Castle, the seat of English rule in Ireland, so as to force concessions.

Irish Catholics

1448

Scotland wins a decisive victory over England at the Battle of Sark, the last pitched battle to be fought between the two kingdoms during the Medieval period.

Battle of Sark

1295

The first treaty forming the Auld Alliance between Scotland and France against England is signed in Paris.

Auld Alliance

1157

The Battle of Grathe Heath ends the Danish Civil War.

Battle of Grathe Heath

1086

Spanish Reconquista: At the Battle of Sagrajas, the Almoravids defeat the Castilians, but are unable to take advantage of their victory.

Reconquista

502

The Synodus Palmaris, called by Gothic king Theoderic, absolves Pope Symmachus of all charges, thus ending the schism of Antipope Laurentius.

AD 502

425

Valentinian III is elevated as Roman emperor at the age of six.

Valentinian III

-42

Liberators' civil war: Mark Antony and Octavian decisively defeat an army under Brutus in the second part of the Battle of Philippi, with Brutus committing suicide and ending the civil war.

Liberators' civil war

-4004

James Ussher's purported creation date of the world according to the Bible.

James Ussher