January 23 is the 23rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 342 days remaining, 343 in leap years.
- 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 or not a new city in Oregon is named after Boston, Massachusetts, or Portland, Maine, with Portland winning.
- 1907 - Charles Curtis from Kansas, becomes the first Native American US Senator.
- 1920 - The Netherlands refuses to surrender ex-Kaiser Willhelm 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 - John Walker Lindh returned to the United States under FBI custody
- 1737 - John Hancock, statesman and U.S. revolutionary (+ 1793)
- 1783 - Stendhal, writer (+ 1842)
- 1786 - Auguste de Montferrand, architect (+ 1858)
- 1832 - Edouard Manet, impressionist artist (+ 1883)
- 1862 - David Hilbert, Mathematician
- 1898 - Sergei Eisenstein, director (+ 1948)
- 1903 - Randolph Scott, actor (+ 1987)
- 1907 - Dan Durya[?], actor (+ 1968)
- 1910 - Django Reinhardt, guitarist (+ 1953)
- 1919 - Hans Haas[?], zoologist and underwater scientist
- 1919 - Ernie Kovacs, comedian (+ 1962)
- 1920 - Ray Abrams[?], tenor saxophonist
- 1920 - Gottfried Böhm[?], architect
- 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
- 1991 - Erika Winner[?],ski racer
- 1002 - Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor
- 1570 - James Stewart, Earl of Moray[?], regent of Scotland
- 1805 - Claude Chappe, telecommunications pioneer (semaphores)
- 1837 - John Field, composer
- 1875 - Charles Kingsley, English writer
- 1893 - Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar, the only United States Supreme Court justice from Mississippi
- 1931 - Anna Pavlova, ballerina
- 1937 - Marie Prevost, actress
- 1943 - Alexander Woolcott[?], bon vivant
- 1973 - Kid Ory, musician
- 1976 - Paul Robeson, actor, singer, social activist
- 1978 - Jack Oakie[?], actor
- 1978 - Terry Kath[?], musician ("Chicago (band)")
- 1981 - Samuel Barber, American composer
- 1983 - George Cukor, director
- 1989 - Salvador Dalí, artist
- 1992 - Freddie Bartholomew[?], actor
- 1993 - Thomas Dorsey[?], gospel music singer
- 2002 - Robert Nozick, philosopher
- 2002 - Pierre Bourdieu, French sociologist
See Also: January,
February,
March,
April,
May,
June,
July,
August,
September,
October,
November,
December
January 22 - January 24 - December 23 - February 23 - Historical anniversaries