On this day in history

August 23

28 births · 10 deaths · 5 events

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Anniversary highlights

Event anniversary

Battle of Stalingrad

84 years ago

Born this day

1754

Louis XVI of France

Died aged 38

Photo (modified): Joseph-Siffred Duplessis / Formerly attributed to Antoine-François Callet · Public domain

Oldest record

1392nd

Abu Bakr

death anniversary

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Famous births28

AD 688 · 1338 yrs

Charles Martel

Charles Martel (c. 688 – 22 October 741), Martel being an Old French sobriquet meaning "The Hammer", was a Frankish political and military leader who, as Duke and Prince of the Franks and Mayor of the Palace, was the de facto ruler of the Franks from 718 until his death.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MilitaryDied aged 53

View profile Photo (modified): © Ralph Hammann - Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

1258 · 768 yrs

Osman I

Osman I or Osman Ghazi (Ottoman Turkish: عثمان غازى, romanized: ʿOsmān Ġāzī; Turkish: I. Osman or Osman Gazi; died 1323/4) was the eponymous founder of the Ottoman Empire (first known as a beylik or emirate).

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Notable PeopleDied aged 67

View profile Photo (modified): Ottoman miniature painting · Public domain

1754 · 272 yrs

Louis XVI of France

Louis XVI (Louis-Auguste; French:; 23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793) was the last king of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 38

View profile Photo (modified): Joseph-Siffred Duplessis / Formerly attributed to Antoine-François Callet · Public domain

1769 · 257 yrs

Georges Cuvier

Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, baron Cuvier (23 August 1769 – 13 May 1832), known as Georges Cuvier (French:), was a French naturalist and zoologist, sometimes referred to as the "founding father of paleontology".

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 62

View profile Photo (modified): François-André Vincent · Public domain

1809 · 217 yrs

Juliusz Słowacki

Juliusz Słowacki (Polish:; French: Jules Slowacki; 4 September 1809 – 3 April 1849) was a Polish Romantic poet. He is considered one of the "Three Bards" of Polish literature — a major figure in the Polish Romantic period, and the father of modern Polish drama.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 39

View profile Photo (modified): James Hopwood the Younger · Public domain

1842 · 184 yrs

Osborne Reynolds

Osborne Reynolds (23 August 1842 – 21 February 1912) was an Irish-born British innovator in the understanding of fluid dynamics. Separately, his studies of heat transfer between solids and fluids brought improvements in boiler and condenser design.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

TechnologyDied aged 69

View profile Photo (modified): John Collier · Public domain

1864 · 162 yrs

Eleftherios Venizelos

Eleftherios Kyriakou Venizelos (Greek: Ελευθέριος Κυριάκου Βενιζέλος, romanized: Eleuthérios Kyriákou Venizélos, pronounced; 23 August 1864 – 18 March 1936) was a Greek statesman and leader of the Greek national liberation movement.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsDied aged 71

View profile Photo (modified): Photoprint copyrighted by Harris & Ewing (No known restrictions on publication) · Public domain

1867 · 159 yrs

Edgar de Wahl

Edgar von Wahl (Interlingue: Edgar de Wahl; born Edgar Alexis Robert von Wahl; 23 August 1867 – 9 March 1948) was a Baltic German mathematics and physics teacher who lived in Tallinn, Estonia.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScholarshipDied aged 80

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · CC BY-SA 3.0

1898 · 128 yrs

Albert Claude

Albert Claude (French pronunciation:; 24 August 1899 – 22 May 1983) was a Belgian-American cell biologist and medical doctor who shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1974 with Christian de Duve and George Emil Palade.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 128

View profile Photo (modified): Keystone · Public domain

1910 · 116 yrs

Giuseppe Meazza

Giuseppe Meazza (Italian pronunciation:; 23 August 1910 – 21 August 1979) was an Italian football manager and player.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

SportsWould be 116

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1912 · 114 yrs

Gene Kelly

Eugene Curran Kelly (August 23, 1912 – February 2, 1996) was an American dancer, actor, singer, director and choreographer. He was known for his energetic and athletic dancing style.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

FilmWould be 114

View profile Photo (modified): Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer · Public domain

1921 · 105 yrs

Kenneth Arrow

Kenneth Joseph Arrow (August 23, 1921 – February 21, 2017) was an American economist, mathematician and political theorist. He received the John Bates Clark Medal in 1957, and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1972, along with John Hicks.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 105

View profile Photo (modified): Linda A. Cicero / Stanford News Service · CC BY 3.0

Showing 12 of 28

Famous deaths10

AD 634 · 1392 yrs

Abu Bakr

Abu Bakr (Arabic: أبو بكر, romanised: ʾAbū Bakr), born Abd Allah ibn Abi Quhafa (Arabic: عَبْدُ اللهِ بْنُ أَبِي قُحَافَةَ, romanised: ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʾAbī Quḥāfa; c.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsDied aged 60

View profile Photo (modified): Petermaleh · CC BY-SA 3.0

1806 · 220 yrs

Charles-Augustin de Coulomb

Charles-Augustin de Coulomb ( KOO-lom, -⁠lohm, koo-LOM, -⁠LOHM; French:; 14 June 1736 – 23 August 1806) was a French officer, engineer, and physicist. He is best known as the eponymous discoverer of what is now called Coulomb's law, the description of the electrostatic force of attraction and repulsion.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 70

View profile Photo (modified): Louis Hierle · Public domain

1892 · 134 yrs

Deodoro da Fonseca

Manuel Deodoro da Fonseca (5 August 1827 – 23 August 1892) was a Brazilian politician and military officer who served as the head of provisional government and the first president of Brazil. He was born in Alagoas in a military family, followed a military career, and became a national figure.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsDied aged 65

View profile Photo (modified): Bror Kronstrand · Public domain

1926 · 100 yrs

Rudolph Valentino

Rodolfo Pietro Filiberto Raffaele Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguolla (May 6, 1895 – August 23, 1926), known professionally as Rudolph Valentino or just as Valentino, was an Italian-born actor and dancer.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

FilmWould be 131

View profile Photo (modified): Henry Waxman · Public domain

1944 · 82 yrs

Abdülmecid II

Abdülmecid II or Abdul Mejid II (Ottoman Turkish: عبد المجید ثانی, romanized: ʿAbdü'l-Mecîd-i sânî; Turkish: II.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ArtDied aged 76

View profile Photo (modified): Jean Pascal Sébah · Public domain

1982 · 44 yrs

Stanford Moore

Stanford Moore (September 4, 1913 – August 23, 1982) was an American biochemist. He shared a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1972, with Christian B.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 113

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1989 · 37 yrs

R. D. Laing

Ronald David Laing (7 October 1927 – 23 August 1989) was a Scottish psychiatrist who wrote extensively on mental illness, particularly psychosis and schizophrenia. Politically, Laing was regarded as a thinker of the New Left.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 99

View profile Photo (modified): No machine-readable author provided. Profero assumed (based on copyright claims). · CC BY 2.5

1997 · 29 yrs

John Kendrew

Sir John Cowdery Kendrew, (24 March 1917 – 23 August 1997) was an English biochemist, crystallographer, and science administrator. Kendrew shared the 1962 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Max Perutz, for their work at the Cavendish Laboratory to investigate the structure of haem-containing proteins.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 109

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

2016 · 10 yrs

Reinhard Selten

Reinhard Justus Reginald Selten (German:; 5 October 1930 – 23 August 2016) was a German economist, who won the 1994 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (shared with John Harsanyi and John Nash).

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 96

View profile Photo (modified): Tohma ( talk ) · CC BY-SA 4.0

2023 · 3 yrs

Yevgeny Prigozhin

Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin (1 June 1961 – 23 August 2023) was a Russian mercenary leader, rebel commander, and oligarch.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

BusinessWould be 65

View profile Photo (modified): Михаил Метцель / ТАСС · CC BY 4.0

Events5

1572 · 454 yrs

St. Bartholomew's Day massacre

The Saint Bartholomew's Day massacre (French: Massacre de la Saint-Barthélemy) in 1572 was a targeted group of assassinations and a wave of Catholic mob violence directed against the Huguenots (French Calvinist Protestants) during the French Wars of Religion.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Tragedy

1914 · 112 yrs

Battle of Tannenberg

The Battle of Tannenberg, also known as the Second Battle of Tannenberg, was fought between Russia and Germany between 26 and 30 August 1914, the first month of World War I.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

1927 · 99 yrs

Sacco and Vanzetti

Nicola Sacco (Italian:; April 22, 1891 – August 23, 1927) and Bartolomeo Vanzetti (Italian:; June 11, 1888 – August 23, 1927) were Italian immigrants and anarchists, controversially accused of murdering Alessandro Berardelli and Frederick Parmenter, a guard and a paymaster, during the April 15, 1920, armed robbery of…

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

History

1942 · 84 yrs

Battle of Stalingrad

The Battle of Stalingrad was a major battle on the Eastern Front of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its Axis allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) in southern Russia.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

1989 · 37 yrs

Baltic Way

The Baltic Way (Lithuanian: Baltijos kelias; Latvian: Baltijas ceļš; Estonian: Balti kett) or Baltic Chain (also "Chain of Freedom") was a peaceful political demonstration that occurred on 23 August 1989.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

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