On this day in history

December 23

29 births · 9 deaths · 5 events

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Anniversary highlights

Event anniversary

149

Constantinople Conference

149 years ago

Born this day

1933

Akihito

Turns 92

Photo (modified): Malacañang Photo Bureau · Public domain

Oldest record

391st

Mariana of Austria

birth anniversary

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Famous births29

1634 · 391 yrs

Mariana of Austria

Mariana of Austria (24 December 1634 – 16 May 1696) was Queen of Spain from 1649 until her husband Philip IV of Spain died in 1665. Appointed Regent for their infant son Charles II, she remained an influential figure until her own death in 1696.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 61

View profile Photo (modified): Diego Velázquez · Public domain

1732 · 293 yrs

Richard Arkwright

Sir Richard Arkwright (23 December 1732 – 3 August 1792) was an English inventor and a leading entrepreneur during the early Industrial Revolution.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

BusinessDied aged 59

View profile Photo (modified): Joseph Wright of Derby · Public domain

1750 · 275 yrs

Friedrich August I of Saxony

Frederick Augustus I of Saxony (German: Friedrich August I., Polish: Fryderyk August I, French: Frédéric-Auguste Ier, 23 December 1750 – 5 May 1827) was a member of the House of Wettin who reigned as the last Elector of Saxony from 1763 to 1806 (as Frederick Augustus III) and as the first King of Saxony from 1806 to…

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 76

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1777 · 248 yrs

Alexander I of Russia

Alexander I of Russia (Russian: Александр I Павлович, romanized: Aleksandr I Pavlovich, IPA:; 23 December 1777 – 1 December 1825), nicknamed "the Blessed", was Emperor of Russia from 1801, the first King of Congress Poland from 1815, and the Grand Duke of Finland from 1809 to his death in 1825.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 47

View profile Photo (modified): Alexander Molinari · Public domain

1793 · 232 yrs

Dost Mohammad Khan

Dost Mohammad Khan Barakzai, (23 December 1792 – 9 June 1863) nicknamed the Great Emir, was the founder of the Barakzai dynasty and one of the prominent rulers of Afghanistan during the First Anglo-Afghan War.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsDied aged 69

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1803 · 222 yrs

Charles-Augustin Sainte-Beuve

Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve (French:; 23 December 1804 – 13 October 1869) was a French literary critic.

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LiteratureDied aged 65

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1805 · 220 yrs

Joseph Smith

Joseph Smith Jr. (December 23, 1805 – June 27, 1844) was an American religious and political leader and the founder of Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint movement.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ReligionDied aged 38

View profile Photo (modified): Lucian Rose Foster · Public domain

1812 · 213 yrs

Samuel Smiles

Samuel Smiles (23 December 1812 – 16 April 1904) was a British author and government reformer. Although he campaigned on a Chartist platform, he promoted the idea that more progress would come from new attitudes than from new laws.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 91

View profile Photo (modified): George Reid · Public domain

1867 · 158 yrs

Madam C. J. Walker

Madam C. J. Walker (born Sarah Breedlove; December 23, 1867 – May 25, 1919), Mrs. Charles Joseph Walker upon her third marriage, was an American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and political and social activist.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

BusinessDied aged 51

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1881 · 144 yrs

Juan Ramón Jiménez

Juan Ramón Jiménez Mantecón (Spanish pronunciation:; 23 December 1881 – 29 May 1958) was a Spanish poet, a prolific writer who received the 1956 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his lyrical poetry, which in the Spanish language constitutes an example of high spirit and artistic purity".

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LiteratureWould be 144

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1896 · 129 yrs

Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa

Giuseppe Tomasi, 11th Prince of Lampedusa, 12th Duke of Palma, GE (23 December 1896 – 23 July 1957), known as Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (Italian pronunciation:), was a Sicilian writer, as well as the last generation of Tomasi Princes of Lampedusa before the family's and their titles' extinction (although his uncle…

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LiteratureWould be 129

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1902 · 123 yrs

Charan Singh

Chaudhary Charan Singh (23 December 1902 – 29 May 1987) was an Indian politician, peasant leader, author and an independence activist who briefly served as the prime minister of India from July 1979 to January 1980.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 123

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Showing 12 of 29

Famous deaths9

1831 · 194 yrs

Emilia Plater

Countess Emilia Broel-Plater (Lithuanian: Emilija Pliaterytė; 13 November 1806 – 23 December 1831) was a Polish–Lithuanian noblewoman and revolutionary from the lands of the partitioned Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MilitaryDied aged 25

View profile Photo (modified): Józef Straszewicz · Public domain

1834 · 191 yrs

Thomas Robert Malthus

Thomas Robert Malthus (13/14 February 1766 – 29 December 1834) was an English economist, Christian priest, and scholar influential in the fields of political economy and demography.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 68

View profile Photo (modified): John Linnell · CC BY 4.0

1948 · 77 yrs

Hideki Tojo

Hideki Tojo (30 December 1884 – 23 December 1948) was a Japanese military officer and politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1941 to 1944 during World War II. His leadership was marked by widespread state violence and mass killings perpetrated in the name of Japanese nationalism.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 141

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1972 · 53 yrs

Andrei Tupolev

Andrei Nikolayevich Tupolev (Russian: Андрей Николаевич Туполев; 10 November 1888 – 23 December 1972) was a Russian and later Soviet aeronautical engineer known for his pioneering aircraft designs as the director of the Tupolev Design Bureau.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

TechnologyWould be 137

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1985 · 40 yrs

Ferhat Abbas

Ferhat Abbas (Arabic: فرحات عباس‎; ALA-LC: Farḥāt ʿAbbās; 24 August 1899 – 24 December 1985) was an Algerian politician who acted in a provisional capacity as the then yet-to-become independent country's Prime Minister from 1958 to 1961, as well as the first President of the National Assembly and the first acting…

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PoliticsWould be 127

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2004 · 21 yrs

P. V. Narasimha Rao

Pamulaparthi Venkata Narasimha Rao (28 June 1921 – 23 December 2004) was an Indian independence activist, lawyer, and politician from the Indian National Congress who served as the prime minister of India from 1991 to 1996.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 105

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2013 · 12 yrs

Mikhail Kalashnikov

Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov (10 November 1919 – 23 December 2013) was a Soviet and Russian lieutenant general, inventor, military engineer, writer, and small arms designer.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ArtWould be 106

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2021 · 4 yrs

Joan Didion

Joan Didion (December 5, 1934 – December 23, 2021) was an American writer and journalist. She is considered one of the pioneers of New Journalism, along with Gay Talese, Truman Capote, Norman Mailer, Hunter S. Thompson and Tom Wolfe.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureWould be 91

View profile Photo (modified): Kathleen Ballard, Los Angeles Times · CC BY 4.0

2024 · 1 yrs

Desi Bouterse

Desiré "Dési" Delano Bouterse (13 October 1945 – 23 December 2024) was a Surinamese military officer, politician and revolutionary who served as the eighth president of Suriname from 2010 to 2020, having previously led the country twice after a coup as a military leader from 1980 to 1987 and again from 1990 to 1991.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 81

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Events5

1876 · 149 yrs

Constantinople Conference

The 1876–77 Constantinople Conference (Turkish: Tersane Konferansı "Shipyard Conference", after the venue Tersane Sarayı "Shipyard Palace") of the Great Powers (Austria-Hungary, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia) was held in Constantinople (now Istanbul) from 23 December 1876 until 20 January 1877.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Politics

1938 · 87 yrs

Catalonia Offensive

The Catalonia Offensive (Catalan: Ofensiva de Catalunya, Spanish: Ofensiva de Cataluña) was part of the Spanish Civil War. The Nationalist Army started the offensive on 23 December 1938 and rapidly conquered Republican-held Catalonia with Barcelona (the Republic's capital city from October 1937).

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

1990 · 35 yrs

Slovenian independence referendum, 1990

An independence referendum was held in the Republic of Slovenia (then part of SFR Yugoslavia) on 23 December 1990. Both the ruling center-right coalition and the left-wing opposition supported the referendum and called on voters to support Slovenian independence.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Politics

2004 · 21 yrs

Second Battle of Fallujah

The Second Battle of Fallujah, initially codenamed Operation Phantom Fury, Operation al-Fajr (Arabic: الفجر, lit. 'The Dawn') was an American-led offensive of the Iraq War that began on 7 November 2004 and lasted about six weeks.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

2022 · 3 yrs

2022 Paris shooting

On 23 December 2022, a mass shooting occurred at three Kurdish locations in the 10th arrondissement of Paris, France. Three people were killed and three others were wounded in and around a Kurdish cultural center on Rue d'Enghien.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Tragedy

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