On this day in history

January 23

29 births · 22 deaths · 5 events

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Anniversary highlights

Event anniversary

470

1556 Shaanxi earthquake

470 years ago

Born this day

1862

David Hilbert

Died aged 81

Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

Oldest record

1857th

Lucius Verus

death anniversary

View profile

Famous births29

1235 · 791 yrs

Boniface VIII

Pope Boniface VIII (Latin: Bonifacius PP. VIII, Italian: Bonifacio VIII; born Benedetto Caetani; c. 1230 – 11 October 1303) was head of the Catholic Church and leader of the Papal States from 24 December 1294 until his death in 1303. The Caetani family was of baronial origin with connections to the papacy.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ReligionDied aged 68

View profile Photo (modified): Giotto · Public domain

1783 · 243 yrs

Stendhal

Marie-Henri Beyle (French:; 23 January 1783 – 23 March 1842), better known by his pen name Stendhal (UK:, US:, French:), was a French writer.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 59

View profile Photo (modified): Olof Johan Södermark · Public domain

1832 · 194 yrs

Édouard Manet

Édouard Manet (UK:, US:; French:; 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French modernist painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, as well as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ArtDied aged 51

View profile Photo (modified): Nadar / Adam Cuerden · Public domain

1840 · 186 yrs

Ernst Abbe

Ernst Karl Abbe (23 January 1840 – 14 January 1905), was a German businessman, optical engineer, physicist, and social reformer. Together with Otto Schott and Carl Zeiss, he developed numerous optical instruments.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 64

View profile Photo (modified): Emil Tesch (* 1860; † 1931), deutscher Fotograf in Jena. (Emil Tesch wird im Internet nie als Fotograf genannt, auf [1] · Public domain

1862 · 164 yrs

David Hilbert

David Hilbert (German:; 23 January 1862 – 14 February 1943) was a German mathematician and philosopher of mathematics and one of the most influential mathematicians of all time.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 81

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

1872 · 154 yrs

Paul Langevin

Paul Langevin (23 January 1872 – 19 December 1946) was a French physicist who developed Langevin dynamics and the Langevin equation. He was one of the founders of the Comité de vigilance des intellectuels antifascistes, an anti-fascist organization created after the 6 February 1934 far right riots.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 74

View profile Photo (modified): Henri Manuel · CC BY 4.0

1876 · 150 yrs

Otto Diels

Otto Paul Hermann Diels (German:; 23 January 1876 – 7 March 1954) was a German chemist. His most notable work was done with Kurt Alder on the Diels–Alder reaction, a method for cyclohexene synthesis.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 150

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

1881 · 145 yrs

Kliment Voroshilov

Kliment Yefremovich "Klim" Voroshilov (Russian: Климент Ефремович Ворошилов ) (4 February 1881 – 2 December 1969), was a prominent Soviet military officer and politician during the Stalin era (1924–1953).

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 145

View profile Photo (modified): Anefo · CC0

1897 · 129 yrs

Subhas Chandra Bose

Subhas Chandra Bose (23 January 1897 – 18 August 1945) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist whose defiance of British authority in India made him a hero among many Indians, but his wartime alliances with Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan left a legacy vexed by authoritarianism, antisemitism, and military…

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 129

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown (Netaji Research Bureau, Calcutta) · Public domain

1907 · 119 yrs

Hideki Yukawa

Hideki Yukawa (湯川秀樹, Yukawa Hideki; né Ogawa; 23 January 1907 – 8 September 1981) was a Japanese theoretical physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1949 "for his prediction of the existence of mesons on the basis of theoretical work on nuclear forces."

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 119

View profile Photo (modified): Nobel Foundation archive · Public domain

1910 · 116 yrs

Django Reinhardt

Jean Reinhardt (23 January 1910 – 16 May 1953), known by his Romani nickname Django (French: or), was a French jazz guitarist and composer. He was one of the first major jazz talents to emerge in Europe and has been hailed as one of its most significant exponents.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MusicWould be 116

View profile Photo (modified): Studio Harcourt · Public domain

1915 · 111 yrs

Arthur Lewis

Sir William Arthur Lewis (23 January 1915 – 15 June 1991) was a Saint Lucian economist and the James Madison Professor of Political Economy at Princeton University. Lewis remains the only black person to have won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ReligionWould be 111

View profile Photo (modified): Ulises Icardi · CC BY-SA 4.0

Showing 12 of 29

Famous deaths22

AD 169 · 1857 yrs

Lucius Verus

Lucius Aurelius Verus (15 December 130 – January/February 169) was Roman emperor from 161 until his death in 169, alongside his adoptive brother Marcus Aurelius. He was a member of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 38

View profile Photo (modified): PierreSelim · CC0

1516 · 510 yrs

Ferdinand II of Aragon

Ferdinand II (10 March 1452 – 23 January 1516), also known as Ferdinand the Catholic (Spanish: Fernando el Católico), was King of Aragon from 1479 until his death in 1516. As the husband and co-ruler of Queen Isabella I of Castile, he was also King of Castile from 1475 to 1504 (as Ferdinand V).

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 63

View profile Photo (modified): Michael Sittow · Public domain

1744 · 282 yrs

Giambattista Vico

Giambattista Vico (born Giovanni Battista Vico; Italian:; 23 June 1668 – 23 January 1744) was an Italian philosopher, rhetorician, historian, and jurist during the Italian Enlightenment.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PhilosophyDied aged 75

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

1806 · 220 yrs

William Pitt the Younger

William Pitt (28 May 1759 – 23 January 1806) was a British statesman who served as the last prime minister of Great Britain from 1783 until the Acts of Union 1800, and the first official prime minister of the United Kingdom from January 1801.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsDied aged 46

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

1875 · 151 yrs

Charles Kingsley

Charles Kingsley (12 June 1819 – 23 January 1875) was an English clergyman, social reformer, historian, novelist and poet.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 55

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · CC BY 4.0

1883 · 143 yrs

Gustave Doré

Paul Gustave Louis Christophe Doré (UK: DOR-ay, US: dor-AY; French:; 6 January 1832 – 23 January 1883) was a French artist. He is best known for his prolific output of wood-engravings illustrating classic literature, especially those for the Vulgate Bible and Dante's Divine Comedy.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ArtDied aged 51

View profile Photo (modified): Nadar / Adam Cuerden · Public domain

1931 · 95 yrs

Anna Pavlova

Anna Pavlovna Pavlova (born Anna Matveyevna Pavlova; 12 February 1881 – 23 January 1931) was a Russian prima ballerina.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

FilmWould be 144

View profile Photo (modified): Photography studio of the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre. St. Petersburg, Russian Empire. · Public domain

1944 · 82 yrs

Edvard Munch

Edvard Munch ( MUUNK; Norwegian:; 12 December 1863 – 23 January 1944) was a Norwegian painter. His 1893 work The Scream has become one of the iconic and acclaimed images in all of Western art.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ArtDied aged 80

View profile Photo (modified): Anders Beer Wilse · Public domain

1947 · 79 yrs

Pierre Bonnard

Pierre Bonnard (French:; 3 October 1867 – 23 January 1947) was a French painter, illustrator and printmaker, known especially for the stylized decorative qualities of his paintings and his bold use of color.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ArtDied aged 79

View profile Photo (modified): Pierre Bonnard · Public domain

1963 · 63 yrs

Józef Gosławski

Józef Jan Gosławski (24 April 1908 – 23 January 1963) was a Polish sculptor and medallic artist. He was a designer of coins (e.g.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ArtWould be 118

View profile Photo (modified): Wanda Gosławska · GFDL

1976 · 50 yrs

Paul Robeson

Paul Leroy Robeson ( ROHB-sən; April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an American bass-baritone concert artist, actor, professional football player, and activist who became famous both for his cultural accomplishments and for his political stances.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MusicWould be 128

View profile Photo (modified): Gordon Parks , Office of War Information; cropped by Beyond My Ken ( talk ) 07:13, 3 February 2011 (UTC) · Public domain

1981 · 45 yrs

Samuel Barber

Samuel Osmond Barber II (March 9, 1910 – January 23, 1981) was an American composer, pianist, conductor, baritone, and music educator, and one of the most celebrated composers of the mid-20th century.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MusicWould be 116

View profile Photo (modified): Carl Van Vechten · Public domain

Showing 12 of 22

Events5

1556 · 470 yrs

1556 Shaanxi earthquake

One of the deadliest earthquakes in history occurred in the early morning of 23 January 1556 in Huaxian, Shaanxi, during the Ming dynasty. Most of the residents there lived in yaodongs—artificial caves in loess cliffs—which collapsed and buried alive those sleeping inside.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Disaster

1579 · 447 yrs

Union of Utrecht

The Union of Utrecht (Dutch: Unie van Utrecht) was an alliance based on an agreement concluded on 23 January 1579 between a number of Dutch provinces and cities, to reach a joint commitment against the king, Philip II of Spain. By joining forces, they hoped to force him to stop his harsh administrative measures.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Politics

1793 · 233 yrs

Second Partition of Poland

The 1793 Second Partition of Poland was the second of three partitions (or partial annexations) that ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth by 1795.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

History

1912 · 114 yrs

International Opium Convention

The First International Opium Convention (also called 1912 Opium Convention or Hague Opium Convention) is a former international treaty signed at The Hague in 1912. The conference were an international effort by states to regulate the trade of opium and suppress illicit opium consumption.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Politics

2021 · 5 yrs

2021 Russian protests

The 2021 Russian protests, also known as Navalny Protests, began on 23 January 2021 in support of the opposition leader Alexei Navalny after he was immediately detained upon returning to Russia after being sent to Germany for treatment following his poisoning the previous year.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Politics

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