February 23 February 23 is the 54th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 311 days remaining, 312 in leap years. Events upto 19th century 1455 - Traditional date for the publication of the Gutenberg Bible, the first Western book printed from movable type. 1574 - The 5th holy war against the Huguenots begins in France. 1660 - Charles XI becomes king of Sweden. 1732 - First performance of George Frideric Handel's Orlando, in London. 1778 - American Revolution: Baron von Steuben arrives at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania to help to train the Continental Army. 1820 - Cato Street Conspiracy: A plot to murder all the British cabinet ministers is exposed. 1821 - The Philadelphia College of Apothecaries founds the first pharmacy college. 1836 - The Siege of the Alamo begins in San Antonio, Texas. 1847 - Mexican-American War: Battle of Buena Vista - In Mexico, American troops defeat Mexican general Antonio López de Santa Anna. 1861 - President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrives secretly in Washington, DC after an assassination attempt in Baltimore, Maryland. 1870 - Military control of Mississippi ends and it is readmitted to the Union. 1874 - Walter Winfield patents a game called "sphairistike" which is more commonly called lawn tennis. 1883 - Alabama becomes the first U.S. state to enact an antitrust law. 1887 - The French Riviera is hit by a large earthquake, killing around 2,000. 1893 - Rudolf Diesel receives a patent for the diesel engine. 1898 - Émile Zola is imprisoned in France after writing J'accuse which was a letter accusing the French government of anti-Semitism and wrongfully placing Alfred Dreyfus in jail. 20th century 1900-1949 1900 - Battle of Hart's Hill: In South Africa the Boers and British troops battle. 1903 - Cuba leases Guantanamo Bay to the United States "in perpetuity". 1904 - For $10 million the United States gains control of the Panama Canal Zone. 1905 - Chicago attorney Paul Harris and three other businessmen meet for lunch to form the Rotary Club, the world's first service club. 1909 - The Silver Dart makes the first powered flight in Canada and the British Empire. 1917 - The Russian Revolution begins. 1919 - Benito Mussolini forms the Fascist Party in Italy. 1927 - The Federal Radio Commission (later renamed the Federal Communications Commission) begins to regulate the use of radio frequencies. 1934 - Leopold III becomes King of Belgium. 1940 - World War II: Soviet Union troops conquer Lasi Island. 1940 - The animated movie Pinocchio is released. 1945 - Following the American victory at the Battle of Iwo Jima, a group of United States Marines reach the top of Mount Surabachi on the island and are photographed raising the American flag. The photo would later win a Pulitzer Prize. 1945 - World War II: The capital of the Philippines, Manila, is liberated by American forces. 1947 - International Organization for Standardization(ISO) is founded. 1950-1999 1950s-1980s 1954 - The first mass vaccination of children against polio begins in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 1955 - First meeting of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO). 1955 - Edgar Faure becomes Prime Minister of France 1956 - Nikita Khrushchev attacks the veneration of Joseph Stalin as a "cult of personality". 1958 - Cuban rebels kidnap 5-time world driving champion Juan Manuel Fangio. 1963 - Alaura O'Dell, aka Paula P-Orridge born in Westminster, London 1966 - A military coup in Syria replaces the previous government. 1974 - The Symbionese Liberation Army demands $4 million more to release kidnap victim Patty Hearst. 1980 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini states that Iran's parliament would decide the fate of the American embassy hostages. 1981 - Antonio Tejero attempts a coup d'etat by capturing the Spanish Congress of Deputies. 1982 - The Spanish Socialist government of Felipe González and Miguel Boyer nationalizes Rumasa, a holding of José María Ruiz Mateos. 1983 - The Environmental Protection Agency announces its intent to buy out and evacuate the dioxin-contaminated community of Times Beach, Missouri. 1987 - A supernova is seen in the Large Magellanic Cloud (see Supernova 1987a). 1990s 1991 - Gulf War: Ground troops cross the Saudi Arabia border and enter Iraq, thus starting the ground-phase of the war. 1991 - Thailand: General Sunthorn Kongsompong leads a bloodless coup d'etat, deposing Prime Minister Chatichai Choonhavan. 1993 - Gary Coleman wins a $1,280,000 lawsuit against his parents. 1998 - Tornadoes in central Florida destroy or damage 2,600 structures and kill 42. 1998 - Osama bin Laden publishes fatwa declaring jihad against all Jews and Crusaders. 1998 - Netscape Communications Corporation announced the foundation of mozilla.org, to co-ordinate the development of the open source Mozilla web browser. 1999 - Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Öcalan is charged with treason in Ankara, Turkey. 1999 - White supremacist John William King is found guilty of kidnapping and killing African American James Byrd Jr by dragging him behind a truck for two miles. Births upto 19th century 1418 - Pope Paul II (d. 1471) 1633 - Samuel Pepys, diarist (d. 1703) 1685 - Georg Friederich Händel, composer (d. 1759) 1743 - Mayer Amschel Rothschild, banker (d. 1812) 1840 - Carl Menger, economist (d. 1921) 1868 - W.E.B. DuBois, civil rights leader (d. 1963) 1882 (allegedly) - B. Traven, writer (d. 1969) 1883 - Victor Fleming, director (d. 1949) 1883 - Karl Jaspers, philosopher (d. 1969) 1899 - Erich Kästner, lyricist and narrator (d. 1974) 1899 - Elisabeth Langgässer, lyricist, narrator and novelist (d. 1950) 20th century 1904 - Leopold Trepper, Soviet spy in WWII (d. 1982) 1908 - William McMahon, twentieth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1988) 1915 - Paul Tibbets, pilot of the "Enola Gay", the plane which dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan 1928 - Vasili Lazarev, cosmonaut (d. 1990) 1932 - Majel Barrett, actress 1939 - Peter Fonda, actor 1943 - Fred Biletnikoff, American football star, coach 1944 - Johnny Winter, musician 1951 - Patricia Richardson, actress 1954 - Viktor Yushchenko, Ukraine, Presidential Candidate 1955 - Howard Jones, musician 1994 - Dakota Fanning, actress Deaths 1447 - Pope Eugenius IV (b. 1383) 1730 - Pope Benedict XIII (b. 1649) 1766 - Stanislaw Leszczynski, King of Poland (b. 1677) 1821 - John Keats, English Romantic poet (b. 1795) 1848 - John Quincy Adams, 6th President of the United States (b. 1767) 1855 - Carl Friedrich Gauss, mathematician, astronomer, physicist (b. 1777) 1923 - Théophile Delcassé, French statesman (b. 1852) 1930 - Horst Wessel, Nazi ideologue, composer 1934 - Edward Elgar, composer (b. 1857) 1965 - Stan Laurel, actor, comedian (b. 1890) 1974 - Harry Ruby, composer, writer 1979 - W.A.C. Bennett, British Columbia politician (b. 1900) 1990 - José Napoleón Duarte, President of El Salvador 1995 - James Herriot, writer (b. 1916) 2000 - Ofra Haza, Israeli singer (b. 1957) 2003 - Robert K. Merton, sociologist (b. 1910) 2003 - Marcel Prawy, jurist 2004 - Vijay Anand, Bollywood film director Holidays and observances Roman Empire - Terminalia held in honor of Terminus Catholicism - Feast day of St Polycarp. Guyana - National Day February 22 - February 24 - January 23 - March 23 -- listing of all days FAVORITE ARTICLES: History of the World    History of the United States    History of Europe    Ancient History    History    Military History    World War I    Bombing of Dresden    California    US Constitution    Frank Sinatra    Boston    Marbury v. Madison This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License at http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html You may copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license. You must provide a link to http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html To view or edit this article at Wikipedia go to http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_23