January 23 is the 23rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 342 days remaining, 343 in leap years.
Events 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 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 Wilhelm 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 - "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh returns to the United States under FBI custody. Births 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 († 1943) 1872 - Jo?e Plečnik, architect († 1957) 1897 - Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, architect († 2000) 1898 - Sergei Eisenstein, director († 1948) 1903 - Randolph Scott, actor († 1987) 1907 - Dan Duryea, 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 1980 - Jay Debanth, martial artist 1991 - Erika Winner, ski racer Deaths 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") 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 Holidays and observances See Also: January 22 - January 24 - December 23 - February 23 -- listing of all days January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
January 22 - January 24 - December 23 - February 23 -- listing of all days
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December