May 23 - Events

Events

• 844 – Battle of Clavijo: The Apostle Saint James the Greater is said to have miraculously appeared to a force of outnumbered Spanish rebels and aided them against the forces of the Emir of Cordoba.
• 1430 – Siege of Compiègne: Joan of Arc is captured by the Burgundians while leading an army to relieve Compiègne.
• 1498 – Girolamo Savonarola is burned at the stake in Florence, Italy, on the orders of Pope Alexander VI.
• 1533 – The marriage of King Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon is declared null and void.
• 1568 – The Netherlands declare their independence from Spain.
• 1568 – Dutch rebels led by Louis of Nassau, brother of William I of Orange, defeat Jean de Ligne, Duke of Aremberg and his loyalist troops in the Battle of Heiligerlee, opening the Eighty Years' War.
• 1609 – Official ratification of the Second Charter of Virginia takes place.
• 1618 – The Second Defenestration of Prague precipitates the Thirty Years' War.
• 1701 – After being convicted of piracy and of murdering William Moore, Captain William Kidd is hanged in London.
• 1706 – Battle of Ramillies: John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, defeats a French army under Marshal Villeroi.
• 1788 – South Carolina ratifies the Constitution as the 8th American state.
• 1793 – Battle of Famars during the Flanders Campaign of the War of the First Coalition.
• 1813 – South American independence leader Simón Bolívar enters Mérida, leading the invasion of Venezuela, and is proclaimed El Libertador ("The Liberator").
• 1829 – Accordion patent granted to Cyrill Demian in Vienna.
• 1844 – Declaration of the Báb: a merchant of Shiraz announces that he is a Prophet and founds a religious movement that would later be brutally crushed by the Persian government. He is considered to be a forerunner of the Bahá'í Faith, and Bahá'ís celebrate the day as a holy day.
• 1846 – Mexican-American War: President Mariano Paredes of Mexico unofficially declares war on the United States.
• 1873 – The Canadian Parliament establishes the North-West Mounted Police, the forerunner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
• 1900 – American Civil War: Sergeant William Harvey Carney is awarded the Medal of Honor, for his heroism in the Assault on the Battery Wagner in 1863.
• 1907 – The unicameral Parliament of Finland gathers for its first plenary session.
• 1911 – The New York Public Library is dedicated.
• 1915 – World War I: Italy joins the Allies after they declare war on Austria-Hungary.
• 1932 – In Brazil, four students are shot and killed during a manifestation against the Brazilian ditactor Getúlio Vargas, which occurred in the city of São Paulo. Their names/surnames were used to form the M.M.D.C., a revolutionary group that would act against the dictatorial governament, especially in the Constitutionalist Revolution ("Revolução Constitucionalista", in Portuguese), the major uprising in Brazil during the 20th century.
• 1934 – American bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde are ambushed by police and killed in Black Lake, Louisiana.
• 1934 – The Auto-Lite Strike culminates in the "Battle of Toledo", a five-day melée between 1,300 troops of the Ohio National Guard and 6,000 picketers.
• 1939 – The U.S. Navy submarine USS Squalus sinks off the coast of New Hampshire during a test dive, causing the death of 24 sailors and two civilian technicians. The remaining 32 sailors and one civilian naval architect are rescued the following day.
• 1945 – World War II: Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS, commits suicide while in Allied custody.
• 1945 – World War II: The Flensburg government under Reichspräsident Karl Dönitz is dissolved when its members are captured and arrested by British forces at Flensburg in Northern Germany.
• 1948 – Thomas C. Wasson, US Consul-General assassinated in Jerusalem.
• 1949 – The Federal Republic of Germany is established and the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany is proclaimed.
• 1951 – Tibetans sign the Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet with the People's Republic of China.
• 1958 – Explorer 1 ceases transmission.
• 1967 – Egypt closes the Straits of Tiran and blockades the port of Eilat at the northern end of the Gulf of Aqaba to Israeli shipping.
• 1992 – Italy's most prominent anti-mafia judge Giovanni Falcone, his wife and three body guards are killed by the Corleonesi clan with a half-ton bomb near Capaci, Sicily. His friend and colleague Paolo Borsellino will be assassinated less than 2 months later, making 1992 a turning point in the history of Italian Mafia prosecutions.
• 1995 – Oklahoma City bombing: In Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the remains of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building are imploded.
• 1995 – The first version of the Java programming language is released.
• 1998 – The Good Friday Agreement is accepted in a referendum in Northern Ireland with 75% voting yes.
• 2002 – The "55 parties" clause of the Kyoto protocol is reached after its ratification by Iceland.
• 2004 – Part of Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport's Terminal 2E collapses, killing four people and injuring three others.
• 2006 – Alaskan stratovolcano Mount Cleveland erupts.
• 2008 – The International Court of Justice (ICJ) awards Middle Rocks to Malaysia and Pedra Branca (Pulau Batu Puteh) to Singapore, ending a 29-year territorial dispute between the two countries.
• 2010 – Jamaican police begin a manhunt for drug lord Christopher "Dudus" Coke, after the United States requested his extradition, leading to three days of violence during which at least 73 bystanders are killed.
• 2012 – Adam Lambert became the first openly gay artist to debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 Album Charts, with his album Trespassing