/year

December 23 in history

194 sourced entries recorded on December 23, from 119 CE to 2025 CE. Every line is quoted from the revision it came from.

Events

  • 176Marcus Aurelius and Commodus enter Rome after a campaign north of the Alps, and receive a triumph for their victories over the Germanic tribes.source
  • 558The Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés is dedicated by Germain, bishop of Paris.source
  • 558Chlothar I is crowned King of the Franks.source
  • 562Justinian I re-consecrates Hagia Sophia after its dome is rebuilt. Paul the Silentiary, Byzantine poet, writes an epic poem (Ekphrasis).source
  • 619Pope Boniface V succeeds Adeodatus I as the 69th pope of Rome.source
  • 1226Jean Halgrin, the French Roman Catholic archbishop of Besançon, is offered the opportunity to be the Catholic patriarch of Constantinople, but declines the position because of health issues.source
  • 1228Stephen of Anagni, Italian papal chaplain, is commissioned to collect a special tax in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales to finance Gregory X's War of the Keys against Frederick II.source
  • 1299December 22–23 – Battle of Wadi al-Khaznadar: Mongol forces under Ghazan Khan defeat a Mamluk army (some 30,000 men) north of Homs. Sultan Al-Nasir Muhammad flees with the remnants of his army to Damascus. Ghazan splits his forces, one part sacks Damascus and besieges the citadel. Another part pursues the retreating Mamluks as far as Gaza, pushing them back to Egypt.source
  • 1312At Avignon in France, Pope Clement V elevates nine bishops, all French, to the position of Roman Catholic cardinals. The nine include Jacques d'Euse, Bishop of Avignon, who will be elected Pope John XXII as Clement's successor in 1316.source
  • 1334Henry de Beaumont, 4th Earl of Buchan compelled to surrender to Andrew de Moray, the new Guardian of Scotland after a siege at Dundarg Castle.source
  • 1430Seven months after her capture at Compiegne, Joan of Arc is moved from the castle of Le Crotoy to the tower at the Rouen Castle.source
  • 1435As the English Parliament closes, King Henry VI's regents give royal assent to new legislation, including the Safe Conducts Act 1435, the Wools and Fells Act (directing that wool not be exported from England to any other location except Calais), and the Alien Goods Act (subtitled "Merchandises taken in Ships of the King's Enemies, though belonging to Foreigners in Amity with the King, shall not be restored")source
  • 1450In Rome, the collapse of the Ponte Sant'Angelo, a bridge over the Via Giulia and the subsequent stampede combine to kill more than 300 people, most of whom were on a pilgrimage to the Holy See.source
  • 1457Pope Calixtus III declares Albanian hero Skanderbeg to be a Captain-General of the Holy See and gives him the title Athleta Christi ("Champion of Christ").source
  • 1465The Treaty of Caen is signed between King Louis XI of France and Francis II, Duke of Brittany.source
  • 1466Pope Paul II excommunicates the King of Bohemia, George of Poděbrady, releasing all Bohemian citizens from their oaths of to the king.source
  • 1473Radu II returns as Prince of Wallachia one month after having been deposed briefly by Basarab the Old.source
  • 1482The Treaty of Arras divides the Burgundian Netherlands between King Louis XI of France and Archduke Maximilian I of Habsburg.source
  • 1482Treaty of Arras is signed between King Louis XI and Habsburg emperor Maximilian I of Austria, resolving the War of the Burgundian Succession.source
  • 1488Isabella of Aragon, daughter of King Alfonso II of Naples, enters a marriage by proxy to Gian Galeazzo Sforza, Duke of Milan.source
  • 1497Sheen Palace is destroyed by fire. Henry VII of England rebuilds it as Richmond Palace.source
  • 1512Finding the Pope's peace proposals too favorable towards the emperor, Venetian government decides to initiate peace negotiations with the king of France.source
  • 1573In the Republic of Venice, the Council of Ten votes to grant safe conduct to Venice for Spanish and Portuguese Jews.source
  • 1588Henry III of France strikes his ultra-Catholic enemies, having the Duke of Guise and his brother, Louis II de Lorraine, cardinal de Guise, killed, and holding the Cardinal de Bourbon a prisoner. As a result, large parts of France reject Henry III as their king, forcing him to side with Henry of Navarre.source
  • 1589Sir William FitzWilliam, acting for the Lord Deputy, begins a campaign against the Connacht rebels.source
  • 1597Prince Sigismund Báthory signs an agreement with Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor to abdicate the throne of Transylvania in return for the Silesian duchies of Racibórz and Opole and an annual subsidy of 50,000 thalers.source
  • 1597The Roman Catholic order of the Congregatio Patrum Doctrinae Christianae, which will later be more commonly known as the Christian Doctrine Fathers, is approved by Pope Clement VIII. Founded on September 29, 1592, the order continues to operate more than four centuries later and is headquartered in Rome.source
  • 1631Thirty Years' War: Gustavus II Adolphus of Sweden takes the city of Mainz, without any resistance.source
  • 1635Shah Jahan, Emperor of India's Mughal Empire, issues a decree against Portuguese Jesuits, ordering that the Agra Church be demolished and barring them from attempting to convert Hindus and Muslims to the Christian faith, but allows them to conduct their religious ceremonies in private.source
  • 1636December 23 (December 13 Old Style) – The Massachusetts Bay Colony organizes three militia regiments to defend the colony against the Pequot Indians. This organization is recognized today as the founding of the United States National Guard.source
  • 1641King Charles replies to the Grand Remonstrance and refuses the demand for the removal of bishops from the House of Lords. Rioting breaks out in Westminster after the King's refusal is announced, and the 12 Anglican bishops stop attending meetings of the Lords.source
  • 1646The Covenanters hand over King Charles I of England to the Parliamentarians.source
  • 1646the Covenanters hand over the King to the Parliamentarians.source
  • 1653Charles de Hovyne replaces Pieter Roose as president of the Brussels Privy Councilsource
  • 1672French astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini discovers Rhea, a previously-unknown satellite of the planet Saturn. Rhea is the second-largest overall, and the third moon of Saturn to be discovered by Earth astronomers, Titan having been found by Christiaan Huygens on March 25, 1655 and Iapetus by Cassini on October 25, 1671.source
  • 1692Nahum Tate is named as the new Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom and serves for 22 years until his death.source
  • 1696By a vote of 66 to 60, the English House of Lords approves the bill of attainder for the conviction of Sir John Fenwick for high treason. Fenwick is beheaded on January 28, 1697.source
  • 1745Jacobite rising of 1745: Battle of Inverurie – The Jacobites are victorious over British royal troops.source
  • 1773Moscow State Academy of Choreography was founded under the reign of Catherine II. It is the second ballet school in Russia after Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet.source
  • 1774King Louis XVI of France issues a declaration that, for the first time, protects "the free commerce of meat during Lent" to support the needs of "the poor whose infirmity requires them to eat meat."source
  • 1783General George Washington resigns his commission as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army to the Congress of the Confederation in the Maryland State House in Annapolis, Maryland, and retires to his home at Mount Vernon. Washington's resignation, described by historian Thomas Fleming as "the most important moment in American history," affirms the United States' commitment to the principle of civilian control of the military, and prompts King George III to call Washington "the greatest character of the age."source
  • 1787Captain William Bligh sets sail from England for Tahiti, on HMS Bounty.source
  • 1787Captain William Bligh sets sail from Spithead for Tahiti on HMS Bounty.source
  • 1789A leaflet circulated in France accuses the Marquis de Favras of plotting to rescue the royal family.source
  • 1791The Pale of Settlement is established by ukase of Catherine the Great, specifying those areas of the Russian Empire in which Jews are permitted permanent residency.source
  • 1793French Revolution: War in the Vendée: Battle of Savenay – A Republican force decisively defeats the counterrevolutionary Catholic and Royal Army, ending the Virée de Galerne.source
  • 1794St. Louis Cathedral, New Orleans is dedicated.source
  • 1806Ludwig van Beethoven premieres his violin concerto at the Theater an der Wien.source
  • 1815The novel Emma by Jane Austen is first published, anonymously in London, dated 1816.source
  • 1823The poem A Visit From St. Nicholas, attributed to Clement Clarke Moore, is first published.source
  • 1831the second cholera pandemic (1829–51) reaches Scotland.source
  • 1832The Siege of Antwerp ends with the Dutch garrison losing the citadel.source
  • 1837The Slave Compensation Act is signed into law by the government of the United Kingdom. This pays a substantial amount of money, constituting 40% of the Treasury’s tax receipts at the time, to former enslavers but nothing to those formerly enslaved.source
  • 1838Declarations on postal reciprocity between Belgium and the Office of the Prince of Tour and Taxis signed in Frankfurt am Main.source
  • 1839While visiting the Taranaki Ernst Dieffenbach, along with whaler James Heberley, becomes the first European to climb Mount Taranaki/Egmont.source
  • 1841First Anglo-Afghan War: At a meeting with the Afghan general Akbar Khan, British diplomat Sir William Hay Macnaghten is shot dead at close quarters.source
  • 1845December 22–23 – Battle of Ferozeshah (Anglo-Sikh War): East India Company forces are victorious over those of the Sikh Empire.source
  • 1852Taiping Rebellion: The Taiping army takes Hanyang and begins the siege of Wuchang.source
  • 1865Convention between France, Belgium, Italy and Switzerland forming the Latin Monetary Union signed in Paris.source
  • 1873The Woman's Christian Temperance Union is founded, in Hillsboro, Ohio.source
  • 1876Constantinople Conference opens.source
  • 1888During a bout of mental illness (and having quarreled with his friend Paul Gauguin), Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh infamously cuts off the lower part of his own left ear, taking it to a brothel, and is removed to the local hospital in Arles in the south of France.source
  • 1888Having quarrelled with Gauguin, van Gogh cuts off the lower part of his own left ear, taking it to a brothel, and is removed to the hospital in Arles.source
  • 1889The Spanish Association football team Recreativo de Huelva is formed (the oldest club in Spain by the 21st century).source
  • 1893Engelbert Humperdinck's opera Hänsel und Gretel receives its premiere in Weimar.source
  • 1900Reginald Fessenden makes the first use of amplitude modulation (the basis for AM radio) for wireless transmission of the human voice, from Cobb Island (Maryland).source
  • 1901The Immigration Restriction Act 1901 comes into force, instituting the White Australia Policy.source
  • 1905The Tampere conference, where Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin meet for the first time, is held in Tampere, Finland.source
  • 1908A hybrid solar eclipse is visible from Atlantic Ocean and is the 23rd solar eclipse of Solar Saros 140.source
  • 1909Albert I sworn in as King, following the death of his uncle King Leopold II, on December 17source
  • 1911George Bolt's first flights, in an early form of hang-glider.source
  • 1913The Federal Reserve System is created as the central banking system of the United States, by Woodrow Wilson's signature of the Federal Reserve Act.source
  • 1915HMHS Britannic, which will be the largest British ship lost in WWI (though with only 30 fatalities), departs Liverpool on her maiden voyage as a hospital ship.source
  • 1916WWI: The Desert Column captures the Ottoman garrison during the Battle of Magdhaba.source
  • 1917December 23 (N.S.) (December 10, O.S.) – A local plebiscite supports transferring Narva and Ivangorod (Jaanilinn) from the Petrograd Governorate, to the Autonomous Governorate of Estonia.source
  • 1919Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 becomes law in the United Kingdom, removing legal disabilities on women entering the secular professions.source
  • 1920The Government of Ireland Act 1920, passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom, receives Royal Assent from George V, providing for the partition of Ireland into Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland, with separate parliaments, granting a measure of home rule.source
  • 1921Visva-Bharati College is founded by Rabindranath Tagore in Santiniketan, Bengal Presidency, British India.source
  • 1922Cargo ship Maid of Delos sinks in St George's Channel off Skomer with all 26 crew killed.source
  • 1924Nicolae Bretan's opera Golem is first performed at the Hungarian Theater in Cluj.source
  • 1926Nicaraguan President Adolfo Díaz requests U.S. military assistance in the ongoing civil war. American peacekeeping troops immediately set up neutral zones in Puerto Cabezas and at the mouth of the Rio Grande to protect American and foreign lives and property.source
  • 1930Menemen Incident in which a group of reactionaries who opposed Atatürk's reforms killed Mustafa Fehmi Kubilay a young lieutenant.source
  • 1933Lagny-Pomponne rail accident: A train collision near Lagny-sur-Marne in France kills 204.source
  • 1938A coelacanth, a fish thought to have been extinct, is caught off the coast of South Africa, near the Chalumna River.source
  • 1938A coelacanth, a fish thought to have gone extinct prehistorically, is caught off the east coast near Chalumna River mouth.source
  • 1941WWII: A second Japanese landing attempt on Wake Island is successful, and the American garrison surrenders, after a full night and morning of fighting.source
  • 1953The Soviet Union announces officially that Lavrentiy Beria has been executed.source
  • 1954J. Hartwell Harrison and Joseph Murray perform the world's first successful kidney transplantation, in Boston, Massachusetts.source
  • 1954The first successful kidney transplant is performed by Joseph E. Murray, MD in Boston from one identical twin to his brother. Murray will later share the 1990 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his "[discovery] concerning organ and cell transplantation in the treatment of human disease".source
  • 1955The first film adaptation of Väinö Linna's novel The Unknown Soldier, directed by Edvin Laine, was premiered.source
  • 1956British and French troops leave the Suez Canal region.source
  • 1961Luxembourg's national holiday, the Grand Duke's Official Birthday, is set on June 23 by Grand Ducal decree.source
  • 19671967–68 Balkans Cup: Albania defeats Bulgaria 4-0 at Loro Boriçi Stadium, Shkodërsource
  • 1968Crew of USS Pueblo released at Panmunjom.source
  • 1970Law 70-001 is enacted in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, amending article 4 of the constitution and making the country a one-party state.source
  • 1970The Bolivian government releases Régis Debray.source
  • 1970The government freezes food prices for two years.source
  • 1972Swedish Prime minister Olof Palme compares the American bombings of North Vietnam to Nazi massacres. The U.S. breaks diplomatic contact with Sweden.source
  • 1972The 6.2 Mw Nicaragua earthquake kills 5,000–11,000 people in the capital Managua. President Anastasio Somoza Debayle is later accused of not distributing millions of dollars worth of foreign aid.source
  • 1976A new volcano, Murara, erupts in eastern Zaire.source
  • 1979The highest aerial tramway in Europe, the Klein Matterhorn, opens.source
  • 1984Train 904 bombing: 16 killed, 266 wounded by the Sicilian Mafia.source
  • 1986Rutan Voyager completes the first nonstop circumnavigation of the earth by air without refueling in 9 days, 3 minutes and 44 seconds.source
  • 1987Nikki Sixx, Mötley Crüe's bassist overdoses on heroin and is declared clinically dead for two minutes before a paramedic revives him with two syringes full of adrenaline.source
  • 1989Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu are captured in Târgoviște.source
  • 1991Croatian dinar introduced.source
  • 1995Dabwali fire accident: The Rajiv Marriage Palace catches fire in Haryana, India, killing 442 persons.source
  • 2000In the 2000 Serbian parliamentary election an alliance of reformist parties achieves a landslide victory over the nationalists, paving the way for a government under Zoran Đinđić.source
  • 200623 students were required to retake exams after High School Graduation Examination scandal in Hà Tây province.source
  • 2008A military coup d'état deposes the government of Guinea shortly after the death of longtime President Lansana Conté.source
  • 2008A military coup is announced in Guinea, hours after the death of President Lansana Conté.source
  • 2008Algeria maintains the world's largest carbon capture and storage operation in Salah, Algeria, approximately seven hundred miles south of Algiers. About 800,000 tons of carbon dioxide is stored there, 1.2 mi below land. Currently the site is being operated by BP, Statoil and Sonatrach. The operation made headlines during the December 2008 meeting of OPEC in Algiers.source
  • 2011General Statistics Office announced that inflation rate reached 18.58%.source
  • 2012Pădurea Domnească casesource
  • 2016The United Nations Security Council adopts Resolution 2334 condemning "Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories occupied since 1967".source
  • 2019Five men are sentenced to death and another three face 24 years in prison for their roles in the murder of dissident journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.source
  • 2022Zambia officially abolishes capital punishment.source
  • 2022December 21–December 26 – A major winter storm hits the northern United States and southern Canada. Killing at least 91 people, the storm also severely disrupts North American air traffic, with Southwest Airlines alone canceling more than half of its schedule.source
  • 2025Harmony Jets Flight 185, a Dassault Falcon 50, crashes near Ankara, Turkey, killing all eight people on board, including Libyan Army chief of staff Mohammed al-Haddad.source

Births

  • 968Zhenzong, emperor of the Song Dynasty (died 1022)source
  • 1173Louis I, duke of Bavaria (died 1231)source
  • 1513Thomas Smith, English scholar and diplomat (died 1577)source
  • 1525John Albert I, Duke of Mecklenburg (died 1576)source
  • 1527Hugues Doneau, French lawyer (died 1591)source
  • 1527Hugues Doneau, law professor (d.1591).source
  • 1544Anna of Saxony, only child and heiress of Maurice, Elector of Saxony (died 1577)source
  • 1573Giovanni Battista Crespi, Italian painter (died 1632)source
  • 1613Carl Gustaf Wrangel, Field Marshal of Sweden (died 1676)source
  • 1621Edmund Berry Godfrey, English magistrate whose mysterious death caused anti-Catholic uproar in England (died 1678)source
  • 1642December 23 (O.S.) – John Holt, English lawyer (died 1710)source
  • 1648Robert Barclay, Scottish Quaker (died 1690)source
  • 1657Hannah Duston, Massachusetts Puritan mother of 8, taken captive during King William's War (died 1736)source
  • 1725Ahmad Shah Bahadur, 14th Mughal Emperor (died 1775)source
  • 1732Richard Arkwright, English inventor (died 1792)source
  • 1750Frederick Augustus I of Saxony (died 1827)source
  • 1763John Kinzie, Fur trader from Quebec City who was responsible for the "first murder in Chicago" (died June 6, 1828)source
  • 1777Emperor Alexander I of Russia, Russian officer (died 1825)source
  • 1790Jean-François Champollion, French Egyptologist (died 1832)source
  • 1805Joseph Smith, American religious leader, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement (died 1844)source
  • 1827Wilhelm von Tegetthoff, Austrian admiral (died 1871)source
  • 1902Charan Singh, 5th Prime Minister of India (died 1987)source
  • 1918Helmut Schmidt, Chancellor of Germany (died 2015)source
  • 1933Akihito, 125th Emperor of Japansource

Deaths

  • 119Salonia Matidia, niece of Trajan (born AD 68)source
  • 423Ming Yuan Di, ruler of the Xianbei state Northern Wei (born 392)source
  • 484Huneric dies and is succeeded by his nephew Gunthamund, who becomes king of the Vandals. During his reign the Catholics are free from persecutions and he stabilises the kingdom's economy.source
  • 484Huneric, king of the Vandalssource
  • 679King Dagobert II is murdered in a hunting accident, near Stenay-sur-Meuse (Ardennes), probably on orders from Pepin of Herstal, the mayor of the palace of Austrasia. He is succeeded by Theuderic III, who becomes sole ruler of the Frankish Kingdom.source
  • 679Dagobert II, king of Austrasiasource
  • 761Gaubald, bishop of Regensburgsource
  • 889Solomon II, bishop of Constancesource
  • 910Naum of Preslav, Bulgarian writersource
  • 918King Conrad I, injured at one of his battles with Arnulf I (the Bad), dies at his residence in Weilburg Castle after a 7-year reign. On his deathbed Conrad persuades his younger brother Eberhard III to offer the East Frankish crown to Henry the Fowler, the duke of Saxony. Conrad is buried in Fulda Cathedral (also the burial place of Boniface) in Germany.source
  • 918Conrad I, Frankish kingsource
  • 940Ar-Radi, Abbasid caliph (born 909)source
  • 1096Hugh I of Le Puiset, French noblemansource
  • 1115Ivo of Chartres, French bishop (born 1040)source
  • 1164Hartmann of Brixen, German bishop (born 1090)source
  • 1172Ugo Ventimiglia, Italian cardinalsource
  • 1193Thorlak Thorhallsson, Icelandic bishop (born 1133)source
  • 1230Berengaria of Navarre, queen consort of Englandsource
  • 1383Beatrice of Bourbon, Queen of Bohemia (born 1320)source
  • 1384Thomas Preljubović, ruler of Epirussource
  • 1392Isabella of Castile, Duchess of York (born 1355)source
  • 1446On their way back to England after a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, the 37 pilgrims on the ship Cog Anne are killed when the vessel strikes a rock near the port of Modon in Greece.source
  • 1502Jean-Simon de Champigny, Bishop of Parissource
  • 1568Roger Ascham, tutor of Elizabeth I of England (born 1515)source
  • 1569Philip II, Metropolitan of Moscow (born 1507)source
  • 1575Akiyama Nobutomo, Japanese retainer (born 1531)source
  • 1588Henry I, Duke of Guise, French Catholic leader (born 1550)source
  • 1629Giovanni I Cornaro, Doge of the Republic of Venice since 1625, dies and is succeeded by Nicolò Contarini.source
  • 1631Michael Drayton, English poet (born 1563)source
  • 1638Barbara Longhi, Italian painter (born 1552)source
  • 1644Sir Alexander Carew, 2nd Baronet, English politician (born 1609)source
  • 1652John Cotton, founder of Boston, Massachusetts (born 1585)source
  • 1691Katherine Jones, Viscountess Ranelagh, Anglo-Irish scientist (born 1615)source
  • 1744Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans, duchess and regent of Lorraine (born 1676)source
  • 1745Jan Dismas Zelenka, Bohemian composer (born 1679)source
  • 1761Alestair Ruadh MacDonnell, Scottish Jacobite spy (born c. 1725)source
  • 1771Marie-Marguerite d'Youville, Canadian saint (born 1701)source
  • 1771Marie-Marguerite d'Youville, grey nun (b.1701)source
  • 1779Augustus Hervey, 3rd Earl of Bristol, British admiral and politician (born 1724)source
  • 1789Charles-Michel de l'Épée, French philanthropist, developer of signed French (born 1712)source
  • 1795Henry Clinton, British general (born 1730)source
  • 1805Geneviève Thiroux d'Arconville, French novelist, translator and chemist (born 1720)source
  • 1824Pushmataha, chief of the Choctaw Nation (born c. 1764)source
  • 1831Emilia Plater, Polish heroine (born 1806)source
  • 1834Thomas Malthus, English economist, political philosopher (born 1766)source
  • 189940 coal miners are killed in an explosion near Brownsville, Pennsylvania.source
  • 1948Hideki Tojo, general, 40th Prime Minister of Japan (born 1884)source
  • 1953Lavrentiy Beria, Minister of Internal Affairs of the Soviet Union (born 1899)source
  • 1959Edward Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax, British politician (born 1881)source
  • 2004P. V. Narasimha Rao, 83, Indian Prime Minister (1991–1996), heart attack.source
  • 2023Iván Almeida, 45, football player (Sportivo Patria) and manager (Sportivo Trinidense, Resistencia).source