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On This Day 23-January Events that happened on this date.

Year Name / Event Description
393 Roman emperor Roman emperor Theodosius I proclaims his eight-year-old son Honorius co-emperor.
971 Crossbow Using crossbows, Song dynasty troops soundly defeat a war elephant corps of the Southern Han at Shao.
1229 Nousiainen The episcopal seat is moved from Nousiainen to Koroinen (located near the current centre of Turku) by the permission of Pope Gregory IX. The date is starting to be considered as the founding of Turku.
1264 Henry III of England In the conflict between King Henry III of England and his rebellious barons led by Simon de Montfort, King Louis IX of France issues the Mise of Amiens, a one-sided decision in favour of Henry that later leads to the Second Barons' War.
1368 Hongwu Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang proclaims himself the Hongwu Emperor, beginning the Ming dynasty.
1546 François Rabelais Having published nothing for eleven years, François Rabelais publishes the Tiers Livre, his sequel to Gargantua and Pantagruel.
1556 Earthquake The deadliest earthquake in history, the Shaanxi earthquake, hits Shaanxi province, China. The death toll may have been as high as 830,000.
1565 Deccan sultanates The Deccan Sultanates defeat Rama Raya of the Vijayanagara Empire at the Battle of Talikota, resulting in over 100,000 casualties and the destruction of the capital Vijayanagara.
1570 James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, regent for the infant King James VI of Scotland, is assassinated by firearm, the first recorded instance of such.
1571 Royal Exchange, London The Royal Exchange opens in London.
1579 Union of Utrecht The Union of Utrecht forms a Protestant republic in the Netherlands.
1656 Blaise Pascal Blaise Pascal publishes the first of his Lettres provinciales.
1719 Principality The Principality of Liechtenstein is created within the Holy Roman Empire.
1755 Moscow State University Moscow University is established (12 January 1755 O.S.).
1789 Georgetown University Georgetown College, the first Catholic university in the United States, is founded in Georgetown, Maryland (now a part of Washington, D.C.) when Bishop John Carroll, Rev. Robert Molyneux, and Rev. John Ashton purchase land for the proposed academy for the education of youth.
1793 Second Partition of Poland Second Partition of Poland.
1795 Zuiderzee After crossing the frozen Zuiderzee, the French cavalry captured 14 Dutch ships and 850 guns, in a rare occurrence of surrender of naval vessels to land forces.
1846 Slavery in Tunisia Slavery in Tunisia is abolished.
1849 Elizabeth Blackwell Elizabeth Blackwell is awarded her M.D. by the Geneva Medical College of Geneva, New York, becoming the United States' first female doctor.
1870 Montana In Montana, U.S. cavalrymen kill 173 Native Americans, mostly women and children, in what becomes known as the Marias Massacre.
1879 Anglo-Zulu War Anglo-Zulu War: The Battle of Rorke's Drift ends.
1899 Malolos Constitution The Malolos Constitution is inaugurated, establishing the First Philippine Republic. Emilio Aguinaldo is sworn in as its first president.
1900 Second Boer War Second Boer War: The Battle of Spion Kop between the forces of the South African Republic and the Orange Free State and British forces ends in a British defeat.
1904 Ålesund fire Ålesund Fire: The Norwegian coastal town Ålesund is devastated by fire, leaving 10,000 people homeless and one person dead. Kaiser Wilhelm II funds the rebuilding of the town in Jugendstil style.
1909 RMS Republic (1903) RMS Republic, a passenger ship of the White Star Line, becomes the first ship to use the CQD distress signal after colliding with another ship, the SS Florida, off the Massachusetts coastline, an event that kills six people. The Republic sinks the next day.
1912 International Opium Convention The International Opium Convention is signed at The Hague.
1919 Regional Congress of Peasants, Workers and Insurgents The First Regional Congress of Peasants, Workers and Insurgents is held by the Makhnovshchina at Velykomykhailivka.
1920 Wilhelm II The Netherlands refuses to surrender the exiled Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany to the Allies.
1937 Moscow trials The trial of the anti-Soviet Trotskyist center sees seventeen mid-level Communists accused of sympathizing with Leon Trotsky and plotting to overthrow Joseph Stalin's regime.
1941 Charles Lindbergh Charles Lindbergh testifies before the U.S. Congress and recommends that the United States negotiate a neutrality pact with Adolf Hitler.
1942 World War II World War II: The Battle of Rabaul commences Japan's invasion of Australia's Territory of New Guinea.
1943 Eighth Army (United Kingdom) World War II: Troops of the British Eighth Army capture Tripoli in Libya from the German–Italian Panzer Army.
1945 Karl Dönitz World War II: German admiral Karl Dönitz launches Operation Hannibal.
1950 Knesset The Knesset resolves that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.
1957 Walter Frederick Morrison American inventor Walter Frederick Morrison sells the rights to his flying disc to the Wham-O toy company, which later renames it the "Frisbee".
1958 1958 Venezuelan coup d'état After a general uprising and rioting in the streets, President Marcos Pérez Jiménez leaves Venezuela.
1960 Bathyscaphe The bathyscaphe USS Trieste breaks a depth record by descending to 10,911 metres (35,797 ft) in the Pacific Ocean.
1963 Guinea-Bissau War of Independence The Guinea-Bissau War of Independence officially begins when PAIGC guerrilla fighters attack the Portuguese Army stationed in Tite.
1964 Twenty-fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution The 24th Amendment to the United States Constitution, prohibiting the use of poll taxes in national elections, is ratified.
1967 Diplomacy Diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Ivory Coast are established.
1967 Milton Keynes Milton Keynes (England) is founded as a new town by Order in Council, with a planning brief to become a city of 250,000 people. Its initial designated area enclosed three existing towns and twenty-one villages. The area to be developed was largely farmland, with evidence of continuous settlement dating back to the Bronze Age.
1968 USS Pueblo (AGER-2) USS Pueblo (AGER-2) is attacked and seized by the Korean People's Navy.
1982 World Airways Flight 30 World Airways Flight 30 overshoots the runway at Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts, and crashes into Boston Harbor. Two people are missing and presumed dead.
1986 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts its first members: Little Richard, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Fats Domino, The Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley.
1987 Mohammed Said Hersi Morgan Mohammed Said Hersi Morgan sends a "letter of death" to Somali President Siad Barre, proposing the genocide of the Isaaq people.
1997 Madeleine Albright Madeleine Albright becomes the first woman to serve as United States Secretary of State.
1998 Netscape Netscape announces Mozilla, with the intention to release Communicator code as open source.
2001 2001 Tiananmen Square self-immolation incident Five people attempt to set themselves on fire in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, an act that many people later claim is staged by the Chinese Communist Party to frame Falun Gong and thus escalate their persecution.
2002 Daniel Pearl U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl is kidnapped in Karachi, Pakistan and subsequently murdered.
2003 Pioneer 10 A very weak signal from Pioneer 10 is detected for the last time, but no usable data can be extracted.
2018 2018 Gulf of Alaska earthquake A 7.9 Mw  earthquake occurs in the Gulf of Alaska. It is tied as the sixth-largest earthquake ever recorded in the United States, but there are no reports of significant damage or fatalities.
2018 Benghazi A double car bombing in Benghazi, Libya, kills at least 33 people and wounds "dozens" of others. The victims include both military personnel and civilians, according to local officials.
2018 China–United States trade war The China–United States trade war begins when President Donald Trump places tariffs on Chinese solar panels and washing machines.
2022 Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba Mutinying Burkinabè soldiers led by Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba depose and detain President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré amid widespread anti-government protests.
2024 Northwestern Air Flight 738 Northwestern Air Flight 738 crashes after takeoff from Fort Smith Airport, Northwest Territories, Canada, killing six people.