Did you know
The Southern Cross Expedition was led by Carsten Borchgrevink, a Norwegian explorer who had previously worked on a whaling ship in the Antarctic.
August 23 in History
1898 — The Southern Cross Expedition, the first British venture of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, departs from London
August 23 spans 67 recorded events across recorded history, from 79 to 2023. Below is a curated digest of the most significant moments tied to this date.
By thisDay.info Editorial Team · — Wikipedia
Historical Events
67 events
79 – 2023
Today in history
More major events on August 23
The featured story and these ranked highlights form a quick summary. Every recorded event remains available in the chronology below.
Did you know
The expedition's ship, the Southern Cross, was specially designed for Antarctic travel and was equipped with a laboratory and a library.
Did you know
The team consisted of 29 men, including scientists, sailors, and explorers, who were tasked with conducting research and collecting data on the Antarctic environment.
Did you know
The expedition spent 12 months at Cape Adare, where they established a base camp and conducted extensive research on the local wildlife and geology.
Did you know
The Southern Cross Expedition paved the way for future British expeditions to Antarctica, including those led by Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton, who built on Borchgrevink's discoveries and achievements.
79
Mount Vesuvius begins stirring, on the feast day of Vulcan, the Roman god of fire.
Calendar year
476
Odoacer, chieftain of the Germanic tribes (Herulic – Scirian foederati), is proclaimed rex Italiae ("King of Italy") by his troops.
Ruler of Italy (c. 433 – 493)
1244
Siege of Jerusalem: The city surrenders to the Khwarazmiyya, ending Christian control of the Jerusalem for the next 672 years.
Part of the Sixth Crusade
1268
The Battle of Tagliacozzo: The army of Prince Conradin is nearly destroyed by Charles of Anjou, ending Hohenstaufen control over the Kingdom of Sicily and leaving the Angevins in control.
1268 dynastic conflict in Italy
1328
Battle of Cassel: French troops stop an uprising of Flemish farmers.
1328 battle of the 1323–1328 Flemish revolt
1382
The Golden Horde, led by Khan Tokhtamysh, begins the Siege of Moscow, which ends four days later with the storming of the city and the death of Muscovite Prince Ostei.
1242–1502 Turkicized Mongol khanate
1514
The Battle of Chaldiran ends with a decisive victory for the Sultan Selim I, Ottoman Empire, over the Shah Ismail I, founder of the Safavid dynasty.
1514 battle of the Ottoman–Persian wars
1521
Christian II of Denmark is deposed as king of Sweden and Gustav Vasa is elected regent.
King of Denmark and Norway from 1513 to 1523
1541
French explorer Jacques Cartier lands near Quebec City in his third voyage to Canada.
French maritime explorer of North America (1491–1557)
1572
French Wars of Religion: Mob violence against thousands of Huguenots in Paris results in the St.
Bartholomew's Day massacre.
1595
Long Turkish War: Wallachian prince Michael the Brave confronts the Ottoman army in the Battle of Călugăreni and achieves a tactical victory.
1593–1606 Habsburg–Ottoman war
1600
Battle of Gifu Castle: The eastern forces of Tokugawa Ieyasu defeat the western Japanese clans loyal to Toyotomi Hideyori, leading to the destruction of Gifu Castle and serving as a prelude to the Battle of Sekigahara.
Part of the Sengoku period (1600)
1628
George Villiers, the first Duke of Buckingham, is assassinated by John Felton.
English politician (1592–1628)
1655
Battle of Sobota: The Swedish Empire led by Charles X Gustav defeats the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
1655 battle of the Second Northern War
1703
Edirne event: Sultan Mustafa II of the Ottoman Empire is dethroned.
1703 military coup in the Ottoman Empire
1775
American Revolutionary War: King George III delivers his Proclamation of Rebellion to the Court of St James's stating that the American colonies have proceeded to a state of open and avowed rebellion.
1775–1783 conflict in North America
1782
British forces under Edward Despard complete the reconquest of the Black River settlements on the Mosquito Coast from the Spanish.
Irish officer in the service of the British Crown (1751–1803)
1784
Western North Carolina (now eastern Tennessee) declares itself an independent state under the name of Franklin; it is not accepted into the United States, and only lasts for four years.
U.S. state
1799
Napoleon Bonaparte leaves Egypt for France en route to seizing power.
French general and emperor (1769–1821)
1813
At the Battle of Großbeeren, the Prussians under Von Bülow repulse the French army.
1813 battle during the War of the Sixth Coalition
1831
Nat Turner's rebellion of enslaved Virginians is suppressed.
1831 slave rebellion in Virginia, US
1839
The United Kingdom captures Hong Kong as a base as it prepares for the First Opium War with Qing China.
1839–1842 war between the United Kingdom and China
1864
American Civil War: The Union Navy captures Fort Morgan, Alabama, thus breaking Confederate dominance of all ports on the Gulf of Mexico except Galveston, Texas.
1861–1865 conflict in the United States
1904
The automobile tire chain is patented.
Devices fitted to the tires of vehicles to improve traction on snow and ice
1914
World War I: The British Expeditionary Force and the French Fifth Army begin their Great Retreat before the German Army.
Global conflict from 1914 to 1918
1914
World War I: Japan declares war on Germany.
Period of Japanese history from 1914 to 1918
1921
British airship R-38 experiences structural failure over Hull in England and crashes in the Humber Estuary; of her 49 British and American training crew, only four survive.
British rigid airship class destroyed in 1921
1923
Captain Lowell Smith and Lieutenant John P.
Richter perform the first mid-air refueling on De Havilland DH-4B, setting an endurance flight record of 37 hours.
1927
Italian anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti are executed after a lengthy, controversial trial.
Italian American anarchist duo executed by Massachusetts
1929
Hebron Massacre during the 1929 Palestine riots: Arab attacks on the Jewish community in Hebron in the British Mandate of Palestine occur, continuing until the next day, resulting in the death of 65–68 Jews and the remaining Jews being forced to leave the city.
Killing of Jews in Mandatory Palestine
1939
World War II: Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union sign the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.
In a secret protocol to the pact, Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Romania are divided into German and Soviet "spheres of influence".
1942
World War II: Beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad.
Major World War II battle from 1942 to 1943
1943
World War II: Kharkiv is liberated by the Soviet Red Army for the second time after the Battle of Kursk.
City in Ukraine
1944
1944
World War II: King Michael of Romania dismisses the pro-Nazi government of Marshal Antonescu, who is later arrested.
Romania switches sides from the Axis to the Allies.
1944
Freckleton air disaster: A United States Army Air Forces B-24 Liberator bomber crashes into a school in Freckleton, England, killing 61 people.
1944 bomber crash in England
1945
World War II: Soviet–Japanese War: The USSR State Defense Committee issues Decree no.
9898cc "About Receiving, Accommodation, and Labor Utilization of the Japanese Army Prisoners of War".
1946
Ordinance No.
46 of the British Military Government constitutes the German Länder (states) of Hanover and Schleswig-Holstein.
1948
The World Council of Churches is formed by 147 churches from 44 countries.
Inter-church organization
1954
The first flight of the Lockheed C-130 multi-role aircraft takes place.
American military transport aircraft
1954
The Cruise of the Kings, a royal cruise organised by the Queen Consort of Greece, Frederica of Hanover, departs from Marseille, France.
1954 royal cruise
1958
Chinese Civil War: The Second Taiwan Strait Crisis begins with the People's Liberation Army's bombardment of Quemoy.
1927–1949 civil war in China
1966
Lunar Orbiter 1 takes the first photograph of Earth from orbit around the Moon.
NASA orbiter mission to the Moon (1966)
1970
Organized by Mexican American labor union leader César Chávez, the Salad Bowl strike, the largest farm worker strike in U.S.
history, begins.
1973
A bank robbery gone wrong in Stockholm, Sweden, turns into a hostage crisis; over the next five days the hostages begin to sympathise with their captors, leading to the term "Stockholm syndrome".
1973 bank robbery in Stockholm, Sweden
1975
The start of the Wave Hill walk-off by Gurindji people in Australia, lasting eight years, a landmark event in the history of Indigenous land rights in Australia, commemorated in a 1991 Paul Kelly song and an annual celebration.
1966–1975 strike by Aboriginal Australians
1975
The Pontiac Silverdome opens in Pontiac, Michigan, 30 miles (48 km) northwest of Detroit, Michigan
Former stadium in Pontiac, Michigan, U.S.
1985
Hans Tiedge, top counter-spy of West Germany, defects to East Germany.
West German counter-intelligence official and East German spy
1989
Singing Revolution: Two million people from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania stand on the Vilnius–Tallinn road, holding hands.
Baltic independence movements (1987–1991)
1990
Saddam Hussein appears on Iraqi state television with a number of Western "guests" (actually hostages) to try to prevent the Gulf War.
President of Iraq from 1979 to 2003
1990
West and East Germany announce that they will reunite on October 3.
1989–1991 unification process of Germany
1991
The World Wide Web is opened to the public.
Linked hypertext system on the Internet
1994
Eugene Bullard, the only African American pilot in World War I, is posthumously commissioned as Second Lieutenant in the United States Air Force.
First Black French and American military pilot (1895–1961)
2000
Gulf Air Flight 072 crashes into the Persian Gulf near Manama, Bahrain, killing 143.
2000 aviation accident in the Persian Gulf
2006
Natascha Kampusch, who had been abducted at the age of ten, escapes from her captor Wolfgang Přiklopil, after eight years of captivity.
Austrian kidnapping survivor (born 1988)
2007
The skeletal remains of Russia's last royal family members Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia, and his sister Grand Duchess Anastasia are discovered near Yekaterinburg, Russia.
Heir to the Russian throne (1904–1918)
2010
The Manila hostage crisis occurred near the Quirino Grandstand in Manila, Philippines killing 9 people including the perpetrator while injuring 9 others.
2010 bus hijacking and mass murder in Manila, Philippines
2011
A magnitude 5.8 (class: moderate) earthquake occurs in Virginia.
Damage occurs to monuments and structures in Washington, D.C. and the resulted damage is estimated at 200 million–300 million USD.
2011
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is overthrown after the National Transitional Council forces take control of Bab al-Azizia compound during the Libyan Civil War.
Leader of Libya from 1969 to 2011
2012
A hot-air balloon crashes near the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana, killing six people and injuring 28 others.
Aviation accident in Slovenia
2013
A riot at the Palmasola prison complex in Santa Cruz, Bolivia kills 31 people.
Fatal unrest in Santa Cruz, Bolivia
2023
Chandrayaan-3 mission initiated first Moon landing in Indian history.
Indian lunar mission (2023–Present)
2023
A business jet carrying key leadership members of the Russian private military company Wagner Group crashes, killing all ten people on board.
Russian private military company