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In 1850, The first National Women's Rights Convention begins in Worcester, Massachusetts. This featured entry focuses on the immediate decision and its direct historical impact.
October 23 in History
63 events
4004 BC – 2022
Today in history
October 23 spans 63 recorded events across recorded history, from 4004 BC to 2022. Below is a curated digest of the most significant moments tied to this date.
By thisDay.info Editorial Team · — Wikipedia
1850 — The first National Women's Rights Convention begins in Worcester, Massachusetts
More major events on October 23
The featured story and these ranked highlights form a quick summary. Every recorded event remains available in the chronology below.
- 1295 The first treaty forming the Auld Alliance between Scotland and France against England is signed in Paris. Source
- 1991 Signing of the Paris Peace Accords which ends the Cambodian–Vietnamese War. Source
- 2022 Myanmar Air Force airstrikes a concert in Hpakant Township, Kachin state killing at least 80 people, including senior Kachin Independence Organisation officials, in the Hpakant massacre. Source
-4004
James Ussher's purported creation date of the world according to the Bible.
17th-century Anglican Archbishop of Armagh
-42
Liberators' civil war: Mark Antony and Octavian decisively defeat an army under Brutus in the second part of the Battle of Philippi, with Brutus committing suicide and ending the civil war.
Roman civil war after Caesar's assassination (43–42 BC)
425
Valentinian III is elevated as Roman emperor at the age of six.
Western Roman emperor from 425 to 455
502
The Synodus Palmaris, called by Gothic king Theoderic, absolves Pope Symmachus of all charges, thus ending the schism of Antipope Laurentius.
Calendar year
1086
Spanish Reconquista: At the Battle of Sagrajas, the Almoravids defeat the Castilians, but are unable to take advantage of their victory.
Medieval Christian military campaigns
1157
The Battle of Grathe Heath ends the Danish Civil War.
1157 final battle of the Danish Civil War
1295
The first treaty forming the Auld Alliance between Scotland and France against England is signed in Paris.
1295–1560 Scottish-French alliance
1448
Scotland wins a decisive victory over England at the Battle of Sark, the last pitched battle to be fought between the two kingdoms during the Medieval period.
1448 battle of the Anglo-Scottish Wars
1641
Irish Catholic gentry from Ulster attempt to seize control of Dublin Castle, the seat of English rule in Ireland, so as to force concessions.
Ethnoreligious group native to Ireland
1642
The Battle of Edgehill is the first major battle of the English Civil War.
1642 battle of the First English Civil War
1666
The most intense tornado on record in English history, an F4 storm on the Fujita scale or T8 on the TORRO scale, strikes the county of Lincolnshire, with winds of more than 213 miles per hour (343 km/h).
Scale for rating tornado intensity
1707
The First Parliament of the Kingdom of Great Britain convenes.
Parliament of the Kingdom of Great Britain from 1707 to 1708
1798
The forces of Ali Pasha of Janina defeat the French and capture the town of Preveza in the Battle of Nicopolis.
Albanian ruler (1740–1822)
1812
General Claude François de Malet begins a conspiracy to overthrow Napoleon, claiming that the Emperor died in the Russian campaign.
French aristocrat and soldier
1856
Second Opium War: Dissatisfied with imperial commissioner Ye Mingchen's reparations for the alleged slighting of a British-owned vessel and at Consul Harry Parkes's urging, British Rear-Admiral Michael Seymour launches an assault on the Barrier Forts outside Canton in the first military engagement of the Second Opium War.
1856–1860 war between British–French forces and China
1864
American Civil War: The Battle of Westport is the last significant engagement west of the Mississippi River, ending in a Union victory.
1861–1865 conflict in the United States
1868
Meiji Restoration: Having taken the shogunate's seat of power at Edo and declared it his new capital as Tokyo, Mutsuhito proclaims the start of the new Meiji era.
1868 return to imperial rule in Japan
1882
Assommoir bombing: Anarchists such as Fanny Madignier commit the first deadly anarchist attack in France.
1882 anarchist attack in Lyon, France
1906
Alberto Santos-Dumont flies an airplane in the first heavier-than-air flight in Europe.
Brazilian aviation pioneer (1873–1932)
1911
The Italo-Turkish War sees the first use of an airplane in combat when an Italian pilot makes a reconnaissance flight.
1911–1912 war in Libya and the Aegean Sea
1912
First Balkan War: The Battle of Kumanovo between the Serbian and Ottoman armies begins.
1912–1913 war between the Balkan League and the Ottoman Empire
1923
German October: Due to a miscommunication with the party leadership, a militant section of the Communist Party of Germany launches an insurrection in Hamburg.
Attempted communist revolution in Germany in October 1923
1924
Second Zhili–Fengtian War: Warlord Feng Yuxiang, with the covert support of the Empire of Japan, stages a coup in Beijing against his erstwhile superiors in the Zhili clique, crippling their nearly victorious war effort against the Fengtian clique and forcing them to withdraw from northern China.
Conflict between Chinese warlords (1924)
1927
The Imatra Cinema is destroyed in a fire in Tampere, Finland, during showing the 1924 film Wages of Virtue; 21 people die in the fire and almost 30 are injured.
Former cinema in Tampere, Finland; burned down in 1927
1940
Adolf Hitler and Francisco Franco meet at Hendaye to discuss the possibility of Spain entering the Second World War.
Dictator of Germany from 1933 to 1945
1941
The Holocaust: Nazi Germany prohibits Jews from emigrating, including in its occupied territories.
Genocide of European Jews by Nazi Germany
1942
World War II: Allied forces commence the Second Battle of El Alamein, which proves to be the key turning point in the North African campaign.
Global conflict (1939–1945)
1942
All 12 passengers and crewmen aboard American Airlines Flight 28 are killed when it collides with a U.S.
Army Air Force bomber near Palm Springs, California.
1942
World War II: The Battle for Henderson Field begins on Guadalcanal.
Battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II (1942)
1944
World War II: The Battle of Leyte Gulf begins.
Largest naval battle of World War II and history
1945
Jackie Robinson of the Kansas City Monarchs signs a contract with the Brooklyn Dodger's minor league team, the Montreal Royals, breaking Major League Baseball's color barrier.
American baseball player (1919–1972)
1955
Prime Minister Ngô Đình Diệm defeats former emperor Bảo Đại in a referendum and founds the Republic of Vietnam.
President of South Vietnam from 1955 to 1963
1955
The people of the Saar region vote in a referendum to unite with West Germany instead of France.
State in Germany
1956
Secret police shoot several anti-communist protesters, igniting the Hungarian Revolution.
Citizen rebellion in Hungary
1958
Canada's Springhill mining disaster kills seventy-five miners, while ninety-nine others are rescued.
Any of three mining disasters in Springhill, Nova Scotia, Canada (1891, 1956, 1958)
1958
Belgian artist Peyo's comic characters, the Smurfs, make their debut in Spirou magazine.
Country in Northwestern Europe
1959
Aeroflot Flight 200 crashes while attempting to land at Vnukovo International Airport, killing 28.
1959 aviation accident
1965
Vietnam War: The 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), in conjunction with the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, launches an operation seeking to destroy Communist forces during the siege of Plei Me.
1955–1975 war in Southeast Asia
1970
Gary Gabelich sets a land speed record in a rocket-powered automobile called the Blue Flame, fueled with natural gas.
American motorsport driver and land speed record holder (1940–1984)
1972
Vietnam War: Operation Linebacker, a US bombing campaign against North Vietnam in response to its Easter Offensive, ends after five months.
Part of the Vietnam War (1972)
1978
Aeroflot Flight 6515 crashes off Syvash, killing all 26 people aboard.
Bay of the Sea of Azov
1982
A gunfight breaks out between police officers and members of a religious cult in Arizona.
The shootout leaves two cultists dead and dozens of cultists and police officers injured.
1983
Lebanese Civil War: The U.S.
Marines Corps barracks in Beirut is hit by a truck bomb, killing 241 U.S. military personnel. A French Army barracks in Lebanon is also hit that same morning, killing 58 troops.
1989
The Hungarian Republic officially replaces the communist Hungarian People's Republic.
1988–1989 transition to a multi-party system
1989
Bankruptcy of Wärtsilä Marine, the biggest bankruptcy in the Nordic countries up until then.
Defunct Finnish shipbuilding company (1987-89)
1989
An explosion at the Houston Chemical Complex in Pasadena, Texas, which registered a 3.5 on the Richter magnitude scale, kills 23 and injures 314.
1989 flammable gas explosion accident in Pasadena, Texas, US
1991
Signing of the Paris Peace Accords which ends the Cambodian–Vietnamese War.
Treaty between Cambodia and Vietnam
1993
The Troubles: A Provisional IRA bomb prematurely detonates in Belfast, killing the bomber and nine civilians.
1960s–1998 conflict in Northern Ireland
1995
Yolanda Saldívar is found guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting death of popular Latin singer Selena.
Murderer of Selena Quintanilla (born 1960)
1998
Israel and the Palestinian Authority sign the Wye River Memorandum.
Country in West Asia
2002
Second Chechen War: Chechen separatist terrorists seize the House of Culture theater in Moscow and take approximately 700 theater-goers hostage.
1999–2009 war in the Caucasus region
2004
A powerful earthquake and its aftershocks hit Niigata Prefecture in northern Japan, killing 35 people, injuring 2,200, and leaving 85,000 homeless or evacuated.
Earthquake in Japan
2007
A storm causes the Mexican Kab 101 oil platform to collide with a wellhead, leading to the death and drowning of 22 people during rescue operations after evacuation of the platform.
Oil platform off the coast of Tabasco, Mexico
2007
Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on STS-120, with Pamela Melroy becoming the second female space shuttle commander.
Space Shuttle orbiter (1984–2011)
2011
A powerful 7.2 magnitude earthquake strikes Van Province, Turkey, killing 582 people and injuring thousands.
2011 earthquakes in eastern Turkey
2011
The Libyan National Transitional Council deems the Libyan Civil War over.
2011–2012 de facto government of Libya
2015
The lowest sea-level pressure in the Western Hemisphere, and the highest reliably-measured non-tornadic sustained winds, are recorded in Hurricane Patricia, which strikes Mexico hours later, killing at least 13 and causing over $280 million in damages.
Static pressure exerted by the weight of the Earth's atmosphere
2017
War against the Islamic State: Philippine defense secretary Delfin Lorenzana declares the end of the Siege of Marawi.
Military actions against the Islamic State
2020
Second Libyan Civil War: The Second Libyan Civil War comes to an end as all parties to the 5+5 Joint Libyan Military Commission agree to a ceasefire.
Multilateral civil war in North Africa
2022
Xi Jinping is elected as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party by the Central Committee, beginning a third term of the paramount leader of China.
Leader of China since 2012
2022
Myanmar Air Force airstrikes a concert in Hpakant Township, Kachin state killing at least 80 people, including senior Kachin Independence Organisation officials, in the Hpakant massacre.
Aerial branch of Myanmar's armed forces