| 1430 |
|
Burgundians capture Joan of Arc and sell her to the English. |
| 1533 |
|
Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon is declared null and void. |
| 1618 |
|
The Thirty Years War begins. |
| 1701 |
|
Captain William Kidd, the Scottish pirate, is hanged on the banks of the Thames. |
| 1785 |
|
Benjamin Franklin announces his invention of bifocals. |
| 1788 |
|
South Carolina becomes the eighth state to ratify U.S. Constitution. |
| 1861 |
|
Pro-Union and pro-Confederate forces clash in western Virginia. |
| 1862 |
|
Confederate General "Stonewall" Jackson takes Front Royal, Virginia. |
| 1864 |
|
Union General Ulysses Grant attempts to outflank Confederate Robert E. Lee in the Battle of North Anna, Virginia. |
| 1900 |
|
Civil War hero Sgt. William H. Carney becomes the first African American to receive the Medal of Honor, thirty-seven years after the Battle of Fort Wagner. |
| 1901 |
|
American forces capture Filipino rebel leader Emilio Aguinaldo. |
| 1915 |
|
Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary. |
| 1934 |
|
Gangsters Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow are killed by Texas Rangers. |
| 1945 |
|
Heinrich Himmler, the head of the Nazi Gestapo, commits suicide after being captured by Allied forces. |
| 1949 |
|
The Federal Republic of West Germany is proclaimed. |
| 1960 |
|
Israel announces the capture of Nazi Adolf Eichmann in Argentina. |
|
Born on May 23 |
| 1707 |
|
Carolus Linnaeus [Carl von Linné], Swedish botanist. |
| 1734 |
|
Friedrich Anton Mesmer, physician and hypnotist. |
| 1810 |
|
Margaret Fuller, writer and critic. |
| 1820 |
|
James Buchanan Eads, engineer of the Eads Bridge in St. Louis |
| 1875 |
|
Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., president and chairman of the board for General Motors. |
| 1891 |
|
Par Lagerkvist, Swedish writer (The Dwarf, Barabbas). |
| 1908 |
|
John Bardeen, physicist, co-inventor of the transistor. |
| 1910 |
|
Artie Shaw, bandleader and clarinetist. |
| 1920 |
|
Helen O'Connell, big band vocalist. |
| 1928 |
|
Rosemary Clooney, singer. |
| 1934 |
|
Robert A. Moog, electrical engineer, creator of the Moog synthesizer. |
| 1947 |
|
Jane Kenyon, poet (Let Evening Come, Otherwise). |
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