Today In History. What Happened This Day In History
A Timeline Of Events That Occurred On This Day In History
A chronological timetable of historical events that occurred on this day in history. Historical facts of the day in the areas of military, politics, science, music, sports, arts, entertainment and more. Discover what happened today in history.
Today in History
August 23
| 1244 | Turks expel the crusaders under Frederick II from Jerusalem. | |
| 1305 | Scottish patriot William Wallace is hanged, drawn, beheaded, and quartered in London. | |
| 1541 | Jacques Cartier lands near Quebec on his third voyage to North America. | |
| 1711 | A British attempt to invade Canada by sea fails. | |
| 1775 | King George III of England refuses the American colonies' offer of peace and declares them in open rebellion. | |
| 1821 | After 11 years of war, Spain grants Mexican independence as a constitutional monarchy. | |
| 1863 | Union batteries cease their first bombardment of Fort Sumter, leaving it a mass of rubble but still unconquered by the Northern besiegers. | |
| 1900 | Booker T. Washington forms the National Negro Business League in Boston, Massachusetts. | |
| 1902 | Fanny Farmer, among the first to emphasize the relationship of diet to health, opens her School of Cookery in Boston. | |
| 1914 | The Emperor of Japan declares war on Germany. | |
| 1926 | American film star Rudolph Valentino dies, causing world-wide hysteria and a number of suicides. | |
| 1927 | Immigrant laborers Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are executed for a robbery they did not commit. Fifty years later, in 1977, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis establishes a memorial in the victims' honor. | |
| 1939 | Joseph Stalin and German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop sign a non-aggression pact between the Soviet Union and Germany, freeing Hitler to invade Poland and Stalin to invade Finland. | |
| 1942 | German forces begin an assault on the major Soviet industrial city of Stalingrad. | |
| 1944 | German SS engineers begin placing explosive charges around the Eiffel Tower in Paris. | |
| 1950 | Up to 77,000 members of the U.S. Army Organized Reserve Corps are called involuntarily to active duty to fight the Korean War. | |
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Born on August 23 |
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| 1754 | Louis XVI, King of France during the French Revolution who met his fate at the guillotine. | |
| 1755 | Jean Baptiste Lislet-Geoffroy, French geographer. | |
| 1883 | Jonathan Wainwright, U.S. general who fought against the Japanese on Corregidor in the Philippines and was forced to surrender. | |
| 1898 | Albert Claude, biologist who won the 1974 Nobel for his work on the sub-structure of the cell. He never graduated from high school. | |
| 1912 | Gene Kelly, dancer, choreographer and actor. | |
| 1931 | H.O. Smith, molecular biologist credited with helping 'open the door' on genetic engineering. | |
| 1934 | Sonny (Christian) Jurgensen, professional football player and sports announcer. | |
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