On this day: February 23

Events on February 23

• 532 Byzantine emperor Justinian I lays the foundation stone of a new Orthodox Christian basilica in Constantinople – the Hagia Sophia. Wikipedia
• 705 Empress Wu Zetian abdicates the throne, restoring the Tang dynasty. Wikipedia
• 1725 Johann Sebastian Bach premiered his Shepherd Cantata for the birthday of Christian, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels. Wikipedia
• 1739 The identity of English highwayman Dick Turpin was uncovered by his former schoolmate, who recognised his handwriting, leading to Turpin's trial. Wikipedia
• 1778 American Revolutionary War: Prussian military officer Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben arrived at Valley Forge in Pennsylvania as a volunteer for the Continental Army. Wikipedia
• 1847 Mexican–American War: The United States Army used artillery to repulse the much larger Mexican army at the Battle of Buena Vista near Saltillo. Wikipedia
• 1854 The Orange River Convention was signed in Bloemfontein, with the United Kingdom agreeing to recognise the independence of the Orange Free State in present-day South Africa. Wikipedia
• 1886 American inventor Charles Martin Hall discovered an inexpensive method of producing aluminium. Wikipedia
• 1898 Émile Zola is imprisoned in France after writing J'Accuse...!, a letter accusing the French government of antisemitism and wrongfully imprisoning Captain Alfred Dreyfus. Wikipedia
• 1917 First demonstrations in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The beginning of the February Revolution (March 8 in the Gregorian calendar). Wikipedia
• 1927 German theoretical physicist Werner Heisenberg writes a letter to fellow physicist Wolfgang Pauli, in which he describes his uncertainty principle for the first time. Wikipedia
• 1934 Leopold III becomes King of Belgium. Wikipedia
• 1941 Plutonium was first chemically identified by chemist Glenn T. Seaborg and his team at the University of California, Berkeley. Wikipedia
• 1943 35 children and 1 adult employee were killed in a fire at an orphanage in the town of Cavan, Ireland. Wikipedia
• 1944 In response to an insurgency in Chechnya, the Soviet Union began the forced deportation of the native Chechen and Ingush of North Caucasus. Wikipedia
• 1945 Second World War: An Allied bombing run on Pforzheim, Germany, killed approximately 31 percent of its population and destroyed about 83 percent of its buildings. Wikipedia
• 1945 American photographer Joe Rosenthal took the Pulitzer Prize–winning photograph Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima during the Battle of Iwo Jima, an image that was later reproduced on the Marine Corps War Memorial. Wikipedia
• 1947 International Organization for Standardization is founded. Wikipedia
• 1954 The first mass inoculation of children against polio with the Salk vaccine begins in Pittsburgh. Wikipedia
• 1971 Vietnam War: South Vietnamese General Đỗ Cao Trí was killed in a helicopter crash en route to taking control of the faltering Operation Lam Son 719. Wikipedia
• 1987 SN 1987A, the first supernova that modern astronomers were able to study in great detail, was observed from Earth occurring in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Wikipedia
• 1988 Saddam Hussein begins the Anfal genocide against Kurds and Assyrians in northern Iraq. Wikipedia
• 2008 A B-2 Spirit stealth bomber crashed on the runway shortly after takeoff from Andersen Air Force Base in Guam in the most expensive crash in U.S. Air Force history. Wikipedia
• 2017 Syrian civil war: Allied troops led by the Turkish Armed Forces captured the city of al-Bab from the Islamic State. Wikipedia
• 2021 Riots in four Ecuadorian prisons, caused by gang rivalries, resulted in the deaths of 79 inmates. Wikipedia
• 2025 A snap election is held in Germany. Wikipedia

Born on February 23

• 1417 Pope Paul II (died 1471) Wikipedia
• 1443 Matthias Corvinus, Hungarian king (died 1490) Wikipedia
• 1633 Samuel Pepys, English diarist and politician (died 1703) Wikipedia
• 1685 George Frideric Handel, German-English organist and composer (died 1759) Wikipedia
• 1744 Mayer Amschel Rothschild, German banker and businessman (died 1812) Wikipedia
• 1842 Karl Robert Eduard von Hartmann, German philosopher and author (died 1906) Wikipedia
• 1868 W. E. B. Du Bois, American sociologist, historian, and activist (died 1963) Wikipedia
• 1874 Konstantin Päts, Estonian lawyer and politician, 1st President of Estonia (died 1956) Wikipedia
• 1878 Kazimir Malevich, Ukrainian painter and theorist (died 1935) Wikipedia
• 1883 Karl Jaspers, German-Swiss psychiatrist and philosopher (died 1969) Wikipedia
• 1884 Casimir Funk, Polish biochemist (died 1967) Wikipedia
• 1889 Victor Fleming, American director, cinematographer, and producer (died 1949) Wikipedia
• 1899 Erich Kästner, German author and poet (died 1974) Wikipedia
• 1924 Allan McLeod Cormack, South-African-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1998) Wikipedia
• 1929 Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow (died 2008) Wikipedia
• 1963 Radosław Sikorski, Polish journalist and politician, 11th Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland Wikipedia
• 1965 Michael Dell, American businessman Wikipedia
• 1976 Kelly Macdonald, Scottish actress Wikipedia
• 1981 Gareth Barry, English footballer Wikipedia
• 1986 Skylar Grey, American singer-songwriter Wikipedia
• 1992 Casemiro, Brazilian footballer Wikipedia
• 2000 Femke Broeders-Bol, Dutch hurdler and sprinter Wikipedia

Died on February 23

• 1447 Pope Eugene IV (born 1383) Wikipedia
• 1603 Franciscus Vieta, French mathematician (born 1540) Wikipedia
• 1766 Stanisław Leszczyński, Polish king (born 1677) Wikipedia
• 1792 Joshua Reynolds, English painter and academic (born 1723) Wikipedia
• 1821 John Keats, English poet (born 1795) Wikipedia
• 1848 John Quincy Adams, American politician, 6th President of the United States (born 1767) Wikipedia
• 1855 Carl Friedrich Gauss, German mathematician, astronomer, and physicist (born 1777) Wikipedia
• 1934 Edward Elgar, English composer and academic (born 1857) Wikipedia
• 1944 Leo Baekeland, Belgian-American chemist and engineer (born 1863) Wikipedia
• 1955 Paul Claudel, French poet and playwright (born 1868) Wikipedia
• 1965 Stan Laurel, English actor and comedian (born 1890) Wikipedia
• 1969 Saud bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, 2nd King of Saudi Arabia (born 1902) Wikipedia
• 2000 Stanley Matthews, English footballer and manager (born 1915) Wikipedia
• 2008 Janez Drnovšek, Slovenian economist and politician, 2nd President of Slovenia (born 1950) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Polycarp of Smyrna Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Rafaela Ybarra de Vilallonga Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Serenus the Gardener Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Willigis Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: February 23 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• The Emperor's Birthday, birthday of Naruhito, the current Emperor of Japan (Japan) Wikipedia
• Mashramani-Republic Day (Guyana) Wikipedia
• National Day (Brunei) Wikipedia
• Red Army Day or Day of Soviet Army and Navy in the former Soviet Union, also held in various former Soviet republics: Defender of the Fatherland Day (Russia) Wikipedia
• Red Army Day or Day of Soviet Army and Navy in the former Soviet Union, also held in various former Soviet republics: Defender of the Fatherland and Armed Forces day (Belarus) Wikipedia
• Red Army Day or Day of Soviet Army and Navy in the former Soviet Union, also held in various former Soviet republics: Armed Forces Day (Tajikistan) (Tajikistan) Wikipedia

Sources

• Wikipedia — “February 23” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/February 23” — the anniversaries editors chose for the date and the article each one is about (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikidata — in how many language editions each entry's own article exists, used to fill the lists (CC0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• vacanza/holidays (open-source holiday rules, MIT licence) — holiday rules used to build the lists (checked 2026-10-15)

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “February 23” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-15 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. Every anniversary that Wikipedia's editors selected for February 23 stays on the list; the remaining places, up to 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths, go to the entries whose own article — about the event itself, or else the person or thing it is about — appears in the most language editions (counted from Wikidata); an article about a person or thing, which covers far more than one day, counts half. An entry with no article of its own counts, also at half, by the least covered article it links, and one that links only places counts for nothing. Each list runs by year, and the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures, audio and video.