On this day: February 23

Events on February 23

• 1455 Traditionally the date of publication of the Gutenberg Bible, the first Western book printed with movable type. Wikipedia
• 1725 Johann Sebastian Bach premiered his Shepherd Cantata for the birthday of Christian, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels. Wikipedia
• 1725 J. S. Bach leads his Tafel-Music Shepherd Cantata for the birthday of Christian, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels. Wikipedia
• 1763 Berbice slave uprising in Guyana: The first major slave revolt in South America. Wikipedia
• 1861 President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrives secretly in Washington, D.C., after the thwarting of an alleged assassination plot in Baltimore, Maryland. Wikipedia
• 1870 Reconstruction Era: Post-U.S. Civil War military control of Mississippi ends and it is readmitted to the Union. Wikipedia
• 1883 Alabama becomes the first U.S. state to enact an anti-trust law. Wikipedia
• 1886 American inventor Charles Martin Hall discovered an inexpensive method of producing aluminium. Wikipedia
• 1886 Charles Martin Hall produced the first samples of aluminium from the electrolysis of aluminium oxide, after several years of intensive work. He was assisted in this project by his older sister, Julia Brainerd Hall. 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
• 1903 Cuba leases Guantánamo Bay to the United States "in perpetuity". Wikipedia
• 1909 The AEA Silver Dart makes the first powered flight in Canada and the British Empire. Wikipedia
• 1917 First demonstrations in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The beginning of the February Revolution (March 8 in the Gregorian calendar). Wikipedia
• 1934 Leopold III becomes King of Belgium. Wikipedia
• 1942 World War II: Japanese submarines fire artillery shells at the coastline near Santa Barbara, California. Wikipedia
• 1943 35 children and 1 adult employee were killed in a fire at an orphanage in the town of Cavan, Ireland. Wikipedia
• 1944 The Soviet Union begins the forced deportation of the Chechen and Ingush people from the North Caucasus to Central Asia. Wikipedia
• 1945 World War II: The capital of the Philippines, Manila, is liberated by combined Filipino and American forces. 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 World War II: Capitulation of German garrison in Poznań. The city is liberated by Soviet and Polish forces. Wikipedia
• 1966 In Syria, Ba'ath Party member Salah Jadid leads an intra-party military coup that replaces the previous government of General Amin al-Hafiz, also a Baathist. 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
• 1991 In Thailand, General Sunthorn Kongsompong leads a bloodless coup d'état, deposing Prime Minister Chatichai Choonhavan. Wikipedia
• 1999 Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Öcalan is charged with treason in Ankara, Turkey. Wikipedia
• 2012 A series of attacks across Iraq leave at least 83 killed and more than 250 injured. Wikipedia
• 2021 Four simultaneous prison riots leave at least 62 people dead in Ecuador. 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
• 1908 William McMahon, Australian lawyer and politician, 20th Prime Minister of Australia (died 1988) 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
• 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

• 715 Al-Walid I, Umayyad caliph (born 668) Wikipedia
• 908 Li Keyong, Shatuo military governor during the Tang dynasty in China (born 856) Wikipedia
• 943 David I, prince of Tao-Klarjeti (Georgia) Wikipedia
• 1447 Pope Eugene IV (born 1383) 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
• 1930 Horst Wessel, German SA officer (born 1907) Wikipedia
• 1934 Edward Elgar, English composer and academic (born 1857) Wikipedia
• 1955 Paul Claudel, French poet and playwright (born 1868) Wikipedia
• 1973 Dickinson W. Richards, American physician and physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1895) Wikipedia
• 2007 Hanna Barysevich, the oldest female resident of Belarus not registered by the Guinness Book of World Records (born 1888) Wikipedia
• 2024 Flaco, Eurasian eagle-owl (born 2010) 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

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 2026-10-09 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. We picked the 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths with the widest coverage across Wikipedia's language editions (counted from Wikidata) and sorted them by year; the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures.