On this day: July 23

Events on July 23

• 811 Byzantine emperor Nikephoros I plunders the Bulgarian capital of Pliska and captures Khan Krum's treasury. Wikipedia
• 1711 The treaty of Pruth between the Ottoman and Russian Empire is signed. Wikipedia
• 1793 Kingdom of Prussia re-conquers Mainz from France. Wikipedia
• 1862 American Civil War: Henry Halleck becomes general-in-chief of the Union Army. Wikipedia
• 1881 The Boundary Treaty of 1881 between Chile and Argentina is signed in Buenos Aires. Wikipedia
• 1900 Pressed by expanding immigration, Canada closes its doors to paupers and criminals. Wikipedia
• 1908 The Second Constitution is accepted by the Ottomans. Wikipedia
• 1914 July Crisis: Austria-Hungary issues a series of demands in an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia demanding Serbia to allow the Austrians to determine who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Serbia accepts all but one of those demands and Austria declares war on July 28. Wikipedia
• 1927 The first station of the Indian Broadcasting Company goes on the air in Bombay. Wikipedia
• 1936 In Catalonia, Spain, the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia is founded through the merger of Socialist and Communist parties. Wikipedia
• 1940 The United States' Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles issues a declaration on the U.S. non-recognition policy of the Soviet annexation and incorporation of three Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Wikipedia
• 1942 Bulgarian poet and communist activist Nikola Vaptsarov is executed by firing squad. Wikipedia
• 1942 World War II: The German offensives Operation Edelweiss and Operation Braunschweig begin on the Eastern Front. Wikipedia
• 1942 The Holocaust: The gas chambers at Treblinka extermination camp began operation, killing 6,500 Jews who had been transported from the Warsaw Ghetto the day before. Wikipedia
• 1961 The Sandinista National Liberation Front is founded in Nicaragua. Wikipedia
• 1967 Detroit Riots: In Detroit, one of the worst riots in United States history begins on 12th Street in the predominantly African American inner city. It ultimately kills 43 people, injures 342 and burns about 1,400 buildings. Wikipedia
• 1968 The only successful hijacking of an El Al aircraft takes place when a Boeing 707 carrying ten crew and 38 passengers is taken over by three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The aircraft was en route from Rome, Italy to Lod, Israel. Wikipedia
• 1968 A shootout between police and a Black power group began in Cleveland, Ohio, sparking three days of rioting. Wikipedia
• 1972 The United States launches Landsat 1, the first Earth-resources satellite. Wikipedia
• 1980 Phạm Tuân becomes the first Vietnamese citizen and the first Asian in space when he flies aboard the Soyuz 37 mission as an Intercosmos Research Cosmonaut. Wikipedia
• 1988 General Ne Win, effective ruler of Burma since 1962, resigns after pro-democracy protests. Wikipedia
• 1992 Abkhazia declares independence from Georgia. Wikipedia
• 1992 A Vatican commission, led by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, establishes that limiting certain rights of homosexual people and non-married couples is not equivalent to discrimination on grounds of race or gender. Wikipedia
• 1999 ANA Flight 61 is hijacked in Tokyo, Japan by Yuji Nishizawa. Wikipedia
• 2012 The Solar storm of 2012 was an unusually large coronal mass ejection that was emitted by the Sun which barely missed the Earth by nine days. If it hit, it would have caused up to US$2.6 trillion in damages to electrical equipment worldwide. Wikipedia
• 2015 NASA announces discovery of Kepler-452b by the Kepler space telescope. Wikipedia

Born on July 23

• 1441 Danjong of Joseon, King of Joseon (died 1457) Wikipedia
• 1649 Pope Clement XI (died 1721) Wikipedia
• 1856 Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Indian lawyer and journalist (died 1920) Wikipedia
• 1884 Emil Jannings, Swiss-German actor (died 1950) Wikipedia
• 1888 Raymond Chandler, American crime novelist and screenwriter (died 1959) Wikipedia
• 1892 Haile Selassie, Ethiopian emperor (died 1975) Wikipedia
• 1899 Gustav Heinemann, German lawyer and politician, 3rd President of West Germany (died 1976) Wikipedia
• 1906 Vladimir Prelog, Croatian-Swiss chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1998) Wikipedia
• 1920 Amália Rodrigues, Portuguese fado singer (died 1999) Wikipedia
• 1928 Vera Rubin, American astronomer and academic (died 2016) Wikipedia
• 1931 Viktor Korchnoi, Russian-Swiss chess grandmaster (died 2016) Wikipedia
• 1941 Sergio Mattarella, Italian lawyer, judge, and politician, 12th President of Italy Wikipedia
• 1946 Andy Mackay, English oboe player and composer Wikipedia
• 1953 Najib Razak, Malaysian politician, 6th Prime Minister of Malaysia Wikipedia
• 1957 Theo van Gogh, Dutch actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2004) Wikipedia
• 1961 Woody Harrelson, American actor and activist Wikipedia
• 1965 Slash, English-American guitarist, songwriter, and producer Wikipedia
• 1967 Philip Seymour Hoffman, American actor, director, and producer (died 2014) Wikipedia
• 1973 Monica Lewinsky, American activist and former White House intern Wikipedia
• 1976 Judit Polgár, Hungarian chess player Wikipedia
• 1982 Paul Wesley, American actor, director, and producer Wikipedia
• 1989 Daniel Radcliffe, English actor Wikipedia

Died on July 23

• 1100 Warner of Grez, French nobleman, relative of Godfrey of Bouillon Wikipedia
• 1645 Michael I, Russian tsar (born 1596) Wikipedia
• 1757 Domenico Scarlatti, Italian harpsichord player and composer (born 1685) Wikipedia
• 1885 Ulysses S. Grant, American general and politician, 18th President of the United States (born 1822) Wikipedia
• 1916 William Ramsay, Scottish chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1852) Wikipedia
• 1948 D. W. Griffith, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1875) Wikipedia
• 1951 Philippe Pétain, French general and politician, 119th Prime Minister of France (born 1856) Wikipedia
• 1955 Cordell Hull, American captain, lawyer, and politician, 47th United States Secretary of State, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1871) Wikipedia
• 1968 Henry Hallett Dale, English pharmacologist and physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1875) Wikipedia
• 1999 Hassan II of Morocco (born 1929) Wikipedia
• 2007 Mohammed Zahir Shah, Afghan king (born 1914) Wikipedia
• 2011 Amy Winehouse, English singer-songwriter (born 1983) Wikipedia
• 2012 Sally Ride, American physicist and astronaut (born 1951) Wikipedia
• 2024 Robin Warren, Australian pathologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1937) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Birthday of Haile Selassie (Rastafari) Wikipedia
• Children's Day (Indonesia) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Basil Hopko Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Bridget of Sweden Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Heiromartyr Phocas (Eastern Orthodox) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Giovanna da Orvieto Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: John Cassian (Western Christianity) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Liborius of Le Mans Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Margarita María Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Martyrs of Daimiel Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Rasyphus and Ravennus Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: July 23 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• National Remembrance Day (Papua New Guinea) Wikipedia
• Renaissance Day (Oman) Wikipedia
• Revolution Day (Egypt) Wikipedia

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “July 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.