January 23 is the 23rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 342 days remaining until the end of the year (343 in leap years).1924 - Bal Thackeray, founder and president of Indian political party Shiv SenaEVENTS-393 - Roman Emperor Theodosius I proclaims his nine year old son Honorius co-emperor.
909 - John of Rila aka Saint Ivan and the fable of two pies.
971 - In China, the war elephant corps of the Southern Han are soundly defeated at Shao by crossbow fire from Song Dynasty troops. The Southern Han state is forced to submit to the Song Dynasty, ending not only Southern Han rule, but also the first regular war elephant corps employed in a Chinese army that had gained the Southern Han victories throughout the 10th century.
1368 - In a coronation ceremony, Zhu Yuanzhang ascends to the throne of China as the Hongwu Emperor, initiating Ming Dynasty rule over China that would last for three centuries.
1510 - Henry VIII of England, then 18 years old, appears incognito in the lists at Richmond, and is applauded for his jousting before he reveals his identity.
1533 - Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII of England, discovers herself pregnant.
1546 - Having published nothing for eleven years, Francois Rabelais publishes the Tiers Livre, his sequel to Gargantua and Pantagruel.
1556 - The deadliest earthquake in history, the Shaanxi earthquake, hits Shaanxi province, China. The death toll may have been as high as 830,000.
1570 - The assassination of regent James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray throws Scotland into civil war.
1571 - The Royal Exchange opens in London.
1579 - The Union of Utrecht forms a Protestant republic in the Netherlands.
1656 - Blaise Pascal publishes the first of his Lettres provinciales.
1719 - The Principality of Liechtenstein is created within the Holy Roman Empire.
1789 - Georgetown College becomes the first Roman Catholic college in the United States in the city of Washington, D.C.
1793 - Russia and Prussia partition Poland.
1849 - Elizabeth Blackwell is awarded her M.D. by the Medical Institute of Geneva, New York, becoming the United States' first female doctor.
1855 - The first bridge over the Mississippi River opens in what is now Minneapolis, Minnesota, a crossing made today by the Father Louis Hennepin Bridge.
1870 - In Montana, U.S. cavalrymen kill 173 Native Americans, mostly women and children, in the Marias Massacre.
1879 - Anglo-Zulu War: the Battle of Rorke's Drift ends.
1897 - Elva Zona Heaster is found dead in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. The resulting murder trial of her husband is perhaps the only case in United States history where the alleged testimony of a ghost helped secure a conviction.
1899 - Emilio Aguinaldo is sworn in as President of the First Philippine Republic.
1904 - Ålesund Fire: the Norwegian coastal town Ålesund is devastated by fire, leaving 10,000 people homeless and one person dead. Kaiser Wilhelm II funds the rebuilding of the town in Jugendstil style.
1907 - Charles Curtis of Kansas becomes the first Native American U.S. Senator.
1912 - The International Opium Convention is signed at The Hague.
1920 - The Netherlands refuses to surrender ex-Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany to the Allies.
1937 - In Moscow, 17 leading Communists go on trial accused of participating in a plot led by Leon Trotsky to overthrow Joseph Stalin's regime and assassinate its leaders.
1941 - Charles Lindbergh testifies before the U.S. Congress and recommends that the United States negotiate a neutrality pact with Adolf Hitler.
1943 - World War II: British forces capture Tripoli in Libya from the Nazis.
1943 - Jewish-led Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
1943 - World War II: Australian and American forces finally defeat the Japanese army in Papua. This turning point in the Pacific War marks the beginning of the end of Japanese aggression.
1943 - Duke Ellington plays at Carnegie Hall in New York City for the first time.
1945 - World War II: Karl Dönitz launches Operation Hannibal.
1950 - The Knesset passes a resolution that states Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.
1958 - Overthrow in Venezuela of Marcos Pérez Jiménez
1960 - The bathyscaphe USS Trieste breaks a depth record by descending to 10,911 m (35,798 feet)in the Pacific Ocean.
1964 - The 24th Amendment to the United States Constitution, prohibiting the use of poll taxes in national elections, is ratified.
1967 - The diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Ivory Coast were established.
1968 - North Korea seizes the USS Pueblo, claiming the ship had violated their territorial waters while spying.
1973 - President Richard Nixon announces that a peace accord has been reached in Vietnam.
1973 - [[A volcano eruption devastates Heimaey in the Vestmannaeyjar chain of islands off the south coast of Iceland.
1978 - Sweden becomes the first nation in the world to ban aerosol sprays, believed to be damaging to earth's ozone layer.
1985 - O.J. Simpson becomes the first Heisman Trophy winner elected to the Football Hall of Fame.
1986 - The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts its first members: Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Fats Domino, the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley.
1996 - The first version of the Java programming language was released.
1997 - Madeleine Albright becomes the first woman to serve as United States Secretary of State.
1997 - Antonis Daglis, a 23 year old Greek truck driver is sentenced to thirteen consecutive life sentences, plus 25 years for the serial slayings of three women and the attempted murder of six others.
2001 - The Chinese Communist Party stages a self-immolation in Tiananmen Square to frame Falun Gong and escalate the persecution.
2002 - "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh returns to the United States in Federal Bureau of Investigation custody.
2002 - Reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped in Karachi, Pakistan. He was subsequently murdered .
2003 - Final communication between Earth and Pioneer 10...............1350 - Vincent Ferrer, Spanish missionary and saint (d. 1419)
1688 - Queen Ulrika Eleonora of Sweden (d. 1741)
1719 - John Landen, English mathematician (d. 1790)
1737 - John Hancock, American statesman (d. 1793)
1745 - William Jessop, English canal engineer (d. 1814)
1783 - Stendhal, French writer (d. 1842)
1786 - Auguste de Montferrand, French architect (d. 1858)
1813 - Camilla Collett, Norwegian writer and feminist (d. 1895)
1827 - Takamori Saigo, Samurai, leader of Satsuma rebellion (d. 1877)
1832 - Edouard Manet, French artist (d. 1883)
1840 - Ernst Abbe, German physicist (d. 1905)
1855 - John Moses Browning, American inventor (d. 1926)
1857 - Andrija Mohorovičić, Croatian seismologist (d. 1936)
1862 - David Hilbert, German mathematician (d. 1943)
1872 - Goce Delchev, a revolutionary from the Balkans - leader of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (d. 1903)
1872 - Paul Langevin, French physicist (d. 1946)
1872 - Joze Plečnik, Slovenian architect (d. 1957)
1876 - Otto Diels, German chemist, Nobel laureate (d. 1954)
1884 - Ralph DePalma, Italian-American race car driver (d. 1956)
1891 - Antonio Gramsci, Italian political philosopher, (d. 1937)
1896 - Charlotte, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg (d. 1985)
1897 - Subhas Chandra Bose, Indian independence fighter (d. 1945)
1897 - Sir William Samuel Stephenson, Canadian soldier, W.W.II codename, Intrepid. Inspiration for James Bond. (d. 1989)
1897 - Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, Austrian architect (d. 2000)
1897 - Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Indian Leader and Freedom Fighter (d. Unknown, Disputed)
1898 - Sergei Eisenstein, Russian film director (d. 1948)
1898 - Freda Utley, British scholar and author (d. 1978)
1898 - Randolph Scott, American actor (d. 1987)
1899 - Glen Kidston, British aviator and racing driver (d. 1931)
1900 - William Ifor Jones, Welsh conductor and organist (d. 1988)
1903 - Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, Colombian politician (d. 1948)
1907 - Dan Duryea, American actor (d. 1968)
1907 - Hideki Yukawa, Japanese physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 1981)
1910 - Django Reinhardt, Belgian guitarist (d. 1953)
1915 - Potter Stewart, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (d. 1985)
1915 - Arthur Lewis, British economist, Nobel laureate (d. 1991)
1916 - Airey Neave, British Major, politician and indictment server at the Nuremberg Trials (d. 1979)
1916 - David Douglas Duncan, American photo-journalist
1918 - Gertrude B. Elion, American scientist, Nobel laureate (d. 1999)
1919 - Ernie Kovacs, American comedian (d. 1962)
1919 - Bob Paisley, English Football player and manager. (d. 1996)
1919 - Hans Hass, Austrian zoologist and underwater scientist
1923 - Walter M. Miller, Jr., American writer (d. 1996)
1923 - Cot Deal, major league baseball player and coach
1924 - Bal Thackeray, founder and president of Indian political party Shiv Sena.
1927 - Lars-Eric Lindblad, Swedish-American entrepreneur and explorer (d. 1994)
1928 - Chico Carrasquel, Venezuelan baseball player (d. 2005)
1928 - Jeanne Moreau, French actress
1929 - Patriarch Filaret (Mykhailo Denysenko) of Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarchate
1929 - John Charles Polanyi, Canadian chemist, Nobel laureate
1930 - Derek Walcott, West Indian writer, Nobel laureate
1930 - Teresa Żylis-Gara, Polish singer
1933 - Chita Rivera, Puerto Rican actress and dancer
1934 - Pierre Bourgault, Quebec politician and essayist (d. 2003)
1936 - Jerry Kramer, American football player
1936 - Bob Moses, American educator and 1960s Civil Rights Movement activist
1938 - Shohei Baba, Japanese professional wrestler (d. 1999)
1938 - Georg Baselitz, German painter and sculptor
1939 - Sonny Chiba, Japanese actor and martial artist
1939 - Arlene Golonka, American actress
1940 - Johnny Russell, American country singer and songwriter (d. 2001)
1942 - Razzak, Bangladeshi actor and director
1943 - Gary Burton, American jazz vibraphonist
1943 - Gil Gerard, American actor
1943 - Millie Jackson, American singer
1944 - Rutger Hauer, Dutch actor
1945 - Mike Harris, Canadian politician, Premier of Ontario
1946 - Arnoldo Alemán, ex-president of Nicaragua
1946 - Don Whittington, American businessman, car & airplane racer and convicted felon
1947 - Thomas R. Carper, American politician.
1947 - Megawati Sukarnoputri, 5th President of Indonesia
1948 - Anita Pointer, American singer (Pointer Sisters)
1950 - Richard Dean Anderson, American actor
1950 - Danny Federici, American musician (Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band)
1950 - John Greaves, English musician (Henry Cow, National Health)
1953 - Antonio Villaraigosa, Hispanic-American 52nd Mayor of Los Angeles
1953 - Robin Zander, American singer (Cheap Trick)
1954 - Franco De Vita, Venezuelan singer and songwriter
1954 - Edward Ka-Spel, English musician (Legendary Pink Dots)
1957 - Princess Caroline of Monaco
1957 - Lou Schuler, American fitness journalist
1959 - Clive Bull, English radio talk show host
1960 - Patrick de Gayardon, French skydiver and skysurfing pioneer (d. 1998)
1960 - Jean-François Sauvé, Canadian ice hockey player
1961 - Mas Selamat bin Kastari, Singapore's most-wanted terror fugitive
1962 - Elvira Lindo, Spanish writer and journalist
1962 - Vasia Panayopoulou, Greek actress
1963 - Gail O'Grady, American actress
1964 - Mariska Hargitay, American actress
1964 - Mario Roberge, Canadian ice hockey player
1967 - Naim Süleymanoğlu, Bulgaria-born Turkish weightlifter
1968 - Petr Korda, Czech tennis player
1969 - Ariadna Gil, Spanish actress
1969 - Andrei Kanchelskis, Ukrainian-Russian footballer
1969 - Brendan Shanahan, Canadian ice hockey player
1970 - Spiridon Vasdekis, Greek long jumper
1970 - Tracey Cherelle Jones, American actress
1971 - Kevin Mawae, American football player
1971 - Lorne Spicer, British TV presenter
1972 - Ewen Bremner, Scottish actor
1972 - Mark Curry, American rapper
1972 - Marcel Wouda, Dutch swimmer
1973 - Lanei Chapman, American actress
1974 - Joel Bouchard, Canadian ice hockey player
1974 - Rebekah Elmaloglou, Australian actress
1974 - Yosvani Pérez, Cuban baseball player
1974 - Richard T. Slone, British artist
1974 - Tiffani Thiessen, American actress
1975 - Tito Ortiz, American UFC fighter
1976 - Brandon Duckworth, American baseball player
1976 - Angelica Lee, Taiwanese actress and singer
1976 - Nigel McGuinness, English professional wrestler
1979 - Sampsa Astala, Finnish musician (Lordi)
1979 - Larry Hughes, American basketball player
1979 - Juan Rincón, Venezuelan baseball player
1981 - Greg Smith, American UFC fighter
1981 - Rob Friend, Canadian footballer
1982 - Wily Mo Peña, Dominican baseball player
1984 - Arjen Robben, Dutch footballer
1985 - Dong Fangzhuo, Chinese footballer
1985 - Doutzen Kroes, Dutch supermodel
1986 - Steven Taylor, English footballer
1987 - Felicia Brandström, Swedish singer
1199 - Yaqub, Almohad Caliph (b. 1160)
1548 - Bernardo Pisano, Italian composer (b. 1490)
1549 - Johannes Honter, Transylvanian Saxon humanist and theologian (b. 1498)
1567 - Jiajing, Emperor of China (b. 1507)
1570 - James Stewart, Earl of Moray, regent of Scotland (assassinated)
1622 - William Baffin, English explorer (b. 1584)
1744 - Giambattista Vico, Italian philosopher and historian (b. 1668)
1785 - Matthew Stewart, Scottish mathematician (b. 1717)
1789 - Frances Brooke, English writer (b. 1724)
1789 - John Cleland, English novelist (b. 1709)
1800 - Edward Rutledge, American statesman (b. 1749)
1803 - Arthur Guinness, Irish brewer (b. 1725)
1805 - Claude Chappe, French telecommunications pioneer (b. 1763)
1806 - William Pitt the Younger, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1759)
1812 - Robert Craufurd, British general (b. 1764)
1820 - Prince Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent and Strathearn
1833 - Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth, British admiral (b. 1757)
1837 - John Field, Irish composer (b. 1782)
1866 - Thomas Love Peacock, English satirist (b. 1785)
1875 - Charles Kingsley English writer (b. 1819)
1883 - Gustave Doré, French artist, engraver, and illustrator (b. 1832)
1893 - Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (b. 1825)
1922 - Arthur Nikisch, Hungarian conductor (b. 1855)
1923 - Max Nordau, Austrian author, philosopher, and Zionist leader (b. 1849)
1931 - Anna Pavlova, Russian ballerina (b. 1881)
1937 - Orso Mario Corbino, Italian physicist (b. 1876)
1939 - Matthias Sindelar, Austrian footballer (b. 1903)
1943 - Alexander Woollcott, American actor, author, and bon vivant (b. 1887)
1944 - Edvard Munch, Norwegian painter (b. 1863)
1944 - Viktor Gusev, Russian poet (b. 1909)
1956 - Alexander Korda, Hungarian/British film director (b. 1893)
1958 - Nikolaos Georgantas, Greek discus thrower (b. 1880)
1971 - Fritz Feigl, Austria-born chemist (b. 1871)
1973 - Alexander Onassis, Greek heir of the Onassis family (b. 1948)
1973 - Kid Ory, American jazz trombonist (b. 1886)
1976 - Paul Dupuis, French Canadian film and television actor (b. 1913)
1976 - Paul Robeson, American actor, singer, and social activist (b. 1898)
1977 - Toots Shor, New York restaurateur (b. 1903)
1978 - Terry Kath, American musician (Chicago) (b. 1946)
1978 - Jack Oakie, American actor (b. 1903)
1978 - Vic Ames, American singer (Ames Brothers) (b. 1925)
1981 - Samuel Barber, American composer (b. 1910)
1983 - Fred Bakewell, English cricketer (b. 1908)
1984 - Mu'in Bseiso, Palestinian poet (b. 1926)
1986 - Joseph Beuys, German artist (b. 1921)
1988 - Charles Glen King, American biochemist (b. 1896)
1989 - Salvador Dalí, Catalan artist (b. 1904)
1990 - Allen Collins, American guitarist (Lynyrd Skynyrd) (b. 1952)
1991 - Northrop Frye, Canadian writer and critic (b. 1912)
1992 - Freddie Bartholomew, Irish actor (b. 1924)
1993 - Thomas A. Dorsey, American singer (b. 1899)
1994 - Nikolai Ogarkov, Soviet field marshal (b. 1917)
1994 - Brian Redhead, English journalist and broadcaster (b. 1929)
1997 - Richard Berry, American composer and musician (b. 1935)
1999 - Jay Pritzker, American businessman (b. 1922)
1999 - Prince Lincoln Thompson, Jamaican musician (b. 1949)
2002 - Pierre Bourdieu, French sociologist (b. 1930)
2002 - Paul Aars, American racecar driver (b. 1934)
2002 - Robert Nozick, American philosopher (b. 1938)
2003 - Nell Carter, American singer and actress (b. 1948)
2004 - Bob Keeshan, American actor (b. 1927)
2004 - Helmut Newton, German-born photographer (b. 1920)
2005 - Morys George Lyndhurst Bruce, 4th Baron Aberdare, British politician (b. 1921)
2005 - Johnny Carson, American television host (b. 1925)
2006 - Chris McKinstry, Canadian scientist (b. 1967)
2007 - E. Howard Hunt, American Watergate figure (b. 1918)
2007 - Ryszard Kapuściński, Polish journalist and writer (b. 1932)
2007 - Syed Hussein Alatas, Malaysian Politician (b. 1928)
