Events on May 23 41
Year 844
Battle of Clavijo: The Apostle Saint James the Greater is said to have miraculously appeared to a force of outnumbered Asturians and aided them against the forces of the Emir of Cordoba.
Year 1430
Joan of Arc is captured by the Burgundians while leading an army to raise the Siege of Compiègne.
Year 1533
The marriage of King Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon is declared null and void.
Year 1568
Dutch rebels led by Louis of Nassau, defeat Jean de Ligne, Duke of Arenberg, and his loyalist troops in the Battle of Heiligerlee, opening the Eighty Years' War.
Year 1701
After being convicted of piracy and of murdering William Moore, Captain William Kidd is hanged in London.
Year 1706
John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, defeats a French army under Marshal François de Neufville, duc de Villeroy in the Battle of Ramillies.
Year 1788
South Carolina ratifies the United States Constitution as the eighth American state.
Year 1793
Battle of Famars during the Flanders Campaign of the War of the First Coalition.
Year 1844
Declaration of the Báb the evening before the 23rd: A merchant of Shiraz announces that he is a Prophet and founds a religious movement that would later be brutally crushed by the Persian government. He is considered to be a forerunner of the Bahá'í Faith; Bahá'ís celebrate the day as a holy day.
Year 1846
Mexican-American War: President Mariano Paredes of Mexico unofficially declares war on the United States.
Year 1873
The Canadian Parliament establishes the North-West Mounted Police, the forerunner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Year 1900
American Civil War: Sergeant William Harvey Carney is awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism in the Assault on the Battery Wagner in 1863.
Year 1915
World War I: Italy joins the Allies, fulfilling its part of the Treaty of London.
Year 1932
In Brazil, four students are shot and killed during a manifestation against the Brazilian dictator Getúlio Vargas, which resulted in the outbreak of the Constitutionalist Revolution several weeks later.
Year 1934
Infamous American bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde are ambushed by police and killed in Bienville Parish, Louisiana.
Year 1934
The Auto-Lite strike culminates in the "Battle of Toledo", a five-day melée between 1,300 troops of the Ohio National Guard and 6,000 picketers.
Year 1939
The U.S. Navy submarine USS Squalus sinks off the coast of New Hampshire during a test dive, causing the death of 24 sailors and two civilian technicians. The remaining 32 sailors and one civilian naval architect are rescued the following day.
Year 1945
World War II: Heinrich Himmler, head of the Schutzstaffel, commits suicide while in Allied custody.
Year 1945
World War II: The Flensburg Government under Reichspräsident Karl Dönitz is dissolved when its members are captured and arrested by British forces.
Year 1949
The Federal Republic of Germany is established and the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany is proclaimed.
Year 1951
Tibetans sign the Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet with China.
Year 1992
Italy's most prominent anti-mafia judge Giovanni Falcone, his wife and three body guards are killed by the Corleonesi clan with a half-ton bomb near Capaci, Sicily. His friend and colleague Paolo Borsellino will be assassinated less than two months later, making 1992 a turning point in the history of Italian Mafia prosecutions.
Year 1998
The Good Friday Agreement is accepted in a referendum in Northern Ireland with roughly 75% voting yes.
Year 2002
The "55 parties" clause of the Kyoto Protocol is reached after its ratification by Iceland.
Year 2008
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) awards Middle Rocks to Malaysia and Pedra Branca (Pulau Batu Puteh) to Singapore, ending a 29-year territorial dispute between the two countries.
Year 2013
The Interstate 5 bridge over the Skagit River collapses in Mount Vernon, Washington.
Year 2014
Seven people, including the perpetrator, are killed and another 14 injured in a killing spree near the campus of University of California, Santa Barbara.
Year 2015
At least 46 people are killed as a result of floods caused by a tornado in Texas and Oklahoma.
Year 2016
Two suicide bombings, conducted by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, killed at least 45 potential army recruits in Aden, Yemen.
Year 2016
Eight bombings were carried out by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria in Jableh and Tartus, coastline cities in Syria. One hundred eight-four people were killed and at least 200 people injured.
Year 2017
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law in Mindanao, following the Maute's attack in Marawi.