Events on October 23 52
Year 501
The Synodus Palmaris, called by Gothic king Theoderic the Great, discharges Pope Symmachus of all charges, thus ending the schism of Antipope Laurentius.
Year 1086
At the Battle of Sagrajas, the army of Yusuf ibn Tashfin defeats the forces of Castilian King Alfonso VI.
Year 1157
The Battle of Grathe Heath ends the civil war in Denmark. King Sweyn III is killed and Valdemar I restores the country.
Year 1295
The first treaty forming the Auld Alliance between Scotland and France against England is signed in Paris.
Year 1641
Irish Catholic gentry from Ulster tried to seize control of Dublin Castle, the seat of English rule in Ireland, to force concessions to Catholics.
Year 1694
British/American colonial forces, led by Sir William Phips, fail to seize Quebec from the French.
Year 1739
War of Jenkins' Ear starts: British Prime Minister Robert Walpole, reluctantly declares war on Spain.
Year 1812
Claude François de Malet, a French general, begins a conspiracy to overthrow Napoleon Bonaparte, claiming that the Emperor died in Russia and that he is now the commandant of Paris.
Year 1850
The first National Women's Rights Convention begins in Worcester, Massachusetts, United States.
Year 1861
U.S. President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus in Washington, D.C., for all military-related cases.
Year 1864
American Civil War: Battle of Westport: Union forces under General Samuel R. Curtis defeat Confederate troops led by General Sterling Price at Westport, Missouri, near Kansas City.
Year 1870
Franco-Prussian War: The Siege of Metz concludes with a decisive Prussian victory.
Year 1906
Alberto Santos-Dumont flies an airplane in the first heavier-than-air flight in Europe at Champs de Bagatelle, Paris, France.
Year 1911
First use of aircraft in war: Italo-Turkish War: An Italian pilot takes off from Libya to observe Turkish army lines.
Year 1912
First Balkan War: The Battle of Kumanovo between the Serbian and Ottoman armies begins.
Year 1915
Women's suffrage: In New York City, 25,000-33,000 women march on Fifth Avenue to advocate their right to vote.
Year 1929
Wall Street Crash of 1929. After a steady decline in stock market prices since a peak in September, the New York Stock Exchange begins to crash.
Year 1935
Dutch Schultz, Abe Landau, Otto Berman, and Bernard "Lulu" Rosencrantz are fatally shot at a saloon in Newark, New Jersey in what will become known as The Chophouse Massacre.
Year 1941
World War II: Field Marshal Georgy Zhukov takes command of Red Army operations to prevent the further advance into Russia of German forces and to prevent the Wehrmacht from capturing Moscow.
Year 1942
World War II: Second Battle of El Alamein: At El Alamein in northern Egypt, the British Eighth Army under Field Marshal Montgomery begins a critical offensive to expel the Axis armies from Egypt.
Year 1942
All 12 passengers and crewmen aboard an American Airlines DC-3 airliner are killed when it is struck by a U.S. Army Air Forces bomber near Palm Springs, California.
Year 1942
World War II: The Battle for Henderson Field begins during the Guadalcanal Campaign and ends on October 26.
Year 1944
World War II: Battle of Leyte Gulf: The largest naval battle in history begins in the Philippines.
Year 1946
The United Nations General Assembly convenes for the first time, at an auditorium in Flushing, Queens, New York City.
Year 1955
Prime Minister Ngô Đình Diệm defeats former emperor Bảo Đại in a referendum and founds the Republic of Vietnam.
Year 1956
Thousands of Hungarians protest against the government and Soviet occupation. (The Hungarian Revolution is crushed on November 4).
Year 1958
The Springhill Mine bump: An earthquake traps 174 miners in the No. 2 colliery at Springhill, Nova Scotia, the deepest coal mine in North America at the time. By November 1, rescuers from around the world had dug out 100 of the victims, marking the death toll at 74.
Year 1965
Vietnam War: The 1st Cavalry Division (United States) (Airmobile), in conjunction with South Vietnamese forces, launches a new operation seeking to destroy North Vietnamese forces in Pleiku in the II Corps Tactical Zone (the Central Highlands).
Year 1970
Gary Gabelich sets a land speed record in a rocket-powered automobile called the Blue Flame, fueled with natural gas.
Year 1972
Operation Linebacker, a US bombing campaign against North Vietnam in response to its Easter Offensive, ends after five months.
Year 1973
The Watergate scandal: US President Richard M. Nixon agrees to turn over subpoenaed audio tapes of his Oval Office conversations.
Year 1982
A gunfight breaks out between police officers and members of a religious cult known as the "Christ Miracle Healing Center and Church" in Miracle Valley, Arizona. The shootout leaves two cultists dead and dozens of cultists and police officers injured.
Year 1983
Lebanese Civil War: The U.S. Marines barracks in Beirut is hit by a truck bomb, killing 241 U.S. military personnel. A French army barracks in Lebanon is also hit that same morning, killing 58 troops.
Year 1989
The Hungarian Republic is officially declared by president Mátyás Szűrös, replacing the communist Hungarian People's Republic.
Year 1989
Bankruptcy of Wärtsilä Marine; the biggest bankruptcy in the Nordic countries until then.
Year 1991
Signing of the Paris Peace Accords which ended the Cambodian-Vietnamese War. Commemorated as a public holiday in Cambodia.
Year 1993
The Troubles: A Provisional IRA bomb prematurely detonates in the Shankill area of Belfast, killing the bomber and nine civilians.
Year 1995
Yolanda Saldívar is found guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting death of popular Latin singer Selena. Saldívar was sentenced to life in prison, eligible for parole in 2025.
Year 1998
Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat reach a "land for peace" agreement.
Year 2002
Moscow theater hostage crisis: Chechen terrorists seize the House of Culture theater in Moscow and take approximately 700 theater-goers hostage.
Year 2004
A powerful earthquake and its aftershocks hit Niigata Prefecture in northern Japan, killing 35 people, injuring 2,200, and leaving 85,000 homeless or evacuated.
Year 2007
A powerful cold front in the Bay of Campeche causes the Usumacinta jackup rig to collide with Kab 101, leading to the death and drowning of 22 people during rescue operations after evacuation of the rig.
Year 2011
A powerful 7.2 magnitude earthquake strikes Van Province, Turkey, killing 582 people and injuring thousands.
Year 2012
After 38 years, the world's first teletext service (BBC's Ceefax) ceases broadcast due to Northern Ireland completing the digital switchover.
Year 2015
The lowest sea-level pressure in the Western Hemisphere, and the highest reliably-measured non-tornadic sustained winds, are recorded in Hurricane Patricia, which strikes Mexico hours later, killing at least 13 and causing over $280 million in damages.
Year ?
Liberators' civil war: Second Battle of Philippi - Mark Antony and Octavian decisively defeat Brutus's army. Brutus commits suicide.