UN
Day
International
Day to End Obstetric Fistula
World Turtle Day
The purpose of World Turtle Day, May 23,
sponsored yearly since 2000 by American
Tortoise Rescue, is to bring attention to,
and increase knowledge of and respect for,
turtles and tortoises, and encourage human
action to help them survive and thrive.
Turtle
Day is celebrated worldwide in a variety
of ways, from dressing up as turtles or
wearing green summer dresses, to saving
turtles caught on highways, to research
activities.
Events
May 23
334
BC – The Macedonian army of Alexander the
Great defeats Darius III of Persia in the
Battle of the Granicus.
853 – A Byzantine fleet sacks and destroys
undefended Damietta in Egypt
1176 – The Hashshashin (Assassins) attempt
to murder Saladin near Aleppo.
1200 – King John of England and King Philip
II of France sign the Treaty of Le Goulet.
1254 – Serbian King Stephen Uroš I and the
Republic of Venice sign a peace treaty.
1377 – Pope Gregory XI issues five papal
bulls to denounce the doctrines of English
theologian John Wycliffe.
1455 – Wars of the Roses: at the First Battle
of St Albans, Richard, Duke of York, defeats
and captures King Henry VI of England.
1629 – Emperor Ferdinand II & Danish
King Christian IV sign the Treaty of Lübeck
to end the Danish intervention in the Thirty
Years' War.
1659 – France, England & Netherlands
sign "Hedges Concerto" treaty.
1762 – Sweden and Prussia sign the Treaty
of Hamburg.
1807 – A grand jury indicts former Vice
President of the United States Aaron Burr
on a charge of treason.
1807 – Most of the English town of Chudleigh
is destroyed by fire
1809 – On the second and last day of the
Battle of Aspern-Essling (near Vienna),
Napoleon is repelled by an enemy army for
the first time.
1816 – A mob in Littleport, Cambridgeshire,
England, riots over high unemployment and
rising grain costs; the rioting spreads
to Ely the next day.
1819 – The SS Savannah leaves port at Savannah,
Georgia, United States, on a voyage to become
the first steamship to cross the Atlantic
Ocean. The ship arrived at Liverpool, England
on June 20.
1826 – HMS Beagle departs on its first voyage.
1840 – The transportation of British convicts
to the New South Wales colony is abolished.
1844 – Persian Prophet The Báb announces
his revelation, founding Bábism. He announces
to the world the coming of "He whom
God shall make manifest". He is considered
the forerunner of Bahá'u'lláh, the founder
of the Bahá'í Faith.
1848 – Slavery is abolished in Martinique.
1856 – Congressman Preston Brooks of South
Carolina beats Senator Charles Sumner with
a cane in the hall of the United States
Senate for a speech Sumner had made attacking
Southerners who sympathized with the pro-slavery
violence in Kansas ("Bleeding Kansas").
1863 – American Civil War: Siege of Port
Hudson – Union forces begin to lay siege
to the Confederate-controlled Port Hudson,
Louisiana.
1864 – American Civil War: After ten weeks,
the Union Army's Red River Campaign ends
with the Union unable to achieve any of
its objectives.
1871 – The U.S. Army issued an order for
abandonment of Fort Kearny in Nebraska.
1872 – Reconstruction: U.S. President Ulysses
S. Grant signs the Amnesty Act of 1872 into
law restoring full civil rights to all but
about 500 Confederate sympathizers.
1897 – The Blackwall Tunnel under the River
Thames is officially opened
1903 – Launch of the White Star Liner, SS
Ionic.
1906 – The Wright brothers are granted U.S.
patent number 821,393 for their "Flying-Machine".
1915 – Lassen Peak erupts with a powerful
force, and is the only mountain other than
Mount St. Helens to erupt in the contiguous
US during the 20th century.
1915 – Three trains collide in the Quintinshill
rail crash near Gretna Green, Scotland,
killing 227 people and injuring 246; the
accident is found to be the result of non-standard
operating practices during a shift change
at a busy junction.
1926 – Chiang Kai-shek replaces communists
in Kuomintang China
1939 – World War II: Germany and Italy sign
the Pact of Steel.
1942 – Mexico enters World War II on the
side of the Allies.
1942 – The Steel Workers Organizing Committee
disbands, and a new trade union, the United
Steelworkers, is formed.
1942 – World War II: Ted Williams of the
Boston Red Sox enlists in the United States
Marine Corps as a flight instructor.
1943 – Stalin disbands Comintern.
1947 – Cold War: in an effort to fight the
spread of Communism, U.S. President Harry
S. Truman signs an act into law that will
later be called the Truman Doctrine. The
act grants $400 million in military and
economic aid to Turkey and Greece, each
battling an internal Communist movement.
1958 – Sri Lankan riots of 1958: This riot
is a watershed event in the race relationship
of the various ethnic communities of Sri
Lanka. The total number of deaths is estimated
to be 300, mostly Sri Lankan Tamils.
1960 – An earthquake measuring 9.5 on the
moment magnitude scale, now known as the
Great Chilean Earthquake, hits southern
Chile. It is the most powerful earthquake
ever recorded.
1962 – Continental Airlines Flight 11 crashes
after bombs explode on board.
1963 – Assassination attempt of Greek left-wing
politician Gregoris Lambrakis, who will
die five days afterwards.
1964 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson
announces the goals of his Great Society
social reforms to bring an "end to
poverty and racial injustice" in America.
1967 – The L'Innovation department store
in the centre of Brussels, Belgium, burns
down. It is the most devastating fire in
Belgian history, resulting in 323 dead and
missing and 150 injured.
1968 – The nuclear-powered submarine the
USS Scorpion sinks with 99 men aboard 400
miles southwest of the Azores.
1969 – Apollo 10's lunar module flies within
8.4 nautical miles (16 km) of the moon's
surface.
1972 – Ceylon adopts a new constitution,
thus becoming a Republic, changes its name
to Sri Lanka, and joins the Commonwealth
of Nations.
1980 – Namco releases the highly influential
arcade game Pac-Man.
1987 – Hashimpura massacre in Meerut city
of India.
1987 – First ever Rugby World Cup kicks
off with New Zealand playing Italy at Eden
Park, Auckland.
1990 – North and South Yemen are unified
to create the Republic of Yemen.
1990 – Microsoft releases the Windows 3.0
operating system.
1992 – After 30 years, 66-year-old Johnny
Carson hosts The Tonight Show for the last
time.
1992 – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and
Slovenia join the United Nations.
1997 – Kelly Flinn, US Air Force's first
female bomber pilot certified for combat,
accepts a general discharge in order to
avoid a court martial.
1998 – Lewinsky scandal: a federal judge
rules that United States Secret Service
agents can be compelled to testify before
a grand jury concerning the scandal, involving
President Bill Clinton.
2002 – In Washington, D.C., the remains
of the missing Chandra Levy are found in
Rock Creek Park.
2002 – American civil rights movement: a
jury in Birmingham, Alabama, convicts former
Ku Klux Klan member Bobby Frank Cherry of
the 1963 murders of four girls in the bombing
of the 16th Street Baptist Church.
2003 – In Fort Worth, Texas, Annika Sörenstam
becomes the first woman to play the PGA
Tour in 58 years.
2004 – The U.S. town of Hallam, Nebraska,
is wiped out by a powerful F4 tornado (part
of the May 2004 tornado outbreak sequence)
that broke a width record at an astounding
2.5 miles (4.0 km) wide, which kills one
resident.
2008 – The Late-May 2008 tornado outbreak
sequence unleashes 235 tornadoes, including
an EF4 and an EF5 tornado, between May 22
and May 31, 2008. The tornadoes struck 19
states and one Canadian province.
2011 – An EF5 Tornado strikes Joplin, Missouri
killing 161 people, the single deadliest
tornado in the United States since modern
record keeping began in 1950.
2012 – Tokyo Skytree is opened to public.
A tallest tower in world standing 634 meters
tall, it is the second tallest (man-made)
structure on Earth, after Burj Khalifa.
Holidays
and observances
Abolition
Day (Martinique)
Christian Feast Day:
Castus and Emilius
Fulk
Humilita
Julia of Corsica
Quiteria
Rita of Cascia
Romanus of Subiaco
May 22 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Harvey Milk Day (California)
International Day for Biological Diversity
(International)
National Maritime Day (United States)
National Sovereignty Day (Haiti)
Republic Day (Sri Lanka)
Unity Day or National Day, celebrate the
unification of North and South Yemen into
the Republic of Yemen in 1990.
For details, contact Datacentre
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