History Events on August 23

Odoacer, chieftain of the Germanic tribes (Herulic - Scirian foederati), is proclaimed rex Italiae ("King of Italy") by his troops.

#Odoacer

Siege of Jerusalem: The city's citadel, the Tower of David, surrenders to Khwarezmian Empire.

#Siege_of_Jerusalem_(1244)

Captain Lowell Smith and Lieutenant John P. Richter performed the first mid-air refueling on De Havilland DH-4B, setting an endurance flight record of 37 hours.

#Captain_(United_States_O-3)

Nat Turner's slave rebellion is suppressed.

#Nat_Turner's_slave_rebellion

World War II: King Michael of Romania dismisses the pro-Nazi government of Marshal Antonescu, who is arrested. Romania switches sides from the Axis to the Allies.

#Michael_I_of_Romania

Siege of Moscow: The Golden Horde led by Tokhtamysh lays siege to the capital of the Grand Duchy of Moscow.

#Siege_of_Moscow_(1382)

World War II: Soviet-Japanese War: The USSR State Defense Committee issues Decree no. 9898cc "About Receiving, Accommodation, and Labor Utilization of the Japanese Army Prisoners of War".

#Soviet-Japanese_War

Long Turkish War: Wallachian prince Michael the Brave confronts the Ottoman army in the Battle of C?lug?reni and achieves a tactical victory.

#Long_Turkish_War

Battle of Cassel: French troops stop an uprising of Flemish farmers.

#Battle_of_Cassel_(1328)

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is overthrown after the National Transitional Council forces take control of Bab al-Azizia compound during the Libyan Civil War.

#Muammar_Gaddafi

Natascha Kampusch, who had been abducted at the age of ten, escapes from her captor Wolfgang P?iklopil, after eight years of captivity.

#Natascha_Kampusch

George Villiers, the first Duke of Buckingham, is assassinated by John Felton.

#George_Villiers,_1st_Duke_of_Buckingham

French explorer Jacques Cartier lands near Quebec City in his third voyage to Canada.

#Jacques_Cartier

The World Wide Web is opened to the public.

#World_Wide_Web

Mount Vesuvius begins stirring, on the feast day of Vulcan, the Roman god of fire.

#Mount_Vesuvius

World War II: Marseille is liberated by the Allies.

#Marseille

Saddam Hussein appears on Iraqi state television with a number of Western "guests" (actually hostages) to try to prevent the Gulf War.

#Saddam_Hussein

Abu Bakr dies at Medina and is succeeded by Umar I who becomes the second caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate.

#Abu_Bakr

Western North Carolina (now eastern Tennessee) declares itself an independent state under the name of Franklin; it is not accepted into the United States, and only lasts for four years.

#North_Carolina

At the Battle of Großbeeren, the Prussians under Von Bülow repulse the French army.

#Battle_of_Großbeeren

Chinese Civil War: The Second Taiwan Strait Crisis begins with the People's Liberation Army's bombardment of Quemoy.

#Chinese_Civil_War

After the successful invasion of Egypt, Octavian executes Marcus Antonius Antyllus, eldest son of Mark Antony, and Caesarion, the last king of the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt and only child of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra.

#Egypt_(Roman_province)

Sir William Wallace is executed for high treason at Smithfield, London.

#William_Wallace

Hebron Massacre during the 1929 Palestine riots: Arab attack on the Jewish community in Hebron in the British Mandate of Palestine, continuing until the next day, resulted in the death of 65-68 Jews and the remaining Jews being forced to leave the city.

#1929_Hebron_massacre

American Revolutionary War: King George III delivers his Proclamation of Rebellion to the Court of St James's stating that the American colonies have proceeded to a state of open and avowed rebellion.

#American_Revolutionary_War

Italian anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti are executed after a lengthy, controversial trial.

#Sacco_and_Vanzetti

Battle of Tagliacozzo: The army of Charles of Anjou defeats the Ghibellines supporters of Conradin of Hohenstaufen marking the fall of the Hohenstaufen family from the Imperial and Sicilian thrones, and leading to the new chapter of Angevin domination in Southern Italy.

#Battle_of_Tagliacozzo

Lunar Orbiter 1 takes the first photograph of Earth from orbit around the Moon.

#Lunar_Orbiter_1

The United Kingdom captures Hong Kong as a base as it prepares for the First Opium War with Qing China.

#First_Opium_War

Albert Bridge in Chelsea, London opens.

#Albert_Bridge,_London

American Civil War: The Union Navy captures Fort Morgan, Alabama, thus breaking Confederate dominance of all ports on the Gulf of Mexico except Galveston, Texas.

#American_Civil_War

World War I: Japan declares war on Germany.

#Japan_during_World_War_I

Ludi Volcanalici are held within the temple precinct of Vulcan, and used by Augustus to mark the treaty with Parthia and the return of the legionary standards that had been lost at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BC.

#Ludi

A magnitude 5.8 (class: moderate) earthquake occurs in Virginia. Damage occurs to monuments and structures in Washington D.C. and the resulted damage is estimated at $200 million-$300 million USD.

#2011_Virginia_earthquake

Napoleon I of France leaves Egypt for France en route to seizing power.

#Napoleon

Eugene Bullard, the only African American pilot in World War I, is posthumously commissioned as Second Lieutenant in the United States Air Force.

#Eugene_Bullard

Armenia declares its independence from the Soviet Union.

#Armenia

The Pontiac Silverdome opens in Pontiac, Michigan, 30 miles (48 km) northwest of Detroit, Michigan

#Pontiac_Silverdome

World War II: Kharkiv is liberated by the Soviet Union after the Battle of Kursk.

#Kharkiv

The Southern Cross Expedition, the first British venture of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, departs from London.

#Southern_Cross_Expedition

Gothic king Radagaisus is executed after he is defeated by Roman general Stilicho and 12,000 "barbarians" are incorporated into the Roman army or sold as slaves.

#Goths

Gulf Air Flight 072 crashes into the Persian Gulf near Manama, Bahrain, killing 143.

#Gulf_Air_Flight_072

Edirne event: Sultan Mustafa II of the Ottoman Empire is dethroned.

#Edirne_event

World War II: Beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad.

#Battle_of_Stalingrad

The Battle of Chaldiran ends with a decisive victory for the Sultan Selim I, Ottoman Empire, over the Shah Ismail I, founder of the Safavid dynasty.

#Battle_of_Chaldiran

A bank robbery gone wrong in Stockholm, Sweden, turns into a hostage crisis; over the next five days the hostages begin to sympathise with their captors, leading to the term "Stockholm syndrome".

#Norrmalmstorg_robbery

Freckleton Air Disaster: A United States Army Air Forces B-24 Liberator bomber crashes into a school in Freckleton, England, killing 61 people.

#Freckleton_air_disaster

Battle of Gifu Castle: The eastern forces of Tokugawa Ieyasu defeat the western Japanese clans loyal to Toyotomi Hideyori, leading to the destruction of Gifu Castle and serving as a prelude to the Battle of Sekigahara.

#Battle_of_Gifu_Castle

World War I: The British Expeditionary Force and the French Fifth Army begin their Great Retreat before the German Army.

#World_War_I

The skeletal remains of Russia's last royal family members Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia, and his sister Grand Duchess Anastasia are discovered near Yekaterinburg, Russia.

#Alexei_Nikolaevich,_Tsarevich_of_Russia

World War II: Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union sign a non-aggression treaty, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. In a secret addition to the pact, the Baltic states, Finland, Romania, and Poland are divided between the two nations.

#World_War_II

Austro-Prussian War ends with the Treaty of Prague.

#Austro-Prussian_War

French Wars of Religion: Mob violence against thousands of Huguenots in Paris results in the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre.

#French_Wars_of_Religion

British airship R-38 experiences structural failure over Hull in England and crashes in the Humber Estuary. Of her 49 British and American training crew, only four survive.

#R38-class_airship

Singing Revolution: Two million people from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania stand on the Vilnius-Tallinn road, holding hands.

#Singing_Revolution

Christian II of Denmark is deposed as king of Sweden and Gustav Vasa is elected regent.

#Christian_II_of_Denmark

A riot at the Palmasola prison complex in Santa Cruz, Bolivia kills 31 people.

A hot-air balloon crashes near the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana, killing six people and injuring 28 others.

West and East Germany announce that they will reunite on October 3.

Hans Tiedge, top counter-spy of West Germany, defects to East Germany.

Organized by Mexican American labor union leader César Chávez, the Salad Bowl strike, the largest farm worker strike in U.S. history, begins.

First flight of the Lockheed C-130 multi-role aircraft.

World Council of Churches is formed by 147 churches from 44 countries.

Ordinance No. 46 of the British Military Government constitutes the German Länder (states) of Hanover and Schleswig-Holstein.

The automobile tire chain is patented.

Battle of Sobota: The Swedish Empire led by Charles X Gustav defeats the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.