132 things happened on 23 February, from AD 532 to 2025. UK stories come first, then the rest of the world.
1633 · 393 years ago
Samuel Pepys was an English writer and navy official, famous for the diary he kept from 1660 to 1669. In it he described the big events of his time, including the Great Plague of London and the Great Fire of London in 1666. During the fire, he dug a pit and b…
UK history first: stories from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
UK story
A general election was held across the United Kingdom. It was the first since plural voting was abolished. Before this, some people could vote more than once, and special seats for universities were also scrapped. The Labour Party stayed in power, but its majority in the House of Commons shrank from 146 seats to just 5, while the Conservative Party gained 90 seats.
UK story
The Orange River Convention was signed in Bloemfontein, with the United Kingdom agreeing to recognise the independence of the Orange Free State in present-day South Africa.
UK story
Second Boer War: During the Battle of the Tugela Heights, the first British attempt to take Hart's Hill fails.
Byzantine emperor Justinian I began building a new great church in Constantinople, now Istanbul in Turkey. It replaced an earlier church that had burned down only weeks before. The Hagia Sophia, meaning 'Holy Wisdom', was finished in 537 and had the largest indoor space in the world. Its design inspired many later churches and mosques. It later became a mosque, then a museum, and is now a mosque again.
This is traditionally given as the date the Gutenberg Bible was published. Johannes Gutenberg printed it in Mainz, in present-day Germany, using metal letters that could be moved around and reused, called movable type. It was the first major book printed this way in Europe and began the age of printed books in the West. Of the 158 or 180 copies printed, 49 still survive, at least in large part.
German composer Johann Sebastian Bach performed his Shepherd Cantata for the birthday of Christian, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels. A cantata is a piece of music for singers and instruments. In this one, four solo singers play shepherds, joined by a choir and orchestra. The music was later lost, but it could be rebuilt because Bach reused it in his Easter Oratorio.
American inventor Charles Martin Hall discovered an inexpensive way of producing aluminium. Aluminium is a light, silvery metal, only about a third as dense as steel. Thanks to Hall's method, it became the first metal to come into widespread use since iron was discovered in prehistoric times. Hall later helped to found the company Alcoa.
The Silver Dart aeroplane took off from the frozen Baddeck Bay in Nova Scotia, Canada. Flown by one of its designers, Douglas McCurdy, it made the first powered flight in Canada and the British Empire. It flew about half a mile. Its wings were covered in silvery balloon cloth, which gave it its name. It was built by a team guided by Alexander Graham Bell.
In Pittsburgh, USA, large numbers of children began to be given Jonas Salk's new vaccine against polio. Polio is an infectious disease caused by a virus, and in some cases it can cause paralysis. When the vaccine's success was announced the next year, Salk was hailed as a 'miracle worker'. He chose not to patent the vaccine, so that it could reach as many people as possible.
Light from a supernova, the huge explosion of a star, reached Earth. It happened in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small galaxy that orbits our own Milky Way. It was the closest supernova seen since 1604, and the first that modern astronomers could study in great detail. It was named SN 1987A because it was the first supernova discovered that year.
Khosrow II, Shahanshah of the Sasanian Empire, is overthrown.
Empress Wu Zetian abdicates the throne, restoring the Tang dynasty.
American Revolutionary War: Prussian military officer Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben arrived at Valley Forge in Pennsylvania as a volunteer for the Continental Army.
Texas Revolution: The Siege of the Alamo (prelude to the Battle of the Alamo) begins in San Antonio, Texas.
Mexican–American War: The United States Army used artillery to repulse the much larger Mexican army at the Battle of Buena Vista near Saltillo.
Reconstruction Era: Post-U.S. Civil War military control of Mississippi ends and it is readmitted to the Union.
Alabama becomes the first U.S. state to enact an anti-trust law.
Sino-French War: French Army gains an important victory in the Battle of Đồng Đăng in the Tonkin region of Vietnam.
Émile Zola is imprisoned in France after writing J'Accuse...!, a letter accusing the French government of antisemitism and wrongfully imprisoning Captain Alfred Dreyfus.
Cuba leases Guantánamo Bay to the United States "in perpetuity".
Chicago attorney Paul Harris and three other businessmen meet for lunch to form the Rotary Club, the world's first service club.
First demonstrations in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The beginning of the February Revolution (March 8 in the Gregorian calendar).
U.S. President Calvin Coolidge signs a bill by Congress establishing the Federal Radio Commission (later replaced by the Federal Communications Commission) which was to regulate the use of radio frequencies in the United States.
German theoretical physicist Werner Heisenberg writes a letter to fellow physicist Wolfgang Pauli, in which he describes his uncertainty principle for the first time.
Leopold III becomes King of Belgium.
Plutonium was first chemically identified by chemist Glenn T. Seaborg and his team at the University of California, Berkeley.
World War II: Japanese submarines fire artillery shells at the coastline near Santa Barbara, California.
Greek Resistance: The United Panhellenic Organization of Youth is founded in Greece.
World War II: The capital of the Philippines, Manila, is liberated by combined Filipino and American forces.
World War II: Capitulation of German garrison in Poznań. The city is liberated by Soviet and Polish forces.
American photographer Joe Rosenthal took the Pulitzer Prize–winning photograph Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima during the Battle of Iwo Jima, an image that was later reproduced on the Marine Corps War Memorial.
World War II: The 11th Airborne Division, with Filipino guerrillas, free all 2,147 captives of the Los Baños internment camp, in what General Colin Powell later would refer to as "the textbook airborne operation for all ages and all armies".
International Organization for Standardization is founded.
In Syria, Ba'ath Party member Salah Jadid leads an intra-party military coup that replaces the previous government of General Amin al-Hafiz, also a Baathist.
In Spain, Antonio Tejero attempts a coup d'état by capturing the Spanish Congress of Deputies.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency announces its intent to buy out and evacuate the dioxin-contaminated community of Times Beach, Missouri.
Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Öcalan is charged with treason in Ankara, Turkey.
An Ariane 4 rocket is launched from the Guiana Space Centre carrying Intelsat 904.
The Japanese WINDS satellite is launched.
Syrian civil war: Allied troops led by the Turkish Armed Forces captured the city of al-Bab from the Islamic State.
Parliamentary elections are held in Djibouti.
A snap election is held in Germany.
Every answer is somewhere on this page. Have a go, then check!
In which year was George Frideric Handel born?
A: 1685. 1685 — that’s 341 years ago. Find it on the page
In which year did this happen: “Britain holds its first general election with one vote each”?
A: 1950. 1950 — that’s 76 years ago. Find it on the page
Which of these happened first?
B: Bach's Shepherd Cantata is performed for a duke's birthday. 1987: Light from a nearby exploding star, Supernova 1987A, reaches Earth · 1725: Bach's Shepherd Cantata is performed for a duke's birthday · 1950: Britain holds its first general election with one vote each Find it on the page
“Samuel Pepys” happened in 1633. How many years ago was that?
A: 393 years. 2026 − 1633 = 393. Find it on the page
Famous people whose birthday is 23 February.
UK story
George Frideric Handel was a German-born composer who settled in London in 1712 and became a British subject in 1727. His Water Music was played on the River Thames for King George I in 1717. His oratorio Messiah was a great success when first performed in Dublin in 1742. His anthem Zadok the Priest has been played at every British coronation since 1727.
UK story
Samuel Pepys was an English writer and navy official, famous for the diary he kept from 1660 to 1669. In it he described the big events of his time, including the Great Plague of London and the Great Fire of London in 1666. During the fire, he dug a pit and buried his wine and his Parmesan cheese. His diary is an important source for historians.
Well-known people who died on 23 February.
Festivals, holidays and saints’ days celebrated on 23 February somewhere in the world.
Mashramani, or 'Mash', is a festival in Guyana usually held on 23 February, Guyana's Republic Day. It celebrates the country becoming a republic in 1970. There are costume competitions, float parades, steel band music and dancing in the streets. The name comes from an Amerindian word, and in Guyanese English it means a celebration after people have worked hard together.
Content note: these entries mention things like war, violence, deaths, disasters or crime. They are part of history, but they can be upsetting. Grown-ups and teachers: you may want to read them first. They come straight from Wikipedia and have not been rewritten for children.
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