February 23 facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

February 23 is a special day each year, filled with many important events throughout history. From ancient times to today, this date has seen big changes, new discoveries, and the births and deaths of famous people. Let's explore some of the most interesting moments that happened on February 23!

2025 Calendar

February 23 in recent years

February 23 is the 54th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 311 days remain until the end of the year (312 in leap years).

Historical Events
Famous Births
- Born Before 1900
- Born After 1900
Notable Deaths
- Died Before 1900
- Died After 1900
Holidays and Observances
See also

Historical Events

Ancient Times and Middle Ages

In 303, the Roman Emperor Diocletian ordered the destruction of a Christian church in Nicomedia. This marked the start of a difficult time for Christians, known as the Diocletianic Persecution, which lasted for eight years.
In 532, the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I began building a new, grand church in Constantinople, which would become the famous Hagia Sophia.
In 628, Khosrow II, the last Sasanian ruler of Iran, was overthrown.
In 705, Empress Wu Zetian of China gave up her throne, bringing back the Tang Dynasty.
In 1455, the Gutenberg Bible was traditionally published. This was a huge step for books in the Western world, as it was one of the first books printed using movable type.

From the 1600s to the 1900s

In 1763, the Berbice slave uprising began in Guyana. This was a major revolt by enslaved people in South America.
In 1778, during the American Revolutionary War, Baron von Steuben arrived at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. He helped train the Continental Army, making them stronger fighters.
In 1836, the Siege of the Alamo began in San Antonio, Texas, leading up to the famous Battle of the Alamo.
In 1847, during the Mexican–American War, American troops led by future president General Zachary Taylor won the Battle of Buena Vista against Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna.
In 1854, the Orange Free State in South Africa officially declared its independence.
In 1861, President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrived secretly in Washington, D.C., after a plot to harm him in Baltimore, Maryland, was stopped.
In 1870, after the American Civil War, military control of Mississippi ended, and it was allowed back into the Union.
In 1883, Alabama became the first U.S. state to create a law against monopolies, known as an anti-trust law.
In 1886, Charles Martin Hall successfully created the first samples of aluminium using a special process called electrolysis. His older sister, Julia Brainerd Hall, helped him with this important work.
In 1887, a large earthquake hit the French Riviera, causing the deaths of about 2,000 people.
In 1898, Émile Zola was put in prison in France for writing J'Accuse…!. This letter accused the French government of being unfair and wrongly imprisoning Captain Alfred Dreyfus.

Modern Events (1901–Present)

In 1903, Cuba leased Guantánamo Bay to the United States "forever."
In 1905, Chicago businessman Paul Harris and three friends started the Rotary Club, the world's first service club.
In 1909, the AEA Silver Dart made the first powered flight in Canada and the British Empire.
In 1917, the first protests in Saint Petersburg, Russia, marked the beginning of the February Revolution.
In 1927, U.S. President Calvin Coolidge signed a bill to create the Federal Radio Commission, which would control radio frequencies in the United States.
In 1927, German physicist Werner Heisenberg first described his uncertainty principle in a letter to fellow physicist Wolfgang Pauli.
In 1934, Leopold III became the King of Belgium.
In 1941, Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg first created and isolated Plutonium.
In 1942, during World War II, Japanese submarines fired artillery shells near Santa Barbara, California.
In 1944, the Soviet Union began forcing the Chechen and Ingush people to move from the North Caucasus to Central Asia.
In 1945, during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II, U.S. Marines reached the top of Mount Suribachi and were photographed raising the American flag.
In 1945, the 11th Airborne Division and Filipino fighters freed 2,147 prisoners from the Los Baños internment camp.
In 1945, the capital of the Philippines, Manila, was freed by combined Filipino and American forces.
In 1947, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) was founded.
In 1954, the first large-scale vaccination of children against polio using the Salk vaccine began in Pittsburgh.
In 1958, Formula One champion Juan Manuel Fangio was kidnapped by rebels in Cuba before a race. He was released the next day.
In 1966, in Syria, Salah Jadid led a military takeover that changed the government.
In 1981, in Spain, Antonio Tejero tried to take over the Spanish Congress of Deputies.
In 1983, the United States Environmental Protection Agency announced plans to buy out and move people from Times Beach, Missouri, because of dioxin contamination.
In 1987, Supernova 1987a was observed in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
In 1991, in Thailand, General Sunthorn Kongsompong led a peaceful takeover, removing Prime Minister Chatichai Choonhavan.
In 1998, tornadoes in central Florida damaged or destroyed 2,600 buildings and killed 42 people.
In 1999, Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan was accused of treason in Ankara, Turkey.
In 2008, a United States Air Force B-2 Spirit bomber crashed on Guam, the first time a B-2 was lost in an accident.
In 2010, criminals poured over 2.5 million liters of diesel oil into the river Lambro in northern Italy, causing a big environmental disaster.
In 2017, the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army captured Al-Bab from ISIL.
In 2021, four prison riots happened at the same time in Ecuador, leading to at least 62 deaths.

Famous Births

Born Before 1900

In 1417, Pope Paul II was born.
In 1443, Matthias Corvinus, a Hungarian king, was born.
In 1539, Salima Sultan Begum, an Empress of the Mughal Empire, was born.
In 1583, Jean-Baptiste Morin, a French mathematician and astronomer, was born.
In 1633, Samuel Pepys, a famous English diarist and politician, was born.
In 1685, George Frideric Handel, a well-known German-English composer, was born.
In 1744, Mayer Amschel Rothschild, a German banker who founded a famous banking family, was born.
In 1850, César Ritz, a Swiss businessman who founded the famous Ritz Hotels, was born.
In 1868, W. E. B. Du Bois, an important American sociologist, historian, and activist, was born.
In 1874, Konstantin Päts, the first President of Estonia, was born.
In 1878, Kazimir Malevich, a Ukrainian painter, was born.
In 1883, Karl Jaspers, a German-Swiss philosopher, was born.
In 1884, Casimir Funk, a Polish biochemist, was born.
In 1889, Victor Fleming, an American director known for The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind, was born.
In 1899, Erich Kästner, a German author and poet, was born.

Born After 1900

In 1908, William McMahon, the 20th Prime Minister of Australia, was born.
In 1915, Paul Tibbets, an American general and pilot, was born.
In 1924, Allan McLeod Cormack, a South-African-American physicist and Nobel Prize winner, was born.
In 1928, Hans Herrmann, a German racing driver, was born.
In 1929, Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow, a Russian Orthodox leader, was born.
In 1932, Majel Barrett, an American actress, was born.
In 1937, Tom Osborne, an American football coach and politician, was born.
In 1940, Peter Fonda, an American actor and director, was born.
In 1944, Bernard Cornwell, an English author, and Johnny Winter, an American singer-songwriter, were born.
In 1947, Pia Kjærsgaard, a Danish politician, was born.
In 1949, Marc Garneau, a Canadian engineer, astronaut, and politician, was born.
In 1951, Patricia Richardson, an American actress, was born.
In 1954, Viktor Yushchenko, the 3rd President of Ukraine, was born.
In 1955, Howard Jones, an English singer-songwriter, was born.
In 1959, Clayton Anderson, an American engineer and astronaut, was born.
In 1960, Naruhito, the current Emperor of Japan, was born.
In 1963, Emily Blunt, an English actress, was born.
In 1965, Kristin Davis, an American actress, and Michael Dell, an American businessman who founded Dell Technologies, were born.
In 1969, Daymond John, an American fashion designer and businessman, was born.
In 1974, Herschelle Gibbs, a South African cricketer, was born.
In 1976, Kelly Macdonald, a Scottish actress, was born.
In 1981, Josh Gad, an American actor, and Charles Tillman, an American football player, were born.
In 1983, Aziz Ansari, an American comedian, and Emily Blunt, an English actress, were born.
In 1986, Skylar Grey, an American singer-songwriter, was born.
In 1992, Casemiro, a Brazilian footballer, and Samara Weaving, an Australian actress, were born.
In 1994, Dakota Fanning, an American actress, was born.
In 1995, Andrew Wiggins, a Canadian basketball player, was born.
In 1996, D'Angelo Russell, an American basketball player, was born.
In 1997, Jamal Murray, a Canadian basketball player, was born.
In 2000, Femke Bol, a Dutch hurdler and sprinter, was born.
In 2002, Emilia Jones, an English actress, was born.

Notable Deaths

Died Before 1900

In 715, Al-Walid I, an Umayyad caliph, passed away.
In 1011, Willigis, a German archbishop, died.
In 1100, Emperor Zhezong of Song died.
In 1447, Pope Eugene IV passed away.
In 1554, Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, an English politician, died.
In 1603, Andrea Cesalpino, an Italian botanist, and Franciscus Vieta, a French mathematician, passed away.
In 1766, Stanisław Leszczyński, a Polish king, died.
In 1792, Joshua Reynolds, a famous English painter, passed away.
In 1821, John Keats, a well-known English poet, died.
In 1848, John Quincy Adams, the 6th President of the United States, passed away.
In 1855, Carl Friedrich Gauss, a brilliant German mathematician and physicist, died.

Died After 1900

In 1931, Nellie Melba, a famous Australian singer, passed away.
In 1934, Edward Elgar, an English composer, died.
In 1944, Leo Baekeland, a Belgian-American chemist who invented Bakelite, passed away.
In 1946, Tomoyuki Yamashita, a Japanese general, died.
In 1965, Stan Laurel, a beloved English actor and comedian (from Laurel and Hardy), passed away.
In 1969, Madhubala, an Indian actress, and Saud bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the 2nd King of Saudi Arabia, died.
In 1973, Dickinson W. Richards, an American physician and Nobel Prize winner, passed away.
In 1976, L. S. Lowry, an English painter, died.
In 1995, James Herriot, an English veterinarian and author, passed away.
In 2000, Ofra Haza, an Israeli singer, and Stanley Matthews, an English footballer, died.
In 2008, Janez Drnovšek, the 2nd President of Slovenia, passed away.
In 2014, Alice Herz-Sommer, a Czech-English Holocaust survivor and pianist, died.
In 2016, Peter Lustig, a German television host, passed away.
In 2019, Katherine Helmond, an American actress, died.
In 2023, Tony Earl, an American politician and former Governor of Wisconsin, and John Motson, an English football commentator, passed away.
In 2024, Flaco, a Eurasian eagle-owl, died.

Holidays and Observances

Christian feast day:
- Polycarp of Smyrna
- Serenus the Gardener
- February 23 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
The Emperor's Birthday, birthday of Naruhito, the current Emperor of Japan (Japan)
Mashramani-Republic Day (Guyana)
National Day (Brunei)
Red Army Day or Day of Soviet Army and Navy in the former Soviet Union, also held in various former Soviet republics:
- Defender of the Fatherland Day (Russia)
- Defender of the Fatherland and Armed Forces day (Belarus)
- Armed Forces Day (Tajikistan) (Tajikistan)