May 4

June 23

679 Saint Audrey was an East Anglian princess and Abbess of Ely. She developed a breast tumor, which she blamed on wearing rich necklaces of jewels as a child. She died from it on June 23, 679. The word "tawdry" meaning "cheap; trashy" comes from Saint Audrey.

1314 The Battle of Bannockburn was fought on June 23-24 1314 at Bannockburn, Scotland, between Robert (I) the Bruce, King of Scotland, and Edward II of England. After an English attack was repulsed, Edward's forces made a night march to outflank the obstacles. This tactic left Edward's knights in boggy ground and the archers out of position in the rear. Bruce blocked the English advance with pikemen, then, as the archers tried to deploy, charged with his cavalry and routed them.

This depiction from the Scotichronicon (c.1440) is the earliest known image of the battle

1534 The powerful Japanese feudal lord Oda Nobunaga was born on June 23, 1534. He attempted to unify Japan during the late Sengoku period, and successfully gained control over most of Honshu
Nobunaga's rule was noted for innovative military tactics, fostering free trade, reform of Japan's civil administration, and encouraging the start of the Momoyama historical art period, but also the brutal suppression of opponents.

1762 On June 23, 1762, the chemist Joseph Priestley married Mary Wilkinson of Wrexham, daughter of ironmaster Isaac Wilkinson and sister of industrialist John Wilkinson.  The couple had six children together, four of whom survived to adulthood. Priestley's marriage to Mary was a happy one. He wrote of her in his memoirs, "This proved a very suitable and happy connexion."

1763 Joséphine de Beauharnais was born in Les Trois-Îlets, Martinique on June 23, 1763. Her father was a manager of a plantation there having retired from French naval service. The willowy Joséphine was among the gayest of French women in her era. She was good-natured, with refined manners, grace and charm. Joséphine was the first wife of Napoleon and the first Empress of the French after he proclaimed himself Emperor.

Baron François Gérard - Joséphine in coronation costume - Google Art Project

1857 On several occasions the composer and pianist Franz Liszt contemplated becoming a monk. He eventually joined the Third Order of St. Francis on June 23, 1857. Eight years later, Liszt became a secular Franciscan priest. After his ordination in 1865, he was often called Abbé Liszt. Fourteen years later. he was made an honorary canon of Albano.

1868 The journalist Christopher Latham Sholes received a patent for an invention he called the "Type-Writer" on June 23, 1868 (see below). Sholes' invention was originally designed to print page numbers on books. It was his friend Carlos S. Glidden who suggested using it to type letters. The first document to be produced on a typewriter was a contract that Sholes had written, in his capacity as the Comptroller for the city of Milwaukee.


1887 On June 23, 1887, Queen Victoria engaged two Indian Muslims as waiters, one of whom was Abdul Karim. He served her during the final fourteen years of her reign, gaining her maternal affection over that time and teaching her Urdu. In Victoria's last years, the impassive Abdul was the servant who pushed the infirm queen around her homes in her wheelchair.

1894 Edward VIII was born on June 23, 1894, White Lodge, Richmond Park, on the outskirts of London as the first son of the Prince and Princess of Wales, (later King George V and Queen Mary).
He was christened Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David, the last four names being patron saints of the British Isles countries. He was known to his family and close friends as David.


1904 The Harvard anthropologist Carleton S. Coon was born on June 23, 1904. The mid 20th century racial classification by Carleton S. Coon divided humanity into five races: Caucasoid (White), Negroid, Capoid (Bushmen/Hottentots) Mongoloid & Australoid. He said they were distributed into these five races after the Pleistocene era.(often colloquially referred to as the Ice Age) which ended about 11,700 years ago.

1912 Computer scientist Alan Turing was born in Maida Vale, London on June 23, 1912. In the midst of Britain's General Strike of 1926, the 13-year-old Alan Turing started at the independent Sherborne boarding school. Because of the General Strike there was no transport in Britain, but Alan was so determined to make it to the first day of term, that he rode his bicycle unaccompanied 60 miles (97 km) from Southampton to Sherborne, stopping overnight at an inn.


1938 On June 23, 1938, American explorer Richard Archbold flew over New Guinea's Grand Valley of the Baliem River for the first time. He was surprised to see a large number of villages and agricultural fields. Archibold had not expected to find such a large and sophisticated population in this remote part of the world.

1940 Edith Cavell was a British nurse, who is celebrated for saving the lives of soldiers from both sides without discrimination during World One and in helping some 200 Allied soldiers escape from German-occupied Belgium. On June 23, 1940, Adolf Hitler, his forces having taken control of France, made his one and only trip during the war to Paris. Before he left, he ordered that a memorial to Edith Cavell be demolished.

1940 Wilma Rudolph was born on June 23, 1940 in Saint Bethlehem, Tennessee. She had polio as an infant and was unable to walk properly until she was 11. For several years, her family had to massage her legs four times a day, and she had to wear a metal brace. In 1960, she became the first American woman to win three gold medals in track and field at the same Olympic games.



1956 Gamal Abdel Nasser became President of Egypt on June 23, 1956, after winning a referendum with 99.9% of the vote. Nasser initially came to power through a military coup in 1952, overthrowing the monarchy and establishing a new government. Nasser held the post until his death in 1970.

1961 The Antarctic Treaty, which sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and bans military activity on the continent, came into force on June 23, 1961. The original signatories were Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile, France, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States. These countries had established over 50 Antarctic stations between tat that stage.


1969 IBM announced on June 23, 1969 that effective January 1970 it would price its software and services separately from hardware. By pricing its software separately from its hardware, IBM created the modern software industry and paved the way for the growth of independent software vendors.

1981 The Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings, two teams from the Triple-A International League played the longest ever professional baseball game. The game begun at McCoy Stadium, Pawtucket, Rhode Island on April 18, 1981. It lasted for 33 innings, with eleven hours and 25 minutes of playing time. 32 innings were played, before the game was suspended at 4:00 the next morning. The final 33rd inning was played June 23, 1981. Pawtucket won the game, 3–2.


1991 The first installment of the Sonic the Hedgehog video game series was first released on June 23, 1991, transforming Sega into a leading game company. The franchise follows Sonic, an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog who battles the evil Doctor Eggman, a mad scientist.

2006 Charles Darwin brought a 5-year-old tortoise named Harriet back from the Galápagos Islands in 1835 that eventually wound up at Australia Zoo, founded by Steve Irwin's parents. Harriet died on June 23, 2006 at the age of 176, the same year as the Crocodile Hunter's fatal encounter with a stingray.


2013 American daredevil Nik Wallenda became the first man to successfully walk across the Grand Canyon on a tightrope on June 23, 2013. He did not cross the Grand Canyon itself, but rather the Little Colorado River Gorge, which is a smaller part of the overall Grand Canyon region. Wallenda completed the approximately quarter-mile (400 meters) crossing at a height of about 1,500 feet (457 meters) above the river gorge. 

2016 A referendum took place on June 23, 2016 in the United Kingdom to gauge support for the country's continued membership of the European Union. The referendum asked the electorate whether the country should remain a member of, or leave, the European Union. The result of the referendum was that 51.9% of the votes were in favour of leaving the European Union, while 48.1% were in favour of remaining. It triggered a series of events that led to the UK's withdrawal from the EU.

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