About May 23
May 23, 2025 is the 143rd day of the year 2025 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 222 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Friday.
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Gemini is the sun sign of a person born on this day. Emerald is the modern birthstone for this month. Sapphire is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years.
According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 270 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year.
What Happened On May 23
- 1430 –Siege of Compiègne: Joan of Arc is captured by the Burgundians while leading an army to relieve Compiègne.
- 1533 –The marriage of King Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon is declared null and void.
- 1609 –Official ratification of the Second Charter of Virginia takes place.
- 1701 –After being convicted of piracy and of murdering William Moore, Captain William Kidd is hanged in London.
- 1706 –Battle of Ramillies: John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, defeats a French army under Marshal Villeroi.
- 1813 –South American independence leader Simón Bolívar enters Mérida, leading the invasion of Venezuela, and is proclaimed El Libertador (“The Liberator”).
- 1844 –Declaration of the Báb: a merchant of Shiraz announces that he is a Prophet and founds a religious movement that would later be brutally crushed by the Persian government. He is considered to be a forerunner of the Bahá'í Faith, and Bahá'ís celebrate the day as a holy day.
- 1873 –The Canadian Parliament establishes the North-West Mounted Police, the forerunner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
- 1900 –American Civil War: Sergeant William Harvey Carney becomes the first African American to be awarded the Medal of Honor, for his heroism in the Assault on the Battery Wagner in 1863.
- 1934 –American bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde are ambushed by police and killed in Black Lake, Louisiana.
- 1934 –The Auto-Lite Strike culminates in the “Battle of Toledo”, a five-day melée between 1,300 troops of the Ohio National Guard and 6,000 picketers.
- 1945 –World War II: Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS, commits suicide while in Allied custody.
- 1948 –Thomas C. Wasson, US Consul-General assassinated in Jerusalem.
- 1951 –Tibetans sign the Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet with the People’s Republic of China.
- 1958 –Explorer 1 ceases transmission.
- 1990 –Jordan Mack was born.
- 1995 –The first version of the Java programming language is released.
- 1998 –The Good Friday Agreement is accepted in a referendum in Northern Ireland with 75% voting yes.
- 2006 –Alaskan stratovolcano Mount Cleveland erupts.
- 2008 –The International Court of Justice (ICJ) awards Middle Rocks to Malaysia and Pedra Branca (Pulau Batu Puteh) to Singapore, ending a 29-year territorial dispute between the two countries.
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