This is a list of selected March 23 anniversaries that appear in the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases, you can be bold and edit this page. Please read the selected anniversaries guidelines before making your edit. However, if your addition might be controversial or on a day that is or will soon be on the Main Page, please post your suggestion on the talk page instead.
Please note that the events listed on the Main Page are chosen based more on relative article quality and to maintain a mix of topics, not based solely on how important or significant their subjects are. Only four to five events are posted at a time and thus not everything that is "most important and significant" can be listed. In addition, an event is generally not posted this year if it is also the subject of the scheduled featured article or picture of the day.
To report an error when this appears on the Main Page, see Main Page errors. Please remember that this list defers to the supporting articles, so it is best to achieve consensus and make any necessary changes there first.
Images
Use only ONE image at a time
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Tsar Paul I of Russia
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Tsar Alexander I of Russia
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Adolf Hitler c. 1933
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Gemini 3 insignia
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Lee Teng-hui
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Patrick Henry
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William McGregor
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Eleftherios Venizelos
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Mirza Ghulam Ahmad
Ineligible
| Blurb | Reason |
|---|---|
| 1868 – Governor of California Henry Huntly Haight signed a law establishing the University of California, today a public university system that is considered a model for public institutions across the United States. | Tagged with {{refimprove}} |
| 1801 – Tsar Alexander I acceded to the Russian throne after his father Paul I was murdered in his bedroom at Saint Michael's Castle. | Tagged with {{refimprove}} |
| 1933 – The German Reichstag passed the Enabling Act, essentially giving German Chancellor Adolf Hitler dictatorial powers by granting him and the Cabinet the authority to enact laws without the participation of the Reichstag. | refimprove section |
| 1965 – NASA launched Gemini 3, the first American two-person space flight. | refimprove, missing epoch |
| 1994 – Aeroflot Flight 593 crashed into a hillside in Kemerovo Oblast, Russia, after the pilot's 15-year-old son, while seated at the controls, had unknowingly disabled the autopilot, killing all 75 people on board. | refimprove |
| 1994 – Mexican presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio was assassinated during a meeting on his presidential campaign in Tijuana. | no footnotes |
| 1996 – Lee Teng-hui was elected President of the Republic of China in the first direct presidential election in Taiwan. | refimprove section |
Eligible
- 1400 – After 175 years of rule, the Trần dynasty of Vietnam was deposed by Hồ Quý Ly, a court official.
- 1862 – American Civil War: Confederate General Stonewall Jackson suffered one of his rare defeats during the war in the First Battle of Kernstown, but it was still a strategic victory as the Union Army could not reinforce the Peninsula Campaign.
- 1879 – Fighting in the War of the Pacific between Chile and a Peruvian–Bolivian alliance opened with the Battle of Topáter.
- 1889 – Mirza Ghulam Ahmad founded the Ahmadiyya Islamic religious movement in British India.
- 1905 – About 1,500 Cretans, led by Eleftherios Venizelos, met at the village of Theriso to call for the island's unification with Greece, beginning the Theriso revolt.
- 1908 – American diplomat Durham Stevens, an employee of Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was assassinated in San Francisco by two Korean immigrants unhappy with his recent support of the increasing Japanese presence in Korea.
- 1940 – Pakistan Movement: During its three-day general session, the Muslim League drafted the Lahore Resolution, calling for greater autonomy in British India.
- 1978 – The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon was dispatched to confirm Israeli withdrawal after its invasion nine days earlier.
- 1983 – The initial proposal to develop the Strategic Defense Initiative, a ground-based and space-based system to protect the United States from attack by strategic nuclear ballistic missiles, was released.
- 1989 – Two researchers announced the discovery of cold fusion, a claim which was later discredited.
- 2001 – The Russian Federal Space Agency deorbited the 15-year-old space station Mir, causing it to reenter the Earth's atmosphere and break up over the Pacific Ocean.
- 2005 – A fire and explosion at the third-largest oil refinery in the United States killed 15 workers and kicked off process safety programs throughout the world.
- 2007 – Iranian military personnel seized 15 British Royal Navy personnel, claiming that they had entered Iran's territorial waters.
Notes
- 1978 South Lebanon conflict appears on March 14, so UNIFL should not appear in the same year
March 23: Fast of Esther (Judaism, 2016); Holi (Hinduism, 2016); Pakistan Day (1956); Day of Hungarian–Polish Friendship in Hungary and Poland
- 1775 – American Revolution: Patrick Henry made his "Give me liberty, or give me death!" speech to the House of Burgesses of Virginia, urging military action against the British Empire.
- 1848 – Scottish settlers on the John Wickliffe, captained by William Cargill, arrived at what is now Port Chalmers in the Otago Region of New Zealand.
- 1888 – Led by William McGregor, ten football clubs met in London for the purpose of founding The Football League, the oldest league competition in world football.
- 1931 – Bhagat Singh (pictured), one of the most influential revolutionaries of the Indian independence movement, and two others were executed by British authorities.
- 1991 – The Sierra Leone Civil War began when the Revolutionary United Front, with support from the special forces of Charles Taylor's National Patriotic Front of Liberia, invaded Sierra Leone in an attempt to overthrow Joseph Saidu Momoh.