303 Saint George's Day is celebrated in England on April 23rd, the traditionally accepted date of St. George's death in 303 AD. Little is known about the life of Saint George. apart from the fact he was a soldier in the Roman army who was martyred for his Christian beliefs at Lydda in Palestine at the beginning of the 4th century. 23rd April, had been celebrated as a saint’s day in England since before the Norman conquest. By later medieval times, he had become the official patron saint of England.
1344 King Edward III founded an order of knighthood, the Order of the Garter, on April 23, 1344. The story goes that at a royal dance, Edward noticed the courtiers mocking the lovely princess Joan of Kent who had dropped an item of intimate apparel (possibly a sanitary belt). Gallantly picking it up to assuage her embarrassment, Edward tied it around his own leg, and remarked "Shame on him who thinks evil of it", which became the motto of the Order of the Garter.
1445 King Henry VI of England married Margaret of Anjou on April 23, 1445 at Titchfield Abbey in Hampshire. She was 15-years-old, eight years younger than Henry when they wed and was described as beautiful, and furthermore "already a woman: passionate and proud and strong-willed." Margaret played an active role in politics during her husband's reign and was a key figure in the Wars of the Roses, a series of conflicts for the English throne between the House of Lancaster and the House of York.
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| Portrait by Hans von Kulmbach, circa 1510 |
1344 King Edward III founded an order of knighthood, the Order of the Garter, on April 23, 1344. The story goes that at a royal dance, Edward noticed the courtiers mocking the lovely princess Joan of Kent who had dropped an item of intimate apparel (possibly a sanitary belt). Gallantly picking it up to assuage her embarrassment, Edward tied it around his own leg, and remarked "Shame on him who thinks evil of it", which became the motto of the Order of the Garter.
1445 King Henry VI of England married Margaret of Anjou on April 23, 1445 at Titchfield Abbey in Hampshire. She was 15-years-old, eight years younger than Henry when they wed and was described as beautiful, and furthermore "already a woman: passionate and proud and strong-willed." Margaret played an active role in politics during her husband's reign and was a key figure in the Wars of the Roses, a series of conflicts for the English throne between the House of Lancaster and the House of York.
1563 Philip II of Spain, reacting to the Protestant Reformation sweeping through Europe during the 16th century, engaged the Spanish architect, Juan Bautista de Toledo, to be his collaborator in the design of El Escorial as a monument to Spain's role as a center of the Christian world. The building's cornerstone was laid on April 23, 1563 at the the foot of Mt. Abantos about 45 kilometres (28 miles) northwest of Madrid.
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| San Lorenzo del Escorial Palace |
1564 William Shakespeare was born in Henley Street, Stratford-Upon-Avon, England in 1564. His date of birth is unknown, but is traditionally observed on April 23, Saint George's Day. An actor and playwright, Shakespeare's own acting abilities were not great, and he was fortunate to have other actors of stature to create such roles as Hamlet and Lear. Shakespeare's plays are known and performed in every country of the world, and he is considered the greatest of playwrights.
1616 William Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616, aged 52 at New Place, Stratford-upon-Avon, his final home. It is alleged that he passed away from a cold brought on by a heavy drinking session with his playwright friend Ben Jonson. He died within a month of signing his will, a document which he begins by describing himself as being in "perfect health". Ben Jonson said on Shakespeare's death “I loved the man and do honor his memory, on this side idolatry, as much as any.”
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| William Shakespeare |
1635 The first public school in the United States, Boston Latin School, was founded in Boston on April 23, 1635. The school was specifically modeled after the Boston Grammar School in Lincolnshire, England, from where many of Boston's original settlers derived. The School's first class was in single figures, but it now has 2,400 pupils drawn from all parts of the City of Boston
1661 After Charles II returned from exile in Europe he was received in London on his 30th birthday to public acclaim. He marked his Restoration to the English throne by riding over London Bridge with 300 gentlemen, brandishing swords and wearing ‘cloth-of-silver’ doublets. Charles was crowned at Westminster Abbey on April 23, 1661. He was the last sovereign to make the traditional procession from the Tower of London to Westminster Abbey the day before the coronation.
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| Coronation portrait by John Michael Wright, c. 1661 |
1685 When Charles II died on February 6, 1685, he received the last rites from the Roman Catholic Church. He was succeeded by his brother James, the Duke of York, who reigned in England and Ireland as James II, and in Scotland as James VII. James wanted to proceed quickly to the coronation, and was crowned with his wife at Westminster Abbey on April 23, 1685.
1775 The English romantic painter Joseph Mallord William Turner was born on April 23, 1775 in Maiden Lane, an alley, north of the Strand in London. Joseph's father William Turner was a wig-maker who later became a Covent Garden barber. He first expressed an interest in painting around the age of 10. Soon Joseph was creating many paintings, which his father exhibited in his barber shop window.
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| The house in Maiden Lane where Turner was born, c.1850s |
1791 James Buchanan was born in a log cabin in Cove Gap, Pennsylvania in Franklin County, on April 23, 1791. His parents both of Ulster Scots descent were James Buchanan, Sr. (1761–1821), a businessman, merchant, and farmer, and Elizabeth Speer, an educated woman (1767–1833). The 17th president of the United States, Buchanan got the nickname "Ten-Cent Jimmy" after he claimed that 10¢ a day was a fair wage for manual laborers.
1850 The poet William Wordsworth died at his Rydal Mount home on April 23, 1850 aged 80. He had been suffering from an aggravated case of pleurisy, a condition affecting the lining of the lungs. Wordsworth was buried at St Oswald's Church in Grasmere, a village in the Lake District of England. Wordsworth is regarded as one of the greatest poets in the English language and a key figure of the Romantic movement.
1896 The first public exhibition of projected motion pictures in America happened at Koster and Bial's Music Hall in New York City on April 23, 1896, using the Vitascope projector, an improved version of the Phantoscope, invented by Thomas Armat and C. Francis Jenkins. The screening featured short films of everyday life, famous athletes and performers, marking the start of the motion picture industry in the US.
1927 The 1927 FA Cup Final was played between Cardiff City and Arsenal at Wembley Stadium on 23 April 1927. Cardiff City won the match 1–0, with the only goal scored by Hughie Ferguson in the 73rd minute. This was the first time that an FA Cup Final had been won by a team from outside England.
1928 Shirley Temple was born on April 23, 1928, in Santa Monica, California, the third child of homemaker Gertrude Temple and bank worker George Temple. The 1934 comedy drama movie Bright Eyes was the first film to be written and developed specifically for Shirley Temple, and the first in which her name was raised above the title. The movie featured her singing her best known musical number, "On the Good Ship Lollipop."
1937 Among the 135,000 birthday presents Shirley Temple received for her ninth birthday on April 23, 1937 was a prize Jersey calf from schoolchildren in Oregon. The calf was named "Shirley Temple" in her honor, and she even visited the calf on her birthday.
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| Screenshot from The Little Princess (1939) starring Shirley Temple |
1956 In 1952 the Jewish New Yorker Joy Gresham entered C.S. Lewis' life. She was a former Hollywood scriptwriter, who had married a member of the Communist Party before departing from him. This tough, brash, intellectual woman, a mother of two sons, was an unlikely partner for the donnish, pipe smoking Anglican Lewis but an initial friendship developed into an autumnal love affair. Lewis and Gresham married at the register office, 42 St Giles, Oxford, on April 23, 1956.
1968 The United Methodist Church is a Protestant Christian denomination that was formed on April 23, 1968, through the merger of two existing denominations, the Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church. The merger was the result of several years of discussions and negotiations between the two churches, and it was seen as a significant step toward greater unity among Protestant denominations in the United States.
1985 Coca-Cola changed its classic formula and released New Coke on April 23, 1985. It was a sweeter version of its original formula after extensive research showed that consumers preferred it, but the public responded negatively, expressing their dissatisfaction through phone calls, letters, and protests. Coca-Cola's executives quickly realized their mistake, brought back the original formula as "Coca-Cola Classic" in less than three months, and the incident became one of the most significant marketing failures in history.
2005 YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim was the first person to upload a video onto the YouTube. The film entitled Me At The Zoo was uploaded on April 23, 2005 at 20:31. The 19-second video was shot by Karim's high school fiend Yakov Lapitsky and shows the YouTube co-founder at the San Diego Zoo. It has racked up over 70 million views as of June 2019.
2007 Boris Yeltsin, the first president of the Russian Federation, died of congestive heart failure on April 23, 2007, at the age of 76. The onset of his condition began during his visit to Jordan between March 25 and April 2, 2007. Yeltsin had a history of heart problems, including a quintuple heart bypass surgery in 1996, and his health had been deteriorating for several years before his death.
2009 British dancer Benedict Devlin holds the record for the most heel clicks in 30 seconds in the traditional Irish dance style. He performed 191 on the set of Guinness World Records, in London, UK, on April 23, 2009. Any number of clicks could be performed during each jump and Ben could perform up to four clicks with his heels when both feet were mid-air.
2019 Keith Cutler, the resident judge of Winchester and Salisbury in England was summoned to be a juror on a case he was presiding over. The trial was due to start on April 23, 2019. When Cutler applied to be excused from jury service he was initially declined, and was told to write to the resident judge, to which he replied: "I am the resident judge."
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