1498 Italian friar and preacher Girolamo Savonarola headed up a puritan moral dictatorship in Florence in the mid 1490s. However, the citizens of Florence became tired of his banning of pleasurable activities and the Pope demanded his arrest and execution. Savonarola surrendered to soldiers and was tortured to make him say that he was guilty of heresy and corruption. He was hanged for heresy on May 23, 1498, while a fire was ignited below him to burn his body.
1701 Notorious pirate William Kidd was hanged twice on May 23, 1701 (the rope having snapped the first time) and his body gibbeted in the Thames for three tides as a warning to would-be buccaneers. The stolen booty on his ship allegedly included jewels worth £30,000 — around £10 million ($15 million) today.
1734 Austrian physician and hypnosis pioneer Franz Mesmer was born on May 23, 1734. Mesmer took up an idea that a power existed which he referred to as "animal magnetism" and a person became ill when their "animal magnetism" was out of balance. Mesmer claimed to use it as a medical treatment to heal certain nervous ailments. As he claimed the attention of scientists Mesmer's name became renowned through the coining of the term's "mesmerism" and "mesmerise".
1785 The American scientist and politician Benjamin Franklin developed the first pair of bifocal spectacles for long-sighted people. Tired of constantly taking his glasses on and off to read he decided to make a pair of glasses which would let him enjoy both the beautiful scenery and his treasured books when travelling. He cut two pairs of spectacles in two and put each lens into a single frame. He announced his invention of a bifocal eyeglass on May 23, 1785.
1814 Beethoven's only opera, Fidelio, premiered at Vienna's Theater an der Wien in November 1805.
Stephan von Breuning helped shorten the work from three acts to two during the following year. After further work on the libretto by Georg Friedrich Treitschke, a final version of Fidelio was performed at the Kärntnertortheater on May 23, 1814. The audience included a 17-year-old Franz Schubert, who had sold his schoolbooks for a ticket.
1829 Viennese organ and piano manufacturer Cyrill Demian patented the first accordion on May 23, 1829. It was the first instrument to be called "accordion" and was named thus because the buttons of the left hand manual produced both bass notes and preset chords. (The word 'accordion' derives from the German word 'akkord', meaning chord or harmony.)
1873 The Canadian Parliament established the North-West Mounted Police, the forerunner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police - dubbed the Mounties - on May 23, 1873. They were established to bring law to its untamed north-west. Canadian leader John A. Macdonald first announced the police force as the North West Mounted Rifles, but changed the name because of U.S. fears of a military build-up.
1915 Encouraged by the Allied invasion of Turkey in April 1915 during World War I, Italy joined the Allies and declared war on Austria-Hungary on May 23, 1915. Fifteen months later, Italy declared war on Germany. The British and Italians finally defeated the Austrians at Vittorio Veneto in November 1918. Their victory marked the end of the war on the Italian Front and secured the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire,
1934 American criminals Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow embarked on a crime spree during the Great Depression. They committed several robberies and killed an estimated 13 people along the way, including nine police officers. Bonnie and Clyde were ambushed and shot dead by police on a desolate road near their hideout in Bienville Parish, Louisiana on May 23, 1934. Their gunfire was so loud, the police suffered temporary deafness all afternoon.
1937 John D. Rockefeller Sr. was an American oil industry business magnate and philanthropist. He was America's first-ever billionaire (not even including inflation) and is widely considered the wealthiest American of all time and the richest person in modern history. Rockefeller died aged 97 at "The Casements", his home in Ormond Beach, Florida, from arteriosclerosis on May 23, 1937. As of 2015, the Rockefeller Foundation was ranked as the 39th largest U.S. foundation by total giving.
1938 Buddy, the first Seeing Eye dog in the US, died on May 23, 1938. Buddy was presented to blind American Morris S. Frank in 1928. Frank was trained to work with the female German Shepherd at a dog-training school in Switzerland, called Fortunate Fields, and on the streets of nearby Vevey. Buddy and Morris were together until her death; he named her replacement Buddy, as he would all his subsequent guide dogs.
1951 Tibet was invaded by China in 1950 and on May 23, 1951 delegates of the 14th Dalai Lama and the government of the newly established People's Republic of China signed the Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet, affirming Chinese sovereignty over Tibet. The Dalai Lama remained the nominal spiritual and temporal head of state until 1959, when he had to flee from Tibet to Dharamsala, India. This is still his base today.
1988 Fleming Koch and Nina Tolgard, both of Denmark, were married on May 23, 1988 in the world's first underwater wedding ceremony, which took place in Mauritius. The ceremony was conducted by a local priest and was witnessed by a small group of friends and family. The couple exchanged vows while wearing scuba diving gear and were surrounded by colorful fish and coral reefs.
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| Painting (1650) of Savonarola's execution in the Piazza della Signoria |
1701 Notorious pirate William Kidd was hanged twice on May 23, 1701 (the rope having snapped the first time) and his body gibbeted in the Thames for three tides as a warning to would-be buccaneers. The stolen booty on his ship allegedly included jewels worth £30,000 — around £10 million ($15 million) today.
1734 Austrian physician and hypnosis pioneer Franz Mesmer was born on May 23, 1734. Mesmer took up an idea that a power existed which he referred to as "animal magnetism" and a person became ill when their "animal magnetism" was out of balance. Mesmer claimed to use it as a medical treatment to heal certain nervous ailments. As he claimed the attention of scientists Mesmer's name became renowned through the coining of the term's "mesmerism" and "mesmerise".
1785 The American scientist and politician Benjamin Franklin developed the first pair of bifocal spectacles for long-sighted people. Tired of constantly taking his glasses on and off to read he decided to make a pair of glasses which would let him enjoy both the beautiful scenery and his treasured books when travelling. He cut two pairs of spectacles in two and put each lens into a single frame. He announced his invention of a bifocal eyeglass on May 23, 1785.
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| Benjamin Franklin by David Martin 1767 |
1814 Beethoven's only opera, Fidelio, premiered at Vienna's Theater an der Wien in November 1805.
Stephan von Breuning helped shorten the work from three acts to two during the following year. After further work on the libretto by Georg Friedrich Treitschke, a final version of Fidelio was performed at the Kärntnertortheater on May 23, 1814. The audience included a 17-year-old Franz Schubert, who had sold his schoolbooks for a ticket.
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| 8-key bisonoric diatonic accordion (c. 1830) By Henry Doktorski - Wikipedia Commons |
1873 The Canadian Parliament established the North-West Mounted Police, the forerunner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police - dubbed the Mounties - on May 23, 1873. They were established to bring law to its untamed north-west. Canadian leader John A. Macdonald first announced the police force as the North West Mounted Rifles, but changed the name because of U.S. fears of a military build-up.
1915 Encouraged by the Allied invasion of Turkey in April 1915 during World War I, Italy joined the Allies and declared war on Austria-Hungary on May 23, 1915. Fifteen months later, Italy declared war on Germany. The British and Italians finally defeated the Austrians at Vittorio Veneto in November 1918. Their victory marked the end of the war on the Italian Front and secured the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire,
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| Bonnie and Clyde, sometime between 1932 and 1934 |
1937 John D. Rockefeller Sr. was an American oil industry business magnate and philanthropist. He was America's first-ever billionaire (not even including inflation) and is widely considered the wealthiest American of all time and the richest person in modern history. Rockefeller died aged 97 at "The Casements", his home in Ormond Beach, Florida, from arteriosclerosis on May 23, 1937. As of 2015, the Rockefeller Foundation was ranked as the 39th largest U.S. foundation by total giving.
1938 Buddy, the first Seeing Eye dog in the US, died on May 23, 1938. Buddy was presented to blind American Morris S. Frank in 1928. Frank was trained to work with the female German Shepherd at a dog-training school in Switzerland, called Fortunate Fields, and on the streets of nearby Vevey. Buddy and Morris were together until her death; he named her replacement Buddy, as he would all his subsequent guide dogs.
1951 Tibet was invaded by China in 1950 and on May 23, 1951 delegates of the 14th Dalai Lama and the government of the newly established People's Republic of China signed the Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet, affirming Chinese sovereignty over Tibet. The Dalai Lama remained the nominal spiritual and temporal head of state until 1959, when he had to flee from Tibet to Dharamsala, India. This is still his base today.
1988 Fleming Koch and Nina Tolgard, both of Denmark, were married on May 23, 1988 in the world's first underwater wedding ceremony, which took place in Mauritius. The ceremony was conducted by a local priest and was witnessed by a small group of friends and family. The couple exchanged vows while wearing scuba diving gear and were surrounded by colorful fish and coral reefs.
1996 After Hong Kong gangster "Big Spender" Cheung Tze-keung kidnapped the child of Asia's richest man Li Ka-shing, he showed up at his home on May 23, 1996, and extracted $130 million ransom. Tze-keung later telephoned the tycoon and asked for advice on how to invest it.
2009 Roh Moo-hyun, President of South Korea from 2003 to 2008, killed himself on May 23, 2009 by jumping off a cliff. His left-wing party chose to delay the opening of parliament until the right-wing government of the time accepted responsibility for his suicide.
2013 On May 23, 2013, Japanese mountaineer Yuichiro Miura became the oldest person to reach the summit of Mount Everest at the age of 80. Back in 1970 Miura was also the the first person to ski on Mount Everest when he descended nearly 4,200 vertical feet from the South Col (elevation over 8,000 m (26,000 ft)).
2015 On May 23, 2015, just hours before the Grand Final of the 60th Eurovision Song Contest, the prestigious competition was honored with a Guinness World Record for being the Longest Running Annual TV Music Competition.
2019 The current world record for the heaviest beetroot is 23.995 kg (52 lb 14 oz), and was achieved by Welsh family Jamie Courtney-Fortey, Gareth Fortey, Marjorie Fortey and Kevin Fortey, as verified on 23 May 2019. The Forteys grew their record-breaking beetroot in their garden in Cwmbran, Gwent, Wales.
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