July 23

1603 Following the accession of James I to the English throne in 1603. the statesman Francis Bacon proposed schemes for the union of England and Scotland and recommended measures for dealing with Roman Catholics. For these efforts he was knighted on July 23, 1603.

1637 The authoritarian Anglo Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury William Laud was the cause of much unrest. In 1637 Laud's attempt to force the English Prayer Book, on Presbyterian Scotland caused the Scottish populace to rise up in fury. The riots started on July 23, 1637 when Jenny Geddes, a vegetable-seller and a member of the congregation of St Giles' Church, Edinburgh, threw her wooden stool at the preacher, Bishop Lindsay, when Laud's prayer book was introduced at a service.

1715 The first lighthouse in America was authorized for construction by the Massachusetts legislature at Little Brewster Island, Massachusetts on July 23, 1715. The Boston Light was ready for use by mid-September of the following year. A tonnage tax of 1 penny per ton charged to vessels moving in or out of Boston Harbor, paid for maintaining the light. The first keeper of Boston Light was George Worthylake. He was paid £50 a year to keep the beacon lit from sundown to sunrise.

1729 illustration  of Boston Light

1793 The first democratic republic in Germany, the Republic of Mainz, was declared by Andreas Joseph Hofmann on March 18, 1793. A product of the French Revolutionary Wars, it lasted to July 23, 1793 when a coalition of Prussia, Austria, and other German states besieged and captured Mainz from the revolutionary French forces.

1829 William Austin Burt was awarded a patent for the typographer, the first practical typewriting machine on July 23, 1829. It used a dial instead of keys to select each character. As innovative as it was, even in Burt's hands, the machine was slower than handwriting.

1885 Facing severe investment reversals and dying of throat cancer, Ulysses S. Grant completed his memoirs at a cottage on the slopes of Mount McGregor, finishing only days before he died. His memoirs proved a major critical and financial success. Grant died at 8 o'clock in the morning in the Mount McGregor cottage on July 23, 1885, at the age of 63. His death prompted an outpouring of national unity. More than 1.5 million people attended his funeral in New York City.

Grant's funeral train at West Point

1892 Haile Selassie I was born on July 23, 1892, in Harar, Ethiopia. He was the last reigning monarch of Ethiopia's Solomonic Dynasty, which traces its ancient ancestry to King Solomon of Israel and the Queen of Sheba. Selassie was a key figure in the Rastafari movement, which is a religious movement that originated in Jamaica in the 1930s. Rastafarians believe that Selassie is the returned messiah of the Bible, God incarnate.

1903 Ernest Pfennig, a Chicago dentist, was the first owner of a Ford car. He paid $850 for a two-cylinder Model A automobile with a tonneau (or backseat), which was delivered to him on July 23, 1903. The Model A was the first car produced by the Ford Motor Company. It was a two-cylinder, 19-horsepower vehicle that could reach a top speed of 30 miles per hour.

1921 The Communist Party of China was founded at the founding National Congress in Shanghai held between July 23-31, 1921. Co-founder Chen Duxiu served from 1921 to 1927 as its first General Secretary. The Communist Party of China grew quickly, and by 1949 it had driven the nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) government from mainland China after the Chinese Civil War, thus leading to the establishment of the People's Republic of China.

1953 Fidel Castro and his brother Raúl led a group of approximately 160 rebels on July 23, 1953 in an unsuccessful attack on the Moncada Barracks, thus beginning the Cuban Revolution. Five-and-a-half years later Castro, wearing army fatigues, was sworn in as prime minister of Cuba after dictator Fulgencio Batista fled the island. He accepted the position on the condition that the Prime Minister’s powers be increased.

1968 The longest hijacking of a commercial flight was the El Al Flight 426 hijacking on July 23, 1968, which lasted 40 days. The flight was en route from Rome to Tel Aviv when it was hijacked by three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The hijackers demanded the release of 23 prisoners held in Israel. The plane was flown to several different countries and the hijackers released some of the hostages. On September 1, 1968, the hijackers released the remaining hostages and surrendered to the Swiss authorities.

1976 Judit Polgár who is widely considered the best female chess player of all time was born on July 23, 1976. She and her two sisters were intentionally raised to be chess masters by their father, László Polgár, to prove his theory that "Geniuses are made, not born."  Polgár achieved the title of Grandmaster at the age of 15 years and 4 months, at the time the youngest to have done so, breaking the record previously held by Bobby Fischer.

Judit Polgár, 2008 By Stefan64 - Self-photographed

1983 Beginning on July 23, 1983, there was an intermittent insurgency against the Sri Lanka government by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (also known as the Tamil Tigers), which fought to create an independent Tamil state called Tamil Eelam in the north and the east of the island. The ensuing civil war cost thousands of lives and blighted the country's economy. The tourist industry collapsed and foreign investment dried up. The civil war ended in 2009.

1986 Prince Andrew married Sarah Ferguson at Westminster Abbey on July 23, 1986. After marrying Prince Andrew, Sarah Ferguson joined the British Royal Family as the Duchess of York. They had two daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie, but by 1991, the marriage was in trouble. After four years of official separation, the Duke and Duchess announced the mutual decision to divorce in May 1996.

1990 McDonald's used to use an ingredient known as beef tallow — the rendered form of beef fat that's solid at room temperature — that gave their fries their signature rich and buttery flavor. They stopped using beef tallow in their French fries on July 23, 1990 after a wealthy heart attack survivor spent $3 million dollars on full page newspaper adverts calling out the chain for their unhealthy menu. It was replaced with 100% vegetable oil over concerns of high-cholesterol menu items.

1993 The father of basketball megastar Michael Jordan, James R. Jordan Sr., was murdered by two teenagers in his car on July 23, 1993. Daniel Green and Larry Demery approached the car, woke Jordan up, and demanded his money. Jordan refused to give them his money, and Green shot him in the chest. Larry Demery was wearing a Michael Jordan T-shirt at the time. 

1995 The Hale–Bopp comet was discovered independently on July 23, 1995 by two observers, Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp, both in the United States. When amateur astronomer Thomas Bopp co-discovered Hale–Bopp, he had never seen a comet before and was using a borrowed telescope. It became the most widely observed comet of the 20th century and was visible to the naked eye for a record 18 months, twice as long as the previous record holder, the Great Comet of 1811.

2001 Megawati Sukarnoputri became the first female president of Indonesia on July 23, 2001 after her predecessor Abdurrahman Wahid was removed from office. The eldest daughter of Indonesia's first president, Sukarno, she served as the fifth president of Indonesia to 2004. 

2012 Astronaut Dr. Sally K. Ride died on July 23, 2012. She became the first American woman to be sent into space when she was selected to serve on a six- day flight of the orbiter Challenger in 1983. At the time, she was the youngest American to enter outer space.

2014 It took nearly two hours to execute convicted murderer Joseph Wood on July 23, 2014. An hour after being injected with midazolam and hydromorphone (15 times the lethal dose), the prisoner was still alive. Lawyers filed an emergency appeal to halt the execution. Ten minutes after he died, the appeal was denied.

2016 Following Portugal's triumph at Euro 2016, Madeira Airport in Funchal was renamed the Cristiano Ronaldo International Airport after its star player on July 23, 2016.  Ronaldo was born in Funchal, Madeira, and is considered to be one of the greatest footballers of all time.

2017 Snooty the Manatee was believed to be the first manatee born in captivity. He was also the oldest known manatee and lived at the South Florida Museum in Bradenton. Snooty passed away following an accident on July 23, 2017, two days after celebrating his 69th birthday.