23 August 2025 (MIA)

1305 – William Wallace, Scottish patriot, is executed for high treason by Edward I of England.

1514 – Battle of Chaldiran ended with a decisive victory for the Sultan Selim I, Ottoman Empire, over the Shah Ismail I, Safavids founder.

1541 – French explorer Jacques Cartier lands near Quebec City in his third voyage to Canada.

1572 – Mob violence against Huguenots in Paris – St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre.

1595 – Michael the Brave confronts the Ottoman army in the Battle of Calugareni.

1775 – King George III declares that the American colonies exist in a state of open and avowed rebellion.

1793 – French Revolution: a levée en masse is decreed by the National Convention.

1799 – Napoleon leaves Egypt for France en route to seize power.

1839 – The United Kingdom captures Hong Kong as a base as it prepares for war with Qing China. The ensuing 3-year conflict will later be known as the First Opium War.

1866 – Austro-Prussian War ends with the Treaty of Prague.

1896 – First Cry of the Philippine Revolution is made in Pugad Lawin (Quezon City), in the province of Manila.

1914 – World War I: Japan declares war on Germany and bombs Qingdao, China.

1929 – Hebron Massacre during the 1929 Palestine riots: Arab attack on the Jewish community in Hebron in the British Mandate of Palestine, continuing until the next day, resulted in the death of 65-68 Jews and the remaining Jews being forced to leave the city.

1939 – World War II: Germany and the Soviet Union sign a non-aggression treaty, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. In a secret addition to the pact, the Baltic states, Finland, Romania, and Poland are divided between the two nations.

1942 – World War II: Beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad.

1943 – World War II: Kharkov liberated.

1944 – World War II: Marseille liberated.

1944 – World War II King Michael of Romania dismisses the pro-Nazi government of General Antonescu, who is arrested. Romania switches sides from the Axis to the Allies.

1958 – Chinese Civil War: The Second Taiwan Strait crisis begins with the People’s Liberation Army’s bombardment of Quemoy.

1966 – Lunar Orbiter 1 takes the first photograph of Earth from orbit around the Moon.

1975 – Successful Communist coup in Laos.

1979 – Soviet dancer Alexander Godunov defects to the United States.

1982 – Bachir Gemayel is elected Lebanese President amidst the raging civil war.

1985 – Hans Tiedge, top counter-spy of West Germany, defects to East Germany.

1989 – Hungary: the last communist government open the Iron curtain and causes the exodus of thousands of Eastern Germans to West Germany via Hungary (September 11).

1989 – Singing Revolution: two million people from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania stand on the Vilnius-Tallinn road, holding hands (Baltic Way).

1990 – Saddam Hussein appears on Iraqi state television with a number of Western “guests” (actually hostages) to try to prevent the Gulf War.

1990 – Armenia declares its independence from the Soviet Union.

1990 – West Germany and East Germany announce that they will unite on October 3.

1996 – Osama bin Laden issues message entitled ‘A declaration of war against the Americans occupying the land of the two holy places.’

2000 – Gulf Air Flight 072 crashes into the Persian Gulf near Manama, Bahrain, killing 143.

2006 – Natascha Kampusch, who is abducted at the age of 10, managed to escape from her captor Wolfgang Priklopil, after 8 years of captivity.