What are the important events that happened on February 23? Here are historical events, facts, and some myths about this day.
February 23: Facts & Myths About This Day
February 23 is the 54th day of the year 2024 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 312 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Friday.
Under the Julian calendar, this day is February 10, 2024 – a Friday. Both day of the week are the same but did you notice the difference with the Gregorian calendar?
When this day started, 28,477,440 minutes has elapsed since midnight of January 1, 1970 – the Unix epoch.
Strange as it may, if we name this day after a polygon then it will be called ‘pentacontatetragon’ day.
Pisces is the zodiac sign of a person born on this day. Amethyst is the modern birthstone for this month. Bloodstone is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years.
According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 341 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year.
The ancient Maya civilization believes that the end of the world will happen on December 21, 2012. There are now 4,081 days since this fabled cataclysmic event.
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February 23 Historical Events
- 1739 –Richard Palmer is identified at York Castle, by his former schoolteacher, as the outlaw Dick Turpin.
- 1846 –John Henry Newman leaves the Church of England and is received into the Roman Catholic Church.
- 1848 –The French Revolution of 1848, which would lead to the establishment of the French Second Republic, begins.
- 1917 –First demonstrations in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The beginning of the February Revolution.
- 1927 –German theoretical physicist Werner Heisenberg writes a letter to fellow physicist Wolfgang Pauli, in which he describes his uncertainty principle for the first time.
- 1942 –World War II: Japanese submarines fire artillery shells at the California coastline near Santa Barbara.
- 1945 –World War II: Capitulation of German garrison in Poznań. The city is liberated by Soviet and Polish forces.
- 1945 –World War II: The capital of the Philippines, Manila, is liberated by combined Filipino and American forces.
- 2007 –A train derails on an evening express service near Grayrigg, Cumbria, England, killing one person and injuring 22. This results in hundreds of points being checked over the UK after a few similar accidents.
- 2010 –Unknown criminals pour more than 2.5 million liters of diesel oil and other hydrocarbons into the river Lambro, in Northern Italy, causing an environmental disaster.
Who were born on February 23?
- 1685 –George Frideric Handel, German/British Baroque composer (d. 1759)
- 1932 –Majel Barrett, American actress (d. 2008)
- 1938 –Paul Morrissey, American film director
- 1955 –Flip Saunders, American basketball coach
- 1957 –Ria Brieffies, Dutch singer (d. 2009)
- 1962 –John David Brown, American illustrator, cartoonist
- 1970 –Marie-Josée Croze, Canadian actress
- 1972 –Alessandro Sturba, Italian footballer
- 1974 –Leko, American DJ
- 1982 –Malia Metella, French swimmer
Who died on February 23?
- 1270 –Saint Isabel of France, daughter of Louis VIII of France (b. 1225)
- 1554 –Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, English politician and nobelman (b. c.1515)
- 1766 –Stanisław I Leszczyński, King of Poland (b. 1677)
- 1859 –Zygmunt Krasiński, Polish Romantic poet (b. 1812)
- 1908 –Johannes Friedrich August von Esmarch, German surgeon (b. 1823)
- 1934 –Edward Elgar, English composer (b. 1857)
- 1946 –Tomoyuki Yamashita, Japanese general (hanged) (b. 1885)
- 1957 –Marika Ninou, Greek singer (b. 1918)
- 1979 –W.A.C. Bennett, Canadian politician (b. 1900)
- 1992 –Markos Vafiadis, Greek politician (b. 1906)
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