What are the important events that happened on May 23? Here are historical events, facts, and some myths about this day.

May 23: Facts & Myths About This Day

May 23 is the 143^rd day of the year 2025 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 222 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Friday.

Under the Julian calendar, this day is May 10, 2025 – a Friday. Both day of the week are the same but did you notice the difference with the Gregorian calendar?

When this day started, 1,747,958,400 seconds 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 ‘hectatetracontatrigon’ day.

Gemini is the zodiac sign of a person born on this day. Emerald is the modern birthstone for this month. Sapphire is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years.

According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 270 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 4,536 days since this fabled cataclysmic event.

May 23 Historical Events

• 1609 –
  Official ratification of the Second Charter of Virginia takes place.
• 1805 –
  Napoleon Bonaparte is crowned King of Italy with the Iron Crown of Lombardy in the Cathedral of Milan.
• 1844 –
  Declaration of the Báb: a merchant of Shiraz announces that he is a Prophet and founds a religious movement that would later be brutally crushed by the Persian government. He is considered to be a forerunner of the Bahá'í Faith, and Bahá'ís celebrate the day as a holy day.
• 1934 –
  The Auto-Lite Strike culminates in the “Battle of Toledo”, a five-day melée between 1,300 troops of the Ohio National Guard and 6,000 picketers.
• 1948 –
  Thomas C. Wasson, US Consul-General assassinated in Jerusalem.
• 1949 –
  The Federal Republic of Germany is established and the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany is proclaimed.
• 1951 –
  Tibetans sign the Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet with the People’s Republic of China.
• 1990 –
  Jordan Mack was born.
• 2002 –
  The “55 parties” clause of the Kyoto protocol is reached after its ratification by Iceland.
• 2004 –
  Part of Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport’s Terminal 2E collapses, killing four people and injuring three others.

Who were born on May 23?

• 1734 –
  Franz Anton Mesmer, Austrian physician/hypnotist (d. 1815)
• 1913 –
  Ruth Fernández, Puerto Rican singer
• 1917 –
  Edward Norton Lorenz, American mathematician and meteorologist (d. 2008)
• 1925 –
  Joshua Lederberg, American molecular biologist, Nobel laureate (d. 2008)
• 1947 –
  Bernard Comrie, English linguist
• 1977 –
  Ilia Kulik, Russian figure skater
• 1980 –
  Gary Brackett, American football player
• 1980 –
  Lane Garrison, American actor
• 1980 –
  Theofanis Gekas, Greek footballer
• 1984 –
  Adam Wylie, American actor

Who died on May 23?

• 1304 –
  Jehan de Lescurel, French poet and composer
• 1670 –
  Ferdinando II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1610)
• 1846 –
  Franciszek Ksawery Drucki-Lubecki, Polish politician (b. 1778)
• 1937 –
  John D. Rockefeller, American industrialist and philanthropist (b. 1839)
• 1945 –
  Heinrich Himmler, Nazi official (b. 1900)
• 1967 –
  Lionel Groulx, French Canadian priest and historian (b. 1878)
• 1989 –
  Georgy Tovstonogov, Russian theatre director (b. 1915)
• 2003 –
  Jean Yanne, French actor and director (b. 1933)
• 2005 –
  Fat-Tone, American rapper (b. 1981)
• 2008 –
  Iñaki Ochoa de Olza, Spanish mountaineer (b. 1967)