January 23
Activity of the day
Today is . . .
- National handwriting day in the U.S.
- Bounty Day on Pitcairn Island
- Feast day of St Bernard of Vienne
On this day . . .
- An earthquake in China kills 830,000 people (1556)
- Georgetown University is established in present-day Washington, D.C. (1789)
- Elizabeth Blackwell graduates as the first woman doctor (1849)
- Marconi sends a radio signal from the Isle of Wight to Cornwall (1901)
- The first Labour government is formed (1924)
- Nylon is first produced in Britain (1941)
- President Richard Nixon announces an agreement to end the Vietnam War (1973)
- The TV mini-series "Roots", based on the Alex Haley novel, premieres (1977)
- Sweden bans aerosol sprays because of damage to environment (1978)
- U.K. petrol stations start offering prices by litre measurements (1989)
Births
- Edouard Manet, French impressionist artist (1832)
- Sergi Eisenstein, Russian film director (1898)
- Humphrey Bogart, American actor (1899)
- Jeanne Moreau, French actress (1928)
- Rutger Hauer, Dutch film actor (1944)
- Princess Caroline of Monaco (1957)
Deaths
- William Pitt the Younger, British prime minister (1806)
- Alexander Korda, Hungarian/British film director (1893)
- Anna Pavlova, Russian ballerina (1931)
- Edvard Munch, Norwegian painter (1944)
- Paul Robeson, American actor and singer (1976)
- Samuel Barber, American composer (1981)
- Joseph Beuys, German artist (1986)
- Salvador Dali, Spanish surrealist painter (1989)
- Freddie Bartholomew, Irish child actor (1992)
- Helmut Newton, German-born photographer (2004)
- Johnny Carson, American television host (2005)