History of the Day for:
February 23
- 1685: German composer George Frideric Handel ("Messiah") was born.
- 1822: Boston was granted a charter to incorporate as a city.
- 1836: General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, leading several thousand Mexican troops, began besieging the Alamo mission settlement held by a force of 145 Texans led by Colonel Travis, Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett. The siege ended on March 6 with all the Texans killed.
- 1847: U.S. troops under General Zachary Taylor defeated Mexican General Santa Anna at the Battle of Buena Vista in Mexico.
- 1870: Mississippi was readmitted to the Union.
- 1874: Walter Wingfield of Pimlico, England, patented the game of lawn tennis.
- 1896: The Tootsie Roll was introduced by Leo Hirshfield.
- 1898: In France, novelist Emile Zola was imprisoned for writing his "J'accuse" letter accusing the government of anti?Semitism and wrongly jailing Captain Alfred Dreyfus.
- 1927: President Coolidge signed a bill creating the Federal Radio Commission, the forerunner of the Federal Communications Commission.
- 1941: Plutonium is first produced and isolated by Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg.
- 1943: A fire breaks out at St. Joseph's Orphanage, Co Cavan, Ireland, killing 36 people (35 of whom are children).
- 1944: The Soviet Union begins forced deportation of the Chechen and Ingush people from the North Caucasus to Central Asia.
- 1945: World War II: During the Battle of Iwo Jima, a group of United States Marines and a commonly forgotten U.S. Navy Corpsman, reach the top of Mount Suribachi on the island and are photographed raising the American flag. The photo would later win a Pulitzer Prize and become the model for the national USMC War Memorial.
- 1945: World War II: The capital of the Philippines, Manila, is liberated by American forces.
- 1945: World War II: Capitulation of German garrison in Poznan. The city is liberated by Soviet and Polish forces.
- 1945: World War II: The German town of Pforzheim is completely destroyed by a raid of 379 British bombers.
- 1945: World War II: The Verona Philharmonic Theatre is bombed by Allied forces. It would later be re-opened in 1975.
- 1947: The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is founded.
- 1954: The first mass inoculation of children against polio with the Salk vaccine began in Pittsburgh.
- 1960: Historic Ebbets Field, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers for 40 years, was demolished.
- 1968: Wilt Chamberlain became the first NBA player to score 25,000 points.
- 1985: Hoosier coach Bobby Knight threw a folding chair across the court and was ejected in a game against arch-rival Purdue.
- 1997: Scientists in Scotland announced they had succeeded in cloning an adult mammal, producing a lamb named "Dolly."
- 1997: A small fire occurs in the Russian Space station, Mir.
- 1998: In the United States, tornadoes in central Florida destroy or damage 2,600 structures and kill 42.
- 1998: Osama bin Laden publishes a fatwa declaring jihad against all Jews and "Crusaders"; the latter term is commonly interpreted to refer to the people of Europe and the United States.
- 1999: Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Öcalan is charged with treason in Ankara, Turkey.
- 1999: An avalanche destroys the Austrian village of Galtür, killing 31.
- 2005: In Slovakia, a two-day meeting dubbed "Slovakia Summit 2005" takes place between U.S. President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin. This occasion marks the first visit of a sitting American President to the Slovak Republic since its establishment in 1993.
- 2005: The controversial French law on colonialism is passed, requiring teachers to teach the "positive values of colonialism". After public outcry, it is repealed at the beginning of 2006.
- 2006: Dubai Ports World agrees to postpone its plans to take over management of six U.S. ports after the proposal ignited harsh bipartisan criticism.
- 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.
- 2008: A United States Air Force B-2 Spirit crashes on Guam. It is the first operational loss of a B-2.