History of the Day for:
May 23
- 1430: Joan of Arc was captured at Compiegne and sold to the British.
- 1533: Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer declared Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon void and his marriage to Anne Boleyn legal, infuriating the Vatican.
- 1701: Scottish pirate Captain William Kidd was hanged at London's Execution Dock.
- 1788: South Carolina became the eighth state to ratify the United States Constitution.
- 1827: The first nursery school in the United States was established in New York City.
- 1846: Arabella Mansfield, the first female lawyer in the U.S., was born.
- 1873: The North West Mounted Police formed in Canada, and later became the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
- 1876: Boston's Joe Borden pitched the first no-hitter in National League history.
- 1879: Iowa State College established the first veterinary school in the U.S.
- 1915: Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary.
- 1934: Bank robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow died in a shoot-out with police in Bienville Parish, La.
- 1937: Industrialist John D. Rockefeller died in Ormond Beach, Florida.
- 1945: Heinrich Himmler, German Nazi leader and Chief of Police, committed suicide a day after being captured in Luneberg, Germany.
- 1960: Adolf Eichmann, Nazi leader wanted for war atrocities, was captured by Israeli agents in Argentina.
- 1962: The NBA agreed to transfer the Philadelphia Warriors to San Francisco.
- 1994: Funeral services were held at Arlington National Cemetery for former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
- 1995: Oklahoma City bombing: In Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the remains of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building are imploded.
- 1995: The first version of the Java programming language is released.
- 1998: The Good Friday Agreement is accepted in a referendum in Northern Ireland with 75% voting yes.
- 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.
- 2005: The fastest roller coaster in the world, Kingda Ka opens at Six Flags Great Adventure.
- 2006: Alaskan stratovolcano Mount Cleveland erupts.
- 2008: The International Court of Justice (ICJ) awards Middle Rocks to Malaysia and Pedra Branca (Pulau Batu Puteh) to Singapore, ending a 29-year territorial dispute between the two countries.