History of the Day for:
December 23
- 1690: John Flamsteed observed Uranus but didn't realize it was undiscovered.
- 1779: Benedict Arnold was court-martialed for improper conduct.
- 1783: George Washington resigned as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and retired to his home at Mount Vernon, Va.
- 1788: Maryland voted to cede a 100-square-mile area for the seat of the national government. About two?thirds of the area became the District of Columbia.
- 1805: Joseph Smith, religious leader and founder of the Mormon movement, was born.
- 1823: The poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" by Clement C. Moore ("'T'was the night before Christmas...") was published anonymously in the Troy (N.Y.) Sentinel.
- 1888: In a fit of depression, Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh cut off his left ear. His "Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear"' shows the right one bandaged because he painted the mirror image.
- 1912: Keystone released its first "Kops" film, titled "Hoffmeyer's Legacy."
- 1913: The Federal Reserve Banking System was created as President Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act into law.
- 1920: Ireland was divided into two parts, each with its own parliament.
- 1922: BBC Radio began daily newscasts.
- 1928: NBC established the first permanent coast-to-coast radio network.
- 1930: Bette Davis arrived in Hollywood under contract to Universal Studios.
- 1938: Margaret Hamilton's costume and broom caught fire in the first scene she filmed for "The Wizard of Oz," burning the skin on her right hand and singeing off her eyebrows.
- 1947: The transistor was invented by Walter H. Brattain, John Bardeen and William Shockley of Bell Laboratories.
- 1961: Fidel Castro announced that Cuba would release the 1,113 prisoners from the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion in return for $62 million worth of food, medical supplies, farm equipment and cash.
- 1963: The Beach Boys made their first appearance on "Shindig."
- 1985: Teens James Vance and Raymond Belknap committed suicide, sparking their families to sue rock group Judas Priest for planting subliminal messages in its music.
- 1994: Baseball owners imposed a salary cap that was fiercely opposed by players.
- 1996: Four women were ordained as priests in Jamaica, the first in the 330-year history of the Anglican church in the Caribbean.
- 2002: A MQ-1 Predator is shot down by an Iraqi MiG-25, making it the first time in history that an aircraft and an unmanned drone had engaged in combat.
- 2003: PetroChina Chuandongbei natural gas field explosion, Guoqiao, Kai, Chongqing, China, killing at least 234.
- 2004: Macquarie Island in the Southern Ocean is hit by an 8.1 magnitude earthquake.
- 2005: Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 217 from Baku, Azerbaijan, to Aktau, Kazakhstan crashes shortly after takeoff killing 23 people.
- 2005: Chad declares a state of war against Sudan following a December 18 attack on Adré, which left about 100 people dead.