On this day: 23 January

Selected events and births on 23 January, from Wikipedia’s “On this day”.

Events

• 1368 – The Hongwu Emperor ascended the throne, initiating the Ming dynasty, which would rule China for three centuries. Read more: Hongwu Emperor Ming dynasty
• 1571 – Queen Elizabeth I opened the Royal Exchange in London, giving it its royal title. Read more: Elizabeth I Royal Exchange, London
• 1789 – Bishop John Carroll purchased a plot of land that would become the home of the future Georgetown University, the oldest Catholic university in the United States. Read more: John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore) Georgetown University Catholic higher education
• 1793 – The Russian Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia partitioned the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth for the second time. Read more: Russian Empire Kingdom of Prussia Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
• 1849 – Elizabeth Blackwell graduated from Geneva Medical College in New York, making her the first woman to receive a medical degree in the United States. Read more: Elizabeth Blackwell Geneva Medical College
• 1957 – American inventor Fred Morrison sold the rights to his "flying disc" to the Wham-O toy company, who later renamed it the "Frisbee" Read more: Walter Frederick Morrison Wham-O Frisbee
• 1993 – The first version of Mosaic, created by Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina, was released, becoming the first popular web browser. Read more: NCSA Mosaic Marc Andreessen Eric Bina
• 1997 – Madeleine Albright was sworn in as the first female United States Secretary of State, becoming the highest-ranking woman in the history of the U.S. government at that time. Read more: Madeleine Albright United States Secretary of State
• 2003 – The final signal was detected from the NASA space probe Pioneer 10, then about 12 billion kilometres (7.5 billion miles) from Earth. Read more: NASA Pioneer 10

Born on this day

• 1929 – John Polanyi, German-Canadian chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate Read more: John Polanyi Nobel Prize in Chemistry
• 1945 – Mike Harris, Canadian politician, 22nd Premier of Ontario Read more: Mike Harris Premier of Ontario
• 1946 – Arnoldo Alemán, Nicaraguan lawyer and politician, President of Nicaragua Read more: Arnoldo Alemán Co-presidents of Nicaragua
• 1947 – Tom Carper, American captain and politician, 71st Governor of Delaware Read more: Tom Carper List of governors of Delaware
• 1947 – Megawati Sukarnoputri, Indonesian politician, 5th president of Indonesia Read more: Megawati Sukarnoputri President of Indonesia
• 1964 – Bharrat Jagdeo, Guyanese economist and politician, 7th President of Guyana Read more: Bharrat Jagdeo President of Guyana
• 1999 – Alban Lafont, French footballer Read more: Alban Lafont
• 2000 – Fanni Pigniczki, Hungarian rhythmic gymnast Read more: Fanni Pigniczki
• 2001 – Olga Danilović, Serbian tennis player Read more: Olga Danilović
• 2002 – Joško Gvardiol, Croatian footballer Read more: Joško Gvardiol
• 2002 – Nicola Zalewski, Polish footballer Read more: Nicola Zalewski
• 2004 – Julio Enciso, Paraguayan footballer Read more: Julio Enciso (footballer, born 2004)

Text from Wikipedia: Selected anniversaries / January 23 and the linked articles, via the Wikimedia “On this day” feed, under CC BY-SA 4.0. We leave out entries about wars, violence and disasters to keep this page family-friendly.