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What happened in history on this day: December 23?
On December 23 in ...
- 1776 - Continental Congress negotiates a war loan of $181,500 from France.
- 1779 - Benedict Arnold court-martialed for improper conduct.
- 1783 - General George Washington resigns as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army.
- 1788 - Maryland votes to cede a 10 square mile area for District of Columbia.
- 1805 - US Senate confirms Robert Patterson as Mint director.
- 1814 - US Congress passes a law, effective February 1, increasing all US postal rates by 50 percent to raise revenue to help pay for the war.
- 1862 - USA General Ben "Beast" Butler is proclaimed a "felon, outlaw and common enemy of mankind" by Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
- 1907 - First all-steel passenger railroad coach completed, in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
- 1912 - First "Keystone Kops" film, titled "Hoffmeyer's Legacy".
- 1913 - The Federal Reserve Act is signed by US President Woodrow Wilson into law. It authorizes the Federal Reserve System and a set of Federal Reserve notes.
- 1928 - NBC sets up a permanent, coast-to-coast radio network.
- 1930 - Police Bureau of Criminal Alien Investigation started in New York City, New York.
- 1943 - First telecast of a complete opera (Hansel and Gretel), Schenectady, New York.
- 1948 - Hideki Tojo, Japanese Prime Minister, and six other Japanese hanged for war crimes by US.
- 1961 - Fidel Castro announces Cuba will release 1,113 prisoners from failed 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion for US$62 million worth of food and medical supplies.
- 1962 - Cuba starts returning US prisoners from the Bay of Pigs invasion.
- 1967 - US President Lyndon B Johnson meets Pope Paul VI at the Vatican.
- 1968 - First documented US case of space motion sickness.
- 1968 - 82 members of US intelligence ship Pueblo released by North Korea.
- 1970 - 7,511th performance of Agatha Christie's Mousetrap (record).
- 1970 - New York World Trade Center reaches highest point (411 m).
- 1975 - US Congress passes Metric Conversion Act.
- 1975 - Richard S Welch, US Central Intelligence Agency station chief in Athens, Greece, is shot dead.
- 1982 - The United States Environmental Protection Agency recommends the evacuation of Times Beach, Missouri due to dangerous levels of dioxin contamination.
- 1983 - Journal Science publishes first report on nuclear winter.
- 1986 - Voyager airplane completes the first nonstop circumnavigation of the earth by air without refueling in 9 days, 3 minutes and 44 seconds.
- 1987 - Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, serving a life sentence for attempted assassination of US President Gerald R Ford escapes from Alderson Prison.
- 1991 - New York Daily News publisher Kevin Maxwell resigns.
- 1997 - Terry Nichols found guilty of manslaughter in Oklahoma City bombing.
- 1997 - US Agriculture Department estimates it costs $149,820 to raise a child to 18.
- 2005 - U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld announces the first in an expected series of troop drawdowns following the Iraqi elections.
- 2008 - US President George W. Bush signs H.R. 6184 "America's Beautiful National Parks Quarter Dollar Coin Act of 2008" into law, as Public Lal 110-456. The program encompasses a new series of circulating and non-circulating coins depicting national sites of each state and territory, and the District of Columbia, five designs per year, beginning in 2010. In addition to circulating quarter dollar coins, 5-ounce silver coins will also be produced for each design.
Births on December 23
- 1785 - Birth of Christian Gobrecht in Hanover, Pennsylvania, USA; US Mint chief engraver (1840-44), paper money engraver, engraver of "seated Liberty" obverse of US silver coins 1837-1891.
- 1805 - Birth of Joseph Smith Junior in Sharon, Vermont, USA; founder of Mormon church.
- 1860 - Birth of Harriet Monroe in Chicago, Illinois, USA; poet/editor of Poetry magazine (You and I).
- 1867 - Birth of Madame C J Walker [Sarah Breedlove] in Delta, Louisiana, USA; cosmetics mogul.
- 1887 - Birth of John Cromwell in Toledo, Ohio, USA; actor/director (Spitfire, Of Human Bondage).
- 1893 - Birth of Ann O'Neal in Missouri, USA; actress (Nana - Professional Father).
- 1903 - Birth of Fredericka Carolyn Washington AKA Fredi Washington in Savannah, Georgia, USA; actress (Black and Tan) (dies 1994).
- 1906 - Birth of Ross Lee Finney in Wells, Minnesota, USA; composer (Landscapes Remembered).
- 1907 - Birth of Don McNeill in Galena, Illinois, USA; host (Don McNeill TV Club).
- 1909 - Birth of Barney Ross in New York City, New York, USA; welterweight boxing champion (1934).
- 1911 - Birth of James Gregory in Bronx, New York, USA; actor (My Favorite Martian, Barney Miller).
- 1920 - Birth of Alan North in Bronx, New York, USA; actor (Captain Ed Hocken - The Naked Gun).
- 1921 - Birth of Gerald S O'Loughlin in New York City, New York, USA; actor (Storefront Lawyer, Rookies, Wheels).
- 1923 - Birth of Bob Barker in Darrington, Washington, USA; TV host (The Price is Right).
- 1923 - Birth of Leonard Stern in New York City, New York, USA; producer/TV writer (Phil Silvers Show, Get Smart).
- 1923 - Birth of Milt Okun in Brooklyn, New York, USA; orchestra leader (Starland Vocal Band Show).
- 1923 - Birth of Ruth Roman in Boston, Massachusetts, USA; actress (Sylvia - Knots Landing, Dallas).
- 1924 - Birth of Floyd Kalber in Omaha, Nebraska, USA; newscaster (NBC Weekend News anchor - 1973).
- 1925 - Birth of Harry Guardino in New York City, New York, USA; actor (Monty Nash, Perry Mason, Hill Street Blues).
- 1930 - Birth of Barbara Ruick in Pasadena, California, USA; actress (Apache War Smoke, Tú Para Mi).
- 1931 - Birth of Ronnie Schell in Richmond, California, USA; American actor and comedian (Gomer Pyle, Good Morning World).
- 1932 - Birth of James Cleveland in Chicago, Illinois, USA; reverend, gospel musician ("Old Time Religion", "It's Me O Lord").
- 1936 - Birth of Frederic Forrest in Waxahachie, Texas, USA; actor (Music Box, Lonesone Dove).
- 1936 - Birth of James Stacy in Los Angeles, California, USA; actor (Fred - Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet).
- 1937 - Birth of Karol Joseph Bobko in New York City, New York, USA; Colonel US Air Force/astronaut (STS 6, STS 51D, STS 51J).
- 1941 - Birth of Elizabeth Hartman in Youngstown, Ohio, USA; actress (Walking Tall, Beguiled).
- 1941 - Birth of Tim Hardin in Oregon, USA; singer ("If I Were a Carpenter", "Bird on a Wire").
- 1943 - Birth of Harry Shearer in Los Angeles, California, USA; comedian/actor (Saturday Night Live, The Simpsons, Pure Luck).
- 1946 - Birth of Tony Craig [Kulasa] in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; actor (That Boy Next Door).
- 1947 - Three scientists at Bell Telephone Laboratories in the USA, William Shockley, Walter Brattain, and John Bardeen demonstrate their new invention of the point-contact transistor amplifier. The name transistor is short for "transfer resistor".
- 1949 - Birth of Susan Lucci in Scarsdale, New York, USA; actress (All My Children, Mafia Princess).
- 1953 - Birth of John Callahan in Brooklyn, New York, USA; actor (Craig - Santa Barbara, Falcon Crest).
- 1958 - Birth of Joan Severance in Houston, Texas, USA; actress (Hear No Evil, See No Evil).
- 1963 - Birth of Carol Peterka in Little Falls, Minnesota, USA; team handball back court (Olympics-1992, 1996).
- 1964 - Birth of Andy Gabel in Chicago, Illinois, USA; short track skater (Olympics-1994).
- 1970 - Birth of Kimberly Ann Cooley in Grand Forks, North Dakota, USA; Miss America-North Dakota (1996).
- 1970 - Birth of Shannon Noelle DePuy in Lynchburg, Virginia, USA; Miss Virginia-America (1991-top 10).
- 1977 - Birth of Becky Ruehl in Lakeside Park, Kentucky; diver (Olympics-4th-1996).
Deaths on December 23
- 1931 - Tyrone Power Sr, American actor (Big Trial, Test of Donald Norton), dies at age 62.
- 1938 - Robert Herrick, US writer (Chimes), dies at age 70.
- 1959 - Lord Irwin, ambassador to US (1940-46), dies at age 78.
- 1967 - Ruth Fuller Sasaki, head of first Zen Institute of America, dies at age 75.
- 1975 - Richard S Welch, US Central Intelligence Agency station chief in Athens, Greece, is shot dead.
- 1982 - Death of Jack Webb at age 62 of a heart attack; actor (Pat Novak for Hire radio show, Johnny Madero Pier 23, Joe Friday - Dragnet radio and TV show, Pete Kelly's Blues radio and TV show), producer (Emergency TV show (1972-77)).
- 1991 - Death of Ernst Krenek in Palm Springs, California, at age 91; Austrian/US composer (Orpheus and Eurydike).
- 1992 - Eddie Hazel, US pop guitarist (Funkadelic - "Knee Deep"), dies at age 42.
- 2015 - Death of Alfred G. Gilman, American pharmacologist and biochemist (born 1941).
- 2021 - Death of Joan Didion at age 87 of Parkinson's disease in Manhattan, New York, USA (born 1934); American writer (The Year of Magical Thinking (2005), Blue Nights (2011), Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1968), The White Album (1979), Play It As It Lays (1970))
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