March 23

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• 752 - Stephen II becomes Pope.
• 1568 - Peace of Longjumeau ends the Second War of Religion in France. Again Catherine of Medici and Charles IX of France make substantial concessions to the Huguenots.
• 1708 - James Francis Edward Stuart lands at the Firth of Forth.
• 1775 - American Revolutionary War: Patrick Henry delivers his famous speech - "give me liberty or give me death" at St. John's Church in Richmond, Virginia.
• 1801 - Tsar Paul I of Russia is struck with a sword, then strangled, and finally trampled to death in his bedroom at St. Michael Palace.
• 1806 - After traveling through the Louisiana Purchase and reaching the Pacific Ocean, explorers Lewis and Clark and their "Corps of Discovery" begin their arduous journey home.
• 1839 - First recorded use of "OK" as an abbreviation for "oll korrect" in the Boston Morning Post.
• 1848 - The ship John Wickliffe arrives at Port Chalmers carrying the first Scottish settlers for Dunedin, New Zealand. Otago province is founded.
• 1857 - Elisha Otis's first elevator is installed at 488 Broadway, New York City.
  • Death of Emile L'Angelier in Glasgow, Scotland -- possibly by the hand of Madeleine Smith.
• 1868 - The University of California is founded in Oakland, California when the Organic Act is signed into law.
• 1889 - Land run: President Benjamin Harrison opens Oklahoma to white settlement starting on April 22.
  • The free Woolwich Ferry officially opens in east London.
• 1903 - The Wright Brothers apply for a patent on their invention of one of the first successful airplanes after much hard work.
• 1909 - Theodore Roosevelt leaves New York for a post-presidency safari in Africa. The trip is sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution and National Geographic Society.
• 1919 - In Milan, Italy, Benito Mussolini founds his Fascist political movement.
• 1931 - Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt embrace the gallows during the Indian struggle for independence. Their request to be shot by a firing squad is refused.
• 1933 - The Reichstag passes the Enabling Act, making Adolf Hitler dictator of Germany.
• 1935 - Signing of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of the Philippines
• 1940 - The Lahore Resolution (Qarardad-e-Pakistan or the then Qarardad-e-Lahore) is put forward at the Annual General Convention of the All India Muslim League.
• 1942 - World War II: In the Indian Ocean, Japanese forces capture the Andaman Islands.
• 1956 - Pakistan becomes the first Islamic republic in the world.
• 1962 - NS Savannah, the first nuclear-powered cargo-passenger ship, was launched as a showcase for Dwight D. Eisenhower's Atoms for Peace initiative.
• 1963 - In London, United Kingdom, Grethe & Jørgen Ingmann win the eighth Eurovision Song Contest for Denmark singing "Dansevise" (Dancing tune).
• 1965 - NASA launches Gemini 3, the United States' first two-man space flight (crew: Gus Grissom and John Young).
• 1978 - The first UNIFIL troops arrived in Lebanon for peacekeeping mission along the Blue Line.
• 1983 - Strategic Defense Initiative: US President Ronald Reagan makes his initial proposal to develop technology to intercept enemy missiles.
• 1989 - Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann announce cold fusion at the University of Utah.
  • A 1,000-foot diameter Near-Earth asteroid misses the Earth by 400,000 miles.
• 1994 - At an election rally in Tijuana, Mexican presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio is assassinated by Mario Aburto Martínez.
• 1996 - Taiwan holds its first direct elections and chooses Lee Teng-hui as President
• 1999 - Gunmen assassinate Paraguay's Vice President Luis María Argaña.
• 2001 - The Russian Mir space station is disposed of, breaking up in the atmosphere before falling into the southern Pacific Ocean near Fiji.
  • The World Wrestling Federation (WWF) (now World Wrestling Entertainment) purchases rival organization World Championship Wrestling (WCW) for an estimated $5 million.
• 2003 - In Nasiriyah, Iraq, 18 U.S. Marines are killed during the first major conflict of Operation Iraqi Freedom
• 2004 - Andhra Pradesh Federation of Trade Unions holds its first conference in Hyderabad, India.
• 2005 - The United States 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision, refuses to order the reinsertion of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube.