What are the important events that happened on May 23? Here are historical events, facts, and some myths about this day.

May 23: Facts & Myths About This Day

May 23 is the 143^rd day of the year 2025 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 222 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Friday.

Under the Julian calendar, this day is May 10, 2025 – a Friday. Both day of the week are the same but did you notice the difference with the Gregorian calendar?

When this day started, 485,544 hours has elapsed since midnight of January 1, 1970 – the Unix epoch.

Strange as it may, if we name this day after a polygon then it will be called ‘hectatetracontatrigon’ day.

Gemini is the zodiac sign of a person born on this day. Emerald is the modern birthstone for this month. Sapphire is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years.

According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 270 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year.

The ancient Maya civilization believes that the end of the world will happen on December 21, 2012. There are now 4,536 days since this fabled cataclysmic event.

May 23 Historical Events

• 1706 –
  Battle of Ramillies: John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, defeats a French army under Marshal Villeroi.
• 1788 –
  South Carolina ratifies the Constitution as the 8th American state.
• 1813 –
  South American independence leader Simón Bolívar enters Mérida, leading the invasion of Venezuela, and is proclaimed El Libertador (“The Liberator”).
• 1829 –
  Accordion patent granted to Cyrill Demian in Vienna.
• 1844 –
  Declaration of the Báb: a merchant of Shiraz announces that he is a Prophet and founds a religious movement that would later be brutally crushed by the Persian government. He is considered to be a forerunner of the Bahá'í Faith, and Bahá'ís celebrate the day as a holy day.
• 1846 –
  Mexican-American War: President Mariano Paredes of Mexico unofficially declares war on the United States.
• 1873 –
  The Canadian Parliament establishes the North-West Mounted Police, the forerunner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
• 1939 –
  The U.S. Navy submarine USS Squalus sinks off the coast of New Hampshire during a test dive, causing the death of 24 sailors and two civilian technicians. The remaining 32 sailors and one civilian naval architect are rescued the following day.
• 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.

Who were born on May 23?

• 1898 –
  Scott O'Dell, American author (d. 1989)
• 1921 –
  James Blish, American author (d. 1975)
• 1936 –
  Ingeborg Hallstein, German opera singer
• 1943 –
  Alan Walden, American rock music manager and promoter
• 1964 –
  Ruth Metzler-Arnold, Swiss politician
• 1970 –
  Bryan Herta, American race car driver
• 1973 –
  Mirjam Sterk, Dutch politician
• 1974 –
  Charlie Yeung, Hong Kong actress and singer
• 1979 –
  Brian Campbell, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1983 –
  Heidi Range, English singer (Sugababes)

Who died on May 23?

• 1754 –
  John Wood, the Elder, English architect (b. 1704)
• 1886 –
  Leopold von Ranke, German historian (b. 1795)
• 1895 –
  Franz Ernst Neumann, German mineralogist and physicist (b. 1798)
• 1906 –
  Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian writer (b. 1828)
• 1920 –
  Svetozar Boroević, Austrian field marshal (b. 1856)
• 1937 –
  John D. Rockefeller, American industrialist and philanthropist (b. 1839)
• 1989 –
  Karl Koch, West German hacker (b. 1965)
• 1998 –
  Eminem, American Musician (b. 1972)
• 1999 –
  Owen Hart, Canadian professional wrestler (b. 1965)
• 2006 –
  Ian Copeland, American music promoter (b. 1949)