23 December 2024 (MIA)

484 – Huneric dies and is succeeded by his nephew Gunthamund, who becomes king of the Vandals. During his reign Christians are protected from persecution.

558 – Chlothar I is crowned King of the Franks.

562 – Hagia Sophia in Constantinople reopened with a rebuilt dome after a series of earthquakes caused the original to collapse.

583 – Maya queen Yohl Ik’nal is crowned ruler of Palenque.

679 – King Dagobert II is murdered while hunting.

962 – Arab–Byzantine wars: Under the future Emperor Nicephorus Phocas, Byzantine troops storm the city of Aleppo.

1572 – Theologian Johann Sylvan is executed in Heidelberg for his heretical Antitrinitarian beliefs.

1688 – As part of the Glorious Revolution, King James II of England flees from England to Paris, France after being deposed in favor of his nephew, William of Orange and his daughter Mary.

1783 – George Washington resigns as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army at the Maryland State House in Annapolis, Maryland.

1793 – The Battle of Savenay: a decisive defeat of the royalist counter-revolutionaries in War in the Vendée during the French Revolution.

1876 – First day of the Constantinople Conference which resulted in agreement for political reforms in the Balkans.

1893 – The opera Hansel and Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck is first performed.

1902 – Macedonian revolutionary and teacher Mile Pop Jordanov committed suicide in Veles following a fight with a Turkish patrol. He was born in Veles in 1878.

1906 – Revolutionary, teacher and one of the founders of VMRO, Damjan (Dame) Gruev was killed in a fight against the Turkish army near village Rusinovo, Berovo region. From 1891 to 1893, he was a teacher in the village of Smilevo and Prilep. In the summer of 1894, he started to form the first revolutionary committees of the Macedonian revolutionary organization in many cities and villages in Macedonia. Gruev was arrested and imprisoned in Bitola in August 1900. He presided over the Prilep Congress in 1904 and the congress of the revolutionary organization in Skopje in October 1905. Gruev was born on 19 January 1871.

1913 – The Federal Reserve Act is signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson, creating the Federal Reserve System.

1914 – World War I: Australian and New Zealand troops arrive in Cairo, Egypt.

1916 – World War I: Battle of Magdhaba – Allied forces defeat Turkish forces in the Sinai Peninsula.

1919 – Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 becomes law in the United Kingdom.

1936 – Colombia becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.

1940 – World War II: Greek submarine Papanikolis (Y-2) sinks the Italian motor ship Antonietta.

1941 – World War II: After 15 days of fighting, the Imperial Japanese Army occupies Wake Island.

1944 – The first edition of newspaper Birlik in Turkish language was published in Skopje.

1947 – The transistor is first demonstrated at Bell Laboratories.

1948 – Seven Japanese convicted of war crimes by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East are executed at Sugamo Prison in Tokyo, Japan.

1954 – First successful kidney transplant is performed by J. Hartwell Harrison and Joseph Murray.

1968 – The 82 sailors from the USS Pueblo are released after eleven months of internment in North Korea.

1970 – The North Tower of the World Trade Center in Manhattan, New York, New York is topped out at 1,368 feet (417 m), making it the tallest building in the world.

1970 – The Democratic Republic of the Congo officially becomes a one-party state.

1972 – A 6.5 magnitude earthquake strikes the Nicaraguan capital of Managua killing more than 10,000.

1972 – The 16 survivors of the Andes flight disaster are rescued after 73 days, having reportedly survived by cannibalism.

1979 – Soviet war in Afghanistan: Soviet Union forces occupy Kabul, the Afghan capital.

1986 – Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, lands at Edwards Air Force Base in California becoming the first aircraft to fly non-stop around the world without aerial or ground refueling.

1990 – History of Slovenia: In a referendum, 88.5% of Slovenia’s overall electorate vote for independence from Yugoslavia.

1991 – The association Young European Federalists of Macedonia was formed with the head office in Skopje. Nano Ruzin was elected president.

1993 – The British Embassy to the Republic of Macedonia was opened. Tony Milson was appointed ambassador.

1994 – Macedonia and Austria establish diplomatic ties.

2002 – A U.S. MQ-1 Predator is shot down by an Iraqi MiG-25 in the first combat engagement between a drone and conventional aircraft.

2003 – PetroChina Chuandongbei natural gas field explosion, Guoqiao, Kai County, Chongqing, China, killing at least 234.

2007 – An agreement is made for the Kingdom of Nepal to be abolished and the country to become a federal republic with the Prime Minister becoming head of state.