This is a list of selected March 23 anniversaries that appear in the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases, you can be bold and edit this page. Before doing so, please review the selected anniversaries guidelines. If your suggestion is potentially controversial or relates to a day currently or soon to appear on the Main Page, post it on the talk page instead.
Please note:
- Events listed on the Main Page are selected based on article quality and to provide a diverse range of topics, rather than solely on the importance or significance of the events.
- Only four or five events are featured each day; therefore, not all important or significant events can be included.
- An event is generally excluded if it is already the subject of the scheduled featured article or picture of the day.
To report an error in content currently on the Main Page, see Wikipedia:Main Page/Errors. If a listed event is inaccurate, please first seek consensus and update the corresponding article before making changes here.
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Tsar Paul I of Russia
Tsar Alexander I of Russia
Adolf Hitler c. 1933
Gemini 3 insignia
Patrick Henry
William McGregor
Eleftherios Venizelos
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad
Mir space station
Kowloon Walled City
Flag of Sardinia with Italian tricolor
Bhagat Singh
.jpg)
.svg)
Ineligible
| Blurb | Reason |
|---|---|
| Day of Hungarian–Polish Friendship in Hungary and Poland | refimprove section |
| 1801 – Tsar Alexander I acceded to the Russian throne after his father Paul I was murdered in his bedroom at Saint Michael's Castle. | Alexander: lots of CN tags (29); Paul: lots of CN tags (9) esp in one section, plus many other paragraphs without citations |
| 1848 – Scottish settlers on the John Wickliffe, captained by William Cargill, arrived at present-day Port Chalmers in Otago, New Zealand. | tagged |
| 1879 – Fighting in the War of the Pacific between Chile and a Peruvian–Bolivian alliance opened with the Battle of Topáter. | undue weight, original research refimprove section |
| 1933 – The Enabling Act was passed, essentially giving German Chancellor Adolf Hitler dictatorial powers by granting him and the Cabinet the authority to enact laws without the participation of the Reichstag. | more citations needed |
| 1940 – Pakistan Movement: During its three-day general session, the Muslim League drafted the Lahore Resolution, calling for greater autonomy in British India. | refimprove section |
| 1965 – NASA launched Gemini 3, the first American two-person space flight. | refimprove |
| 1978 – The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon was dispatched to confirm Israeli withdrawal after its invasion nine days earlier. | unreferenced section |
| 1983 – The initial proposal to develop the Strategic Defense Initiative, a ground-based and space-based system to protect the United States from attack by strategic nuclear ballistic missiles, was released. | refimprove section |
| 1994 – Mexican presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta was assassinated during a meeting on his presidential campaign in Tijuana. | multiple issues |
| 2006 – The remaining three Christian Peacemaker Teams hostages were rescued from their Iraqi captors by a multinational force. | refimprove |
| 2007 – The Iranian military arrested 15 Royal Navy personnel, claiming that they had entered Iran's territorial waters. | improve citations |
| Zhou Chi |d|851 | Wikisource page that was source for death date has been deleted |
| Emmy Noether |b|1882 | refimprove section |
| Moses Malone |b|1955| | Birthday not cited |
Eligible
- 1400 – After 175 years of rule, the Trần dynasty of Vietnam was deposed by Hồ Quý Ly, a court official.
- 1775 – American Revolution: Patrick Henry made his "Give me liberty or give me death!" speech to the House of Burgesses of Virginia, urging military action against the British Empire.
- 1848 – The Italian tricolour is adopted for the flag of the Kingdom of Sardinia by Charles Albert of Sardinia during the First Italian War of Independence.
- 1862 – American Civil War: General Stonewall Jackson of the Confederate States Army lost the First Battle of Kernstown, but was still able to prevent the Union Army from reinforcing the Peninsula campaign.
- 1868 – Governor of California Henry Huntly Haight signed a law establishing the University of California, today a public university system that is considered a model for public institutions across the United States.
- 1888 – Chaired by William McGregor, a meeting of ten English football clubs was held in London, eventually resulting in the establishment of the Football League.
- 1889 – Mirza Ghulam Ahmad founded the Ahmadiyya Islamic religious movement in British India.
| improve citations
- 1905 – About 1,500 Cretans, led by Eleftherios Venizelos, met at the village of Theriso to call for the island's unification with Greece, beginning the Theriso revolt.
- 1908 – American diplomat Durham Stevens, an employee of Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was fatally shot in San Francisco by two Korean immigrants unhappy with his support of increased Japanese presence in Korea.
- 1931 – Bhagat Singh, one of the most influential revolutionaries of the Indian independence movement, and two others were executed by the British authorities for their murder of a police officer.
- 1933 – The Nazi Party took the first step in the Gleichschaltung process by having the Enabling Act passed, giving the government the right to make laws without the involvement of the Reichstag.
- 1977 – British journalist David Frost began a series of interviews with former U.S. president Richard Nixon, starting with the Watergate scandal.
- 1982 – Guatemala's government, headed by Fernando Romeo Lucas García was overthrown in a military coup by right-wing General Efraín Ríos Montt.
- 1988 – Angolan and Cuban forces defeated South Africa in the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale.
- 1989 – Two researchers announced the discovery of cold fusion, a claim that was later discredited.
- 1993 – The demolition of Kowloon Walled City, a densely crowded slum in Hong Kong, began.
- 1994 – Aeroflot Flight 593 crashed into a hillside in Russia's Kemerovo Oblast, killing all 75 people on board, after the pilot's 15-year-old son unknowingly disabled the autopilot while seated at the controls.
- 1996 – Lee Teng-hui was elected President of the Republic of China in the first direct presidential election in Taiwan.
- 2001 – The Russian space agency deorbited the space station Mir, causing it to reenter the Earth's atmosphere and break up over the Pacific Ocean.
- 2005 – A fire and explosion at an oil refinery in Texas City, the third-largest in the United States, killed 15 workers.
- 2025 – Gaza war: Israel Defense Forces killed 15 aid workers in the Rafah paramedic massacre.
- Born/died this day: | Henry of Grosmont |d|1361| Gelawdewos |d|1559| Henry Unton |d|1596| Jahanara Begum |b|1614| Mary of Jesus de León y Delgado |b|1643| Pierre-Simon Laplace |b|1749| Nathaniel Reed |b|1862|Calouste Gulbenkian |b|1869| Juan Gris |b|1887| Hovhannes Tumanyan Akira Kurosawa |b|1910| |d|1923| Henri Berény |d|1932| Said Nursî |d|1960| Joel Peralta |b|1976| Keri Russell |b|1976| Beatrice Tinsley |d|1981| Mo Farah |b|1983| Kangana Ranaut |b|1986| Ben Hollioake |d|2002| Miroslava Breach |d|2017| Madeleine Albright |d|2022| Mia Love |d|2025|
Notes
- 1978 South Lebanon conflict appears on March 14, so UNIFL should not appear in the same year
- Lakeview Gusher appears on March 14, so Texas City should not appear in the same year
Battle of Uhud
- 625 – The Muslim army under Muhammad suffered a defeat against the Quraysh in the Battle of Uhud (depicted).
- 1839 – An earthquake struck central Burma, causing significant damage and killing an estimated 300 to 400 people.
- 1919 – Benito Mussolini and his supporters founded the Fasci Italiani di Combattimento, the predecessor of the National Fascist Party.
- 1991 – The Sierra Leone Civil War began with the invasion of the Revolutionary United Front, in an attempt to overthrow President Joseph Saidu Momoh.
- 2021 – A container ship ran aground and obstructed the Suez Canal for six days.
- Zhou Chi (d. 851)
- Ziya Gökalp (b. 1876)
- Smriti Irani (b. 1976)
- Julie Pomagalski (d. 2021)