December 23 is the 357th day of the year (358th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are eight days remaining until the end of the year.
There are two days till Christmas. Now, you might want to panic.
Holidays
- Birthday of the Queen Silvia, an official flag day (Sweden)
- Children’s Day (South Sudan)
- Christian Feast Day:
- Abassad (Coptic Church)
- John Cantius
- O Emmanuel
- Psote (Coptic Church)
- Thorlac Thorhallsson, patron saint of Iceland; The last day of preparations before Christmas.
- December 23 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- Festivus, a holiday made popular by the sitcom Seinfeld
- HumanLight (Secular humanism in United States)
- Larentalia, in honor of Larenta. (Roman Empire)
- Night of the Radishes (Oaxaca, Mexico)
- The Emperor’s Birthday, birthday of Akihito, the current Emperor of Japan. (Japan)
- Tibb’s Eve (Newfoundland and Labrador)
- Victory Day (Egypt)
In 484, Huneric dies and is succeeded by his nephew Gunthamund, who becomes king of the Vandals. During his reign the Catholics are free from persecutions.
In 558, Chlothar I is crowned.
In 583, Maya queen Yohl Ik’nal is crowned ruler of Palenque.
In 679, King Dagobert II is murdered in a hunting accident.
In 962, Arab–Byzantine Wars: Under the future Emperor Nicephorus Phocas, Byzantine troops stormed the city of Aleppo.
In 1572, Theologian Johann Sylvan executed in Heidelberg for his heretical Antitrinitarian beliefs.
In 1652, John Cotton, English-American minister died. (b. 1585). John Cotton was a clergyman in England and the American colonies, and by most accounts was the preeminent minister and theologian of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Following five years of study at Trinity College, Cambridge, and another nine years at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, he had already built a reputation as a scholar and outstanding preacher when he accepted the position of minister at Saint Botolph’s Church in Boston, Lincolnshire in 1612. As a Puritan he wanted to do away with the ceremony and vestments associated with the established Anglican Church, and preach in a simpler, more consensual manner. Though he felt the English church needed significant reforms, he nevertheless was adamant about not separating from it; his preference was to change it from within. While many ministers were removed from their pulpits for their puritan practices, Cotton thrived at St. Botolph’s for nearly 20 years because of supportive aldermen, lenient bishops, and his very conciliatory and gentle demeanor. By 1632, however, the Anglican church had greatly increased its pressure on the non-conforming clergy, and Cotton was forced to go into hiding. The following year he and his wife boarded a ship for New England.
In 1688, As part of the Glorious Revolution, King James II of England flees England to Paris, France after being deposed in favor of his nephew, William of Orange and his daughter Mary.
In 1783, George Washington resigns as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army at the Maryland State House in Annapolis, Maryland.
In 1793, The Battle of Savenay, decisive defeat of the royalist counter-revolutionaries in War in the Vendée during the French Revolution.
In 1823, A Visit from St. Nicholas, also known as The Night Before Christmas, is published anonymously.
In 1893, The opera Hansel and Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck is first performed.
In 1913, The Federal Reserve Act is signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson, creating the Federal Reserve System.
In 1914, World War I: Australian and New Zealand troops arrive in Cairo, Egypt.
In 1916, World War I: Battle of Magdhaba – Allied forces defeat Turkish forces in Egypt‘s Sinai Peninsula.
In 1919, Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 becomes law in the United Kingdom.
In 1921, Visva-Bharati University is inaugurated.
In 1936, Colombia becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
In 1936, First flight of the Vickers Wellington bomber. The Vickers Wellington was a British twin-engined, long-range medium bomber. It was designed during the mid-1930s at Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey. Led by Vickers-Armstrongs‘ chief designer Rex Pierson; a key feature of the aircraft is its geodetic airframe fuselage structure, which was principally designed by Barnes Wallis. Development had been started in response to Air Ministry Specification B.9/32, issued in the middle of 1932, for a bomber for the Royal Air Force. This specification called for a twin-engined day bomber capable of delivering higher performance than any previous design. Other aircraft developed to the same specification include the Armstrong Whitworth Whitley and the Handley Page Hampden. During the development process, performance requirements such as for the tare weight changed substantially, and the engine used was not the one originally intended.
In 1938, Discovery of the first modern coelacanth in South Africa.
In 1939, Anthony Fokker, Dutch aircraft manufacturer, designed the Fokker Dr.I and Fokker D.VII (b. 1890) died.
In 1940, World War II: Greek submarine Papanikolis (Y-2) sinks the Italian motor ship Antonietta.
In 1941, World War II: After 15 days of fighting, the Imperial Japanese Army occupies Wake Island. It is a coral atoll in the western Pacific Ocean in the northeastern area of the Micronesia subregion, 1,501 miles (2,416 kilometers) east of Guam, 2,298 miles (3,698 kilometers) west of Honolulu, 1,991 miles (3,204 kilometers) southeast of Tokyo, and 898 miles (1,445 kilometers) north of Majuro. The island is an unorganized, unincorporated territory belonging to, but not a part of, the United States that is also claimed by the Republic of the Marshall Islands. Wake Island is one of the most isolated islands in the world. The nearest inhabited island is Utirik Atoll in the Marshall Islands, 592 miles (953 kilometers) to the southeast. The United States took possession of Wake Island in 1899. One of 14 U.S. insular areas, Wake Island is administered by the United States Air Force under an agreement with the U.S. Department of the Interior. The center of activity on the atoll is at Wake Island Airfield, which is primarily used as a mid-Pacific refueling stop for military aircraft and as an emergency landing area. The 9,800-foot (3,000 m) runway is the longest strategic runway in the Pacific islands. South of the runway is the Wake Island Launch Center, a missile launch site. The island has no permanent inhabitants, and approximately 100 people live there at any given time.
In 1947, The transistor is first demonstrated at Bell Laboratories.
In 1948, Seven Japanese convicted of war crimes by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East are executed at Sugamo Prison in Tokyo, Japan including Hideki Tōjō (December 30, 1884 – December 23, 1948), who was a general of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA), the leader of the Taisei Yokusankai, and the 40th Prime Minister of Japan during most of World War II, from October 17, 1941 to July 22, 1944. As Prime Minister, he was directly responsible for the attack on Pearl Harbor, which initiated war between Japan and the United States, although planning for it had begun before he entered office. After the end of the war, Tōjō was arrested, sentenced to death for Japanese war crimes by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, and was hanged on December 23, 1948.
In 1954, First successful kidney transplant is performed by J. Hartwell Harrison and Joseph Murray.
In 1958, Dedication of Tokyo Tower, the world’s highest self-supporting iron tower.
In 1968, The 82 sailors from the USS Pueblo are released after eleven months of internment in North Korea.
In 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.
In 1970, The Democratic Republic of the Congo officially becomes a single-party state.
In 1972, A 6.5 magnitude earthquake strikes the Nicaraguan capital of Managua killing more than 10,000.
In 1972, The 16 survivors of the Andes flight disaster are rescued after 73 days, having survived by cannibalism.
In 1979, Soviet war in Afghanistan: Soviet Union forces occupy Kabul, the Afghan capital.
In 1982, The United States Environmental Protection Agency announces it has identified dangerous levels of dioxin in the soil of Times Beach, Missouri.
In 1982, Jack Webb, American actor, producer, and director (b. 1920) died. He is most famous for his role as Sergeant Joe Friday in the radio and television series Dragnet. He was also the founder of his own production company, Mark VII Limited,
In 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.
In 1990, History of Slovenia: In a referendum, 88.5% of Slovenia‘s overall electorate vote for independence from Yugoslavia.
In 2002, A MQ-1 Predator is shot down by an Iraqi MiG-25.
In 2002, An editorial appeared in the Jackson Sun:
Charles Farmer has decided that an opportunity to work with the Governor elect transition team has passed so he had better decide on wither his present form of work still holds some joy or not. Well he made it official. He will grace us with his presence one more time as reported by Gary Gray in the Jackson Sun.Speaking of the Mayor, his latest rant in theCityNews about the police officers forming a union because of the city council’s rejection of his proposal to spend 3 or 4 million dollars on police cars is a pretty far stretch even with his twisted logic. But when the truth is inescapable and dangerous to your welfare a little side jaunt is okay. In political terms it is called deflection or in more common terms it is called “blame someone else”.The truth is the city of Jackson, which has had a paid police force for over one hundred years, had never unionized because the executive branches could effectively deal with individual officers with fair and equal justice. If that were true today, unionization attempts would have failed as well.
In 2003, PetroChina Chuandongbei natural gas field explosion, Guoqiao, Kai County, Chongqing, China, killing at least 234.
In 2006, Dale Wilson rocked the city of Jackson, Tennessee with a scalding letter to the Jackson Sun.
In 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.
In 2009, Robert L. Howard, American colonel, Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1939) dies of pancreatic cancer at a hospice in Waco, Texas on December 23, 2009. He was survived by four children and five grandchildren. He was a highly decorated United States Army Special Forces officer and Medal of Honorrecipient of the Vietnam War. He was wounded 14 times over 54 months of combat, was awarded the Medal of Honor, eight Purple Hearts, a Distinguished Service Cross, a Silver Star, and four Bronze Stars. He was nominated for the Medal of Honor three separate times over a 13-month period but received lesser medals for the first two nominations, which were for actions performed in Cambodia where the U.S. was fighting covertly. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions on December 30, 1968, his third nomination. He retired from the US Army after 36 years of service as a full colonel, and the most highly decorated service member on active duty.
In 2010, A monsoonal trough crosses the northeastern coast of Australia from the Coral Sea, bringing mass flooding across Queensland.
In 2013, Mikhail Kalashnikov, Russian general and weapons designer, designed the AK-47 rifle (b. 1919) dies at the age of 94 from gastric hemorrhage. He was a Russian general, inventor, military engineer and small arms designer. He is most famous for developing the AK-47 assault rifle and its improvements, the AKM and AK-74, as well as the PK machine gun and RPK light machine gun. Kalashnikov was, according to himself, a self-taught tinkerer who combined innate mechanical skills with the study of weaponry to design arms that achieved battlefield ubiquity. Even though Kalashnikov felt sorrow at the weapons’ uncontrolled distribution, he took pride in his inventions and in their reputation for reliability, emphasizing that his rifle is “a weapon of defense” and “not a weapon for offense”. I have met this one up close and personal.
In 2014, A push is mounting for Tennessee’s first gas tax increase in a quarter-century, buoyed by growing interest from Gov. Bill Haslam and Republican legislative leaders who have historically opposed tax hikes of any sort.
In 2014, Tennessee: #1 Most Dangerous State 2014; According to Law Street the state of Tennessee is number 1 in violent crime and Jackson is number two in the state…. For the first time, crime rates of all American cities with a population greater than 25,000 are ranked by state. See the slideshow for the full ranking of America’s Most Dangerous States.
In 2015, A federal judge barred Concord Community Schools in Elkhart, Indiana, December 2 from having a live Nativity scene in its annual Christmas program, a 45-year tradition for the school system, after the FFRF and ACLU sued in October. The performances were scheduled for December 11 and 12, according to CRUX, and the case is due in court January 7.
In 2015, A bomb explodes at Istanbul’s Sabiha Gökçen Airport, killing one airport cleaner. The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks claim responsibility for the attack four days later.
In 2016, Oh my gosh! The United Nations Security Council adopts Resolution 2334 condemning “Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories occupied since 1967”.