Events, Births and Deaths Happening on this Date
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Today is the 114th day of 2024. There are 251 days left in this year.
Notable Events
1564
Is the generally accepted birthdate of the English poet and dramatist William Shakespeare. He died on the same date 52 years later.
1789
President-elect George Washington and his wife moved into the first executive mansion, the Franklin House, in New York.
1896
The Vitascope system for projecting movies onto a screen was demonstrated in New York City.
1908
President Theodore Roosevelt signed an act creating the U.S. Army Reserve.
1940
About 200 people died in a dance-hall fire in Natchez, Miss.
1954
Hank Aaron of the Milwaukee Braves hit the first of his record 755 major-league home runs against the St. Louis Cardinals. The Braves won 7-5.
1968
The Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church merged to form the United Methodist Church.
1969
Sirhan Sirhan was sentenced to death for assassinating New York Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. The sentence was later reduced to life imprisonment.
1985
The Coca-Cola Co. announced it was changing the secret formula for Coke. Negative public reaction forced the company to resume selling the original version.
1987
An apartment complex being built in Bridgeport, Conn., collapsed, killing 28 construction workers.
1996
A Bronx civil-court jury ordered Bernhard Goetz to pay $43 million to paralyzed Darrell Cabey, one of four young men he shot on a subway car in 1984.
Notable Births
1791
The 15th president of the United States, James Buchanan, was born in Franklin County, Pa.
1899
Russian-American author Vladimir Nabokov was born in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Notable Deaths
1616
The Spanish poet Cervantes died in Madrid.
1995
Sportscaster Howard Cosell died in New York at age 77.
1995
Former Democratic U.S. Sen. John C. Stennis of Mississippi died in Jackson, Miss., at age 93.
1998
James Earl Ray, who confessed to assassinating the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 and then insisted he was framed, died at a Nashville hospital at age 70.