Year 1573
Akbar left for Agra when he received the report of widespread rebellion. He arrived in Ahmedabad by forced marches on the eleventh day.
AUGUST 23
Daily Historical Chronicle
UPSC CSE • State PSC • SSC CGL Matrix
23 August: What Happened On This Day in History
Curated historical timeline of momentous political pacts, freedom struggle uprisings, constitutional developments, scientific breakthroughs, and prominent birthdays recorded on 23 August.
Observances & Special Days
International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition
Year 1839
United Kingdom captured Hong Kong.
Year 1933
Mahatma Gandhi was released from Poona jail after his hunger strike (against the Government’s attitude to Untouchables) almost kills him. Mahatma Gandhi was released from government detention in the Poona Civil Hospital after doctors warned that his fast was endangering his life. Gandhi, who undertook the fast eight days ago in protest over being arrested again by British authorities, weighed 90 pounds at the time of his release. There was considerable speculation over what the nationalist leader would do upon regaining his strength, but the common assumption was that he would be arrested again by the British authorities if he resumed his civil disobedience.
Year 1947
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was sworn is as the Deputy Prime Minister of India.
Year 1958
Marathwada University was started.
Year 1966
Lunar Orbiter I took a photograph of the Earth from orbit around the moon.
Year 1986
B. G. Deshmukh was appointed as the Cabinet Secretary of India. He held this office till 27th March, 1989.
Year 1991
The World Wide Web opened to the public.
Year 1994
Former prime minister Mian Nawaz Sharif said that Pakistan possessed a nuclear bomb and warned that an attack by India could start a nuclear war in Pakistan.
Year 1995
Chief Minister of West Bengal Jyoti Basu ushers in the cell phone revolution in India by making the first call to Union Telecom Minister Sukh Ram.
Year 1995
First ever cellular phone service begins in Calcutta.
Year 2000
India, Japan unveil new global partnership and agree to start a formal security dialogue. Sanctions status quo on CTBT.
Year 2011
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is overthrown.
Born 1754
Louis XVI, French monarch responsible for the revolution and the last king of France.
Born 1850
Radha Gobinda Kar, eminent physician, and philanthropist of Bengal.
Born 1852
Radha Gobinda Kar, Indian physician and philanthropist (d. 1918)
Born 1872
Tanguturi Prakasam: great lawyer, journalist, nationalist, politician, leader, social reformer and former chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, was born at Kanuparthi village in Ongole district in Andhra Pradesh.
Born 1944
Saira Banu, Indian actress.
Born 1947
Willey Russell, English playwright from Liverpool.
Born 1951
Queen Noor, Queen of Jordan.
Born 1973
Vani Kapoor, Indian actress, and model.
Remembrance
93 AD: Gnaeus Julius Agricola, Roman general, renowned for his conquest in Britain.
Died 1892
Deodoro da Fonseca, Brazilian field marshal, and politician, 1st President of Brazil.
Died 1926
Rudolf Valentino, screen actor, the idol of millions.
Died 1942
Gorabai Katiya, freedom fighter, was shot by police while participating in a procession for freedom movement in Narsihapur.
Died 1982
Stanford Moore, American biochemist, and academic, Nobel Prize laureate.
Died 1989
Pandit Krishnarao Shankarrao, great singer of 'Gwalher Gharana', passed away.
Died 1994
Arti Saha, first Indian female swimmer who swam across English Chanel. She succumbed to an incurable jaundice.
Died 1997
John Kendrew, English biochemist and crystallographer, Nobel Prize laureate.
Died 2000
Pronindranath Rangarajan Kumaramangalam, Union Power Minister, dies of a massive heart attack at the AIIMS, New Delhi.
Died 2015
Enrique Reneau, Honduran footballer (b. 1971)
Died 2015
Paul Royle, Australian lieutenant and pilot (b. 1914)
Died 2016
Steven Hill, American actor (b. 1922)
Died 2019
David Koch, American engineer, businessman, and philanthropist (b. 1940)