April 23
1348 - The first English order of knighthood was founded. It was the Order of the Garter.
1500 - Pedro Cabal claimed Brazil for Portugal.
1521 - The Comuneros were crushed by royalist troops in Spain.
1635 - The Boston Public Latin School was established. It was the first public school building in the United States.
1759 - The British seized Basse-Terre and Guadeloupe in the Antilies from France.
1789 - U.S. President George Washington moved into Franklin House, New York. It was the first executive mansion.
1789 - "Courier De Boston" was published for the first time. It was the first Roman Catholic magazine in the U.S.
1826 - Missolonghi fell to Egyptian forces.
1861 - Arkansas troops seized Fort Smith.
1872 - Charlotte E. Ray became the African-American woman lawyer.
1895 - Russia, France, and Germany forced Japan to return the Liaodong peninsula to China.
1896 - The Vitascope system for projecting movies onto a screen was demonstrated in New York City.
1900 - The word "hillbilly" was first used in print in an article in the "New York Journal." It was spelled "Hill-Billie".
1908 - U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt signed an act creating the U.S. Army Reserve.
1915 - The A.C.A. became the National Advisory Council on Aeronautics (NACA).
1920 - The Turkish Grand National Assembly had its first meeting in Ankara.
1921 - Charles Paddock set a record time in the 300-meter track event when he posted a time of 33.2 seconds.
1924 - The U.S. Senate passed the Soldiers Bonus Bill.
1945 - The Soviet Army fought its way into Berlin.
1948 - Johnny Longden became the first race jockey to ride 3,000 career winners.
1950 - Chaing evacuated Hainan, leaving mainland China to Mao and the communists.
1951 - The Associated Press began use of the new service of teletype setting.
1954 - Hank Aaron of the Milwaukee Braves hit his first major-league home run on this day.
1964 - Ken Johnson (Houston Astros) threw the first no-hitter for a loss. The game was lost 1-0 to the Cincinnati Reds due to two errors.
1967 - The Soyuz 1 was launched by Russia.
1968 - The Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church merged to form the United Methodist Church.
1971 - The Soyuz 10 was launched.
1981 - The Soviet Union conducted an underground nuclear test at their Semipaltinsk (Kazakhstan) test site.
1982 - The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that consumer prices declined the previous month (March). It was the first decline in almost 17 years.
1984 - The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced that Dr. Robert Gallo and his colleagues had found the cause of AIDS. It was a retrovirus labled HTLV-III.
1985 - The Coca-Cola Company announced that it was changing its 99-year-old secret formula. The New Coke was not successful, which resulted in the resumption of selling the original version.
1985 - The U.S. House rejected $14 million in aid to Nicaragua.
1988 - A U.S. federal law took effect that banned smoking on flights that were under two hours.
1988 - In Martinez, CA, a drain valve was left open at the Shell Marsh. More than 10,000 barrels of oil poured into the marsh adjoining Peyton Slough.
1988 - Kanellos Kanelopoulos set three world records for human-powered flight when he stayed in the air for 74 miles and four hours in his pedal-powered "Daedalus".
1989 - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar played his last regular season game in the NBA.
1996 - An auction of the late Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis' possessions began at Sotheby's in New York City. The sale brought in #34.5 million.
1997 - An infertility doctor in California announced that a 63-year-old woman had given birth in late 1996. The child was from a donor egg. The woman is the oldest known woman to give birth.
1999 - In Washington, DC, the heads of state and government of the 19 NATO nations celebrated the organization's 50th anniversary.
2003 - U.S. President George W. Bush signed legislation that authorized the design change of the 5-cent coin (nickel) for release in 2004. It was the first change to the coin in 65 years. The change, to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase, was planned to run for only two years before returning to the previous design.
2004 - U.S. President George W. Bush eased sanctions against Libya in return for Moammar Gadhafi's agreement to give up weapons of mass destruction.
2005 - The first video was uploaded to YouTube.com.
2009 - The iTunes Music Store reached 1 billion applications downloaded.
