Some of the significant events which took place on August 23 taken from the leaf of History:

1542 – Rabbi Joseph Caro completes his commentary of Tur Code.

1850 – 1st US National Women’s Rights Convention convenes in Worcester, Massachusetts.

1942 – Battle of Stalingrad: 600 Luftwaffe planes bomb Stalingrad (40,000 die).

1963 – Beatles Release “She Loves You”.

1972 – Beatles release “She Loves You” in UK which becomes goes to Number 1 on September 12 and staying number 1 for 4 weeks. Number 1 on November 28 and staying number 1 for 2 weeks. “She Loves You” is the bestselling single for the Beatle’s in the United Kingdom.

1905 – New Orleans Yellow Fever: In New Orleans yellow fever was running rampant and there were 1478 sick and 218 dead. The Bluefield Daily Telegraph read, “The depressing heat probably caused a number of deaths. Small towns are affected by the ‘quarantine madness’ which is depriving numerous localities of supplies and should it long continue a food famine may result.”

1920 – England Irish Freedom: The Friends of Irish Freedom condemned the British government and Prime Minister David Lloyd for its alleged mistreatment of the Australian Archbishop Mannix . In the middle of the high seas, the British navy arrested the archbishop aboard an ocean liner. The FIF declared that Britain and Ireland were in a state of war.

1926 – Rudolph Valentino died from complications following an operation for appendicitis and gastric ulcers.

1937 – China Shanghai: In Shanghai, China 400 people were dead and 1,000 injured after three heavy artillery shells exploded over a congested department store, a U.S. navy warehouse, and a prison. Six thousand five hundred inmates had to be evacuated from the prison and it wasn’t clear whether it was a Japanese missile or Chinese bomb.

1939 – Germany announces it has signed a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union.

1942 – Hawaii Pearl Harbor: In Pearl Harbor, American marines were busy taking revenge on the Japanese for past offences. In the first battle, the Japanese fought on until the last man of their 92 soldiers was dead. Only six marines were killed. In another altercation, 700 Japanese soldiers were detected by American military personnel and by Thursday 670 of the enemy were dead and 30 taken captive.

1944 – An American Liberator bomber crashes into English village school leaving 35 children and 20 others dead.

1953 – Korea Mao Zedong: Captain George C. Davison of Staten Island, New York was thrown into a Korean prison for fifteen days because he penciled a mustache on a picture of Mao Zedong. The communist officials were not amused, but let Davison free after he had served his time.

1966 – Indonesia Starvation Lombak: The island of Lombak which is part of Indonesia was facing the starvation of its 20,000 people. Health Officer Mohammed Jusof urged officials in Jakarta to send emergency aid to the islanders who live east of Bali. Jusof warned that many people would suffer serious malnutrition if aid was not sent soon.

1966 – Space Lunar Orbiter 1: The Lunar Orbiter 1 takes the first photograph of Earth from an orbit around the Moon.

1974 – U.S.A. Pan American: Pan American World Airways asked the Civil Aeronautics Board today for an emergency subsidy.

1978 – India Indira Gandhi: In New Delhi, Indira Gandhi went to court facing fraud charges. Gandhi was cautioned by the judge not to leave the country and was freed on $1,875 bail. She and five officials in the Indian government were accused of deceiving businessmen to obtain the use of free cars for the 1977 election.

1979 – Iran Kurdish Rebels: Kurdish Rebels near the borders with Iraq, are fighting with Iranian government troops in the hope of gaining independent status from Iran. They have now gained control of Mahabad, in the north-west of the country. Ayatollah Khomeini has ordered the arrest of Kurdish leaders. Kurdish rebels believe they should be entitled to an independent country of Kurdistan made up of the mountainous region where they live currently under Turkish, Iranian and Iraq control.

1979 – Alexander Godunov Defects: Soviet ballet dancer Alexander Godunov defects seeking political asylum in the United States while the Bolshoi Ballet was on tour in New York.

1989 – Lithuania Human Chain: Fifty thousand individuals crowded into Vilnius, Lithuania on the 50th anniversary of their annexation by Stalin and Hitler. Baltic residents demanded independence and were going to form a human chain 370 miles long, composed of 1.5 million people to protest injustices done to them.

1990 – West Germany Abortions: Chancellor Helmut Kohl and his government decided to prosecute women who sought abortions in East Germany. In West Germany abortions were only carried out if the mother’s life was in danger. However, East Germany considered abortion every woman’s right and would give abortions to anyone after the 12th week of gestation.

1990 – Iraq Western Hostages: Saddam Hussein, parading some of his Western captives on TV, ruffled the hair of a British child and told the uneasy group that they are not hostages but peacemakers.

1990 – Following the declaration by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein of annexing Kuwait, prompting President George Bush to deride the invasion as an act of “naked aggression.” oil prices marched upward, in turn causing the Dow to lose 6 percent of its total value.

1996 – Osama bin Laden issues message entitled “A declaration of war against the Americans occupying the land of the two holy places”.

1999 – U.S.A West Nile Virus: The first cases of an encephalitis (West Nile virus) outbreak are reported in New York City. Between this first reported case up to the end of 2008 over 30,000 cases have been reported in the United States causing the death of more than 1,100 people. The peak period was 2003 with nearly 10,000 cases.

2000 – First Survivor Series / Richard Hatch: An estimated 51 million viewers watched the first season finale of the reality show “Survivor” on CBS which sparked a reality show revolution on TV screens with dozens more shows being shown in the next 8 years. The Survivor reality show has been in the top ten most watched shows since it was first aired. Contestant Richard Hatch won the $1 million prize, He was subsequently found guilty of tax evasion (did not pay taxes on his million dollar prize) and was sentenced to 51 months in prison.

2005 – Canada Meat Recall: One thousand, eight hundred and fifty-six pounds of beef that originated from a Canadian cow was transported to six different states and then was recalled. Apparently, the animal was old which put it at greater risk of having mad cow disease. The recall of the meat was initiated by a Wisconsin meat plant and the Canadian vet that inspected the cow was fired.

2005 – Hurricane Katrina forms over the Bahamas, later becoming a category 5 hurricane.

2006 – US Marine Inactive Reservists Call Up: Following on from the call up earlier this year of 10,000 Inactive Reserve Soldiers by the US Army, US Marines now face a similar situation with up to 2,500 being recalled. The US has about 300,000 members of the IRR which could well provide the additional forces required to fight the “Global War on Terror” (GWOT). Inactive Reserve Soldiers who are members of the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR). Following active duty soldiers and Marines have a choice to join the regular reserves where they are paid and train regularly or join the IRR which requires them to report one day a year. The changes have been forced on the US government due to the overstretched military who have called up many tens of thousands from the regular reserves.

2006 – Natascha Kampusch who was abducted by Wolfgang Priklopil at the age of 10 in 1998 and held in a small cellar underneath Priklopil’s garage escapes after eight years.

2007 – Texas Executions Reach 400: The state of Texas completed its 400th criminal execution since 1976 when the death penalty was reinstated. Since 1976, executions in Texas have made up over one third of the total executions in the United States. The European Union criticized Texas’ death penalty earlier in the week.

2007 – Russia Romanov Family Remains: Archaeologist found the remains of two children of the Romanov family, the last tsar of Russia. The two were executed in 1918 during the Bolshevik revolution. DNA testing later confirmed the children were fourteen year old Alexei and one of his sisters.

2011 – United States Virginia Earthquake: A Magnitude 5.8 Earthquake struck central Virginia (Mineral, Virginia) and sends shock waves over wide area which prompted office buildings from Washington D.C. to New York to be evacuated, the Washington Monument and the Washington National Cathedral both suffered damage plus an additional $70 million estimated damage in Louisa County.

2011 – Swiss banking group UBS announced that it was going to cut 3,500 jobs worldwide as a means to save money. Forty-five percent of the cuts will be from its investment bank.

2011 – Dominique Strauss-Kahn Case Dismissed: Dominique Strauss-Kahn was freed of sexual assault charges and the case dismissed.

2012 : Cecilia Gimenez, a woman in her eighties, took it upon herself to restore a fresco of Jesus called Ecce Homo painted by Elias Garcia Martinez at the Sanctuary of Mercy Church near Zaragoza. Unfortunately her amateur restoration did not turn out the way she hoped and the fresco was turned into an image almost resembling a hairy monkey. The woman hoped that it could be further restored by professionals and had gone into it with good intentions.

2013 – British Cinematographer Dies: Gilbert Taylor, acclaimed British cinematographer, died at the age of ninety-nine. Taylor had worked on such films as Star Wars, The Omen, Dr. Strangelove and A Hard Day’s Night. Taylor had been nominated for two BAFTAs during his lifetime.

2014 – Iceland said its Bardarbunga volcano has begun erupting under the ice of Europe’s largest glacier, prompting the country to close the airspace over the volcano. Iceland the next day said no eruption took place, but that one remained imminent following increased seismic activity.

2014 – In Libya unidentified war planes attacked positions of an armed faction in Tripoli. They were later identified as aircraft based in Egypt and flown by pilots from the UAE. 15 fighters were reported killed and dozens wounded. Islamist fighters in the Fajr Libya (Libyan Dawn) coalition said they have captured Tripoli’s battered international airport. Fighting erupted between renegade general Khalifa Haftar’s troops and allied army Special Forces with Islamists in two Benghazi suburbs, killing 8 soldiers and wounding 35. Egypt denied any air operations in Libya.

2015 – Lebanese security forces fired water cannon at protesters demonstrating against the government near PM Tammam Salam’s offices in Beirut as protesters mobilized over the government’s failure to resolve a crisis over rubbish disposal.

2016 – The European Commission reimposed anti-dumping duties on three Chinese exporters of solar modules and cells citing breaches to terms of an agreement they had reached with Brussels not to sell below a minimum price.

2017 – Two Harvard University researchers in a study published today said they had collected scientific data proving Exxon Mobil Corp made “explicit factual misrepresentations” in newspaper ads it purchased to convey its views on the oil industry and climate science.

2017 – Typhoon Hato left five dead in the gambling hub of Macau as it brought chaos and destruction to the enclave after sweeping through neighboring Hong Kong, where one man also died. Thousands of cockroaches appeared to flee the typhoon by marching along a seawall.

2018 – The United Nations refugee and migration agencies called on Latin American countries to ease entry for Venezuelan nationals fleeing economic hardship and a deepening political crisis.