TODAY IN HISTORY ― JANUARY 23

January 23 is the 23rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 342 days remaining until the end of the year (343 in leap years). This date is slightly more likely to fall on a Monday, Wednesday or Saturday (58 in 400 years each) than on Thursday or Friday (57), and slightly less likely to occur on a Tuesday or Sunday (56).

NATIONAL HANDWRITING DAY  

1368 – In a coronation ceremony, Zhu Yuanzhang ascends to the throne of China as the Hongwu Emperor, initiating Ming Dynasty rule over China that would last for three centuries.

1556 – On this day in 1556, an earthquake in Shaanxi, China, kills an estimated 830,000 people. Counting casualties is often imprecise after large-scale disasters, especially prior to the 20th century, but this disaster is still considered the deadliest of all time.

1775 – On this day in 1775, London merchants petition Parliament for relief from the financial hardship put upon them by the curtailment of trade with the North American colonies.

1865 – On this day in 1865, Confederate General John Bell Hood is officially removed as commander of the Army of Tennessee. He had requested the removal a few weeks before; the action closed a bleak chapter in the history of the Army of Tennessee.

1870 – Declaring he did not care whether or not it was the rebellious band of Indians he had been searching for, Colonel Eugene Baker orders his men to attack a sleeping camp of peaceful Blackfeet along the Marias River in northern Montana. 

1920 – On this day in 1920, the Dutch government refuses demands by the Allies for the extradition of Wilhelm II, the former kaiser of Germany, who has been living in exile in the Netherlands since November 1918.

1941 – On this day, Charles A. Lindbergh, a national hero since his nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic, testifies before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on the Lend-Lease policy-and suggests that the United States negotiate a neutrality pact with Hitler.

1967 – Machines at the Wham-O toy company roll out the first batch of their aerodynamic plastic discs―now known to millions of fans all over the world as Frisbees.

1968 – The U.S. intelligence-gathering ship Pueblo is seized by North Korean naval vessels and charged with spying and violating North Korean territorial waters. Negotiations to free the 83-man crew of the U.S. ship dragged on for nearly a year, damaging the credibility of and confidence in the foreign policy of President Lyndon B. Johnson's administration.

1978 – Sweden becomes the first nation in the world to ban aerosol sprays, believed to be damaging to earth's ozone layer.

1973 – President Richad Nixon announces that Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho, the chief North Vietnamese negotiator, have initiated a peace agreement in Paris "to end the war and bring peace with honor in Vietnam and Southeast Asia."

1991 – Darrell Lunsford, a county constable in Garrison, Texas, is killed after pulling over a traffic violator. His murder was remarkable because it was captured on a camera set up in Lunsford's patrol vehicle. The videotape evidence led to the conviction of the three men who beat, kicked, and stabbed the officer to death along the East Texas highway.

1992 – On this day in 1992, President George H.W. Bush hosts a White House reception for the U.S. women's soccer team in honor of their recent World Cup win. [Sorry, couldn't find a relevant photo.]

1997 – The day after her unanimous confirmation by the U.S. Senate, Madeline Albright is sworn in as America's first female secretary of state by Vice President Al Gore at the White House.

2003 – Final communication between Earth and Pioneer 10.

2009 – UK officially enters recession as GDP falls by 1.5% in the last quarter of 2008 following a 0.6% drop in the third quarter, with unemployment growing by 131,000 to 1.92 million (6.1%)

2013 – "U.S. armed forces" overturns 1994 ban on women serving in combat/

TODAY'S BIRTHS

1737 – John Hancock, American general and politician, 1st Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1793)

1832 – Édouard Manet, French painter (d. 1883)

1855 – John Browning, American weapons designer, founded the Browning Arms Company (d. 1926)

1907 – Hideki Yukawa, Japanese physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1981)

1929 – Myron Cope, American journalist and sportscaster (d. 2008)

Wikipedia and Google, ex as noted.