April 23

1229 – During the Reconquista, King Ferdinand III of Castile conquers Cáceres, Spain.

1635 – The first public school in the United States, Boston Latin School, is founded in Boston. Salvete Discipuli.

1662 – Connecticut is chartered as an English colony

1879 – Fire burns down the second main building and dome of the University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana, results in the construction of the third main building.

1914 – The first baseball game is held at Wrigley Field in Chicago, then known as Weeghman Park, with the the Chicago Federals home team beating the Kansas City Packers 9-1.

1939 – Boston Red Sox’ left fielder Ted Williams hits his first major league home run off Philadelphia Athletics’ pitcher Bud Thomas at Fenway Park in Boston.

1940 –  A fire at the Rhythm Club dance hall in Natchez, Mississippi, kills 209 people.

1945 – Adolf Hitler’s designated successor, Hermann Göring, sends him a telegram asking permission to take over leadership of Nazi Germany

1946 – Manuel Roxas is elected as the last President of the transitional  Commonwealth of the Philippines government,

1951 – American journalist William N. Oatis is arrested for espionage by the Communist government of Czechoslovakia.

1954  – Milwaukee Braves’ right fielder, Hank Aaron hits his first major league home run off St. Louis Cardinals’ pitcher Vic Raschi at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

1985 – Coca-Cola changes its formula and releases New Coke to vastly negative reviews. The original formula is back on the market in less than three months. There is speculation that the introduction of the new formula was actually to provide time for people to forget the taste of the original and replace the Cane Sugar used in the recipe with cheaper High Fructose Corn Syrup.

1992 – McDonald’s opens its first restaurant in Shenzhen, China.

1999 – NATO bombs the headquarters of Radio Television of Serbia. Some commentators see that as the starting point of the new ‘Clinton Doctrine’ where the rules of engagement include the political leaders, bureaucratic support structure, intellectual underpinning, and media infrastructure of an opponent as legitimate targets of war.

2005 – The first YouTube video is published by co-founder Jawed Karim.

2009 – NASA’s Swift Gamma Ray Burst Mission satellite observes Gamma ray burst (GRB) 090423, in the constellation Leo that lasts for 10 seconds, the most distant object of any kind observed in the universe with a spectroscopic redshift.