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This Day On History
| Date | Description | Type |
|---|---|---|
| 23rd of February 0303 | EVENT | Roman Emperor Diocletian orders the destruction of the Christian church in Nicomedia, beginning eight years of Diocletianic Persecution. |
| 23rd of February 1455 | EVENT | Traditional date for the publication of the Gutenberg Bible, the first Western book printed with movable type. |
| 23rd of February 1660 | EVENT | Charles XI becomes King of Sweden. |
| 23rd of February 1739 | EVENT | Richard Palmer is identified at York Castle, by his former schoolteacher, as the outlaw Dick Turpin. |
| 23rd of February 1778 | EVENT | American Revolution: Baron von Steuben arrives at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania to help to train the Continental Army. |
| 23rd of February 1820 | EVENT | Cato Street Conspiracy: A plot to murder all the British cabinet ministers is exposed. |
| 23rd of February 1836 | EVENT | The Battle of the Alamo begins in San Antonio, Texas. |
| 23rd of February 1846 | EVENT | John Henry Newman leaves the Church of England and is received into the Roman Catholic Church. |
| 23rd of February 1847 | EVENT | Mexican-American War: Battle of Buena Vista : In Mexico, American troops under General Zachary Taylor defeat Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. |
| 23rd of February 1848 | EVENT | The French Revolution of 1848, which would lead to the establishment of the French Second Republic, begins. |
| 23rd of February 1854 | EVENT | The official independence of the Orange Free State is declared. |
| 23rd of February 1861 | EVENT | President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrives secretly in Washington, D.C., after the thwarting of an alleged assassination plot in Baltimore, Maryland. |
| 23rd of February 1870 | EVENT | In the United States, post-Civil War military control of Mississippi ends and it is readmitted to the Union. |
| 23rd of February 1883 | EVENT | Alabama becomes the first U.S. state to enact an antitrust law. |
| 23rd of February 1886 | EVENT | Charles Martin Hall produced the first samples of man-made aluminum, after several years of intensive work. He was assisted in this project by his older sister Julia Brainerd Hall. |
| 23rd of February 1887 | EVENT | The French Riviera is hit by a large earthquake, killing around 2,000. |
| 23rd of February 1896 | EVENT | The Tootsie Roll is invented. |
| 23rd of February 1898 | EVENT | Emile Zola is imprisoned in France after writing "J'accuse", a letter accusing the French government of anti-Semitism and wrongfully imprisoning Captain Alfred Dreyfus. |
| 23rd of February 1900 | EVENT | In South Africa, Boers and British troops fight in the Battle of Hart's Hill. |
| 23rd of February 1903 | EVENT | Cuba leases Guantanamo Bay to the United States "in perpetuity". |
| 23rd of February 1905 | EVENT | Chicago attorney Paul Harris and three other businessmen meet for lunch to form the Rotary Club, the world's first service club. |
| 23rd of February 1909 | EVENT | The AEA Silver Dart makes the first powered flight in Canada and the British Empire. |
| 23rd of February 1917 | EVENT | First demonstrations in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The beginning of the February Revolution. |
| 23rd of February 1918 | EVENT | First victory of Red Army over the Kaiser's German troops near Narva and Pskov. In honor of this victory, the date is celebrated from 1923 onward as "Red Army Day"; it is renamed Defender of the Fatherland Day after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, and is colloquially known as "Men's Day". |
| 23rd of February 1927 | EVENT | The Federal Radio Commission (later renamed the Federal Communications Commission) begins to regulate the use of radio frequencies in the United States. |
| 23rd of February 1927 | EVENT | German theoretical physicist Werner Heisenberg writes a letter to fellow physicist Wolfgang Pauli, in which he describes his uncertainty principle for the first time. |
| 23rd of February 1934 | EVENT | Leopold III becomes King of Belgium. |
| 23rd of February 1941 | EVENT | Plutonium is first produced and isolated by Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg. |
| 23rd of February 1942 | EVENT | World War II: Japanese submarines fire artillery shells at the California coastline near Santa Barbara. |
| 23rd of February 1943 | EVENT | A fire breaks out at St. Joseph's Orphanage, County Cavan, Ireland, killing 36 people (35 of whom are children). |
| 23rd of February 1944 | EVENT | The Soviet Union begins the forced deportation of the Chechen and Ingush people from the North Caucasus to Central Asia. |
| 23rd of February 1945 | EVENT | World War II: The 11th Airborne Division, with Filipino guerrillas, free the captives of the Los Banos internment camp. |
| 23rd of February 1945 | EVENT | World War II: Capitulation of German garrison in Poznan. The city is liberated by Soviet and Polish forces. |
| 23rd of February 1945 | EVENT | World War II: The German town of Pforzheim is completely destroyed in a raid by 379 British bombers. |
| 23rd of February 1945 | EVENT | World War II: During the Battle of Iwo Jima, a group of United States Marines and a commonly forgotten U.S. Navy Corpsman, reach the top of Mount Suribachi on the island and are photographed raising the American flag. |
| 23rd of February 1945 | EVENT | World War II: The capital of the Philippines, Manila, is liberated by American forces. |
| 23rd of February 1947 | EVENT | The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is founded. |
| 23rd of February 1954 | EVENT | The first mass inoculation of children against polio with the Salk vaccine begins in Pittsburgh. |
| 23rd of February 1955 | EVENT | First meeting of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO). |
| 23rd of February 1958 | EVENT | Cuban rebels kidnap 5-time world driving champion Juan Manuel Fangio. |
| 23rd of February 1966 | EVENT | In Syria, Baath party member Salah Jadid leads an intra-party military coup that replaces the previous government of General Amin Hafiz, also a Baathist. |
| 23rd of February 1974 | EVENT | The Symbionese Liberation Army demands $4 million more to release kidnap victim Patty Hearst. |
| 23rd of February 1980 | EVENT | Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini states that Iran's parliament will decide the fate of the American embassy hostages. |
| 23rd of February 1981 | EVENT | In Spain, Antonio Tejero attempts a coup d'etat by capturing the Spanish Congress of Deputies. |
| 23rd of February 1983 | EVENT | The United States Environmental Protection Agency announces its intent to buy out and evacuate the dioxin-contaminated community of Times Beach, Missouri. |
| 23rd of February 1987 | EVENT | Supernova 1987a is seen in the Large Magellanic Cloud. |
| 23rd of February 1991 | EVENT | Gulf War: Ground troops cross the Saudi Arabian border and enter Iraq, thus beginning the ground phase of the war. |
| 23rd of February 1991 | EVENT | In Thailand, General Sunthorn Kongsompong leads a bloodless coup d'etat, deposing Prime Minister Chatichai Choonhavan. |
| 23rd of February 1997 | EVENT | A small fire occurs in the Russian Space station, Mir. |
| 23rd of February 1998 | EVENT | Osama bin Laden publishes a fatwa declaring jihad against all Jews and "Crusaders"; the latter term is commonly interpreted to refer to the people of Europe and the United States. |
| 23rd of February 1998 | EVENT | In the United States, tornadoes in central Florida destroy or damage 2,600 structures and kill 42. |
| 23rd of February 1999 | EVENT | Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan is charged with treason in Ankara, Turkey. |
| 23rd of February 1999 | EVENT | An avalanche destroys the Austrian village of Galtur, killing 31. |
| 23rd of February 2005 | EVENT | The controversial French law on colonialism is passed, requiring teachers to teach the "positive values of colonialism". After public outcry, it is repealed at the beginning of 2006. |
| 23rd of February 2007 | EVENT | A train derails on an evening express service near Grayrigg, Cumbria, England, killing one person and injuring 22. This results in hundreds of points being checked over the UK after a few similar accidents. |
| 23rd of February 2008 | EVENT | A United States Air Force B-2 Spirit crashes on Guam. It is the first operational loss of a B-2. |
| 23rd of February 2010 | EVENT | Unknown criminals pour more than 2.5 million liters of diesel oil and other hydrocarbons into the river Lambro, in Northern Italy, causing an environmental disaster. |
| 23rd of February 1417 | BIRTHDAY | Pope Paul II (d. 1471) |
| 23rd of February 1443 | BIRTHDAY | Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, King of Hungary and Croatia (d. 1490) |
| 23rd of February 1583 | BIRTHDAY | Jean-Baptiste Morin, French scientist (d. 1656) |
| 23rd of February 1633 | BIRTHDAY | Samuel Pepys, English naval administrator and man of letters, posthumously famous as a diarist (d. 1703) |
| 23rd of February 1646 | BIRTHDAY | Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, Japanese shogun (d. 1709) |
| 23rd of February 1648 | BIRTHDAY | Arabella Churchill, English mistress of James II of England (d. 1730) |
| 23rd of February 1680 | BIRTHDAY | Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, French colonizer and Governor of Louisiana (d. 1767) |
| 23rd of February 1685 | BIRTHDAY | George Frideric Handel, German/British Baroque composer (d. 1759) |
| 23rd of February 1723 | BIRTHDAY | Richard Price, Welsh philosopher (d. 1791) |
| 23rd of February 1729 | BIRTHDAY | Josiah Hornblower, American statesman (d. 1809) |
| 23rd of February 1744 | BIRTHDAY | Mayer Amschel Rothschild, German-born banker (d. 1812) |
| 23rd of February 1809 | BIRTHDAY | William Sprague, American minister and politician from Michigan (d. 1868) |
| 23rd of February 1840 | BIRTHDAY | Frederick Wicks, English author and inventor (d. 1910) |
| 23rd of February 1842 | BIRTHDAY | Karl Robert Eduard von Hartmann, German philosopher (d. 1906) |
| 23rd of February 1850 | BIRTHDAY | Cesar Ritz, Swiss hotelier (d. 1918) |
| 23rd of February 1868 | BIRTHDAY | W. E. B. Du Bois, American civil rights leader (d. 1963) |
| 23rd of February 1873 | BIRTHDAY | Liang Qichao, Chinese scholar (d. 1929) |
| 23rd of February 1874 | BIRTHDAY | Konstantin Pats, Estonian president (d. 1956) |
| 23rd of February 1878 | BIRTHDAY | Kazimir Malevich, Ukrainian painter and art theorist (d. 1935) |
| 23rd of February 1883 | BIRTHDAY | Karl Jaspers, German philosopher (d. 1969) |
| 23rd of February 1889 | BIRTHDAY | Victor Fleming, American director (d. 1949) |
| 23rd of February 1889 | BIRTHDAY | John Gilbert Winant, American politician (d. 1947) |
| 23rd of February 1889 | BIRTHDAY | Musidora, French actress and director (d. 1957) |
| 23rd of February 1891 | BIRTHDAY | Harold Horder, Australian rugby league player (d. 1978) |
| 23rd of February 1899 | BIRTHDAY | Norman Taurog, American film director (d. 1981) |
| 23rd of February 1899 | BIRTHDAY | Erich Kastner, German writer (d. 1974) |
| 23rd of February 1901 | BIRTHDAY | Edgar Ende, German painter (d. 1965) |
| 23rd of February 1904 | BIRTHDAY | Terence Fisher, English film director (d. 1980) |
| 23rd of February 1904 | BIRTHDAY | William L. Shirer, American historian (d. 1993) |
| 23rd of February 1904 | BIRTHDAY | Leopold Trepper, Soviet spy (d. 1982) |
| 23rd of February 1908 | BIRTHDAY | William McMahon, twentieth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1988) |
| 23rd of February 1914 | BIRTHDAY | Theofiel Middelkamp, Dutch cyclist (d. 2005) |
| 23rd of February 1915 | BIRTHDAY | Paul Tibbets, US Air Force retired Brigadier General and pilot of B-29 "Enola Gay" over Hiroshima (d. 2007) |
| 23rd of February 1915 | BIRTHDAY | Jon Hall, American actor (d. 1979) |
| 23rd of February 1918 | BIRTHDAY | Richard G. Butler, founder of Aryan Nations (d. 2004) |
| 23rd of February 1920 | BIRTHDAY | Paul Gerin-Lajoie, Canadian politician |
| 23rd of February 1923 | BIRTHDAY | Rafael Addiego Bruno, Uruguayan politician |
| 23rd of February 1923 | BIRTHDAY | Yiannis Grivas, Greek judge, 87th Prime Minister of Greece |
| 23rd of February 1924 | BIRTHDAY | Allan McLeod Cormack, South-African born physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 1998) |
| 23rd of February 1924 | BIRTHDAY | Claude Sautet, French film director (d. 2000) |
| 23rd of February 1927 | BIRTHDAY | Regine Crespin, French operatic soprano (d. 2007) |
| 23rd of February 1928 | BIRTHDAY | Hans Herrmann, German race car driver |
| 23rd of February 1928 | BIRTHDAY | Vasili Lazarev, cosmonaut (d. 1990) |
| 23rd of February 1929 | BIRTHDAY | Elston Howard, American baseball player (d. 1980) |
| 23rd of February 1931 | BIRTHDAY | Tom Wesselmann, American collage artist (d. 2004) |
| 23rd of February 1932 | BIRTHDAY | Majel Barrett, American actress (d. 2008) |
| 23rd of February 1933 | BIRTHDAY | Donna J. Stone, American poet (d. 1994) |
| 23rd of February 1937 | BIRTHDAY | Tom Osborne, American football coach and politician |
| 23rd of February 1938 | BIRTHDAY | Paul Morrissey, American film director |
| 23rd of February 1938 | BIRTHDAY | Diane Varsi, American actress (d. 1992) |
| 23rd of February 1940 | BIRTHDAY | Peter Fonda, American actor |
| 23rd of February 1941 | BIRTHDAY | Ron Hunt, baseball player |
| 23rd of February 1943 | BIRTHDAY | Fred Biletnikoff, American football player and coach |
| 23rd of February 1944 | BIRTHDAY | Bernard Cornwell, English historical novelist |
| 23rd of February 1944 | BIRTHDAY | John Sandford, American novelist |
| 23rd of February 1944 | BIRTHDAY | Johnny Winter, American musician |
| 23rd of February 1945 | BIRTHDAY | Allan Boesak, South African activist |
| 23rd of February 1946 | BIRTHDAY | Rusty Young, American country-rock guitarist (Poco) |
| 23rd of February 1947 | BIRTHDAY | Pia Kjaersgaard, Danish politician |
| 23rd of February 1947 | BIRTHDAY | John McWethy, American journalist (d. 2008) |
| 23rd of February 1948 | BIRTHDAY | Doug Moench, American comic book writer |
| 23rd of February 1949 | BIRTHDAY | Marc Garneau, Canadian astronaut |
| 23rd of February 1950 | BIRTHDAY | Maxi, Irish singer and radio personality |
| 23rd of February 1951 | BIRTHDAY | Ed Jones, American football player |
| 23rd of February 1951 | BIRTHDAY | Patricia Richardson, American actress |
| 23rd of February 1952 | BIRTHDAY | Brad Whitford, American musician (Aerosmith) |
| 23rd of February 1953 | BIRTHDAY | Kenny Bee,Hong Kong actor,musician and singer |
| 23rd of February 1953 | BIRTHDAY | Satoru Nakajima, Japanese racing driver |
| 23rd of February 1954 | BIRTHDAY | Viktor Yushchenko, President of Ukraine |
| 23rd of February 1955 | BIRTHDAY | Howard Jones, British pop singer |
| 23rd of February 1955 | BIRTHDAY | Tom Bodett, American voice actor, radio personality, and writer |
| 23rd of February 1955 | BIRTHDAY | Flip Saunders, American basketball coach |
| 23rd of February 1957 | BIRTHDAY | Ria Brieffies, Dutch singer (d. 2009) |
| 23rd of February 1958 | BIRTHDAY | Tony Barrell, English writer and journalist |
| 23rd of February 1958 | BIRTHDAY | David Sylvian, English musician (Japan, Nine Horses) |
| 23rd of February 1959 | BIRTHDAY | Clayton Anderson, American astronaut |
| 23rd of February 1959 | BIRTHDAY | Richard Dodds, British field hockey player |
| 23rd of February 1960 | BIRTHDAY | Alan Griffin, Australian politician |
| 23rd of February 1960 | BIRTHDAY | Naruhito, Crown Prince of Japan |
| 23rd of February 1961 | BIRTHDAY | Kelly Hansen, American drummer (Summer Lights) |
| 23rd of February 1962 | BIRTHDAY | Michael Wilton, American musician (Queensryche) |
| 23rd of February 1963 | BIRTHDAY | Bobby Bonilla, former baseball player |
| 23rd of February 1963 | BIRTHDAY | Rados?aw Sikorski, Polish politician |
| 23rd of February 1964 | BIRTHDAY | John Norum, Norwegian guitarist (Europe) |
| 23rd of February 1965 | BIRTHDAY | David E. Clemmer, American ion mobility-mass spectrometrist, 2006 recipient of Biemann Medal |
| 23rd of February 1965 | BIRTHDAY | Michael Dell, American computer manufacturer |
| 23rd of February 1965 | BIRTHDAY | Helena Sukova, Czech former tennis player |
| 23rd of February 1966 | BIRTHDAY | Neal McDonough, American actor |
| 23rd of February 1967 | BIRTHDAY | Tamsin Greig, English actress |
| 23rd of February 1967 | BIRTHDAY | Chris Vrenna, American musician, producer and sound engineer Nine Inch Nails, Tweaker |
| 23rd of February 1968 | BIRTHDAY | Justin Bell, British racing driver |
| 23rd of February 1969 | BIRTHDAY | Marc Wauters, Belgian cyclist |
| 23rd of February 1969 | BIRTHDAY | Michael Campbell, New Zealand golfer |
| 23rd of February 1970 | BIRTHDAY | Niecy Nash, American actress |
| 23rd of February 1970 | BIRTHDAY | Marie-Josee Croze, Canadian actress |
| 23rd of February 1971 | BIRTHDAY | Don Maxwell, Canadian cricketer |
| 23rd of February 1971 | BIRTHDAY | Melinda Messenger, English television presenter |
| 23rd of February 1971 | BIRTHDAY | Jeong Chan, South Korean actor |
| 23rd of February 1971 | BIRTHDAY | Joe-Max Moore, American soccer player |
| 23rd of February 1972 | BIRTHDAY | Alessandro Sturba, Italian footballer |
| 23rd of February 1972 | BIRTHDAY | Steve Holy, American country singer |
| 23rd of February 1972 | BIRTHDAY | Rondell White, American baseball player |
| 23rd of February 1973 | BIRTHDAY | Jack Case, American artist |
| 23rd of February 1973 | BIRTHDAY | Lars-Olof Johansson, Swedish musician (The Cardigans) |
| 23rd of February 1974 | BIRTHDAY | Leko, American DJ |
| 23rd of February 1974 | BIRTHDAY | Herschelle Gibbs, South African cricketer |
| 23rd of February 1975 | BIRTHDAY | Robert Lopez, American composer |
| 23rd of February 1975 | BIRTHDAY | Michael Cornacchia, American actor |
| 23rd of February 1975 | BIRTHDAY | Natalia Verbeke, Argentine actress |
| 23rd of February 1976 | BIRTHDAY | Kelly Macdonald, British actress |
| 23rd of February 1976 | BIRTHDAY | Scott Elarton, American baseball player |
| 23rd of February 1977 | BIRTHDAY | Kristina Smigun-Vahi, Estonian cross-country skier |
| 23rd of February 1978 | BIRTHDAY | Rene Perez, Puerto Rican musician (Calle 13) |
| 23rd of February 1978 | BIRTHDAY | Dan Snyder, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2003) |
| 23rd of February 1978 | BIRTHDAY | Jo Joyner, English actress |
| 23rd of February 1979 | BIRTHDAY | S.E. Cupp, American author and political commentator |
| 23rd of February 1981 | BIRTHDAY | Gareth Barry, English footballer |
| 23rd of February 1981 | BIRTHDAY | Charles Tillman, American football player |
| 23rd of February 1982 | BIRTHDAY | Adam Hann-Byrd, American actor |
| 23rd of February 1982 | BIRTHDAY | Karan Singh, Indian actor |
| 23rd of February 1982 | BIRTHDAY | Malia Metella, French swimmer |
| 23rd of February 1983 | BIRTHDAY | Mirco Bergamasco, Italian rugby player |
| 23rd of February 1983 | BIRTHDAY | Mido, Egyptian footballer |
| 23rd of February 1983 | BIRTHDAY | Aziz Ansari, Indian-American comedian |
| 23rd of February 1983 | BIRTHDAY | Emily Blunt, British actress |
| 23rd of February 1983 | BIRTHDAY | Courtney Culkin, American Playboy Playmate |
| 23rd of February 1986 | BIRTHDAY | Ola Svensson, Swedish pop singer |
| 23rd of February 1986 | BIRTHDAY | Skylar Grey, American musician |
| 23rd of February 1986 | BIRTHDAY | Kazuya Kamenashi, Japanese idol (KAT-TUN) |
| 23rd of February 1986 | BIRTHDAY | Jerod Mayo, American football player |
| 23rd of February 1987 | BIRTHDAY | Elysa Montfort, Gay rights activist |
| 23rd of February 1989 | BIRTHDAY | Evan Bates, American ice dancer |
| 23rd of February 1992 | BIRTHDAY | Kyriakos Papadopoulos, Greek footballer |
| 23rd of February 1994 | BIRTHDAY | Dakota Fanning, American actress |
| 23rd of February 0155 | DEATH | Polycarp, Christian bishop of Smyrna (Born 69) |
| 23rd of February 0943 | DEATH | Herbert II, Count of Vermandois, (Born 884) |
| 23rd of February 1011 | DEATH | Willigis, Archbishop of Mainz (Born 940) |
| 23rd of February 1072 | DEATH | Peter Damian, theologian and Doctor of the Church (Born 1007) |
| 23rd of February 1100 | DEATH | Emperor Zhezong of China (Born 1076) |
| 23rd of February 1270 | DEATH | Saint Isabel of France, daughter of Louis VIII of France (Born 1225) |
| 23rd of February 1447 | DEATH | Pope Eugene IV (Born 1383) |
| 23rd of February 1447 | DEATH | Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester (Born 1390) |
| 23rd of February 1464 | DEATH | Zhengtong, Emperor of China (Born 1427) |
| 23rd of February 1526 | DEATH | Diego Colon, Spanish Viceroy of the Indies |
| 23rd of February 1554 | DEATH | Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, English politician and nobelman (Born c.1515) |
| 23rd of February 1572 | DEATH | Pierre Certon, French composer |
| 23rd of February 1603 | DEATH | Andrea Cesalpino, Italian philosopher, physician, and botanist (Born 1519) |
| 23rd of February 1669 | DEATH | Leo Aitzema, Dutch historian and statesman (Born 1600) |
| 23rd of February 1704 | DEATH | Georg Muffat, French composer (Born 1653) |
| 23rd of February 1766 | DEATH | Stanislaw Leszczynski, King of Poland (Born 1677) |
| 23rd of February 1781 | DEATH | George Taylor, American signatory to the Declaration of Independence (Born c.1716) |
| 23rd of February 1792 | DEATH | Joshua Reynolds, English painter (Born 1723) |
| 23rd of February 1800 | DEATH | Joseph Warton, English literary critic (Born 1722) |
| 23rd of February 1821 | DEATH | John Keats, English poet (Born 1795) |
| 23rd of February 1848 | DEATH | John Quincy Adams, 6th President of the United States (Born 1767) |
| 23rd of February 1855 | DEATH | Carl Friedrich Gauss, German mathematician, astronomer, and physicist (Born 1777) |
| 23rd of February 1859 | DEATH | Zygmunt Krasinski, Polish Romantic poet (Born 1812) |
| 23rd of February 1879 | DEATH | Albrecht Graf von Roon, Prime Minister of Prussia (Born 1803) |
| 23rd of February 1897 | DEATH | Woldemar Bargiel, German composer (Born 1828) |
| 23rd of February 1908 | DEATH | Johannes Friedrich August von Esmarch, German surgeon (Born 1823) |
| 23rd of February 1922 | DEATH | Albert Victor Backlund, Swedish physicist (Born 1845) |
| 23rd of February 1930 | DEATH | Horst Wessel, Nazi ideologue and composer (Born 1907) |
| 23rd of February 1931 | DEATH | Nellie Melba, Australian opera soprano (Born 1861) |
| 23rd of February 1934 | DEATH | Edward Elgar, English composer (Born 1857) |
| 23rd of February 1944 | DEATH | Leo Hendrik Baekeland, Flemish-American chemist and inventor of the first synthetic plastic, Bakelite (Born 1863) |
| 23rd of February 1946 | DEATH | Tomoyuki Yamashita, Japanese general (hanged) (Born 1885) |
| 23rd of February 1948 | DEATH | John Robert Gregg, Irish-born publisher and inventor (Born 1866) |
| 23rd of February 1955 | DEATH | Paul Claudel, French poet and playwright (Born 1868) |
| 23rd of February 1957 | DEATH | Marika Ninou, Greek singer (Born 1918) |
| 23rd of February 1960 | DEATH | Arthur Legat, Belgian racing driver (Born 1898) |
| 23rd of February 1961 | DEATH | Davey Crockett, American baseball player (Born 1875) |
| 23rd of February 1965 | DEATH | Stan Laurel, British actor and comedian (Born 1890) |
| 23rd of February 1969 | DEATH | King Saud of Saudi Arabia (Born 1902) |
| 23rd of February 1970 | DEATH | Hirsch Jacobs, American thoroughbred horse trainer and owner (Born 1904) |
| 23rd of February 1973 | DEATH | Dickinson W. Richards, American physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (Born 1895) |
| 23rd of February 1974 | DEATH | Harry Ruby, American composer and writer (Born 1895) |
| 23rd of February 1976 | DEATH | L. S. Lowry, English artist (Born 1887) |
| 23rd of February 1979 | DEATH | W.A.C. Bennett, Canadian politician (Born 1900) |
| 23rd of February 1983 | DEATH | Herbert Howells, English composer (Born 1892) |
| 23rd of February 1990 | DEATH | Jose Napoleon Duarte, President of El Salvador (Born 1925) |
| 23rd of February 1992 | DEATH | Markos Vafiadis, Greek politician (Born 1906) |
| 23rd of February 1995 | DEATH | Melvin Franklin, American singer (The Temptations) (Born 1942) |
| 23rd of February 1995 | DEATH | James Herriot, English writer (Born 1916) |
| 23rd of February 1996 | DEATH | William Bonin, American serial killer and sex offender (Born 1947) |
| 23rd of February 1997 | DEATH | Tony Williams, American jazz drummer (Born 1945) |
| 23rd of February 1999 | DEATH | Carlos Hathcock, USMC sniper (Born 1942) |
| 23rd of February 2000 | DEATH | Ofra Haza, Israeli singer (Born 1957) |
| 23rd of February 2000 | DEATH | Stanley Matthews, English footballer (Born 1915) |
| 23rd of February 2001 | DEATH | Robert Enrico, French film director and screenwriter (Born 1931) |
| 23rd of February 2003 | DEATH | Robert K. Merton, American sociologist (Born 1910) |
| 23rd of February 2003 | DEATH | Howie Epstein, American bass guitarist (Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers) (Born 1955) |
| 23rd of February 2003 | DEATH | Titos Vandis, Greek actor (Born 1917) |
| 23rd of February 2004 | DEATH | Vijay Anand, Indian film director (Born 1934) |
| 23rd of February 2004 | DEATH | Carl Anderson, American singer (Born 1945) |
| 23rd of February 2004 | DEATH | Neil Ardley, English jazz pianist and composer (Born 1937) |
| 23rd of February 2004 | DEATH | Sikander Bakht, Governor of Kerala (Born 1918) |
| 23rd of February 2004 | DEATH | Don Cornell, American singer (Born 1919) |
| 23rd of February 2004 | DEATH | Carl Liscombe, Canadian hockey player (Born 1915) |
| 23rd of February 2006 | DEATH | Benno Besson, Swiss actor and film director (Born 1922) |
| 23rd of February 2006 | DEATH | Telmo Zarraonaindia, Spanish footballer (Born 1921) |
| 23rd of February 2007 | DEATH | Donnie Brooks, American singer (Born 1936) |
| 23rd of February 2007 | DEATH | John Ritchie, British footballer (Born 1941) |
| 23rd of February 2008 | DEATH | Janez Drnovsek, Slovenian prime minister and president (Born 1950) |
| 23rd of February 2008 | DEATH | Paul Frere, Belgian race car driver and motorsport journalist (Born 1917) |
| 23rd of February 2008 | DEATH | Douglas Fraser, Scottish pilot (Born 1916) |