Today in History: Byzantine Emperor Justinian I Ordered the Construction of Hagia Sophia

February 23 is the 54nd day of the year according to the Gregorian calendar. The number of days left until the end of the year is 311.

Railways

• 23 February 1942 A decree was issued regarding the acquisition of İskenderun Port by the State Railways Administration.

Events

• 532 – Byzantine emperor Justinian I ordered the construction of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople.
• 1653 – In the severe earthquake in Western Anatolia, houses were destroyed in Denizli, Nazilli, Tire and Uşak, thousands of people were killed and injured.
• 1660 – XI. Karl became King of Sweden.
• 1893 - Rudolf Diesel patented the diesel engine.
• 1898 - Émile Zola is imprisoned for criticizing the French Government for its anti-Semitic stance.
• 1903 - Cuba chartered Guantanamo Bay to the United States.
• 1918 - The Red Army is founded by Leon Trotsky.
• 1921 - A conference is held in London to amend the Treaty of Sèvres. The conference broke up on 12 March without an agreement being reached.
• 1934 – III. Leopold becomes King of Belgium.
• 1940 - The animated movie "Pinocchio" was released.
• 1941 - Plutonium, Dr. It was decomposed and produced for the first time by Glenn T. Seaborg.
• 1944 – The Great Chechen Exile; With this exile, 500 thousand Chechen-Ingush were exiled from their homeland to Central Asia.
• 1945 – II. World War II: On the Eastern Front, the German garrison at Posen surrenders.
• 1945 – II. World War II: During the Battle of Iwo Jima on the Pacific Front, the U.S. flag is raised on Suribachi Hill.
• 1945 – II. World War II: On the Pacific Front, Manila fell to the United States.
• 1945 – Turkey-USA bilateral aid agreement was signed.
• 1945 – Turkey declared war on Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan.
• 1947 – The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is established.
• 1954 – The first mass vaccination program against polio infection, with the Salk vaccine, is launched in Pittsburgh. (The Sabine vaccine will arrive in 1962)
• 1955 - Edgar Faure is elected prime minister of France.
• 1966 – There was a military coup in Syria, the government was overthrown.
• 1977 – Middle East Technical University Rector Hasan Tan closed the School. Students left the dormitories under the supervision of the gendarmerie. Hasan Tan, who was appointed as the Rector on February 14, was protested by the students.
• 1978 – Contemporary Journalists Association (CGD) was founded.
• 1980 – Ayatollah Khomeini stated that the fate of the hostages in the US Embassy will be decided by the Iranian Parliament.
• 1981 – About 200 insurgent army (Guardia Civil) forces led by Antonio Tejero storm the Spanish Parliament and take MPs hostage.
• 1987 - A supernova was observed in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
• 1991 – Gulf War: US Ground Forces crossed the border with Saudi Arabia and entered Iraqi territory.
• 1991 – In Thailand, General Sunthorn Kongsompong takes over power in a bloodless coup, sacking Prime Minister Chatichai Choonhavan.
• 1994 – Mobile phone networks were put into service.
• 1997 – Dolly the sheep, which died on February 14, 2003, the first mammal produced by genetic replication, was announced to have been cloned at the Roslin Institute in Scotland.
• 1997 - A massive fire broke out on the Russian space station Mir.
• 1998 - Osama bin Laden issued a fatwa declaring jihad against all Jews and crusaders.
• 1999 – An avalanche hit the village of Galtür in Austria: 31 people died.
• 2005 – The MERNİS-Identity Sharing System Project started to be implemented with a ceremony attended by President Ahmet Necdet Sezer and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
• 2010 – 13 people were killed and 18 people were injured in the firedamp explosion in a mine in Odaköy, in the Dursunbey district of Balıkesir. (see Odaköy mining accident)
• 2020 – Iran-Turkey earthquakes: 5.8 M earthquakes in Khoy province of West Azerbaijan Province of Iran_w 5.9 and 75 magnitude earthquakes injured 10 people in Iran, while 50 people died and XNUMX were injured in Van.

Births

• 1133 - Zafir, During the period of 8 October 1149 – March 1154, the Seventh Fatimid Caliph and the Ismailiyya-Hafizism Sect "Second Imam" (d. 1154)
• 1417 – II. Paulus, pope from 1464-71 (b. 1471)
• 1443 – Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary (d. 1490)
• 1633 – Samuel Pepys, English writer and bureaucrat (d. 1703)
• 1646 – Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, 5th shogun of the Tokugawa Dynasty (d. 1709)
• 1739 – Sergey Lazarevich Lashkarev, Russian soldier (d. 1814)
• 1744 – Mayer Amschel Rothschild, founder of the Rothschild dynasty (d. 1812)
• 1817 – George Frederick Watts, English painter and sculptor (d. 1904)
• 1822 – Giovanni Battista de Rossi, Italian epigrapher and archaeologist (d. 1894)
• 1840 – Carl Menger, Austrian economist (d. 1921)
• 1845 – Afonso, heir apparent to the Brazilian Empire (d. 1847)
• 1868 – William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, American sociologist (d. 1963)
• 1868 – Henry Bergman, American stage and screen actor (d. 1946)
• 1878 – Ayaz Ishaki, Tatar writer (d. 1954)
• Kazimir Malevich, Russian painter and art theorist (d. 1935)
• Gustav Oelsner, German architect and urban planner (d. 1956)
• 1883 – Karl Jaspers, German writer (d. 1969)
• 1884 – Kazimierz Funk, Polish biochemist (d. 1967)
• 1889 – Victor Fleming, American film director and Academy Award winner for Best Director (d. 1949)
• 1891 – Petras Klimas, Lithuanian diplomat, writer and historian (d. 1969)
• 1897 – Mordechai Namir, Israeli politician (d. 1975)
• 1899 – Erich Kästner, German writer (d. 1974)
• 1899 – Norman Taurog, American film director and screenwriter (d. 1981)
• 1903 Julius Fučík, Czech journalist (d. 1943)
• 1911 – Şemsi Bedelbeyli, Azerbaijani theater actor and director (d. 1987)
• 1915 – Paul Tibbets, American soldier and pilot (pilot of the Enola Gay B-29 Superfortress aircraft that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima) (d. 2007)
• Kamer Genç, Turkish politician (d. 2016)
• Peter Fonda, American actor (d. 2019)
• 1947 – Bogdan Tanjević, Montenegrin basketball coach
• 1948 – Taylan Özgür, Turkish revolutionary (d. 1969)
• 1953 – Adnan Polat, Turkish businessman and former President of Galatasaray
• 1954 – Viktor Yushchenko, President of Ukraine
• 1955 – Mehmet Zaman Saçlıoğlu, Turkish storyteller and poet
• 1955 – Yasin al-Qadi, Saudi Arabian businessman
• 1960 - Naruhito, crown prince of Japan
• 1963 – Radoslaw Sikorski, Polish politician
• 1965 Kristin Davis, American actress
• 1965 – Michael Dell, American computer manufacturer
• 1967 Chris Vrenna, american musician
• 1969 – Michael Campbell, New Zealand golfer
• 1970 – Niecy Nash, American actress, comedian, and television host
• 1973 – Pamela Spence, Turkish singer
• 1976 – Kelly Macdonald, Emmy Award winner, BAFTA nominated Scottish actress
• 1977 – Ayhan Akman, Turkish football player and coach
• 1981 – Gareth Barry, English former football player
• 1981 – Jan Böhmermann, German television presenter, journalist and comedian
• 1983 – Aziz Ansari, Indian-American actor, comedian, and filmmaker
• 1983 - Emily Blunt, English actress
• 1983 – Mido, former Egyptian football player and manager
• 1985 – Yunus Çankaya, Turkish basketball player
• 1986 – Skylar Gray, American singer, songwriter, and producer
• 1986 – Ola Svensson, Swedish singer
• 1987 - Ab-Soul is an American hip hop artist.
• 1994 – Dakota Fanning, American actress
• 1995 – Andrew Wiggins, Canadian professional basketball player
• 1996 – D'Angelo Russell, American professional basketball player

Deaths

• 715 – Walid I, sixth caliph of the Umayyads (705-715) (b. 668)
• 943 – Vermandois II. Herbert, French nobleman (b. 884)
• 1072 – Petrus Damianus, Cardinal Camaldolese monk – Doctor of the Church (b. 1007)
• 1100 – Zhezong, seventh emperor of China's Song Dynasty (b. 1076)
• 1447 – IV. Eugenius was Pope from March 3, 1431 to February 23, 1447 (b. 1383)
• 1464 – Zhengtong, sixth and eighth emperor of China's Ming Dynasty (b. 1427)
• 1507 – Gentile Bellini, Italian painter (b. 1429)
• 1603 – Andrea Cesalpino, Italian botanist (b. 1519)
• 1766 – Stanisław Leszczyńsk, king of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1677)
• 1792 – Joshua Reynolds, English painter (b. 1723)
• 1821 – John Keats, English poet (b. 1795)
• 1839 – Mikhail Speranski, Russian reformist statesman (b. 1772)
• 1848 – John Quincy Adams, American politician and 6th President of the United States (b. 1767)
• 1855 – Carl Friedrich Gauss, German mathematician, astronomer, and physicist (b. 1777)
• 1879 – Albrecht von Roon, Prussian soldier and statesman (b. 1803)
• 1899 – Gaëtan de Rochebouët, French politician (b. 1813)
• 1908 – ‎Friedrich von Esmarch‎‎, German surgeon and academic ‎(b. 1823)
• 1918 – Numan Çelebi Cihan, President of the People's Republic of Crimea (b. 1885)
• 1930 - Mabel Normand is an American actress and director - she made several films with Charlie Chaplin and Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. (b. 1893)
• 1932 – Marigo Posio, activist of the Albanian National Awakening and Independence Movement (b. 1882)
• 1934 – Edward Elgar, English composer (b. 1857)
• 1941 – Miralay Sadik Bey, Turkish soldier and politician (b. 1860)
• 1943 – Thomas Madsen-Mygdal, Prime Minister of Denmark (b. 1876)
• 1945 – Alexei Tolstoy, Russian writer (b. 1883)
• 1946 – Mehmet Güneşdoğdu, Turkish politician and Samsun deputy for the 4th and 5th terms of the Turkish Grand National Assembly (b. 1871)
• 1946 – Ömer Bedrettin Uşaklı, Turkish poet, bureaucrat and politician (b. 1904)
• 1946 – Tomoyuki Yamashita, Japanese general (hanged) (b. 1885)
• 1965 – Stan Laurel, British-born American actor and comedian (Lorel – Hardi's Laurel) (b. 1890)
• 1969 – Saud bin Abdul Aziz, King of Saudi Arabia (b. 1902)
• 1971 – Halit Fahri Ozansoy, Turkish poet and writer (b. 1891)
• 1979 – Metin Yüksel, Turkish activist and leader of the Raiders Association (b. 1958)
• 1987 – Muzaffer İlkar, Turkish music composer (b. 1910)
• 1990 – James Maurice Gavin, American soldier (b. 1907)
• 1990 – José Napoleón Duarte, President of El Salvador (b. 1925)
• 1996 – William Bonin, American serial killer (executed) (b. 1947)
• 2000 – Ofra Haza, Israeli singer (b. 1957)
• 2000 – Stanley Matthews, English football player (b. 1915)
• 2003 – Robert K. Merton, American sociologist (b. 1910)
• 2003 – Hasanaga Turabov, Azerbaijani actress (b. 1938)
• 2005 – Sandra Dee, American actress (b. 1944)
• 2006 – Telmo Zarra, Spanish former football player (b. 1921)
• 2008 – Janez Drnovšek, Slovenian liberal politician (b. 1950)
• 2012 – Saffet Ulusoy, Turkish businessman (b. 1930)
• 2013 – Osman Gidişoğlu, Turkish actor and voice actor (b. 1945)
• 2015 – Can Akbel, Turkish radio and TV news presenter (b. 1934)
• 2015 – James Aldridge, Australian-British writer (b. 1918)
• 2016 – Ramón Castro, Cuban national figure and politician (b. 1924)
• 2016 – Valérie Guignabodet, French film director and screenwriter (b. 1965)
• 2016 – Tosun Terzioğlu, Turkish mathematician (b. 1942)
• 2017 – Alan Colmes, American radio television host, blogger, and comedian (b. 1950)
• 2017 – Sabine Oberhauser, Austrian doctor and politician (b. 1963)
• 2018 – Ali Teoman Germaner, Turkish sculptor (b. 1934)
• 2018 – Celal Şahin, one of the first entertainers of the Republican era (b. 1925)
• 2019 – Marella Agnelli, Italian noble and art collector (b. 1927)
• 2019 – Nestor Espenilla Jr., Philippine politician and economist (b. 1958)
• 2019 – Katherine Helmond, American actress (b. 1929)
• 2019 – Dorothy Masuka, Zimbabwean jazz singer (b. 1935)
• 2021 – Fausto Gresini, Italian motorcycle racer (b. 1961)
• 2021 – Margaret Maron, American mystery writer (b. 1938)
• 2021 – Juan Carlos Masnik, Former Uruguayan professional football player and manager (b. 1943)

Holidays and special occasions

• Liberation of Ardahan from Russian and Armenian occupation (1921)