23 January 1956

A Monday in history

Weekday

Monday

Season

Winter (N. Hemisphere)

Century

20th century

Records

356

  1. 2003

    The final signal was detected from the NASA space probe Pioneer 10, then about 12 billion kilometres (7.5 billion miles) from Earth.

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  2. 2002

    American journalist Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and later murdered by al-Qaeda agents in Karachi, Pakistan.

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  3. 2001

    Five people attempted to set themselves on fire in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, an act that many later claimed to have been staged by the Chinese Communist Party to frame Falun Gong and thus escalate their persecution.

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  4. 1997

    Madeleine Albright was sworn in as the first female United States Secretary of State, becoming the highest-ranking woman in the history of the U.S. government at that time.

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  5. 1993

    The first version of Mosaic, created by Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina, was released, becoming the first popular web browser.

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  6. 1968

    USS Pueblo was seized by North Korean forces, who claimed that it had violated their territorial waters while spying.

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  7. 1957

    American inventor Fred Morrison sold the rights to his "flying disc" to the Wham-O toy company, who later renamed it the "Frisbee"

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  8. 1942

    World War II: Japan began an invasion of the island of New Britain in the Australian Territory of New Guinea.

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  9. 1915

    Rebels led by John Chilembwe attacked local plantation owners, beginning an uprising regarded as a key moment in the history of Malawi.

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  10. 1909

    Two men committed an armed robbery in Tottenham, London, and led police on a two-hour chase, partially by tram, that ended in the perpetrators' suicides.

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  11. 1902

    In the most fatal recorded mountaineering accident, 199 of the 210 members of an Imperial Japanese Army unit perished in a blizzard on the Hakkōda Mountains.

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  12. 1870

    American Indian Wars: In the Marias Massacre, the United States Army killed about 200 Piegan Blackfeet, mostly women, children, and the elderly.

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  13. 1849

    Elizabeth Blackwell (pictured) graduated from Geneva Medical College in New York, making her the first woman to receive a medical degree in the United States.

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  14. 1793

    The Russian Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia partitioned the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth for the second time.

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  15. 1789

    Bishop John Carroll purchased a plot of land that would become the home of the future Georgetown University, the oldest Catholic university in the United States.

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  16. 1571

    Queen Elizabeth I opened the Royal Exchange in London, giving it its royal title.

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  17. 1570

    James Hamilton killed James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, in the first recorded assassination of a head of government using a firearm.

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  18. 1556

    One of the deadliest earthquakes in history struck Shaanxi, China, resulting in at least 100,000 direct deaths.

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  19. 1368

    The Hongwu Emperor (pictured) ascended the throne, initiating the Ming dynasty, which would rule China for three centuries.

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  20. 1264

    King Louis IX of France issued the Mise of Amiens, a settlement between King Henry III of England and barons led by Simon de Montfort heavily favouring the former, which later led to the Second Barons' War.

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Photo archive

24 historic images from this day — tap to open the gallery.

What was life like?

Prices, jobs, food, music and everyday routine — the world as it felt to live in.

Sources & fact check

Every claim is traced to primary sources, archives, universities and the press — with an explicit confidence rating. Dossiers are generated once and cached permanently.