NOW & THEN
MAY 23
1430: English took Joan of Arc prisoner.
1533: Henry VIII divorced Catherine of Aragon to marry Anne Boleyn. The result was a break with the Church in Rome.
1842: General Assembly of Church of Scotland condemned patronage as a grievance to the cause of true religion that ought to be abolished.
1853: Constitution of Argentine Republic went into effect.
1873: The North-west Mounted Police were established in Canada – their name was later changed to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
1926: Lebanon was proclaimed a republic by France.
1939: Parliament approved plan for independent Palestine by 1949, which later was denounced by Jews and Arabs in Palestine.
1945: Heinrich Himmler, notorious Nazi chief of police, committed suicide.
1949: The German Federal Republic, with Bonn as the capital, came into existence.
1960: Israel announced detention of the former Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann.
1977: South Moluccan exiles in Netherlands held 161 hostages in elementary school and hijacked train in effort to get Dutch help in their fight for independence from Indonesia.
1983: South African fighter planes rocketed alleged guerrilla bases in Mozambique in retaliation for car-bomb attack near air force headquarters in Pretoria three days earlier.
1988: Hungary’s Communist Party outlined sweeping political and economic changes designed to salvage nation’s faltering economy.
1989: Meryl Streep was voted Best Actress of the Year for her performance in A Cry In The Dark, a film based on the dingo baby case in Australia.
1990: The General Medical Council allowed doctors to advertise their services for the first time in 130 years.
1991: Rajiv Gandhi’s Italian-born widow, Sonia, rejected offer to become president of Congress Party, effectively ending dynastic power of family in Indian politics.
1992: The anti-mafia judge Giovanni Falcone was killed when a huge bomb blew up a motorway on the outskirts of the Sicilian capital, Palermo.
2004: Part of Paris-charles de Gaulle Airport’s Terminal 2E collapsed, killing four people and
injuring three others.
2006: Alaskan stratovolcano Mount Cleveland erupted.
2008: The International Court of Justice (ICJ) awarded Middle Rocks to Malaysia and Pedra Branca (Pulau Batu Puteh) to Singapore, ending a 29-year territorial dispute between the two countries.
2011: The UK’S military operation in Iraq officially ended. At its peak the operation, which began in 2003, involved some 46,000 personnel.
2011: Winds of up to 100mph caused travel disruption on Scotland’s road, rail and ferry networks, and thousands of homes were without power.
2014: Fire devastated the iconic Glasgow School of Art – Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s architectural masterpiece. The library and studio were lost in the conflagration.
BIRTHDAYS
Johnny Ball, TV presenter (Think of a Number), 84; Rubens Barrichello, racing driver, 50; Drew Carey, American actor and comedian, 64; Dame Joan Collins, British actress and author, 89; David Graham, Australian golfer, 76; Graeme Hick MBE, English cricketer, 56; Jewel (born Jewel Kilcher), singer and actress, 48; Anatoly Karpov, Russian world chess champion, 71; Graham Marshall, Scottish rugby player, 62; Bob Mortimer, British comedian, 63; John Newcombe OBE, Australian tennis player, 78; Phil Selway, British rock drummer (Radiohead), 55; Ross Wallace, Scottish footballer, 37.
ANNIVERSARIES
Births: 1883 Douglas Fairbanks Sr, actor;1910 Artie Shaw, bandleader; 1912 Marius Goring, actor; 1918 Denis Compton, Test cricketer; 1921 Humphrey Lyttelton, broadcaster; 1928 Rosemary Clooney, singer; 1928 Nigel Davenport, British actor.
Deaths: 1906 Henrik Ibsen, Swedish playwright; 1945 Heinrich Himmler, Nazi Gestapo chief (suicide); 1960 Georges Claude, engineer and inventor; 1965 David Smith, sculptor; 2017 Sir Roger Moore, actor and UNICEF goodwill ambassador; 2018 Glynn Edwards, British actor.