What happened on December 23 ?
Events
619 - Boniface V becomes Pope.
1493 - Georg Alt's German translation of Hartmann Schedel's Nuremberg Chronicle is published.
1783 - George Washington resigns as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army at the Maryland State House in Annapolis, Maryland.
1823 - The poem A Visit From St. Nicholas (AKA The Night Before Christmas) is published in the Sentinel.
1888 - Vincent Van Gogh cuts off the lower part of his left ear, takes it to a brothel, and gives it to a prostitute named Rachel.
1913 - The Federal Reserve Act is signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson, creating the Federal Reserve.
1916 - World War I: Battle of Magdhaba - Allied forces defeat Turkish forces in Egypt's Sinai peninsula.
1936 - Colombia becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
1947 - The transistor is first demonstrated at Bell Laboratories.
1954 - The first human kidney transplant is performed by Dr. Joseph E. Murray at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.
1970 - Topping-out of World Trade Center's North Tower in New York City.
1972 - The Nicaraguan capital of Managua is struck by a 6.5 magnitude earthquake, killing more than 10,000.
1972 - All 16 survivors of the October 13 crash of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 are rescued.
1979 - Soviet war in Afghanistan: Soviet forces occupy Kabul, the Afghan capital.
1982 - The Environmental Protection Agency announces it has identified dangerous levels of dioxin in the soil of Times Beach, Missouri.
1986 - Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, lands at Edwards Air Force Base in California and becomes the first aircraft to fly non-stop around the world.
1990 - History of Slovenia: 88% of Slovenia's population vote for independence from Yugoslavia in a referendum.
2004 - Macquarie Island in the Southern Ocean is hit by an 8.1 magnitude earthquake.
2005 - Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 217 from Baku, Azerbaijan to Aktau, Kazakhstan crashed shortly after takeoff killing 23 people.
2005 - Chad declares a state of war against Sudan following a December 18th attack on Adre, which left about 100 people dead.
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