What happened on April 23 ?

215 BC - A temple is built on the Capitoline Hill dedicated to Venus Erycina to commemorate the Roman defeat at Lake Trasimene.

1014 - Battle of Clontarf: Brian Boru defeats Viking invaders, but is killed in battle.

1343 - St. George's Night Uprising

1348 - The founding of the Order of the Garter by King Edward III of England is announced on St George's Day.

1521 - Battle of Villalar: King Charles I of Spain defeats the Comuneros.

1533 - The Church of England annuls the marriage between Catherine of Aragon and Henry VIII of England.

1597 - Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor is first performed, with Queen Elizabeth I of England in attendance.

1660 - Treaty of Oliwa is established between Sweden and Poland.

1661 - King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland is crowned in Westminster Abbey.

1827 - William Rowan Hamilton presents his Theory of systems of rays.

1867 - William Lincoln patents the zoetrope, a machine which shows animated pictures by mounting a strip of drawings in a wheel.

1920 - The national council in Turkey denounces the government of Sultan Mehmed VI and announces a temporary constitution.

1923 - Inauguration ceremonies take place of Gdynia as a temporary military port and fishers' shelter.

1932 - The 153-year old De Adriaan Windmill in Haarlem, the Netherlands burns down.

1935 - Polish Constitution of 1935 is adopted.

1940 - Rhythm Night Club fire at a dance hall in Natchez, Mississippi kills 198 people.

1942 - World War II: Baedeker Blitz ? German bombers hit Exeter, Bath and York in retaliation for the British raid on Lübeck.

1948 - 1948 Arab-Israeli War: Haifa, the major port of Israel, is captured from Palestinian forces.

1967 - A group of young radicals are expelled from the Nicaraguan Socialist Party (PSN). This group goes on to found the Socialist Workers Party (POS).

1968 - The United Kingdom produces its first decimalised coins, a 5p and a 10p coin.

1968 - Vietnam War: Student protesters at Columbia University in New York City take over administration buildings and shut down the university.

1974 - A Pan American World Airways Boeing 707 crashes in Bali, Indonesia, killing 107.

1979 - Fighting in London between the Anti-Nazi League and the Metropolitan Police's Special Patrol Group results in the death of protestor Blair Peach.

1981 - Stefano Bontade, Mafia boss in Sicily, is murdered in Palermo, the opening shot in a Mob War orchestrated by Salvatore Riina.

1990 - Namibia becomes the 160th member of the United Nations and the 50th member of the Commonwealth of Nations.

1993 - Eritreans vote overwhelmingly for independence from Ethiopia in a United Nations-monitored referendum.

1994 - Physicists discover the top quark subatomic particle.

1997 - Omaria massacre in Algeria; 42 villagers killed.

2003 - Beijing closes all schools for two weeks due to the SARS virus.