📜 This Day in History

December 23

• 583Yohl Ikʼnal acceded to the throne of the Maya city-state of Palenque.
• 1783George Washington resigned as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army at the Maryland State House in Annapolis.
• 1916First World War: Allied forces gained a strategic victory at the Battle of Magdhaba on the Sinai Peninsula.
• 1957Leading the Australia national cricket team, Ian Craig became the youngest-ever Test cricket captain at the time.
• 1990About 88 percent of eligible voters in Slovenia voted to secede from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
• 2008The Guinean military engineered a coup d'état, announcing that it planned to rule the country for two years prior to a new presidential election.

Born on this day

• 1777Alexander I of Russia (died 1825)
• 1805Joseph Smith, American religious leader, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement (died 1844)
• 1918Helmut Schmidt, German soldier, economist, and politician, 5th Chancellor of Germany (died 2015)
• 1933Akihito, Emperor of Japan