The year in history
1923
Someone born in 1923 turns 103 in 2026
1923 (MCMXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1923rd year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 923rd year of the 2nd millennium, the 23rd year of the 20th century, and the 4th year of the 1920s decade. As of the start of 1923, the Gregorian calendar was 13 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which was relegated that February to use only by churches after Greece adopted the Gregorian calendar. In Greece, this year contained only 352 days as 13 days were skipped to achieve the calendrical switch from Julian to Gregorian Calendar. It happened there that Wednesday, February 15 (Julian Calendar) was followed by Thursday, March 1 (Gregorian Calendar).
What happened in 1923
Lithuania begins the Klaipėda Revolt to annex the Klaipėda Region (Memel Territory).
The first issue of TIME magazine is published.
Hjalmar Branting leaves office as Prime Minister of Sweden, after the Swedish Riksdag has rejected a government proposal regarding unemployment benefits. Right-wing academic and jurist Ernst Trygger succeeds him.
British Prime Minister Bonar Law resigns, due to ill health.
The storming of Ayan in Siberia concludes the Yakut Revolt and the Russian Civil War.
Vice President Calvin Coolidge becomes the 30th president of the United States, upon the death of President Warren G. Harding in San Francisco.
The Kantō Massacre begins and continues for several weeks. Ethnic Koreans are killed by lynch mobs based on rumors that Koreans are committing crimes and plotting to overthrow the government. The death toll (and even the occurrence of) the massacre is disputed, with figures ranging from a few dozen to over 6,000 deaths. Most of the deaths are of Korean people, although it is said that other ethnic minorities and even Japanese people with unusual dialects are also killed.
Military coup in Spain: Miguel Primo de Rivera takes over, setting up a dictatorship. Trade unions are prohibited for 10 years.
Küstrin Putsch: After two days of siege, Major Buchrucker and his men surrender.
A sixth tropical storm develops in the Gulf of Mexico; a rare occurrence, it consists of four active tropical storms simultaneously.
The Finnish flag carrier airline Finnair is started, as Aero oy.
Gustav Stresemann's coalition government collapses in Germany.
Famous people born in 1923
Valentina Cortese
Italian actress (d. 2019)
January 1 →
Erling Lorentzen
Norwegian shipowner and industrialist (d. 2021)
January 28 →
Marcel Denis
Belgian comics artist (d. 2002)
February 15 →
Walter Kohn
Austrian-born physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (d. 2016)
March 9 →
Ulla Sallert
Swedish actress, singer (d. 2018)
March 27 →
Mother Angelica
American nun, founder of the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) (d. 2016)
April 20 →
Edit Perényi-Weckinger
Hungarian gymnast (d. 2019)
May 5 →
Armand Borel
Swiss mathematician (d. 2003)
May 21 →
V. C. Andrews
American novelist (d. 1996)
June 6 →
Bjørn Watt-Boolsen
Danish actor (d. 1998)
June 20 →
Alfred Goodwin
senior judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (d. 2022)
June 29 →
James E. Gunn
American science fiction writer, editor, scholar, and anthologist (d. 2020)
July 12 →
Estelle Getty
American actress (d. 2008)
July 25 →
Rhonda Fleming
American actress (d. 2020)
August 10 →
Arthur Jensen
American educational psychologist (d. 2012)
August 24 →
Eloy Tato Losada
Spanish Roman Catholic bishop (d. 2022)
September 6 →
Queen Anne of Romania
born Princess Anne of Bourbon-Parma, French-born queen consort (d. 2016)
September 18 →
Roedad Khan
Pakistani politician and civil servant (d. 2024)
September 28 →
Irma Grese
German Nazi concentration camp guard, war criminal (executed 1945)
October 7 →
Julia Wipplinger
South African tennis player
October 23 →
Rudolf Augstein
German journalist, founder and part-owner of magazine Der Spiegel (d. 2002)
November 5 →
Gloria Whelan
American poet, short story writer and novelist
November 23 →
Harold Gould
American character actor (d. 2010)
December 10 →
Robert William Bradford
Canadian artist (d. 2023)
December 17 →