May 23

• May 23, 1430
  Joan of Arc is captured at Compiegne, France by the Burgundians, who sell her to the English
• May 23, 1493
  King Charles VIII and Maximilian I of Austria signs Peace of Senlis, by which Duchy of Burgundy remains in French hands
• May 23, 1498
  Girolamo Savonarola, dictator of Florence, is tortured and burned by enraged crowd in Florence at age 45
• May 23, 1524
  Ismail I, the founder of Safavid dynasty, dies and Tahmasp I becomes king
• May 23, 1536
  Pope Paul III installs Portuguese inquisition
• May 23, 1568
  Dutch rebels beat Spanish at the Battle at Heiligerlee
• May 23, 1618
  The Bohemian Revolt and Thirty Years' War begin after Second Prague Defenestration when three opponents of the Reformation are thrown through a window of Prague Castle into the moat
• May 23, 1667
  King Afonso VI of Portugal flees
• May 23, 1701
  New York sea captain William Kidd is hanged on the banks of the Thames after being found guilty of piracy and murder
• May 23, 1706
  At the battle of Ramillies Duke of Marlborough defeats French and 17,000 are killed
• May 23, 1774
  Chestertown tea party occurs when tea is dumped into Chester River
• May 23, 1785
  Benjamin Franklin in Paris speaks of his invention of bifocals in a letter to friend and philanthropist George Whatley
• May 23, 1844
  Persian Prophet the Báb announces his revelation, founding Bábísm and announces to the world of the coming of "He whom God shall make manifest"
• May 23, 1853
  Buenos Aires gains independence from Argentina
• May 23, 1871
  In France extremists burn the Tuileries Palace
• May 23, 1915
  Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary and Germany
• May 23, 1949
  The Federal Republic of Germany is established on the territory of the Western occupied zones, with Bonn as its capital
• May 23, 1951
  Seventeen Point Agreement, which incorporates Tibet into People's Republic of China is signed
• May 23, 1958
  Mao Zedong starts Great Leap Forward movement in China, an economic campaign to rapidly transform the country from an agrarian economy into a modern communist society through the process of industrialization and collectivization
• May 23, 1960
  Israel announces capture of German Adolf Eichmann, one of the major organizers of the Holocaust, in Argentina
• May 23, 1977
  Moluccan extremists hold 105 schoolchildren and 50 others hostage on a hijacked train in Netherlands; children released May 27, siege ends June 11
• May 23, 1995
  At the Sun World conference in San Francisco, California, Sun Microsystems introduces the Java interactive programming language, named as Oak during development