August 10

• August 10, 843
  Sons of Louis the Pious divide Charlemagne's Empire by Treaty of Verdun, so Charles the Bald receives the western portion, which later became France, Louis the German get eastern lands, later the medieval kingdom of Germany, and Lothair I receives the central part
• August 10, 1497
  John Cabot told King Henry VII of his trip to "Asia" after his return from his first successful journey to the Labrador coast
• August 10, 1500
  Portuguese explorer Diogo Dias discovers Madagascar
• August 10, 1539
  King Francis I of France signs edict known as Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts, declaring that all official documents are to be written in French, not Latin
• August 10, 1557
  Spanish and English troops in alliance defeat the French at the Battle of St. Quentin (San Quintino)
• August 10, 1582
  Russia ends its 25-year war with Poland and cedes Livonia and Estonia to Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth losing access to the Baltic
• August 10, 1627
  Cardinal Richelieu begins a siege to Protestant La Rochelle, a Huguenot stronghold
• August 10, 1628
  The Swedish 69-meter warship Vasa capsizes and sinks in Stockholm harbor on her maiden voyage because the ballast is insufficient to counterweight the 64 guns and ballast
• August 10, 1675
  King of England Charles II lays the foundation stone of Royal Observatory in Greenwich, an important institution in the history of astronomy and navigation
• August 10, 1678
  The Treaty of Nijmegen ends the hostilities with France and gives to France control over the region of the Franche-Comté
• August 10, 1680
  In New Mexico Popé, a Tewa religious leader, leads rebellion of Pueblo Indians against Spaniads
• August 10, 1755
  The Great Upheaval, forced population transfer of the French Acadian population from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, begins
• August 10, 1779
  Louis XVI of France frees the last remaining serfs on royal land
• August 10, 1787
  Mozart completes his composition Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
• August 10, 1792
  Some 20,000 Parisians attack the Tuileries palace of Louis XVI at the instigation of Georges Jacques Danton and massacre some 600 guardsmen after Louis orders his Swiss guard to stop firing on the people
• August 10, 1809
  Quito, the seat of a real audiencia of Spain in modern-day Ecuador, declares independence from Spain
• August 10, 1861
  Union general Nathaniel Lyon the first Union general to be killed in the American Civil War, at the Battle of Wilson's Creek in Missouri, which ends with a Confederate victory
• August 10, 1913
  Second Balkan War ends with Treaty of Bucharest, which confirms territorial acquisitions of Serbia, Greece, and Bulgaria at the expense of Ottoman Empire during the First and Second Balkan Wars
• August 10, 1927
  United States President Calvin Coolidge formally dedicates the Mount Rushmore site
• August 10, 2010
  The World Health Organization declares the H1N1 influenza pandemic over, saying worldwide flu activity has returned to typical seasonal patterns

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