Brian Boru, the high king of Ireland, is assassinated by a group of retreating Norsemen shortly after his Irish forces defeated them. Brian, a clan prince, seized the throne of the southern Irish state of Dal Cais from its Eoghanacht rulers in 963. He subjugated all of Munster, extended his power over all of southern Ireland, and […]

At 3 a.m. on April 23, 1778, Commander John Paul Jones leads a small detachment of two boats from his ship, the USS Ranger, to raid the shallow port at Whitehaven, England, where, by his own account, 400 British merchant ships are anchored. Jones was hoping to reach the port at midnight when ebb tide […]

Confederate President Jefferson Davis writes to his wife, Varina, of the desperate situation facing the Confederates. “Panic has seized the country,” he wrote to his wife in Georgia. Davis was in Charlotte, North Carolina, on his flight away from Yankee troops. It was three weeks since Davis had fled the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, […]

On April 23, 1915, Rupert Brooke, a young scholar and poet serving as an officer in the British Royal Navy, dies of blood poisoning on a hospital ship anchored off the Greek island of Skyros, while awaiting deployment in the Allied invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula. Brooke, born in 1887 in Rugby, Britain, attended King’s […]

On April 23, 1961, Judy Garland performs a gig at Carnegie Hall, often referred to as “the greatest night in showbiz history.” She was one of the biggest and most popular movie stars of all time, making her first film appearance at the age of seven and earning the first of three Oscar nominations at […]

At a speech at Tulane University, President Gerald Ford says the Vietnam War is finished as far as America is concerned. “Today, Americans can regain the sense of pride that existed before Vietnam. But it cannot be achieved by re-fighting a war.” This was devastating news to the South Vietnamese, who were desperately pleading for […]

On April 23, 1985, The Coca-Cola Company announces that it is changing the formula of its signature soft drink for the first time in 99 years. The short-lived, sweeter New Coke, as it is called, debuts to a consumer backlash that pundits call the marketing blunder of the century. Coca-Cola, which had been the world’s […]