On This Day: 23 April

Battle of Clontarf: King Brian Boru beats back Viking invaders, but is himself killed		1014
Edmund Ironside succeeds to the English throne on the death of his father, Æthelred the Unready		1016
Edward III founds the Order of the Garter		1348
The Bayerische Reinheitsgebot (regulating the ingredients of beer) is signed in Ingolstadt		1516
William Shakespeare born		1564
William Shakespeare dies; Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote, dies		1616
Charles I crowned in Westminster Abbey		1661
Connecticut chartered as an English colony		1662
Justine, or The Misfortunes of Virtue – by the Marquis de Sade – published		1791
Warren Hastings, former Governor General of India, acquitted of high treason		1795
Missolonghi captured by the Turks		1826
Explorer John Stuart reaches the centre of Australia		1860
Queen Victoria and Emperor Napoleon III turn down plans for a Channel tunnel		1867
Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford–on–Avon, opened		1879
Gilbert & Sullivan's Patience first performed (London)		1881
Rupert Brooke dies of blood poisoning on the way to active service in the Dardanelles		1915
Battle of Zeebrugge ends – Lt–Cdr Percy Thomson Dean VC killed		1918
British Empire Exhibition at Wembley opened by King George V and Queen Mary		1924
The BBC broadcasts the FA Cup final for the first time – Cardiff City beat Arsenal 1–0, and so take the trophy out of England for the first time		1927
The new Shakespeare Memorial Theatre opens at Stratford on Avon		1932
Josef Stalin officially opens the Moscow underground system		1935
German invasion forces King George and the Greek government to abandon Athens for Crete		1941
German bombers hit Exeter, Bath and York in retaliation for the British raid on LÃƒÂ¼beck – in what became known as the Baedeker Blitz		1942
Hitler's designated successor, Hermann Göring, sends him a telegram asking permission to take leadership of the Third Reich. Martin Bormann and Joseph Goebbels advise Hitler that the telegram is treasonous		1945
Allied forces in Italy reach the River Po		1945
Oil pipeline from Kirkuk to Banias completed		1952
Britain's first heliport opens beside the Thames in London		1959
150,000 attend the biggest–ever anti–nuclear demonstration, in Hyde Park		1962
Stirling Moss's career is ended as he crashes at Goodwood		1962
The Soviet Union launches Soyuz 1, a manned spaceflight carrying cosmonaut Colonel Vladimir Komarov, into orbit		1967
Students take over administration buildings at Columbia University in New York City, and shut down the university, in protest against the Vietnam war		1968
Britain's first decimal coins – 5p and 10p – enter circulation		1968
Sirhan B. Sirhan sentenced to death for the murder of Senator Robert Kennedy		1969
The Pakistan Army and Razakars massacre approximately 3,000 Hindu emigrants in the Jathibhanga area of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh)		1971
Protester Blair Peach receives fatal injuries during fighting between the Anti–Nazi League and the Metropolitan Police's Special Patrol Group, in London; his death was later officially attributed to the SPG		1979
£1 coin introduced in Britain		1983
German magazine Stern announces that it has Hitler's diaries		1983
Isolation of the AIDS virus announced		1984
Coca–Cola changes its formula and releases New Coke. (The original formula is back on the market in less than three months, after an overwhelmingly negative response)		1985
Namibia becomes the 160th member of the United Nations, and the 50th member of the Commonwealth of Nations		1990
US hostage Robert Polhill freed after 39 months' captivity in Beirut		1990
Soviet republics granted the right to secede under certain conditions		1991
In a UN–monitored referendum, Eritrea votes overwhelmingly for independence from Ethiopia		1993
The world's oldest football – used in matches between soldiers and staff of the household of Mary, Queen of Scots – goes on public display in Stirling		1999
Five bystanders shot and taken hostage during a 50–mile car chase from the M6 through Horwich, Bolton, Bury and Rochdale		1999
Makhaya Ntini, 22, the first black cricketer to represent South Africa, is convicted of rape in East London		1999
The first ever YouTube video, entitled Me at the Zoo, is posted by the site's co–founder Jawed Karim, with the username 'jawed' (recorded by his high school friend Yakov Lapitsky)		2005

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On This Day: 23 April