WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 23, 2008

Today is Wednesday, January 23, the 23rd day of 2008. There are 343 days left in the year.

638 _ Start of Islamic calendar

1265 _ First English Parliament formally convened

1556 _ Most deadly earthquake kills 830,000 in Shansi Province, China

1571 _ Queen Elizabeth I opens Royal Exchange in London

1647 _ Scottish Presbyterians sell captured Charles I to English parliament

1789 _ Georgetown, the first U.S. Catholic college, founded

1849 _ Patent granted for an envelope-making machine

1932 _ El Salvador army kills 4,000 protesting farmers

1943 _ British 8th army marches into Tripoli

1950 _ Israeli Knesset resolves that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel

1961 _ The U.S. Supreme Court rules cities and states have right to censor films

1961 _ Venezuela adopts constitution

1962 _ Libya, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia plan to form United Arab Maghreb

1968 _ Spy ship USS Pueblo and 83-man crew seized in the East Sea by North Korea

1973 _ President Nixon announces an accord has been reached to end the Vietnam War

1987 _ Japan first exceeds military spending cap of 1 percent of GNP ($23 billion)

1998 _ Pope John Paul II condemns U.S. embargo against Cuba