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