On This Day

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Important events of history that took place in India and elsewhere on today’s date.

23 August

🇮🇳 In India

1933 Mahatma Gandhi released from prison for health reasons. He had been on his fourth anti-untouchability fast to obtain privileges that would enable him to carry on his fight in behalf of the Harijans.

1947 Vallabhbhai Patel was appointed as the Deputy Prime Minister of the country.

1986 Shambhu Anbhavne found a place in Guinness World Record for typing 123 hours nonstop on a manual typewriter.

1995 The country's first cellular phone was commercially introduced in Calcutta.

2011 Scientists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences discovered the origin of the Brahmaputra and Indus rivers and completed a comprehensive satellite study of the length of their route.

🌎 Elsewhere

0079

Mount Vesuvius begins stirring, on feast day of Vulcan, Roman god of fire. The eruption buried the towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum [approx date]. The excavations of these sites in the mid-18th century precipitated the modern science of archaeology.

1617 First one-way streets open in London.

1839 The British capture Hong Kong from China.

1914 Japan declared war on Germany in World War I.

1924 Mars' closest approach to Earth since 10th century.

1966 Lunar Orbiter 1 takes the first photograph of Earth from orbit around the Moon.

1973 A botched bank robbery in Stockholm resulted in a hostage situation, and, over the course of a six-day standoff, the captives formed an unlikely bond with their captor, giving rise to the term “Stockholm syndrome.”

1991 The World Wide Web is opened to the public.

2007 Hashtag invented and first used in a tweet by US product designer Chris Messina.

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