On This Day

What Happened on January 23 in History

8 events that happened on January 23, oldest first. Every entry is written in our own words and links to its source.

The Young Republic and the Civil War Era

1849
Elizabeth Blackwell received her medical degree, the first woman in the United States to earn one.
She graduated at the head of her class from Geneva Medical College in a ceremony at a Presbyterian church in Geneva, New York. Blackwell spent her life treating the sick and opening medicine to women.
Source: hws.edu; circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov
1870
Army troops under Major Eugene Baker attacked a peaceful Blackfeet camp in the Marias Massacre in Montana.
The soldiers had been sent to punish a band blamed for killing a rancher, but Baker ordered the assault on a sleeping camp that was not the one they sought.
Source: history.com

1907
Charles Curtis of Kansas was elected to the Senate, the first Native American senator.
Curtis, of Kaw, Osage and Potawatomi heritage, had served in the House since 1893. He later became vice president under Herbert Hoover.
Source: history.house.gov; history.com
1912
Delegates at The Hague signed the International Opium Convention to control the trade in narcotics.
The First International Opium Conference, which included American delegates, had met since December 1, 1911. Its convention set rules on the production and the international and national traffic in opium, morphine and cocaine.
Source: history.state.gov

1960
The bathyscaphe Trieste carried Don Walsh and Jacques Piccard to the bottom of the Challenger Deep.
After a descent of nearly five hours, the Navy vessel reached the deepest known point of the ocean in the Mariana Trench. The two men could stay only 20 minutes and saw little through the cloud of sediment.
Source: navy.mil; news.mit.edu
1968
North Korean patrol boats seized the USS Pueblo, an American Navy intelligence ship.
The Pueblo was watching the North Korean coast when it was surrounded and fired on, wounding the commander and others. The crew destroyed classified material before the ship was captured.
Source: history.com
1977
The television miniseries Roots premiered on ABC and became one of the most watched broadcasts in American history.
Based on Alex Haley's book, the eight episodes aired on consecutive nights and followed a family from West Africa through slavery to the end of the Civil War.
Source: history.com; npr.org

1997
Madeleine Albright was sworn in as the first woman to serve as secretary of state.
Vice President Al Gore gave the oath a day after the Senate confirmed her unanimously. Born in Czechoslovakia, Albright had been ambassador to the United Nations.
Source: history.com; history.state.gov