May 23 in history — What Happened Today in History

The Good Friday Agreement is accepted in a referendum in Northern Ireland with roughly 75% voting yes.

The first version of the Java programming language is released.

Italy's most prominent anti-mafia judge Giovanni Falcone, his wife and three body guards are killed by the Corleonesi clan with a half-ton bomb near Capaci, Sicily. His friend and colleague Paolo Borsellino will be assassinated less than two months later, making 1992 a turning point in the history of Italian Mafia prosecutions.

Aeroflot Flight 8556 crashes at Pulkovo Airport, killing 13.

The Shining, the psychological horror film directed by Stanley Kubrick, is premiered on 10 screens in New York City and Los Angeles on the Memorial Day weekend.

A Tupolev Tu-144 crashes near the Russian town of Yegoryevsk, killing two.

Seventy-eight people are killed when Aviogenex Flight 130 crashes on approach to Rijeka Airport in present-day Rijeka, Croatia (then the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia).

The Intercontinental Hotel in Bucharest opens, becoming the second-tallest building in the city.

A tsunami caused by an earthquake in Chile the previous day kills 61 people in Hilo, Hawaii.

Tibetans sign the Seventeen Point Agreement with China.

Cold War: The Western occupying powers approve the Basic Law and establish a new German state, the Federal Republic of Germany.

Thomas C. Wasson, the US Consul-General, is assassinated in Jerusalem, Israel.

The start of a two-day tornado outbreak across the Central United States that spawned at least 15 significant tornadoes.

World War II: Heinrich Himmler, head of the Schutzstaffel, commits suicide while in Allied custody.

World War II: Germany's Flensburg Government under Karl Dönitz is dissolved when its members are arrested by British forces.

World War II: German paratroopers start a series of mass executions of Greek civilians in Missiria for their participation in the ongoing Battle of Crete.

The U.S. Navy submarine USS Squalus sinks off the coast of New Hampshire during a test dive, causing the death of 24 sailors and two civilian technicians. The remaining 32 sailors and one civilian naval architect are rescued the following day.

American bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde are ambushed by police and killed in Bienville Parish, Louisiana.

The Auto-Lite strike culminates in the "Battle of Toledo", a five-day melée between 1,300 troops of the Ohio National Guard and 6,000 picketers.

In Brazil, four students are shot and killed during a manifestation against the Brazilian dictator Getúlio Vargas, which resulted in the outbreak of the Constitutionalist Revolution several weeks later.

Sheikh Mahmud Barzanji, a Kurdish sheikh and at-the-time governor of the Slêmanî Province of British Iraq, initiates the first Mahmud Barzanji revolt.

World War I: Italy joins the Allies, fulfilling its part of the Treaty of London.

The New York Public Library is dedicated.

The unicameral Parliament of Finland gathers for its first plenary session.

Abdul Hamid II, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, publicly announces the creation of the Ullah millet for the Aromanians of the empire, which had been established one day earlier. For this reason, the Aromanian National Day is usually celebrated on May 23, although some do so on May 22 instead.

American Civil War: Sergeant William Harvey Carney is awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism in the Assault on the Battery Wagner in 1863.

The Canadian Parliament establishes the North-West Mounted Police, the forerunner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

The General German Workers' Association, a precursor of the modern Social Democratic Party of Germany, is founded in Leipzig, Kingdom of Saxony.

Coy Craft, American footballer

Joe Gomez, English footballer

Maximilian Kilman, English footballer

Gustaf Nilsson, Swedish footballer

Sam Timmins, New Zealand basketball player

Katharina Althaus, German ski jumper

Emmanuel Boateng, Ghanaian footballer

Răzvan Marin, Romanian footballer

Çağlar Söyüncü, Turkish footballer

Esa Lindell, Finnish ice hockey player

Laerte do Vando, Brazilian politician

Aaron Donald, American football player

Lena Meyer-Landrut, German singer-songwriter

Epy Guerrero, Dominican baseball player, coach, and scout (born 1942)

Hayri Kozakçıoğlu, Turkish police officer and politician, 15th Governor of Istanbul Province (born 1938)

Georges Moustaki, Egyptian-French singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1934)

Flynn Robinson, American basketball player (born 1941)

Paul Fussell, American historian, author, and academic (born 1924)

Xavier Tondo, Spanish cyclist (born 1978)

José Lima, Dominican-American baseball player (born 1972)

Simon Monjack, English director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1970)

Roh Moo-hyun, South Korean soldier and politician, 9th President of South Korea (born 1946)

Iñaki Ochoa de Olza, Spanish mountaineer (born 1967)

Utah Phillips, American singer-songwriter and poet (born 1935)

Lloyd Bentsen, American colonel and politician, 69th United States Secretary of the Treasury (born 1921)

Kazimierz Górski, Polish footballer and manager (born 1921)