23rd April

23rd April is the National Day of England and the Feast Day of St. George. (See picture of the Saint George window in Askrigg Church - North Yorks.)

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871 The death of Æthelred I (sometimes rendered as Ethelred) king of Wessex from 865 to 871.

1016Edmund Ironside succeeded his father Æthelred II (Ethelred the Unready) as king of England. Unready, meaning 'poorly advised' was a play on his name, which means 'well advised'.

1348The founding of the Order of the Garter by King Edward III. It is the highest order of chivalry, or knighthood, existing in England. The order is dedicated to the image and arms of St. George as England's patron saint. Membership to the order is limited to the Sovereign, the Prince of Wales, and no more than twenty-four 'members, or companions.'

1564The birth of poet & playwright William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. He died on his 52nd birthday in 1616. See picture of Shakespeare's birthplace.

1661Charles II was crowned King of England, completing the restoration of the monarchy. His father, Charles I, had been beheaded by Oliver Cromwell following the Civil War.

1775J M W Turner, English painter was born. He was one of the greatest masters of British watercolour landscape painting. His painting of Raby Castle, commissioned by the third earl of Darlington, was one of Turner's most successful "house portraits." See picture of Raby Castle.

1850William Wordsworth, English poet, died. For almost 9 years he lived and wrote at Dove Cottage - Grasmere. See picture. The Lakeland poet was also inspired by the beauty of Llanfihangel Glyn Myfyr in North Wales that he wrote the poem 'Vale of Meditation' about the area. See picture

1879The first Shakespeare Memorial Theatre opened in Stratford-upon-Avon, and in 1932 the New Shakespeare Memorial Theatre (see picture) was opened by the Prince of Wales.

1915 The death, aged 27 (from an infected mosquito bite) of the English poet Rupert Brooke, known for his war sonnets written during the First World War, especially "The Soldier". - If I should die, think only this of me: That there's some corner of a foreign field That is for ever England. This statue of Brooke (see picture) is in his home town of Rugby.

1942World War II – German bombers hit Exeter, Bath and York in retaliation for the British raid on Lübeck.

1968The first decimal coins appeared in Britain - the 5p and 10p pieces which replaced the 1 shilling and 2 shilling coins.

1980The British Ambassador to Saudi Arabia was expelled from the country following the broadcast on British TV of the documentary 'Death of a Princess'. It depicted the life and execution of a Saudi Arabian Princess found guilty of committing adultery.

1982The launch of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum computer. The entry level model had 16 kB RAM and an external tape recorder was needed to load the majority of software. It was 'a computer for the masses' and much cheaper than its rivals - the Commodore 64 and the BBC Microcomputer.

1983Canadian snooker player Cliff Thorburn completed the first televised maximum break of 147 during the World Snooker Championships at the Crucible Theatre, in Sheffield.

1990Charlie Wilson, the ‘silent man' of the Great Train Robbery (8th August 1963), was shot dead at his home near Marbella, Spain.

2011The death of John Sullivan, the television scriptwriter responsible for several popular British sitcoms, including Only Fools and Horses, Citizen Smith and Just Good Friends.

2013Data from the UK Peace Index showed that rates of murder and violent crime had fallen more rapidly in the UK in the previous decade than anywhere else in Western Europe, with a fall in UK homicides per 100,000 people from 1.99 in 2003, to 1 in 2012.

2014Research by Leicester University found that people who migrate to the Mediterranean are unhappier than those who remain in northern European countries, including the UK. Reasons cited included not having a sense of belonging, struggling without family ties and a damage to social standing by perhaps living in a less economical country.

2021 Judges quashed the convictions of 39 former sub-postmasters and mistresses who were convicted of stealing money, after the Post Office installed the Horizon computer system in branches. The clearing of the names of 39 people follows the overturning of six other convictions in December, meaning that more people were affected than in any other miscarriage of justice in the UK. Horizon-based evidence was used by the Post Office to successfully prosecute 736 people between 2000 and 2014. As well as some people going to prison, others were left bankrupt after the Post Office pursued claims which sometimes totalled tens of thousands of pounds.

2023 The first test of the government's new phone alert system at 3pm. The system has been 10 years in the making and will send an emergency alert to mobile phones when there is an imminent threat to people's lives.

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