August 23 in history — What Happened Today in History

Saddam Hussein appears on Iraqi state television with a number of Western "guests" (actually hostages) to try to prevent the Gulf War.

Armenia declares its independence from the Soviet Union.

West and East Germany announce that they will reunite on October 3.

Singing Revolution: Two million people from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania stand on the Vilnius–Tallinn road, holding hands.

Hans Tiedge, top counter-spy of West Germany, defects to East Germany.

Waylon Jennings arrested in a drug raid.

The start of the Wave Hill walk-off by Gurindji people in Australia, lasting eight years, a landmark event in the history of Indigenous land rights in Australia, commemorated in a 1991 Paul Kelly song and an annual celebration.

The Pontiac Silverdome opens in Pontiac, Michigan, 30 miles (48 km) northwest of Detroit, Michigan.

A bank robbery gone wrong in Stockholm, Sweden, turns into a hostage crisis; over the next five days the hostages begin to sympathise with their captors, leading to the term "Stockholm syndrome".

Organized by Mexican American labor union leader César Chávez, the Salad Bowl strike, the largest farm worker strike in U.S. history, begins.

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

Chinese Civil War: The Second Taiwan Strait Crisis begins with the People's Liberation Army's bombardment of Quemoy.

The first flight of the Lockheed C-130 multi-role aircraft takes place.

The Cruise of the Kings, a royal cruise organised by the Queen Consort of Greece, Frederica of Hanover, departs from Marseille, France.

The World Council of Churches is formed by 147 churches from 44 countries.

Ordinance No. 46 of the British Military Government constitutes the German Länder (states) of Hanover and Schleswig-Holstein.

World War II: Soviet–Japanese War: The USSR State Defense Committee issues Decree no. 9898cc "About Receiving, Accommodation, and Labor Utilization of the Japanese Army Prisoners of War".

World War II: Marseille is liberated by the Allied forces.

World War II: King Michael of Romania dismisses the pro-Nazi government of Marshal Antonescu, who is later arrested. Romania switches sides from the Axis to the Allies.

Freckleton air disaster: A United States Army Air Forces B-24 Liberator bomber crashes into a school in Freckleton, England, killing 61 people.

World War II: Kharkiv is liberated by the Soviet Red Army for the second time after the Battle of Kursk.

World War II: Beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad.

World War II: Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union sign the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. In a secret protocol to the pact, Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Romania are divided into German and Soviet "spheres of influence".

Hebron Massacre during the 1929 Palestine riots: Arab attacks on the Jewish community in Hebron in the British Mandate of Palestine occur, continuing until the next day, resulting in the death of 65–68 Jews and the remaining Jews being forced to leave the city.

Italian anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti are executed after a lengthy, controversial trial.

Captain Lowell Smith and Lieutenant John P. Richter perform the first mid-air refueling on De Havilland DH-4B, setting an endurance flight record of 37 hours.

British airship R-38 experiences structural failure over Hull in England and crashes in the Humber Estuary; of her 49 British and American training crew, only four survive.

World War I: The British Expeditionary Force and the French Fifth Army begin their Great Retreat before the German Army.

Nicola Docherty, Scottish footballer

Will Toledo, American singer-songwriter

Seth Curry, American basketball player

Mike Yastrzemski, American baseball player

Lianne La Havas, British singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist

Trixie Mattel, American drag queen, actor, and country singer

Heiko Schwarz, German footballer

TeddyLoid, Japanese musician

Olga Govortsova, Belarusian tennis player

Carl Hagelin, Swedish ice hockey player

Jeremy Lin, American basketball player

Kim Matula, American actress

Miles Mikolas, American baseball player

Jaume Vallcorba Plana, Spanish philologist and publisher (born 1949)

Richard J. Corman, American businessman, founded the R.J. Corman Railroad Group (born 1955)

William Glasser, American psychiatrist and author (born 1925)

Charles Lisanby, American production designer and set director (born 1924)

Konstanty Miodowicz, Polish ethnographer and politician (born 1951)

Vesna Rožič, Slovenian chess player (born 1987)

Tatyana Zaslavskaya, Russian sociologist and economist (born 1927)

Jerry Nelson, American puppeteer and voice actor (born 1934)

Josepha Sherman, American anthologist and author (born 1946)

John Russell, English-American author and critic (born 1919)

Maynard Ferguson, Canadian trumpet player and bandleader (born 1928)

Brock Peters, American actor (born 1927)

Bobby Bonds, American baseball player and manager (born 1946)