| 23 July 1177 | Holy Roman Empire, Italy, Sicily [treaties] | In the Treaty of Venice, the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa makes a truce with the Lombard League of northern Italy and Sicily. |
| 23 July 1230 | Holy Roman Empire, Sicily, Papal States, Italy [treaties] | By the Treaty of Ceprano, the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II makes concessions to the church in Sicily and agrees to respect the borders of the Papal States; in return Pope Gregory IX lifts his sentence of excommunication. |
| 23 July 1266 | Mameluke Sultanate, Kingdom of Jerusalem [wars] | The Mameluke sultan of Egypt, Baybars, wins control of the Galilee region of the Kingdom of Jerusalem by taking the Templars' fortress of Safed. Despite assurances, all 2,000 knights (members of the Knights Templar) are executed. |
| 23 July 1532 | Holy Roman Empire, Germany, Ottoman Empire [Habsburg–Ottoman Wars (1525–1718)] | The need for unity in the face of the Ottoman invasion, approaching the Austrian capital of Vienna, forces the Habsburgs to agree secretly the Peace of Nuremberg with the German Protestants; the Edict of Augsburg outlawing them is revoked and toleration is agreed until a general council meets. |
| 23 July 1540 | Hungary, Transylvania, Austria, Habsburg Monarchy, Holy Roman Empire, Ottoman Empire [political events] | Janos Zápolya, Voivode (governor) of Transylvania dies; his infant son John Sigismund is acclaimed king of Hungary. Archduke Ferdinand I of Austria invades on the basis that the 1538 Peace of Nagyvárad stated that he should succeed to the throne of Hungary. His siege of the capital Buda (modern Budapest) in turn provokes the intervention of the Ottoman sultan Suleiman I the Magnificent. |
| 23 July 1785 | Prussia, Bavaria, Habsburg Monarchy [diplomacy] | Frederick II the Great of Prussia forms the Fürstenbund (League of Princes) to oppose Habsburg monarch Joseph II's Bavarian exchange scheme and preserve the status quo among German states. |
| 23 July 1885 | USA [births and deaths] | Ulysses S Grant, US general who commanded the Union army during the last two years of the American Civil War and president 1863–1877, dies in Mount McGregor, New York (63). |
| 23 July 1888 | USA [births and deaths] | Raymond Chandler, US author, creator of the private detective Philip Marlowe, born in Chicago, Illinois (–1959). |
| 23 July 1892 | Ethiopia [births and deaths] | Haile Selassie, Ethiopian emperor 1930–74, who modernizes the country but is deposed, born in Harer, Ethiopia (–1975). |
| 23 July 1894 | Korea, Japan [colonization] | Japanese troops seize the royal palace in Seoul, Korea, and take control of the country, which has traditionally been a Chinese fiefdom. |
| 23 July 1914 | Austria-Hungary, Serbia [diplomacy] | Austria-Hungary, suspecting Serbian involvement in the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, issues an ultimatum to Serbia, which contains deliberately unreasonable demands. |
| 23 July 1920 | Kenya, United Kingdom [colonies and mandate] | Britain annexes its East African Protectorate as Kenya Colony (a crown colony). |
| 23 July 1948 | USA [births and deaths] | D W Griffith, US pioneer of film-making, dies in Hollywood, California (73). |
| 23 July 1972 | USA [space exploration] | The USA launches Landsat 1, the first of a series of satellites for surveying the Earth's resources from space. |
| 23–24 July 1974 | Greece [political events] | The Greek military government resigns. On 24 July, the former prime minister Konstantinos Karamanlis returns from exile in France to form a civilian administration. |
| 23 July 1986 | UK [political events] | Prince Andrew, the third child of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, marries Sarah Ferguson, in London, England. |
| 23 July 1995 | USA [astronomy] | US astronomers Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp discover the Hale-Bopp comet. The brightest periodic comet, its icy core is estimated to be 40 km/25 mi wide. |
| 23 July 2000 | Scotland [golf] | Tiger Woods, the 24-year-old US golfer, wins the 2000 British Open at St Andrews, Scotland, with a record score of 19 under par (269) for the four rounds. He is the youngest ever player to win all four of golf's major championships. |
| 23 July 2002 | UK [Protestantism] | Rowan Williams, archbishop of Wales, is confirmed as successor to George Carey as the archbishop of Canterbury and head of the Anglican Church on Carey's retirement in October 2002. |
