Ingenpedia:OnThisDay/December 23


 * 1815 – Jane Austen's novel Emma was first published.
 * 1888 – During a bout of mental illness, Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh (pictured) severed part of his left ear and gave it to a woman in a brothel in Arles.
 * 1916 – First World War: Allied forces gained a strategic victory in the Battle of Magdhaba on the Sinai Peninsula.
 * 1957 – Leading the Australia national cricket team, Ian Craig became the youngest Test cricket captain up to that time.
 * 1990 – About 88 percent of eligible voters in Slovenia voted to secede from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.