On Aug. 23, 1305, Scottish leader Sir William Wallace was executed by the English for treason.
In 1775, Britain’s King George III proclaimed the American colonies to be in a state of “open and avowed rebellion.”
In 1914, Japan declared war against Germany in World War I.
In 1973, a bank robbery began in Stockholm, Sweden; the four hostages ended up empathizing with their captors, a condition now referred to as “Stockholm Syndrome.”
In 1989, as punishment for betting on baseball, Cincinnati Reds manager Pete Rose accepts a settlement that includes a lifetime ban from the game.
In 2003, former priest John Geoghan, the convicted child molester whose prosecution sparked the scandal that shook the Roman Catholic Church, died after another inmate attacked him in a Massachusetts prison.
In 2008, Madonna kicked off her 86-date Sticky & Sweet Tour at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff Wales. It became the highest grossing tour by a solo artist, breaking the previous record Madonna achieved with her 2006 Confessions Tour. Madonna’s first venture with Live Nation, was estimated to have grossed $280 million
In 2019, Taylor Swift released her seventh studio album Lover, her first album after parting ways with her former label, Big Machine Records. All of the album’s 18 tracks charted on the Hot 100, breaking the all-time female record for the most simultaneous entries. Lover topped the charts in Australia, Canada, Mexico, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and several others. It was Swift’s sixth No.1 album on the US Billboard chart.