January 23 Birthday
January 23, 1556: The Shaanxi earthquake struck the Wei River Valley in central China. It is estimated to have been magnitude 8.0, and it killed approximately 830,000 people — the deadliest earthquake in recorded history. The death toll was so high because the region's population lived in yaodong, artificial caves carved into loess cliffs. The loess, a wind-blown silt, collapsed instantly when shaken, burying entire communities. Some estimates suggest the quake destroyed an area 500 miles wide. The Ming Dynasty's records are unusually detailed because the emperor ordered a complete accounting. Modern seismologists have used these records to reconstruct the event. On this day in 1849, Elizabeth Blackwell received her medical degree from Geneva Medical College in New York, becoming the first woman to earn an MD in the United States. She had applied to twelve medical schools and been rejected by all of them. Geneva accepted her, but only because the dean put the decision to a vote among the male students, assuming they would refuse. They voted yes as a joke. She graduated at the top of her class. The joke was on them. No hospital would hire her, so she opened her own clinic for poor women and children, and later co-founded the New York Infirmary for Women and Children. The 24th Amendment was ratified on January 23, 1964, prohibiting the requirement of a poll tax in federal elections. Poll taxes had been used in Southern states since the late 19th century to disenfranchise Black voters and poor whites. The amount was often small — one or two dollars — but it had to be paid every year, and unpaid years could be accumulated, creating an insurmountable debt for families living in poverty. The amendment did not cover state elections; that required the Supreme Court's decision in Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections in 1966. The right to vote without paying for it should not have required a constitutional amendment, but it did. John Hancock, born this day in 1737, signed the Declaration of Independence so large that, as he said, "the British ministry can read that without spectacles." He was president of the Continental Congress and the wealthiest man in New England. He smuggled to avoid British taxes, which is less patriotic than convenient. People born on January 23 fall under the zodiac sign of Aquarius. The birthstone is Garnet and the birth flower is Carnation. Historical events on January 23 include 1556: Shaanxi earthquake kills approximately 830,000 (deadliest in recorded history), 1849: Elizabeth Blackwell becomes first woman to earn US medical degree, 1964: 24th Amendment ratified, abolishing poll tax in federal elections. Famous people born on January 23 include John Hancock (1737), Sergei Eisenstein (1898), Richard Dean Anderson (1950).