Reuters historical calendar - December 23

LONDON, Dec 22 (Reuters) Following are some of the major events to have occurred on December 23 since 1900: 1913 - The US Congress passed the Federal Reserve Act, a major restructuring of the country's monetary and banking system.

1933 - Marinus van der Lubbe was found guilty and sentenced to death in Germany for setting fire to the Reichstag earlier in the year.

1948 - Hideki Tojo was hanged as a war criminal; a Japanese soldier who became prime minister, he was in power when Pearl Harbour was bombed.

1950 - Pope Pius XII announced that Saint Peter's tomb had been found under the Vatican.

1953 - Lavrenty Beria, the Soviet security police chief who played a role in Stalin's political purges, was executed for plotting to succeed him as Soviet leader.

1972 - In Nicaragua, a massive earthquake struck Managua; up to 7,000 people were killed.

1973 - Iran announced that the six main oil producers in the Gulf would increase the export price of their oil 100 per cent from January, 1974.

1990 - People of Slovenia voted overwhelmingly in a plebiscite for the northwestern Yugoslav republic to become an independent state.

2000 - After hard negotiations, the 189-member UN General Assembly approved a major revamp of its finances including a cut in US payments for the first time since 1973.

2002 - Italy's royal family, reviled by many Italians after World War Two for collaborating with Benito Mussolini, returned home for a short visit, after 56 years in exile.

2003 - The first US case of the deadly mad cow disease was detected in a Holstein dairy cow in Washington state.

2005 - Yao Wenyuan, the last surving member of China's Gang of Four led by Chairman Mao Zedong's wife, died. He was 74.

REUTERS MS BD1015