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.
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