What happened on 23 May?

14 events from the Ever-When timeline, ranked by how much they mattered.

1. 1568 Eighty Years' War / Dutch Revolt Dutch provinces revolt against Spanish Habsburg rule.
2. 1949 West Germany (FRG) Federal Republic of Germany established.
3. 1618 Thirty Years' War begins Conventional start of Thirty Years' War.
4. 1618 Defenestration of Prague Protestant nobles throw two Catholic regents out of a Hradčany window; conventional start of the Thirty Years' War.
5. 1915 Italy enters WW1 on Entente side Italy switches alliance after secret Treaty of London promises Austrian territory.
6. 1533 Annulment of Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon Archbishop Cranmer's court declares the marriage void; clears the way for Henry to marry Anne Boleyn.
7. 1838 Cherokee removal by force US Army forcibly marches Cherokee from Georgia; thousands die en route to Oklahoma.
8. 1430 Joan captured at Compiègne Covering a retreat outside besieged Compiègne, Joan is pulled from her horse by Burgundian soldiers — and the king she crowned makes no attempt to ransom or rescue her. Sold to the
9. 1949 The Basic Law founds West Germany Eleven days after the blockade ends, the western zones' Basic Law comes into force — a constitution designed by people who had watched Weimar die, and deliberately styled 'basic la
10. 1814 Beethoven's Fidelio Only opera by Beethoven; a story of conjugal love and political imprisonment.
11. 1707 Born: Carl Linnaeus Swedish botanist who systematised biological taxonomy and binomial naming.
12. 1706 Battle of Ramillies Marlborough crushes the French at Ramillies in the Spanish Netherlands; opens the Low Countries to allied forces.
13. 1842 Lawes superphosphate fertiliser John Bennet Lawes patents superphosphate; first artificial fertiliser produced at industrial scale, launched at Rothamsted Experimental Station.
14. 1873 North-West Mounted Police founded Three hundred red-coated riders are sent west to clear whisky traders and carry Canadian law ahead of settlement — the force that becomes the Mounties.