Events for March 23

March 23, 1917

Birth of singer Josef Locke (Joe McLaughlin) in Derry

Joseph McLaughlin (23 March 1917 – 15 October 1999), known professionally as Josef Locke, was an Irish tenor. He was successful in the United Kingdom and Ireland in the 1940s and 1950s.

March 23, 1848

First Scottish settlers arrive in Dunedin, New Zealand.

The Otago Settlement, sponsored by the Free Church of Scotland, materialised in March 1848 with the arrival of the first two immigrant ships from Greenock on the Firth of Clyde – the John Wickliffe and the Philip Laing. Captain William Cargill, a veteran of the Peninsular War, served as the colony’s first leader: Otago citizens subsequently elected him to the office of Superintendent.

March 23, 1893

Birth in Dublin of Cedric Gibbons, designer of the coveted Oscar statuette

Cedric Gibbons (23 March 1893 - 26 July 1960) was an art director, generally regarded as the most important and influential in the history of American film. The son of an architect, Austin Cedric Gibbons was born in Dublin, Ireland and emigrated with his family to New York City. He worked on his first film released in 1919 by Edison Studios but after his one film the studio was closed and he signed with Samuel Goldwyn. This evolved to working for Louis B. Mayer and a thity-two year career at MGM.

March 23, 1402

Yann V becomes Duke of Brittany, providing 43 years of economic prosperity and artistic creativity

John V, sometimes numbered as VI, (24 December 1389 – 29 August 1442) bynamed John the Wise (Breton: Yann ar Fur ; French: Jean le Sage), was Duke of Brittany and Count of Montfort from 1399 to his death. His rule coincided with the height of the Hundred Years’ War between England and France. John’s reversals in that conflict, as well as in other internal struggles in France, served to strengthen his duchy and to maintain its independence.