On this day: February 23

/on/february-23
1846 • neutral • 5 views

An 1846 English Coroner’s Inquiry Into a Sleepwalking Homicide

A 19th-century coroner’s inquest scene in a modest wood-paneled room illuminated by gaslight, with a simple bier, a few standing witnesses in period dress, and a physician taking notes.

On 23 February 1846 a coroner’s inquest in England examined a death widely reported as the first documented case of a person killing another while allegedly asleep; the verdict and contemporary debate highlighted legal and medical uncertainty about automatism.

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1846 • neutral • 6 views

The first documented sleepwalking homicide, 23 February 1846

Mid-19th-century courtroom scene with presiding judge, lawyers, and seated observers; candlelight or gaslight, period dress, no identifiable faces.

On 23 February 1846 a highly publicized British case recorded a man accused of killing while reportedly sleepwalking, an early legal and medical milestone that influenced 19th-century debates about criminal responsibility and somnambulism.

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1995 • neutral • 4 views

1995 case helps define 'false memory syndrome' in public debate

A 1990s newsroom scene with newspapers and a telephone on a cluttered desk, evoking media coverage of a high-profile 1995 case about contested memories.

On February 23, 1995, media coverage and advocacy around a contested clinical and legal claim coalesced into one of the first widely publicized uses of the term "false memory syndrome," prompting debate among clinicians, survivors and legal professionals about recovered memories of abuse.

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1976 • neutral • 6 views

FBI Opens Files on Bonnie and Clyde to the Public

Historic 1930s-era police squad cars and officers gathered near a rural roadside, with an unmarked dirt road and low scrub vegetation; scene evokes law-enforcement activity in the central United States during the Depression era.

The FBI released previously closed files on Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow on February 23, 1976, offering researchers and the public additional contemporaneous material about the notorious Depression-era outlaw duo and the Bureau’s investigation.

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