February 23 in history: • 1725 – Johann Sebastian Bach premiered his Shepherd Cantata for the birthday of Christian, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels (pictured). → go there • 1854 – The Orange River Convention was signed in Bloemfontein, with the United Kingdom agreeing to recognise the independence of the Orange Free State in present-day South Africa. → go there • 1886 – American inventor Charles Martin Hall discovered an inexpensive method of producing aluminium. → go there • 1987 – SN 1987A, the first supernova that modern astronomers were able to study in great detail, was observed from Earth occurring in the Large Magellanic Cloud. → go there • 2021 – Riots in four Ecuadorian prisons, caused by gang rivalries, resulted in the deaths of 79 inmates. → go there Born 1133: al-Zafir Wiki link Born 1924: Allan MacLeod Cormack Wiki link Died 1934: Edward Elgar Wiki link Born 1997: Shiena Nishizawa Wiki link Pictured: Christian, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels.