On January 23, 1822, the Ottoman troops occupied the Ioannina castle, where Ali Pasha with about 50 loyalists and his wife, Vasiliqia, remained surrounded.

On January 23, 1899, the National Assembly of Peja was held with Haxhi Zeka at the head. At the end of the 19th century, the lands inhabited by Albanians were again put in danger when the Balkan neighbors of the Albanians began to actively fight to take part of the territory of Macedonia, a dispute that would lead to the Balkan Wars. The disputed territory also included the four Albanian vilayets. Albanian patriots began preparations for the creation of a new organization to face these dangers in the fall of 1896. The assembly was organized, directed, and elected the chairman, Haxhi Zeka. He came up with an 11-point program which opposed the attempts to divide the Albanian lands. The general popular faith was also announced for one year.

On January 23, 1946, Mysine Kokalari, writer, anti-communist, was arrested. She had refused to give up her convictions for a pluralistic system and a free society. On June 2, 1946, Musine Kokalari was on trial, charged by the communists for collaboration with the fascist forces. She was sentenced to 25 years in prison, of which she served 16 years. In 1962, she was transferred from the prison premises to Rrëshen. The constant persecution and the lack of minimum conditions directly affected Musine’s literary activity. Only in 1972, Musine Kokalari managed to secretly finish her book entitled “How the Social Democratic Party was born” where she explains her anti-communist views and explains her progressive and democratic alternative.

On January 23, 1949, the painter Zef Kolombi passed away. He was born on March 3, 1907 in Sarajevo in a Shkodra family, with a Slovenian mother. He studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome. After graduation, he was appointed a drawing teacher at the Elbasan Normal School, where he stayed for 10 years. In the last two years of his life, he fell ill with asthma and tuberculosis and died at the age of 42.

On January 23, 2007, Albanian actress Margarita Xhepa was awarded “Honorary Citizen” of Struga, Macedonia.

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