1. On October 23, 1780, British Major General Charles Cornwallis arrived in Princeton, New Jersey, where he set up his headquarters during the Revolutionary War. His presence there led to the Battle of Princeton, which was eventually won by the colonists.

2. In 1883, the famous inventor Thomas Edison opened his first electric power station in New Jersey on October 23. The station provided electricity to parts of the city of New York, and marked a significant milestone in the development of the modern electrical grid.

3. On October 23, 1910, the first intercity auto race in the United States was held in New Jersey. The race went from New York to Philadelphia, and was won by a driver named David Bruce-Brown, who completed the 287-mile course in just over six hours.

4. October 23, 1929 saw an important event in the history of movies when RCA, which owned the NBC radio network, launched the first television station in the United States. The station, W2XBS, was located in New Jersey, and broadcast to a few hundred television sets in the New York City area.

5. In 1971, the New Jersey Supreme Court made an important ruling on October 23 that had national implications for defendants' rights. The court ruled that defendants could be granted a new trial if their original trial involved any kind of systematic or unintentional racism or biased jury selection, a decision that helped to establish the principle of equal protection under the law.