November 23

November 23 in recent years

2023 (Thursday)

2022 (Wednesday)

2021 (Tuesday)

2020 (Monday)

2019 (Saturday)

2018 (Friday)

2017 (Thursday)

2016 (Wednesday)

2015 (Monday)

2014 (Sunday)

November 23 is the 327th day of the year (328th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 38 days remain until the end of the year.

Events

• 534 BC – Thespis of Icaria becomes the first actor to portray a character onstage.
• 1227 – Polish Prince Leszek I the White is assassinated at an assembly of Piast dukes at Gąsawa.
• 1248 – Conquest of Seville by the Christian troops under King Ferdinand III of Castile.
• 1499 – Pretender to the throne Perkin Warbeck is hanged for reportedly attempting to escape from the Tower of London. He had invaded England in 1497, claiming to be the lost son of King Edward IV of England.
• 1510 – First campaign of Ottoman Empire against Kingdom of Imereti (modern western Georgia). Ottoman armies sack its capital Kutaisi and burn Gelati Monastery.
• 1531 – The Second war of Kappel results in the dissolution of the Protestant alliance in Switzerland.
• 1644 – John Milton publishes Areopagitica, a pamphlet decrying censorship.
• 1808 – French and Poles defeat the Spanish at battle of Tudela
• 1844 – Independence of the Duke of Schleswig-Holstein from Denmark.
• 1863 – American Civil War: Battle of Chattanooga begins – Union forces led by General Ulysses S. Grant reinforce troops at Chattanooga, Tennessee and counter-attack Confederate troops.
• 1867 – The Manchester Martyrs are hanged in Manchester, England for killing a police officer while freeing two Irish nationalists from custody.
• 1876 – Corrupt Tammany Hall leader William Magear Tweed (better known as Boss Tweed) is delivered to authorities in New York City after being captured in Spain.
• 1889 – The first jukebox goes into operation at the Palais Royale Saloon in San Francisco.
• 1890 – King William III of the Netherlands dies without a male heir and a special law is passed to allow his daughter Princess Wilhelmina to become his heir.
• 1903 – Governor of Colorado James Peabody sends the state militia into the town of Cripple Creek to break up a miners' strike.
• 1910 – Johan Alfred Ander becomes the last person to be executed in Sweden.
• 1914 – Mexican Revolution: The last of U.S. forces withdraw from Veracruz, occupied seven months earlier in response to the Tampico Affair.
• 1918 – Heber J. Grant succeeds Joseph F. Smith as the seventh president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
• 1934 – An Anglo-Ethiopian boundary commission in the Ogaden discovers an Italian garrison at Walwal, well within Ethiopian territory. This leads to the Abyssinia Crisis.
• 1936 – The first edition of Life is published.
• 1940 – World War II: Romania becomes a signatory of the Tripartite Pact, officially joining the Axis Powers.
• 1943 – World War II: The Deutsche Opernhaus on Bismarckstraße in the Berlin neighborhood of Charlottenburg is destroyed. It will eventually be rebuilt in 1961 and be called the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
• 1943 – World War II: Tarawa and Makin atolls fall to American forces.
• 1946 – French Navy fire in Hai Phong, Viet Nam, kills 6,000 civilians.
• 1955 – The Cocos Islands are transferred from the control of the United Kingdom to Australia.
• 1959 – General Charles de Gaulle, President of France, declares in a speech in Strasbourg his vision for a "Europe, "from the Atlantic to the Urals."
• 1963 – The BBC broadcasts the first ever episode of Doctor Who (starring William Hartnell) which is the world's longest running science fiction drama.
• 1971 – Representatives of the People's Republic of China attend the United Nations, including the United Nations Security Council, for the first time.
• 1976 – Apneist Jacques Mayol is the first man to reach a depth of 100 m undersea without breathing equipment.
• 1979 – In Dublin, Ireland, Provisional Irish Republican Army member Thomas McMahon is sentenced to life in prison for the assassination of Lord Mountbatten.
• 1980 – A series of earthquakes in southern Italy kills approximately 4,800 people.
• 1981 – Iran-Contra Affair: Ronald Reagan signs the top secret National Security Decision Directive 17 (NSDD-17), giving the Central Intelligence Agency the authority to recruit and support Contra rebels in Nicaragua.
• 1985 – Gunmen hijack EgyptAir Flight 648 while en route from Athens to Cairo. When the plane lands in Malta, Egyptian commandos storm the aircraft, but 60 people die in the raid.
• 1990 – The first all woman expedition to the South Pole (3 Americans, 1 Japanese and 12 Russians), sets off from Antarctica on the 1st leg of a 70 day, 1287 kilometre ski trek.
• 1993 – Rachel Whiteread wins both the £20,000 Turner Prize award for best British modern artist and the £40,000 K Foundation art award for the worst artist of the year.
• 1996 – Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 is hijacked, then crashes into the Indian Ocean off the coast of Comoros after running out of fuel, killing 125.
• 2001 – The Convention on Cybercrime is signed in Budapest, Hungary.
• 2003 – Georgian president Eduard Shevardnadze resigns following weeks of mass protests over flawed elections.
• 2005 – Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is elected president of Liberia and becomes the first woman to lead an African country.
• 2006 – A series of bombing kills at least 215 people and injured 257 others in Sadr City, making it the second deadliest sectarian attack since the beginning of the Iraq War in 2003.
• 2007 – MS Explorer, a cruise liner carrying 154 people, sinks in the Antarctic Ocean south of Argentina after hitting an iceberg near the South Shetland Islands. There are no fatalities.
• 2009 – The Maguindanao massacre occurs in Ampatuan, Maguindanao, Mindanao, Philippines
• 2010 – The Bombardment of Yeonpyeong occurs on Yeonpyeong Island, South Korea. The North Korean artillery attack kills 2 civilians and 2 South Korean marines.

Births

• 912 – Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 973)
• 1221 – King Alfonso X of Castile (d. 1284)
• 1402 – Jean de Dunois, French soldier (d. 1468)
• 1417 – William FitzAlan, 16th Earl of Arundel, English politician (d. 1487)
• 1553 – Prospero Alpini, Italian physician and botanist (d. 1617)
• 1616 – John Wallis, English mathematician (d. 1703)
• 1632 – Jean Mabillon, French palaeographer and diplomat (d. 1707)
• 1641 – Anthonie Heinsius, Dutch statesman (d. 1720)
• 1705 – Thomas Birch, English historian (d. 1766)
• 1715 – Pierre Charles Le Monnier, French astronomer (d. 1799)
• 1719 – Spranger Barry, Irish actor (d. 1777)
• 1749 – Edward Rutledge, American statesman (d. 1800)
• 1760 – François-Noël Babeuf, French revolutionary figure (d. 1797)
• 1781 – Theodor Valentin Volkmar, German politician (d. 1847)
• 1785 – Jan Roothaan, Dutch priest (d. 1853)
• 1803 – Theodore Dwight Weld, American abolitionist (d. 1895)
• 1804 – Franklin Pierce, 14th President of the United States (d. 1869)
• 1820 – Isaac Todhunter, British mathematician (d. 1884)
• 1837 – Johannes Diderik van der Waals, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1923)
• 1838 – Stephanos Skouloudis, Greek banker and diplomat (d. 1928)
• 1859 – Billy the Kid, American outlaw (d. 1881)
• 1860 – Hjalmar Branting, Swedish diplomat; Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1925)
• 1861 – Konstantin Korovin, Russian painter (d. 1939)
• 1864 – Henry Bourne Joy, American automobile executive (d. 1936)
• 1869 – Valdemar Poulsen, Danish engineer (d. 1942)
• 1871 – William Watt, Premier of Victoria, Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives (d. 1946)
• 1875 – Anatoly Lunacharsky, Russian literary critic and politician (d. 1933)
• 1876 – Manuel de Falla, Spanish composer (d. 1946)
• 1883 – José Clemente Orozco, Mexican painter (d. 1949)
• 1887 – Eduardo Corrochio, Spanish dancer (d. 1943)
• 1887 – Boris Karloff, British actor (d. 1969)
• 1887 – Henry Moseley, English physicist (d. 1915)
• 1888 – Harpo Marx, American comedian (d. 1964)
• 1889 – Harry Sunderland, Australian rugby league administrator and journalist (d. 1964)
• 1890 – El Lissitzky, Russian artist and architect (d. 1941)
• 1892 – Erté, French artist (d. 1990)
• 1896 – Venere Pizzinato, Italian supercentenarian (d. 2011)
• 1896 – Tsunenohana Kan'ichi, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 31st Yokozuna (d. 1960)
• 1897 – Nirad C. Chaudhuri, Indian writer (d. 1999)
• 1897 – Karl Gebhardt, German Nazi figure (d. 1948)
• 1899 – Manuel dos Reis Machado, Brazilian martial artist (d. 1974)
• 1902 – Aaron Bank, American Office of Strategic Services figure (d. 2004)
• 1902 – Victor Jory, Canadian actor (d. 1982)
• 1907 – Lars Leksell, Swedish physician (d. 1986)
• 1908 – Nelson S. Bond, American writer (d. 2006)
• 1909 – Nigel Tranter, British historian and writer (d. 2000)
• 1912 – George O'Hanlon, American actor (d. 1989)
• 1914 – Roger Avon, English actor (d. 1998)
• 1915 – John Dehner, American actor (d. 1992)
• 1916 – Michael Gough, English actor (d. 2011)
• 1916 – P. K. Page, Canadian poet (d. 2010)
• 1920 – Paul Celan, Romanian-born German poet (d. 1970)
• 1920 – Wayne Thiebaud, American painter
• 1921 – Fred Buscaglione, Italian singer and actor (d. 1960)
• 1922 – Manuel Fraga Iribarne, Spanish Galicia politician
• 1923 – Daniel Brewster, American politician (d. 2007)
• 1923 – R. L. Burnside, American musician (d. 2005)
• 1923 – Billy Haughton, American harness driver and trainer (d. 1986)
• 1924 – Paula Raymond, American actress (d. 2003)
• 1924 – Colin Turnbull, British anthropologist (d. 1994)
• 1924 – Anita Linda, Filipino actress
• 1925 – Johnny Mandel, American songwriter
• 1925 – José Napoleón Duarte, Salvadoran politician (d. 1990)
• 1926 – Sathya Sai Baba, Indian guru and philosopher (d. 2011)
• 1927 – Guy Davenport, American author and scholar (d. 2005)
• 1927 – Angelo Sodano, Italian prelate and Cardinal
• 1928 – Jerry Bock, American musical theatre composer (d. 2010)
• 1929 – Hal Lindsey, American evangelist
• 1930 – Jack McKeon, American baseball manager
• 1931 – Gloria Lynne, American singer
• 1932 – Michel David-Weill, French investment banker
• 1933 – Ali Shariati, Iranian sociologist and revolutionary
• 1933 – Krzysztof Penderecki, Polish composer
• 1934 – Lew Hoad, Australian tennis player (d. 1994)
• 1934 – Robert Towne, American screenwriter and director
• 1935 – Vladislav Volkov, Soviet cosmonaut (d. 1971)
• 1936 – Robert Barnard, British mystery writer
• 1938 – Esko Nikkari, Finnish actor
• 1939 – Betty Everett, American singer (d. 2001)
• 1940 – Luis Tiant, Cuban baseball player
• 1941 – Franco Nero, Italian actor
• 1942 – Susan Anspach, American actress
• 1943 – Andrew Goodman, American civil rights activist (d. 1964)
• 1943 – Sue Nicholls, British actress
• 1943 – David Nolan, American political activist (d. 2010)
• 1944 – Joe Eszterhas, Hungarian-born American producer and screenwriter
• 1944 – James Toback, American writer and director
• 1945 – Jim Doyle, American politician
• 1945 – Keith Hampshire, English singer-songwriter
• 1945 – Jerry Harris, American sculptor
• 1945 – Steve Landesberg, American actor and comedian (d. 2010)
• 1945 – Dennis Nilsen, Scottish serial killer
• 1946 – Giorgos Koudas, Greek footballer
• 1946 – Diana Quick, English actress
• 1946 – Bobby Rush, American politician
• 1947 – Jean-Pierre Foucault, French television host
• 1948 – Bruce Vilanch, American comedy writer
• 1948 – Frank Worthington, English footballer
• 1949 – Tom Joyner, American radio personality
• 1949 – Sandra Stevens, British singer (Brotherhood of Man)
• 1949 – Jerry verDorn, American actor
• 1950 – Chuck Schumer, American politician
• 1951 – David Rappaport, English actor (d. 1990)
• 1952 – Bill Troiano, American musician
• 1953 – Rick Bayless, American chef and restaurateur
• 1953 – Francis Cabrel, French singer
• 1953 – Johan de Meij, Dutch conductor and composer
• 1954 – Ross Brawn, English motorsport engineer and F1 team owner
• 1954 – Glenn Brummer, American baseball player
• 1954 – Bruce Hornsby, American musician
• 1955 – Steven Brust, American author
• 1955 – Ludovico Einaudi, Italian composer and pianist
• 1955 – Dinos Kouis, Greek footballer
• 1955 – Mary Landrieu, American politician
• 1959 – Maxwell Caulfield, British actor
• 1959 – Dominique Dunne, American actress (d. 1982)
• 1960 – Robin Roberts, American television reporter
• 1961 – Merv Hughes, Australian cricketer
• 1961 – Keith Ablow, American psychiatrist and author
• 1963 – Mamoru Takuma, Japanese convicted mass murderer and rapist (d. 2004)
• 1964 – Frank Rutherford, Bahamian athlete
• 1965 – Jennifer Michael Hecht, American poet and historian
• 1965 – J. T. the Brick, American sports talk radio host
• 1966 – Vincent Cassel, French actor
• 1966 – Jerry Kelly, American professional golfer
• 1967 – Gary Kirsten, South African cricketer
• 1967 – Salli Richardson, American actress
• 1968 – Hamid Hassani, Iranian scholar and lexicographer
• 1968 – Kirsty Young, Scottish television journalist
• 1969 – Jonathan Seet, Canadian singer
• 1970 – Zoë Ball, British television and radio presenter
• 1970 – Oded Fehr, Israeli actor
• 1970 – Danny Hoch, American actor
• 1970 – Karsten Mueller, German chess grandmaster and author
• 1971 – Lisa Arch, American actress
• 1971 – Vin Baker, American basketball player
• 1971 – Khalid Al-Muwallid, Saudi footballer
• 1972 – Chris Adler, American drummer (Lamb of God)
• 1972 – Alf-Inge Haaland, Norwegian footballer
• 1973 – Trick Daddy, American rapper
• 1974 – Juventud Guerrera, Mexican professional wrestler
• 1974 – Jamie Sharper, American football player
• 1974 – Saku Koivu, Finnish ice hockey player
• 1974 – Malik Rose, American basketball player
• 1976 – Page Kennedy, American actor
• 1976 – Murat Salar, Turkish footballer
• 1976 – Kohei Suwama, Japanese professional wrestler
• 1977 – Myriam Boileau, Canadian diver
• 1977 – Adam Eaton, American baseball player
• 1978 – Kayvan Novak, English actor
• 1978 – Alison Mosshart, American musician
• 1979 – Nihat Kahveci, Turkish footballer
• 1979 – Kelly Brook, English actress and model
• 1980 – Ishmael Beah, Sierra-Leone born American author
• 1980 – David Britz, American nano-technologist
• 1980 – Jonathan Papelbon, American baseball player
• 1982 – Colby Armstrong, Canadian ice-hockey player
• 1982 – Asafa Powell, Jamaican sprinter
• 1982 – Seth McCune, Accountant
• 1983 – Thomas Pridgen, American musician
• 1983 – Nasser Al-Shamrani, Saudi Arabian footballer
• 1984 – Lucas Grabeel, American actor and singer
• 1984 – Amruta Khanvilkar, Indian actress
• 1985 – Ahn Hyun-Soo, South Korean short track skater
• 1986 – Gia Johnson, British fashion model
• 1986 – Maxene Magalona, Filipina actress
• 1986 – Luigi Scaglia, Italian footballer
• 1987 – Nicklas Bäckström, Swedish ice hockey player
• 1987 – Nicole Polizzi, Chilean-born American television personality
• 1988 – Saab Magalona, Filipina actress
• 1992 – Miley Cyrus, American actress and singer
• 1998 – Bradley Steven Perry, American child actor

Deaths

• 947 – Berthold, Duke of Bavaria
• 955 – King Edred of England (b. c. 923)
• 1407 – Louis of Valois, Duke of Orléans, brother of Charles VI of France (b. 1372)
• 1457 – King Ladislaus Posthumus of Bohemia and Hungary (b. 1440)
• 1499 – Perkin Warbeck, Flemish imposter (b. 1474)
• 1503 – Margaret of York, wife of Charles I, Duke of Burgundy (b. 1446)
• 1503 – Bona of Savoy, Italian noblewoman (b. 1449)
• 1572 – Agnolo di Cosimo, Italian artist and poet (b. 1503)
• 1585 – Thomas Tallis, English composer (b. 1505)
• 1616 – Richard Hakluyt, English writer (b. 1552)
• 1682 – Claude Lorrain, French painter (b. 1604)
• 1763 – Friedrich Graf von Seckendorf, German soldier (b. 1673)
• 1769 – Prince Constantine Mavrocordatos of Wallachia and Moldavia (b. 1711)
• 1783 – Yoriyuki Arima, Japanese mathematician (b. 1714)
• 1803 – Roger Newdigate, British politician (b. 1719)
• 1804 – Richard Graves, British writer (b. 1715)
• 1807 – Jean-François Rewbell, French politician (b. 1747)
• 1814 – Elbridge Gerry, Vice President of the United States of America (b. 1744)
• 1833 – Jean-Baptiste Jourdan, French marshal (b. 1762)
• 1890 – King William III of the Netherlands (b. 1817)
• 1899 – Thomas Henry Ismay, British shipping company owner (b. 1837)
• 1902 – Walter Reed, American bacteriologist (b. 1851)
• 1905 – Sir John Scott Burdon-Sanderson, English physiologist (b. 1828)
• 1910 – Dr H.H. Crippen, American murderer executed in England (b. 1862)
• 1923 – Urmuz, Romanian writer (b. 1883)
• 1934 – Giovanni Brunero, Italian cyclist (b. 1895)
• 1937 – Jagdish Chandra Bose, Indian physicist (b. 1858)
• 1937 – George Albert Boulenger, Belgian naturalist (b. 1858)
• 1948 – Hack Wilson, American baseball player (b. 1900)
• 1958 – Johnston McCulley, American writer (b. 1883)
• 1966 – Seán T. O'Kelly, Irish politician (b. 1882)
• 1970 – Yusof bin Ishak, Singaporean politician (b. 1910)
• 1972 – Marie Wilson, American actress (b. 1916)
• 1973 – Sessue Hayakawa, Japanese actor (b. 1889)
• 1974 – Cornelius Ryan, Irish-born author (b. 1920)
• 1976 – André Malraux, French author (b. 1901)
• 1979 – Merle Oberon, British actress (b. 1911)
• 1979 – Judee Sill, American musician and songwriter (b. 1944)
• 1982 – Grady Nutt, American humorist (b. 1934)
• 1983 – Juhan Muks, Estonian artist (b. 1899)
• 1983 – Waheed Murad, Pakistani actor (b. 1938)
• 1990 – Roald Dahl, British author (b. 1916)
• 1990 – Bo Díaz, Venezuelan baseball player (b. 1953)
• 1991 – Klaus Kinski, German actor (b. 1926)
• 1992 – Roy Acuff, American country musician (b. 1903)
• 1992 – Jean-François Thiriart, Belgian politician (b. 1922)
• 1994 – Art Barr, American professional wrestler (b. 1966)
• 1994 – Tommy Boyce, American songwriter (b. 1939)
• 1995 – Louis Malle, French film director (b. 1932)
• 1995 – Junior Walker, American musician (b. 1931)
• 1996 – Mohamed Amin, Kenyan photojournalist (b. 1943)
• 1996 – Art Porter, Jr., American jazz musician (b. 1961)
• 1998 – Dan Osman, American rock climber (b. 1963)
• 1997 – Jorge Mas Canosa, Cuban anti-Fidel Castro activist (b. 1939)
• 2000 – Rayner Unwin, British book publisher (b. 1925)
• 2001 – Bo Belinsky, American baseball player (b. 1936)
• 2001 – O.C. Smith, American singer (b. 1932)
• 2001 – Mary Whitehouse, British social activist (b. 1910)
• 2002 – Roberto Matta, Chilean painter (b. 1911)
• 2004 – Pete Franklin, American talk radio host (b. 1928)
• 2005 – Constance Cummings, American-born British actress (b. 1910)
• 2005 – Frank Gatski, American football player (b. 1919)
• 2006 – Jesus Blancornelas, Mexican journalist (b. 1936)
• 2006 – Nick Clarke, English radio presenter (b. 1948)
• 2006 – Betty Comden, American lyricist (b. 1917)
• 2006 – Alexander Litvinenko, Russian spy (b. 1962)
• 2006 – Philippe Noiret, French actor (b. 1930)
• 2006 – Anita O'Day, American singer (b. 1919)
• 2006 – Willie Pep, American boxer (b. 1922)
• 2007 – Joe Kennedy, American baseball player (b. 1979)
• 2007 – Óscar Carmelo Sánchez, Bolivian footballer (b. 1971)
• 2007 – Pat Walsh, New Zealand rugby union footballer (b. 1936)
• 2009 – Juzefas Jurgelevičius, Lithuanian footballer (b. 1947)
• 2010 – Joyce Howard, British film actress (b. 1922)
• 2010 – Ingrid Pitt, Polish-born British actress (b. 1937)
• 2010 – James Tyler, American musicologist and author (b. 1940)

Holidays and observances

• Christian Feast Day:
  • Alexander Nevsky (Repose, Russian Orthodox Church)
  • Columbanus
  • Felicitas of Rome
  • Pope Clement I (Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, and the Lutheran Church)
  • November 23 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

• Earliest day on which Black Friday can fall, while November 29 is the latest; observed on the day after Thanksgiving. (United States), and its related observances:
• Feast of Qawl (Speech) – The first day of the 14th month of the Bahá'í calendar. (Bahá'í Faith)
• Labour Thanksgiving Day (Japan)
• Rudolf Maister Day (Slovenia)
• St George's Day or Giorgoba (Georgia)

External links

• BBC: On This Day
• The New York Times: On This Day
• On This Day in Canada

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