November 23

November 23 is the 327th day of the year (328th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 38 days remaining.

Events

• 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.
• 1644 - Areopagitica by John Milton is published.
• 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 were hanged in Manchester, England for rescueing two Irish men from jail.
• 1869 - In Dumbarton, Scotland, the clipper Cutty Sark is launched - one of the last clippers ever to be built, and the only one still surviving to this day.
• 1876 - Corrupt Tammany Hall leader William Marcy Tweed (better known as Boss Tweed) is delivered to authorities in New York City after being captured in Spain.
• 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 Queen.
• 1903 - Colorado Governor James Peabody sends the state militia into the town of Cripple Creek to break up a miners' strike.
• 1934 - An Anglo-Ethiopian boundary commission in the Ogaden discovers an Italian garrison at Walwal, which lay well within Ethiopian territory. This leads to the Abyssinia Crisis.
• 1936 - The first edition of Life is published.
• 1943 - 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.
• 1954 - For the first time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above the peak it reached just before the 1929 crash.
• 1955 - The Cocos Islands are transferred from the control of the United Kingdom to Australia.
• 1958 - Have Gun, Will Travel debuts on radio.
• 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."
• 1960 - The long-running serial, Ma Perkins, airs its last episode on CBS radio.
• 1963 - The first episode of the science fiction television series Doctor Who debuts on the BBC.
• 1971 - The People's Republic of China is given Taiwan's seat on the United Nations Security Council. (See China and the United Nations)
• 1979 - In Dublin, Ireland, 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 scandal: 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.
• 1984 - Boston College quarterback Doug Flutie throws a game-winning 48-yard Hail Mary pass to Gerard Phelan to defeat the University of Miami Hurricanes 45-41. It is one of the most famous plays in American college football history.
• 1985 - Gunmen hijack EgyptAir Flight 648 while en route from Athens to Cairo. When the plane lands in Malta, Egyptian commandos storm the hijacked jetliner, but 60 people die in the raid.
• 1991 - Queen frontman Freddie Mercury announces that he has AIDS. He dies the next day.
• 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 after running out of fuel off the coast of Comoros into the Indian Ocean, killing 127.
• 1996 - The Republic of Angola officially joins the World Trade Organization.
• 2003 - Georgian president Eduard Shevardnadze resigns following weeks of mass protests over flawed elections.
• 2003 - Berkeley Breathed begins the comic strip Opus.
• 2003 - DNA tests prove that Charles Lindbergh fathered three children by a German woman, and may have fathered two more children by the woman's sister.
• 2004 - World of Warcraft goes live in North America, Australia and New Zealand.
• 2005 - Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey announce their separation after months of speculation that their marriage was kaput.

Births

• 912 - Otto I the Great, 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, U.S. statesman (d. 1800)
• 1760 - François-Noël Babeuf, French revolutionary (d. 1797)
• 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)
• 1860 - Billy the Kid, American bandit (d. 1881)
• 1860 - Hjalmar Branting, Prime Minister of Sweden, and Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1925)
• 1864 - Henry Bourne Joy, American automobile executive (d. 1936)
• 1869 - Valdemar Poulsen, Danish engineer (d. 1942)
• 1875 - Anatoly Lunacharsky, Russian literary critic and politician (d. 1933)
• 1876 - Manuel de Falla, Spanish composer (d. 1946)
• 1887 - Eduardo Corrochio, Spanish-born dancer (d. 1943)
• 1887 - Boris Karloff, British actor (d. 1969)
• 1888 - Harpo Marx, American comedian (d. 1964)
• 1890 - El Lissitzky, Russian artist and architect (d. 1941)
• 1892 - Erté, French artist (d. 1990)
• 1897 - Nirad C. Chaudhuri, Indian writer (d. 1999)
• 1902 - Victor Jory, Canadian actor (d. 1982)
• 1907 - Lars Leksell, Swedish physician (d. 1986)
• 1909 - Nigel Tranter, British historian and writer (d. 2000)
• 1920 - Paul Celan, Romanian-born German poet (d. 1970)
• 1921 - Fred Buscaglione, Italian singer and actor (d. 1960)
• 1922 - Manuel Fraga Iribarne, president of Spanish Galicia
• 1923 - R.L. Burnside, American musician (d. 2005)
• 1923 - Billy Haughton, American harness driver and trainer (d. 1986)
• 1924 - Colin Macmillan Turnbull, British-born anthropologist (d. 1994)
• 1925 - Johnny Mandel, American songwriter
• 1925 - José Napoleón Duarte, President of El Salvador (d. 1990)
• 1926 - Sathya Sai Baba, Indian "God-man", widely believed to be Avatar of the age
• 1931 - Dervla Murphy, Irish traveller and author
• 1933 - Krzysztof Penderecki, Polish composer
• 1934 - Robert Towne, American writer, director, producer, and actor
• 1934 - Lew Hoad, Australian tennis player (d. 1994)
• 1935 - Vladislav Volkov, Soviet cosmonaut (d. 1971)
• 1941 - Franco Nero, Italian actor
• 1943 - Andrew Goodman, American civil rights activist (d. 1964)
• 1943 - Sue Nicholls (The Honourable Susan Frances Harmer Nicholls), British actress
• 1944 - Joe Eszterhas, Hungarian-born film producer and writer
• 1944 - James Toback, American writer and director
• 1945 - Steve Landesberg, American actor
• 1953 - Francis Cabrel, French singer
• 1954 - Bruce Hornsby, American musician
• 1955 - Steven Brust, American author
• 1955 - Ludovico Einaudi, Italian composer and pianist
• 1956 - Steve Harvey, American actor and comedian
• 1959 - Maxwell Caulfield, British actor
• 1959 - Dominique Dunne, American actress (d. 1982)
• 1968 - Hamid Hassani, Iranian lexicographer
• 1970 - Zoë Ball, British television and radio presenter
• 1974 - Jamie Sharper, American football player
• 1975 - Dan Portnoy, American Comedian, Innovator
• 1977 - Myriam Boileau, Canadian diver

Deaths

• 1407 - Louis of Valois, Duke of Orléans, brother of Charles VI of France (murdered) (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)
• 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)
• 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)
• 1902 - Walter Reed, American bacteriologist (b. 1851)
• 1923 - Urmuz, Romanian writer (b. 1883)
• 1937 - Jagdish Chandra Bose, Indian physicist (b. 1858)
• 1966 - Sean O'Kelly, President of Ireland (b. 1882)
• 1973 - Sessue Hayakawa, Japanese actor (b. 1889)
• 1974 - Cornelius Ryan, Irish-born author (b. 1920)
• 1979 - Merle Oberon, British actress (b. 1911)
• 1979 - Judee Sill, American musician and songwriter (b. 1944)
• 1990 - Roald Dahl, British author (b. 1916)
• 1991 - Klaus Kinski, German actor (b. 1926)
• 1992 - Roy Acuff, American musician (b. 1903)
• 1992 - Jean-François Thiriart, Belgian politician (b. 1922)
• 1995 - Louis Malle, French director (b. 1932)
• 1995 - Junior Walker, American musician (b. 1931)
• 2002 - Roberto Matta, Chilean painter (b. 1911)
• 2004 - Pete Franklin, American talk radio host (b. 1928)
• 2005 - Frank Gatski, Pro Football Hall of Fame center

Holidays and observances

• R.C. Saints - Pope Clement I, Saint Columban
• Bahá'í Faith - Feast of Qawl (Speech) - First day of the 14th month of the Bahá'í Calendar
• Georgia - St George's Day
• Japan - Kinro kansha no hi (Labour Thanksgiving Day)
• Slovenia - Rudolf Maister Day

External links

• BBC: On This Day

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November 22 - November 24 - October 23 - December 23 -- listing of all days