Events
of the day
534
BC – Thespis of Icaria becomes the first
recorded actor to portray a character onstage.
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
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.
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 – Life magazine is reborn as a photo
magazine and enjoys instant success.
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.
1972 – The Soviet Union makes its final
attempt at successfully launching N-1 Rocket.
1972 – The intel 4004, first microporecesor
was released.
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 3,000 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 – Rose Revolution: the Georgian president
Eduard Shevardnadze resigns following weeks
of mass protests over flawed elections.
2004 – The Holy Trinity Cathedral of Tbilisi,
the largest religious building in Georgia,
is consecrated.
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 injures 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.
2011 – Arab Spring: After 11 months of protests
in Yemen, The Yemeni president Ali Abdullah
Saleh signs a deal to transfer power to
the vice president, in exchange for legal
immunity.
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)
For details, contact Datacentre