What Happened on November 23rd in History
30 historical events on this date
World War II: The Lotta Svärd Movement is disbanded under the terms of the armistice treaty in Finland after the Continuation War.
Lotta Svärd was a Finnish voluntary auxiliary paramilitary organisation for women. The women were called lotat in Finnish. Formed originally in 1918, it had a large membership undertaking volunteer...
French naval bombardment of Hai Phong, Vietnam, kills thousands of civilians.
Haiphong or Hai Phong is the third-largest city in Vietnam, with an area of 3,194.72 km2 (1,233.49 mi2). It includes Bạch Long Vĩ and Cát Hải islands in the Gulf of Tonkin. Haiphong has a population...
The Cocos Islands are transferred from the control of the United Kingdom to that of Australia.
The Cocos (Keeling) Islands, officially the Territory of Cocos (Keeling) Islands, are an Australian external territory located in the Indian Ocean, comprising a small archipelago approximately...
French President Charles de Gaulle declares in a speech in Strasbourg his vision for "Europe, from the Atlantic to the Urals".
The president of France, officially the president of the French Republic or president of the Republic, is the executive head of state of France, and the commander-in-chief of the French Armed...
The first episode of Doctor Who ("An Unearthly Child") is broadcast by the BBC, which is now the world's longest running science fiction drama.
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson, follows the adventures of the Doctor,...
Representatives of the People's Republic of China attend the United Nations, including the United Nations Security Council, for the first time.
The People's Republic of China is one of the members of the United Nations and is one of five permanent members of its Security Council. The Republic of China was one of the victorious Allies of...
The Soviet Union makes its final attempt at launching the N1 rocket.
The N1 was a super heavy-lift launch vehicle of the Soviet space program intended for crewed travel to the Moon and beyond. All four launch attempts between 1969 and 1972 failed. Studied and...
Sixty Ethiopian politicians, aristocrats, military officers, and other persons are executed by the provisional military government.
The Massacre of the Sixty, or Black Saturday, was an execution that took place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia commissioned by the Derg government against 60 imprisoned former government officials at...
Jacques Mayol is the first man to reach a depth of 100 m (330 ft) undersea without breathing equipment.
Jacques Mayol was a French diver and the holder of many world records in free diving. The 1988 film The Big Blue, directed by Luc Besson, was inspired by his life story and that of his friend, Enzo...
Cyclone kills about 1,000 people in eastern Sri Lanka.
The 1978 Sri Lanka Cyclone was one of the most destructive tropical cyclones to strike Sri Lanka since modern records began. The cyclone formed on November 17, 1978, and attained peak intensity on...
The Geneva Frequency Plan of 1975 goes into effect, realigning many of Europe's longwave and mediumwave broadcasting frequencies.
The Final Acts of the Regional Administrative LF/MF Broadcasting Conference Geneva, 1975 is the internationally agreed frequency plan which was drawn up to implement the provisions of the Final Acts...
The 6.9 Mw Irpinia earthquake shakes southern Italy with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme), killing 2,483–4,900, and injuring 7,700–8,934.
The 1980 Irpinia earthquake took place in Italy on 23 November 1980, with a moment magnitude of 6.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme). It left at least 2,483 people dead, at least...
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.
The Iran–Contra affair, also referred to as the Iran–Contra scandal, the Contragate, Iran Initiative, or simply Iran–Contra, was a political scandal in the United States that centered on arms...
Gunmen hijack EgyptAir Flight 648 en route from Athens to Cairo. When the plane lands in Malta, Egyptian commandos storm the aircraft, but 60 people die in the raid.
Aircraft hijacking is the unlawful seizure of an aircraft by an individual or a group. Dating from the earliest of hijackings, most cases involve the pilot being forced to fly according to the...
Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury announces in a statement that he is HIV-positive. He dies the following day.
Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1970 by Freddie Mercury, Brian May, and Roger Taylor, later joined by John Deacon (bass). Their earliest works were influenced by progressive rock,...
The first smartphone, the IBM Simon, is introduced at COMDEX in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The IBM Simon Personal Communicator is a cellular phone and personal digital assistant (PDA) designed by International Business Machines (IBM), released in 1994. Built on an x86 processor, the IBM...
Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 is hijacked, then crashes into the Indian Ocean off the coast of Comoros after running out of fuel, killing 125.
Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 was a scheduled international flight serving the route Addis Ababa–Nairobi–Brazzaville–Lagos–Abidjan. On 23 November 1996, the aircraft serving the flight, a Boeing...
The Budapest Convention on Cybercrime is signed in Budapest, Hungary.
The Convention on Cybercrime, also known as the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime or the Budapest Convention, is the first international treaty seeking to address Internet and computer crime...
Space Shuttle Endeavour launches on STS-113 to the International Space Station carrying the Expedition 6 crew and the P1 truss.
Space Shuttle Endeavour is a retired orbiter from NASA's Space Shuttle program and the fifth and final operational Shuttle built. It embarked on its first mission, STS-49, in May 1992 and its 25th...
Rose Revolution: Georgian president Eduard Shevardnadze resigns following weeks of mass protests over flawed elections.
The Rose Revolution or Revolution of Roses was a nonviolent change of power that occurred in Georgia in November 2003. The event was brought about by widespread protests over the disputed...
The Holy Trinity Cathedral of Tbilisi, the largest religious building in Georgia, is consecrated.
The Holy Trinity Cathedral of Tbilisi, commonly known as Sameba, is the main cathedral of the Georgian Orthodox Church located in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. Constructed between 1995 and 2004,...
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is elected president of Liberia and becomes the first woman to lead an African country.
Ellen Eugenia Johnson Sirleaf is a Liberian politician who served as the 24th president of Liberia from 2006 to 2018. Sirleaf was the first elected female head of state in Africa.
A series of bombings 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.
The 2006 Sadr City bombings were a series of car bombs and mortar attacks in Iraq that occurred on 23 November at 15:10 Baghdad time and ended at 15:55. Six car bombs and two mortar rounds were used...
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.
MS Explorer or MV Explorer was a Liberian-registered cruise ship, used for Antarctic cruising. She was the first cruise ship to sink there, after striking an iceberg on 23 November 2007. All...
The Maguindanao massacre occurs in Ampatuan, Philippines; 58 opponents of Andal Ampatuan Jr. are kidnapped and killed.
The Maguindanao massacre occurred on the morning of November 23, 2009, in the town of Ampatuan in Maguindanao, Philippines. The 58 victims were on their way to file a certificate of candidacy for...
Bombardment of Yeonpyeong: North Korean artillery attack kills two civilians and two marines on Yeonpyeong Island, South Korea.
The Bombardment of Yeonpyeongdo was an artillery engagement between the North Korean military and South Korean forces stationed on the island Yeonpyeongdo on 23 November 2010. Following a South...
Arab Spring: After 11 months of protests in Yemen, Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh signs a deal to transfer power to the vice president, in exchange for legal immunity.
The Arab Spring was a series of pro-democracy anti-government protests, uprisings, and armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in Tunisia in response...
Blue Origin's New Shepard space vehicle became the first rocket to successfully fly to space and then return to Earth for a controlled, vertical landing.
Blue Origin Enterprises, L.P. is a private American space technology company headquartered in Kent, Washington. The company operates the suborbital New Shepard rocket and the heavy-lift New Glenn...
Founders of Italian fashion brand Dolce & Gabbana issue an apology following a series of offensive advertisements on social media promoting a fashion show in Shanghai, China, which was canceled.
Dolce & Gabbana, also known by initials D&G, is an Italian fashion house founded in 1985 in Legnano by Italian designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana. Stefano Gabbana stepped down as chair in...
The last Sumatran rhinoceros in Malaysia, Imam, dies, making the species officially extinct in the country.
The Sumatran rhinoceros, also known as the Sumatran rhino, hairy rhinoceros or Asian two-horned rhinoceros, is a rare member of the family Rhinocerotidae and one of five extant species of...