534BC Thespis of Icaria introduced the role of an actor, whose role it was to conduct a dialogue with the chorus. Competitions to find the best tragedy were instituted at the City Dionysia in Athens, and Thespis won the first documented competition on November 23, 534 BC. Capitalizing on his success, Thespis traveled around various cities while carrying his costumes, masks and other props in a horse-drawn wagon.
1644 Areopagitica; A speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, to the Parliament of England was a prose polemical tract by the English poet John Milton opposing licensing and censorship, which was published on November 23, 1644. It is considered to be among history's most influential and impassioned philosophical defenses of the principle of a right to freedom of speech and expression.
1654 Despite living in a fine mansion and mixing with high society, the French mathematician and inventor Blaise Pascal was unhappy and unsatisfied. In desperation he turned to his Bible and in the late hours of November 23, 1654, after reading the 17th chapter of the Gospel of John he had a profound mystical vision. After his mystical experience, Pascal took refuge in the Jansenist Catholic Monastery of Port Royal where his sister was already residing.
1804 Franklin Pierce, the 14th President of the United States, was born on November 23, 1804, in Hillsborough, New Hampshire. As president, he faced criticism for being a Northerner who sympathized with the South. Pierce's support of the Kansas–Nebraska Act and enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act did little to dispel this reputation, and his time in office is regarded to have led to the Civil War. Many view him as one of the worst US presidents ever.
1835 On November 23, 1835, Henry Burden of Troy, New York, developed the first machine for manufacturing horseshoes. This invention significantly increased the efficiency of horseshoe production, as it could produce multiple horseshoes in a shorter amount of time compared to traditional hand forging methods. Burden later oversaw the production of most of the horseshoes used by the Union cavalry during the American Civil War.
1852 The first pillar boxes in the UK come into use in St Helier, Jersey on November 23, 1852. They were introduced by the novelist Anthony Trollope, who also worked for the Postal Service. Red became the official color of UK post boxes in 1874. The earliest boxes were green, to fit in with natural surroundings, but many people complained they couldn’t find them.
1859 William H. "Billy the Kid" Bonney was born in New York City on November 23, 1859. Bonney moved west with his family to Indiana and then New Mexico. He was arrested for the first time for stealing a basket of laundry six days after his 16th birthday. Bonney's notoriety grew in December 1880 when the Las Vegas Gazette in Las Vegas, New Mexico, and The Sun in New York City carried stories about his crimes. He was shot dead at age twenty-one by sheriff Pat Garrett.
1899 The world's first jukebox was installed at the Palais Royal Hotel in San Francisco on November 23, 1899. At a nickel per play, the machine earned nearly $1000 during the first six months of operation. Early manufacturers of Jukeboxes never referred to them as "jukeboxes", they called them Automatic Coin-Operated Phonographs. The term "juke" is Southern US slang for dancing.
1924 It was American astronomer Edwin Hubble who discovered that Andromeda, previously believed to be a nebula, is actually another galaxy, and that the Milky Way is only one of many such galaxies in the universe. His findings were first published in The New York Times on November 23, 1924. Hubble's name is most widely recognized for the Hubble Space Telescope, which was named in his honor.
1959 The flag of Niger has been the national symbol of the West African Republic of Niger since November 23, 1959, eight and a half months prior to its formal independence from France.
The flag uses the national colors of orange, white and green, in equal horizontal bands, with an orange rondel in the center.
1963 Doctor Who is the world's longest-running science fiction TV series. It first appeared on BBC TV at 17:16 and 20 seconds GMT on November 23, 1963. The first episode, titled "An Unearthly Child," was 80 seconds later than the scheduled program time, due to the assassination of John F. Kennedy the previous day.
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| Thespis' wagon, relief of the Giotto's Belltower in Florence, by I, Sailko, |
1644 Areopagitica; A speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, to the Parliament of England was a prose polemical tract by the English poet John Milton opposing licensing and censorship, which was published on November 23, 1644. It is considered to be among history's most influential and impassioned philosophical defenses of the principle of a right to freedom of speech and expression.
1654 Despite living in a fine mansion and mixing with high society, the French mathematician and inventor Blaise Pascal was unhappy and unsatisfied. In desperation he turned to his Bible and in the late hours of November 23, 1654, after reading the 17th chapter of the Gospel of John he had a profound mystical vision. After his mystical experience, Pascal took refuge in the Jansenist Catholic Monastery of Port Royal where his sister was already residing.
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| Portrait of Pascal |
1804 Franklin Pierce, the 14th President of the United States, was born on November 23, 1804, in Hillsborough, New Hampshire. As president, he faced criticism for being a Northerner who sympathized with the South. Pierce's support of the Kansas–Nebraska Act and enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act did little to dispel this reputation, and his time in office is regarded to have led to the Civil War. Many view him as one of the worst US presidents ever.
1835 On November 23, 1835, Henry Burden of Troy, New York, developed the first machine for manufacturing horseshoes. This invention significantly increased the efficiency of horseshoe production, as it could produce multiple horseshoes in a shorter amount of time compared to traditional hand forging methods. Burden later oversaw the production of most of the horseshoes used by the Union cavalry during the American Civil War.
1852 The first pillar boxes in the UK come into use in St Helier, Jersey on November 23, 1852. They were introduced by the novelist Anthony Trollope, who also worked for the Postal Service. Red became the official color of UK post boxes in 1874. The earliest boxes were green, to fit in with natural surroundings, but many people complained they couldn’t find them.
1859 William H. "Billy the Kid" Bonney was born in New York City on November 23, 1859. Bonney moved west with his family to Indiana and then New Mexico. He was arrested for the first time for stealing a basket of laundry six days after his 16th birthday. Bonney's notoriety grew in December 1880 when the Las Vegas Gazette in Las Vegas, New Mexico, and The Sun in New York City carried stories about his crimes. He was shot dead at age twenty-one by sheriff Pat Garrett.
1899 The world's first jukebox was installed at the Palais Royal Hotel in San Francisco on November 23, 1899. At a nickel per play, the machine earned nearly $1000 during the first six months of operation. Early manufacturers of Jukeboxes never referred to them as "jukeboxes", they called them Automatic Coin-Operated Phonographs. The term "juke" is Southern US slang for dancing.
1924 It was American astronomer Edwin Hubble who discovered that Andromeda, previously believed to be a nebula, is actually another galaxy, and that the Milky Way is only one of many such galaxies in the universe. His findings were first published in The New York Times on November 23, 1924. Hubble's name is most widely recognized for the Hubble Space Telescope, which was named in his honor.
1959 The flag of Niger has been the national symbol of the West African Republic of Niger since November 23, 1959, eight and a half months prior to its formal independence from France.
The flag uses the national colors of orange, white and green, in equal horizontal bands, with an orange rondel in the center.
1963 Doctor Who is the world's longest-running science fiction TV series. It first appeared on BBC TV at 17:16 and 20 seconds GMT on November 23, 1963. The first episode, titled "An Unearthly Child," was 80 seconds later than the scheduled program time, due to the assassination of John F. Kennedy the previous day.
1965 In 1965, the Beatles began making music videos so they could promote their record releases without having to make in-person appearances. Their first batch of promotional films shot on November 23, 1965 at a film studio in London, included one of the Fab Four lip-synching to "Day Tripper." That film was aired on the TV special The Music Of Lennon and McCartney which was first broadcast the following month in the UK.
1976 Diving daredevil Jacques Mayol became the first man to reach a depth of 100 m (330 ft) undersea without breathing equipment on November 23, 1976. He followed up the record in 1983 with a free dive to 105 metres (346 ft) at the age of 56. Mayol's life formed the basis of Luc Besson's 1988 film The Big Blue, which he co-wrote.
1990 British author Roald Dahl died on the morning of November 23, 1990 in Oxford, England from myelodysplastic syndrome, aged 74. Dahl had a Viking-esque funeral, linked to his Norwegian descent. He was buried with his snooker cues, some good burgundy, chocolates, HB pencils and a powersaw.
1992 The world's first smartphone, the IBM Simon Personal Communicator (simply known as IBM Simon) was first introduced on November 23, 1992, at the COMDEX computer and technology trade show in Las Vegas. When it was released in 1994, the device cost $899, and had only one third party app.
1993 Rachel Whiteread was awarded the £20,000 Turner Prize for Best British Contemporary Artist at the Tate Gallery on November 23, 1993 for her "House." Outside the gallery just minutes later, the anti-Turner Prize K Foundation awarded her £40,000 for Worst Artist Of The Year. She accepted the money.
2015 American Pfizer and Irish Allergan agreed to a merger on November 23, 2015 that would have created the world's largest pharmaceutical company. The two companies terminated the merger agreement the following April after the Obama administration and the United States Department of the Treasury introduced new laws intended to limit corporate inversions.
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