TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON: NOV 23
1248 The city of Seville, Spain, surrenders to Ferdinand III of Castile after a two-year siege.
1644 “Areopagitica”, a pamphlet by John Milton decrying censorship, is published
1765 People of Frederick County MD refuse to pay England’s Stamp tax
1785 John Hancock is elected president of the Continental Congress for the second time.
1889 The first jukebox was installed at the Palais Royal Saloon in San Francisco.
1890 Princess Wilhelmina became Queen of the Netherlands at the age of 10 when her father William III died.
1909 The Wright brothers form a million-dollar corporation for the commercial manufacture of their airplanes
1910 Last person to be executed in Sweden
1921 President Warren G. Harding signs the Willis Campell Act, better known as the anti-beer bill. It forbids doctors to prescribe beer or liquor for medicinal purposes
1934 The United States and Great Britain agree on a 5-5-3 naval ratio, with both countries allowed to build five million tons of naval ships while Japan can only build three. Japan will denounce the treaty.
1936 First issue of Life magazine hit the newsstands. The cover photograph, by Margaret Bourke-White, featured the Fort Peck Dam.
1941 U.S. troops move into Dutch Guiana to guard the bauxite mines.
1945 Wartime meat and butter rationing ends in the United States.
1953 North Korea signs 10-year aid pact with Peking.
1963 Doctor Who debuts on TV
1981 US Pres. Ronald Reagan signs top secret directive giving the CIA authority to recruit and support Contra rebels in Nicaragua.
1985 58 die as Egyptian commandos storm hijacked Egyptair jet in Malta
1985 Retired CIA analyst Larry Wu-tai Chin, arrested of spying for China
1992 The first Smartphone, IBM Simon, introduced at COMDEX in Las Vegas, Nevada.
1994 About 111 people, mostly women and children, were killed in a stampede after Indian police baton-charged tribal protesters in the western city of Nagpur.
1998 A U.S. federal judge rejected a Virginia county’s effort to block pornography on library computer calling the attempt unconstitutional.
2005 Ellen Johnson Sirleaf elected president of Liberia; she is the first woman to lead an African nation.
2006 In the second-deadliest day of sectarian violence in Iraq since the beginning of the 2003 war, 215 people are killed and nearly 260 injured by bombs in Sadr City.
2009 Maguindanao massacre in the Philippines
Considered to be the worst attack on journalists in recorded history, the massacre occurred in the southern Philippines, when 57 citizens and journalists en route to register voters in Esmael Mangudadatu for the upcoming gubernatorial elections, were killed by gunmen and buried. 34 journalists were killed on the day.
2018 US Federal Climate report finds climate change will reduce economy by 10% by 2100 with $141 billion cost from heat-related deaths, $118 billion from sea level rise
2019 Sumatran rhino officially declared extinct in Malaysia after last known specimen, 25-year-old Iman, dies of cancer in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo
REFERENCES: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeoplehistory.com, timeandate.com, factmonster.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
