WHAT HAPPENED ON 23. NOVEMBER
Want to find out what all happened on 23. November

Life magazine is reborn as a photo magazine and enjoys instant success. (23. November 1936)

World War II: Romania becomes a signatory of the Tripartite Pact, officially joining the Axis Powers. (23. November 1940)

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. (23. November 1943)

World War II: Tarawa and Makin atolls fall to American forces. (23. November 1943)

French bombing of Hai Phong, Viet Nam, kills thousands of civilians. (23. November 1946)

The Cocos Islands are transferred from the control of the United Kingdom to that of Australia. (23. November 1955)

French President Charles de Gaulle declares in a speech in Strasbourg his vision for "Europe, from the Atlantic to the Urals". (23. November 1959)

The BBC broadcasts the first episode of Doctor Who (starring William Hartnell), which is now the world's longest running science fiction drama. (23. November 1963)

Representatives of the People's Republic of China attend the United Nations, including the United Nations Security Council, for the first time. (23. November 1971)

The Soviet Union makes its final attempt at successfully launching the N-1 rocket. (23. November 1972)

60 Ethiopian politicians, aristocrats, military officers, and other persons are executed by the provisional military government. (23. November 1974)

Apneist Jacques Mayol is the first man to reach a depth of 100 m undersea without breathing equipment. (23. November 1976)

In Dublin, Ireland, Provisional Irish Republican Army member Thomas McMahon is sentenced to life in prison for the assassination of Lord Mountbatten. (23. November 1979)

A series of earthquakes in southern Italy kills approximately 3,000 people. (23. November 1980)

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. (23. November 1981)

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. (23. November 1985)

The first smartphone, the IBM Simon, is introduced at COMDEX in Las Vegas, Nevada. (23. November 1992)

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. (23. November 1993)

Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 is hijacked, then crashes into the Indian Ocean off the coast of Comoros after running out of fuel, killing 125. (23. November 1996)

The Convention on Cybercrime is signed in Budapest, Hungary. (23. November 2001)