November 23

Birthdays:

1959 ~ Dominique Dunne (d. Nov. 4, 1982), American actress.  She was murdered in by her boyfriend in a domestic violence dispute 19 days before her 23^rd birthday.

1955 ~ Mary Landrieu, American politician and senator from Louisiana.

1953 ~ Rick Bayless, American chef and restaurateur.  He owns the Topolobompo Mexican restaurant in Chicago.

1945 ~ Asaf “Assi” Dayan (d. May 1, 2014), Israeli actor and youngest son of Moshe Dayan.  He was 68 years old.

1944 ~ Joe Eszterhau, Hungarian-American screenwriter.

1943 ~ Andrew Goodman (d. June 21, 1964), American civil rights activist who was murdered on a Freedom March in Mississippi during Freedom Summer.  He was killed at age 20.

1940 ~ Luis Tiant, Cuban baseball player.  He had a long career with the Boston Red Sox.

1907 ~ Julius Albert Krug (d. Mar. 26, 1970), 33^rd United States Secretary of the Interior.  He served under President Harry S. Truman from March 1946 until December 1949.  He died at age 62.

1892 ~ Erté (né Romain de Tirtoff, d. Apr. 21, 1990), Russian-born French artist known for his art deco style.  He was known by the pseudonym, which is the French pronunciation of his initials, R.T.  He died at age 97.

1888 ~ Harpo Marx (né Adolph Marx, d. Sept. 28, 1964), second-oldest of the Marx brothers, American comedian and actor.  He died at age 75.

1887 ~ Boris Karloff (né William Henry Pratt, d. Feb. 2, 1969), British actor best known for his role in horror films.  He died of pneumonia and emphysema at age 81.

1860 ~ Hjalmar Branting (d. Feb. 24, 1925), Swedish diplomat and 16^th Prime Minister of Sweden.  He was the recipient of the 1921 Nobel Peace Prize.  He died at age 64.

1837 ~ Johannes Diderik van der Waals (d. Mar. 8, 1923), Dutch physicist and recipient of the 1910 Nobel Prize in Physics.  His name is associated with van der Waals forces.  He died at age 85.

1820 ~ Isaac Todhunter (d. Mar. 1, 1884), English mathematician.  He died at age 63.

1808 ~ Thomas Cook (d. July 18, 1892), English travel agent and founder of the Thomas Cook Group.  He died at age 83.

1804 ~ Franklin Pierce (d. Oct. 8, 1869), 14^th President of the United States.  He was President from March 1853 until March 1857.  He was from New Hampshire.  He died in Concord, New Hampshire at age 64.

1749 ~ Edward Rutledge (d. Jan. 23, 1800), American lawyer and statesman, and the South Carolina signer of the Declaration of Independence.  He was the Governor of South Carolina.  He died in Office at age 50.

1190 ~ Pope Clement IV (né Gui Foucois, d. Nov. 29, 1268).  He was Pope from February 1265 until his death 2 years later.  He died 6 days after his 78^th birthday.

912 ~ Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor (d. May 7, 973).  He reigned as Holy Roman Emperor from February 962 until his death 11 years later.  He died at age 60.

Events that Changed the World:

2017 ~ Thanksgiving Day in the United States.

2006 ~ Thanksgiving Day in the United States.

2005 ~ Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (b. 1938) was elected president of Liberia, becoming the first woman to lead an African country.

2000 ~ Thanksgiving Day in the United States.

1996 ~ Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 was hijacked and crashed into the Indian Ocean, killing 125 passengers and crew.

1985 ~ EgyptAir Flight 648 was hijacked en route from Athens to Cairo.  The plane landed in Malta and Egyptian commandos stormed the aircraft.  60 people were killed in the raid.

1980 ~ A series of earthquakes struck southern Italy killing over 3,000 people.

1963 ~ The BBC broadcast the first episode of Doctor Who, a science fiction drama.

1936 ~ Life magazine was first published as a photo magazine.

1924 ~ Edwin Hubble’s discovery that Andromeda was not within the Milky Way galaxy was first published.

1890 ~ Queen Wilhelmina (1880 ~ 1962) of the Netherlands ascended to the throne upon the death of her father, King William III (1817 ~ 1890).  He had died without a male heir and a special law was passed to allow his daughter, Princess Wilhelmina to become his heir.

1889 ~ The Palais Royale Saloon in San Francisco began using the first known commercial use of a jukebox.

1876 ~ Tammany Hall leader, William “Boss” Tweed (1823 ~ 1878) was brought to New York City after being arrested in Spain.

1863 ~ The Battle of Chattanooga during the American Civil War began.  Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant (né Hiram Ulysses Grant, 1822 ~ 1885) reinforced existing troops in Chattanooga to attach Confederate troops.

1644 ~ John Milton (1608 ~ 1674) published Aeropagitica, which spoke out against censorship.

1248 ~ Christian troops under King Ferdinand III of Castile conquered Seville, Spain.

Good-Byes:

2015 ~ Cynthia Robinson (b. Jan. 12, 1944), American trumpeter who was the soul of The Family Stone.  She died at age 71.

2015 ~ Douglass North (b. Nov. 5, 1920), American economist and recipient of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.  He died 18 days after his 95^th birthday.

2014 ~ Marion Barry, Jr. (b. Mar. 6, 1936), American politician and Mayor of Washington, D.C.  He was the charismatic Mayor who survived many scandals.  He died at age 78.

2014 ~ Dorothy May Sutton Bundy Cheney (b. Sept. 1, 1916), American tennis champion who improved with age.  She played tennis well into her 90s.  She died at age 98.

2012 ~ Larry Hagman (b. Sept. 21, 1931), American actor best known for his role as J.R. Ewing on the TV series, Dallas.  His mother was the stage actress, Mary Martin.  He died at age 81.

2010 ~ Ingrid Pitt (née Ingoushka Petrov, b. Nov. 21, 1937), Polish-born British actress known as the Queen of Horror, who knew the real thing after having survived the Holocaust.  She died of congestive heart failure two days after her 73^rd birthday.

1999 ~ Phoebe Snetsinger (b. June 9, 1931), American birdwatcher.  She had identified nearly 8,400 species at the time of her death at age 68 in a car accident in Madagascar.

1995 ~ Louis Malle (b. Oct. 30, 1932), French film director.  His third wife was Candice Bergen.  He died of lymphoma 24 days after his 63^rd birthday.

1991 ~ Klaus Kinski (né Klaus Günter Karl Nakszynski, b. Oct. 18, 1926), German actor.  He died of a heart attack at age 65.

1990 ~ Roald Dahl (b. Sept. 13, 1916), English author, best known for his children’s stories, James and the Giant Peach and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  His first wife was actress Patricia Neal.  He died at age 74.

1979 ~ Merle Oberon (née Estelle Merle O’Brien Thompson, b. Feb. 19, 1911), British actress.  She died at age 68.

1910 ~ Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen (b. Sept. 11, 1862), American homeopathitic physician and murderer.  He was convicted of murdering his wife.  He was hanged in England at age 48.  Erik Larson wrote about Dr. Crippen and his crimes in the book Thunderstruck.

1899 ~ Thomas Henry Ismay (b. Jan. 7, 1837), British shipping company owner and founder of the White Star Line, which later was the owner of The Titanic.  He died at age 62.

1890 ~ King William III of the Netherlands (b. Feb. 19, 1817).  He died at age 73.

1844 ~ Thomas Henderson (b. Dec. 28, 1798), Scottish mathematician and astronomer.  He died at age 45.

1814 ~ Elbridge Gerry (b. July 17, 1744), 5^th Vice President of the United States.  He served under James Madison, but died at age 70, 18 months into his term.  He is best known for the term “gerrymandering”, a process by which electoral districts are drawn with the intent to assist a particular candidate or party.

1604 ~ Francesco Barozzi (b. Aug. 9, 1537), Italian mathematician and astronomer.  The lunar crater Barocius is named in his honor.  He died at age 67.

1585 ~ Thomas Tallis (B. 1505), English composer of religious vocal music.  The exact date of his birth is not known.

1503 ~ Margaret of York (b. May 3, 1446), third wife of Charles the Bold and daughter of Richard Plantagenet and Cecily Neville.  She died at age 57.

955 ~ King Eadred of England (b. 923).  The exact date of his birth is unknown, but he is believed to have been about 31 or 32 at the time of his death.