November 23

534 BC – Thespis of Icaria becomes the first actor on record to portray a character on stage, and later has the things relating to the acting arts named after him – Thespian. 

1248 –  Troops under King Ferdinand III of Castile conquer Seville during the Reconquista of Spain.

1644 – John Milton publishes Areopagitica, a pamphlet decrying censorship in England

1876 – Tammany Hall leader, William “Boss” Tweed arrives in New York City, under arrest for bribery, contract kickbacks and embezzlement, after being extradited from Spain.

1914 – The last U.S. forces withdraw from Veracruz, Mexico occupied 6 months earlier in response to the Tampico Affair, an incident when U.S. sailors were detained by Mexican forces of General Huerta during the Mexican Revolution.

1924 – Edwin Hubble’s discovery that the Andromeda nebula is actually another “island galaxy” far outside of our own was first published in The New York Times.

1943 – Despite heavy casualties, the battles for the Tarawa and Makin atolls end in U.S. victories against the forces of Imperial Japan.

1963 – The BBC broadcasts the first episode of Doctor Who

1976 – French free diver Jacques Mayol is the first man to reach a depth of 100 meters undersea without breathing equipment.

1981 – President Reagan signs National Security Decision Directive 17 (NSDD-17), giving the CIA authority to recruit and support anti-Communist ‘Contra’ rebels in Nicaragua.

1992 – The first smartphone, the IBM Simon, is introduced at the COMDEX, a computer expo trade show in Las Vegas, Nevada.

2015 – Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft becomes the first rocket to successfully fly to space and then return to Earth for a controlled, vertical landing.