November 23 in history — What Happened Today in History

The Budapest Convention on Cybercrime is signed in Budapest, Hungary.

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

The first smartphone, the IBM Simon, is introduced at COMDEX in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury announces in a statement that he is HIV-positive. He dies the following day.

Gunmen hijack EgyptAir Flight 648 en route from Athens to Cairo. When the plane lands in Malta, Egyptian commandos storm the aircraft, but 60 people die in the raid.

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.

The 6.9 Mw Irpinia earthquake shakes southern Italy with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme), killing 2,483–4,900, and injuring 7,700–8,934.

Cyclone kills about 1,000 people in eastern Sri Lanka.

The Geneva Frequency Plan of 1975 goes into effect, realigning many of Europe's longwave and mediumwave broadcasting frequencies.

Jacques Mayol is the first man to reach a depth of 100 m (330 ft) undersea without breathing equipment.

Sixty Ethiopian politicians, aristocrats, military officers, and other persons are executed by the provisional military government.

The Soviet Union makes its final attempt at launching the N1 rocket.

Representatives of the People's Republic of China attend the United Nations, including the United Nations Security Council, for the first time.

The first episode of Doctor Who ("An Unearthly Child") is broadcast by the BBC, which is now the world's longest running science fiction drama.

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

The Cocos Islands are transferred from the control of the United Kingdom to that of Australia.

French naval bombardment of Hai Phong, Vietnam, kills thousands of civilians.

World War II: The Lotta Svärd Movement is disbanded under the terms of the armistice treaty in Finland after the Continuation War.

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.

World War II: Tarawa and Makin atolls fall to American forces.

World War II: Romania becomes a signatory of the Tripartite Pact, officially joining the Axis powers.

World War II: HMS Rawalpindi is sunk by the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau.

An Anglo-Ethiopian boundary commission in the Ogaden discovers an Italian garrison at Walwal, well within Ethiopian territory. This leads to the Abyssinia Crisis.

Edwin Hubble's discovery, that the Andromeda "nebula" is actually another island galaxy far outside our own Milky Way, is first published in The New York Times.

Thousands of Irish Republicans end the 1923 Irish hunger strikes, five die from starvation.

Warren G. Harding, 29th President of the United States, signs the Willis–Campbell Act into law, prohibiting doctors from prescribing beer or liquor for medicinal purposes.

Mexican Revolution: The last of U.S. forces withdraw from Veracruz, occupied seven months earlier in response to the Tampico Affair.

Johan Alfred Ander becomes the last person to be executed in Sweden.

Ahmed Shehzad, Pakistani cricketer

Shaun Hutchinson, English footballer

Eddy Kim, South Korean singer-songwriter and guitarist

Alena Leonova, Russian figure skater

Christopher Quiring, German footballer[better source needed]

Nicklas Bäckström, Swedish ice hockey player

Snooki, American reality television personality

Viktor An, South Korean speed skater

Hilton Armstrong, American basketball player

Lucas Grabeel, American actor, singer, and songwriter

Amruta Khanvilkar, Indian actress and dancer

Justin Turner, American baseball player

Fatih Yiğituşağı, Turkish footballer

Marion Barry, American lawyer and politician, 2nd Mayor of the District of Columbia (born 1936)

Dorothy Cheney, American tennis player (born 1916)

Murray Oliver, Canadian-American ice hockey player and coach (born 1937)

Pat Quinn, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (born 1943)

Connie Broden, Canadian ice hockey player (born 1932)

Costanzo Preve, Italian philosopher and theorist (born 1943)

José Luis Borau, Spanish actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1929)

Chuck Diering, American baseball player (born 1923)

Larry Hagman, American actor, director, and producer (born 1931)

Diana Isaac, English-New Zealand businesswoman and philanthropist (born 1921)

Jim Rathmann, American race car driver (born 1928)

Nassos Daphnis, Greek-American painter and sculptor (born 1914)

Joyce Howard, English-American actress (born 1922)