TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2017

On this day in history:

1890 - Princess Wilhelmina became Queen of the Netherlands at the age of 10 when her father William III died.

1943 - During World War II, US forces seized control of Tarawa and Makin from the Japanese during the Central Pacific offensive in the Gilbert Islands. 1971 - The People’s Republic of China was seated in the United Nations Security Council. 1979 - In Dublin, Ireland, Thomas McMahon was sentenced to life imprisonment for the assassination of Earl Mountbatten.

1980 - In southern Italy, approximately 4800 people were killed in a series of earthquakes.

1983 - The first Pershing II missiles were deployed in West Germany. In response, the USSR broke off International Nuclear Forces (INF) talks in Geneva.

1985 - Gunmen hijacked an Egyptian jetliner en route from Athens to Cairo. The plane was forced to land in Malta. 1986 - In Manila, President Aquino dismissed Defence Minister Enrile.

1991 - Yugoslavia’s rival leaders agreed to a new cease-fire, the 14th of the Balkan civil war. 1992 – The first smartphone, the IBM Simon, is 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.

1996 - Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 is hijacked, then crashes into the Indian Ocean off the coast of Comoros after running out of fuel, killing 125. 2001 - The Convention on Cybercrime is signed in Budapest, Hungary.

2006 - A series of bombings kills at least 215 people and injures 257 others in Sadr City, making it the second deadliest sectarian attack since the beginning of the Iraq War in 2003.

2007 - MS Explorer, a cruise liner carrying 154 people, sinks in the Antarctic Ocean south of Argentina after hitting an iceberg near the South Shetland Islands. There are no fatalities.

2010 - North Korea shelled Yeonpyeong Island.