NOW & THEN
23 NOVEMBER
800: Charlemagne arrived in Rome to investigate the alleged crimes of Pope Leo III.
1499: Perkin Warbeck, pretender to the English throne, was hanged at Tyburn for reportedly attempting to escape from the Tower of London.
1852: Britain’s first pillar-boxes, erected in St Helier, Jersey, were brought into public use.
1858: The General Medical Council held its first meeting in London.
1867: The Manchester Martyrs were hanged at Salford Gaol for the murder of a policeman. 1889: The world’s first jukebox was installed in the Palais Royal Saloon, San Francisco.
1890: Grand Duchy of Luxembourg was separated from the Netherlands.
1892 Pierre de Coubertin launched his plan for the modern Olympic Games. 1906: Joseph Smith, leader of the Mormon church, was convicted of polygamy.
1936: The weekly news magazine, Life, was published for the first time.
1943: The British Forces Broadcasting Service went into operation.
1943: United States forces defeated Japanese in Pacific battle of Tarawa.
1948: The zoom lens was patented by Dr Frank Gerard Back. 1963: Dr Who was first broadcast on television, with William Hartnell playing the Doctor. 1964: The Vatican abolished Latin as the official language of Roman Catholic liturgy.
1971: China took its seat as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. 1977: Israel paraded tanks on its side of Lebanese border as warning to Syrian troops and Palestine guerrillas to stay away from the frontier.
1989: The government announced an extra £19 million for haemophiliacs infected with the HIV virus.
1989: At least 300,000 people jammed Prague’s Wenceslas Square to demand democratic reforms.
1991: Freddie Mercury confirmed that he had AIDS, the day before he died.
1991: Ian Richter, British businessman, was released from life sentence for bribery in Baghdad after the government agreed to release £70m of Iraq’s frozen assets for food and medicine. 1993: Rachel Whiteread won
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.
2005: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was elected president of Liberia and became the first woman to lead an African country.
2007: MS Explorer, a cruise liner carrying 154 people, sank in the Antarctic Ocean south of Argentina after hitting an iceberg near the South Shetland Islands. There were no fatalities.
2010: The bombardment of Yeonpyeong occurred on Yeonpyeong Island, South Korea. The North Korean artillery attack killed two civilians and two South Korean marines.
2014: Lewis Hamilton won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, to finish the World Drivers Championship 67 points ahead of his nearest rival, Nico Rosberg.
BIRTHDAYS
Zoë Ball, television presenter, 52; Kelly Brook, model and actress, 43; Miley Cyrus, actress and singer, 30; Kevin Gallacher, Scottish footballer, 56; Bruce Hornsby, singer, 68; Sue Nicholls, actress (Coronation Street), 79; Asafa Powell, sprinter, 40; Diana Quick, actress, 76; Shane Gould MBE, triple Olympic gold medalwinning swimmer, 66; Maxwell Caulfield, actor, 63; Ahmed Shehzad, Pakistan Test cricketer, 31; Alan Mullery MBE, footballer, 81; Merv Hughes, Australian cricketer, 61; Franco Nero, actor, 81; Francis Cabrel, French singersongwriter, composer and guitarist, 69.