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Today (November 23)

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November 23

Sydney Newman (April 1, 1917 – October 30, 1997) was a Canadian film and television producer who played a pioneering role in British television and Canadian cinema. During the 1950s and 60s, he held the role of Head of Drama at ABC Weekend TV and later at the BBC. During this time, he created the spy-fi series The Avengers and co-created the science-fiction series Doctor Who. After his return to Canada in 1970, Newman was appointed acting director of the Broadcast Programs Branch for the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission and then head of the National Film Board of Canada. He also occupied senior positions at the Canadian Film Development Corporation and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, as well as acting as an advisor to the Secretary of State. His obituary in The Guardian declared that "for ten brief but glorious years, [he] ... was the most important impresario in Britain", and that his death marked the "laying to rest of a whole philosophy of popular art". (Full article...)

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November 23

Edwin Hubble

• 1644 – In opposition to licensing and censorship during the English Civil War, John Milton's Areopagitica was published, arguing for the right to free expression.
• 1924 – The New York Times published evidence from Edwin Hubble (pictured) stating that the Andromeda Nebula, previously believed to be part of the Milky Way, is in fact another galaxy.
• 2003 – Rose Revolution: Eduard Shevardnadze resigned as President of Georgia following weeks of mass protests over disputed election results.
• 2009 – A crowd of people on their way to register Esmael Mangudadatu's candidacy for governor of Maguindanao, Philippines, were kidnapped and killed by supporters of his rival, resulting in 58 deaths.
• 2011 – Arab Spring: After months of protests in Yemen, President Ali Abdullah Saleh agreed to transfer power to Vice President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi.

• Colin Turnbull (b. 1924)
• Cornelius Ryan (d. 1974)
• Aklilu Habte-Wold (d. 1974)
• Miley Cyrus (b. 1992)

More anniversaries:

• November 22
• November 23
• November 24

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November 23

The Finding in the Temple, also called Christ among the Doctors, the Disputation in the Temple and variations of those names, is an episode in the early life of Jesus depicted in chapter 2 of the Gospel of Luke. It is the only event of the later childhood of Jesus mentioned in a canonical gospel. In the episode, Jesus – at the age of twelve – accompanies Mary, Joseph, and a large group of their relatives and friends to Jerusalem on many pilgrimages. On the day of their return, Jesus remained in the Temple. Mary and Joseph returned home believing he was among their group when he was not. After a day of travel they realised Jesus was missing and returned to Jerusalem, finding him three days later. He was found in the Temple in discussion with the elders, "listening to them and asking them questions". When admonished by Mary, Jesus replied: "How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?" The Finding in the Temple is frequently shown in art. This representation, titled The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple, is an oil-on-canvas painting produced by William Holman Hunt in 1860. It now hangs in the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery in Birmingham, England.

Photograph credit: William Holman Hunt

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Tomorrow (November 24)

See also: Wikipedia:Main Page/Tomorrow

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November 24

Scene from the play's opening run

The Importance of Being Earnest is a drawing-room comedy by Oscar Wilde. Premiered on 14 February 1895 in London, it depicts the affairs of two young men about town who lead double lives to evade unwanted social obligations, both assuming the name Ernest to woo two young women. Other characters are the formidable Lady Bracknell, the fussy governess Miss Prism and the benign and scholarly Canon Chasuble. The play, celebrated for its wit and repartee, parodies contemporary dramatic norms and comically satirises late-Victorian manners. The triumphant opening night was followed within weeks by Wilde's downfall and imprisonment for homosexual acts and the closure of the production, and Wilde wrote no more comic or dramatic works. From the early 20th century onwards, the play has been revived frequently and adapted for radio, television, film, operas and musicals. (Full article...)

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November 24: Feast day of the Vietnamese Martyrs (Catholicism)

Hibiscus Rising

• 1542 – Anglo-Scottish Wars: English forces captured about 1,200 Scots at the Battle of Solway Moss.
• 1859 – British naturalist Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species was first published, and sold out its initial print run on the first day.
• 1976 – A magnitude-7.3 earthquake struck eastern Turkey, destroying 80 per cent of buildings in the region and causing at least 4,000 casualties.
• 2009 – The Avdhela Project, an Aromanian digital library and cultural initiative, was launched in Bucharest, Romania.
• 2023 – Hibiscus Rising (pictured), a sculpture commemorating the life of David Oluwale, was unveiled in Leeds.

• Zachary Taylor (b. 1784)
• Eileen Barton (b. 1924)
• Tarō Yamamoto (b. 1974)
• Goo Hara (d. 2019)

More anniversaries:

• November 23
• November 24
• November 25

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November 24

The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) was a NASA space mission aimed at testing a method of planetary defense against near-Earth objects. The target object, Dimorphos, is a 160-meter-long (525-foot) minor-planet moon of the asteroid Didymos. DART was launched on 24 November 2021 and successfully collided with Dimorphos on 26 September 2022 while about 11 million kilometers (6.8 million miles) from Earth. The collision shortened Dimorphos's orbit by 32 minutes and was achieved by the momentum transfer associated with the recoil of the ejected debris, which was larger than the impact. This video is a timelapse of DART's final five and a half minutes before impacting Dimorphos, and was compiled from photographs captured by the Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical navigation (DRACO), the spacecraft's 20-centimeter-aperture (7.9-inch) camera, and transmitted to Earth in real time. The replay is ten times faster than reality, except for the last six images, which are shown at the same rate at which the spacecraft returned them. Both Didymos and Dimorphos are visible at the start of the video, and the final frame shows a patch of Dimorphos's surface 16 meters (51 feet) across. DART's impact occurred during transmission of the final image, resulting in a partial frame.

Video credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins APL

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In two days (November 25)

See also: Wikipedia:Main Page/Day after tomorrow

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November 25

Symptoms of ME/CFS

Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is a disabling chronic illness. People with ME/CFS experience profound fatigue that does not go away with rest, sleep issues, and problems with memory or concentration. The hallmark symptom is a worsening of the illness which starts hours to days after minor physical or mental activity, and lasts from hours to several months. The cause of the disease is unknown. ME/CFS often starts after an infection, and many people fit the ME/CFS diagnostic criteria after contracting long COVID. Diagnosis is based on symptoms because no diagnostic test is available. The illness can improve or worsen over time, but full recovery is uncommon. No therapies or medications are approved to treat the condition, and management is aimed at relieving symptoms. About a quarter of those affected are unable to leave their bed or home. People with ME/CFS often face stigma in healthcare settings, and care is complicated by controversies around the cause and treatments of the illness. (Full article...)

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November 25: Evacuation Day in New York City (1783)

Stanisław II Augustus, 1764

• 1759 – The second of two strong earthquakes struck the Levant and destroyed all the villages in the Beqaa Valley.
• 1795 – Stanisław II Augustus (pictured), the last king of Poland, was forced to abdicate after the Third Partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
• 1901 – Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 4 premiered in Munich.
• 1952 – Korean War: After 42 days of fighting, the Battle of Triangle Hill ended as American and South Korean units abandoned their attempt to capture the "Iron Triangle".
• 1981 – A group of Conservative members of Parliament wrote a letter outlining their opposition to the economic policy of Margaret Thatcher, leading to speculation over a split from the party.

• Henrietta Maria of France (b. 1609)
• Hermann Kolbe (d. 1884)
• Charles Kennedy (b. 1959)
• Nick Drake (d. 1974)

More anniversaries:

• November 24
• November 25
• November 26

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November 25

Hazlewood Marshes

Suffolk Wildlife Trust (SWT) describes itself as the county's "nature charity – the only organisation dedicated wholly to safeguarding Suffolk's wildlife and countryside." It was founded in 1961, and is one of 46 wildlife trusts covering the Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The trust manages 3,120 hectares (7,700 acres) of land in 60 nature reserves, most of which are open to the public. The whole or part of nine SWT reserves are Ramsar internationally important wetland sites, thirty-one are Sites of Special Scientific Interest, four are national nature reserves, and ten are Special Protection Areas. One SWT reserve is in Dedham Vale, which is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), and seven are in another AONB, Suffolk Coast and Heaths. (Full list...)

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November 25

Thecacera pennigera, also known as the winged thecacera, is a species of sea slug in the family Polyceridae. It has a cosmopolitan distribution, being found in temperate waters on either side of the North Atlantic Ocean, in the Mediterranean Sea, around South and West Africa, Brazil, Japan, Korea, Pakistan and more recently in Australia and New Zealand. There is a significant difference in colouring between Atlantic populations and Pacific specimens, however. Thecacera pennigera has a typical adult length between 15 millimetres (0.6 in) and 30 millimetres (1.2 in), featuring a short, wide head with two lateral flaps and two sheathed olfactory organs called rhinophores. The body is wedge shaped, being wide at the front and ending in a slender foot with a lateral keel on either side. The general colour of the body is translucent white and the upper side is covered with orange splotches and small black spots. Like other sea slugs, T. pennigera is a hermaphrodite with internal fertilisation and a mating mechanism whereby pairs of animals exchange packets of sperm. This T. pennigera was photographed in the Mar Piccolo of Taranto, Italy.

Photograph credit: Roberto Strafella

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In three days (November 26)

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November 26

The giant golden mole is the type host of H. niekerki.

Heptamegacanthus is a genus of acanthocephalans (thorny- or spiny-headed parasitic worms) containing a single species, Heptamegacanthus niekerki. This worm is a parasite of the endangered giant golden mole found only in isolated forests near East London and in the Transkei, both in South Africa. The worms are about 4 millimetres (0.2 in) long and 2 millimetres (0.08 in) wide with minimal sexual dimorphism. Their body consists of a proboscis with 40 to 45 hooks arranged in rings which are used to pierce and hold the rectal wall of its host and a long trunk. The life cycle of H. niekerki remains unknown; however, like other acanthocephalans, it likely involves complex interactions with at least two hosts. Although the intermediate host for Heptamegacanthus is not definitively identified, it is presumed to be an arthropod such as an insect which is then eaten by the giant golden mole where they mature and reproduce sexually within the lower gastrointestinal tract, creating eggs which are released in the feces. (Full article...)

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November 26: Feast day of Saint Sylvester Gozzolini (Catholicism); Constitution Day in India (1949)

Main Building of the University of Notre Dame

• 43 BC – The Second Triumvirate alliance is formed by Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, and Mark Antony.
• 1842 – The University of Notre Dame (main building pictured) was founded by Edward Sorin of the Congregation of Holy Cross as an all-male institution in the U.S. state of Indiana.
• 1942 – World War II: Josip Broz Tito and the Yugoslav Partisans convened the first meeting of the Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia at Bihać in northwestern Bosnia.
• 1977 – A speaker claiming to represent the "Intergalactic Association" interrupted a Southern Television broadcast in South East England.
• 2014 – The European Space Agency's Philae probe lands on comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.

• Ralph Agas (d. 1621)
• Rudolph Koenig (b. 1832)
• Adolfo Pérez Esquivel (b. 1931)
• Tina Turner (b. 1939)

More anniversaries:

• November 25
• November 26
• November 27

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November 26

Ice eggs, also known as ice balls, are a rare phenomenon caused by a process in which small pieces of sea ice in open water are rolled over by wind and currents in freezing conditions and grow into spheroid pieces of ice. They sometimes collect into heaps of balls on beaches where they pack together in striking patterns. The gentle churn of water, blown by a suitably stiff breeze makes concentric layers of ice form on a seed particle that then grows into the floating ball as it rolls through the freezing currents. This ice-egg formation formed in 2014 on Stroomi Beach in Tallinn, Estonia. The temperature was around between –20 and –15 degrees Celsius and the diameter of each ball was around 5–10 cm.

Photograph credit: Aleksandr Abrosimov

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In four days (November 27)

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November 27

Susanna Lee Hoffs (born January 17, 1959) is an American singer-songwriter. She, Debbi Peterson, and Vicki Peterson founded the Bangles in 1981. Their second album, Different Light, (1986) was warmly received by critics and was certified triple-platinum in 1994. The group's third album, Everything (1988), included the US top ten charting "In Your Room" and number one "Eternal Flame", both written by Hoffs with Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly. Following tensions including resentment at Hoffs's perceived leadership of the band and the stress of touring, the band split in 1989, reforming in 1999. Hoffs's first solo album, When You're a Boy (1991), was followed by Susanna Hoffs (1996). Neither of the releases proved to be as popular as the Bangles' albums, although they yielded two US-charting singles. Her most recent solo album is The Deep End (2023), and her first novel, This Bird Has Flown, a romantic comedy about a struggling musician, was published in the same year. (Full article...)

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November 27: Guru Nanak Gurpurab (Sikhism, 2023)

William III

• 1835 – James Pratt and John Smith became the last people to be executed in England for sodomy.
• 1856 – William III (pictured) unilaterally revised the constitution of Luxembourg, greatly expanding his powers as grand duke.
• 1950 – Korean War: The Chinese People's Volunteer Army launched multiple attacks against United Nations forces, beginning the Battle of Chosin Reservoir.
• 1963 – President Lyndon B. Johnson delivered the "Let Us Continue" speech to a joint session of the U.S. Congress five days after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, in which he advocated for civil-rights legislation and national cohesion.
• 2009 – Lady Gaga performed the first concert of The Monster Ball Tour, which became the highest-grossing tour in history for a debut headlining artist.

• Jacopo Mazzoni (b. 1548)
• Katherine Sleeper Walden (b. 1862)
• Harvey Milk (d. 1978)
• Harrie Massey (d. 1983)

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• November 26
• November 27
• November 28

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November 27

Mary Jackson (1921–2005) was an American mathematician and aerospace engineer at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics and its successor, NASA. She worked at Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, for most of her career. She started as a computer at the segregated West Area Computing division in 1951. In 1958, after taking engineering classes, she became NASA's first black female engineer. Jackson had earned the most senior engineering title available by 1979 and realized she could not earn further promotions without becoming a supervisor. She accepted a demotion to become a manager of both NASA's federal women's program and the affirmative action program. Her work sought to influence the career paths of women in science, engineering, and mathematics positions at NASA. Jackson is one of the leading characters in the 2016 book Hidden Figures and one of the three protagonists in the book's film adaptation, released the same year. This NASA photograph of Jackson was taken in 1979.

Photograph credit: NASA; restored by Adam Cuerden

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In five days (November 28)

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November 28

Union artillery in action at Cane Hill

The battle of Cane Hill was fought during the American Civil War on November 28, 1862, near the town of Cane Hill, Arkansas. Union troops under James G. Blunt had pursued Confederate troops commanded by Thomas C. Hindman into northwestern Arkansas, and Hindman saw an opportunity to attack Blunt while the latter was isolated. Confederate cavalry under John S. Marmaduke moved to Cane Hill to collect supplies. Blunt moved to attack Marmaduke on November 27. The Union advance made contact with Confederate troopers the next morning. The Confederates fell back to an elevation known as Reed's Mountain. Blunt continued to pursue after the Confederates abandoned Reed’s Mountain, but his leading elements ran into an ambush. The Confederates then presented a flag of truce as a ruse to buy time. Hindman’s army and Blunt’s reinforced command fought the Battle of Prairie Grove on December 7, which retained Union control of Missouri and northwestern Arkansas. (Full article...)

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November 28: Thanksgiving in the United States (2024); Bukovina Day in Romania

Skanderbeg

• 1443 – Having deserted the Ottoman army, Skanderbeg (pictured) arrived in the Albanian city of Krujë and, using a forged letter from Sultan Murad II to the governor of Krujë, became lord of the city.
• 1895 – The Chicago Times-Herald race, the first automobile race in the U.S., was held in Chicago.
• 1903 – SS Petriana struck a reef near Point Nepean, leading to Australia's first major oil spill and a debate over the White Australia policy.
• 1966 – In a military coup, Michel Micombero abolished the Burundian monarchy and declared the country a republic with himself as president.
• 2016 – LaMia Flight 2933 crashed near Medellín, Colombia, killing 71 people, many of whom were players from Chapecoense Football Club.

• Manuel I Komnenos (b. 1118)
• Magnus Olsen (b. 1878)
• Wilhelmina of the Netherlands (d. 1962)
• Helen of Greece and Denmark (d. 1982)

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November 28

The ocellated turkey (Meleagris ocellata) is a species of turkey residing primarily in the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico, as well as in parts of Belize and Guatemala. It is a relative of the North American wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo), although is somewhat smaller. The body feathers of both sexes are a mixture of bronze and green iridescent color, with neither sex possessing the beard typically found in wild turkeys. Tail feathers of both sexes are bluish-grey with an eye-shaped, blue-bronze spot near the end with a bright gold tip. These spots, or ocelli (for which the ocellated turkey is named) have been likened to the patterning typically found on peafowl. This ocellated turkey was photographed near Tikal in the Petén region of Guatemala.

Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp

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In six days (November 29)

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November 29

Santa Cruz entering the field before a game in Belém

The Suicidal Tour took place when Brazilian professional football club Santa Cruz Futebol Clube toured the North Region of Brazil from 2 January 1943 to 29 April 1943. Over almost four months, they played either 26 or 28 friendly matches in six cities. The tour gained its name due to the misfortunes endured by the club. Looking to recover from a financial crisis, Santa Cruz arranged five matches in Belém, Pará. Traveling up the Amazon River for another round of matches, they first started experiencing problems in Manaus, where two players left to play for other clubs and seven members of the team's delegation caught dysentery. Two players went on to catch typhoid fever and died. Unable to return home through the sea, and needing to cover growing costs, Santa Cruz had to return to Recife by land, playing matches along the way to earn money. The return had further problems, including a fake arrest warrant for a player, a trip alongside thieves, and two train derailments. (Full article...)

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November 29: Black Friday in the United States (2024); Liberation Day in Albania

Screenshot of a game of Pong

• 1781 – The crew of the British slave ship Zong, running low on water, began the killing of more than 130 African slaves by throwing them into the sea to claim insurance.
• 1810 – Napoleonic Wars: British troops rendezvoused at Grand Baie to launch an invasion of Isle de France, now known as Mauritius.
• 1924 – The Bronx County Bird Club was formed and would go on to lead the Audubon Society's Christmas Bird Count in the eastern US for three years in a row.
• 1963 – Five minutes after taking off from Montréal–Dorval, Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 831 crashed in bad weather, killing all 118 people on board.
• 1972 – Atari announced the release of Pong (screenshot pictured), one of the first video games to achieve widespread popularity in both the arcade and home-console markets.
• 2012 – In resolution 67/19, the United Nations General Assembly voted to accord the status of a non-member observer state to Palestine.

• Christian Doppler (b. 1803)
• George Brown (b. 1818)
• Adam Clayton Powell Jr. (b. 1908)
• Yōichi Masuzoe (b. 1948)

More anniversaries:

• November 28
• November 29
• November 30

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November 29

One hundred ten episodes of Community, an American television sitcom, aired over six seasons. The series premiered on NBC on September 17, 2009, and ended on June 2, 2015. Community follows a group of students at a community college in the fictional locale of Greendale, Colorado. The series heavily uses meta-humor and pop culture references, often parodying film and television clichés and tropes. The series stars Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs, Danny Pudi, Yvette Nicole Brown, Alison Brie, Donald Glover, Ken Jeong, and Chevy Chase, with Jim Rash being promoted from recurring to series regular in season three. The first season of Community aired from September 17, 2009, through May 20, 2010. After four further seasons, NBC announced that the series had been canceled. Yahoo! Screen picked it up for a sixth and final season. (Full list...)

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November 29

The Rose of Persia; or, The Story-Teller and the Slave, is a two-act comic opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by Basil Hood. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 29 November 1899, closing on 28 June 1900 after a profitable run of 211 performances. The opera then toured, had a brief run in America and played elsewhere throughout the English-speaking world.

Painting credit: Dudley Hardy; restored by Adam Cuerden

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In seven days (November 30)

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November 30

Lord Curzon, winner of the election

The January 1908 Irish representative peer election was held to fill a vacancy among the 28 Irish representative peers at the time elected for life to the British House of Lords, with ballots sent by post to the 134 Irish peers eligible to vote. The winner was Lord Curzon (shown), the former viceroy of India, who had never been to Ireland and owned no Irish lands. A former MP, he ran as a way of returning to parliament after being denied an earldom by the prime minister, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman. As he had never asked the House of Lords to affirm his right to vote in Irish representative peer elections, as required to vote in them, some stated Curzon was ineligible for election. Despite a late start and opposition to him as non-Irish, Curzon led with two votes more than Lord Ashtown, who had two more than Lord Farnham, but the official return noted Curzon was not among those who could vote. When the House of Lords convened, the Lord Chancellor, Lord Loreburn, declared Curzon the winner. (Full article...)

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November 30: Saint Andrew's Day (Christianity)

U Thant

• 1700 – Great Northern War: Swedish forces led by King Charles XII defeated the Russian army at the Battle of Narva.
• 1934 – Flying Scotsman became the first steam locomotive officially to exceed 100 miles per hour (161 km/h).
• 1999 – A series of protests by anti-globalization activists against the World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference of 1999 in Seattle forced the cancellation of the opening ceremonies.

• Richard Farrant (d. 1580)
• Jagadish Chandra Bose (b. 1858)
• Eir Aoi (b. 1988)
• Cherry Valentine (b. 1993)

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November 30

Winston Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945, during the Second World War, and again from 1951 to 1955. Apart from 1922 to 1924, he was a member of Parliament from 1900 to 1964, and represented five different constituencies. This black-and-white photograph of Churchill, titled The Roaring Lion, was taken on 30 December 1941 by the Armenian-Canadian photographer Yousuf Karsh in the Centre Block on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada. Churchill is particularly noted for his posture and facial expression in the photograph, which have been compared to the wartime feelings that prevailed in the United Kingdom – persistence in the face of an all-conquering enemy.

Photograph credit: Yousuf Karsh

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