Browse Historical Events by Day: What Happened on November 23rd?

The Seventh Crusade, led by King Louis IX of France, departs from France to reconquer the Holy Land.

Anders Celsius, the Swedish astronomer and inventor of the Celsius temperature scale, is born.

The American whaling ship Essex, under the command of Captain George Pollard Jr. is rammed by a sperm whale and later sank. Although all 20 crewmen initially survived, only 8 were rescued following an arduous journey that devolved into cannibalism. The sinking inspired in part the climactic scene in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick (1851). More

New York City politician William Magear "Boss" Tweed, is handed over to N.Y. City authorities, after being captured in Spain where he had escaped to after being unable to make bail. Tweed had been the leader of a corrupt political organization which had systematically plundered New York City of sums estimated at between $30 million and $200 million (equivalent to $5 billion in 2023). Tweed dominated the Democratic Party in both the city and the state and had his candidates elected mayor of New York City, governor, and speaker of the state assembly. After his recapture he was returned to custody. He died in the Ludlow Street Jail in 1878. More

The fifth Imperial conference, hosted by King-Emperor George V, ends. The Imperial Conference brought together the prime ministers of the Dominions of the British Empire and it was held in London. The conference was notable for establishing the principle that the dominions are all equal in status, and "autonomous communities within the British Empire" not subordinate to the United Kingdom. The term "Commonwealth" was officially adopted to describe the community.

The Haiphong Incident occurred on November 23, 1946, when The French Cruiser, Suffren and several smaller ships bombard the Vietnamese coastal city of Haiphong, killing between 2,000 and 6,000 Vietnamese people. The incident, also known as the Haiphong Massacre is thought of as the first armed clash in a series of events that would lead to the Battle of Hanoi on December 19, 1946, and the official outbreak of the First Indochina War. More