November 23rd

Yemen's authoritarian President Ali Abdullah Saleh agreed to step down amid a fierce uprising to oust him after 33 years in power.

Maguindanao massacre in the Philippines. Considered to be the worst attack on journalists in recorded history, the massacre occurred in the southern Philippines, when 57 citizens and journalists en route to register voters in Esmael Mangudadatu for the upcoming gubernatorial elections, were killed by gunmen and buried. 34 journalists were killed on the day.

Former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko died in London from radiation poisoning after making a deathbed statement blaming Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, elected president of Liberia, is the first woman to lead an African country.

Eduard Shevardnadze resigned as president of Georgia.

An Israeli helicopter fired two missiles at a van in the West Bank, killing Mahmoud Abu Hanoud, a leading member of the Islamic militant Hamas group.

A series of earthquakes devastated southern Italy, killing some 2,600 people.

First person to dive 100 meters in the sea without breathing equipment. Frenchman Jacques Mayol, who is also sometimes known as Dolphin Man, was 49 years old at the time. He broke his own record 7 years later by diving 105 meters.

The People's Republic of China was seated in the U.N. Security Council.

Vatican abolishes Latin as official language of Roman Catholic liturgy.

Doctor Who debuts on TV. The longest running science fiction TV show first aired with an episode called An Earthly Child on the British Broadcasting Channel. The show that has had 11 different actors play the lead role, follows the time-traveling adventures of Doctor Who, who uses the Time and Relative Dimension in Space or TARDIS to jump around in time and space.

The Dow Jones industrial average finally surpassed it's pre-crash high - 25 years after Black Tuesday - when it closed at 382.74.

U.S. wartime food rationing, of meat, butter, and other foods, ended.

First issue of Life magazine hit the newsstands. The cover photograph, by Margaret Bourke-White, featured the Fort Peck Dam.

Last person to be executed in Sweden. Johan Alfred Ander was convicted of murdering Victoria Hellsten during a robbery of a currency exchange. He was the only person in Swedish history to be executed using a guillotine. Capital punishment in the country was abolished for all peacetime crimes in 1921 and for all crimes in 1973.

Singer Enrico Caruso made his American debut at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, appearing in 'Rigoletto.'.

The first jukebox was installed at the Palais Royal Saloon in San Francisco.

In Dumbarton, Scotland, the clipper Cutty Sark is launched - one of the last clippers ever built, and the only one still surviving.

Franklin Pierce, the 14th president of the United States, was born in Hillsboro, N.H.

Areopagitica, a pamphlet by John Milton, decrying censorship, is published.

Conquest of Seville by Christian troops under King Ferdinand III of Castile after the city capitulates.