Today in History, November 23rd
On November 23, 1936, the first issue of LIFE magazine was published. Plus Stalingrad, the debut of Doctor Who, and more.
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November 23 is best known as the day the first issue of LIFE magazine hit newsstands in 1936, launching America’s great picture magazine. It is also the day Soviet forces closed the ring around German troops at Stalingrad in 1942 and the day Doctor Who first aired on British television in 1963.
The big story: The first issue of LIFE is published (1936)
Henry Luce already ran Time, which told readers the news. His new idea was a magazine that would show it. He bought the name of an old humor weekly that had folded during the Depression and relaunched LIFE as a large-format magazine built around photographs. The first cover carried Margaret Bourke-White’s photo of the Fort Peck Dam spillway in Montana, an image of New Deal concrete that looked almost like a monument. Readers were hooked. At its peak, LIFE’s circulation topped 8 million, and for decades its photo essays shaped how Americans saw wars, celebrities, science, and each other. Television eventually took away much of its audience and its advertising, and the magazine stopped weekly publication in 1972. It came back in several forms afterward, including a weekly newspaper supplement from 2004 to 2007. Its real legacy is the idea it proved: that a photograph could carry a story as well as a page of text.
More events on November 23
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1499 | Perkin Warbeck, a Flemish-born pretender who claimed to be Richard, Duke of York, a son of Edward IV, was executed in London. |
| 1863 | Union troops drove Confederates from Orchard Knob, opening the Battle of Chattanooga. Two days later, the Union held the city. |
| 1876 | Spanish authorities handed New York political boss William “Boss” Tweed over to the U.S. after he fled jail. He was reportedly recognized from a Thomas Nast cartoon. |
| 1940 | Romania joined the Axis powers by signing the Tripartite Pact. |
| 1942 | Soviet forces completed the encirclement of roughly 250,000 German troops at Stalingrad. Hitler refused to let them retreat. |
| 1963 | The BBC aired the first episode of Doctor Who, with William Hartnell as the Doctor. |
| 1990 | Children’s author Roald Dahl, creator of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, died in Oxford, England. |
| 2002 | Astronaut John Herrington lifted off aboard the space shuttle, becoming the first Native American in space. |
| 2011 | Yemen’s president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, signed a Gulf-brokered deal in Riyadh to hand power to his vice president after months of protests. |
Born on November 23
- 1804: Franklin Pierce, 14th president of the United States, born in Hillsboro, New Hampshire.
- 1883: José Clemente Orozco, Mexican painter and leading fresco muralist.
- 1887: Boris Karloff (born William Henry Pratt), English actor who played the monster in Frankenstein.
- 1888: Harpo Marx, the silent, harp-playing member of the Marx Brothers, born in New York City.
Keep reading
Sources
- First issue of LIFE is published, History.com
- This Day in History: November 23, History.com
- On This Day: November 23, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Soviets encircle Germans at Stalingrad, History.com
- “Boss” Tweed delivered to authorities, History.com
- The Battles for Chattanooga, National Park Service
- Doctor Who, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Roald Dahl, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Yemeni Leader Saleh Signs Handover Deal, NPR via KUNC
- Franklin Pierce, Encyclopaedia Britannica
