menu:Tools>Options>LanguageSettings>Languages>Locale = English(any country)
LEFT(A1;11) returns the first 11 characters (3 day name, space, 3 month name, space, 2 day digits, space)
RIGHT(A1;4) returns the rightmost 4 characters (4 year digits)
LEFT(A1,11)&RIGHT(A1,4) concatenates the 2 to "Thu Nov 23 2017"
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=VALUE(LEFT(A1,11)&RIGHT(A1,4))
interpretes this text in the given locale contxt and returns the right day number which can be formatted any way you want. Basically we strip off the time and time zone info.
The solution by robleyd is better because it does not depend on the locale. It subtracts the 4 numbers year, month, day that make up a valid day number. DATE(y;m;d) returns the day number for the given 3 numbers.