|
November 17 is the 321st day of the year (322nd in leap
years), with 44 remaining.
Events
- The Leonids are visible each year around this day.
- 1292 - (Julian calendar)
John Balliol becomes King of Scotland.
- 1558 - Elizabethan era
begins: Queen Mary I of England dies and is succeeded by her
half-sister Elizabeth.
- 1603 - Sir Walter Raleigh
goes on trial for treason in the converted Great hall of Winchester Castle.
- 1796 - Napoleonic Wars:
Battle of Arcole -
French forces defeat the Austrians in
Italy.
- 1800 - The United
States Capitol building in Washington, DC holds its first session
of Congress.
- 1820 - Captain Nathaniel
Palmer becomes the first American to see Antarctica (the Palmer Peninsula was later
named after him).
- 1839 - Giuseppe Verdi's first
opera, Oberto, conte di San Bonifacio opens in Milan.
- 1863 - American Civil
War: Siege of
Knoxville begins - Confederate forces
led by General James Longstreet place Knoxville, Tennessee under siege (the two week long siege and one failed attack was unsuccessful).
- 1856 - American Old
West: On the Sonoita River
in present-day southern Arizona, the United States Army establishes Fort Buchanan in
order to help control new land acquired in the Gadsden
Purchase.
- 1869 - In Egypt, the Suez Canal, linking the Mediterranean Sea
with the Red Sea, is inaugurated in an elaborate ceremony.
- 1871 - The National Rifle Association is granted a charter by the state of New York.
- 1903 - The Russian Social Democratic Labor Party splits into two groups; the Bolsheviks (Russian for
"majority") and Mensheviks (Russian for "minority"). (NOTE: Later the
Mensheviks became the majority party, meaning that the Mensheviks became the bolsheviks and the Bolsheviks mensheviks).
- 1922 - Former Ottoman sultan
Mehmed VI went on exile in Italy.
- 1941 - World War II: Attack on Pearl Harbor - Joseph Grew, the United States ambassador to Japan, cables
the State Department that Japan
had plans to launch an attack against Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (his cable was ignored).
- 1962 - In Washington, DC,
US President John F. Kennedy dedicates Dulles International Airport.
- 1967 - Vietnam War: Acting on
optimistic reports he was given on November 13, US President Lyndon B. Johnson tells his nation that, while much remained to be done,
"We are inflicting greater losses than we're taking...We are making progress." (two months later the Tet Offensive made him regret his words).
- 1969 - Cold War: Negotiators from the
Soviet Union and the United States meet in Helsinki to begin SALT I negotiations aimed at limiting the number of strategic weapons on both sides.
- 1970 - Vietnam War: Lieutenant
William Calley goes on trial for the My Lai massacre.
- 1970 - Luna program: The Soviet Union lands Lunokhod 1 on Mare Imbrium (Sea of Rains) on the Moon. This
is the first roving remote-controlled robot to land on another world and was released by the orbiting Luna 17 spacecraft.
- 1973 - Watergate
scandal: In Orlando, Florida, US President Richard Nixon tells 400 Associated Press managing editors "I am not a crook."
- 1973 - Student uprising against the military regime in Athens, Greece.
- 1979 - Iran hostage
crisis: Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini orders the release of 13 female and black American hostages being held at the US Embassy in Tehran.
- 1983 - The Zapatista Army of National Liberation founded.
- 1988 - The Netherlands
becomes the second country to get connected to the Internet.
- 1989 - Cold War: Velvet Revolution begins - In Czechoslovakia a peaceful student demonstration in Prague is
severely beaten back by the communist riot police. This sparks a revolution aimed at overthrowing the communist government (it succeeded on December
29).
- 1993 - Annie Proulx wins the
National Book Award for her novel The Shipping News.
- 1995 - Public Radio International's radio program This American Life broadcasts its first episode, "New Beginnings".
- 1997 - In Luxor, Egypt, 62 people are killed by 6 Islamic militants outside the Temple of Hatshepsut
(police killed the assailants).
- 2000 - Alberto Fujimori
is removed from office as president of Peru.
- 2003 - Arnold
Schwarzenegger is inaugurated Governor of
California.
Births
- 9 - Vespasian, Roman Emperor (d. 79)
- 1503 - Angelo Bronzino, Italian painter (d. 1572)
- 1587 - Joost van den
Vondel, Dutch poet (d. 1679)
- 1685 - Pierre Gaultier La Verendrye, French-Canadian trader and explorer (d. 1749)
- 1717 - Jean
le Rond d'Alembert, mathematician (d. 1783)
- 1755 - King (1814-1824) Louis XVIII of France (d. 1824)
- 1790 - August
Ferdinand Möbius, mathematician (d. 1868)
- 1799 - Titian Peale, artist
- 1816 - August
Wilhelm Ambros, composer (d. 1876)
- 1878 - Grace Abbott, social
worker, activist (d.1939)
- 1887 - Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, British commander in World War II (d. 1976)
- 1888 - Kurt Goetz, author (d. 1960)
- 1895 - Gregorio Lopez y Fuentes, Mexican author
(d.1966)
- 1899 - Douglas Shearer,
pioneer motion-picture sound engineer (d. 1971)
- 1901 - Walter Hallstein,
politician (d. 1982)
- 1901 - Lee Strasberg, director, acting teacher (d. 1982)
- 1904 - Isamu Noguchi, sculptor
(d. 1988)
- 1905 - Queen
Astrid of Belgium (d. 1935)
- 1905 - Mischa Auer, American actor (d. 1967)
- 1906 - Soichiro Honda,
automobile pioneer (d. 1992)
- 1911 - Christian Fouchet, diplomat (d. 1974)
- 1916 - Shelby Foote, historian
- 1925 - Rock Hudson, actor (d.
1985)
- 1925 - Charles Mackerras, conductor
- 1937 - Peter Cook, comedian, satirist
and writer (d. 1995)
- 1938 - Gordon Lightfoot,
singer
- 1942 - Martin Scorsese,
film director
- 1943 - Lauren Hutton, actress
- 1944 - Danny DeVito, actor
- 1944 - Lorne Michaels, producer
- 1944 - Tom Seaver, Baseball Hall of Fame player
- 1945 - Elvin Hayes, Basketball Hall of
Fame player
- 1948 - Howard Dean, politician
- 1949 - Jon Avnet, producer, director
- 1958 - Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, actress
- 1960 - RuPaul, actor
- 1966 - Jeff Buckley,
musician
- 1966 - Sophie Marceau, actress
- 1973 - Alexei Urmanov, figure skating champion
Deaths
Holidays and observances
November 16 - November 18
- October 17 - December 17
-- listing of all days
November 17 is also the name of a
terrorist group.
|