November 17

November 17 is the 321st day of the year (322nd in leap years), with 44 remaining.

Table of contents

1 Events
2 Births
3 Deaths
4 Holidays and observances
5 See also

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."
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.

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 M�bius, 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 - Lee Strasberg, director, acting teacher (d. 1982)
1901 - Walter Hallstein, politician (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
1949 - Jon Avnet, producer, director
1958 - Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, actress
1960 - RuPaul, actor
1966 - Sophie Marceau, actress
1966 - Jeff Buckley, musician
1973 - Alexei Urmanov, figure skating champion

Deaths

375 - Valentinian I, Roman Emperor
1558 - Queen Mary I of England
1592 - King John_III_of_Sweden
1796 - Catherine the Great of Russia
1917 - Auguste Rodin, sculptor
1929 - Herman Hollerith, statistician
1936 - Madame Ernestine Schumann-Heink, opera singer
1940 - Eric Gill, sculptor, typographer and writer
1959 - Heitor Villa-Lobos, Brazilian composer
1982 - Eduard Tubin, composer
2002 - Abba Eban, Israeli diplomat and politician

Holidays and observances

International Students' Day (note: not specifically for international students)