November 17 - Definition and Overview

November 17 is also the name of a Marxist group in Greece.

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

Events

1200-1899

• 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 I of England.
• 1603 - English explorer, writer and courtier Sir Walter Raleigh went on trial for treason.
• 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 the U.S. 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.
• 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.
• 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).
• 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.

1900-1999

• 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).
• 1968 - NBC preempts the final 1:05 minutes of a very close NFL football match between the New York Jets and the Oakland Raiders with Heidi, prompting an outrage amongst sport fans.
• 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.
• 1970 - Douglas Engelbart receives the patent for the first computer mouse.
• 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.
• 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).
• 1990 - Fugendake, in Mt. Unzen, Nagasaki prefecture, Japan became active again and erupted.
• 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).

2000-2099

• 2000 - Alberto Fujimori is removed from office as president of Peru.
• 2003 - Arnold Schwarzenegger is inaugurated Governor of California.

Births

1500-1899

• 1503 - Agnolo 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)
• 1793 - Sir Charles Lock Eastlake, painter (d. 1865)
• 1799 - Titian Peale, artist
• 1816 - August Wilhelm Ambros, composer (d. 1876)
• 1866 - Voltairine de Cleyre, anarchist (d. 1912)
• 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 López y Fuentes, Mexican author (d. 1966)
• 1899 - Douglas Shearer, pioneer motion-picture sound engineer (d. 1971)

1900-1999

• 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, American conductor
• 1937 - Peter Cook, comedian, satirist and writer (d. 1995)
• 1938 - Gordon Lightfoot, singer
• 1939 - Auberon Waugh, British author (d. 2001)
• 1942 - Martin Scorsese, film director
• 1943 - Lauren Hutton, actress
• 1944 - Danny DeVito, actor
• 1944 - Rem Koolhaas, architect
• 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 (d. 1997)
• 1966 - Daisy Fuentes, model, actress
• 1966 - Sophie Marceau, actress
• 1973 - Alexei Urmanov, figure skating champion
• 1978 - Reggie Wayne, American football player

Deaths

300-1899

• 375 - Valentinian I, Roman Emperor
• 1494 - Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, philosopher
• 1558 - Queen Mary I of England
• 1592 - King John III of Sweden
• 1796 - Catherine the Great of Russia

1900-1999

• 1917 - Auguste Rodin, sculptor
• 1929 - Herman Hollerith, statistician
• 1936 - Madame Ernestine Schumann-Heink, opera singer
• 1938 - Ante Trumbić, Croat politician (b. 1864)
• 1940 - Eric Gill, sculptor, typographer and writer
• 1959 - Heitor Villa-Lobos, Brazilian composer
• 1968 - Mervyn Peake, British writer and illustrator (b. 1911)
• 1982 - Eduard Tubin, composer
• 1989 - Gus Farace, Mafia associate/fugitive (murdered)

2000-2099

• 2001 - Michael Karoli, guitarist, former member of Can
• 2002 - Abba Eban, Israeli diplomat and politician
• 2003 - Arthur Conley, soul singer
• 2003 - Don Gibson, singer-songwriter
• 2004 - Mikael Ljungberg, Swedish wrestler (b. 1970)
• 2004 - Alexander Ragulin, ice hockey player (b. 1941)

Holidays and observances

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

November 16 - November 18 - October 17 - December 17 -- listing of all days