TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON: NOVEMBER 17
0375 Enraged by the insolence of barbarian envoys, Valentinian, the Emperor of the West, dies of apoplexy in Pannonia in Central Europe.
1278 680 Jews arrested (293 hanged) in England for counterfeiting coins
1558 Elizabeth I aged 25, ascends the English throne upon death of her half sister, Queen “Bloody” Mary
1603 Sir Walter Raleigh went on trial for treason.
1800 The Sixth Congress (2nd session) convenes for the first time in Washington, D.C.
1869 The Suez Canal is formally opened.
1903 Vladimir Lenin’s efforts to impose his own radical views on the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party splits the party into two factions, the Bolsheviks, who support Lenin, and the Mensheviks.
1918 Influenza deaths reported in the United States have far exceeded World War I casualties.
1922 Siberia voted for union with the U.S.S.R.
1922 The last sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Mehmed VI, is expelled to Malta on a British warship
1941 German Luftwaffe general and World War I fighter-ace Ernst Udet commits suicide. The Nazi government tells the public that he died in a flying accident.
1948 Britain’s House of Commons votes to nationalize steel industry
1965 The NVA ambushes American troops of the 7th Cavalry at Landing Zone Albany in the Ia Drang Valley, almost wiping them out
1968 NBC cut away from the final minutes of a New York Jets-Oakland Raiders game to begin a TV special, “Heidi,” on schedule. The Raiders came from behind to beat the Jets 43-32. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1zF2cGSjSw
1970 Douglas Engelbart receives the patent for the first computer mouse
1973 U.S. President Nixon told an Associated Press managing editors meeting in Orlando, FL, “people have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook.”
1979 Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini ordered the release of 13 female and black American hostages being held at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.
1986 Renault President Georges Besse is shot to death by leftists of the Direct Action Group in Paris.
1989 Student demonstration in Prague put down by riot police, leading to an uprising (the Velvet Revolution) that will topple the communist government on Dec. 29.
1990 A mass grave was discovered by the bridge over the River Kwai in Thailand. The bodies were believed to be those of World War II prisoners of war.
1997 62 people were killed by 6 Islamic militants outside the Temple of Hatshepsut in Luxor, Egypt. The attackers were killed by police.
2003 Ex-soldier John Muhammad is found guilty of one of a series of sniper shootings that terrorized the Washington, D.C., area in October 2002. Police charged that Muhammad and his 17-year-old accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, killed 10 people and wounded three others during a three-week killing spree. On 9th March 2004 he was sentenced to death .
2011 Over 200 “Occupy Wall Street” Protesters Arrested. Police arrested many Occupy Wall Street protesters in New York City after they tried to march on the New York Stock Exchange.
2013 The owner of over a thousand pieces of artwork believed to be stolen by the Nazis during World War II said that he will not voluntarily give up the art. Cornelius Gurlitt inherited the artwork from his father who had been an art dealer.
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
