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.”
1278 – 680 Jews arrested (293 hanged) in England for counterfeiting coins
1292 – John Balliol becomes King of Scots
1511 – England, Spain and the Holy Roman Empire sign anti-French covenant The Treaty of Westminster
1558 – Elizabeth I ascended the English throne upon the death of Queen “Bloody” Mary Tudor.
1558 – The independence of the Church of England is re-established upon ascension of Elizabeth I to the throne
1603 – Sir Walter Raleigh went on trial for treason.
1734 – Printer John Zenger, arrested for libel against NY colonial governor William Cosby; later acquitted
1774 – First City Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry formed at Carpenter’s Hall, Philadelphia, one of the oldest US military units still in service
1798 – Irish nationalist leader Wolfe Tone committed suicide while in jail awaiting execution.
1800 – The U.S. Congress held its first session in Washington, DC, in the partially completed Capitol building.
1855 – David Livingstone becomes the first European to see Victoria Falls, in what is now Zambia and Zimbabwe
1856 – 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 – The Suez Canal opened in Egypt, linking the Mediterranean and the Red seas.
1873 – Rival cities of Buda & Pest unite to form the capital of Hungary
1878 – First assassination attempt against King Umberto I of Italy
1894 – Serial killer H. H. Holmes is arrested in Boston after being tracked there from Philadelphia by the Pinkertons
1903 – Russia’s Social Democrats officially split into two groups – Bolsheviks and Mensheviks.
1904 – The first underwater submarine journey was taken, from Southampton, England, to the Isle of Wight.
1913 – In Germany, Kaiser Wilhelm banned the armed forces from dancing the tango.
1917 – Vladimir Lenin defends “temporary” removal of freedom of the press
1922 – Siberia voted for union with the U.S.S.R.
1933 – Marx brothers film “Duck Soup” directed by Leo McCarey and starring the Marx Brothers is released in the US
1938 – Italy passes its own version of anti-Jewish Nuremberg laws
1947 – The U.S. Screen Actors Guild implements an anti-Communist loyalty oath.
1953 – The remaining human inhabitants of the Blasket Islands, Kerry, Ireland are evacuated to the mainland The Blasket Islands evacuation – November 17, 1953 (irishcentral.com)
1953 – United States joins the United Nations in condemning Israel’s raid on Jordan on October 4, 1953
1965 – The NVA ambushes American troops of the 7th Cavalry at Landing Zone Albany in the la Drang Valley, almost wiping them out
1968 – The Heidi Game – 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://youtu.be/z1zF2cGSjSw
1970 – Douglas Engelbart receives the patent for the first computer mouse
1970 – The Soviet Union landed an unmanned, remote-controlled vehicle on the moon, the Lunokhod 1. The vehicle was released by Luna 17.
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.”
1973 – Athens Polytechnic Uprising Ends, The popular protests against the military junta under Georgios Papadopoulos began on November 14 when students at the polytechnic went on a strike. On the morning of November 17, the military crashed into the campus grounds using a tank and put an end of the protests. While no one was thought to have been killed on the polytechnic campus, many people were killed in clashes around the city. Today, all schools and universities are closed on November 17 to commemorate the uprising.
1979 – Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini ordered the release of 13 female and black American hostages being held at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.
1988 – Benazir Bhutto became the first woman leader of an Islamic country. She was elected in the first democratic elections in Pakistan in 11 years.
1989 – Velvet Revolution begins, A week after the fall of the Berlin Wall, a demonstration of by students commemorating International Students Day in Prague was violently shut down by riot police. The incident led to mass strikes and nonviolent around the country that ended communist rule in erstwhile Czechoslovakia and paved the way for the first democratic elections in the country in 41 years.
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.
1990 – The Soviet government agreed to change the country’s constitution.
1992 – Dateline NBC airs a demonstration show General Motors trucks, blowing up on impact, later revealed NBC rigged test
1993 – General Sani Abacha leads a military coup against Ernest Shonekan’s transitional administration and returns the Nigerian government to military control
1997 – 62 people were killed by 6 Islamic militants outside the Temple of Hatshepsut in Luxor, Egypt. The attackers were killed by police.
2004 – Kmart Corp. announces it is buying Sears, Roebuck and Co. for $11 billion USD and naming the newly merged company Sears Holdings Corporation.
2010 – Researchers trapped 38 antihydrogen atoms. It was the first time humans had trapped antimatter.
2014 – The Church of England adopts legislation enabling the appointment of female bishops
2015 – Suicide bomber kills more than 30 in a market in Yola, north-eastern Nigeria, with Boko Haram blamed
2018 – Missing Argentine naval submarine ARA San Juan with 44 on board found on sea floor a year after it disappeared off coast of Argentina
2018 – Protests across France against rising fuel prices leave 400 injured
2019 – Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei labels protesters “thugs” after unrest over higher gasoline prices brought Tehran to a standstill day before
2021 – US capitol rioter QAnon Shaman [Jacob Chansley] sentenced to three years in prison by a federal court
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
