November 17

Events

Pre-1600

* 887 – Emperor Charles the Fat is deposed by the Frankish magnates in an assembly at Frankfurt, leading his nephew, Arnulf of Carinthia, to declare himself king of the East Frankish Kingdom in late November.
*1183 – Genpei War: The Battle of Mizushima takes place off the Japanese coast, where Minamoto no Yoshinaka's invasion force is intercepted and defeated by the Taira clan.
* 1292 – John Balliol becomes King of Scotland.
* 1405 – Sharif ul-Hāshim establishes the Sultanate of Sulu.
* 1494 – French King Charles VIII occupies Florence, Italy.
* 1511 – Henry VIII of England concludes the Treaty of Westminster, a pledge of mutual aid against the French, with Ferdinand II of Aragon.
* 1558 – Elizabethan era begins: Queen Mary I of England dies and is succeeded by her half-sister Elizabeth I of England.

1601–1900

* 1603 – English explorer, writer and courtier Sir Walter Raleigh goes on trial for treason.
* 1777 – Articles of Confederation (United States) are submitted to the states for ratification.
*1796 – French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of the Bridge of Arcole: French forces defeat the Austrians in Italy.
* 1800 – The United States Congress holds its first session in Washington, D.C.
* 1810 – Sweden declares war on its ally the United Kingdom to begin the Anglo-Swedish War, although no fighting ever takes place.
* 1811 – José Miguel Carrera, Chilean founding father, is sworn in as President of the executive Junta of the government of Chile.
* 1820 – Captain Nathaniel Palmer becomes the first American to see Antarctica. (The Palmer Peninsula is later named after him.)
* 1831 – Ecuador and Venezuela are separated from Gran Colombia.
* 1837 – An earthquake in Valdivia, south-central Chile, causes a tsunami that leads to significant destruction along Japan's coast.
* 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.
* 1858 – Modified Julian Day zero.
* 1858 – The city of Denver, Colorado is founded.
* 1863 – American Civil War: Siege of Knoxville begins: Confederate forces led by General James Longstreet place Knoxville, Tennessee, under siege.
* 1869 – In Egypt, the Suez Canal, linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea, is inaugurated.
* 1878 – First assassination attempt against Umberto I of Italy by anarchist Giovanni Passannante, who was armed with a dagger. The King survived with a slight wound in an arm. Prime Minister Benedetto Cairoli blocked the aggressor, receiving an injury in a leg.
* 1885 – Serbo-Bulgarian War: The decisive Battle of Slivnitsa begins.
* 1894 – H. H. Holmes, one of the first modern serial killers, is arrested in Boston, Massachusetts.
* 1896 – The Western Pennsylvania Hockey League, which later became the first ice hockey league to openly trade and hire players, began play at Pittsburgh's Schenley Park Casino.

1901–present

* 1903 – The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party splits into two groups: The Bolsheviks (Russian for "majority") and Mensheviks (Russian for "minority").
* 1939 – Nine Czech students are executed as a response to anti-Nazi demonstrations prompted by the death of Jan Opletal. All Czech universities are shut down and more than 1,200 students sent to concentration camps. Since this event, International Students' Day is celebrated in many countries, especially in the Czech Republic.
* 1940 – The Tartu Art Museum was established in Tartu, Estonia.
* 1947 – The Screen Actors Guild implements an anti-Communist loyalty oath.
* 1947 – American scientists John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain observe the basic principles of the transistor, a key element for the electronics revolution of the 20th century.
* 1950 – Lhamo Dondrub is officially named the 14th Dalai Lama.
* 1950 – United Nations Security Council Resolution 89 relating to the Palestine Question is adopted.
* 1953 – The remaining human inhabitants of the Blasket Islands, Kerry, Ireland, are evacuated to the mainland.
* 1957 – Vickers Viscount G-AOHP of British European Airways crashes at Ballerup after the failure of three engines on approach to Copenhagen Airport. The cause is a malfunction of the anti-icing system on the aircraft. There are no fatalities.
* 1962 – President John F. Kennedy dedicates Washington Dulles International Airport, serving the Washington, D.C., region.
* 1967 – Vietnam War: Acting on optimistic reports that he had been given on November 13, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson tells the nation that, while much remained to be done, "We are inflicting greater losses than we're taking...We are making progress."
* 1968 – British European Airways introduces the BAC One-Eleven into commercial service.
* 1968 – Viewers of the Raiders–Jets football game in the eastern United States are denied the opportunity to watch its exciting finish when NBC broadcasts ''Heidi'' instead, prompting changes to sports broadcasting in the U.S.
* 1969 – Cold War: Negotiators from the Soviet Union and the United States meet in Helsinki, Finland 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 programme: 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 is released by the orbiting ''Luna 17'' spacecraft.
* 1973 – Watergate scandal: In Orlando, Florida, U.S. President Richard Nixon tells 400 Associated Press managing editors "I am not a crook."
* 1973 – The Athens Polytechnic uprising against the military regime ends in a bloodshed in the Greek capital.
* 1983 – The Zapatista Army of National Liberation is founded in Mexico.
* 1986 – The flight crew of Japan Airlines Flight 1628 are involved in a UFO sighting incident while flying over Alaska.
* 1989 – Cold War: Velvet Revolution begins: In Czechoslovakia, a student demonstration in Prague is quelled by riot police. This sparks an uprising aimed at overthrowing the communist government (it succeeds on December 29).
*1990 – Fugendake, part of the Mount Unzen volcanic complex, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan, becomes active again and erupts.
* 1993 – United States House of Representatives passes a resolution to establish the North American Free Trade Agreement.
* 1993 – In Nigeria, General Sani Abacha ousts the government of Ernest Shonekan in a military coup.
* 1997 – In Luxor, Egypt, 62 people are killed by six Islamic militants outside the Temple of Hatshepsut, known as Luxor massacre.
* 2000 – A catastrophic landslide in Log pod Mangartom, Slovenia, kills seven, and causes millions of SIT of damage. It is one of the worst catastrophes in Slovenia in the past 100 years.
* 2000 – Alberto Fujimori is removed from office as president of Peru.
* 2003 – Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s tenure as the governor of California began.
* 2012 – At least 50 schoolchildren are killed in an accident at a railway crossing near Manfalut, Egypt.
*2013 – Fifty people are killed when Tatarstan Airlines Flight 363 crashes at Kazan Airport, Russia.
* 2013 – A rare late-season tornado outbreak strikes the Midwest. Illinois and Indiana are most affected with tornado reports as far north as lower Michigan. In all around six dozen tornadoes touch down in approximately an 11-hour time period, including seven EF3 and two EF4 tornadoes.
* 2019 – The first known case of COVID-19 is traced to a 55-year-old man who had visited a market in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China.

Births

Pre-1600

*AD 9 – Vespasian, Roman emperor (d. 79)
* 1019 – Sima Guang, Chinese politician (d. 1086)
* 1412 – Zanobi Strozzi, Italian painter (d. 1468)
* 1453 – Alfonso, Asturian prince (d. 1468)
* 1493 – John Neville, 3rd Baron Latimer, English politician (d. 1543)
* 1503 – Bronzino, Italian painter (d. 1572)
* 1576 – Roque González de Santa Cruz, Paraguayan missionary and saint (d. 1628)
*1587 – Joost van den Vondel, Dutch poet and playwright (d. 1679)

1601–1900

* 1602 – Agnes of Jesus, French Catholic nun (d. 1634)
* 1612 – Dorgon, Chinese prince and regent (d. 1650)
* 1681 – Pierre François le Courayer, French theologian and author (d. 1776)
* 1685 – Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, Canadian commander and explorer (d. 1749)
* 1729 – Maria Antonia Ferdinanda, Sardinian queen consort (d. 1785)
* 1749 – Nicolas Appert, French chef, invented canning (d. 1841)
* 1753 – Gotthilf Heinrich Ernst Muhlenberg, American pastor and botanist (d. 1815)
* 1755 – Louis XVIII, king of France (d. 1824)
* 1765 – Jacques MacDonald, French general (d. 1840)
* 1769 – Charlotte Georgine, duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (d. 1818)
* 1790 – August Ferdinand Möbius, German mathematician and astronomer (d. 1868)
* 1793 – Charles Lock Eastlake, English painter, historian, and academic (d. 1865)
*1816 – August Wilhelm Ambros, Austrian composer and historian (d. 1876)
* 1827 – Petko Slaveykov, Bulgarian journalist and poet (d. 1895)
* 1835 – Andrew L. Harris, American general and politician, 44th Governor of Ohio (d. 1915)
* 1854 – Hubert Lyautey, French general and politician, French Minister of War (d. 1934)
* 1857 – Joseph Babinski, French neurologist and academic (d. 1932)
* 1866 – Voltairine de Cleyre, American author and activist (d. 1912)
* 1868 – Korbinian Brodmann, German neurologist and academic (d. 1918)
* 1877 – Frank Calder, English-Canadian journalist and businessman (d. 1943)
* 1878 – Grace Abbott, American social worker (d. 1939)
* 1878 – Augustus Goessling, American swimmer and water polo player (d. 1963)
* 1886 – Walter Terence Stace, English-American philosopher, academic, and civil servant (d. 1967)
* 1887 – Bernard Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, English field marshal (d. 1976)
* 1891 – Lester Allen, American screen, stage, vaudeville, circus actor, and film director (d. 1949)
* 1895 – Gregorio López, Mexican journalist, author, and poet (d. 1966)
* 1896 – Lev Vygotsky, Belarusian-Russian psychologist and philosopher (d. 1934)
* 1897 – Frank Fay, American actor, singer, and screenwriter (d. 1961)
* 1899 – Douglas Shearer, Canadian-American engineer (d. 1971)

1901–present

* 1901 – Walter Hallstein, German academic and politician, first President of the European Commission (d. 1982)
* 1901 – Lee Strasberg, Ukrainian-American actor and director (d. 1982)
* 1902 – Eugene Wigner, Hungarian physicist and mathematician, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1995)
* 1904 – Isamu Noguchi, American sculptor and architect (d. 1988)
* 1905 – Mischa Auer, Russian-American actor (d. 1967)
* 1905 – Astrid of Sweden (d. 1935)
* 1905 – Arthur Chipperfield

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