Today November 17th 2009 this day in history Read more below to view events, deaths, births, Holidays observances and video clips. Last database updated: Jan 17th, 2009
Events
284 – Diocletian is proclaimed emperor by his soldiers.
473 – The future Zeno I is named associate emperor by Emperor Leo I.
1183 – Battle of Mizushima.
1292 – (O.S.) John Balliol becomes King of Scotland.
1493 – Christopher Columbus lands on Puerto Rico.
1511 – Spain and England ally against France.
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 goes on trial for treason.
1659 – Peace of the Pyrenees is signed between France and Spain.
1771 – Premiere in Milan of the opera Ascanio in Alba, composed by Wolfgang Mozart, age 15.
1777 – Articles of Confederation are submitted to the states for ratification.
1796 – Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Arcole – French forces defeat the Austrians in Italy.
1800 – The United States Congress holds its first session in Washington, D.C.
1811 – José Miguel Carrera, Chilean founding father, is sworn in as President of the executive Junta of the government of Chile.
1812 – Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Krasnoi.
1820 – Captain Nathaniel Palmer becomes the first American to see Antarctica (the Palmer Peninsula was later named after him).
1827 – The Delta Phi fraternity, America s oldest continuous social fraternity, is founded at Union College in Schenectady, New York.
1831 – Ecuador and Venezuela are separated from Greater Colombia.
1855 – David Livingstone becomes the first European to see the Victoria Falls in what is now present-day Zambia-Zimbabwe.
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.
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 in an elaborate ceremony.
1871 – The National Rifle Association is granted a charter by the state of New York.
1876 – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky s patriotic Slavonic March is given its première performance in Moscow, to a warm reception by the Russian people.
1878 – First assassination attempt against Umberto I of Italy.
1903 – The Russian Social Democratic Labor Party splits into two groups; the Bolsheviks (Russian for majority) and Mensheviks (Russian for minority).
1905 – The Eulsa Treaty is signed between Japan and Korea.
1911 – The Omega Psi Phi fraternity, the first African-American fraternity at a historically black college or university, is founded at Howard University in Washington, D.C.
1919 – King George V of the United Kingdom proclaims Armistice Day (later Remembrance Day). The idea was first suggested by Edward George Honey.
1922 – Former Ottoman sultan Mehmed VI goes into exile in Italy.
1933 – United States recognizes Soviet Union.
1939 – Nine Czech students are executed as a response to anti-Nazi demonstrations prompted by the death of Jan Opletal. In addition, all Czech universities are shut down and over 1200 Czech students sent to concentration camps.
1939 – The Rome-Rio de Janeiro air route is created.
1947 – The U.S. Screen Actors Guild implements an anti-Communist loyalty oath.
1950 – Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, is enthroned as the leader of Tibet at the age of fifteen.
1953 – The remaining human inhabitants of the Blasket Islands, Kerry, Ireland are evacuated to the mainland.
1962 – President John F. Kennedy dedicates Dulles International Airport, serving the Washington, D.C. region.
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.
1968 – Alexandros Panagoulis is condemned to death for attempting to assassinate Greek dictator George Papadopoulos.
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 – The Athens Polytechnic Uprising against the military regime ends in a bloodshed in the Greek capital.
1974 – Aliança Operário-Camponesa (Worker-Peasant Alliance) founded in Portugal, as a front of PCP(m-l).
1979 – Brisbane Suburban Railway Electrification. The first stage from Ferny Grove to Darra commissioned.
1983 – The Zapatista Army of National Liberation is founded.
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.
1997 – In Luxor, Egypt, 62 people are killed by 6 Islamic militants outside the Temple of Hatshepsut, known as Luxor massacre (The police then kill the assailants).
2000 – A catastrophic landslide in Log pod Mangartom, Slovenia, kills 7, 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.
2004 – Kmart Corp. announces it is buying Sears, Roebuck and Co. for $11 billion USD and naming the newly merged company Sears Holdings Corporation.
2005 – Italy s national anthem, Il Canto degli Italiani, becomes official for the first time, almost 60 years after it was provisionally chosen following the birth of the republic.
2006 – Official naming of element 111, Roentgenium (Rg).
Births
9 – Vespasian, Roman Emperor (d. 79)
1502 – Atahualpa, last emperor of the Inca (d. 1533)
1503 – Agnolo Bronzino, Italian painter (d. 1572)
1576 – Roque Gonzales, Paraguayan missionary (d. 1628)
1587 – Joost van den Vondel, Dutch poet (d. 1679)
1612 – Dorgon, Manchu prince (d. 1650)
1681 – Pierre François le Courayer, French theologian (d. 1776)
1685 – Pierre Gaultier, French-Canadian trader and explorer (d. 1749)
1729 – Maria Antonietta of Spain, queen of Sardinia (d. 1785)
1749 – Nicolas Appert, French inventor (d. 1841)
1755 – Louis XVIII of France (d. 1824)
1765 – Étienne-Jacques-Joseph-Alexandre MacDonald, French marshal (d. 1840)
1790 – August Ferdinand Möbius, German mathematician (d. 1868)
1793 – Charles Lock Eastlake, British painter (d. 1865)
1799 – Titian Peale, American artist (d. 1885)
1816 – August Wilhelm Ambros, Austrian composer (d. 1876)
1827 – Petko Slavejkov, Bulgarian writer (d. 1895)
1835 – Andrew L. Harris, governor of Ohio (d. 1915)
1854 – Hubert Lyautey, French general (d. 1934)
1857 – Joseph Babinski, Polish-French neurologist (d. 1932)
1866 – Voltairine de Cleyre, American anarchist (d. 1912)
1868 – Korbinian Brodmann, German neurologist (d. 1918)
1877 – Frank Calder, the first NHL President (d. 1943)
1878 – Grace Abbott, American social worker (d. 1939)
1878 – Lise Meitner, Austrian physicist (d. 1968)
1887 – Bernard Montgomery, British World War II commander (d. 1976)
1894 – Richard Nikolaus Graf Coudenhove-Kalergi, Austrian politician (d. 1972)
1895 – Mikhail Bakhtin, Russian philosopher (d. 1975)
1895 – Gregorio López y Fuentes, Mexican author (d. 1966)
1896 – Lev Vygotsky, Russian psychologist (d. 1934)
1897 – Frank Fay, American actor (d. 1961)
1899 – Douglas Shearer, Canadian film sound engineer (d. 1971)
1901 – Walter Hallstein, German politician (d. 1982)
1901 – Lee Strasberg, Austrian director (d. 1982)
1902 – Eugene Wigner, Hungarian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1995)
1904 – Isamu Noguchi, American sculptor (d. 1988)
1905 – Queen Astrid of the Belgians (d. 1935)
1905 – Mischa Auer, American actor (d. 1967)
1906 – Soichiro Honda, Japanese automobile pioneer (d. 1992)
1906 – Rollie Stiles, American baseball player (d. 2007)
1907 – Israel Regardie, Aleister Crowley s secretary (d. 1985)
1911 – Christian Fouchet, French diplomat (d. 1974)
1916 – Shelby Foote, American historian (d. 2005)
1920 – Camillo Felgen, Luxembourgish singer (d. 2005)
1921 – Albert Bertelsen, Danish painter
1922 – Stanley Cohen, American biochemist, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
1923 – Bert Sutcliffe, New Zealand cricketer (d. 2001)
1923 – Hubertus Brandenburg, Roman Catholic Bishop of Stockholm
1923 – Mike Garcia, American baseball player (d. 1986)
1923 – Aristides Pereira, 1st President of Cape Verde
1925 – Rock Hudson, American actor (d. 1985)
1925 – Charles Mackerras, Australian-born conductor
1927 – Robert Brown, American actor
1928 – Rance Howard, American actor
1929 – Norm Zauchin, baseball player (d. 1999)
1930 – Bob Mathias, American decathlete (d. 2006)
1933 – Orlando Peña, Cuban baseball player
1934 – Fenella Fielding, English actress
1934 – James Inhofe, American politician, senior senator from Oklahoma
1935 – Bobby Joe Conrad, American football player
1935 – Toni Sailer, Austrian skier
1936 – Dahlia Ravikovitch, Israeli poet (d. 2005)
1937 – Peter Cook, British comedian (d. 1995)
1938 – Gordon Lightfoot, Canadian singer
1939 – Auberon Waugh, British author (d. 2001)
1940 – Luke Kelly, Irish folk music singer and banjo player (d. 1984)
1942 – Martin Scorsese, American film director
1942 – Khang Khek Leu, Cambodian politician
1943 – Lauren Hutton, American actress
1944 – Jim Boeheim, Hall of Fame Coach
1944 – Danny DeVito, American actor
1944 – Rem Koolhaas, Dutch architect
1944 – Lorne Michaels, Canadian producer
1944 – Tom Seaver, Baseball player
1944 – Gene Clark, American singer and songwriter (The Byrds) (d. 1991)
1945 – Elvin Hayes, American basketball player
1945 – Roland Joffé, Anglo-French film director
1946 – Terry E. Branstad, Governor of Iowa
1946 – Martin Barre, English rock musician (Jethro Tull)
1947 – Steven E. de Souza, American scriptwriter
1947 – Inky Mark, Canadian politician
1948 – Howard Dean, American politician
1949 – John Boehner, American politician
1949 – Nguy?n T?n Dung, Prime Minister of Vietnam
1950 – Tom Walkinshaw, Scottish race car driver and race team owner
1951 – Stephen Root, American actor
1951 – Dean Paul Martin, American singer and actor (d. 1987)
1951 – Butch Davis, American football coach
1952 – Ties Kruize, Dutch field hockey player
1954 – Mark Brandon Read, Australian criminal
1955 – Dennis Maruk, Canadian hockey player
1955 – Yolanda King, daughter of Martin Luther King, Jr. (d. 2007)
1957 – Debbie Thrower, news reader
1958 – Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, American actress
1959 – Terry Fenwick, English footballer
1960 – Jonathan Ross, British TV presenter
1960 – Kirk Fogg, American actor
1960 – RuPaul, American drag entertainer
1960 – Mandy Yachad, former South African cricketer
1961 – Robert Stethem, U.S. Navy Seabee diver murdered by terrorists on TWA Flight 847 (d. 1985)
1962 – Dédé Fortin, Canadian singer (Les Colocs) (d. 2000)
1963 – Randy Black, Canadian drummer (Annihilator)
1964 – Ralph Garman, American actor and radio personality
1964 – Mitch Williams, Baseball player
1965 – Amanda Brown, Australian musician (The Go-Betweens) and composer
1966 – Jeff Buckley, American musician (d. 1997)
1966 – Sophie Marceau, French actress
1966 – Daisy Fuentes, Cuban model and actress
1966 – Kate Ceberano, Australian singer
1966 – Richard Fortus, American guitarist (Guns N Roses)
1968 – Amber Michaels, German pornographic actress
1968 – Sean Miller, American basketball coach
1969 – Jean-Michel Saive, Belgian table tennis player
1969 – Ryotaro Okiayu, Japanese voice actor
1970 – Paul Allender, British guitarist (Cradle of Filth)
1972 – Leonard Roberts, American actor
1972 – Kimya Dawson, American singer
1973 – Andreas Vintersorg Hedlund, Swedish singer (Vintersorg)
1973 – Eli Marrero, American baseball player
1973 – Bernd Schneider, German footballer
1973 – Alexei Urmanov, Russian figure skater
1974 – Leslie Bibb, American actress
1974 – Berto Romero, Spanish humorist
1975 – Lord Infamous, Rapper
1976 – Diane Neal, American actress
1976 – Brandon Call, American actor
1977 – Paul Shepherd, English footballer
1977 – Ryk Neethling, South African swimmer
1978 – Zoë Bell, New Zealand actress
1978 – Reggie Wayne, American football player
1978 – Rachel McAdams, Canadian actress
1979 – Matthew Spring, English footballer
1980 – Brad Bradley, American professional wrestler
1980 – Isaac Hanson, American musician (Hanson)
1980 – Mercedes Martinez, American professional wrestler
1981 – Sarah Harding, English singer (Girls Aloud)
1982 – Katie Feenstra, American basketball player
1982 – Yusuf Pathan, Indian cricketer
1983 – Yiannis Bourousis, Greek basketball player
1983 – Ryan Braun, American baseball player
1983 – Trevor Crowe, American baseball player
1983 – Scott Moore, American baseball player
1983 – Nick Markakis, American baseball player
1983 – Harry Lloyd, English actor
1983 – Christopher Paolini, American novelist
1984 – Park Han-byul, South Korean actress
1986 – Nani, Portuguese footballer
1987 – Kat DeLuna, American singer
1990 – Shanica Knowles, American actress
1992 – Darian Weiss, American actor
1994 – Raquel Castro, American actress
Deaths
375 – Valentinian I, Roman Emperor (b. 321)
594 – Gregory of Tours, bishop and historian (b. c. 530s|539)
641 – Emperor Jomei of Japan (b. 593)
680 – Hilda of Whitby (b. 614)
885 – Queen Liutgard
1231 – Elisabeth of Hungary, daughter of Andrew II of Hungary (b. 1207)
1302 – St. Gertrude the Great (b. 1256)
1326 – Edmund FitzAlan, 9th Earl of Arundel, English politician (b. 1285)
1494 – Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Italian philosopher (b. 1463)
1558 – Mary I of England (b. 1516)
1558 – Reginald Cardinal Pole, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1500)
1562 – Antoine de Bourbon, father of Henry IV of France (b. 1518)
1592 – John III of Sweden (b. 1537)
1600 – Kuki Yoshitaka, Japanese naval commander (b. 1542)
1632 – Gottfried Heinrich Graf zu Pappenheim, Bavarian field marshal (b. 1594)
1643 – Jean-Baptiste Budes, Comte de Guébriant, Marshal of France (b. 1602)
1648 – Thomas Ford, English composer
1665 – John Earle, English bishop
1668 – Joseph Alleine, English preacher (b. 1634)
1690 – Charles de Sainte-Maure, duc de Montausier, French soldier (b. 1610)
1708 – Ludolf Backhuysen, Dutch painter (b. 1631)
1713 – Abraham van Riebeeck, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (b. 1653)
1720 – Calico Jack, English pirate (b. 1682)
1747 – Alain-René Lesage, French writer (b. 1668)
1768 – Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1693)
1776 – James Ferguson, British astronomer (b. 1710)
1780 – Bernardo Bellotto, Italian painter (b. 1720)
1794 – Jacques François Dugommier, French general (b. 1738)
1796 – Catherine II of Russia, Empress of Russia (b. 1729)
1808 – David Zeisberger, Moravian missionary (b. 1721)
1818 – Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, queen consort of King George III (b. 1744)
1835 – Antoine Charles Horace Vernet, French painter (b. 1758)
1849 – Prince Alexander of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst, German priest and miracle-worker (b. 1794)
1858 – Robert Owen, British father of the cooperative movement (b. 1771)
1865 – James McCune Smith, African-American doctor and abolitionist (b. 1813)
1897 – George Hendric Houghton, American Protestant Episcopal clergyman (b. 1820)
1902 – Hugh Price Hughes, Methodist Social Reformer (b. 1847)
1905 – Adolphe of Luxembourg, (b. 1817)
1910 – Ralph Johnstone, pioneer pilot, 1st American pilot killed in the crash of an airplane, Denver, Colorado (b. 1886)
1917 – Auguste Rodin, French sculptor (b. 1840)
1921 – Pa Chay Vue, Hmong Nationalist
1922 – Robert Comtesse, Swiss Federal Councillor (b. 1847)
1928 – Lala Lajpat Rai, Indian author, politician, & freedom fighter (b. 1865)
1929 – Herman Hollerith, American statistician (b. 1860)
1936 – Ernestine Schumann-Heink, Austrian contralto (b. 1861)
1937 – Jack Worrall, Australian cricketer (b. 1860)
1938 – Ante Trumbic, Croatian politician (b. 1864)
1940 – Eric Gill, British sculptor (b. 1882)
1940 – Raymond Pearl, American biologist (b. 1879)
1942 – Ben Reitman, American anarchist, physician (b. 1879)
1947 – Victor Serge, Russian anarchist, novelist, and historian (b. 1890)
1955 – James P. Johnson, American pianist and composer (b. 1894)
1958 – Mort Cooper, baseball player (b. 1913)
1959 – Heitor Villa-Lobos, Brazilian composer (b. 1887)
1968 – Mervyn Peake, British writer (b. 1911)
1973 – Mirra Alfassa, The Mother, Sri Aurobindo Ashram (b. 1878)
1979 – John Glascock, British bassist (Jethro Tull) (b. 1951)
1982 – Eduard Tubin, Estonian composer (b. 1905)
1982 – Leonid Borisovitch Kogan, Russian violinist (b. 1924)
1986 – Georges Besse, French automobile executive (b. 1927)
1987 – Paul Derringer, baseball player (b. 1906)
1989 – Gus Farace, American gangster (b. 1960)
1990 – Robert Hofstadter, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1915)
1993 – Gérard D. Lévesque, Canadian politician (b. 1926)
1995 – Alan Hull, English Rock Musician (Lindisfarne) (b. 1945)
1998 – Esther Rolle, American actress (b. 1920)
2000 – Louis Eugène Félix Néel, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1904)
2001 – Michael Karoli, German guitarist (b. 1948)
2002 – Abba Eban, Israeli diplomat (b. 1915)
2003 – Arthur Conley, American singer (b. 1946)
2003 – Don Gibson, American singer (b. 1928)
2004 – Mikael Ljungberg, Swedish wrestler (b. 1970)
2004 – Alexander Ragulin, Russian hockey player (b. 1941)
2005 – Marek Perepeczko, Polish actor (b. 1942)
2006 – Ruth Brown, American blues singer (b. 1928)
2006 – Ferenc Puskás, Hungarian footballer (b. 1927)
2006 – Bo Schembechler, American football coach (b. 1929)
2006 – Flo Sandon s, Italian singer (b. 1924)
2008 – Pete Newell, American basketball coach (b. 1915)
Holidays and observances
International Students Day – Commemorates the anniversary of the 1939 Nazi storming of the University of Prague.
Czech Republic and Slovakia – Struggle for Freedom and Democracy Day – Commemorates the beginning of the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia in 1989.
Greece – Polytechneio – Commemorates the 1973 students protests against the junta of the colonels.
Japan – Shogi Day. (More accurately 17th day on Kannazuki; 17th November in modern calendar)
R.C. Saints – Elisabeth of Hungary; Gregory of Tours; Hilda of Whitby; Hugh of Lincoln; Acisclus
