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On this day in History Archives
 
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17 November, 2006
Official naming of element 111, Roentgenium (Rg).
17 November, 2005
Italys choice of national anthem, Il Canto degli Italiani, becomes official in law for the first time, almost 60 years after it was provisionally chosen following the birth of the republic.
17 November, 2004
Kmart Corp. announces it is buying Sears, Roebuck and Co. for $11 billion and naming the newly merged company Sears Holdings Corporation.
17 November, 2003
Arnold Schwarzenegger is inaugurated as Governor of California.
17 November, 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.
17 November, 2000
Alberto Fujimori is removed from office as president of Peru.
17 November, 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).
17 November, 1990
Fugendake, part of the Mount Unzen volcanic complex, Nagasaki prefecture, Japan becomes active again and erupts.
17 November, 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).
17 November, 1985
The first edition of Phrack is released. It became the oldest computer underground magazine still running after its 20 years of existence.
17 November, 1983
The Zapatista Army of National Liberation is founded
17 November, 1978
The Star Wars Holiday Special aired one time only on CBS.
17 November, 1974
Aliança Operário-Camponesa (Worker-Peasant Alliance) founded in Portugal, as a front of PCP(m-l).
17 November, 1973
Watergate scandal: In Orlando, Florida, US President Richard Nixon tells 400 Associated Press managing editors "I am not a crook".
17 November, 1973
The Athens Polytechnic Uprising against the military regime ends in a bloodshed in the Greek capital.
17 November, 1970
Vietnam War: Lieutenant William Calley goes on trial for the My Lai massacre.
17 November, 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.
17 November, 1970
Douglas Engelbart receives the patent for the first computer mouse.
17 November, 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.
17 November, 1968
Alexandros Panagoulis is condemned to death for attempting to assassinate Greek dictator George Papadopoulos.
17 November, 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 were taking...We are making progress."
17 November, 1962
President John F. Kennedy dedicates Dulles International Airport, serving the Washington, D.C. region.
17 November, 1954
Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser becomes president of Egypt.
17 November, 1953
The remaining human inhabitants of the Blasket Islands, Kerry, Ireland are evacuated to the mainland.
17 November, 1950
Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, was enthroned as Tibets head of state at the age of fifteen.
17 November, 1941
World War II: Joseph Grew, the United States ambassador to Japan, cables the State Department that Japan has plans to launch an attack against Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (his cable is ignored).
17 November, 1939
Nine Czech students are executed as a response to anti-Nazi demonstrations prompted by the death of Jan Opletal; in addition, Czech universities are shut down and over a thousand Czech students sent to concentration camps. November 17 declared International Students day.
17 November, 1939
The Rome-Rio de Janeiro air connection is created.
17 November, 1933
United States recognizes Soviet Union.
17 November, 1922
Former Ottoman sultan Mehmed VI goes into exile in Italy.
17 November, 1919
King George V of the United Kingdom proclaims Armistice Day (later Remembrance Day). The idea was first suggested by Edward George Honey.
17 November, 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, DC.
17 November, 1905
The Eulsa Treaty is signed between Japan and Korea.
17 November, 1903
The Russian Social Democratic Labor Party splits into two groups; the Bolsheviks (Russian for "majority") and Mensheviks (Russian for "minority").
17 November, 1903
Dahomey (current Benin) becomes a French protectorate.
17 November, 1886
Premiere of the opera Mignon by Ambroise Thomas.
17 November, 1878
First assassination attempt against Umberto I of Italy.
17 November, 1876
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovskys patriotic Slavonic March made its premiere in Moscow to a warm reception by the Russian people.
17 November, 1871
The National Rifle Association is granted a charter by the state of New York.
17 November, 1869
In Egypt, the Suez Canal, linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea, is inaugurated in an elaborate ceremony.
17 November, 1863
American Civil War: Siege of Knoxville begins - Confederate forces led by General James Longstreet place Knoxville, Tennessee under siege.
17 November, 1858
Modified Julian Day zero.
17 November, 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.
17 November, 1855
David Livingstone becomes the first European to see Victoria Falls in what is now present-day Zambia-Zimbabwe.
17 November, 1839
Giuseppe Verdis first opera, Oberto, conte di San Bonifacio opens in Milan.
17 November, 1831
Ecuador and Venezuela separate from Greater Colombia.
17 November, 1827
The Delta Phi Fraternity, Americas oldest continuous social fraternity, was founded at Union College in Schenectady, NY.
17 November, 1820
Captain Nathaniel Palmer becomes the first American to see Antarctica (the Palmer Peninsula was later named after him).
17 November, 1812
Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Krasnoi.
17 November, 1800
The United States Capitol building in Washington, DC holds its first session of the U.S. Congress.

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