On this day in History - Nov. 17

0284 - Diocletian was acclaimed emperor by his soldiers.

0375 - Valentinian I, Roman Emperor (b. 0321)
0641 - Emperor Jomei of Japan dies (b. 0593)
1231 - Elisabeth of Hungary dies (b. 1207). Daughter of Andrew II of Hungary and saint
1292 - (Julian calendar) John Balliol becomes King of Scotland.
1326 - Edmund FitzAlan dies (b. 1285). 9th Earl of Arundel, English politician
1494 - Giovanni Pico della Mirandola dies (b. 1463). Italian philosopher.
1494 - Giovanni Pico della Mirandola was born (b. 1463). Italian humanist.
1503 - Agnolo Bronzino was born (d. 1572). Italian painter.
1525 - Leonor of Portugal dies (b. 1458). Queen of Portugal
1558 - Elizabethan era begins: Queen Mary I of England dies (b. 1516) and is succeeded by her half-sister Elizabeth I of England.
1558 - Queen Mary I of England dies (b. 1516)
1558 - Reginald Cardinal Pole dies (b. 1500). Archbishop of Canterbury
1562 - Antoine de Bourbon dies (b. 1518). Father of Henry IV of France
1576 - Roque Gonzales was born (d. 1628). Paraguayan missionary.
1587 - Joost van den Vondel was born (d. 1679). Dutch poet.
1592 - King John III of Sweden dies (b. 1537)
1600 - Kuki Yoshitaka dies (b. 1542). Japanese naval commander.
1603 - English explorer, writer and courtier Sir Walter Raleigh went on trial for treason.
1612 - Dorgon was born (d. 1650). Manchu prince.
1632 - Gottfried Heinrich Graf zu Pappenheim dies (b. 1594). Bavarian field marshal.
1643 - Jean-Baptiste Budes dies (b. 1602). Comte de Guébriant, marshal of France
1648 - Thomas Ford dies. English composer.

1653 - Portugal: Morte de D. Joana, filha de D. João IV e D. Luísa Francisca de Gusmão.
1665 - John Earle dies. English bishop
1668 - Joseph Alleine dies (b. 1634). English non-conformist preacher.
1681 - Pierre François le Courayer was born (d. 1776). French theologian.
1685 - Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de la Vérendrye was born (d. 1749). French-Canadian trader and explorer
1690 - Charles de Sainte-Maure dies (b. 1610). Duc de Montausier, French soldier
1708 - Ludolf Backhuysen dies (b. 1631). Dutch painter.
1713 - Abraham van Riebeeck dies (b. 1653). Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies
1717 - Jean le Rond d'Alembert was born (d. 1783). French mathematician.
1747 - Alain-René Lesage dies (b. 1668). French writer.
1755 - King Louis XVIII of France was born (d. 1824)
1765 - Étienne-Jacques-Joseph-Alexandre MacDonald was born (d. 1840). French marshal.
1768 - Thomas Pelham-Holles dies (b. 1693). 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, English statesman.
1776 - James Ferguson dies (b. 1710). Scottish astronomer.
1777 - Articles of Confederation submitted to the states for ratification.
1790 - August Ferdinand Möbius was born (d. 1868). German mathematician and astronomer.
1790 - Marechal Saldanha was born (d. 1876). Portuguese militar and politician.
1793 - Sir Charles Lock Eastlake was born (d. 1865). English painter.
1796 - Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Arcole - French forces defeat the Austrians in Italy.
1799 - Titian Peale was born (d. 1885). American artist.
1800 - The United States Capitol building in Washington, DC holds its first session of the U.S. Congress.

1807 - O exército francês comandado pelo general Junot entra em Portugal, pela fronteira de Segura, na Beira Baixa, começando a Primeira Invasão Francesa.
1808 - David Zeisberger dies (b. 1721). Moravian missionary.
1816 - August Wilhelm Ambros was born (d. 1876). Austrian composer
1820 - Captain Nathaniel Palmer becomes the first American to see Antarctica (the Palmer Peninsula was later named after him).
1822 - Joaquim Machado de Castro dies. Portuguese sculptor.
1835 - Andrew L. Harris was born (1915). American Civil War hero and Governor of Ohio
1839 - Giuseppe Verdi's first opera, Oberto, conte di San Bonifacio opens in Milan.
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.
1857 - Joseph Babiński was born (d. 1932). Polish-French neurologist.
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.
1866 - Voltairine de Cleyre was born (d. 1912). American anarchist .

1866 - Lola Mora (Dolores Mora de la Vega) was born. Argentine sculptor.
1868 - Korbinian Brodmann was born (d. 1918). German neurologist.
1869 - In Egypt, the Suez Canal, linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea, is inaugurated in an elaborate ceremony, after 10 years of construction.
1871 - The National Rifle Association is granted a charter by the state of New York.
1878 - Grace Abbott was born (d. 1939). American social worker and activist.
1878 - Lise Meitner was born (d. 1968). Austrian physicist.
1887 - Bernard Montgomery was born in London (d. 1976). British World War II commander.
1895 - Mikhail Bakhtin was born (d. 1975). Russian philosopher.
1895 - Gregorio López y Fuentes was born (d. 1966). Mexican author.
1895 - Clube de Regatas Flamengo is founded.
1896 - Lev Vygotsky was born (d. 1934). Russian psychologist.
1899 - Douglas Shearer was born (d. 1971). Canadian film sound engineer
1901 - Walter Hallstein was born (d. 1982). German politician.
1901 - Lee Strasberg was born (d. 1982). Austrian director.
1902 - Eugene Wigner was born (d. 1995). Hungarian-US physicist, Nobel Prize laureate in 1963, with Jensen and Mayer, for extensive work on quantum mechanics.
1902 - U.S. troops intervene in Colombia.
1903 - The Russian Social Democratic Labor Party splits into two groups; the Bolsheviks (Russian for "majority") and Mensheviks (Russian for "minority"). (NOTE: Later the Mensheviks became the majority party, meaning that technically the Mensheviks became the bolsheviks and the Bolsheviks mensheviks).
1904 - Isamu Noguchi was born (d. 1988). American sculptor.

1904 - U.S. troops intervene in Panama.

1904 - William Hastie was born (d. 1976). US judge and politician.
1905 - Queen Astrid of Belgium was born (d. 1935).
1905 - Mischa Auer was born (d. 1967). American actor.
1906 - Soichiro Honda was born (d. 1992). Japanese automobile pioneer.
1910 - Raquel de Queiroz was born. Brazilian writer who was the first woman to have a chair in the Academia Brasileira de Letras
1911 - Christian Fouchet was born (d. 1974). French diplomat
1916 - Shelby Foote was born (d. 2005). American historian.
1917 - Auguste Rodin dies (b. 1840). French sculptor known for his bronze and marble figures, including The Thinker (1880) and The Kiss (1886), and considered one of the best portraitists in the history of sculpture

1917 - Romeu Correia was born in Cacilhas (d. 12 Jun 1996). Portuguese writer.

1919 - George V, then King of the United Kingdom, proclaimed Armistice Day (later Remembrance Day), saying "that at the hour when the Armistice came into force, the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, there may be for the brief space of two minutes a complete suspension of all our normal activities … so that in perfect stillness, the thoughts of everyone may be concentrated on reverent remembrance of the glorious dead." The idea was first suggested by Edward George Honey.
1922 - Former Ottoman sultan Mehmed VI went on exile in Italy.
1925 - Rock Hudson was born (d. 2 Oct 1985). American actor. McMillan and Wife, Giant, A Gathering of Eagles, Ice Station Zebra, Magnificent Obsession, Pillow Talk, Written on the Wind;
1925 - Sir Charles Mackerras was born. American-born conductor
1927 - Rogério Paulo was born. Portuguese actor.
1928 - Rance Howard was born. American actor
1929 - Norm Zauchin was born (d. 1999). Baseball player.
1929 - Herman Hollerith dies (b. 1860). American statistician.

1929 - Pascual Ortiz Rubio elected president of Mexico.
1936 - Dalia Rabikovich was born (d. 2005). Israeli poet.
1936 - Ernestine Schumann-Heink dies (b. 1861). Austrian contralto
1937 - Peter Cook was born (d. 1995). English comedian, satirist, and writer (Beyond the Fringe, The Wrong Box)
1937 - Jack Worrall dies (b. 1860). Australian cricketer, footballer, and coach.
1938 - Gordon Lightfoot was born. Canadian singer
1938 - Ante Trumbić dies (b. 1864). Croatian politician.

1938 - Alvaro Leon Cassuto was born in Oporto. Portuguese composer and conductor.

1939 - Carlos Alberto Arroyo del Río assumes the presidency of Ecuador
1939 - Auberon Waugh was born (d. 2001). British author.
1940 - Eric Gill dies (b. 1882). English sculptor and writer.
1941 - World War II: Attack on Pearl Harbor - Joseph Grew, the United States ambassador to Japan, cables the State Department that Japan had plans to launch an attack against Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (his cable was ignored).
1942 - Martin Scorsese was born. American film director (Mean Streets, The Color of Money, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Taxi Driver, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, New York, New York, The Last Temptation of Christ, Cape Fear)
1943 - Lauren Hutton was born. American actress (American Gigolo, Lassiter, Paper Lion)
1944 - Danny DeVito was born. Emmy-award winning actor (Taxi [1980-81]; Twins, Batman Returns, Hoffa, The Jewel of the Nile, Romancing the Stone, Terms of Endearment) and director (Throw Mama from the Train, The War of the Roses, Jack the Bear).

1944- Rem Koolhaas was born. Dutch architect (House of Music : Casa da Musica, in Oporto).
1944 - Lorne Michaels was born. Canadian, Emmy Award-winning writer (The Paul Simon Special [1977], Saturday Night Live [1976, 1977, 1989], Lily [1974]; Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, Three Amigos) and Emmy Award-winning producer (Saturday Night Live [1976, 1993, 2002]; Sunday Night, The New Show, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, Stuart Saves His Family, Lassie, The Coneheads, Wayne’s World series, Three Amigos)
1944 - Tom Seaver was born. Baseball player
1945 - Elvin Hayes was born. American basketball player
1948 - Howard Dean was born. American politician.

1950 - Roland Matthes was born. German athlete, one of the greatest backstrokers in the history of swimming.
1952 - Ties Kruize was born. Dutch field hockey player.

1953 - Twenty die in Channel collision: Twenty Italian sailors die following a collision between two boats in the English Channel.

1958 - Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio was born. American actress
1959 - Heitor Villa-Lobos dies (b. 1887). Brazilian composer.
1960 - Jonathan Ross was born. British television presenter
1960 - RuPaul was born. American actor
1962 - In Washington, DC, US President John F. Kennedy dedicates Dulles International Airport.
1966 - Jeff Buckley was born (dies). American musician
1966 - Daisy Fuentes was born. Cuban model, TV host and actress
1966 - Sophie Marceau was born. French actress
1966 - Kate Ceberano was born. Australian singer
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." (two months later the Tet Offensive made him regret his words).
1968 - NBC preempts the final 1:05 minutes of a very close NFL football match between the New York Jets and the Oakland Raiders with Heidi, prompting an outrage amongst sport fans.
1968 - Mervyn Peake dies (b. 1911). British writer and illustrator.
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.
1969 - Jean-Michel Saive was born. Belgian table tennis player
1970 - Paul Allender was born. English singer (Cradle of Filth)
1970 - Elton John plays a concert at A&R Studios in New York City which later becomes the album 11-17-70.
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 - Student uprising against the military regime in Athens, Greece.
1973 - Alexei Urmanov was born. Russian figure skater
1974 - Aliança Operário-Camponesa (Worker-Peasant Alliance) founded in Portugal, as a front of PCP(m-l).
1975 - Diane Neal was born. American actress
1977 - Ryk Neethling was born. South African swimmer
1978 - Reggie Wayne was born. American football player
1982 - Katie Feenstra was born. American basketball player.
1982 - Eduard Tubin dies (b. 1905). Estonian composer
1983 - The Zapatista Army of National Liberation founded.
1985 - The first edition of Phrack is released. It became the oldest computer underground magazine still running after its 20 years of existence.

1986 - French car chief shot dead : George Besse - the head of the Renault car company- is assassinated outside his home in Paris.
1989 - Cold War: Velvet Revolution begins - In Czechoslovakia a peaceful student demonstration in Prague is severely beaten back by the communist riot police. This sparks a revolution aimed at overthrowing the communist government (it succeeded on December 29).
1989 - Gus Farace dies murdered (b. 1960). American gangster.
1989 - João de Freitas Branco dies. Portuguese musicologist and critic of music.
1990 - Robert Hofstadter dies (b. 1915). American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
1990 - Fugendake, part of the Mount Unzen volcanic complex, Nagasaki prefecture, Japan became active again and erupted.
1993 - Annie Proulx wins the National Book Award for her novel The Shipping News.
1993 - Mário Dionísio dies (b. 1916). Portuguese teacher and writer.
1995 - Public Radio International's radio program This American Life broadcasts its first episode, "New Beginnings".

1996 - Emil Constantinescu wins presidential elections in Romania

1997 - In Luxor, Egypt, 62 people are killed by 6 Islamic militants outside the Temple of Hatshepsut (police killed the assailants).
2000 - Catastrophical landslide in Log pod Mangartom,Slovenia, kills 7, and causes millions of SIT of damage. It is one of the worst catastrophies in Slovenia in the past 100 years.
2000 - Alberto Fujimori is removed from office as president of Peru.
2000 - Louis Eugène Félix Néel dies (b. 1904). French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate.
2001 - Michael Karoli dies (b. 1948). German guitarist (Can)
2002 - Abba Eban dies (b. 1915). Israeli diplomat and politician.
2003 - Arnold Schwarzenegger is inaugurated Governor of California.

2003 - Arthur Conley dies (b. 1946). American singer.
2003 - Don Gibson dies (b. 1928). American singer and songwriter.

2004 - Kmart Corp. announced it was buying Sears, Roebuck and Co. for $11 billion and naming the newly merged company Sears Holdings Corporation.
2004 - Mikael Ljungberg dies (b. 1970). Swedish wrestler.
2004 - Samuel Karokikki dies (b. 1943). Nauru athlete.
2004 - Alexander Ragulin dies (b. 1941). Russian hockey player
Feast day of St Elisabeth of Hungary (Roman Catholic)
International Students' Day (note: not specifically for international students)
Dia Mundial do não Fumador