| November 17 |
| 375 |
|
Enraged by the insolence of barbarian envoys, Valentinian, the Emperor of the West, dies of apoplexy in Pannonia in Central Europe. |
| 1558 |
|
Queen Elizabeth ascends to the throne of England. |
| 1558 |
|
The Church of England is re-established. |
| 1636 |
|
Henrique Dias, Brazilian general, wins a decisive battle against the Dutch in Brazil. |
| 1796 |
|
Napoleon Bonaparte defeats an Italian army near the Alpone River, Italy. |
| 1800 |
|
The Sixth Congress (2nd session) convenes for the first time in Washington, D.C. |
| 1842 |
|
A grim abolitionist meeting is held in Marlboro Chapel, Boston, after the imprisonment of a mulatto named George Latimer, one of the first fugitive slaves to be apprehended in Massachusetts. |
| 1862 |
|
Union General Ambrose Burnside marches north out of Washington, D.C., to begin the Fredericksburg campaign. |
| 1869 |
|
The Suez Canal is formally opened. |
| 1877 |
|
Russia launches a surprise night attack that overruns Turkish forces at Kars, Armenia. |
| 1885 |
|
The Serbian Army, with Russian support, invades Bulgaria. |
| 1903 |
|
Vladimir Lenin’s efforts to impose his own radical views on the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party splits the party into two factions, the Bolsheviks, who support Lenin, and the Mensheviks. |
| 1913 |
|
The first ship sails through the Panama Canal, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. |
| 1918 |
|
Influenza deaths reported in the United States have far exceeded World War I casualties. |
| 1918 |
|
German troops evacuate Brussels. |
| 1931 |
|
Charles Lindbergh inaugurates Pan Am service from Cuba to South America in the Sikorsky flying boat American Clipper. |
| 1941 |
|
German Luftwaffe general and World War I fighter-ace Ernst Udet commits suicide. The Nazi government tells the public that he died in a flying accident. |
| 1951 |
|
Britain reports development of the world’s first nuclear-powered heating system. |
| 1965 |
|
The NVA ambushes American troops of the 7th Cavalry at Landing Zone Albany in the Ia Drang Valley, almost wiping them out. |
| 1967 |
|
The American Surveyor 6 makes a six-second flight on the moon, the first liftoff on the lunar surface. |
| 1970 |
|
Soviet unmanned Luna 17 touches down on the moon. |
| 1980 |
|
WHHM Television in Washington, D.C., becomes the first African-American public-broadcasting television station. |
| 1986 |
|
Renault President Georges Besse is shot to death by leftists of the Direct Action Group in Paris. |
Born on November 17 |
| 1755 |
|
Louis XVIII, King of France. |
| 1887 |
|
Bernard Law Montgomery, British field marshal who defeated Rommel in North Africa and led Allied troops from D-Day to the end of World War II. |
| 1902 |
|
Eugene Paul Wigner, Hungarian-born physicist. |
| 1916 |
|
Shelby Foote, American writer, famous for his three-volume narrative on America’s Civil War. |
| 1942 |
|
Martin Scorsese, film director (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull) |
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