Today In History. What Happened This Day In History
A Timeline Of Events That Occurred On This Day In History
A chronological timetable of historical events that occurred on this day in history. Historical facts of the day in the areas of military, politics, science, music, sports, arts, entertainment and more. Discover what happened today in history.
Today in History
| 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 |
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| 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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