November 17
1558
Queen Elizabeth I of England ascended to the throne upon the death of her half-sister Queen Mary.
1800
Congress met in Washington, DC, for the first time.
1869
The Suez Canal opened in Egypt.
1917
Sculptor Auguste Rodin died in Meudon, France.
1968
Night of the “Heidi bowl:” NBC switched from football to movie of Heidi. In the missing 42 seconds, the lagging Raiders scored two touchdowns, defeating the Jets.
1973
President Nixon said “I am not a crook.”
1989
The beginning of the “Velvet Revolution,” which led to the downfall of communism in Czechoslovakia.
2003
Arnold Schwarzenegger was sworn in as governor of California.
Birthdays
Augustus Mobius
1790–1868, German Mathematician and Astronomer
Louis XVIII
king of France (1755)
Lee Strasberg
stage director (1901)
Eugene Paul Wigner
physicist (1902)
Isamu Noguchi
sculptor (1904)
Rock Hudson
actor (1925)
Martin Scorsese
film director; (1942)
Danny De Vito
actor, director, producer (1944)