November 17

1558 – Queen Mary I of England dies and is succeeded by her half sister Elizabeth I of England.

1800 –Congress holds its first session in Washington, D.C.

1820 – Commanding his sloop Hero, 21 year old Captain Nathaniel Palmer becomes the first American to see Antarctica.

1831 – The nations of Ecuador and Venezuela are separated from Gran Colombia.

1856 – On the Sonoita River in present day southern Arizona, the U. S. Army establishes Fort Buchanan in order to help control the new lands acquired in the Gadsden Purchase.

1858 – The city of Denver, Colorado is founded.

1863 – During the Civil War, Confederate forces led by General James Longstreet place Knoxville, Tennessee under siege.

1869 – The Suez Canal, linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea, is opened for sea traffic.

1896 – The Western Pennsylvania Hockey League, which later became the first ice hockey league to openly trade and hire players, begins play at Pittsburgh’s Schenley Park Casino.

1903 – The Russian  (Communist) Social Democratic Labor Party splits into two groups: The Bolsheviks “majority” and Mensheviks “minority”.

1910 – Piloting a damaged and improperly repaired Wright Model B aircraft, Ralph Johnstone becomes the first American to die in a plane crash.

1947 – American scientists John Bardeen and Walter Brattain while working under William Shockley at Bell Labs, construct the first working transistor

1950 – Lhamo Dondrub is named Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama.

1962 – President Kennedy dedicates Washington Dulles International Airport, serving the Washington, D.C., region.

1970 – Lieutenant William Calley goes on trial for the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam.

1973 – In Orlando, Florida, President Nixon announces to a group of Associated Press managing editors “I am not a crook.”

1986 – The flight crew of Japan Airlines Flight 1628, a Boeing 747 cargo jet, report sighting multiple UFOs following the aircraft while flying over Alaska.

1993 – The House of Representatives passes a resolution to establish the North American Free Trade Agreement.

2003 – Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger takes office as the governor of California on the recall of governor Gray Davis.

2013 – A late season tornado outbreak strikes the Midwest with Illinois and Indiana the most affected states. Over 70  tornadoes touch down in an 11 hour time period, killing 8 people, injuring over 190 more and causing over $1.6 billion in damage.

2019 – The first known case of COVID-19 is traced to a 55 year old man who had visited a market in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China.