What Happened on November 17th in History
30 historical events on this date
The Tartu Art Museum is established in Tartu, Estonia.
The Tartu Art Museum is a state-owned museum of art located in Tartu, Estonia. It was founded in 1940 on a private initiative by the members of local art school Pallas. This is the largest art...
The Screen Actors Guild implements an anti-Communist loyalty oath.
The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) was an American labor union which represented over 100,000 film and television principal and background performers worldwide. On March 30, 2012, the union leadership...
American scientists John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain observe the basic principles of the transistor, a key element for the electronics revolution of the 20th century.
John Bardeen was an American physicist. He is the only person to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics twice: first in 1956 with William Shockley and Walter Brattain for their invention of the...
Lhamo Dondrub is officially named the 14th Dalai Lama.
The 14th Dalai Lama is the incumbent Dalai Lama, the highest spiritual leader and head of Tibetan Buddhism. He served as the resident spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet before 1959, and...
United Nations Security Council Resolution 89 relating to the Palestine Question is adopted.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 89, adopted on November 17, 1950, after receiving complaints from Egypt, Israel, Jordan and the Chief of Staff of the Truce Supervision Organization...
The remaining human inhabitants of the Blasket Islands, County Kerry, Ireland, are evacuated to the mainland.
The Blasket Islands are an uninhabited group of islands off the west coast of the Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry, Ireland. The last island to hold a significant population, Great Blasket Island,...
Vickers Viscount G-AOHP of British European Airways crashes at Ballerup after the failure of three engines on approach to Copenhagen Airport. The cause is a malfunction of the anti-icing system on the aircraft. There are no fatalities.
The Vickers Viscount is a retired British medium-range turboprop airliner first flown in 1948 by Vickers-Armstrongs. A design requirement from the Brabazon Committee, it entered service in 1953 and...
President John F. Kennedy dedicates Washington Dulles International Airport, serving the Washington, D.C., region.
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the...
Vietnam War: Acting on optimistic reports that he had been given on November 13, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson tells the nation that, while much remained to be done, "We are inflicting greater losses than we're taking...We are making progress."
The Vietnam War was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam and their allies. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union and China, while...
British European Airways introduces the BAC One-Eleven into commercial service.
The BAC One-Eleven is a retired early jet airliner produced by the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Conceived by Hunting Aircraft as a 30-seat jet before its merger into BAC in 1960, it was...
Viewers of the Raiders–Jets football game in the eastern United States are denied the opportunity to watch its exciting finish when NBC broadcasts Heidi instead, prompting changes to sports broadcasting in the U.S.
The Heidi Game was a 1968 American Football League (AFL) game between the Oakland Raiders and the visiting New York Jets. The contest, held on November 17, 1968, was notable for its exciting finish,...
Cold War: Negotiators from the Soviet Union and the United States meet in Helsinki, Finland to begin SALT I negotiations aimed at limiting the number of strategic weapons on both sides.
The Cold War was a period of international geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist...
Vietnam War: Lieutenant William Calley goes on trial for the My Lai Massacre.
The Vietnam War was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam and their allies. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union and China, while...
Luna programme: 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 is released by the orbiting Luna 17 spacecraft.
The Luna programme, sometimes called Lunik by western media, was a series of robotic spacecraft missions sent to the Moon by the Soviet Union between 1959 and 1976. The programme accomplished many...
Watergate scandal: In Orlando, Florida, U.S. President Richard Nixon tells 400 Associated Press managing editors "I am not a crook."
The Watergate scandal, or simply Watergate, was a political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon. On June 17, 1972, operatives associated with Nixon's...
The Athens Polytechnic uprising against the military regime ends in a bloodshed in the Greek capital.
The Athens Polytechnic uprising occurred in November 1973 as a massive student demonstration of popular rejection of the Greek military junta of 1967–1974. It began on 14 November 1973, escalated to...
The Zapatista Army of National Liberation is founded in Mexico.
The Zapatista Army of National Liberation, often referred to as the Zapatistas, is a far-left political and militant group that controls a substantial amount of territory in Chiapas, the...
The flight crew of Japan Airlines Flight 1628 are involved in a UFO sighting incident while flying over Alaska.
Japan Air Lines Cargo Flight 1628 was a Japanese Boeing 747-200F cargo aircraft flying from Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport to Narita International Airport that was involved in an unidentified...
Cold War: Velvet Revolution begins: In Czechoslovakia, a student demonstration in Prague is quelled by riot police. This sparks an uprising aimed at overthrowing the communist government (it succeeds on December 29).
The Velvet Revolution or Gentle Revolution was a non-violent transition of power in what was then Czechoslovakia, occurring from 17 November to 28 November 1989. Popular demonstrations against the...
Fugendake, part of the Mount Unzen volcanic complex, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan, becomes active again and erupts.
Mount Unzen is an active stratovolcano of several overlapping small, volcanic cones, near the city of Shimabara, Nagasaki on the island of Kyushu, Japan's southernmost main island.
United States House of Representatives passes a resolution to establish the North American Free Trade Agreement.
The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate...
In Nigeria, General Sani Abacha ousts the government of Ernest Shonekan in a military coup.
Sani Abacha was a Nigerian military dictator and statesman who ruled Nigeria as military head of state from 1993, following a palace coup d'état, until his death in 1998.
In Luxor, Egypt, 62 people are killed by six Islamic militants outside the Temple of Hatshepsut, known as Luxor massacre.
Luxor is a city in Upper Egypt. Luxor had a population of 284,952 in 2023, with an area of 43.0 km2 (16.6 sq mi) and is the capital of the Luxor Governorate. Nicknamed the City of a Hundred Gates or...
A catastrophic landslide in Log pod Mangartom, Slovenia, kills seven, and causes millions of SIT of damage. It is one of the worst catastrophes in Slovenia in the past 100 years.
Landslides, also known as landslips, rockslips or rockslides, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, mudflows, shallow or deep-seated...
Alberto Fujimori is removed from office as president of Peru.
Alberto Kenya Fujimori Inomoto was a Peruvian politician, professor, and engineer who served as the president of Peru from 1990 to 2000. During Fujimori's tenure, the Peruvian Armed Forces responded...
Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger's tenure as the governor of California begins.
Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian and American actor, businessman, film producer, politician, and former professional bodybuilder. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 38th...
At least 50 schoolchildren are killed in an accident at a railway crossing near Manfalut, Egypt.
The Manfalut Train-bus collision occurred on 17 November 2012 when a school bus, which was carrying about 70 school children between four and six years old, was hit by a train on a rail crossing...
Fifty people are killed when Tatarstan Airlines Flight 363 crashes at Kazan Airport, Russia.
Tatarstan Airlines Flight 363 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight, operated by Tatarstan Airlines on behalf of Ak Bars Aero, from Moscow to Kazan, Russia. On 17 November 2013, at 19:24 local...
A rare late-season tornado outbreak strikes the Midwest. Illinois and Indiana are most affected with tornado reports as far north as lower Michigan. In all around six dozen tornadoes touch down in approximately an 11-hour time period, including seven EF3 and two EF4 tornadoes.
On November 17, 2013, the deadliest and costliest November tornado outbreak in Illinois history took shape, becoming the fourth-largest for the state overall. With more than 30 tornadoes in Indiana,...
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.
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. Starting in January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. In March...