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Today in History ~ November 17
Events1278 - 680 Jews arrested (293 hanged) in England for counterfeiting coins
1558 - Elizabeth I ascends English throne upon death of Queen Mary [H]
1734 - John Peter Zenger, who founded America's first regularly published newspaper, was arrested for libeling the colonial governor of New York; later acquitted
1785 - Church of England organizes in New England
1796 - Battle of Arcole -- Napolean's French forces beat Austrians in Italy
1798 - Snow storms in New England, 100s die
1800 - Congress convened in Washington for the first time Previously, the federal capital had briefly been in several other cities, including New York, Philadelphia, and Annapolis, Maryland. [H]
1800 - John Adams is 1st president to move into the White House
1842 - Fugitive slave George Latimer, captured in Boston
1842 - Gaetano Donizetti's Opera "Linda di Chamounix" is produced (London)
1863 - -Dec 4th) Battle of Knoxville, TN
1863 - Lincoln begins 1st draft of his Gettysburg Address
1866 - Ambroise Thomas' opera "Mignon" is produced (Paris)
1869 - Suez Canal (Egypt) opens, links Mediterranean and Red seas. The 100 mile canal eliminates a 4000-mile trip around Africa.
1875 - Amer Theosophical Society founded by Mme Blavatsky & Col Olcott
1877 - Gilbert & Sullivan's operetta "The Sorcerer," premieres (London)
1884 - Cops arrest John L Sullivan in 2nd round for being "cruel"
1888 - Peter Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony premieres in St. Petersburg
1889 - Union Pacific begins daily through service, Chicago-Portland and San Francisco
1904 - George Cohan's musical "Little Johnny Jones," premieres in NYC
1913 - Panama Canal opens
1914 - US declares Panama Canal Zone neutral
1917 - Lenin defends "temporary" removal of freedom of the press
1927 - Tornado hits Washington DC
1928 - Boston Garden officially opens
1928 - Notre Dame finally loses a football game after nearly 25 years
1930 - Musical "Sweet & Low" with Fanny Brice premieres in NYC
1932 - German government of von Papen, resigns, paving the way for Nazi takeover
1933 - US recognizes USSR, opens trade
1936 - Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy become overnight success on radio
1937 - Britain's Lord Halifax visits Germany, beginning of appeasement
1938 - Italy passes its own version of anti-Jewish Nuremberg laws
1939 - German U-boat torpedoes passenger ship
1939 - Jerome Kern's & Oscar Hammerstein's "Very Warm for May," premieres in NYC
1940 - Green Bay Packers become 1st NFL team to travel by plane
1948 - Britain's House of Commons votes to nationalize steel industry
1959 - William Shea shows proposes NYC stadium with transparent roof
1962 - President Kennedy dedicates Dulles Intl Airport outside Wash DC
1965 - General Meeting of UN refuses admittance of China PR
1966 - Leonids meteor shower peaks (150,000+ per hour)
1967 - French author Regis Debray sentenced to 30 years in Bolivia
1968 - NBC cuts to show "Heidi," misses Raider's rally to beat Jets, 43-32
1972 - Juan Peron returns to Argentina
1973 - Greek regime attacks students with tanks, 100s killed
1973 - Pres Nixon tells AP "...people have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook"
1974 - Union of Banana Exporting Countries (UBEC) forms
1977 - Bernard Pomerance's "Elephant Man," premieres in London
1977 - Egyptian Pres Sadat formally accepts invitation to visit Israel
1979 - Khomeini frees most black & female US hostages
1987 - Ronald Reagan was sharply criticized by Congress. [H]
1988 - Neil Simon's "Rumors," premieres in NYC
1989 - Riot police in Prague, Czechoslovakia, stormed into a crowd of more than 20-thousand pro-democracy demonstrators...beating people with truncheons and firing tear gas. Czechoslovakia always had one of the strongest democracy movements in the communist bloc...partly due to centuries of strong ties to Western rather than Eastern Europe.
1992 - An appeals court in Washington, D.C., ruled the Watergate tapes and Nixon presidential papers rightfully belonged to the disgraced president when he left office in 1974, so the government owes him compensation for passing a law taking control of them.
1992 - Dateline NBC airs a demonstration show General Motors trucks, blowing up on impact, later revealed NBC rigged test
1993 - Nigeria Defense Minister Gen. Sani Abacha announced he had dissolved the government and declared himself the nation's ruler.
1994 - Ireland's Prime Minister Albert Reynolds resigned as lawmakers were about to take a no-confidence vote on his coalition government.
1994 - "Sunset Boulevard" opens at Minskoff Theater NYC for 977 performances
1996 - "Present Laughter" opens at Walter Kerr Theater NYC
1997 - 60 people were killed when six Islamic militants opened fire on a group of tourists at Luxor, Egypt. A three hour gun battle claimed 10 more lives, including those of the gunmen.
2001 - An Atlanta man, Michael Lasseter, created the first major test of America's increased airport security put into place after the Sept. 11 attacks when he violated the new rules, resulting in his arrest and the closing down of Hartsfield International Airport, one of the world's busiest, for four hours.
2002 - The first thorough examination of many of President John F. Kennedy's medical records found he was in far greater pain and taking many more medications than the public knew at the time.
Birthdays Today
0331 - Flavius Claudius Julianus, [Julian the Apostate], emperor
1503 - Il Bronzino, Florentine painter (Eleanor de Toledo & her Son)
1755 - Louis XVIII, 1st post-revolutionary king of France (1814-24)
1790 - August Ferdinand Mobius, mathematician, inventor (Mobius strip)
1799 - Titian Peale (artist, naturalist)
1887 - Bernard L Montgomery, British field marshall (WW II-African campaign)
1901 - Lee Strasberg (director; teacher of method acting at Actor's Studio)
1902 - Eugene Paul Wigner, mathematician/physicist (A Bomb, Nobel 1963)
1902 - Lee Strasberg, Austria, acting coach/actor (And Justice for All)
1904 - Isamu Noguchi, sculptor (1963 Fine Arts Medal)
1905 - Mischa Auer (actor: My Man Godfrey, Brewster's Millions, Destry Rides Again, You Can't Take it with You)
1906 - Soichiro Honda, Japan, founder/CEO (Honda Motor Co)
1914 - Archie Campbell (CMA Comedian of the Year [1969], country singer, comedian: Trouble in the Amen Corner, Bleeping Sleauty, Ridercella, The Men in My Little Girl's Life; Hee Haw, Grand Ole Opry)
1916 - Shelby Foote (historian, writer: The Civil War)
1919 - Hershy Kay, Philadelphia Penn, composer/arranger
1925 - Charles Mackerras, Schenectady NY, Australian conductor
1925 - Rock Hudson (Roy Scherer Fitzgerald) (actor: McMillan and Wife, Giant, A Gathering of Eagles, Ice Station Zebra, Magnificent Obsession, Pillow Talk, Written on the Wind)
1930 - Bob Mathias (Olympic & National Track & Field Hall of Famer: gold medalist decathlon [1948, 1952], Sullivan Award graced Wheaties boxes for years; Olympic torch lighter [1984]; U.S. congressman; played himself in The Bob Mathias Story; director: Olympic Training Center)
1935 - Orlando Pena (baseball)
1936 - Gary Bell (baseball)
1937 - Jim Brewer (baseball)
1937 - Peter Cook (Emmy Award-winning producer: American Playhouse: Concealed Enemies [1983-84]; comedian, writer, actor: Bedazzled, The Princess Bride, Whoops Apocalypse, The Two of Us)
1938 - Gordon Lightfoot (singer: Sundown, If You Could Read My Mind, Carefree Highway, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald; songwriter: Early Morning Rain, Ribbon of Darkness)
1941 - Gene Clark (singer, musician: guitar: group: The Byrds: Turn, Turn, Turn; New Christy Minstrels)
1942 - Bob Gaudio (singer: group: The Royal Teens: Short Shorts; The Four Seasons: Sherry, Big Girls Don't Cry, Walk like a Man, Rag Doll)
1942 - Martin Scorsese (director: Mean Streets, The Color of Money, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Taxi Driver, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, New York, New York, The Last Temptation of Christ, Cape Fear, Michael Jackson's Bad video)
1943 - Lauren Hutton (actress: American Gigolo, Lassiter, Paper Lion)
1944 - Danny DeVito (Emmy Award-winning actor: Taxi [1980-81], Twins, Batman Returns, Hoffa, The Jewel of the Nile, Romancing the Stone, Terms of Endearment, director: Throw Mama from the Train, The War of the Roses, Jack the Bear; married to actress: Rhea Perlman)
1944 - Tom (George) Seaver (Baseball Hall of Famer: New York Mets pitcher: Cy Young Award-winner [1969, 1973, 1975], World Series [1969]; broadcaster: Reds, Mets, ABC)
1945 - Elvin Hayes (Basketball Hall of Famer: "The Big E": San Diego/ Houston Rockets, Baltimore Bullets; 5th on list of most games played in ABA/NBA; University of Houston, All America [1967, 1968])
1946 - Martin Barre (musician: guitar: Jethro Tull: Living in the Past)
1948 - Herman Weaver (football)
1950 - Roland Matthes (swimmer: Olympic Gold Medalist: 100 and 200 meter backstroke [1968, 1972])
1951 - Charlie Davis (football: Pittsburgh Steelers DT, Super Bowl IX)
1958 - Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio (actress: The Color of Money, The Abyss, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Class Action, Consenting Adults, Scarface)
1962 - Eric Olson (actor: Apple's Way, Swiss Family Robinson)
Famous deaths
0474 - Leo II, Byzantine Emperor (474), dies
1512 - Kempo Roeper, Frisian rebel, quartered
1558 - Mary I Tudor, "Bloody Mary", queen of England (1553-58), dies at 42
1558 - Reginald Pole, English cardinal/scholar/"heretic", dies at 58
1796 - Catharine II ("the Great"), empress of Russia (1762-96), dies at 67
1917 - F-Auguste-R Rodin, French sculptor (Baiser, Thinker), dies at 77
1941 - Earnest Udet, German general/air pioneer, commits suicide
1959 - Heitor Villa-Lobos, Brazilian composer/pianist/conductor, dies at 72
1962 - Arthur Vining Davis, CEO (Alcoa-1910-57), dies at 95 in Miami
1978 - James J "Gene" Tunney, heavyweight boxing champ (1926-8), dies at 80
1989 - Emerson Buckley, composer, dies at 73
2002 - Abba Eban, a long-time government official who argued before the United Nations for the formation of the state of Israel, died at the age of 87.
If you have other Birthdays or events to add for this day please E-mail me
Yesterday Tomorrow
