1558 Mary I of England became weak and ill in May 1558. In pain, possibly from ovarian cysts or uterine cancer, she died on November 17, 1558 aged 42 at St. James's Palace, during an influenza epidemic. Mary's re-establishment of Roman Catholicism during her reign was reversed after her death by her half-sister and successor Elizabeth.
1558 The Elizabethan age began when Elizabeth I acceded to the English throne on November 17, 1558, following the death of her half sister Mary. Elizabeth was told the news of her accession to the throne whilst sitting under an oak tree in the Hatfield Palace gardens. She reacted by getting on her knees and quoting Psalm 118 “This is the Lord’s day. It is marvelous in our eyes.”
1796 Russia's Catherine The Great died on November 17, 1796 in St Petersburg of a stroke, straining to overcome constipation, whilst sitting on her night stool in her palace. She was buried at the St Peter and St Paul Fortress in Saint Petersburg. During Catherine's reign Russia extended its borders to include part of Turkey, Poland and Sweden.
1800 In 1791 President George Washington commissioned Pierre L'Enfant, a French-born architect and city planner, to design the new capital. L'Enfant chose Jenkin's Hill as the site for the Capitol building. Though the Senate wing building was incomplete, the Capitol held its first Washington D.C. session of the United States Congress with both chambers in session on November 17, 1800.
1820 The first American to see the continent of Antarctica was 21-year-old seal hunter Captain Nathaniel Palmer on November 17, 1820. His vessel, a diminutive sloop named the Hero, was only 47 feet (14 m) in length. The Palmer Peninsula was later named after him.
1839 Giuseppe Verdi's first opera Oberto, Conte di San Bonifacio, was premiered at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan on November 17, 1839. The production achieved a respectable 13 additional performances and the theatre's impresario, Bartolomeo Merelli, commissioned two further operas from the young composer.
1850 Franz Schubert's String Quintet in C Major was first performed on November 17, 1850. The piece of chamber music was Schubert's final instrumental work and was written by him it two months before his tragic early death at the age of 31. The very last chord of the work eerily anticipates his passing, ending with a C major chord against a dissonant D-flat.
1856 The United States Army established Fort Buchanan on the Sonoita River in present-day southern Arizona on November 17, 1856. This was in order to help control new land acquired in the Gadsden Purchase, a 29,640-square-mile (76,800 km2) region of present-day southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico that was purchased by the US in a 1853 treaty.
1869 French engineers started building the Suez Canal on April 25, 1859. It took ten years to build the 100-mile route devised by Ferdinand de Lesseps and more than 1.5 million people were employed. The canal was inaugurated in an elaborate ceremony on November 17, 1869.
1873 Czech composer Antonin Dvorák originally fell in love with his pupil and colleague from the Provisional Theater, Josefína Čermáková, for whom he composed the song-cycle "Cypress Trees". However, she never returned his love and ended up marrying another man. Dvořák married Josefina's younger sister, married Anna Čermáková (1854–1931) on November 17, 1873.
1896 The Western Pennsylvania Hockey League (WPHL) was a professional ice hockey league that started on November 17, 1896, at the Schenley Park Casino in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This league is notable for being one of the earliest organized ice hockey leagues and for openly allowing the trading and hiring of players, setting a precedent for the professionalization of the sport. The WPHL played a significant role in the early development of ice hockey in the United States
1915 The flag of Morocco was adopted on November 17, 1915, but its use at sea was prohibited until independence was restored forty years later. The flag of Morocco is made of a red field with a black-bordered green pentagram representing the Seal of Solomon, the signet ring attributed to King Solomon in Islamic legend.
1915 The first modern country to adopt an eight-hour working day was Uruguay. It was introduced on November 17, 1915 for non-agricultural workers by the government of José Batlle y Ordóñez. Batlle was a progressive reformer who believed in the importance of social justice and the well-being of the working class.
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| Portrait by Antonis Mor, 1554 |
1558 The Elizabethan age began when Elizabeth I acceded to the English throne on November 17, 1558, following the death of her half sister Mary. Elizabeth was told the news of her accession to the throne whilst sitting under an oak tree in the Hatfield Palace gardens. She reacted by getting on her knees and quoting Psalm 118 “This is the Lord’s day. It is marvelous in our eyes.”
1796 Russia's Catherine The Great died on November 17, 1796 in St Petersburg of a stroke, straining to overcome constipation, whilst sitting on her night stool in her palace. She was buried at the St Peter and St Paul Fortress in Saint Petersburg. During Catherine's reign Russia extended its borders to include part of Turkey, Poland and Sweden.
1800 In 1791 President George Washington commissioned Pierre L'Enfant, a French-born architect and city planner, to design the new capital. L'Enfant chose Jenkin's Hill as the site for the Capitol building. Though the Senate wing building was incomplete, the Capitol held its first Washington D.C. session of the United States Congress with both chambers in session on November 17, 1800.
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| The Capitol when first occupied by Congress (painting circa 1800 by William Russell Birch) |
1820 The first American to see the continent of Antarctica was 21-year-old seal hunter Captain Nathaniel Palmer on November 17, 1820. His vessel, a diminutive sloop named the Hero, was only 47 feet (14 m) in length. The Palmer Peninsula was later named after him.
1839 Giuseppe Verdi's first opera Oberto, Conte di San Bonifacio, was premiered at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan on November 17, 1839. The production achieved a respectable 13 additional performances and the theatre's impresario, Bartolomeo Merelli, commissioned two further operas from the young composer.
1850 Franz Schubert's String Quintet in C Major was first performed on November 17, 1850. The piece of chamber music was Schubert's final instrumental work and was written by him it two months before his tragic early death at the age of 31. The very last chord of the work eerily anticipates his passing, ending with a C major chord against a dissonant D-flat.
1856 The United States Army established Fort Buchanan on the Sonoita River in present-day southern Arizona on November 17, 1856. This was in order to help control new land acquired in the Gadsden Purchase, a 29,640-square-mile (76,800 km2) region of present-day southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico that was purchased by the US in a 1853 treaty.
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| The ruins of Fort Buchanan in 1914 |
1869 French engineers started building the Suez Canal on April 25, 1859. It took ten years to build the 100-mile route devised by Ferdinand de Lesseps and more than 1.5 million people were employed. The canal was inaugurated in an elaborate ceremony on November 17, 1869.
1873 Czech composer Antonin Dvorák originally fell in love with his pupil and colleague from the Provisional Theater, Josefína Čermáková, for whom he composed the song-cycle "Cypress Trees". However, she never returned his love and ended up marrying another man. Dvořák married Josefina's younger sister, married Anna Čermáková (1854–1931) on November 17, 1873.
1896 The Western Pennsylvania Hockey League (WPHL) was a professional ice hockey league that started on November 17, 1896, at the Schenley Park Casino in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This league is notable for being one of the earliest organized ice hockey leagues and for openly allowing the trading and hiring of players, setting a precedent for the professionalization of the sport. The WPHL played a significant role in the early development of ice hockey in the United States
1915 The flag of Morocco was adopted on November 17, 1915, but its use at sea was prohibited until independence was restored forty years later. The flag of Morocco is made of a red field with a black-bordered green pentagram representing the Seal of Solomon, the signet ring attributed to King Solomon in Islamic legend.
1915 The first modern country to adopt an eight-hour working day was Uruguay. It was introduced on November 17, 1915 for non-agricultural workers by the government of José Batlle y Ordóñez. Batlle was a progressive reformer who believed in the importance of social justice and the well-being of the working class.
1922 When Helena Normanton was called to the bar on November 17, 1922, at the Middle Temple in London, she was the first woman to be called to the bar in England and Wales. Normanton was also the first woman to appear in the High Court and the Old Bailey.
1929 American inventor Herman Hollerith died on November 17, 1929. Herman Hollerith developed in 1889 an electromechanical punched card tabulator to assist in summarizing information and, later, accounting. His tabulator was hardwired the following year to operate on the 1890 Census cards.
1934 Lyndon Baines Johnson married Claudia Alta Taylor, better known as "Lady Bird" on November 17, 1934. Lady Bird Johnson was the first president's wife to have become a millionaire in her own right before her husband was elected to office.
1934 Lyndon Baines Johnson married Claudia Alta Taylor, better known as "Lady Bird" on November 17, 1934. Lady Bird Johnson was the first president's wife to have become a millionaire in her own right before her husband was elected to office.
1939 International Students' Day is an international observance of the student community, held annually on November 17. It remembers the anniversary of the 1939 Nazi storming of the University of Prague after student demonstrations against the German occupation of Czechoslovakia. Germans closed all Czech universities and colleges, sent over 1200 students to Nazi concentration camps, and had nine students and professors executed on November 17.
1950 The Dalai Lama is a religious figure in Tibetan Buddhism. He is its highest spiritual teacher of the Gelugpa school. The current Dalai Lama, His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso (b 1935), was formally enthroned on November 17, 1950, during the Chinese invasion of Tibet. "Dalai" is original from Mongolian which means "ocean" and "Lama" is original from Tibetan which means "the highest principle".
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| Dalai Lama in 2012 by *christopher* - Flickr: Wikipedia Commons |
1959 The first duty-free shop in the United Kingdom opened at Glasgow Prestwick Airport on November 17, 1959 with the slogan: ‘Buy as you Fly.’ It was operated by Aer Rianta International (ARI), an Irish company that had been founded in 1947 to operate duty-free shops at Shannon Airport in Ireland.
1968 On November 17, 1968 viewers of the Raiders–Jets American football game in the eastern United States were denied the opportunity to watch its exciting finish when NBC broadcast Heidi instead, prompting changes to sports broadcasting in the U.S.
1970 On November 17, 1970, the Lunokhod 1 moon rover was released by the Soviet Union's orbiting Luna 17 spacecraft. It succeeded in landing on the Mare Imbrium (Sea of Rains), becoming the first roving remote-controlled robot to land on another world.
2003 Actor and former bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger stopped acting to run for governor of California in 2003, succeeding Governor Gray Davis in the office. He was sworn in as the 38th governor of California on November 17, 2003. Schwarzenegger's term ended in early January 2011, and he was replaced by Jerry Brown.
2004 On November 17, 2004 the American big box departmental store chain Kmart Corp announced it was buying Sears, Roebuck and Co. for $11 billion. The Kmart management formed "Sears Holdings" upon completion of the merger the following year.
2014 Shridhar Chillal did not cut the fingernails on his left hand between 1952 and 2018. They were measured in Prune City, Maharashtra, India, on November 17, 2014 and found to have a cumulative length of 909.6 cm (358.1 in). He is recognized by Guinness World Records as the person to have had the longest fingernails on a single hand ever.
2016 Bungee jumper Simon Berry from Sheffield, England broke the world record for the highest biscuit dunk on November 17, 2016. Berry bungee jumped 73.41 metres (240 ft 10 in) before successfully dunking a chocolate hobnob into a mug of tea, bettering the previous record of 60.553 metres (198 ft 8 in).
2016 The famous dress worn by Marilyn Monroe when she sang “Happy birthday Mr President” to John F Kennedy sold for a world-record price at an auction at Julien's Auctions in Los Angeles on November 17, 2016, fetching US$4.8m (£3.87m). The famous dress was purchased by Ripley's Believe It or Not! It surpassed the record held by another Marilyn dress worn in the movie The Seven Year Itch, which sold for $4.6m in 2011.
What is the youngest combined age of two family members to compete in the same marathon?
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