Today is Tuesday, Nov. 17, the 322nd day of 2020. There are 44 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
- On Nov. 17, 1869, the Suez Canal opened in Egypt.
On this date:
- In 1558, Elizabeth I acceded to the English throne upon the death of her half-sister, Queen Mary, beginning a 44-year reign.
- In 1800, Congress held its first session in the partially completed U.S. Capitol building.
- In 1889, the Union Pacific Railroad Co. began direct, daily railroad service between Chicago and Portland, Oregon, as well as Chicago and San Francisco.
- In 1911, the historically African-American fraternity Omega Psi Phi was founded at Howard University in Washington, D.C.
- In 1917, French sculptor Auguste Rodin died in Meudon at age 77.
- In 1969, the first round of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks between the United States and the Soviet Union opened in Helsinki, Finland.
- In 1970, the Soviet Union landed an unmanned, remote-controlled vehicle on the moon, the Lunokhod 1.
- In 1973, President Richard Nixon told Associated Press managing editors in Orlando, Florida: “People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook.”
- In 1979, Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini ordered the release of 13 Black and/or female American hostages being held at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.
- In 1997, 62 people, most of them foreign tourists, were killed when militants opened fire at the Temple of Hatshepsut in Luxor, Egypt; the attackers, who also hacked their victims, were killed by police.
- In 2003, Arnold Schwarzenegger was sworn in as the 38th governor of California.
- In 2018, tribesman on the isolated island of North Sentinel, between India and Southeast Asia, were seen dragging and burying the body of American missionary John Allen Chau, who had reached the island the previous day despite a ban imposed by India’s government.
Today’s Birthdays:
Movie director Martin Scorsese is 78. Actor Lauren Hutton is 77. Actor-director Danny DeVito is 76. “Saturday Night Live” producer Lorne Michaels is 76. Movie director Roland Joffe is 75. Former Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean is 72. Former House Speaker John Boehner is 71. Actor Stephen Root is 69. Rock musician Jim Babjak (The Smithereens) is 63. Actor Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio is 62. Actor William Moses is 61. Entertainer RuPaul is 60. Actor Dylan Walsh is 57. Former National Security Adviser Susan Rice is 56. Actor Sophie Marceau is 54. Actor-model Daisy Fuentes is 54. Blues singer/musician Tab Benoit is 53. Rhythm-and-blues singer Ronnie DeVoe (New Edition; Bell Biv DeVoe) is 53 Rock musician Ben Wilson (Blues Traveler) is 53. Actor David Ramsey is 49. Actor Leonard Roberts is 48. Actor Leslie Bibb is 47. Actor Brandon Call is 44. Country singer Aaron Lines is 43. Actor Rachel McAdams is 42.