Today in History
Today is Friday, Nov. 17, the 321st day of 2023. There are 44 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Nov. 17, 2003, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Austrian-born actor who had become one of America's biggest movie stars of the 1980s and '90s, was sworn in as the 38th governor of California.
On this date:
In 1800, Congress held its first session in the partially completed U.S. Capitol building.
In 1869, the Suez Canal opened in Egypt.
In 1917, French sculptor Auguste Rodin (roh-DAN’) died at age 77.
In 1947, President Harry S. Truman, in an address to a special session of Congress, called for emergency aid to Austria, Italy and France. (The aid was approved the following month.)
In 1969, the first round of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks between the United States and the Soviet Union opened in Helsinki, Finland.
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 (ah-yah-TOH’-lah hoh-MAY’-nee) ordered the release of 13 of the 66 American hostages being held at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.
In 1989, the Walt Disney animated feature “The Little Mermaid” opened in wide release.
In 1997, 62 people, most of them foreign tourists, were killed when militants opened fire at the Temple of Hatshepsut (haht-shehp-SOOT’) in Luxor, Egypt; the attackers were killed by police.
In 2002, Abba Eban (AH’-bah EE’-ban), the statesman who helped persuade the world to approve creation of Israel and dominated Israeli diplomacy for decades, died near Tel Aviv at age 87.
In 2012, a speeding train crashed into a bus carrying Egyptian children to their kindergarten, killing 48 children and three adults.
In 2013, Doris Lessing, an independent and often irascible author who won the Nobel Prize in 2007, died in London at age 94.
In 2018, Argentina’s navy announced that searchers had found a submarine that disappeared a year earlier with 44 crewmen aboard; the government said it would be unable to recover the vessel.
In 2020, President Donald Trump fired the nation’s top election security official, Christopher Krebs, who had refuted Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of electoral fraud and vouched for the integrity of the vote.
In 2022, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she would not seek a leadership position in the new Congress, a pivotal realignment making way for a new generation of leaders after Democrats lost control of the House to Republicans in the midterm elections.
Today’s Birthdays: Sen. James Inhofe (IHN’-hahf), R-Okla., Singer-songwriter Bob Gaudio (GOW’-dee-oh) is 82. Movie director Martin Scorsese (skor-SEH’-see) is 81. Actor Lauren Hutton is 80. Actor-director Danny DeVito is 79. “Saturday Night Live” producer Lorne Michaels is 79. Movie director Roland Joffe is 78. Former Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean is 75. Former House Speaker John Boehner (BAY’-nur) is 74. Actor Stephen Root is 72. Rock musician Jim Babjak (The Smithereens) is 66. Actor Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio is 65. Actor William Moses is 64. Entertainer RuPaul is 63. Actor Dylan Walsh is 60. Former National Security Adviser Susan Rice is 59. Actor Sophie Marceau (mahr-SOH’) is 57. Actor-model Daisy Fuentes is 57. Blues singer/musician Tab Benoit (behn-WAH’) is 56. R&B singer Ronnie DeVoe (New Edition; Bell Biv DeVoe) is 56. Rock musician Ben Wilson (Blues Traveler) is 56. Actor David Ramsey is 52. Actor Leonard Roberts is 51. Actor Leslie Bibb is 50. Actor Brandon Call is 47. Country singer Aaron Lines is 46. Actor Rachel McAdams is 45. Rock musician Isaac Hanson (Hanson) is 43. Former MLB outfielder Ryan Braun is 40. Musician Reid Perry (The Band Perry) is 35. Actor Raquel Castro is 29.
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