What happened on November 17 ?

1292 - (Julian calendar) John Balliol becomes King of Scotland.

1558 - Elizabethan era begins: Queen Mary I of England dies and is succeeded by her half-sister Elizabeth I of England.

1603 - English explorer, writer and courtier Sir Walter Raleigh goes on trial for treason.

1777 - Articles of Confederation submitted to the states for ratification.

1796 - Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Arcole - French forces defeat the Austrians in Italy.

1800 - The United States Capitol building in Washington, DC holds its first session of the U.S. Congress.

1812 -- Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Krasnoe.

1820 - Captain Nathaniel Palmer becomes the first American to see Antarctica (the Palmer Peninsula was later named after him).

1839 - Giuseppe Verdi's first opera, Oberto, conte di San Bonifacio opens in Milan.

1856 - American Old West: On the Sonoita River in present-day southern Arizona, the United States Army establishes Fort Buchanan in order to help control new land acquired in the Gadsden Purchase.

1858 - Modified Julian Day zero. VMS epoch.

1863 - American Civil War: Siege of Knoxville begins - Confederate forces led by General James Longstreet place Knoxville, Tennessee under siege.

1869 - In Egypt, the Suez Canal, linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea, is inaugurated in an elaborate ceremony.

1871 - The National Rifle Association is granted a charter by the state of New York.

1876 - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's patriotic Slavonic March made its premiere in Moscow to a warm reception by the Russian people.

1903 - The Russian Social Democratic Labor Party splits into two groups; the Bolsheviks (Russian for "majority") and Mensheviks (Russian for "minority").

1919 - King George V of the United Kingdom proclaimed Armistice Day (later Remembrance Day). The idea was first suggested by Edward George Honey.

1922 - Former Ottoman sultan Mehmed VI went on exile in Italy.

1941 - World War II: Joseph Grew, the United States ambassador to Japan, cables the State Department that Japan has plans to launch an attack against Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (his cable is ignored).

1950 - Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, was enthroned as Tibet's head of state at the age of fifteen.

1962 - In Washington, DC, US President John F. Kennedy dedicates Dulles International Airport.

1967 - Vietnam War: Acting on optimistic reports he was given on November 13, US President Lyndon B. Johnson tells his nation that, while much remained to be done, "We are inflicting greater losses than we're taking...We are making progress."

1968 - NBC preempts the final 1:05 minutes of a very close NFL football match between the New York Jets and the Oakland Raiders with Heidi, prompting an outrage amongst sport fans.

1968 - Alexandros Panagoulis condemned to death by the Greek Colonels' Junta.

1969 - Cold War: Negotiators from the Soviet Union and the United States meet in Helsinki to begin SALT I negotiations aimed at limiting the number of strategic weapons on both sides.

1970 - Elton John plays a concert at A&R Studios in New York City which later becomes the album 11-17-70.

1970 - Vietnam War: Lieutenant William Calley goes on trial for the My Lai massacre.

1970 - Luna program: 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 was released by the orbiting Luna 17 spacecraft.

1970 - Douglas Engelbart receives the patent for the first computer mouse.

1973 - Watergate scandal: In Orlando, Florida, US President Richard Nixon tells 400 Associated Press managing editors "I am not a crook".

1973 - Student uprising against the military regime in Athens, Greece.

1974 - Aliança Operário-Camponesa (Worker-Peasant Alliance) founded in Portugal, as a front of PCP(m-l).

1983 - The Zapatista Army of National Liberation founded.

1985 - The first edition of Phrack is released. It became the oldest computer underground magazine still running after its 20 years of existence.

1989 - 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).

1990 - Fugendake, part of the Mount Unzen volcanic complex, Nagasaki prefecture, Japan became active again and erupted.

1997 - In Luxor, Egypt, 62 people are killed by 6 Islamic militants outside the Temple of Hatshepsut (police killed the assailants).

2000 - Catastrophical landslide in Log pod Mangartom,Slovenia, kills 7, and causes millions of SIT of damage. It is one of the worst catastrophies in Slovenia in the past 100 years.

2000 - Alberto Fujimori is removed from office as president of Peru.

2003 - Arnold Schwarzenegger is inaugurated Governor of California.

2004 - Kmart Corp. announces it is buying Sears, Roebuck and Co. for $11 billion and naming the newly merged company Sears Holdings Corporation.

2005 - Italy's choice of national anthem, Il Canto degli Italiani, becomes officialised in law for the first time, almost 60 years after it was provisionally chosen following the birth of the republic.