Today in History

Today is Sunday, Nov. 17, the 321st day of 2019. There are 44 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Nov. 17, 1800, Congress held its first session in the partially completed U.S. Capitol building.

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 1869, the Suez Canal opened in Egypt.

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 African-American fraternity Omega Psi Phi was founded at Howard University in Washington, D.C.

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 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 (ah-yah-TOH'-lah hoh-MAY'-nee) 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 (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; he was 87.

In 2003, Arnold Schwarzenegger was sworn in as the 38th governor of California.

In 2006, former “Seinfeld” star Michael Richards unleashed a barrage of racial epithets during a stand-up routine at the Laugh Factory in West Hollywood.

Ten years ago: President Barack Obama held formal, closed-door talks in Beijing with Chinese President Hu Jintao (hoo jin-tow). Sarah Palin’s autobiography “Going Rogue” was released; 1 million copies sold in less than two weeks.

Five years ago: Pope Francis confirmed that he would be attending the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia in Sept. 2015. Dr. Martin Salia, a surgeon who’d contracted Ebola in his native Sierra Leone, died at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, two days after being admitted. Jimmy Ruffin, 78, the Motown singer whose hits included “What Becomes of the Brokenhearted,” died in Las Vegas.

One year ago: 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. 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. President Donald Trump acknowledged Californians suffering from twin tragedies, walking through the ashes of a mobile home park in a small northern town virtually destroyed by a wildfire and consoling people grieving after a mass shooting at a bar outside Los Angeles. Democrat Andrew Gillum, Florida’s first black nominee for governor, conceded defeat and congratulated Republican Ron DeSantis; Gillum trailed DeSantis by more than 30,000 votes following a machine recount.

Today’s Birthdays: Sen. James Inhofe (IHN'-hahf), R-Okla., is 85. Rock musician Gerry McGee (The Ventures) is 82. Singer Gordon Lightfoot is 81. Singer-songwriter Bob Gaudio (GOW'-dee-oh) is 78. Movie director Martin Scorsese (skor-SEH'-see) is 77. Actress Lauren Hutton is 76. Actor-director Danny DeVito is 75. “Saturday Night Live” producer Lorne Michaels is 75. Baseball Hall of Famer Tom Seaver is 75. Movie director Roland Joffe is 74. Former Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean is 71. Former House Speaker John Boehner (BAY'-nur) is 70. Actor Stephen Root is 68. Rock musician Jim Babjak (The Smithereens) is 62. Actress Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio is 61. Actor William Moses is 60. Entertainer RuPaul is 59. Gospel musician Joey Williams is 57. Actor Dylan Walsh is 56. Former National Security Adviser Susan Rice is 55. Actress Sophie Marceau (mahr-SOH’) is 53. Actress-model Daisy Fuentes is 53. Blues singer/musician Tab Benoit (behn-WAH’) is 52. Rhythm-and-blues singer Ronnie DeVoe (New Edition; Bell Biv DeVoe) is 52. Rock musician Ben Wilson (Blues Traveler) is 52. Actor David Ramsey is 48. Actor Leonard Roberts is 47. Actress Leslie Bibb is 46. Actor Brandon Call is 43. Country singer Aaron Lines is 42. Actress Rachel McAdams is 41. Rock musician Isaac Hanson (Hanson) is 39. Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun is 36. Actor Justin Cooper is 31. Musician Reid Perry (The Band Perry) is 31. Actress Raquel Castro is 25.

Thought for Today: “The upper classes are merely a nation’s past; the middle class is its future.” — Ayn Rand, Russian-American author (1905-1982).