On This Day in History
Today is Sunday, Nov. 17, the 322nd day of 2024 with 44 to follow.
The moon is waning. Morning stars are Jupiter, Mars, Neptune, Saturn and Uranus. Evening stars are Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Neptune, Saturn, Uranus and Venus.
Those born on this date are under the sign of Scorpio. They include King Louis XVIII of France in 1755; astronomer/mathematician August Mobius in 1790; social reformer Grace Abbott in 1878; actor Rock Hudson in 1925; musician Gordon Lightfoot in 1938; filmmaker Martin Scorsese in 1942 (age 82); musician Bob Gaudio (Four Seasons) in 1942 (age 82); model/actor Lauren Hutton in 1943 (age 81); actor/filmmaker Danny DeVito in 1944 (age 80); TV producer Lorne Michaels in 1944 (age 80); Baseball Hall of Fame member Tom Seaver in 1944; Basketball Hall of Fame member Jim Boeheim in 1944 (age 80); Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune in 1945 (age 79); former U.S. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, in 1949 (age 75); actor Stephen Root in 1951 (age 73); South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in 1952 (age 72); civil rights leader/actor Yolanda King in 1955; actor Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio in 1958 (age 66); model/actor RuPaul Andre Charles in 1960 (age 64); actor Dylan Walsh in 1963 (age 61); former U.S. national security adviser Susan Rice in 1964 (age 60); actor Daisy Fuentes in 1966 (age 58); musician Jeff Buckley in 1966; actor Sophie Marceau in 1966 (age 58); musician Ben Wilson (Blues Traveler) in 1967 (age 57); musician Ronnie DeVoe (New Edition/Bell Div DeVoe) in 1967 (age 57); actor David Ramsey in 1971 (age 53); actor Leslie Bibb in 1974 (age 50); actor Brandon Call in 1976 (age 48); actor Rachel McAdams in 1978 (age 46); actor Tom Ellis in 1978 (age 46); musician Isaac Hanson in 1980 (age 44); writer Christopher Paolini in 1983 (age 41); musician Reid Perry (Band Perry) in 1988 (age 36); actor Raquel Castro in 1994 (age 30).
On this date in history:
In 1558, the Elizabethan Age begins when Britain's Queen Elizabeth I ascended to the throne upon her half-sister, Queen Mary's death.
In 1800, the U.S. Congress convened at the Capitol in Washington for the first time.
In 1869, the Suez Canal in Egypt was opened, linking the Red Sea and the Mediterranean.
In 1871, the National Rifle Association was founded by a journalist and a lawyer with a mission to improve its members' marksmanship skills through the organization of rifle clubs across the country.
In 1903, the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party splits into two factions: The Bolsheviks (Russian for "majority"), led by Vladimir Lenin, and the Mensheviks (Russian for "minority"), led by Julius Martov. The Bolsheviks would eventually morph into the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
In 1968, NBC angered football fans across the United States when it pre-empted the final minute of an Oakland Raiders-New York Jets game to air children's movie Heidi. Viewers jammed the phone lines at telephone companies, the network and local police to vent their frustrations.
In 1973, President Richard Nixon uttered the infamous words, " I am not a crook ," in response to reporters' questions about the Watergate scandal.
In 1989, Czechoslovakia's Velvet Revolution began following the put down of a student demonstration by riot police. A larger uprising against the country's communist government succeeded on Dec. 29, ending 41 years of Communist rule.
In 1993, by a vote of 234-200, the United States House of Representatives passed a resolution to establish the North American Free Trade Agreement .
In 2006, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved marketing of silicone gel-filled breast implants, ending a 14-year moratorium on them.
In 2023, citing a lack of confidence , the board of OpenAI - developer of the ChatGPT platform - removed CEO Sam Altman from his position. The company rehired him less than a week later.
A thought for the day: "Who has a harder fight than he who is striving to overcome himself?" - German Dutch cleric Thomas à Kempis
