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, 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 historically African-American fraternity Omega Psi Phi was founded at Howard University in Washington, D.C.
In 1917, French sculptor Auguste Rodin (roh-DAN’) died in Meudon (meh-DON’) 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 (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, 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.