On this day: November 17

Events on November 17

• 1292 John Balliol was chosen to be King of Scots over Robert de Brus. Wikipedia
• 1558 Elizabeth I became Queen of England and of Ireland, marking the beginning of the Elizabethan era. Wikipedia
• 1592 Sigismund III Vasa, who was already King of Poland, succeeded his father John III as King of Sweden. Wikipedia
• 1775 The city of Kuopio, Finland (belonging to Sweden at this time) is founded by King Gustav III of Sweden. Wikipedia
• 1796 French Revolutionary Wars: French forces won the Battle of Arcole in a manoeuvre to cut the Austrians' line of retreat. Wikipedia
• 1831 Ecuador and Venezuela are separated from Gran Colombia. Wikipedia
• 1869 In Egypt, the Suez Canal, linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea, is inaugurated. Wikipedia
• 1921 Rioting broke out in Bombay, India, during the visit of Edward, Prince of Wales, leading to at least 58 deaths. Wikipedia
• 1941 World War II: Hjalmar Siilasvuo ordered Finnish forces to halt their assault against Soviet forces near Salla, concluding Operation Arctic Fox. Wikipedia
• 1943 World War II: Australian forces launched an assault on Sattelberg, New Guinea, against Japanese forces, initiating the Battle of Sattelberg. Wikipedia
• 1947 American scientists John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain observe the basic principles of the transistor, a key element for the electronics revolution of the 20th century. Wikipedia
• 1950 The 14th Dalai Lama assumed full temporal power as ruler of Tibet at the age of 15. Wikipedia
• 1967 Vietnam War: Acting on optimistic reports that he had been given on November 13, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson tells the nation that, while much remained to be done, "We are inflicting greater losses than we're taking...We are making progress." Wikipedia
• 1968 NBC controversially cut away from an American football game between the Oakland Raiders and New York Jets to broadcast Heidi, causing viewers in the Eastern United States to miss the game's dramatic ending. Wikipedia
• 1970 Luna programme: 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 is released by the orbiting Luna 17 spacecraft. Wikipedia
• 1973 Watergate scandal: In Orlando, Florida, U.S. President Richard Nixon tells 400 Associated Press managing editors "I am not a crook." Wikipedia
• 1989 Walt Disney Pictures released The Little Mermaid to theatres, beginning the Disney Renaissance. Wikipedia
• 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). Wikipedia
• 1993 United States House of Representatives passes a resolution to establish the North American Free Trade Agreement. Wikipedia
• 1993 In Nigeria, General Sani Abacha ousts the government of Ernest Shonekan in a military coup. Wikipedia
• 1997 Sixty-two people were killed by Islamist terrorists outside Deir el-Bahari in Luxor, one of Egypt's top tourist attractions. Wikipedia
• 2000 Alberto Fujimori is removed from office as president of Peru. Wikipedia
• 2009 Administrators at the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit discovered that their servers had been hacked, and thousands of emails and files on climate change had been stolen. Wikipedia
• 2013 An outbreak of 77 confirmed tornadoes occurred in seven U.S. states; it became the largest November tornado outbreak in Illinois and Indiana. Wikipedia
• 2013 Tatarstan Airlines Flight 363 crashed during an aborted landing at Kazan International Airport, Russia, killing all 50 people on board and leading to the revocation of the airline's operating certificate. Wikipedia
• 2019 The first known case of COVID-19 is traced to a 55-year-old man who had visited a market in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. Wikipedia

Born on November 17

• 9 Vespasian, Roman emperor (died 79) Wikipedia
• 1503 Bronzino, Italian painter (died 1572) Wikipedia
• 1749 Nicolas Appert, French chef, invented canning (died 1841) Wikipedia
• 1755 Louis XVIII, king of France (died 1824) Wikipedia
• 1790 August Ferdinand Möbius, German mathematician and astronomer (died 1868) Wikipedia
• 1887 Bernard Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, English field marshal (died 1976) Wikipedia
• 1896 Lev Vygotsky, Belarusian-Russian psychologist and philosopher (died 1934) Wikipedia
• 1902 Eugene Wigner, Hungarian physicist and mathematician, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1995) Wikipedia
• 1905 Astrid of Sweden (died 1935) Wikipedia
• 1906 Soichiro Honda, Japanese engineer and businessman, co-founded the Honda Motor Company (died 1991) Wikipedia
• 1922 Stanley Cohen, American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2020) Wikipedia
• 1925 Rock Hudson, American actor (died 1985) Wikipedia
• 1942 Martin Scorsese, American director, producer, screenwriter, and actor Wikipedia
• 1944 Danny DeVito, American actor, director, and producer Wikipedia
• 1944 Rem Koolhaas, Dutch architect and academic, designed the Seattle Central Library Wikipedia
• 1945 Abdelmadjid Tebboune, Algerian politician, 8th President of Algeria Wikipedia
• 1952 Cyril Ramaphosa, South African businessman and politician, fifth President of South Africa Wikipedia
• 1966 Sophie Marceau, French actress, director, and screenwriter Wikipedia
• 1966 Jeff Buckley, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 1997) Wikipedia
• 1978 Rachel McAdams, Canadian actress Wikipedia
• 1983 Christopher Paolini, American author Wikipedia
• 1986 Nani, Portuguese footballer Wikipedia

Died on November 17

• 375 Valentinian I, Roman emperor (born 321) Wikipedia
• 1231 Elizabeth of Hungary (born 1207) Wikipedia
• 1492 Jami, Persian poet and saint (born 1414) Wikipedia
• 1494 Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Italian philosopher and author (born 1463) Wikipedia
• 1558 Mary I of England (born 1516) Wikipedia
• 1624 Jakob Böhme, German mystic (born 1575) Wikipedia
• 1796 Catherine the Great, of Russia (born 1729) Wikipedia
• 1917 Auguste Rodin, French sculptor and illustrator (born 1840) Wikipedia
• 1929 Herman Hollerith, American statistician and businessman (born 1860) Wikipedia
• 1990 Robert Hofstadter, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1915) Wikipedia
• 1992 Audre Lorde, American poet, essayist, memoirist, and activist (born 1934) Wikipedia
• 2000 Louis Néel, French physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1904) Wikipedia
• 2006 Ferenc Puskás, Hungarian footballer and manager (born 1927) Wikipedia
• 2013 Doris Lessing, British novelist, poet, playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1919) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Athens Polytechnic Uprising Remembrance Day (Greece) Wikipedia
• Christian feast days: Acisclus Wikipedia
• Christian feast days: Aignan of Orleans Wikipedia
• Christian feast days: Elizabeth of Hungary Wikipedia
• Christian feast days: Gennadius of Constantinople (Greek Orthodox Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast days: Gregory of Tours (Roman Catholic Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast days: Gregory Thaumaturgus Wikipedia
• Christian feast days: Hilda of Whitby Wikipedia
• Christian feast days: Hugh of Lincoln Wikipedia
• Christian feast days: November 17 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• International Students' Day Wikipedia
• Martyrs' Day (Odisha, India) Wikipedia
• Presidents Day (Marshall Islands) Wikipedia

Sources

• Wikipedia — “November 17” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/November 17” — the anniversaries editors chose for the date and the article each one is about (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikidata — in how many language editions each entry's own article exists, used to fill the lists (CC0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• vacanza/holidays (open-source holiday rules, MIT licence) — holiday rules used to build the lists (checked 2026-10-15)

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “November 17” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-15 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. Every anniversary that Wikipedia's editors selected for November 17 stays on the list; the remaining places, up to 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths, go to the entries whose own article — about the event itself, or else the person or thing it is about — appears in the most language editions (counted from Wikidata); an article about a person or thing, which covers far more than one day, counts half. An entry with no article of its own counts, also at half, by the least covered article it links, and one that links only places counts for nothing. Each list runs by year, and the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures, audio and video.