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“There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.”
~ Henry David Thoreau
Wikiquote (Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862) was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, and leading transcendentalist.)
November 17th, 474
Byzantine Empire (East Roman Empire):
474 - Emperor Leo II dies after a reign of 10 months. He is succeeded by his father Zeno, who becomes sole ruler of the Byzantine Empire.
Wikipedia Image: The Baptism of Constantine painted by Raphael's pupils (1520–1524, fresco, Vatican City, Apostolic Palace); Mural of Saints Cyril and Methodius, 19th century, Troyan Monastery, Bulgaria; Justinian I depicted on one of the famous mosaics of the Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna; The Greek fire was first used by the Byzantine Navy during the Byzantine-Arab Wars (from the Madrid Skylitzes, Biblioteca Nacional de España, Madrid); Alexios I, founder of the Komnenos dynasty.
November 17th, 1183
Genpei War: Battle of Mizushima; naval battle in Japan takes place.
Wikipedia Painting: Scenes from the Genpei war
November 17th, 1292
John Balliol becomes King of Scotland - known to the Scots as Toom Tabard ("empty suit").
Wikipedia Painting: King John, his crown and sceptre symbolically broken as depicted in the 1562 Forman Armorial, produced for Mary, Queen of Scots.
November 17th, 1511
Spain and England ally against France.
Wikipedia Image: Western Europe Satellite, credit NASA.
November 17th, 1558
Elizabethan era begins (1558–1603):
1558 - Queen Mary I of England dies and is succeeded by her half-sister Elizabeth I of England.
Wikipedia Painting: Elizabeth I in her coronation robes, patterned with Tudor roses and trimmed with ermine; The Lady Elizabeth in about 1546; Elizabeth playing the virginals; Elizabeth and Philip, King of Spain, relations deteriorated ending in the defeat of the Spanish Armada; A wedding feast, 1569; Ivan the Terrible shows his treasures to Elizabeth's ambassador, by Alexander Litovchenko, 1875; Elizabeth ushers in Peace and Plenty. Detail from The Family of Henry VIII: An Allegory of the Tudor Succession, 1572, attributed to Lucas de Heere.
November 17th, 1603
English explorer, writer and courtier Sir Walter Raleigh goes on trial for treason.
Wikipedia Painting: Raleigh in 1588
November 17th, 1777
American Revolutionary War:
1777 - Articles of Confederation (United States) are submitted to the states for ratification.
Wikipedia Paintings: Washington Crossing the Delaware, by Emanuel Leutz; Battle of the Chesapeake, French (left) and British (right) lines; Battle of Bunker Hill, The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill by John Trumbull; The Defeat of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar, September 13, 1782, by John Singleton Copley; Washington and the Comte de Rochambeau at Yorktown, 1781; "The surrender at Saratoga" shows General Daniel Morgan in front of a French de Vallière 4-pounder; Surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown by (John Trumbull, 1797).
Grand Union - Stars and Stripes Flag
November 17th, 1796
Napoleonic Wars:
1796 - Battle of Arcole; French forces defeat the Austrians in Italy.
Wikipedia Painting: Battle of Trafalgar: The British HMS Sandwich fires to the French flagship Bucentaure (completely dismasted) in the battle of Trafalgar; Napoleon in Berlin (Meynier). After defeating Prussian forces at Jena, the French Army entered Berlin on 27 October 1806; Battle of the Bridge of Arcole Napoleon Bonaparte leading his troops over the bridge of Arcole, by Horace Vernet; Napoleon as King of Italy (Appiani); Napoleon Crossing the Alps (David). In 1800 Bonaparte took the French Army across the Alps, eventually defeating the Austrians at Marengo; Charge of the Russian Imperial Guard cavalry against French cuirassiers at the Battle of Friedland, 14 June 1807; Battle of Borodino as depicted by Louis Lejeune. The battle was the largest and bloodiest single-day action of the Napoleonic Wars; Napoleon's withdrawal from Russia, a painting by Adolph Northen; Wellington at Waterloo by Robert Alexander Hillingford; Napoleon is often represented in his green colonel uniform of the Chasseur à Cheval, with a large bicorne and a hand-in-waistcoat gesture.
November 17th, 1800
The United States Congress holds its first session in Washington, D.C.
Wikipedia Image: The first United States Congress meets ● Frederick Muhlenberg, first Speaker of the ● New York's Federal Hall, the first capital.
Photo: The U.S. Capitol is pictured on the opening day of the 112th United States Congress in Washington, January 5, 2011, credit: Jim Bourg, Reuters; Obama Health Care Speech to Joint Session of Congress, September 2009 (by Executive Office of the President of the United States)
November 17th, 1820
Captain Nathaniel Palmer becomes the first American to see Antarctica (the Palmer Peninsula is later named after him).
Wikipedia Photo: Antarctica (8/30/2012), credit National Geographic; Infrared satellite image of Antarctica, credit © Visual Photos.
November 17th, 1855
David Livingstone becomes the first European to see the Victoria Falls in what is now present-day Zambia - Zimbabwe.
Wikipedia Photo: Livingstone, Zambia Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.
November 17th, 1863
American Civil War:
1863 - Siege of Knoxville; Confederate forces led by General James Longstreet place Knoxville, Tennessee under siege.
Wikipedia Image: ● Lincoln Memorial; an American national monument built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln - located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. across from the Washington Monument.
● The northern army led by George McClellan and the southern army led by Robert E. Lee met at Antietam Creek, Maryland in September, 1862. It was a bloody battle where 13,000 Confederates and 12,000 Union troops died in just one day. McClellan had hesitated to attack before the battle thus letting the southern troops regroup. Also, he had saved reserves and refused to use them at the end of the battle thinking that Lee was holding reserves for a counterattack, even though those reserves didn't exist. The Union victory stopped Lee's northward advance and was a turning point in the war.
● Battle of Antietam / Stone Bridge at Antietam Battlefield - Sharpsburg, Maryland
● First Battle Between Ironclads: CSS Virginia/Merrimac (left) vs. USS Monitor, in 1862 at the Battle of Hampton Roads.
● Although photography was still in its infancy, war correspondents produced thousands of images, bringing the harsh realities of the frontlines to those on the home front in a new and visceral way. The Atlantic.
November 17th, 1869
In Egypt the Suez Canal, linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea, is inaugurated.
Wikipedia Image: Suez Canal, linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea.
November 17th, 1876
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Slavonic March is given its première performance in Moscow.
Wikipedia Painting: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky by Nikolay Kuznetsov, 1893
November 17th, 1903
Russian Revolution:
1903 - Russian Social Democratic Labor Party splits into two groups; the Bolsheviks (Russian for "majority") and Mensheviks (Russian for "minority").
1933 - United States recognizes Soviet Union.
Wikipedia Image: The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union
November 17th, 1939
World War II: Holocaust;
1939 - Nine Czech students are executed as a response to anti-Nazis demonstrations prompted by the death of Jan Opletal. In addition, all Czech universities are shut down and over 1200 Czech students sent to concentration camps. Since this event, International Students' Day is celebrated in many countries, especially in the Czech Republic.
Wikipedia Photo: World War II, The Holocaust. Sources: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum USHMM, History 1900s, Internet Masters of Education Technology IMET, Techno Friends, Veterans Today, Concern.
November 17th, 1947
American scientists John Bardeen and Walter Brattain observe the basic principles of the transistor, a key element for the electronics revolution of the 20th Century.
Wikipedia Photo: Transistors form the basis of all electronic circuits from the simplest to the most complex.
November 17th, 1967
Vietnam War:
1967 - Acting on optimistic reports that he had been given on November 13, United States 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".
1970 - Lieutenant William Calley goes on trial for the My Lai Massacre.
Wikipedia Photo: Vietnam War: Hovering U.S. Army helicopters pour machine gun fire into a tree line to cover the advance of South Vietnamese ground troops in an attack on a Viet Cong camp 18 miles north of Tay Ninh, northwest of Saigon near the Cambodian border, in Vietnam on March 1965. (AP Photo / Horst Faas) / Boston Globe
November 17th, 1968
The Heidi Bowl - Children's special Heidi / Raiders vs. Jets football game:
1968 - Viewers of the Raiders vs. Jets football game in the eastern United States are denied the opportunity to watch its exciting finish when NBC broadcasts Heidi instead, prompting changes to sports broadcasting.
The New York Jets appeared to have the game won 32-29 with 1:05 left on the game clock. With this in mind, the network left the game to begin televising the children's special Heidi. While off the air the Oakland Raiders scored twice in the final 42 seconds to pull off an unbelievable 43-32 victory.
Wikipedia Photo: The Heidi Bowl - Raiders vs. Jets 1968 
, credit NBC, NFL - Youtube.
November 17th, 1969
Cold War:
1969 - SALT I (Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty); Negotiators from the Soviet Union and the United States meet in Helsinki.
1989 - Velvet Revolution; 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 Photo: Lockheed C-130 Hercules; RAF Menwith Hill, a large site in the United Kingdom, part of ECHELON and the UKUSA Agreement; New Zealand nuclear test, British nuclear tests near the Malden and Christmas Islands in the mid-Pacific in 1957 and 1958; Nevada nuclear tests, Nevada Division of Environmental Protection Bureau of Federal Facilities.
November 17th, 1973
Watergate Scandal: in Orlando, Florida United States President Richard Nixon tells 400 Associated Press managing editors "I am not a crook".
Wikipedia Photo: Watergate Scandal: was a political scandal that occurred in the United States in the 1970s as a result of the June 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C., and the Nixon administration's attempted cover-up of its involvement.
Watergate Complex Washington, DC, credit Watergate Notes; President Richard M. Nixon defended himself against many allegations, National Archives; Oliver F. Atkins' photo of Nixon leaving the White House shortly before his resignation became effective, August 9, 1974.
November 17th, 1997
Modern conflicts in the Middle East, social unrest and terrorist attacks:
1997 - Luxor massacre; In Luxor, Egypt, 62 people are killed by 6 Islamic militants outside the Temple of Hatshepsut (The police then kill the assailants).
Wikipedia Photo: Middle East satellite image, NASA. ● Camels are seen early morning on a beach in the Marina area of Dubai October 16, 2008. (Steve Crisp, Reuters) ● A portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad burns during clashes between rebels and Syrian troops in Selehattin, near Aleppo, on July 23, 2012. (Bulent Kilic, AFP / GettyImages) ● Egyptians gather in their thousands in Tahrir Square to mark the one year anniversary of the revolution on Jan. 25, 2012 in Cairo Egypt. Tens of thousands have gathered in the square on the first anniversary of the Arab uprising which toppled President Hosni Mubarak. (Jeff J Mitchell, Getty Images) ● Black smoke rises above the Tehran skyline as supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi burn tires and other material in the streets as they fight running battles with police to protest the declared results of the Iranian presidential election in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, June 13, 2009. (Ben Curtis, AP) ● The Iron Dome defense system fires to interecpt incoming missiles from Gaza in the port town of Ashdod, Thursday, Nov. 15, 2012. (Tsafrir Abayov, AP)
November 17th, 2012
Manfalut railway accident: At least 50 schoolchildren are killed in an accident at a railway crossing near Manfalut, Egypt.
Wikipedia Photo: Manfalut railway accident; People gather at the site of a train crash in the city of Manfalut near Assiut ● A boy holds school bags recovered from the site of a train crash in the city of Manfalut near Assiut, about 300 km (190 miles) south of Cairo, November - source Reuters.