17 November on the globe: what happened in the world on this day, and who was born

Emperor Charles the Fat is deposed by the Frankish magnates in an assembly at Frankfurt, leading his nephew, Arnulf of Carinthia, to declare himself king of the East Frankish Kingdom in late November.

Genpei War: The Battle of Mizushima takes place off the Japanese coast, where Minamoto no Yoshinaka's invasion force is intercepted and defeated by the Taira clan.

John Balliol becomes King of Scotland.

Sharif ul-Hāshim establishes the Sultanate of Sulu.

French King Charles VIII occupies Florence, Italy.

Henry VIII of England concludes the Treaty of Westminster, a pledge of mutual aid against the French, with Ferdinand II of Aragon.

Elizabethan era begins: Queen Mary I of England dies and is succeeded by her half-sister Elizabeth I.

Sigismund III Vasa, who was already King of Poland, succeeded his father John III as King of Sweden.

English explorer, writer and courtier Sir Walter Raleigh goes on trial for treason.

The city of Kuopio, Finland (belonging to Sweden at this time) is founded by King Gustav III of Sweden.

Articles of Confederation (United States) are submitted to the states for ratification.

French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of the Bridge of Arcole: French forces defeat the Austrians in Italy.

The United States Congress holds its first session in Washington, D.C.

Sweden declares war on its ally the United Kingdom to begin the Anglo-Swedish War, although no fighting ever takes place.

José Miguel Carrera, Chilean founding father, is sworn in as President of the executive Junta of the government of Chile.

Captain Nathaniel Palmer becomes the first American to see Antarctica. (The Palmer Peninsula is later named after him.)

Ecuador and Venezuela are separated from Gran Colombia.

An earthquake in Valdivia, south-central Chile, causes a tsunami that leads to significant destruction along Japan's coast.

American Old West: On the Sonoita River in present-day southern Arizona, the United States Army establishes Fort Buchanan in order to help control new land acquired in the Gadsden Purchase.

Modified Julian Day zero.

The city of Denver, Colorado is founded.

American Civil War: Siege of Knoxville begins: During the Knoxville campaign, Confederate forces under General James Longstreet besiege the city of Knoxville, Tennessee and its Union defenders led by General Ambrose Burnside.

In Egypt, the Suez Canal, linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea, is inaugurated.

First assassination attempt against Umberto I of Italy by anarchist Giovanni Passannante, who was armed with a dagger. The King survived with a slight wound in an arm. Prime Minister Benedetto Cairoli blocked the aggressor, receiving an injury in a leg.

Serbo-Bulgarian War: The decisive Battle of Slivnitsa begins.

H. H. Holmes, one of the first modern serial killers, is arrested in Boston, Massachusetts.

The Western Pennsylvania Hockey League, which later became the first ice hockey league to openly trade and hire players, began play at Pittsburgh's Schenley Park Casino.

The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party splits into two groups: The Bolsheviks (Russian for "majority") and Mensheviks (Russian for "minority").

Rioting broke out in Bombay, India, during the visit of Edward, Prince of Wales, leading to at least 58 deaths.

Nine Czech students are executed as a response to anti-Nazi demonstrations prompted by the death of Jan Opletal. All Czech universities are shut down and more than 1,200 students sent to concentration camps. Since this event, International Students' Day is celebrated in many countries, especially in the Czech Republic.

The Tartu Art Museum is established in Tartu, Estonia.

World War II: Hjalmar Siilasvuo ordered Finnish forces to halt their assault against Soviet forces near Salla, concluding Operation Arctic Fox.

World War II: Australian forces launched an assault on Sattelberg, New Guinea, against Japanese forces, initiating the Battle of Sattelberg.

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.

The Screen Actors Guild implements an anti-Communist loyalty oath.

Lhamo Dondrub is officially named the 14th Dalai Lama.

United Nations Security Council Resolution 89 relating to the Palestine Question is adopted.

The remaining human inhabitants of the Blasket Islands, County Kerry, Ireland, are evacuated to the mainland.

Vickers Viscount G-AOHP of British European Airways crashes at Ballerup after the failure of three engines on approach to Copenhagen Airport. The cause is a malfunction of the anti-icing system on the aircraft. There are no fatalities.

President John F. Kennedy dedicates Washington Dulles International Airport, serving the Washington, D.C., region.

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."

British European Airways introduces the BAC One-Eleven into commercial service.

Viewers of the Raiders–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 in the U.S.

Cold War: Negotiators from the Soviet Union and the United States meet in Helsinki, Finland to begin SALT I negotiations aimed at limiting the number of strategic weapons on both sides.

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.

Vietnam War: Lieutenant William Calley goes on trial for the My Lai Massacre.

The Athens Polytechnic uprising against the military regime ends in a bloodshed in the Greek capital.

Watergate scandal: In Orlando, Florida, U.S. President Richard Nixon tells 400 Associated Press managing editors "I am not a crook."

The Zapatista Army of National Liberation is founded in Mexico.

The flight crew of Japan Airlines Flight 1628 are involved in a UFO sighting incident while flying over Alaska.

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).

Walt Disney Pictures released The Little Mermaid to theatres, beginning the Disney Renaissance.

Fugendake, part of the Mount Unzen volcanic complex, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan, becomes active again and erupts.

In Nigeria, General Sani Abacha ousts the government of Ernest Shonekan in a military coup.

United States House of Representatives passes a resolution to establish the North American Free Trade Agreement.

In Luxor, Egypt, 62 people are killed by six Islamic militants outside the Temple of Hatshepsut, known as Luxor massacre.

A catastrophic landslide in Log pod Mangartom, Slovenia, kills seven, and causes millions of SIT of damage. It is one of the worst catastrophes in Slovenia in the past 100 years.

Alberto Fujimori is removed from office as president of Peru.

Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger's tenure as the governor of California begins.

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.

At least 50 schoolchildren are killed in an accident at a railway crossing near Manfalut, Egypt.

A rare late-season tornado outbreak strikes the Midwest. Illinois and Indiana are most affected with tornado reports as far north as lower Michigan. In all around six dozen tornadoes touch down in approximately an 11-hour time period, including seven EF3 and two EF4 tornadoes.

Fifty people are killed when Tatarstan Airlines Flight 363 crashes at Kazan Airport, Russia.

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.

Martin Scorsese, American director, producer, screenwriter, and actor

Vespasian, Roman emperor (died 79)

Cyril Ramaphosa, South African businessman and politician, fifth President of South Africa

Eugene Wigner, Hungarian physicist and mathematician, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1995)

Rachel McAdams, Canadian actress

Louis XVIII, king of France (died 1824)

Danny DeVito, American actor, director, and producer

Nicolas Appert, French chef, invented canning (died 1841)

Bernard Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, English field marshal (died 1976)

Lev Vygotsky, Belarusian-Russian psychologist and philosopher (died 1934)

Abdelmadjid Tebboune, Algerian politician, 8th President of Algeria

Sophie Marceau, French actress, director, and screenwriter

Nani, Portuguese footballer

Rock Hudson, American actor (died 1985)

Bronzino, Italian painter (died 1572)

August Ferdinand Möbius, German mathematician and astronomer (died 1868)

Stanley Cohen, American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2020)

Christopher Paolini, American author

Rem Koolhaas, Dutch architect and academic, designed the Seattle Central Library

Soichiro Honda, Japanese engineer and businessman, co-founded the Honda Motor Company (died 1991)

Astrid of Sweden (died 1935)

RuPaul, American drag queen performer, actor, and singer

Jeff Buckley, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 1997)

Nguyễn Tấn Dũng, Vietnamese soldier and politician, eighth Prime Minister of Vietnam

Lee Strasberg, Ukrainian-American actor and director (died 1982)

John Boehner, American businessman and politician, 53rd Speaker of the United States House of Representatives

Joost van den Vondel, Dutch poet and playwright (died 1679)

Susan Rice, American academic and politician, 24th United States National Security Advisor

Aristides Pereira, Cape Verdean politician, first President of Cape Verde (died 2011)

Gordon Lightfoot, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2023)

Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, American actress and singer

Leslie Bibb, American actress and producer

Julian Ryerson, Norwegian footballer

Jacques MacDonald, French general (died 1840)

Voltairine de Cleyre, American author and activist (died 1912)

Rance Howard, American actor, producer, and screenwriter (died 2017)

Tom Ellis, Welsh actor

Sima Guang, Chinese politician (died 1086)

Walter Hallstein, German academic and politician, first President of the European Commission (died 1982)

Stephen Root, American actor

Pam Bondi, American politician and attorney, 87th U.S. Attorney General

Bernd Schneider, German footballer

Linda Nosková, Czech tennis player

Joseph Babinski, French neurologist and academic (died 1932)

Jim Inhofe, American soldier and politician, senior senator of Oklahoma (died 2024)

Lauren Hutton, American model and actress

Dylan Walsh, American actor

Rebecca Walker, American author

Bob Mathias, American decathlete, actor, and politician (died 2006)

Toni Sailer, Austrian skier and actor (died 2009)

Roland Joffé, English-French director, producer, and screenwriter

Harry Lloyd, English actor, producer, and screenwriter

Dorgon, Chinese prince and regent (died 1650)

Pat Toomey, American businessman and politician

David Ramsey, American actor

Greg Rutherford, English long jumper

Isamu Noguchi, American sculptor and architect (died 1988)

Terry Branstad, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 39th Governor of Iowa and U.S. Ambassador to China (2017-2020)

Howard Dean, American physician and politician, 79th Governor of Vermont

Roland Matthes, German swimmer (died 2019)