November 17 ...

In 1558 Elizabeth I ascended to the English throne upon the death of Queen Mary. In 1800 Congress held its first session in Washington in the partially completed Capitol building. In 1869 the Suez Canal opened in Egypt. In 1917 sculptor August Rodin died in Meudon, France. In 1962 Washington's Dulles International Airport was dedicated by President Kennedy. In 1968 NBC cut away from the final minute of a New York Jets-Oakland Raiders game to begin a made-for-TV movie special, Heidi, on schedule. The Raiders, who were losing to the Jets 32-29 when NBC cut away, came from behind in the last minute and five seconds to beat the Jets 43-32, in what is now known as "The Heidi Game." In 1970 the Soviet Union landed an unmanned, remote-controlled vehicle on the moon, the Lunokhod 1. In 1973 President Nixon told Associated Press managing editors in a televised meeting in Orlando, FL: "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 ordered the release of 13 female and black American hostages being held at the US Embassy in Tehran. In 1997 62 people are killed by 6 Islamic terrorists in Luxor, Egypt, outside the Temple of Hatshepsut (police killed the terrorists). In 2002 Israeli statesman Abba Eban died near Tel Aviv at age 87.