HISTORY AT A GLANCE

TODAY is Tuesday, November 14, the 318th day of 2017. There are 47 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:

1965 – Vietnam War: The Battle of Ia Drang begins – the first major engagement between regular American and North Vietnamese forces. 1967 – The Congress of Colombia, in commemoration of the 150 years of the death of Policarpa Salavarrieta, declares this day as “Day of the Colombian Woman”. 1967 – American physicist Theodore Maiman is given a patent

for his ruby laser systems, the world’s first laser. 1969 – Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 12, the

second crewed mission to the surface of the Moon. 1970 – Soviet Union enters ICAO, making Russian the fourth

official language of organisation. 1971 – Enthronement of Pope Shenouda III as Pope of

Alexandria. 1973 – In the United Kingdom, Princess Anne marries Captain

Mark Phillips, in Westminster Abbey. 1975 – Spain abandons Western Sahara. 1979 – Iran hostage crisis: US President Jimmy Carter issues Executive order 12170, freezing all Iranian assets in the United States in response to the hostage crisis. 1982 – Lech Walesa, the leader of Poland’s outlawed Solidarity movement, is released after eleven months of internment near the Soviet border. 1984 – Zamboanga City mayor Cesar Climaco, a prominent critic of the government of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, is assassinated in his home city. 1990 – After German reunification, the Federal Republic of Germany and Poland sign a treaty confirming the Oder–Neisse line as the border between Germany and Poland. 1991 – American and British authorities announce indictments against two Libyan intelligence officials in connection with the downing of the Pan Am Flight 103. 1991 – Cambodian Prince Norodom Sihanouk returns to

Phnom Penh after thirteen years of exile. 2001 – War in Afghanistan: Afghan Northern Alliance fighters

take over the capital Kabul. 2003 – Astronomers Michael E. Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David L. Rabinowitz discover 90377 Sedna, a TransNeptunian object. 2008 – The first G-20 economic summit opens in Washington,

D.C. 2010 – Germany’s Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing wins Formula One’s Drivers Championship to become the sport’s youngest champion. 2012 – Israel launches a major military operation in the Gaza

Strip, as hostilities with Hamas escalate.