TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

Nov. 17, 1973

President Richard Nixon told Associated Press managing editors in Orlando, Florida: “People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook.” ALSO ON THIS DATE

1558

Elizabeth I acceded to the English throne upon the death of her half-sister, Queen Mary, beginning a 44year reign.

1800

Congress held its first session in the partially completed U.S. Capitol building.

1889

The Union Pacific Railroad Co. began direct, daily railroad service between Chicago and Portland, Oregon, as well as Chicago and San Francisco.

1917

French sculptor Auguste Rodin died in Meudon at age 77.

1947

President Harry S. Truman, in an address to a special session of Congress, called for emergency aid to Austria, Italy and France.

1979

Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini ordered the release of 13 black and/or female American hostages being held at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

1987

A federal jury in Denver convicted two white supremacists of civil rights violations in the 1984 slaying of radio talk show host Alan Berg.

1997

62 people, most of them foreign tourists, were killed when militants opened fire at the Temple of Hatshepsut in Luxor, Egypt; the attackers were killed by police.