ON THIS DAY NOVEMBER 17
1558 The 45-year Elizabethan Era begins when Elizabeth I, 25, ascends English throne upon death of her half sister, ‘Bloody Mary’, who earned the nickname by her aggressive attempt to reverse the English Reformation. Under Elizabeth, the Church of England is re-established and England becomes a world power, defeating the Spanish Armada and witnessing a golden age of literature, featuring works by William Shakespeare, Edmund Spenser and others.
1603 English explorer, writer and courtier Sir Walter Raleigh goes on trial for treason.
1869 In Egypt, the Suez Canal, which has taken 10 years to build and links the Mediterranean and Red seas, opens.
1887 British General Bernard Montgomery is born in London. He leads the British Eighth Army to a major victory over the Germans at El Alamein in North Africa in 1943, leads the Eighth Army in Sicily and Italy and commands all ground forces during D-day.
1892 The first gas lamp in Johannesburg is installed outside the landdros office on the Market Square.
1913 The first ship sails through the Panama Canal, linking the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. 1952 Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa is born. 1959 De Beers announces a first – a synthetic diamond.
1970 The computer mouse is patented.
1973 The Greek regime attacks students with tanks, hundreds are killed.
1973 Watergate scandal: in Orlando, Florida, US President Richard Nixon tells 400 newspaper editors, “…people have to know whether their president is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook”. History proves him wrong.
1989 Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution begins when a student demonstration in Prague is quelled by riot police.
1998 A skeleton of a gorgonop, a predatory carnivore with sleek wolf-like build with massive saber teeth from 260 million years ago, is found near Bethulie in the Free State. 2018 A missing Argentinian submarine with 44 submariners on board is found on the sea floor a year after it disappeared off Argentina. 2018 Protests across France against fuel prices leave 400 injured. | THE HISTORIAN