On this day, Nov. 17
1800 Congress held its first session in the partially completed U.S. Capitol building.
1869 The Suez Canal opened in Egypt.
1947 President Harry S. Truman, in an address to a special session of Congress, called for emergency aid to Austria, Italy and France. (The aid was approved the following month.)
1969 The first round of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks between the United States and the Soviet Union opened in Helsinki, Finland.
1973 President Richard Nixon told Associated Press managing editors in Orlando, Fla.: “People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook.”
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.
1997 Sixty-two people, most of them foreign tourists, were killed when militants opened fire at the Temple of Hatshepsut in Luxor, Egypt; the attackers, who also hacked their victims, were killed by police.
2003 Arnold Schwarzenegger was sworn in as the 38th governor of California.
2018 Argentina’s navy announced that searchers had found a submarine that disappeared a year earlier with 44 crewmen aboard; the government said it would be unable to recover the vessel.
Today’s birthdays: Singer Gordon Lightfoot, 84. Singer-songwriter Bob Gaudio, 81. Movie director Martin Scorsese, 80. Actor Lauren Hutton, 79. Actor-director Danny DeVito, 78. “Saturday Night Live” producer Lorne Michaels, 78. Movie director Roland Joffe, 77. Actor Stephen Root, 71. Rock musician Jim Babjak (The Smithereens), 65. Actor Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, 64. Actor William Moses, 63. Entertainer RuPaul, 62. Actor Dylan Walsh, 59. Former National Security Adviser Susan Rice, 58. Actor Sophie Marceau, 56. Actor-model Daisy Fuentes, 56. Blues singer/musician Tab Benoit, 55. R&B singer Ronnie DeVoe (New Edition; Bell Biv DeVoe), 55. Rock musician Ben Wilson (Blues Traveler, 55. Actor David Ramsey, 51. Actor Leonard Roberts, 50. Actor Leslie Bibb, 49. Actor Brandon Call, 46. Country singer Aaron Lines, 45. Actor Rachel McAdams, 44. Rock musician Isaac Hanson (Hanson), 42. Former MLB outfielder Ryan Braun, 39. Musician Reid Perry (The Band Perry), 34. Actor Raquel Castro, 28.