November 17th

The first Guantanamo detainee to face civilian trial, Ahmed Ghailani, was convicted by federal jury in New York on one charge of conspiracy related to 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Ghailani's native Tanzania.

The vampire romance movie "Twilight" premiered in Los Angeles.

John Allen Muhammad was convicted of two counts of capital murder in the Washington-area sniper shootings. (He was later sentenced to death and executed.).

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

The beginning of the "Velvet Revolution," which led to the downfall of communism in Czechoslovakia.

President Richard M. Nixon told an Associated Press managing editors meeting in Orlando, Fla., "I'm not a crook.".

The Soviet Union landed an unmanned, remote-controlled vehicle on the moon.

Night of the "Heidi bowl:" NBC switched from football to movie of Heidi. In the missing 42 seconds, the lagging Raiders scored two touchdowns, defeating the Jets.

Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C., was dedicated.

Lyndon B. Johnson married Claudia Alta Taylor, better known as "Lady Bird.".

The last sultan of the Ottoman Empire Mehmed VI is expelled to Malta on British warship.

Sculptor Auguste Rodin died in Meudon, France.

The Suez Canal opened in Egypt, linking the Mediterranean and the Red seas.

The start of Modified Julian Date. Mostly used by astronomers and astrophysicists, the Modified Julian Date (MJD) is a dating method that is defined by subtracting 2,400,000.5 days from the current Julian date (JD), which is calculated by counting the number of days past since Noon January 1, 4713 B.C.E. The MJD gives the number of days past Midnight November 17, 1858. MJD was first used in 1957 by scientists at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory to track satellites.

David Livingstone becomes the first European to see Victoria Falls, in what is now Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Ecuador and Venezuela separated from Greater Colombia.

Congress held its first session in Washington, D.C., in the partially completed Capitol building.

Queen Elizabeth I of England ascended to the throne upon the death of her half-sister Queen Mary.