Browse Historical Events by Day: What Happened on November 17th?

Diocletian is acclaimed as emperor by his soldiers. During his reign, he restored efficient government to the empire after the near anarchy of the 3rd century by reorganizing the fiscal, administrative, and military functions of the empire. and laying the foundation for the Byzantine Empire in the East. The last major persecution of Christians occurred during his reign.

William II of England (William Rufus) is buried at Winchester Cathedral, England, after his death in a hunting accident.

King Baldwin I of Jerusalem dies, and his sister's son, Baldwin II, succeeds him as King of Jerusalem.

Otto IV is crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Innocent III in Rome.

John Balliol is chosen as King of Scots by Edward I of England, leading to the beginning of the Scottish Wars of Independence.

Edward III is crowned King of England, marking the beginning of his rule.

The Battle of Posada takes place between the Wallachian forces and the Hungarian Empire, leading to a Wallachian victory.

Queen Elizabeth I ascends to the English throne, marking the beginning of the Elizabethan era, a period, when England asserted itself vigorously as a major European power in politics, commerce, and the arts. In 1559, she instituted The the Elizabethan religious Settlement (effected with the Act of Supremacy and Act of Uniformity).During her reign, the kingdom was also threatened by grave internal divisions and the emergence of poverty and cost inflation on a new major scale, made worse by harvest failures. The years of 1594 to 1577 were particularly difficult and remarkable by the misery they engendered. More

The "First Thanksgiving" is celebrated by Plymouth colonists and the Wampanoag Native Americans in Massachusetts.

Jean-Baptiste Lully, the Italian-born French composer, premieres his opera "Cadmus et Hermione" at the Palace of Versailles.

Sweden's King Charles XII assumes the throne at the age of 18, beginning his long and eventful reign.

The United States Congress holds its first session in Washington, D.C., marking the city's official establishment as the nation's capital.

The Suez Canal opens after 10 years of construction. The Canal is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez. It is a key trade route between Europe and Asia. The Suez Canal went through a major one year expansion in 2014 and reopened in 2015. More