Following are some of the major events to have occurred on November 17:
1917 – Auguste Rodin, French sculptor of “The Thinker” and “The Kiss”, died.
1954 – General Gamal Abdel Nasser became Egyptian head of state following the fall of President Mohamed Naguib.
1972 – Argentine ex-president Juan Peron arrived in Buenos Aires after 17 years of exile.
1974 – The first general election in Greece for over 10 years ended with a decisive victory for the New Democracy Party of Constantine Karamanlis.
1986 – In Paris the managing director of the car firm Renault, Georges Besse, was shot dead by “Action Directe”.
1997 – Egyptian Islamic militant group al-Gama’a al-Islamiya killed 58 foreign tourists and four Egyptians at Luxor in their bloodiest attack in Egypt to date.
2000 – United States President Bill Clinton’s speech in Hanoi is the first ever speech by a visiting foreign leader broadcast live to citizens of Vietnam.
2001 – Former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani returned to Kabul, five years after the Taliban drove him out.
2002 – Abba Eban, Israel’s quintessential diplomat and one of the world’s most eloquent statesmen, died.
2006 – Brazilian surfing legend Rico de Souza attempts to set world record for biggest surfboard.
2013 – Tartarstan Boeing 737 airliner crashed on Sunday in the Russian city of Kazan, killing all 50 people on board.
(Reuters)
