Today in History for 17th November 2023

[CoM Moderators]

Historical Events

1858 - Origin of Modified Julian Period
1876 - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's patriotic Slavonic March makes its premiere in Moscow to a warm reception
1965 - William Eckert is unanimously elected commissioner of baseball
2002 - Australian Leyton Hewitt scores back-to-back season-ending Tennis Masters Cup titles with a classic 7–5, 7–5, 2–6, 2–6, 6–4 victory over Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero in Shanghai, China
2006 - Official naming of element 111, Roentgenium (Rg).
2021 - British Columbia declares a state of emergency after an "atmospheric river" storm causes widespread rain and flooding

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Famous Birthdays

1729 - Maria Antonietta of Spain, queen of Sardinia (d. 1785)
1911 - William Tannen, American actor (Jailhouse Rock, Sitting Bull), born in NYC, New York (d. 1976)
1936 - Dahlia Ravikovitch, Israeli poet (d. 2005)
1945 - Roland Joffe, director (City of Joy, Mission, Killing Fields)
1953 - Jilly Johnson, British model and pop vocalist (Blonde on Blonde), born in England
1965 - Paul Sorrento, Somerville MA, infielder (Seattle Mariners)

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Famous Deaths

1600 - Kuki Yoshitaka, Japanese naval commander, commits seppuku (ritual suicide) after defeat at Battle of Sekigahara (b. 1542)
1940 - Raymond Pearl, American biologist (b. 1879)
1940 - Eric Gill, British sculptor, engraver and typographer (Perpetua, Gill Sans), dies of cancer at 58
1942 - Ben Reitman, American anarchist, physician (b. 1879)
1995 - Marguerite Young, writer, dies at 87
2019 - Adnan Pachachi, Iraqi and Emirati politician and diplomat (Iraq Minister of Foreign Affairs during Six-Day War), dies at 96

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