On this day 17th November

Some notable facts about this date, for more, visit http://www.onthisday.com

Facts

1558 Elizabeth I aged 25 ascends English throne upon death of her half sister Queen "Bloody" Mary

1800 Congress holds its 1st session in Washington D.C. in an incomplete Capitol Building

1831 Ecuador and Venezuela separated from Greater Colombia

1855 David Livingstone becomes the first European to see Victoria Falls, in what is now Zambia and Zimbabwe

1869 Suez Canal in Egypt opens, linking Mediterranean and Red seas

1922 The last sultan of the Ottoman Empire Mehmed VI is expelled to Malta on British warship

1970 Douglas Engelbart receives the patent for the first computer mouse

Deaths

375 Valentinian I "The Great", Roman Co-Emperor and Ruler of Western Roman Empire (336-75), dies at 54

1768 Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle, British Prime Minister (Whig: 1757-62), dies at 75

1796 Catherine the Great [Catherine II], Empress of Russia (1762-96), dies of a stroke at 67

1917 Auguste Rodin, French sculptor (Baiser, Thinker), dies at 77

1990 Robert Hofstadter, American atomic physicist and Nobel laureate (electron scattering in atomic nuclei), dies at 75

2012 Margaret Yorke, English crime fiction writer, dies at 88

2014 Jimmy Ruffin, American soul singer (What Becomes of the Brokenhearted), dies at 78

Born on this day

1944 Danny Devito, American actor (Taxi, Ruthless People, Twins), born in Neptune Township, New Jersey

1960 Jonathan Ross, British talk show host

Margaret Yorke

Jimmy Ruffin