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November 17
November 17 is the 17th day of the 11th month in the Gregorian calendar.
Events
1558 — England: Bags of cats are burned at the coronation ceremony for Elizabeth I. [1]
1624 — Mystic philosopher Jacob Boehme dies.
1637 — Anne Hutchinson, antinomian, brought to trial. Banished from Massachusetts.
1681 — John Dryden anonymously publishes political satire attacking Earl of Shaftesbury, Absalom and Achitophel.
1734 — John Peter Zenger arrested for libels against colonial government.
1785 — Through strong drink, two Creek subchiefs are induced to sign treaty ceding large portion of Alabama and Georgia to whites; treaty is repudiated by Creek Nation, to no effect.
1790 — August Mobius, topologist, born.
1794 — George Grote, author of the 12-volume History of Greece, lives, Clay Hill, Kent, England.
1835 — German-American publisher, bibliographer Frederick Leypoldt lives, Stuttgart.
1858 — Socialist planner Robert Owen dies. On Robert Owen, see Kenneth Rexrothʼs chapter in Communalism. [2] [3]
1866 — United States of America: Anarchist-feminist Voltairine de Cleyre lives, Leslie, Michigan. Atheist and free-thinker, she taught in Philadelphia. She made many lecture tours, including in Europe, where she met Kropotkin, Louise Michel , Sébastien Faure and many other anarchists. She was an ardent supporter of Ricardo Flores Magón and the Mexican Revolution and wrote for his magazine, "Regeneración". [4] [5]
1866 — Opera "Mignon" is produced, Paris. Although popular, the critics chew it up.
1869 — Suez Canal, Egypt, opens, links Mediterranean and Red seas. Falling behind schedule and vastly overbudget, the crew makes a last ditch effort to open the gap with a big rush. [6]
1875 — American Theosophical Society founded.
1878 — Italy: King Humbert I, stabbed and wounded in Naples by the 29-year-old anarchist Giovanni Passannante [sometimes spelled Passanante]. Condemned to death, his sentence was commuted and he died in prison in 1910.
1878 — Australia: Maritime strike (1878-1879). Seamen in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland go on strike. They were supported by miners in New South Wales and by wharfies [dock workers] in the three colonies. [7]
1881 — United States of America: Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions, forerunner of AFL, organized.
1886 — Janko Polic Kamov, Croatian futurist author, Rijeka, Croatia. Died in Spain, age 24, after a mad and hectic life, as a bohemian and a beggar. [8]
1887 — United States of America: Johann Most, anarchist, is arrested for "incendiary language", and sentenced to one year in prison in the land of free speech.
1891 — Author Sigurd Wesley Christiansen lives.
1896 — United States of America: Sacramento, California reports first of dozens of sightings of huge mysterious airships appearing all over US for the next six months. Looking for an airport to land at…
1909 — U.S. Marines invade Nicaragua.
1914 — England: Union of Democratic Control founded.
1916 — American author Shelby Foote lives.
1919 — Sylvia Beach opens Shakespeare and Company, first combination English-language book shop and lending library in Paris; befriends many of worldʼs writers, particularly in the 1920s/30s, when her shop was a gathering place for expatriate writers and French authors pursued newfound interest in U.S. literature. She also published the first edition of Joyceʼs Ulysses. [9] [10] [11] [12]
1919 — United States of America: Emma Goldman speaks at a New York dinner organized by friends of Kate Richards O'Hare.
1933 — Netherlands: Emma Goldmanʼs lecture tour meets with mixed success: Goldman lectures in Hilversum and Amsterdam on Living My Life, but her lecture in Rotterdam on dictatorship is prohibited. Under surveillance throughout the trip, she is arrested at Appeldorn on Nov. 23 and expelled from the country the following day.
1935 — Audrey Thomas lives, Binghamton, New York. American-born Canadian author known for her autobiographical novels, short stories, and radio plays. Writes of domestic life, womenʼs search for independence, and conflicts between men and women.
1938 — Gordon Lightfoot lives. Now if he could just cut all those strings.
1942 — United States of America: Hobo organizer, anarchist and cultural drop-out Ben Reitman dies. Dr. Ben Reitman crusaded, was beaten, tarred, feathered, jailed, and run out of town for his efforts on behalf of the rights of women to control their own bodies; and "his lifetime efforts to educate and improve the health of hoboes," of which he had been and at heart remained one, "addressed conditions of the homeless that are with us today." [13] [14]
1947 — Victor Serge dies.
1950 — Author Jack Kerouac marries Joan Haverty, whom he met on the 3rd, in Greenwich Village.
1953 — United States of America: Nine paratroopers killed during a training exercise at Fort Bragg, North Carolina when an Air Force C-119 Flying Boxcar plows into them as they float earthward. The plane then crashes, killing six more servicemen.
1955 — United States of America: Jazz pianist James P. Johnson (1894-1955) dies. Although it had been around since 1913, the dance of the 20s, the Charleston, catches on nationally and internationally after appearing in the 1924 all-black musical revue, Runnin' Wild, with music composed by jazz pianist James P. Johnson. [15]
1958 — Alan Freedʼs trial for allegedly inciting a riot after a Boston show on 1958 May 3, set to start today, is put back until 1959 January 5. This is due to investigations into a related charge of violating Massachusetts anti-anarchy laws.
1959 — Author Jack Kerouac travels to Frisco to attend a screening of Pull My Daisy at the San Francisco Film Festival. Kerouac meets Lew Welch and Albert Saijo in San Francisco; on the 20th he drives back to New York with them.
1960 — United States of America: Anti-integration demonstrators riot in New Orleans.
1960 — Italy: Carmelo Spagnuolo, procuratore della repubblica di Milano, fa sequestrare il film di Mauro Bolognini "La giornata balorda", denunciando oltre il regista anche gli sceneggiatori Pier Paolo Pasolini e Alberto Moravia per divulgazione di spettacolo osceno. [Source: Crimini e Misfatti]
1966 — Leonids meteor shower peaks (150,000+ per hour). 46,000 meteroids fall on Arizona in 20 minutes.
1967 — French author and militant Regis Debray sentenced to 30 years in Bolivia.
1970 — United States of America: Trial of Bobby Seale and Ericka Huggins begins (ended 1971 May 25).
1972 — United States of America: Richard Nixon (R) re-elected over George McGovern (D) for President.
1973 — United States of America: At a convention of newspaper editors at Disney World( ! ), Florida: President Dick M Nixon tells the whole world: "I am not a crook."
1973 — Harold Warden breaks 3,773 bricks in 3 hours with karate and his bare hands.
1973 — United States of America: Free Religionist Alan Watts dies, Mill Valley, California. [16]
1978 — United States of America: Two Federal Bureau of Investigations agents testify before the House Select Committee on Assassinations that the bureauʼs long-term surveillance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was based solely on Beloved and Respected Comrade Leader J. Edgar Hooverʼs "hatred of the civil rights leader" and not on the civil rightʼs leaderʼs alleged communist influences or linkages with radical groups.
1979 — Russian astrophysicist Immanuel Velikovsky dies.
1979 — Iran: Head honcho, Ayatollah Khomeini (known as "Chuckles" to close pals), orders the release of 13 female and black hostages in Teheran, citing American women and African-Americans as among the groups oppressed by the government of the United States.
1979 — Jamaican-born Arthur Lewis, along with Theodore Schultz, is named the recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for "pioneering research into economic development… with particular consideration of the problems of developing countries."
1980 — France: "Courant Alternatif" begins publishing this month. Monthly magazine of l'Organisation Communiste Libertaire, OCL groups collectively producing it, with responsibilty decentralized and revolving. A worthy production, currently in print and on the Internet. [Source: Ephéméride Anarchist] [17]
1983 — Harm Wiersma retains checkers world championship — despite his checkered past.
1985 — United States of America: With his Oregon sex cult dismantled and his 93 Rolls Royces sold off after his arrest for violating US immigration laws and bioterrorist followers busted for poisoning town-folk, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh leaves for India. He describes his four years here as "hell" and says Americans are "sub-human." We don't know about the hell part.
1986 — France: Two women from Accion Directe shoot Renault chairman George Besse, Paris. [Source: 'Calendar Riots']
1987 — U2 frontman Bono pulls a fan onstage in L.A. to sing "People Get Ready" with the group. The fan hands Bono a demo tape.
1989 — Czechoslavakia: 10-20,000 teens try to march to Wenceslas Square in Prague; 400 injured. More action tomorrow. Mass demonstration leads to downfall of the regime. "You make very good sense as a literary playboy, talking about what needs to change. But we students were beaten in the square tonight. We children did our job and now itʼs the role of the parents to do something." — Vaclav Klaus, Jr. to his father (Vaclav Havel, now Prime Minister), on the night of November 17th, 1989. [18]
1990 — Itabari Njeri receives the American Book Award for Outstanding Contribution in American Literature for her book Every Good-bye Ain't Gone. Also honored is poet Sonia Sanchez, who receives a lifetime achievement award.
1992 — After a 14-year battle with cancer, self-described "Black lesbian, mother, warrior, poet" Audre Lorde, dies in St. Croix, Virgin Islands. Her battle with cancer is examined in The Cancer Journals (1980), which also contains a feminist critique of the medical profession. Her last collection of poetry is the 1992 publication, Undersong: Choosen Poems Old and New. [19] [20]
1992 — United States of America: The Sequoyah Fuels Uranium-Processing facility in Oklahoma releases a cloud of nitrogen dioxide. The release exposes 34 people to the carcinogen. Most are hospitalized with bleeding eardrums and blistered eyeballs or lungs. Great Vomits of the Century Logo Since opening 21 years ago, the uranium plant — owned by General Atomics — has tallied 15,000 violations of state and federal law. For years, the group Native Americans for a Clean Environment has publicized the violations and organized demonstrations. This year the group has devoted all its money for a legal team and publicity. Within a week of todayʼs nitrogen-dioxide release, General Atomics closes the plant to avoid new litigation. [21]
1992 — United States of America: Dateline NBC airs a demonstration show General Motors trucks, with their gas tanks exploding upon side impacts. Itʼs later revealed NBC rigged the test. [22]
1995 — Bettino Craxi], who served as Italyʼs first Socialist prime minister from 1983 to 1987, is indicted on corruption charges along with 74 others, many present or former government officials. Silvio Berlusconi, Italian opposition leader in power after the Christian Democrats fell in 1994, is also implicated. In December of 1995, Berlusconi is forced to resign. In the subsequent trial, the intimate connection between the government and the Italian Mafia is exposed, and in some cases the differences between these two organizations is heavily blurred.
1995 — United States of America: Anarchist picnic at Golden Gate Park, Frisco, just down the street from Bound Together Books, meadow near the Ghirardeli Rustic Shelter.
1998 — 15th year anniversary of the birth of the EZLN. [23]
2000 — United States of America: Florida… overcast, another gray day, highs in the mid-300s…the more things change, the more they remain the same. The Vote Nobody election campaign proved successful this past May in Bristol, England: An Autonomous Zone was declared after 145 people voted for Nobody and just 5 for the council. One staunch anarchist spoiled his ballot paper and wasn't counted. Vote Lesser Evil; source shaftagents.com [24] [25]
2002 — Italy: Seven-time Beloved and Respected Comrade Leader PM Giulio Andreotti is convicted of murdering a journalist and sentenced to 24 years in prison. [Source: Robert Braunwart]
