Today in History: November 17, Suez Canal opens

Today in History Today is Thursday, Nov. 17, the 321st day of 2022. There are 44 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On Nov. 17, 1869, the Suez Canal opened in Egypt. On this date: In 1800, Congress held its first session in the partially completed U.S. Capitol building. In 1917, French sculptor Auguste Rodin (roh-DAN’) died at age 77. In 1947, President Harry S. Truman, in an address to a special session of Congress, called for emergency aid to Austria, Italy and France. (The aid was approved the following month.) In 1969, the first round of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks between the United States and the Soviet Union opened in Helsinki, Finland. In 1973, President Richard Nixon told Associated Press managing editors in Orlando, Florida: ‘œPeople have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook.’� In 1979, Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini (ah-yah-TOH’-lah hoh-MAY’-nee) ordered the release of 13 Black and/or female American hostages being held at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. In 1989, the Walt Disney animated feature ‘œThe Little Mermaid’� opened in wide release. In 1997, 62 people, most of them foreign tourists, were killed when militants opened fire at the Temple of Hatshepsut (haht-shehp-SOOT’) in Luxor, Egypt; the attackers, who also hacked their victims, were killed by police. In 2002, Abba Eban (AH’-bah EE’-ban), the statesman who helped persuade the world to approve creation of Israel and dominated Israeli diplomacy for decades, died near Tel Aviv; he was 87. In 2003, Arnold Schwarzenegger was sworn in as the 38th governor of California. In 2018, Argentina’s navy announced that searchers had found a submarine that disappeared a year earlier with 44 crewmen aboard; the government said it would be unable to recover the vessel. In 2020, President Donald Trump fired the nation’s top election security official, Christopher Krebs, who had refuted Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of electoral fraud and vouched for the integrity of the vote. Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller said the U.S. would reduce troop levels in Iraq and Afghanistan to about 2,500 in each country by mid-January, accelerating troop withdrawals during Trump’s final days in office. Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California easily won reelection as House Republican leader. Ten years ago: Israel destroyed the headquarters of Hamas’ prime minister and blasted a sprawling network of smuggling tunnels in the southern Gaza Strip, broadening a blistering four-day-old offensive against the Islamic militant group. A speeding train crashed into a bus carrying Egyptian children to their kindergarten, killing 48 children and three adults. Five years ago: Sen. Al Franken apologized to the woman who had accused him of forcibly kissing her and groping her during a 2006 USO tour; the Minnesota Democrat said he remembered the encounter differently. The Rev. Jesse Jackson disclosed that he had been receiving outpatient care for two years for Parkinson’s disease.