| 130681 | November 17 | Event | 1811 – José Miguel Carrera, Chilean founding father, is sworn in as President of the executive Junta of the government of Chile. |
| 130682 | November 17 | Event | 1820 – Captain Nathaniel Palmer becomes the first American to see Antarctica. (The Palmer Peninsula is later named after him.) |
| 130683 | November 17 | Event | 1831 – Ecuador and Venezuela are separated from Gran Colombia. |
| 130684 | November 17 | Event | 1839 – Oberto, Giuseppe Verdi's first opera, opens at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Italy. |
| 130685 | November 17 | Event | 1855 – David Livingstone becomes the first European to see the Victoria Falls in what is now present-day Zambia-Zimbabwe. |
| 130686 | November 17 | Event | 1856 – American Old West: On the Sonoita River in present-day southern Arizona, the United States Army establishes Fort Buchanan in order to help control new land acquired in the Gadsden Purchase. |
| 130687 | November 17 | Event | 1858 – Modified Julian Day zero. |
| 130688 | November 17 | Event | 1863 – American Civil War: Siege of Knoxville begins – Confederate forces led by General James Longstreet place Knoxville, Tennessee, under siege. |
| 130689 | November 17 | Event | 1869 – In Egypt, the Suez Canal, linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea, is inaugurated. |
| 130690 | November 17 | Event | 1871 – The National Rifle Association is granted a charter by the state of New York. |
| 130691 | November 17 | Event | 1876 – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's "Slavonic March" is given its premiere performance in Moscow, Russia. |
| 130692 | November 17 | Event | 1878 – First assassination attempt against Umberto I of Italy by anarchist Giovanni Passannante, who was armed with a dagger. The King survived with a slight wound in an arm. Prime Minister Benedetto Cairoli blocked the aggressor, receiving an injury in a |
| 130693 | November 17 | Event | 1885 – Serbo-Bulgarian War: The decisive Battle of Slivnitsa begins. |
| 130694 | November 17 | Event | 1896 – The Western Pennsylvania Hockey League, which later became the first ice hockey league to openly trade and hire players, began play at Pittsburgh's Schenley Park Casino. |
| 130695 | November 17 | Event | 1903 – The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party splits into two groups: The Bolsheviks (Russian for "majority") and Mensheviks (Russian for "minority"). |
| 130696 | November 17 | Event | 1911 – Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Incorporated, which is the first black Greek-lettered organization founded at an American historically black college or university, was founded on the campus of Howard University in Washington, D.C. |
| 130697 | November 17 | Event | 1922 – Former Ottoman sultan Mehmed VI goes into exile in Italy. |
| 130698 | November 17 | Event | 1933 – United States recognizes Soviet Union. |
| 130699 | November 17 | Event | 1939 – Nine Czech students are executed as a response to anti-Nazi demonstrations prompted by the death of Jan Opletal. In addition, all Czech universities are shut down and over 1200 Czech students sent to concentration camps. Since this event, Internati |
| 130700 | November 17 | Event | 1947 – The Screen Actors Guild implements an anti-Communist loyalty oath. |
| 130701 | November 17 | Event | 1947 – American scientists John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain observe the basic principles of the transistor, a key element for the electronics revolution of the 20th century. |
| 130702 | November 17 | Event | 1950 – Lhamo Dondrub is officially named the 14th Dalai Lama. |
| 130703 | November 17 | Event | 1953 – The remaining human inhabitants of the Blasket Islands, Kerry, Ireland, are evacuated to the mainland. |
| 130704 | November 17 | Event | 1957 – Vickers Viscount G-AOHP of British European Airways crashes at Ballerup after the failure of three engines on approach to Copenhagen Airport. The cause is a malfunction of the anti-icing system on the aircraft. |
| 130705 | November 17 | Event | 1962 – President John F. Kennedy dedicates Washington Dulles International Airport, serving the Washington, D.C., region. |
| 130706 | November 17 | Event | 1967 – Vietnam War: Acting on optimistic reports that he had been given on November 13, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson tells the nation that, while much remained to be done, "We are inflicting greater losses than we're taking...We are making progress." |
| 130707 | November 17 | Event | 1968 – Alexandros Panagoulis is condemned to death for attempting to assassinate Greek dictator Georgios Papadopoulos. |
| 130708 | November 17 | Event | 1968 – British European Airways introduces the BAC One-Eleven into commercial service. |
| 130709 | November 17 | Event | 1968 – Viewers of the Raiders–Jets football game in the eastern United States are denied the opportunity to watch its exciting finish when NBC broadcasts Heidi instead, prompting changes to sports broadcasting in the U.S. |
| 130710 | November 17 | Event | 1969 – Cold War: Negotiators from the Soviet Union and the United States meet in Helsinki, Finland to begin SALT I negotiations aimed at limiting the number of strategic weapons on both sides. |