Today in History - History - November 17th

1997Mario Lemieux enters NHL Hall of Fame

1558Elizabeth I aged 42 ascends English throne upon death of her half sister "Bloody" Mary

2003Britney Spears, at 21 years old, becomes the youngest singer to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

1876Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's patriotic Slavonic March made its premiere in Moscow to a warm reception by the Russian people.

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

1956Syracuse fullback Jim Brown, scores NCAA record of 43 pts (vs Colgate)

1603English explorer, writer and courtier Sir Walter Raleigh goes on trial for treason.

1894Serial killer H. H. Holmes is arrested in Boston after being tracked there from Philadelphia by the Pinkertons

1963Kathy Whitworth wins LPGA Mary Mills Miss Gulf Coast Golf Invitational

1988Neil Simon's "Rumors" premieres in NYC

1887Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Alamein, British Field Marshal, Kennington, South London

1942Martin Scorsese, Queens, New York, director (Raging Bull, The Departed)

1944Danny Devito, Neptune NJ, actor (Taxi, Ruthless People, Twins)

1938Gordon Lightfoot, Orillia Ontario, Canadian folksinger (Sundown)

1945Elvin Hayes, Rayville Louisiana, NBA star (San Diego, Houston, Baltimore)

1755Louis XVIII, 1st post-revolutionary king of France (1814-24)

1934Lyndon B. Johnson marries Claudia Alta Taylor

1950Writer Jack Kerouac (28) weds Joan Haverty

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

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

594St Gregory of Tours, Frankisch bishop of Tours, dies at 55

1990Robert Hofstadter, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1915)