November 17 in History

Charles the Fat (839 – 13 January 888) was the emperor of the Carolingian Empire from 881 to 887. A member of the Carolingian dynasty, Charles was the youngest son of Louis the German and Hemma, and a great-grandson of Charlemagne. He was the last Carolingian emperor of legitimate birth and the last to rule a united kingdom of the Franks. Over his lifetime, Charles became ruler of the various kingdoms of Charlemagne's former empire. Granted lordship over Alamannia in 876, following the division of East Francia, he succeeded to the Italian throne upon the abdication of his older brother Carloman of Bavaria who had been incapacitated by a stroke. Crowned emperor in 881 by Pope John VIII, his succession to the territories of his brother Louis the Younger (Saxony and Bavaria) the following year reunited the kingdom of East Francia. Upon the death of his cousin Carloman II in 884, he inherited all of West Francia, thus reuniting the entire Carolingian Empire. Usually considered lethargic and inept—he was frequently ill, and is believed to have had epilepsy—Charles twice purchased peace with Viking raiders, including at the infamous Siege of Paris, which led to his downfall. The reunited empire did not last. During a coup led by his nephew Arnulf of Carinthia in mid-November 887, Charles was deposed in East Francia, Lotharingia, and the Kingdom of Italy. Forced into quiet retirement, he died of natural causes on 13 January 888, just a few weeks after his deposition. The Empire quickly fell apart after his death, splintering into five separate successor kingdoms; the territory it had occupied was not entirely reunited under one ruler until the conquests of Napoleon.

The naval battle of Mizushima took place on 17 November 1183 during the Genpei War. One of the most important bases of the Taira was Yashima, a small island off the coast of Shikoku. In November 1183, Minamoto no Yoshinaka sent an army to cross the Inland Sea to Yashima, but they were caught by the Taira just offshore of Mizushima (水島), a small island of Bitchu Province, just off Honshū. The Taira tied their ships together and placed planks across them to form a flat fighting surface. The battle began with Taira archers loosing a rain of arrows upon the Minamoto boats; when the boats were close enough, daggers and swords were drawn, and the two sides engaged in hand-to-hand combat. Finally, the Taira, who had brought fully equipped horses on their ships, swam to the shore with their steeds, and routed the remaining Minamoto warriors.

John (de) Balliol (c. 1249 – late 1314), known derisively as Toom Tabard (meaning 'empty coat'), was King of Scots from 1292 to 1296. Little is known of his early life. After the death of Margaret, Maid of Norway, Scotland entered an interregnum during which several competitors for the Crown of Scotland put forward claims. Balliol was chosen from among them as the new King of Scotland by a group of selected noblemen headed by King Edward I of England. Edward used his influence over the process to subjugate Scotland and undermined Balliol's personal reign by treating Scotland as a vassal of England. Under pressure from the Scottish nobility, Balliol signed a treaty with France known as the "Auld Alliance" and renounced his fealty to Edward. In retaliation, Edward invaded Scotland, starting the Wars of Scottish Independence. After a Scottish defeat in 1296, Balliol abdicated and was imprisoned in the Tower of London. Eventually, Balliol was sent to his estates in France and retired into obscurity, taking no more part in politics. Scotland was then left without a monarch until the accession of Robert the Bruce in 1306. John Balliol's son Edward Balliol would later exert a claim to the Scottish throne against the Bruce claim during the minority of Robert's son David.

Charles VIII (30 June 1470 – 7 April 1498), called the Affable (French: l'Affable), was King of France from 1483 to his death in 1498. He succeeded his father Louis XI at the age of 13. His elder sister Anne acted as regent jointly with her husband Peter II, Duke of Bourbon until 1491, when the young king turned 21 years of age. During Anne's regency, the great lords rebelled against royal centralisation efforts in a conflict known as the Mad War (1485–1488), which resulted in a victory for the royal government. In a remarkable stroke of audacity, Charles married Anne of Brittany in 1491 after she had already been married by proxy to the Habsburg heir Maximilian I in a ceremony of questionable validity. Preoccupied by the problematic succession in the Kingdom of Hungary, Maximilian failed to press his claim. Upon his marriage, Charles became administrator of Brittany and established a personal union that enabled France to avoid total encirclement by Habsburg territories. To secure his rights to the Neapolitan throne that René of Anjou had left to his father, Charles made a series of concessions to neighbouring monarchs and, due to his revolutionary artillery, conquered the Italian Peninsula without much opposition. A coalition formed against the French invasion of 1494–1498 attempted to stop Charles' army at Fornovo, but failed and Charles marched his army back to France. Charles died in 1498 after supposedly striking his head accidentally on the lintel of a door at the Château d'Amboise, his place of birth, but that has been subject to re-analysis. Since he had no male heir, he was succeeded by his second cousin once removed and brother-in-law at the time, Louis XII, from the Orléans cadet branch of the House of Valois.

Henry VIII (28 June 1491 – 28 January 1547) was King of England and Ireland from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry was born in Greenwich as the second son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. His elder brother, Arthur, Prince of Wales, was heir apparent and married Catherine of Aragon, a Spanish princess. Arthur died in 1502, and Henry was created Prince of Wales in 1504. He acceded to the throne upon his father's death in 1509, marrying Catherine with a papal dispensation. He was described as an attractive, educated, and accomplished king during the early years of his reign. Henry grew dissatisfied with the marriage to Catherine, appealing to Pope Clement VII for an annulment. Clement refused, and Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer declared the marriage void in the eyes of the Church of England in 1533. Clement objected to Cranmer's verdict and excommunicated Henry from the Catholic Church. Henry then passed the Acts of Supremacy, establishing himself as Supreme Head of the Church of England and thereby relieving his realms from obedience to the pope. He dissolved Catholic monasteries and seized their wealth, contributing to the English Reformation. Considered one of the greatest monarchs in English history, Henry grew more tyrannical, egotistical, lustful, and paranoid by the end of his life. He is known for his six marriages, and especially his long effort to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon so that he could remarry in pursuit of a male heir. He ordered the beheadings of two of his wives, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard. In his later years, Henry was morbidly obese and immobile, with a gangrenous leg wound contracted from a jousting accident in 1536. He was also said to have suffered from diabetes, oedema, and organ failure. He was buried at St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle and was succeeded by his only surviving son, Edward VI.

The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history, with an effective government, resulting from the reforms of Henry VII and Henry VIII, and a prospering economy boosted by trans-Atlantic trade and privateering. During this time, the Protestant Reformation became more acceptable to the people, and it was the last period in English history before the royal union with Scotland. England began to engage in international exploration and expansion. Culturally, this period represented the apogee of the English Renaissance and saw a flowering of poetry, music, literature, and especially theatre, with playwrights such as William Shakespeare breaking new ground. The Elizabethan age contrasts sharply with the previous and following reigns. It was a brief period of internal peace between the previous century's Wars of the Roses, the English Reformation, and religious battles between Protestants and Catholics, and the later conflict of the English Civil War and the political battles between parliament and the monarchy that engulfed the remainder of the seventeenth century. Under Elizabeth, the religious conflict was settled for a time by the Elizabethan Religious Settlement, and Parliament was not yet strong enough to challenge royal absolutism. During this time, England was well-off compared to the other nations of Europe. The Italian Renaissance had come to an end following the end of the Italian Wars, which left the Italian Peninsula impoverished. The Kingdom of France was embroiled in the French Wars of Religion (1562–1598), and the centuries-long Anglo-French Wars were largely suspended for most of Elizabeth's reign. England's major rival during this time was Habsburg Spain. Their clashes in Europe and the Americas exploded into the undeclared Anglo-Spanish War of 1585–1604. A 1588 attempt by Philip II of Spain to invade England with the Spanish Armada was famously defeated.

A courtier is a person who attends the royal court of a monarch or other royalty. The earliest historical examples of courtiers were part of the retinues of rulers. Historically, the court was the centre of government as well as the official residence of the monarch, and the social and political life were often completely mixed together.

Kuopio ( koo-OH-pee-oh, Finnish: [ˈkuo̯pio] ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of North Savo. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Kuopio is approximately 127,000, while the sub-region has a population of approximately 148,000. It is the 8th most populous municipality in Finland, and the seventh most populous urban area in the country. Kuopio has a total area of 4,326.35 square kilometres (1,670.41 sq mi), of which 719.85 km2 (277.94 sq mi) is water and half is forest. Although the city's population is spread over 39/km2 (100/sq mi), the city's urban areas are comparatively densely populated (urban area: 1,618 /km²), making Kuopio the second most densely populated city in Finland. At the end of 2018, its urban area had a population of approximately 90,000. Together with Joensuu, Kuopio is one of the major urban, economic and cultural centres of Eastern Finland. Kuopio is nationally known as one of the most important study cities and centres of attraction and growth. The city's history has been marked by several municipality mergers since 1969, as a result of which Kuopio now encompasses much of the countryside; Kuopio's population surpassed 100,000 when the town of Nilsiä joined the city in early 2013. When Maaninka joined Kuopio at the beginning of 2015, Kuopio became the largest milk-producing municipality in Finland and the second largest beef-producing municipality in Finland. In addition, at the end of the 2010s, Kuopio was characterised by numerous large projects, the largest in the country after the Helsinki metropolitan area. Kuopio has also become a major tourist city with the large tourist centre in Tahkovuori. Kuopio Airport, located in the municipality of Siilinjärvi, is Finland's fifth busiest airport with over 235,000 passengers in 2017. According to the Kuntarating 2017 survey, Kuopio has the most satisfied residents among the 20 largest cities, and according to the 2018 survey, Kuopio is the best city for property investors. In the Kuntien imago 2018 survey, Kuopio ranks second among Finland's large cities after Seinäjoki in South Ostrobothnia. In T-media's study on the attractiveness and influence of the ten largest cities in 2021, 2022 and 2023, Kuopio is the second most attractive city in Finland, with Tampere in first place. Kuopio was the European Region of Gastronomy in 2020. It is also known as the home of Kalakukko, a traditional Savonian food, which is why Kuopio is also known as the "Promised Land of Kalakukko".

The Articles of Confederation, officially the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, was an agreement and early body of law in the Thirteen Colonies, which served as the nation's first constitution during the American Revolution. It was debated by the Second Continental Congress at present-day Independence Hall in Philadelphia between July 1776 and November 1777, was finalized by the Congress on November 15, 1777, and came into force on March 1, 1781, after being ratified by all 13 states. A central and guiding principle of the Articles was the establishment and preservation of the independence and sovereignty of the original 13 states. The Articles consciously established a weak confederal government, affording it only those powers the former colonies recognized as belonging to the British Crown and Parliament during the colonial era. The document provided clearly written rules for how the states' league of friendship, known as the Perpetual Union, was to be organized. While waiting for all states to ratify the Articles, the Congress observed them as it conducted business during the American Revolution, directing the Revolutionary War effort, conducting diplomacy with foreign states, addressing territorial issues, and dealing with Native American relations. Little changed procedurally once the Articles of Confederation went into effect, since their ratification mostly codified laws already in existence and procedures the Continental Congress had already been following. The body was renamed the Congress of the Confederation, but most Americans continued to call it the Continental Congress, since its organization remained the same. As the Confederation Congress attempted to govern the continually growing 13 colonial states, its delegates discovered that the limitations on the central government, such as in assembling delegates, raising funds, and regulating commerce, limited its ability to do so. As the government's weaknesses became apparent, especially after Shays's Rebellion, Alexander Hamilton and a few other prominent political thinkers in the fledgling union began asking for changes to the Articles that would strengthen the powers afforded to the central government. In September 1786, some states met during the Annapolis Convention to address interstate protectionist trade barriers between them. Shortly thereafter, as more states became interested in meeting to revise the Articles, a gathering was set in Philadelphia on May 25, 1787. This became the Constitutional Convention. Delegates quickly agreed that the defects of the frame of government could not be remedied by altering the Articles, and so went beyond their mandate by authoring a new constitution and sent it to the states for ratification. After significant ratification debates in each state and across the nation, on March 4, 1789, the government under the Articles was replaced with the federal government under the Constitution. The new Constitution provided for a much stronger federal government by establishing a chief executive (the president), national courts, and taxation authority.

The French Revolutionary Wars were a series of sweeping military conflicts resulting from the French Revolution that lasted from 1792 until 1802. They pitted France against Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, Russia, and several other countries. The wars are divided into two periods: the War of the First Coalition (1792–1797) and the War of the Second Coalition (1798–1802). Initially confined to Europe, the fighting gradually assumed a global dimension. After a decade of constant warfare and aggressive diplomacy, France had conquered territories in the Italian peninsula, the Low Countries, and the Rhineland with its very large and powerful military which had been totally mobilized for war against most of Europe with mass conscription of the vast French population. French success in these conflicts ensured military occupation and the spread of revolutionary principles over much of Europe.

The United States Congress is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a bicameral legislature, including a lower body, the U.S. House of Representatives, and an upper body, the U.S. Senate. They both meet in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. Members of Congress are chosen through direct election, though vacancies in the Senate may be filled by a governor's appointment. Congress has a total of 535 voting members: 100 senators and 435 representatives. The House of Representatives also has 6 additional non-voting members. The vice president of the United States, as president of the Senate, has a vote in the Senate only when there is a tie. Congresses convene for two-year terms (a Congress), commencing every other January. Each Congress is usually split into two sessions, one for each year. Elections are held every even-numbered year on Election Day. The members of the House of Representatives are elected for the two-year term of a Congress. The Reapportionment Act of 1929 established that there be 435 representatives, and the Uniform Congressional District Act requires that they be elected from single-member constituencies or districts. It is also required that the congressional districts be apportioned among states by population every ten years using the U.S. census results, provided that each state has at least one congressional representative. Each senator is elected at-large in their state for a six-year term, with terms staggered, so every two years approximately one-third of the Senate is up for election. Each state, regardless of population or size, has two senators, so currently, there are 100 senators for the 50 states. Article One of the Constitution requires that members of Congress be at least 25 years old for the House and at least 30 years old for the Senate, be a U.S. citizen for seven years for the House and nine years for the Senate, and be an inhabitant of the state which they represent. Members in both chambers may stand for re-election an unlimited number of times. Congress was created by the Constitution's First Article and first met in 1789, replacing the Congress of the Confederation in its legislative function. Although not legally mandated, in practice members of Congress since the late 19th century are typically affiliated with one of the two major parties, the Democratic Party or the Republican Party, and only rarely with a third party or independents affiliated with no party. Members can also switch parties at any time, though this is uncommon.

During the Napoleonic Wars until 1810, Sweden and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland were allies in the war against Napoleon. As a result of Sweden's defeat in the Finnish War and the Pomeranian War, and the following Treaty of Fredrikshamn and Treaty of Paris, Sweden declared war on the UK. The bloodless war, however, existed only on paper, and the UK was still not hindered in stationing ships at the Swedish island of Hanö and trade with the Baltic states.

José Miguel Carrera Verdugo (Latin American Spanish: [xoˈse miˈɣel kaˈreɾa]; October 15, 1785 – September 4, 1821) was a Chilean general, formerly Spanish military, member of the prominent Carrera family, and considered one of the founders of independent Chile. Carrera was the most important leader of the Chilean War of Independence during the period of the Patria Vieja ("Old Republic"). After the Spanish "Reconquista de Chile" ("Reconquest"), he continued campaigning from exile after defeat. His opposition to the leaders of independent Argentina and Chile, San Martín and O'Higgins respectively, made him live in exile in Montevideo. From Montevideo Carrera traveled to Argentina where he joined the struggle against the unitarians. Carreras' small army was eventually left isolated in the Province of Buenos Aires from the other federalist forces. In this difficult situation Carrera decided to cross to native-controlled lands all the way to Chile to once and for all overthrow Chilean Supreme Director O'Higgins. His passage to Chile, which was his ultimate goal, was opposed by Argentine politicians and he engaged together with indigenous tribes, among them the Ranquel, in a campaign against the southern provinces of Argentina. After the downfall of Carrera's ally, the Republic of Entre Ríos, and several victories against the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, Carrera's men were finally defeated by numerically superior forces near Mendoza. Carrera was then betrayed by one of his Argentine helpers, leading to his capture and execution in that city.

Nathaniel Brown Palmer (August 8, 1799 – June 21, 1877) was an American seal hunter, explorer, sailing captain, ship designer, and a whale hunter, known for being one of the first persons to sight continental Antarctica. He gave his name to Palmer Land, which he explored in 1820 on his sloop Hero. He was born in Stonington, Connecticut, and was a descendant of Walter Palmer, one of the town's founders.

Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contains the Galápagos Islands in the Pacific, about 1,000 kilometers west of the mainland. The country's capital is Quito, and the largest city is Guayaquil.

The American frontier encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that began with European colonial settlements in the early 17th century and ended with the admission of the last few contiguous western territories as states in 1912. This era of massive migration and settlement was particularly encouraged by President Thomas Jefferson following the Louisiana Purchase, giving rise to the expansionist attitude known as "manifest destiny" and historians' "Frontier Thesis". The legends, historical events, and folklore of the American frontier, known as the frontier myth, have embedded themselves into United States culture so much so that the Old West, and the Western genre of media specifically, has become one of the defining features of American national identity.

Denver ( DEN-vər) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Officially a consolidated city and county, it is located in the South Platte River valley on the western edge of the High Plains, and is just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains (Rockies). Denver is the 19th-most populous city in the United States and the fifth-most populous state capital, with a population of 715,522 at the 2020 census. The ten-county Denver metropolitan area, with 3.1 million residents, is the 19th-largest metropolitan area in the country and functions as the economic and cultural center of the broader Front Range Urban Corridor. Denver's downtown district lies about 12 miles (19 kilometers) east of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Named after James W. Denver, the governor of the Kansas Territory at the time, Denver was founded at the confluence of Cherry Creek and the South Platte River in 1858 during the Gold Rush era. Nicknamed the "Mile High City" because its official elevation is exactly one mile (5280 feet or 1609.344 meters) above sea level, Denver grew beyond its prospecting origins to become the principal commercial and transportation hub for a broad region spanning the Great Plains and Rocky Mountain West. The 105th meridian west of Greenwich, the longitudinal reference for the Mountain Time Zone, passes directly through Denver Union Station. As the most populous metropolitan area in a 560-mile (900 km) radius, Denver is a major cultural hub with a variety of museums and cultural institutions, including the Denver Performing Arts Complex, the Denver Art Museum and the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Denver has professional sports teams in five leagues and hosts the headquarters of eight Fortune 500 firms.

The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union to preserve slavery in the United States. The South saw slavery as threatened because of the election of Abraham Lincoln and the growing abolitionist movement in the North. The war ended with Union victory, the dissolution of the Confederacy and the abolition of slavery, freeing four million African Americans. Decades of controversy over slavery came to a head when Abraham Lincoln, a Republican who opposed slavery's expansion, won the 1860 presidential election. Seven slave states in the South responded to Lincoln's victory by seceding from the United States and forming the Confederate States of America. The Confederacy seized US forts and other federal assets in the South. The war began on April 12, 1861, when the Confederacy bombarded Fort Sumter in South Carolina. A wave of enthusiasm for war swept over the North and South, as military recruitment soared. Four more Southern states seceded after the war began and, led by its president, Jefferson Davis, the Confederacy comprised eleven states, containing a third of the US population. Four years of intense combat, mostly in the South, ensued. During 1861–1862 in the western theater, the Union made permanent gains, though in the eastern theater the conflict was inconclusive. The abolition of slavery became a Union war goal on January 1, 1863, when Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared all slaves in rebel states to be free, applying to more than 3.5 million of the 4 million enslaved people in the country. To the west, the Union first destroyed the Confederacy's river navy by the summer of 1862, then much of its western armies, and seized New Orleans. The successful 1863 Union siege of Vicksburg split the Confederacy in two at the Mississippi River, while Confederate general Robert E. Lee's incursion north failed at the Battle of Gettysburg. General Ulysses S. Grant's western successes led Lincoln to promote him to command of all Union armies in 1864. Inflicting an ever-tightening naval blockade of Confederate ports, the Union marshaled resources and manpower to attack the Confederacy from all directions. This led to the fall of Atlanta in 1864 to Union general William Tecumseh Sherman, followed by his March to the Sea, which culminated in his taking Savannah. The last significant battles raged around the ten-month siege of Petersburg, gateway to the Confederate capital of Richmond. The Confederates abandoned Richmond, and on April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered to Grant following the Battle of Appomattox Court House, setting in motion the end of the war. Lincoln lived to see this victory but was shot by an assassin on April 14, dying the next day. By the end of the war, much of the South's infrastructure had been destroyed. The Confederacy collapsed, the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery, and four million enslaved black people were freed. The war-torn nation then entered the Reconstruction era in an attempt to rebuild the country, bring the former Confederate states back into the United States, and grant civil rights to freed slaves. The war is one of the most extensively studied and written about episodes in the history of the United States. It remains the subject of cultural and historiographical debate. Of continuing interest is the myth of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy. The war was among the first to use industrial warfare. Railroads, the electrical telegraph, steamships, the ironclad warship, and mass-produced weapons were widely used. The war left an estimated 700,000 soldiers dead, along with an undetermined number of civilian deaths, making it the deadliest in American history. The technology and brutality of the Civil War foreshadowed the coming world wars.

Egypt, officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Palestine and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan and the Sahara to the south, and Libya to the west. The Gulf of Aqaba in the northeast separates Egypt from Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Cairo is the capital, largest city, and leading cultural centre, while Alexandria is the second-largest city and an important hub of industry and tourism. With over 107 million inhabitants, Egypt is the most populous country in the Arab world, third-most populous country in Africa, and 15th-most populated in the world.

Umberto I (Italian: Umberto Ranieri Carlo Emanuele Giovanni Maria Ferdinando Eugenio di Savoia; 14 March 1844 – 29 July 1900) was King of Italy from 9 January 1878 until his assassination in 1900. His reign saw the creation of the Italian colonial empire and the formation of the Triple Alliance among Italy, Germany, and Austria-Hungary. The son of Victor Emmanuel II and Adelaide of Austria, Umberto took part in the Italian Wars of Independence as a commander of the Royal Sardinian Army. He assumed the Italian throne in 1878 on the death of his father. A strong militarist, Umberto approved the alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary, which was formalised in 1882. He also encouraged Italy's colonial efforts and oversaw the incorporation of Eritrea and Somalia into the emerging Italian Empire, while the First Italo-Ethiopian War resulted in defeat at the Battle of Adwa. In the last years of his reign, Umberto faced increasing social unrest and serious economic difficulties. Tensions mounted as a result of growing opposition to new colonial campaigns, the spread of socialism, and crackdowns on civil liberties. Umberto was contested by left-wing circles for his conservatism and particularly for the decorations he gave in 1898 to Bava Beccaris, a general who bloodily suppressed demonstrations over rising food prices in Milan. He was deeply hated by Italian anarchists, who had already attempted to assassinate him during the first year of his reign. In 1900, two years after the Bava Beccaris massacre, Umberto was killed in Monza by anarchist Gaetano Bresci. He was succeeded by his son, Victor Emmanuel III. Before his killing, he was also one of the recipients of one of Friedrich Nietzsche's Wahnbriefe notes. The Umbertino architecture style was named after him.

The Serbo-Bulgarian War or the Serbian–Bulgarian War (Bulgarian: Сръбско-българска война, Srăbsko-bălgarska voyna, Serbian: Српско-бугарски рат, Srpsko-bugarski rat), a war between the Kingdom of Serbia and the Principality of Bulgaria, erupted on 14 November [O.S. 2 November] 1885 and lasted until 28 November [O.S. 16 November] 1885. Despite Bulgaria's status as a vassal of the Ottoman Empire, the Ottomans did not intervene in the war. Serbia initiated the fighting but suffered a decisive defeat. Austria-Hungary demanded that Bulgaria stop its invasion, and a truce resulted. The final peace was signed on 3 March [O.S. 19 February] 1886 in Bucharest. The existing boundaries did not change. As a result of the war, European powers acknowledged the act of Unification of Bulgaria which had happened on 18 September [O.S. 6 September] 1885.

Herman Webster Mudgett, better known as Dr. Henry Howard Holmes or H. H. Holmes and also known by the aliases Alexander Bond, Harry Gordon, J.A. Judson and Robert E. Phelps, was an American con artist and murderer active between 1891 and 1894. By the time of his execution in 1896, Holmes had engaged in a lengthy criminal career that included insurance fraud, forgery, swindling, three or four bigamous marriages, horse theft and murder. Known as the Beast of Chicago, the Devil in the White City or the Torture Doctor, he committed his most notorious crimes in Chicago around the time of the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893.

The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP), also known as the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party (RSDWP) or the Russian Social Democratic Party (RSDP), was a socialist political party founded in 1898 in Minsk, Russian Empire. The party emerged from the merger of various Marxist groups operating under Tsarist repression, and was dedicated to the overthrow of the autocracy and the establishment of a socialist state based on the revolutionary leadership of the Russian proletariat.

The Czechs, or the Czech people, are a West Slavic ethnic group and nation native to the Czech Republic in Central Europe. They share a common culture, ancestry, history, and speak the Czech language.

The Tartu Art Museum (Estonian: Tartu Kunstimuuseum) is a state-owned museum of art located in Tartu, Estonia. It was founded in 1940 on a private initiative by the members of local art school Pallas. This is the largest art museum in Southern Estonia. The main collection consists of works of art by Estonian and foreign artists, associated with Estonia, from the 18th century until now. The collection includes around 23,000 items. The museum presents temporary exhibitions drawn from the museum's collection, and in cooperation with Estonian and foreign museums and galleries. Exhibitions are held in a historical building situated by the Town Hall Square of Tartu.

The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) was an American labor union which represented over 100,000 film and television principal and background performers worldwide. On March 30, 2012, the union leadership announced that the SAG membership voted to merge with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) to create SAG-AFTRA.

John Bardeen was an American physicist. He is the only person to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics twice: first in 1956 with William Shockley and Walter Brattain for their invention of the transistor; and again in 1972 with Leon Cooper and John Robert Schrieffer for their microscopic theory of superconductivity, known as the BCS theory.

The 14th Dalai Lama is the current Dalai Lama, the highest spiritual leader and head of Tibetan Buddhism. He served as the resident spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet before 1959, and subsequently led the Tibetan government in exile represented by the Central Tibetan Administration in Dharamshala, India.

United Nations Security Council Resolution 89, adopted on November 17, 1950, after receiving complaints from Egypt, Israel, Jordan and the Chief of Staff of the Truce Supervision Organization regarding the implementation of the Armistice Agreements designed to end the Arab-Israeli War the Council requested the Egypt-Israel Mixed Armistice Commission give urgent attention to a complaint of expulsion of thousands of Palestinian Arabs. The Council called upon both parties to give effect to any finding by the Commission, repatriating any such Arabs who the Commission believes to be entitled to return. The Council then authorized the Chief of Staff of the Truce Supervision Organization to recommend to Israel, Egypt and such other Arab States appropriate steps he may consider necessary to control the movement of nomadic Arabs across international frontiers or armistice lines by mutual agreement.

The Blasket Islands are an uninhabited group of islands off the west coast of the Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry, Ireland. The last island to hold a significant population, Great Blasket Island, was abandoned in 1954 due to population decline and is best known for a number of Irish language writers who vividly described their way of life and who kept alive old Irish folk tales of the land.

The Vickers Viscount is a retired British medium-range turboprop airliner first flown in 1948 by Vickers-Armstrongs. A design requirement from the Brabazon Committee, it entered service in 1953 and was the first turboprop-powered airliner.

The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces.

The Vietnam War was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam and their allies. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union and China, while South Vietnam was supported by the United States and other anti-communist nations. The conflict was the second of the Indochina wars and a proxy war of the Cold War. The Vietnam War was one of the postcolonial wars of national liberation, a theater in the Cold War, and a civil war, with civil warfare a defining feature from the outset. Direct US military involvement escalated from 1965 until US forces were withdrawn in 1973. The fighting spilled into the Laotian and Cambodian civil wars, which ended with all three countries becoming communist in 1975.

The BAC One-Eleven is a retired early jet airliner produced by the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Conceived by Hunting Aircraft as a 30-seat jet before its merger into BAC in 1960, it was launched as an 80-seat airliner with a British United Airways (BUA) order on 9 May 1961. The prototype conducted its maiden flight on 20 August 1963, and it was first delivered to BUA on 22 January 1965. The 119-seat, stretched 500 series was introduced in 1967. Total production amounted to 244 until 1982 in the United Kingdom including 1982 to 1989 in Romania where nine Rombac One-Elevens were licence-built by Romaero.

The Heidi Game was a 1968 American Football League (AFL) game between the Oakland Raiders and the visiting New York Jets. The contest, held on November 17, 1968, was notable for its exciting finish, in which Oakland scored two touchdowns in the final minute to win the game 43–32. However, NBC, the game's television broadcaster, decided to break away from its coverage on the East Coast to broadcast the television film Heidi, which caused many viewers to miss the Raiders' comeback.

The Cold War was a period of international geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc. It began in the aftermath of the Second World War and ended with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The term cold war is used because there was no direct fighting between the two superpowers, though each supported opposing sides in regional conflicts known as proxy wars. In addition to the struggle for ideological and economic influence and an arms race in both conventional and nuclear weapons, the Cold War was expressed through technological rivalries such as the Space Race, espionage, propaganda campaigns, embargoes, and sports diplomacy.

The Vietnam War was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam and their allies. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union and China, while South Vietnam was supported by the United States and other anti-communist nations. The conflict was the second of the Indochina wars and a proxy war of the Cold War. The Vietnam War was one of the postcolonial wars of national liberation, a theater in the Cold War, and a civil war, with civil warfare a defining feature from the outset. Direct US military involvement escalated from 1965 until US forces were withdrawn in 1973. The fighting spilled into the Laotian and Cambodian civil wars, which ended with all three countries becoming communist in 1975.

The Watergate scandal, or simply Watergate, was a political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon. On June 17, 1972, operatives associated with Nixon's 1972 re-election campaign were caught burglarizing and planting listening devices in the Democratic National Committee headquarters at Washington, D.C.'s Watergate complex. Nixon's efforts to conceal his administration's involvement led to an impeachment process and ultimately to his resignation in August 1974.

The Athens Polytechnic uprising occurred in November 1973 as a massive student demonstration of popular rejection of the Greek military junta of 1967–1974. It began on 14 November 1973, escalated to an open anti-junta revolt, and ended in bloodshed in the early morning of 17 November after a series of events starting with a tank crashing through the gates of the Athens Polytechnic. According to a detailed 2004 research published by the National Hellenic Research Foundation, at least 24 people died on that day due to direct or indirect actions by the Greek army and police. This was the first event in a series of political crises that ultimately led to the fall of the junta in the summer of 1974, just a few months later.

The Zapatista Army of National Liberation, often referred to as the Zapatistas, is a far-left political and militant organization that controls a substantial amount of territory in Chiapas, the southernmost state of Mexico.

Japan Air Lines Cargo Flight 1628 was a Japanese Boeing 747-200 cargo aircraft flying from Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport to Narita International Airport that was involved in an unidentified flying object (UFO) sighting on 17 November 1986. During the flight, Captain Kenji Terauchi reported seeing three objects he described as "two small ships and the mothership". Both the FAA and Air Force confirmed that the unidentified flying objects appeared on their radars. Some astronomers and investigators believe that Terauchi probably mistook the planets Jupiter and Mars as UFOs.

The Velvet Revolution or Gentle Revolution was a non-violent transition of power in what was then Czechoslovakia, occurring from 17 November to 28 November 1989. Popular demonstrations against the one-party government of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia included students and older dissidents. The result was the end of 41 years of one-party rule in Czechoslovakia, and the subsequent dismantling of the command economy and conversion to a parliamentary republic.

Mount Unzen is an active stratovolcano of several overlapping small, volcanic cones, near the city of Shimabara, Nagasaki on the island of Kyushu, Japan's southernmost main island.

The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the United States Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of the Constitution of the United States in enumerated matters to pass or defeat federal legislation, known as bills. Those that are also passed by the Senate are sent to the president for signature or veto. The House's exclusive powers include initiating all revenue bills, impeaching federal officers, and electing the president if no candidate receives a majority of votes in the Electoral College.

Sani Abacha was a Nigerian military dictator and statesman who ruled Nigeria as military head of state from 1993, following a palace coup d'état, until his death in 1998.

Luxor is a city in Upper Egypt. Luxor had a population of 284,952 in 2023, with an area of 43.0 km2 (16.6 sq mi) and is the capital of the Luxor Governorate. Nicknamed the City of a Hundred Gates or the City of the Sun, formerly known as Thebes. It was one of the capitals of Ancient Egypt. The city is among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.

Landslides, also known as landslips, rockslips, rockfalls, mudslides, mudslips or rockslides, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, mudflows, shallow or deep-seated slope failures and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of environments, characterized by either steep or gentle slope gradients, from mountain ranges to coastal cliffs or even underwater, in which case they are called submarine landslides.

Alberto Kenya Fujimori Inomoto was a Peruvian politician, professor, agriculture engineer, and dictator who served as the president of Peru from 1990 to 2000. During Fujimori's tenure, the Peruvian Armed Forces repressed the far-left guerrilla group Shining Path, halting the group's actions while also killing thousands of civilians. Fujimori became known for his neoliberal political and economic ideology of Fujimorism, which pushed a free market economy and social conservatism. He also collaborated with the head of the National Intelligence Service (SIN), Vladimiro Montesinos, to consolidate power and eliminate political opponents. Fujimori's presidency was marked by authoritarian measures, excessive use of propaganda, entrenched political corruption, multiple cases of extrajudicial killings, and human rights violations.

Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian and American actor, businessman, film producer, politician, and former professional bodybuilder who served as the 38th governor of California from 2003 to 2011.

Tatarstan Airlines Flight 363 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight, operated by Tatarstan Airlines on behalf of Ak Bars Aero, from Moscow to Kazan, Russia. On 17 November 2013, at 19:24 local time (UTC+4), the Boeing 737-500 crashed during an aborted landing at Kazan International Airport, killing all 44 passengers and 6 crew members on board.

On November 17, 2013, the deadliest and costliest November tornado outbreak in Illinois history took shape, becoming the fourth-largest for the state overall. With more than 30 tornadoes in Indiana, it was that state's largest tornado outbreak for the month of November, and the second largest outbreak recorded in Indiana. Associated with a strong trough in the upper levels of the atmosphere, the event resulted in 77 tornadoes tracking across regions of the Midwest United States and Ohio River Valley, impacting seven states. Severe weather during the tornado outbreak caused over 100 injuries and eleven fatalities, of which eight were tornado related. Two tornadoes—both in Illinois and rated EF4 on the Enhanced Fujita scale—were the strongest documented during the outbreak and combined for five deaths. In addition to tornadoes, the system associated with the outbreak produced sizeable hail peaking at 4.00 in (10.2 cm) in diameter in Bloomington, Illinois, as well as damaging winds estimated as strong as 100 mph (160 km/h) in three locations.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. Starting in January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global health emergency; they declared the end of the emergency in May 2023.