Today in History in 1973 during the Watergate scandal, at the Contemporary Hotel (Disney Resort) in Orlando, Florida, US President Richard Nixon tells 400 Associated Press managing editors "I am not a crook".

The On This Day In History archives at “Simple English Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia” contains over 200,000 events, birthdays and deaths from 6,000 years of history. Here is a roundup of a few of them:

November 17 is the 321st day of the year (322nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 44 days remaining until the end of the year.

EVENTS

474 - Zeno becomes Emperor of the Byzantine Empire.

794 - Emperor Kammu of Japan changes his residence from Nara to Kyoto.

1183 - Battle of Mizushima in Japan.

1292 – John Balliol becomes King of Scotland.

1511 – Spain and England ally against France.

1558 – Elizabeth I becomes Queen of England.

1603 - English politician and explorer Walter Raleigh is put on trial.

1659 - The Treaty of the Pyrenees is signed by France and Spain.

1777 - US Articles of Confederation are submitted to the states for ratification.

1796 - French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of the Bridge of Arcole - French forces defeat the Austrians in Italy.

1800 – The United States Capitol building in Washington, DC holds its first session of the U.S. Congress.

1810 - Sweden declares war on the United Kingdom, though no fighting takes place.

1811 - José Miguel Carrera is sworn in as President of the Executive Junta of the government of Chile.

1820 - Captain Nathaniel Palmer becomes the first American to see Antarctica.

1831 – Ecuador and Venezuela are separated from Greater Colombia.

1839 - Oberto, Giuseppe Verdi's first opera, opens at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan.

1863 - American Civil War: The Siege of Knoxville begins. Confederate forces under James Longstreet place Knoxville, Tennessee under siege.

1869 – In Egypt, the Suez Canal, linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea, is inaugurated in an elaborate ceremony.

1871 - The National Rifle Association of America is given a charter by the state of New York.

1874 - British sailing ship Cospatrick catches fire in the South Atlantic Ocean and sinks, killing 467 people.

1876 - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's "Slavonic March" is performed for the first time, in Moscow.

1878 - An assassination attempt is made on King Umberto I of Italy by anarchist Giovanni Passannante.

1901 – 2000

1903 - The Russian Social Democratic Party splits into the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks.

1915 - Morocco starts using its current flag.

1919 – King George V of the United Kingdom proclaims Armistice Day (later Remembrance Day). The idea was first suggested by Edward George Honey.

1922 - Former Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Mehmed VI, goes into exile in Italy.

1933 – The United States recognizes the Soviet Union.

1939 - Nine Czech students are executed as a response to Anti-Nazi protests after the death of Jan Opletal. All Czech universities are shut down and over 1,200 students are sent to concentration camps.

1947 - The Screen Actors Guild implements an Anti-Communist loyalty oath.

1947 - American scientists John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain observe the basic principles of the transistor.

1950 - Lhamo Dondrub is officially named Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama.

1953 - The last people to have lived in the Blasket Islands, County Kerry, Ireland, are evacuated from their homes.

1953 - The Minquiers and Ecrehos case ends with the International Court of Justice giving Minquiers and Écréhous to Jersey.

1954 – Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser becomes President of Egypt.

1962 - John F. Kennedy dedicates Washington Dulles International Airport, serving the Washington, DC region.

1968 - Alexandros Panagoulis is condemned to death for attempting to kill Greek dictator George Papadopoulos.

1969 - Soviet and US negotiators meet in Helsinki to begin talks on limiting the number of strategic weapons on both sides.

1970 – Vietnam War: Lieutenant William Calley goes on trial for the My Lai massacre.

1970 - Soviet Luna programme: The Soviet Union launches the "Lunokhod 1" probe to the Moon, released by the Luna 17 aircraft.

1973 - The Athens Polytechnic Uprising against the Greek military regime ends in bloodshed.

1973 – Watergate scandal: In Orlando, Florida, US President Richard Nixon tells 400 Associated Press managing editors "I am not a crook".

1982 - Duk Koo Kim, a South Korean boxer, dies as a result from injuries he suffered in a Las Vegas boxing match against Ray Mancini.

1983 - The Zapatista Army of National Liberation is founded in Mexico.

1989 - The Velvet Revolution begins in Czechoslovakia against the government of Ladislav Adamec. It is part of the Fall of the Iron Curtain, and leads to Vaclav Havel becoming President on December 29.

1990 - Fugnendake, part of the Mount Unzen volcano in Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan, erupts.

1993 - The United States House of Representatives approves the North American Free Trade Agreement.

1993 - In Nigeria, Sani Abacha comes to power through a military coup against the government of Ernest Shonekon.

1997 - 62 people are killed by Islamic militants in Luxor, Egypt.

2000 - A landslide occurs at Log pog Mangartom, Slovenia, killing 7 people.

2000 – Alberto Fujimori is removed from office as President of Peru.

From 2001

2003 – Arnold Schwarzenegger becomes Governor of California.

2012 - Over 50 schoolchildren are killed in an accident at a railway crossing near Malafut, Egypt.

2013 - Tatarstan Airlines Flight 363 crashes at the airport in Kazan, Russia, killing 50 people.

2018 - Ibrahim Mohamed Solih becomes President of the Maldives.