Today in History for Nov. 17, 2012

Today is Saturday, Nov. 17, the 322nd day of 2012. There are 44 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight:

On Nov. 17, 1962, Washington Dulles International Airport was dedicated by President John F. Kennedy.

On this date:

In 1558, Elizabeth I acceded to the English throne upon the death of Queen Mary.

In 1800, Congress held its first session in Washington in the partially completed Capitol building.

In 1869, the Suez Canal opened in Egypt.

In 1911, the African-American fraternity Omega Psi Phi was founded at Howard University in Washington, D.C.

In 1917, French sculptor Auguste Rodin died in Meudon at age 77.

In 1934, Lyndon Baines Johnson married Claudia Alta Taylor, better known as Lady Bird, in San Antonio, Texas.

In 1962, the musical comedy “Little Me,” starring Sid Caesar in seven roles, opened on Broadway.

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, Fla.: “People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook.”

In 1979, Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini ordered the release of 13 black and/or female American hostages being held at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

In 1987, a federal jury in Denver convicted two white supremacists of civil rights violations in the 1984 slaying of radio talk show host Alan Berg. (Both men later died in prison.)

In 1997, 62 people, most of them foreign tourists, were killed when militants opened fire at the Temple of Hatshepsut in Luxor, Egypt; the attackers were killed by police.

Ten years ago: Abba Eban, 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.

Five years ago: U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte delivered a blunt message to Pakistan’s military ruler, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, telling him emergency rule had to be lifted and his opponents freed ahead of elections. A Nobel-winning U.N. scientific panel said in a landmark report released in Valencia, Spain, that the Earth was hurtling toward a warmer climate at a quickening pace.

One year ago: Occupy Wall Street protesters clogged streets and tied up traffic around the U.S. to mark two months since the movement’s birth and signal they weren’t ready to quit, despite the breakup of many of their encampments by police. Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers won the NL Cy Young Award. Baseball owners unanimously approved the sale of the Houston Astros from Drayton McLane to Jim Crane, which will lead to the team moving from the NL Central to the AL West for the 2013 season. Demi Moore said she was ending her marriage to fellow actor Ashton Kutcher.

Today’s birthdays: Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., is 78. Rock musician Gerry McGee (The Ventures) is 75. Singer Gordon Lightfoot is 74. Singer-songwriter Bob Gaudio is 71. Movie director Martin Scorsese is 70. Actress Lauren Hutton is 69. Actor-director Danny DeVito is 68. “Saturday Night Live” producer Lorne Michaels is 68. Baseball Hall-of-Famer Tom Seaver is 68. Movie director Roland Joffe is 67. Former Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean is 64. House Speaker John Boehner is 63. Actor Stephen Root is 61. Rock musician Jim Babjak (The Smithereens) is 55. Actress Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio is 54. Actor William Moses is 53. Entertainer RuPaul is 52. Actor Dylan Walsh is 49. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice is 48. Actress Sophie Marceau is 46. Actress-model Daisy Fuentes is 46. Rhythm-and-blues singer Ronnie DeVoe (New Edition; Bell Biv DeVoe) is 45. Rock musician Ben Wilson (Blues Traveler) is 45. Actor Leonard Roberts is 40. Actress Leslie Bibb is 39. Actor Brandon Call is 36. Country singer Aaron Lines is 35. Actress Rachel McAdams is 34. Rock musician Isaac Hanson (Hanson) is 32. Actor Justin Cooper is 24. Musician Reid Perry (The Band Perry) is 24. Actress Raquel Castro is 18.

Thought for today: “Prejudice is a raft onto which the shipwrecked mind clambers and paddles to safety.” — Ben Hecht, American author and screenwriter (1893-1964).