Today in History: The last sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Mehmed VI, expelled to Malta

The following are some of the major events to have occurred on November 17:

1831 - Ecuador and Venezuela separated from Greater Colombia. 

1869 - Suez Canal in Egypt opens, linking Mediterranean and Red seas. 

1917 – Auguste Rodin, French sculptor of “The Thinker” and “The Kiss”, died.

1922 - The last sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Mehmed VI, is expelled to Malta on a British warship.

1954 – General Gamal Abdel Nasser became Egyptian head of state following the fall of President Mohamed Naguib.

1972 – Argentine ex-president Juan Peron arrived in Buenos Aires after 17 years of exile.

1974 – The first general election in Greece for over 10 years ended with a decisive victory for the New Democracy Party of Constantine Karamanlis.

1986 – In Paris the managing director of the car firm Renault, Georges Besse, was shot dead by “Action Directe”.

1997 – Egyptian Islamic militant group al-Gama’a al-Islamiya killed 58 foreign tourists and four Egyptians at Luxor in their bloodiest attack in Egypt to date.

2000 – United States President Bill Clinton’s speech in Hanoi is the first ever speech by a visiting foreign leader broadcast live to citizens of Vietnam.

2001 – Former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani returned to Kabul, five years after the Taliban drove him out.

2002 – Abba Eban, Israel’s quintessential diplomat and one of the world’s most eloquent statesmen, died.

2006 – Brazilian surfing legend Rico de Souza attempts to set world record for biggest surfboard.

2013 – Tartarstan Boeing 737 airliner crashed on Sunday in the Russian city of Kazan, killing all 50 people on board.