This day in history - November 17

[seamusTX]

1800 - Congress convened for the first time in Washington, D.C., in the unfinished Capitol building.

1869 - The Suez Canal opened, shortening the voyage between Europe and the Far East by thousands of miles.

1968 - NBC outraged football fans by cutting away from the final minutes of a game to air a TV special, "Heidi."

I was at a family get-together at the time, and I remember the men nearly starting a riot in the living room.

1970 - The USSR landed the unmanned, robotic Lunokhod 1 vehicle on the moon. It operated for 11 months, taking photos and analyzing soil samples.

The U.S. got the bragging rights for putting the first men on the moon, but the Russkies got a lot more bang for their rubles.

1973 - As the Watergate scandal unfolded, President Nixon told an Associated Press managing editors meeting in Orlando that "people have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook.''

- Jim

[dicion]

1800 - Congress convened for the first time in Washington, D.C., in the unfinished Capitol building.

And some would say that's when it started going downhill