Students, freedom and engineering — from Prague's Velvet Revolution to the canal that joined the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.
Next: Tuesday, November 17, 2026.
November 17 is International Students' Day. It commemorates November 17, 1939, when Nazi forces stormed Czech universities after student protests against the occupation, executed nine students and professors, and sent more than 1,200 students to concentration camps. The International Students' Council in London declared the day in 1941.
In the Czech Republic, November 17 is a public holiday marking both the 1939 student protests and the start of the 1989 Velvet Revolution. On November 17, 1989, riot police violently broke up a student march in Prague held for the 50th anniversary of the 1939 events, sparking nationwide protests. The holiday is called the Day of Struggle for Freedom and Democracy.
The Suez Canal officially opened on November 17, 1869, linking the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea across Egypt. French Empress Eugénie led the inaugural procession of ships aboard the imperial yacht L'Aigle. The canal let ships sail between Europe and Asia without going around Africa, shortening the voyage from London to the Arabian Sea by about 8,900 km.
Eight days after the fall of the Berlin Wall, police attacked a peaceful student demonstration in Prague, and outrage quickly spread across Czechoslovakia. Hundreds of thousands gathered in Wenceslas Square, and a general strike followed on November 27. The Communist Party leadership resigned on November 24, and on November 28 the party agreed to give up its monopoly on power. Dissident playwright Václav Havel was elected president on December 29, 1989.
After ten years of construction beginning in 1859, the Suez Canal opened with ceremonies that had started at Port Said on November 15. The project was led by French diplomat Ferdinand de Lesseps and his Suez Canal Company, and much of the digging was done by Egyptian laborers, including forced labor in the early years. The canal later became a focus of international conflict, including the 1956 Suez Crisis.
Elizabeth Tudor became Queen of England on the death of her half-sister Mary I, at the age of 25. Her 44-year reign saw a Protestant church settlement, the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, and the flourishing of English drama with writers such as Shakespeare and Marlowe. She never married and died in 1603, the last monarch of the Tudor dynasty.