Today is Wednesday, November 17, the 321st day of 2010. There are 44 days left in the year.

On this date

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

In 1869, the Suez Canal opened in Egypt.

In 1973, President Richard Nixon told Associated Press managing editors in Orlando, Florida.: "People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook."

Thought for Today

"The upper classes are merely a nation's past; the middle class is its future." — Ayn Rand, Russian-American author (1905-1982).