TODAY IN HISTORY

NOVEMBER 17

1950:Tenzin Gyatso, age 15, is enthroned as the 14th (and current) Dalai Lama, the political and spiritual leader of Tibet.

1558: The Elizabethan Age begins as Elizabeth I, daughter of King Henry VIII, succeeds her half-sister Mary I as monarch of England and Ireland. The "Virgin Queen" rules for 45 years, establishing England as a political and cultural power in Europe.

1973: President Richard Nixon tells Associated Press managing editors during a televised question-and-answer session in Orlando, Fla., that "people have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook." Nixon will resign less than a year later in the midst of the Watergate cover-up scandal.