Today's Event – 17th November 2021

• 1777 – Articles of Confederation (United States) are submitted to the states for ratification.

• 1796 – French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of the Bridge of Arcole: French forces defeat the Austrians in Italy.

• 1800 – The United States Congress holds its first session in Washington, D.C.

• 1810 – Sweden declares war on its ally the United Kingdom to begin the Anglo-Swedish War, although no fighting ever takes place.

• 1811 – José Miguel Carrera, Chilean founding father, is sworn in as President of the executive Junta of the government of Chile.

• 1820 – Captain Nathaniel Palmer becomes the first American to see Antarctica. (The Palmer Peninsula is later named after him.)

• 1831 – Ecuador and Venezuela are separated from Gran Colombia.

• 1858 – Modified Julian Day zero.

• 1858 – The city of Denver, Colorado is founded.

• 1863 – American Civil War: Siege of Knoxville begins: Confederate forces led by General James Longstreet place Knoxville, Tennessee, under siege.

• 1869 – In Egypt, the Suez Canal, linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea, is inaugurated.

• 1878 – First assassination attempt against Umberto I of Italy by anarchist Giovanni Passannante, who was armed with a dagger. The King survived with a slight wound in an arm. Prime Minister Benedetto Cairoli blocked the aggressor, receiving an injury in a leg.

• 1885 – Serbo-Bulgarian War: The decisive Battle of Slivnitsa begins.

• 1894 – H. H. Holmes, one of the first modern serial killers, is arrested in Boston, Massachusetts.

• 1896 – The Western Pennsylvania Hockey League, which later became the first ice hockey league to openly trade and hire players, began play at Pittsburgh's Schenley Park Casino.

• 1903 – The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party splits into two groups: The Bolsheviks (Russian for "majority") and Mensheviks (Russian for "minority").

• 1939 – Nine Czech students are executed as a response to anti-Nazi demonstrations prompted by the death of Jan Opletal. All Czech universities are shut down and more than 1,200 students sent to concentration camps. Since this event, International Students' Day is celebrated in many countries, especially in the Czech Republic.

• 1940 – The Tartu Art Museum was established in Tartu, Estonia

• 1947 – The Screen Actors Guild implements an anti-Communist loyalty oath.

• 1947 – American scientists John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain observe the basic principles of the transistor, a key element for the electronics revolution of the 20th century.

• 1950 – Lhamo Dondrub is officially named the 14th Dalai Lama.

• 1950 – United Nations Security Council Resolution 89 relating to the Palestine Question is adopted.

• 1953 – The remaining human inhabitants of the Blasket Islands, Kerry, Ireland, are evacuated to the mainland.

• 1957 – Vickers Viscount G-AOHP of British European Airways crashes at Ballerup after the failure of three engines on approach to Copenhagen Airport. The cause is a malfunction of the anti-icing system on the aircraft. There are no fatalities.

• 1962 – President John F. Kennedy dedicates Washington Dulles International Airport, serving the Washington, D.C., region.

• 1968 – British European Airways introduces the BAC One-Eleven into commercial service.

• 1968 – Viewers of the Raiders–Jets football game in the eastern United States are denied the opportunity to watch its exciting finish when NBC broadcasts Heidi instead, prompting changes to sports broadcasting in the U.S.

• 1970 – Luna programme: The Soviet Union lands Lunokhod 1 on Mare Imbrium (Sea of Rains) on the Moon. This is the first roving remote-controlled robot to land on another world and is released by the orbiting Luna 17 spacecraft.

• 1973 – Watergate scandal: In Orlando, Florida, U.S. President Richard Nixon tells 400 Associated Press managing editors "I am not a crook."

• 1973 – The Athens Polytechnic uprising against the military regime ends in a bloodshed in the Greek capital.

• 1983 – The Zapatista Army of National Liberation is founded in Mexico.

• 1986 – The flight crew of Japan Airlines Flight 1628 are involved in a UFO sighting incident while flying over Alaska

• 1989 – Cold War: Velvet Revolution begins: In Czechoslovakia, a student demonstration in Prague is quelled by riot police. This sparks an uprising aimed at overthrowing the communist government (it succeeds on December 29).

• 1990 – Fugendake, part of the Mount Unzen volcanic complex, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan, becomes active again and erupts.

• 1993 – United States House of Representatives passes a resolution to establish the North American Free Trade Agreement.

• 1993 – In Nigeria, General Sani Abacha ousts the government of Ernest Shonekan in a military coup.

• 1997 – In Luxor, Egypt, 62 people are killed by six Islamic militants outside the Temple of Hatshepsut, known as Luxor massacre.

• 2000 – A catastrophic landslide in Log pod Mangartom, Slovenia, kills seven, and causes millions of SIT of damage. It is one of the worst catastrophes in Slovenia in the past 100 years.

• 2000 – Alberto Fujimori is removed from office as president of Peru.

• 2003 – Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s tenure as the governor of California began

• 2012 – At least 50 schoolchildren are killed in an accident at a railway crossing near Manfalut, Egypt.

• 2013 – Fifty people are killed when Tatarstan Airlines Flight 363 crashes at Kazan Airport, Russia.

• 2013 – A rare late-season tornado outbreak strikes the Midwest. Illinois and Indiana are most affected with tornado reports as far north as lower Michigan. In all around six dozen tornadoes touch down in approximately an 11-hour time period, including seven EF3 and two EF4 tornadoes.

National Events- 

•  India has slipped to 82nd position in 2021, five places down from 77th rank last year, in a global list that measures business bribery risks.

•  India and France have underlined the need to ensure that Afghan territory does not become a source of terrorism and called for concerted action against all terror groups including Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and Hizbul Mujahideen.

•  The US embassy in New Delhi has issued a travel advisory, where it has asked women to not travel alone. The embassy advisory also refers to Jammu and Kashmir as a “state”, instead of Union Territory.

•  ‘The mantra that would take us forward would be duty,’ the PM said while addressing the All India Presiding Officers’ Conference (AIPOC) in Shimla.

• Former union minister and senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal took to Twitter to support comedian Vir Das who has been criticised after a video clip of his monologue “I come from two Indias” went viral.

International Events- 

•   Loreen Willenberg, a 66-year-old hailing from California, has become the first person globally to be cured of HIV without medical interventions.

•  Polish forces at the border with Belarus used water cannons and tear gas Tuesday against stone-throwing migrants, as Warsaw accused Belarusian authorities of giving smoke grenades and other weapons to those trying to cross the frontier.

•  Two explosions rocked Uganda’s capital, Kampala, on Tuesday, killing at least three civilians in what police described as a coordinated attack by extremists opposed to the government.

• The Moscow Metro — a world-class marvel of efficient mass transportation since it opened in 1935 — made headlines last month with a very 21st-century innovation: a payment system that doesn’t require passengers to produce a ticket, a transit card, a smartphone or a contactless bank card. All they have to do is show their face. 

• The River Thames, the tidal artery that squiggles through central London, holds up a mirror to life on dry land: scraggly remains of fir trees float by after Christmas; in the first days of a fresh year, bobbing Champagne bottles hint at recent revelry.

Job alerts-

•  NUHM Kolkata Jobs for Medical Officer and other posts. Last date 29 November 2021

• LGB Regional Institute of Mental Health Jobs for Assistant Professor and other posts. Last date 20 December 2021

• Home Guard Department, Rajasthan Jobs for Constable and other posts. Last date 15 December 2021

• MGNREGA Ferozepur Jobs for Technical Assistant, Data Entry Operator, Assistant and other posts. Last date 30 November 2021

• Greater Chennai Corporation Jobs for Medical Officer, Supervisor, Technician, Pharmacist and other posts. Last date 29 November 2021

Sports-

•  Pakistan Cricket Board chief Ramiz Raja will be a part of the ICC Working Group appointed by the game's governing body to review the status of cricket in Afghanistan in light of the recent political developments in the country.

•  BCCI president Sourav Ganguly has been appointed as the Chairman of the ICC men’s Cricket Committee, the game’s governing body said on Wednesday.

•  Archana Kamath took a quick half-step forward as she reached to meet the ball at the table. The action suggested that she was going to hammer a forehand return of serve. Indeed, the opponent from Puerto Rico read it that way as well. Instead, the Bangalore-girl pushed the ball back into play, with a hint of sidespin and backspin, and Adriana Diaz, a tad late to react, swung and missed.

• World number one Novak Djokovic began his quest for a sixth title at the season-ending ATP Finals with a 7-6(4) 6-2 victory over Norway’s Casper Ruud in their round robin encounter in Turin on Monday. 

• Argentina and Brazil drew a tense and end-to-end match 0-0 on Tuesday, meaning both teams retained their unbeaten record in the South American World Cup qualifiers. Brazil are the only side in the 10-team South American section to guarantee their place in next year’s finals and Argentina, who sit in second place six points behind, look certain to join them.

Technology-

•  Smartphone brand Techno seems to be on a trolling spree. The company’s official Twitter handle made fun of Apple in a tweet posted yesterday (November 16).

•  India is likely to bar the use of cryptocurrencies for transactions or making payments, but allow them to be held as assets like gold, shares or bonds

•  The Korea Communications Commission (KCC) said it proposes a a monetary penalty of up to 2% of Korea app market revenue in such instances.

•  The Media Player app replaces Microsoft’s default music player app - Groove Music in Windows 11 and Windows 10.

• According to a new report by research and analytics firm IDC, India's wearable market grew by 93.8% year-over-year (YoY) in 3Q21 (July-Sept),shipping 23.8 million units.

Economy – 

•  The initial public offering (IPO) of Latent View Analytics was subscribed 326.49 times over the 1.75 crore shares that were on offer during the subscription period from November 10-12, 2021. The price band was fixed at Rs 190-197 per share.

•  IndiGo, one of Asia’s biggest budget carriers, is mulling charging passengers for checked-in luggage as the airline prepares for a potentially fierce price war in India’s cutthroat air travel market, which is showing signs of recovery following the worst of Covid.

•  The S&P BSE Sensex slipped 314.04 points (0.52 per cent) to end at 60,008.33 while the Nifty 50 ended 100.55 points (0.56 per cent) to settle at 17,898.65. Both the indices had opened lower earlier in the day and traded in a choppy manner before ending in the red.

•  THREE DAYS after a Prime Minister-chaired meeting arrived at a consensus that future steps by the government in the field of crypto currency will be “progressive and forward-looking”, Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das once again strongly urged caution and voiced serious concerns.

• Cairn Oil and Gas on Tuesday announced a partnership with US-based Halliburton to target a 10-fold increase in its recoverable reserves at offshore assets to 300 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe).

Local –

• Israel Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Wednesday said when Indians and Israelis come together amazing things happen, and expressed hope about traveling to the country pretty soon to explore what the future holds for the two nations. 

•  A day after Dinhata MLA of Trinamool Congress (TMC) Udayan Guha sparked a row following his claim that personnel of the Border Security Force (BSF) touch women inappropriately during frisking at the India-Bangladesh borders, the latter Wednesday termed the allegation “unfortunate and baseless”.

•  Former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh and two others were Wednesday declared proclaimed offenders by a court in Mumbai. This is in connection with an extortion case filed against Singh by the city police.

• Chennai city police on Wednesday arrested three men for allegedly forcing a man to transfer money and other valuable items like a gold ring at knifepoint near Avadi in Chennai. 

• A police complaint has been lodged against standup comedian and actor Vir Das by a Delhi BJP member for allegedly using derogatory statements against women and India in a performance. Das recently uploaded a video titled ‘I come from two Indias’ on social media, which was part of his performance at John F Kennedy Center in Washington DC.

GK – 

The ‘Regional Plan of Action for Adaptation to Drought’ is associated with which institution?

[A] G-20
[B] BRICS
[C] ASEAN
[D] BIMSTEC

The Final Glasgow COP 26 agreement aimed at capping global warming at …………..degrees Celsius.

[A] 1
[B] 1.5
[C] 2.0
[D] 3.0

What is the theme of World Diabetes Day 2021?

[A] Access to Diabetes Care
[B] Leaving None behind
[C] Importance of Insulin sensitisers
[D] Respect to Sir Frederick Banting

Which racing driver won the Sau Palo (Brazilian) Grand Prix tournament?

[A] Lewis Hamilton
[B] Max Verstappen
[C] Charles Leclerc
[D] Valtteri Bottas

Which Union Ministry has launched a unified mobile app for the ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ events?

[A] Ministry of External Affairs
[B] Ministry of Culture
[C] Ministry of Home Affairs
[D] Ministry of Tourism