On this day... November 17

On this day...

November 17 1292 – John Balliol was chosen to be King of Scotsover Robert de Brus. 1839 – Giuseppe Verdi's first opera Oberto, Conte di San Bonifacio, was first performed at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. 1950 – Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama (pictured), was enthroned as Tibet's head of state at the age of fifteen. 1993 – General Sani Abacha ousted Ernest Shonekan to become chairman of the Provisional Ruling Council of Nigeria. 2009 – Administrators at the Climatic Research Unit at theUniversity of East Anglia discovered that their servers had beenhacked and thousands of emails and files on climate change had been stolen.