November 17 Holidays

International Students Day was established to mark November 17, 1939, when Nazi German forces stormed Czech universities, killed nine student leaders, and sent more than 1,200 students to concentration camps — a date that became a symbol of student resistance and was officially adopted by the International Union of Students in 1941. National Hiking Day was established by the American Hiking Society to promote hiking as one of the most beneficial and accessible physical activities — the U.S. has more than 200,000 miles of trails, and hiking trails attract more than 47 million Americans annually. National Baklava Day celebrates the phyllo pastry layered with ground nuts and drenched in honey or sugar syrup — traced to Ottoman palace kitchens in Constantinople and claimed simultaneously by Greek, Turkish, Lebanese, and Azerbaijani culinary traditions. National Homemade Bread Day was established to encourage home bakers to make bread from scratch — a practice that connects the baker to 30,000 years of human food tradition.