October 17

'''October 17''' is the 290th (in leap years the 291st) day of the year according to the Gregorian calendar. There are 75 days remaining.

Events

538 BC King Cyrus of Persia marched into the city of Babylon, releasing the Jews from almost 70 years of exile and making the first Human Rights Declaration
1244 - Battle of La Forbie: Crusaders were defeated by Khwarezmians & Egyptians
1346 - Battle of Neville's Cross: King David II of Scotland was captured by Edward III of England at Calais, and imprisoned in the Tower of London for eleven years
1469 - Ferdinand II of Aragon marries Isabella of Castile. Their marriage leads to the unification of Aragon and Castile in a single country, Spain
1604 - Kepler's Star: German astronomer Johannes Kepler observes that an exceptionally bright star had suddenly appeared in the constellation Ophiuchus, which turned out to be the last supernova to have been observed in our own galaxy, the Milky Way.
1662 - Charles II of England sold Dunkerque to France for 40 000 pounds
1777 - American troops defeat the British in the Battle of Saratoga
1781 - General Charles Cornwallis offers his surrender to the American revolutionaries at Yorktown, Virginia
1800 - England takes control of the Dutch colony of Curaçao
1806 - Former leader of the Great Slave Rebellion of 1791, Emperor Jacques I of Haiti was assassinated after an oppressive rule
1860 - First British golf open
1888 - Thomas Edison files a patent for the Optical Phonograph (the first movie).
1912 - Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia declare war on the Ottoman Empire, joining Montenegro in the First Balkan War
1917 - First British bombing of Germany in World War I
1931 - Al Capone convicted of income tax evasion
1933 - Albert Einstein, fleeing Nazi Germany, moves to the US
1937 - Huey, Dewey and Louie, Donald Duck's three almost identical nephews, first appear in a newspaper comic strip.
1941 - For the first time in World War II, a German submarine attacks an American ship
1945 - A massive number of people gather in the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina to demand Juan Peron's release. This is known to the Peronists as the Día de la lealtad (day of loyalty) or San Perón (Saint Perón). It's considered the birthday of Peronism.
1961 - 200 Algerian protesters are massacred by the Paris police
1966 - A fire at a building in New York, New York kills 12 firefighters.
1967 - The musical Hair opens at the Anspacher Theater on Broadway.
1970 - Anwar Sadat becomes president of Egypt
1970 - Montreal, Quebec: Quebec Vice-Premier and Minister of Labour Pierre Laporte murdered by members of the FLQ terrorist group.
1973 - OPEC starts an oil embargo against a number of western countries, considered to have helped Israel in its war against Syria
1979 - Mother Teresa awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
1979 - The Department of Education Organization Act is signed into law creating the United States Department of Education and United States Department of Health and Human Services. Both replace the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.
1984 - The New York Times runs an article titled "''CIA primer tells nicaraguan rebels how to kill''", which describes a secret "''Psychological Operations in Guerilla Warfare''" manual that the CIA supplied to the Contras and that gives instructions on how to kidnap and assassinate civil officials such as judges and policemen.
1989 - Loma Prieta earthquake (7.1 on the Richter scale) hits the San Francisco Bay Area.
1994 - Draft peace treaty between Israel and Jordan
1994 - Peace treaty between the government of Angola and UNITA rebels.
2003 - Carlos Mesa becomes President of Bolivia.
2003 - The pinnacle was fitted on the roof of Taipei 101, a 106-floor skyscraper in Taipei, allowing it to surpass the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur by 50 meters (165 feet) and become the World's tallest highrise.

Births

1253 - Saint Ivo of Kermartin, patron saint of lawyers
1563 - Jodocus Hondius, cartographer
1711 - Jupiter Hammond, poet
1813 - Georg Büchner, German playwright (d. 1837)
1864 - Elinor Glyn, writer (d. 1943)
1865 - James Rudolph Garfield, U.S. politician (d. 1950)
1898 - Simon Vestdijk, writer
1900 - Jean Arthur, actress (d. 1991)
1902 - Irene Ryan, actress (d. 1973)
1903 - Nathanael West, writer (d. 1940)
1912 - Pope John Paul I, religious leader (d. 1978)
1914 - Jerry Siegel, cartoonist (d. 1998)
1915 - Arthur Miller, playwright (d. 2005)
1918 - Rita Hayworth, actress (d. 1987)
1920 - Montgomery Clift, actor (d. 1966)
1921 - Tom Poston, actor, comedian
1930 - Jimmy Breslin, writer
1936 - Hiroo Kanamori, seismologist
1938 - Evel Knievel, professional daredevil
1940 - James Seals, musician
1942 - Gary Puckett, musician
1946 - Sir Cameron Mackintosh, stage producer, director
1946 - Bob Seagren, American pole vaulter and actor
1946 - Adam Michnik, Solidarity activist
1947 - Gene Green, American politician
1947 - Michael McKean, actor, comedian
1948 - Margot Kidder, actress
1948 - George Wendt, actor
1950 - Howard Rollins, actor (d. 1996)
1956 - Mae Jemison, astronaut
1958 - Alan Jackson, country music performer
1962 - Mike Judge, cartoonist, writer
1963 - Norm Macdonald, comedian, actor
1968 - Ziggy Marley, reggae musician
1969 - Ernie Els, South African golfer
1970 - Anil Kumble, Indian cricketer
1971 - Chris Kirkpatrick, singer
1972 - Eminem, rap music performer
1972 - Wyclef Jean, singer
1974 - John Rocker, baseball player
1979 - Kimi Räikkönen, Finn Formula One racing driver

Deaths

532 - Pope Boniface II
1806 - Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Haitian independence leader
1849 - Frederic Chopin, Polish-French musician and composer (b. 1810)
1887 - Gustav Kirchhoff, physicist
1910 - Julia Ward Howe, American composer and abolitionist (b. 1819)
1931 - Alfons Maria Jakob, neurologist (b. 1884)
1958 - Charlie Townsend, English cricketer (b. 1876).
1967 - Henry Pu Yi, last emperor of China (b. 1906)
1970 - Pierre Laporte, Vice-Premier of Quebec (assassinated) (b. 1921)
1973 - Ingeborg Bachmann, lyricist, narrator and writer (b. 1926)
1973 - Gene Krupa, drummer (b. 1909)
1979 - S. J. Perelman, writer (b. 1904)
1991 - Tennessee Ernie Ford, American singer and television performer (b. 1919)
2001 - Rehavam Zeevi, Israeli politician
2002 - Derek Bell, harpist (The Chieftans)

Holidays and observances

Feast day of Saint Ignatius of Antioch
Haiti: Death of Jean-Jacques Dessalines (State holiday)
United States: Black Poetry Day

External links

BBC: On This Day

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