February 17

is the 48th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 317 days remaining (318 in leap years).

Events

1500 - Battle of Hemmingstedt.
1600 - Philosopher Giordano Bruno was burnt alive at Campo de' Fiori in Rome, charged of heresy.
1621 - Miles Standish is appointed as first commander of Plymouth colony.
1753 - February 17 is followed by March 1 as Sweden moves to the Gregorian from the Julian calendar.
1801 - An electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr is resolved when Jefferson is elected President of the United States and Burr Vice President by the United States House of Representatives.
1814 - Battle of Mormans
1819 - The United States House of Representatives passes the Missouri Compromise.
1854 - The British recognizes the independence of the Orange Free State.
1864 - American Civil War: CSS H. L. Hunley is the first submarine to engage and sink a warship, the USS Housatonic.
1865 - American Civil War: Columbia, South Carolina burns as Confederate forces flee from advancing Union forces.
1867 - The first ship passes through the Suez Canal.
1871 - The victorious Prussian Army parades though Paris after the end of the Siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War.
1895 - Swan Lake, with music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, is first performed at full length in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
1913 - The Armory Show opens in New York City, displaying works of artists who are to become some of the most influential painters of the early 20th century.
1924 - In Miami, Florida, Johnny Weissmuller sets a new world record in the 100-yard freestyle swimming competition with a time of 52-2/5 seconds.
1933 - The magazine Newsweek is published for the first time.
1933 - The Blaine Act ends Prohibition in the United States.
1944 - World War II: Battle of Eniwetok Atoll begins. The battle ends in an American victory on February 22.
1944 - World War II: Operation Hailstone begins. U.S. naval air, surface, and submarine attack against Truk (Chuuk), Japan's main base in the central Pacific, in support of the Eniwetok invasion.
1947 - The Voice of America begins to transmit radio broadcasts into the Soviet Union.
1957 - A fire at a home for the elderly in Warrenton, Missouri kills 72 people.
1958 - Pope Pius XII declares Saint Clare of Assisi (1193~1253) the patron saint of television
1959 - The first weather satellite, Vanguard 2, was launched to measure cloud-cover distribution.
1962 - A storm kills more than 300 people in Hamburg, West Germany.
1964 - In Wesberry v. Sanders the Supreme Court of the United States rules that congressional districts have to be approximately equal in population.
1968 - In Springfield, Massachusetts the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame opens.
1972 - Sales of the Volkswagen Beetle model exceed those of Ford Model-T.
1974 - Robert K. Preston, a disgruntled U.S. Army private, buzzes the White House with a stolen helicopter.
1979 - The Sino-Vietnamese War begins.
1992 - A court in Milwaukee, Wisconsin sentences serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer to life in prison.
1995 - Colin Ferguson is convicted of six counts of murder for the December 1993 Long Island Rail Road shootings and later receives a 200+ year sentence.
1995 - The Cenepa War between Peru and Ecuador ends on a cease-fire brokered by the UN.
1996 - In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, world champion Garry Kasparov beats the Deep Blue supercomputer in a chess match.
2000 - Microsoft releases Windows 2000.

Births

1490 - Charles III, Duke of Bourbon, Constable of France (d. 1527)
1519 - Francis, Duke of Guise, French soldier and politician (d. 1563)
1524 - Charles of Guise, French cardinal (d. 1574)
1581 - Fausto Poli, Italian Catholic priest (d. 1653)
1646 - Pierre Le Pesant, sieur de Boisguilbert, French economist (d. 1714)
1653 - Arcangelo Corelli, Italian composer (d. 1713)
1718 - Matthew Tilghman, American Continental Congressman (d. 1790)
1723 - Tobias Mayer, German astronomer (d. 1762)
1752 - Friedrich Maximilian Klinger, German writer (d. 1831)
1754 - Nicolas Baudin, French explorer (d. 1803)
1766 - Thomas Malthus, English demographer and political economist (d. 1834)
1781 - René Laënnec, French physician (d. 1826)
1792 - Karl Ernst von Baer, German biologist (d. 1876)
1796 - Philipp Franz von Siebold, German physician (d. 1866)
1817 - King William III of the Netherlands (d, 1890)
1820 - Henri Vieuxtemps, Belgian composer (d. 1881)
1821 - Lola Montez, Mexican dancer, actress, friend of monarchs (d. 1861)
1836 - Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, Spanish poet (b. 1870)
1844 - Aaron Montgomery Ward, American department store founder (d. 1913)
1848 - Louisa Lawson, Australian feminist, suffragist, and writer (d. 1920)
1854 - Friedrich Alfred Krupp, German industrialist (d. 1902)
1864 - Banjo Paterson, Australian poet (d. 1941)
1874 - Thomas J. Watson, American computer manufacturer (d. 1956)
1877 - Isabelle Eberhardt, explorer and writer who spent a lot of time in North Africa (d. 1904)
1877 - André Maginot, French politician (d. 1932)
1888 - Otto Stern, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1969)
1887 - Leevi Madetoja, Finnish composer (d. 1947)
1908 - Red Barber, baseball announcer (d. 1992)
1910 - Marc Lawrence, American actor (d. 2005)
1911 - Oskar Seidlin, Silesian-born Jewish-American literary scholar (d. 1984)
1912 - Andre Norton, American author (d. 2005)
1914 - Arthur Kennedy, American actor (d. 1990)
1919 - Kathleen Freeman, American actress (d. 2001)
1920 - Ivo Caprino, Norwegian animated film director
1922 - Marshall Teague, American race car driver (d. 1959)
1924 - Margaret Truman, American novelist
1925 - Ron Goodwin, English composer and conductor (d. 2003)
1925 - Hal Holbrook, American actor
1929 - Chaim Potok, American author (d. 2002)
1929 - Patricia Routledge, English actress
1930 - Ruth Rendell, English writer
1932 - Buck Trent, American banjo player
1934 - Alan Bates, English actor (d. 2003)
1934 - Barry Humphries, Australian actor and comedian
1935 - Christina Pickles, British actress
1936 - Jim Brown, American football player
1939 - Mary Ann Mobley, American actress and beauty queen
1941 - Gene Pitney, American singer (d. 2006)
1942 - Huey P. Newton, American politicial activist (d. 1989)
1944 - Karl Jenkins, Welsh composer
1945 - Zina Bethune, American actress
1945 - Brenda Fricker, Irish actress
1949 - Fred Frith, British musician
1952 - Karin Janz, East German gymnast
1953 - Janice Dickinson, American model
1953 - Norman Pace, British actor and comic
1954 - Rene Russo, American actress
1956 - Richard Karn, American actor
1957 - Loreena McKennitt, Canadian musician, singer, and songwriter
1958 - Agim Coma, Albanian-Macedonian-American Actor
1959 - Aryeh Deri, Israeli rabbi and politician
1962 - Alison Hargreaves, British mountaineer (d. 1995)
1962 - Lou Diamond Phillips, American actor
1963 - Michael Jordan, American basketball player
1963 - Larry the Cable Guy, American Comedian
1966 - Luc Robitaille, Canadian ice hockey player
1966 - Quorthon, Swedish musician (Bathory) (d. 2004)
1967 - Chanté Moore, American singer
1969 - Tuesday Knight, American actress
1970 - Dominic Purcell, English Born Actor
1970 - Tim Mahoney, American musician (311)
1971 - Martyn Bennett, Canadian musician and composer (d. 2005)
1971 - Denise Richards, American actress
1972 - Billie Joe Armstrong, American singer and musician (Green Day)
1972 - Philippe Candeloro, French figure skater
1974 - Jerry O'Connell, American actor
1974 - Bryan White, American singer
1975 - Wish Bone, American rapper
1975 - Vaclav Prospal, Czech hockey player
1978 - Jacob Wetterling, American kidnapping victim
1980 - Jason Ritter, American actor
1981 - Joseph Gordon-Levitt, American actor
1981 - Paris Hilton, American actress and heiress
1982 - Adriano Leite Ribeiro, Brazilian footballer
1982 - Brian Bruney, Professional baseball player
1991 - Bonnie Wright, British child actress
1996 - Sasha Pieterse, South African child actress

Deaths

197 - Clodius Albinus, Roman usurper (killed in battle)
364 - Jovian, Roman Emperor
1339 - Duke Otto of Austria (b. 1301)
1371 - Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria.
1596 - Friedrich Sylburg, German classical scholar (b. 1536)
1600 - Giordano Bruno, Italian philosopher (burned at the stake) (b. 1548)
1609 - Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1549)
1624 - Juan de Mariana, Spanish historian (b. 1536)
1659 - Abel Servien, French diplomat (b. 1593)
1673 - Molière, French playwright (b. 1622)
1680 - Denzil Holles, 1st Baron Holles, English statesman and writer (b. 1599)
1680 - Jan Swammerdam, Dutch scientist (b. 1637)
1715 - Antoine Galland, French archaeologist (b. 1646)
1732 - Louis Marchand, French organist and harpsichordist (b. 1669)
1768 - Arthur Onslow, English politician (b. 1691)
1780 - Andreas Felix von Oefele, German historian and librarian (b. 1706)
1841 - Ferdinando Carulli, Italian guitarist
1854 - John Martin, English painter (b. 1789)
1856 - Heinrich Heine, German writer (b. 1797)
1883 - Napoleon Coste, French guitarist and composer (b. 1806)
1883 - Vasudeo Balwant Phadke, Indian revolutionary (b. 1845)
1909 - Geronimo, Apache leader (b. 1829)
1919 - Wilfrid Laurier, seventh Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1841)
1934 - King Albert I of Belgium (b. 1875)
1934 - Siegbert Tarrasch, German chess player (b. 1862)
1939 - Willy Hess, German violinist (b. 1859)
1943 - Armand J. Piron, American jazz violinist and composer (b. 1888)
1943 - Konstantin Bogaevsky, Russian painter (b. 1872)
1961 - Nita Naldi, American actress (b. 1897)
1962 - Bruno Walter, German conductor (b. 1876)
1970 - Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Israeli writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1888)
1970 - Alfred Newman, American film composer (b. 1901)
1977 - Janani Luwum, Ugandan Archbishop (shot) (b. 1922)
1982 - Thelonious Monk, American jazz pianist (b. 1917)
1982 - Lee Strasberg, Austrian-born actor (b. 1901)
1990 - Erik Rhodes, American actor (b. 1906)
1994 - Randy Shilts, American author and activist (AIDS) (b. 1951)
1998 - Ernst Jünger, German author (b. 1895)
2001 - Khalid Abdul Muhammed, American Nation of Islam spokesman (brain aneurysm) (b. 1948)
2004 - José López Portillo, President of Mexico (b. 1920)
2005 - Dan O'Herlihy, Irish actor (b. 1919)
2005 - Omar Sivori, Argentine football player (b. 1935)
2006 - Ray Barretto, Puerto Rican musician (congas) (b. 1929)

Holidays and observances

Roman Empire - Quirinalia in honor of Quirinus.
Ancient Latvia - Tanis Diena observed.
Random Acts of Kindness Day.

Liturgical feasts

External links

February 16 - February 18 - January 17 - March 17 -- listing of all days

Gourt Home::Gourt :: February 17

Events

Births

Deaths

Holidays and observances

Liturgical feasts

External links