September 17

is the 260th day of the year (261st in leap years). There are 105 days remaining.

Events

1176 - The Battle of Myriokephalon is fought.
1394 - King Charles VI of France orders all Jews expelled from France.
1462 - The Battle of Świecino (or Battle of Żarnowiec) is fought during Thirteen Years' War
1577 - Peace of Bergerac signed between Henry III of France and the Huguenots.
1630 - The city of Boston, Massachusetts, is founded.
1776 - The Presidio of San Francisco is founded in New Spain.
1787 - The United States forms and becomes a country.
1809 - Peace between Sweden and Russia in the Finnish War. The territory to become Finland is ceded to Russia by the Treaty of Fredrikshamn.
1859 - Joshua A. Norton declares himself Emperor Norton I of the United States.
1862 - American Civil War: George McClellan halts the northward drive of Robert E. Lee's Confederate army in the Battle of Antietam.
1894 - Battle of Yalu River, the largest naval engagement of the First Sino-Japanese War.
1900 - Philippine-American War: Filipinos under Juan Cailles defeat Americans under Colonel Benjamin F. Cheatham at Mabitac.
1908 - Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge crashes a Wright Brothers airplane and becomes the first airplane fatality.
1914 - Andrew Fisher becomes Prime Minister of Australia for the third time.
1916 - World War I: Manfred von Richthofen ("The Red Baron"), a flying ace of the German Luftstreitkräfte, won his first aerial combat near Cambrai, France.
1920 - National Football League is organized in Canton, Ohio, United States.
1924 - The Border Defence Corps was established in the Second Polish Republic for the defence of the eastern border against armed Soviet raids and local bandits.
1928 - The Okeechobee Hurricane strikes southeastern Florida, killing upwards of 2,500 people. It is the third deadliest natural disaster in US history, behind the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
1939 - The Soviet Union joined Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland during the Polish Defence War of 1939.
1939 - Taisto Mäki of Finland. New world record on 10.000m. 29.52.6. First time under 30 min. In Helsinki Olympic Stadium in Finland. The stadium was built for the 1940 Olympic Games after the games were moved there from Tokyo, Japan. The games never took place.
1943 - Russian city of Bryansk liberated from Nazis.
1944 - Allied Airborne troops parachute into Holland as the "Market" half of Operation Market Garden.
1947 - James V. Forrestal was sworn in as the first Secretary of Defense of United States.
1948 - Lehi (also know as the Stern gang) assassinates Count Folke Bernadotte, who was appointed by the UN to mediate between the Arabs and Jews.
1949 - The Canadian steamship SS Noronic burns in Toronto Harbor with the loss of over 118 lives.
1951 - Robert A. Lovett was sworn in as the 4th Secretary of Defense of United States.
1961 - The Minnesota Vikings play their first NFL game, defeating the Chicago Bears 37-13, with Fran Tarkenton throwing 4 touchdowns and running for 1 touchdown.
1967 - Jim Morrison and The Doors defy CBS censors on The Ed Sullivan Show. Morrison sang the lyrics, "Girl, we couldn't get much higher" from the song, Light My Fire when asked not to.
1976 - The first Space Shuttle, Enterprise, was unveiled by NASA
1978 - The Camp David Accords were signed by Israel and Egypt.
1983 - Vanessa Williams becomes first African American Miss America.
1984 - Brian Mulroney is sworn in as Prime Minister of Canada.
1984 - Baseball: Reggie Jackson becomes the 13th member of the 500 home run club with a home run at Anaheim Stadium in Anaheim, California.
1988 - Opening ceremony of the Games of the XXIV Olympiad in Seoul, South Korea.
1991 - North Korea, South Korea, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Marshall Islands and Micronesia join the United Nations.
1991 - The first version of the Linux kernel (0.01) is released to the Internet.
2001 - The Late Show with David Letterman is the first TV talk show to return to the airwaves six days after terrorists attack the United States in New York City and Washington D.C.
2001 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average opens for the first time after the September 11 attacks. The stocks plummet throughout the trading session and posts its biggest point drop in its history closing down 684.81 points to 8920.70.
2004 - Tamil is declared first classical language in India.
2005 - The B.C. Lions make CFL history by winning 11 straight games, become the first team ever to do so in the CFL. This day was also the premiere for three new shows on Kids WB: Loonatics Unleashed, Coconut Fred's Fruit Salad Island, and Johnny Test.

Births

64 - Julia Flavia, daughter of Roman Emperor Titus; lover of Domitian.
879 - King Charles III of France (d. 929)
1192 - Minamoto no Sanetomo Japanese shogun (d. 1219)
1271 - Wenceslas II of Bohemia and Poland (d. 1305)
1550 - Pope Paul V (d. 1621)
1580 - Francisco de Quevedo, Spanish writer (d. 1645)
1630 - Ranuccio II Farnese, Duke of Parma (d. 1694)
1639 - Hans Herr, Mennonite bishop (d. 1725)
1657 - Sophia Alekseyevna, regent of Russia (d. 1704)
1677 - Stephen Hales, English physiologist, chemist, and inventor (d. 1761)
1687 - Durastante Natalucci, Italian historian (d. 1772)
1730 - Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, Prussian army officer (d. 1794)
1739 - John Rutledge, 2nd (appointed) Chief Justice of the United States (d. 1800)
1743 - Marquis de Condorcet, French mathematician (d. 1794)
1819 - Thomas A. Hendricks, 21st Vice President of the United States (d. 1885)
1820 - Émile Augier, French dramatist (d. 1889)
1826 - Bernhard Riemann, German mathematician (d. 1866)
1857 - Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Russian rocket scientist (d. 1935)
1869 - Christian Lous Lange, Norwegian Nobel Peace Prize recipient (d. 1938)
1881 - Alfred Francis Blakeney Carpenter, English soldier (d. 1955)
1883 - William Carlos Williams, American writer (d. 1963)
1884 - Charles Tomlinson Griffes, American composer (d. 1920)
1890 - Gabriel Heatter, American radio commentator
1897 - Earl Webb, baseball player (d. 1965)
1900 - John Willard Marriott, American hotelier (d. 1985)
1903 - Karel Miljon, Dutch boxer (d. 1984)
1907 - Warren Burger, 15th Chief Justice of the United States (d. 1995)
1918 - Chaim Herzog, President of Israel (d. 1997)
1922 - Agostinho Neto, Angolan politician (d. 1979)
1923 - Hank Williams, American musician (d. 1953)
1927 - George Blanda, American football player
1928 - Roddy McDowall, English actor (d. 1998)
1929 - Sir Stirling Moss, English race car driver
1930 - Edgar Mitchell, astronaut
1931 - Anne Bancroft, American actress (d. 2005)
1933 - Dorothy Loudon, American actress (d. 2003)
1934 - Maureen Connolly, American tennis player (d. 1969)
1935 - Ken Kesey, American author (d. 2001)
1937 - Orlando Cepeda, Puerto Rican Major League Baseball player
1938 - Bobby Wine, American Major League Baseball player
1939 - David Souter, U.S. Supreme Court Justice
1941 - Bob Matsui, U.S. Congressman (d. 2005)
1942 - Des Lynam, English television presenter
1944 - Reinhold Messner, Austrian mountain climber
1946 - Billy Bonds, English footballer
1947 - Tessa Jowell, British politician
1948 - Jeff MacNelly, American political cartoonist (d. 2000)
1948 - John Ritter, American actor (d. 2003)
1950 - Narendra Modi, Indian politician
1951 - Cassandra Peterson, American actress
1954 - Joël-François Durand, French composer
1955 - Charles Martinet, American actor
1956 - Rita Rudner, American comedian
1959 - Charles Lawson, Northern Irish actor
1960 - Damon Hill, English race car driver
1960 - John Franco, American baseball player
1961 - Ty Tabor, American guitarist and singer (King's X)
1962 - Baz Luhrmann, Australian film director
1965 - Bryan Singer, American director
1965 - Yuji Naka, Japanese video game programmer
1966 - Doug E. Fresh, American rapper, record producer, and beatboxer
1969 - Ken Doherty, Irish snooker player
1971 - Adriana Sklenaříková, Slovak supermodel
1973 - Anastacia, American singer
1974 - Rasheed Wallace, American basketball player
1974 - Mirah, American musician
1975 - Jimmie Johnson, American race car driver
1975 - Austin St. John, American actor
1975 - Constantine Maroulis, American Idol Finalist
1977 - Simone Perrotta, Italian football player
1978 - Shawn Horcoff, Canadian Ice Hockey player
1979 - Akin Ayodele, American football player
1979 - Chuck Comeau, Canadian musician (Simple Plan)
1983 - Jennifer Peña, American singer
1984 - Eugenia Volodina, Russian supermodel
1985 - Alexander Ovechkin, Russian hockey player
1991 - Jordan McCoy, American Juniors Finalist

Deaths

1179 - Hildegard of Bingen, German abbess and composer (b. 1098)
1322 - Robert III of Flanders (b. 1249)
1422 - Constantine II of Bulgaria.
1563 - Henry Manners, 2nd Earl of Rutland, English soldier
1574 - Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, first Spanish Governor of Florida (b. 1519)
1575 - Heinrich Bullinger, Swiss religious reformer (b. 1504)
1621 - Robert Bellarmine, Italian saint (b. 1542)
1630 - Thomas Lake, English statesman (b. 1567)
1665 - King Philip IV of Spain (b. 1605)
1679 - John of Austria the Younger, Spanish general (b. 1629)
1727 - Glückel of Hameln, German businesswoman and diarist (b. 1647)
1762 - Francesco Geminiani, Italian violinist and composer (b. 1687)
1771 - Tobias Smollett, Scottish novelist (b. 1721)
1803 - Franz Xaver Süssmayr, Austrian composer (b. 1766)
1808 - Benjamin Bourne, American politician (b. 1755)
1836 - Antoine Laurent de Jussieu, French botanist (b. 1748)
1863 - Alfred de Vigny, French author (b. 1797)
1873 - Alexander Berry, Scottish adventurer (b. 1781)
1879 - Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, French architect (b. 1814)
1894 - Deng Shichang, Chinese admiral (b. 1849)
1907 - Ignaz Brüll, Austrian pianist (b. 1846)
1933 - Joseph De Piro, Maltese missionary (b. 1877)
1936 - Ettie Rout, New Zealand activist (b. 1877)
1938 - Bruno Jasieński, Polish poet (b. 1901)
1966 - Fritz Wunderlich, German tenor (b. 1930)
1972 - Akim Tamiroff, Georgian actor (b. 1899)
1973 - Hugo Winterhalter, American bandleader (b. 1909)
1980 - Anastasio Somoza Debayle, President of Nicaragua (b. 1925)
1984 - Richard Basehart, American actor (b. 1914)
1987 - Harry Locke, British character actor (b. 1913)
1991 - Zino Francescatti, French violinist (b. 1902)
1993 - Christian Nyby, American film and television director (b. 1913)
1996 - Spiro Agnew, Vice President of the United States (b. 1918)
1997 - Red Skelton, American actor and comedian (b. 1913)
2000 - Nicole Reinhart, American cyclist (b. 1976)
2000 - Paula Yates, English reporter (b. 1960)
2003 - Erich Hallhuber, German actor (b. 1951)
2003 - Sheb Wooley, American actor and singer (b. 1921)
2005 - Alfred Reed, American composer (b. 1921)

Holidays and observances

The fourth day of the Eleusinian Mysteries in ancient Greek mythology, when the initiates sacrificed a pig.
RC Saints - Feasts of Saint Lambert (martyr), Hildegard of Bingen
Also see September 17 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Angola - National Heroes' Day
Netherlands - Operation Market Garden is still remembered with parachuting and dedications on this day.
United States - Constitution Day (observed on the previous Friday if it falls in a weekend), Citizenship Day, Von Steuben Day

External links

BBC: On This Day

September 16 · September 18 · August 17 · October 17 · more historical anniversaries

Gourt Home::Gourt :: September 17

Events

Births

Deaths

Holidays and observances

External links