February 17 is the 48th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 317 days remaining (318 in leap years).

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Contents 1 Events 2 Births 3 Deaths 4 Holidays and observances 5 External links

Events Edit

• 197 - Battle of Lugdunum, Roman Emperor Septimius Severus defeats his rival Clodius Albinus, securing full control over the Roman Empire.
• 1500 - Battle of Hemmingstedt
• 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 recognize the independence of the Orange Free State.
• 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.
• 1895 - Swan Lake, one of the most famous and critically-acclaimed ballets, with music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, was first performed at full length in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
• 1913 - The Armory Show opens in New York City. It displays 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 ended in an American victory on February 22.
• 1947 - Propaganda: The Voice of America begins to transmit radio broadcasts into the Soviet Union.
• 1955 - Christian Pineau becomes Prime Minister of France
• 1957 - A fire at an elderly home 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.
• 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 ?(15 million).
• 1974 - Robert Preston, a disgruntled U.S. Army private, buzzes the White House with a stolen helicopter.
• 1979 - The Sino-Vietnamese War began.
• 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 ended 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.

Births Edit

• 1609 - Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1549)
• 1653 - Arcangelo Corelli, Italian composer (d. 1713)
• 1699 - Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff, master builder (d. 1753)
• 1752 - Friedrich Maximilian Klinger, German writer (d. 1831)
• 1774 - Raphael Peale, painter
• 1820 - Henri Vieuxtemps, Belgian composer (d. 1881)
• 1821 - Lola Montez, Mexican dancer, actress, friend of monarchs (d. 1861)
• 1844 - Aaron Montgomery Ward, department store founder
• 1854 - Friedrich Alfred Krupp, German industrialist (d. 1902)
• 1864 - Banjo Paterson, Australian poet (d. 1941)
• 1874 - Thomas J. Watson, computer pioneer, first president of IBM
• 1877 - André Maginot, French politician, Maginot Line (d. 1932)
• 1888 - Otto Stern, physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics (d. 1969)
• 1906 - Mary Brian, American actress (d. 2002)
• 1908 - Red Barber, baseball announcer, sports journalist (d. 1992)
• 1910 - Marc Lawrence, American actor
• 1912 - Andre Norton, author
• 1914 - Arthur Kennedy, American actor (d. 1990)
• 1919 - Kathleen Freeman, American actress (d. 2001)
• 1920 - Ivo Caprino, Norwegian animated film director
• 1922 - Marshall Teague, race car driver (d. 1959)
• 1924 - Margaret Truman, novelist, daughter of Harry S. Truman
• 1925 - Hal Holbrook, actor
• 1929 - Chaim Potok, author (d. 2002)
• 1929 - Patricia Routledge, actress
• 1930 - Ruth Rendell, writer
• 1934 - Alan Bates, actor (d. 2003)
• 1934 - Barry Humphries (aka Dame Edna Everage, Sir Les Patterson), Australian actor, comedian
• 1936 - Jim Brown, American football star
• 1937 - Rita Süssmuth, politician
• 1939 - Mary Ann Mobley, American actress, Miss America
• 1940 - Christina Pickles, British actress
• 1941 - Julia McKenzie, actress
• 1941 - Gene Pitney, singer
• 1942 - Huey P. Newton, founder of the Black Panther Party
• 1945 - Brenda Fricker, actress
• 1948 - Rick Majerus, American basketball coach
• 1953 - Norman Pace, actor, comic
• 1954 - Rene Russo, American actress
• 1956 - Richard Karn, American actor
• 1962 - Lou Diamond Phillips, actor
• 1962 - Alison Hargreaves, British mountaineer (d. 1995)
• 1963 - Michael Jordan, basketball star
• 1967 - Chanté Moore, American singer
• 1972 - Billie Joe Armstrong, American singer and musician (Green Day)
• 1972 - Philippe Candeloro, figure skater
• 1972 - Denise Richards, actress
• 1974 - Jerry O'Connell, actor
• 1974 - Bryan White, American country music singer
• 1975 - Vaclav Prospal, NHL hockey player
• 1976 - Spectacular Bid, Thoroughbred race horse {d. 2003)
• 1978 - Jacob Wetterling, kidnapping victim (missing since 1989)
• 1980 - Jason Ritter, American actor
• 1981 - Paris Hilton, actress and heiress to the Hilton Hotel chain

Deaths Edit

• 197 - Clodius Albinus, would-be Roman emperor (killed in battle)
• 364 - Jovian, Roman emperor (b. ca. 332)
• 1339 - Otto the Merry, Duke of Austria
• 1600 - Giordano Bruno, Italian religious reformer (burned at the stake) (b. 1548)
• 1673 - Molière, French playwright (b. 1622)
• 1680 - Jan Swammerdam, Dutch scientist (b. 1637)
• 1854 - John Martin, English painter
• 1856 - Heinrich Heine, German writer (b. 1797)
• 1883 - Napoleon Coste, French guitarist, composer (b. 1806)
• 1909 - Geronimo, Apache leader (b. 1829)
• 1919 - Wilfrid Laurier, seventh Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1841)
• 1934 - King Albert I of Belgium (b. 1875)
• 1943 - Armand J. Piron, jazz musician (b. 1888)
• 1962 - Bruno Walter, German conductor (b. 1876)
• 1962 - Joseph Kearns, American actor
• 1970 - Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Israeli writer (b. 1888)
• 1982 - Thelonious Monk, jazz pianist (b. 1917)
• 1982 - Lee Strasberg, acting teacher, actor
• 1994 - Randy Shilts, author, AIDS activist
• 1998 - Ernst Jünger, militaristic German author (b. 1895)
• 2001 - Khalid Abdul Muhammed, Nation of Islam spokesman
• 2004 - José López Portillo, former president of Mexico (b. 1920)
• 2005 - Dan O'Herlihy, Irish film actor (b. 1919)
• 2005 - Nicephore Soglo, former President of Benin

Holidays and observances Edit

• Roman Empire - Quirinalia in honor of Quirinus
• Ancient Latvia - Tanis Diena observed
• United States of America - Presidents Day

External links Edit

• BBC: On This Day
• Today in History: February 17

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

Template:Months

This page uses content from the English-language version of Wikipedia. The original article was at February 17. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with this Haiti Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.