From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
September 17 is the 260th day of the year (261st in leap years). There are 105 days remaining.
[edit] 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.
- 1778 - Treaty of Fort Pitt signed, the first formal treaty between the United States and a Native American tribe (the Lenape or Delaware).
- 1787 - The United States Constitution is signed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
- 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 single-day Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest day in American history.
- 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 - The Wright Flyer flown by Orville Wright, with Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge as passenger, crashes; killing Selfridge. He 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 Defensive War of 1939.
- 1941 - A decree of the Soviet State Committee of Defense, restoring Vsevobuch in the face of the Great Patriotic War, was issued
- 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 known 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.
- 1956 - Television was first broadcast in Australia.
- 1967 - Jim Morrison and The Doors defy CBS censors on The Ed Sullivan Show.
- 1970 - Fighting breaks out along the Syria-Jordanian border between Jordanian troops and the fedayeen.
- 1972 - The first episode of M*A*S*H premieres on CBS.
- 1976 - The first Space Shuttle, Enterprise, was unveiled by NASA. In keeping with its namesake, the cast of Star Trek came to see Enterprise's unveiling.
- 1978 - The Camp David Accords were signed by Israel and Egypt.
- 1983 - Vanessa Williams becomes the first black 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.
- 1993 - Last Russian troops leave Poland.
- 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 - Barry Bonds becomes only the third player in Major League Baseball history to reach 700 career home runs.
- 2004 - Tamil is declared first classical language in India.
- 2006 - The WB Television Network went off-the-air after eleven and a half years. The CW Television Network launched the following day.
[edit] 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)
- 1688 - Maria Luisa of Savoy, first queen of Philip V of Spain (d. 1714)
- 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)
- 1820 - Émile Augier, French dramatist (d. 1889)
- 1826 - Bernhard Riemann, German mathematician (d. 1866)
- 1854 - David Dunbar Buick, American automobile pioneer (d.1929)
- 1857 - Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Russian rocket scientist (d. 1935)
- 1860 - Billy the Kid (d. 1881)
- 1869 - Christian Lous Lange, Norwegian Nobel Peace Prize recipient (d. 1938)
- 1879 - Rube Foster, American baseball player, manager and executive (d. 1930)
- 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 (d. 1972)
- 1897 - Earl Webb, baseball player (d. 1965)
- 1900 - John Willard Marriott, American hotelier (d. 1985)
- 1900 - Hughie Critz, baseball player (d. 1980)
- 1901 - Francis Chichester, English adventurer (d. 1972)
- 1903 - Karel Miljon, Dutch boxer (d. 1984)
- 1903 - Frank O'Connor, Irish-American short-story writer (d. 1966)
- 1906 - Edgar Wayburn, American environmentalist
- 1907 - Warren Burger, 15th Chief Justice of the United States (d. 1995)
- 1912 - Irena Kwiatkowska, Polish actress and comedian
- 1918 - Chaim Herzog, President of Israel (d. 1997)
- 1922 - Agostinho Neto, Angolan politician (d. 1979)
- 1923 - Hank Williams, American musician (d. 1953)
- 1926 - Bill Black, American musician (d. 1965)
- 1927 - George Blanda, American football player
- 1928 - Roddy McDowall, English actor (d. 1998)
- 1929 - Sir Stirling Moss, English race car driver
- 1929 - Pat Crowley, American actress
- 1930 - Edgar Mitchell, American astronaut
- 1930 - Thomas Stafford, American astronaut
- 1931 - Anne Bancroft, American actress (d. 2005)
- 1933 - Dorothy Loudon, American actress (d. 2003)
- 1933 - Claude Provost, National Hockey League player (d. 1984)
- 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 - Shelby Flint, American singer
- 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
- 1945 - David Emerson, Canadian politician
- 1945 - Phil Jackson, NBA coach
- 1945 - Bruce Spence, New Zealand actor
- 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)
- 1949 - Cassandra Peterson, American actress
- 1950 - Narendra Modi, Indian politician
- 1953 - Altaf Hussain, Pakistani politician and founder of MQM
- 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
- 1963 - Masahiro Chono, Japanese professional wrestler
- 1963 - Michael Adler, American businessman
- 1963 - Rami Saari, Israeli poet and translator
- 1965 - Bryan Singer, American director
- 1965 - Yuji Naka, Japanese video game programmer
- 1966 - Doug E. Fresh, American rapper, record producer, and beatboxer
- 1967 - Malik Yoba, American actor
- 1968 - Anastacia, American singer
- 1969 - Ken Doherty, Irish snooker player
- 1971 - Adriana Sklenaříková, Slovak supermodel
- 1973 - Demis Nikolaidis, Greek footballer
- 1974 - Rasheed Wallace, American basketball player
- 1974 - Mirah, American musician
- 1974 - Tormod Granheim, Norwegian adventurer
- 1975 - Jimmie Johnson, American race car driver
- 1975 - Austin St. John, American actor
- 1975 - Constantine Maroulis, American singer
- 1976 - Daniella Rush, Czech pornographic actress
- 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)
- 1980 - Danny Haren, baseball player
- 1981 - Bakari Koné, Ivory Coast footballer
- 1983 - Jennifer Peña, American singer
- 1984 - Eugenia Volodina, Russian supermodel
- 1985 - Alexander Ovechkin, Russian hockey player
- 1985 - Jon Walker, American musician (Panic! at the Disco)
- 1986 - Dimitrios Regas, Greek sprinter
- 1990 - Pixie Geldof, daughter of Bob Geldof
- 1991 - Jordan McCoy, American entertainer
- 1994 - Taylor Ware, American yodeler
[edit] 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 - Philip IV of Spain (b. 1605)
- 1679 - John of Austria the Younger, Spanish general (b. 1629)
- 1727 - Glückel of Hameln, German businesswoman (b. 1647)
- 1762 - Francesco Geminiani, Italian violinist (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 Annie Rout, New Zealand activist (b. 1877)
- 1938 - Bruno Jasieński, Polish poet (b. 1901)
- 1951 - Jimmy Yancey, American pianist (b. 1898)
- 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)
- 1982 - Manos Loïzos, Greek composer (b. 1937)
- 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 TV personality (b. 1960)
- 2003 - Erich Hallhuber, German actor (b. 1951)
- 2005 - Alfred Reed, American composer (b. 1921)
- 2006 - Patricia Kennedy Lawford, American socialite (b. 1924)
[edit] Holidays and observances
[edit] External links
