October 17: Encyclopedia - October 17

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.

October 17 - Events

• 538 BC - King Cyrus The Great of Persia marches 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 are defeated by Khwarezmians & Egyptians
• 1346 - Battle of Neville's Cross: King David II of Scotland is captured by Edward III of England at Calais, and imprisoned in the Tower of London for eleven years
• 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 sells 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 The Open Championship (referred to in North America as the British 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.
• 1965 - The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair closes after a two year run. More than 51 million people had attended the two-year event.
• 1961 - Approximately 200 Algerian protesters (some claim up to 400) 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.
• 1989 - Loma Prieta earthquake (7.1 on the Richter scale) hits the San Francisco Bay Area.
• 1992 - The United Nations General Assembly declares October 17 as the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, to be observed beginning in 1993. Resolution 47/196 of 22 December 1992.
• 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.
• 2003 - Eunuchs in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh float the political party Jiti Jitayi Politics.
• 2005 - Peter Mayhew, better known in his film role as Chewbacca becomes an official U.S. citizen.
• 2005 - The Chicago White Sox clinch their first American League pennant since 1959, and their first World Series appearance, also since 1959.
• 2005 - Helicopters and warplanes bombed two villages near Ramadi in western Iraq, killing about 70 people, the US military says.

October 17 - Births

• 1253 - Ivo of Kermartin, French saint (d. 1303)
• 1563 - Jodocus Hondius, Flemish cartographer (d. 1611)
• 1577 - Cristofano Allori, Italian painter (d. 1621)
• 1582 - Johann Gerhard, German Lutheran leader (d. 1637)
• 1623 - Francis Turretin, Swiss theologian (d. 1687)
• 1688 - Domenico Zipoli, Italian composer (d. 1726)
• 1711 - Jupiter Hammon, American writer
• 1719 - Jacques Cazotte, French writer (d. 1792)
• 1813 - Georg Büchner, German playwright (d. 1837)
• 1864 - Elinor Glyn, British writer (d. 1943)
• 1865 - James Rudolph Garfield, American politician (d. 1950)
• 1886 - Spring Byington, American actress (died 1971)
• 1889 - Nikolai Chernyshevsky, Russian philosopher (b. 1828)
• 1890 - Roy Kilner, English cricketer (d. 1928)
• 1898 - Shinichi Suzuki, Japanese violin teacher (d. 1998)
• 1898 - Simon Vestdijk, Dutch writer (d. 1971)
• 1900 - Jean Arthur, American actress (d. 1991)
• 1902 - Irene Ryan, American actress (d. 1973)
• 1903 - Nathanael West, American writer (d. 1940)
• 1912 - Pope John Paul I (d. 1978)
• 1914 - Jerry Siegel, American cartoonist (d. 1998)
• 1915 - Arthur Miller, American playwright (d. 2005)
• 1918 - Rita Hayworth, American actress (d. 1987)
• 1919 - Isaak Markovich Khalatnikov, Russian physicist
• 1920 - Montgomery Clift, American actor (d. 1966)
• 1921 - Tom Poston, American actor and comedian
• 1930 - Robert Atkins, American nutritionist (d. 2003)
• 1930 - Jimmy Breslin, American writer
• 1936 - Hiroo Kanamori, Japanese seismologist
• 1938 - Evel Knievel, American daredevil
• 1940 - Peter Stringfellow, British nightclub owner
• 1942 - Gary Puckett, American musician
• 1946 - Sir Cameron Mackintosh, British stage producer and director
• 1946 - Adam Michnik, Polish activist
• 1946 - Bob Seagren, American athlete and actor
• 1947 - Gene Green, American politician
• 1947 - Michael McKean, American actor and comedian
• 1948 - Margot Kidder, Canadian actress
• 1948 - George Wendt, American actor
• 1950 - Howard Rollins, American actor (d. 1996)
• 1956 - Mae Jemison, astronaut
• 1957 - Steve McMichael, American football player and professional wrestler
• 1958 - Alan Jackson, American singer and songwriter
• 1962 - Mike Judge, Ecuadoran-born cartoonist and writer
• 1963 - Norm MacDonald, Canadian comedian and actor
• 1968 - Ziggy Marley, Jamaican musician
• 1969 - Ernie Els, South African golfer
• 1970 - Anil Kumble, Indian cricketer
• 1971 - Chris Kirkpatrick, American singer
• 1972 - Eminem, American rapper
• 1972 - Wyclef Jean, Haitian-born singer
• 1974 - John Rocker, baseball player
• 1979 - Kimi Räikkönen, Finnish race car driver

October 17 - Deaths

• 532 - Pope Boniface II
• 1174 - Queen Petronila of Aragon (b. 1135)
• 1586 - Philip Sidney, English courtier, soldier, and writer (killed in battle) (b. 1554)
• 1660 - Adrian Scrope, English regicide (b. 1601)
• 1673 - Thomas Clifford, 1st Baron Clifford of Chudleigh, English statesman (b. 1630)
• 1757 - René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur, French scientist (b. 1683)
• 1776 - Pierre François le Courayer, French theologian (b. 1681)
• 1780 - William Cookworthy, English chemist (b. 1705)
• 1786 - Johann Ludwig Aberli, Swiss artist (b. 1723)
• 1806 - Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Haitian independence leader (b. 1758)
• 1849 - Frederic Chopin, Polish-French musician and composer (b. 1810)
• 1887 - Gustav Kirchhoff, German physicist (b. 1824)
• 1910 - Julia Ward Howe, American composer and abolitionist (b. 1819)
• 1931 - Alfons Maria Jakob, German neurologist (b. 1884)
• 1934 - Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Spanish histologist and neuroscientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine ( b. 1852)
• 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, Austrian writer (b. 1926)
• 1979 - S. J. Perelman, American writer (b. 1904)
• 1984 - Henri Michaux, French painter and poet (b. 1899)
• 1991 - Tennessee Ernie Ford, American singer and television performer (b. 1919)
• 2001 - Rehavam Zeevi, Israeli politician (b. 1926)
• 2002 - Derek Bell, Irish harpist (The Chieftans)
• 2005 - Ba Jin, Chinese writer (b. 1904)

October 17 - Holidays and observances

• R.C. Saints - Saint Ignatius of Antioch; translation of Saint Audrey (Æthelthryth)
• Haiti - Death of Jean-Jacques Dessalines (1806), State holiday
• United States - Black Poetry Day
• UN International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "October 17", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki