February 17
is the 48th day of the year in the
Gregorian calendar. There are 317 days remaining (318 in
leap years).
*
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.
*
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)
*
1885 -
Steve Evans, baseball player (d.
1943)
*
1887 -
Leevi Madetoja, Finnish composer (d.
1947)
*
1888 -
Otto Stern, German physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1969)
*
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
* 1930 -
Roger Craig, baseball player
*
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
*
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
*
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)
*
1874 -
Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet, Belgian mathematician (b.
1796)
*
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)
*
Roman Empire -
Quirinalia in honor of
Quirinus.
*Ancient
Latvia -
Tanis Diena observed.
*
Random Acts of Kindness Day.
Liturgical feasts
*
Saint Seven Founders of the Servites*
Saint Alexis Falconieri (d. 1310)
*
Saint Evermodus*
Saint Silvinus*
BBC: On This Day*
The New York Times: On This Day*
On This Day in CanadaFebruary 16 -
February 18 -
January 17 -
March 17 --
listing of all days
