June 17
is the 168th day of the year in the
Gregorian calendar (169th in
leap years), with 197 days remaining.
*
1462 -
Vlad III Dracula attempts to assassinate
Mehmed II in the
Night Attack, and the latter is forced to retreat from
Wallachia.
*
1497 -
Battle of Deptford Bridge - Forces under King
Henry VII soundly defeat troops led by
Michael An Gof.
*
1565 -
Matsunaga Hisahide assassinates the 13th
Ashikaga Shogun,
Ashikaga Yoshiteru.
*
1579 -
Sir Francis Drake claims a land he calls
Nova Albion (modern
California) for
England.
*
1631 -
Mumtaz Mahal died during
childbirth. Her husband,
Mughal emperor Shah Jahan I, then spent more than 20 years to build her
tomb, the
Taj Mahal.
*
1775 -
American Revolutionary War:
Battle of Bunker Hill - The battle actually takes place on
Breed's hill by mistake.
British forces take
Breed's Hill outside of
Boston with heavy casualties.
*
1789 - In
France, the
Third Estate declares itself as a
national assembly.
*
1839 - In the
Kingdom of Hawaii,
Kamehameha III issues the
Edict of Toleration which gives
Roman Catholics the freedom to worship in the
Hawaiian Islands. The
Hawaii Catholic Church and the
Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace is later established as a result.
*
1863 -
Battle of Aldie in the
Gettysburg Campaign of the
American Civil War.
*
1876 -
Indian Wars:
Battle of the Rosebud - 1,500
Sioux and
Cheyenne led by
Crazy Horse beat back
General George Crook forces at
Rosebud Creek in
Montana Territory.
*
1877 -
Indian Wars:
Battle of White Bird Canyon - The
Nez Perce defeat the US Cavalry at White Bird Canyon in the
Idaho Territory.
*
1885 - The
Statue of Liberty arrives in
New York Harbor.
*
1898 - The
US Navy Hospital Corps is established.
*
1930 -
U.S. President Herbert Hoover signs the
Smoot-Hawley Tariff into law.
*1930 -
Bonus Army: Around a thousand
World War I veterans amass at the
United States Capitol as the
U.S. Senate considers a bill that would give them certain benefits.
*
1933 -
Union Station Massacre: In
Kansas City, Missouri, four
FBI agents and captured fugitive
Frank Nash were gunned down by gangsters attempting to free Nash.
*
1939 - Last public guillotining in
France.
Eugen Weidmann, a convicted murderer, is guillotined in
Versailles outside the prison
Saint-Pierre.
*
1940 -
World War II:
Operation Ariel begins -
Allied troops start to evacuate
France, following
Germany's takeover of
Paris and most of the nation.
*1940 -
World War II: Sinking of the
RMS Lancastria by the
Luftwaffe near
Saint-Nazaire,
France.
*1940 - The three
Baltic states of
Estonia,
Latvia and
Lithuania fall under the occupation of the
Soviet Union.
*
1944 -
Iceland becomes independent from
Denmark and forms a
republic.
*
1948 - A
Douglas DC-6 carrying
United Airlines Flight 624 crashes near
Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania, killing all 43 people on board.
*
1953 -
Workers Uprising: In
East Germany, the
Soviet Union orders a division of troops into
East Berlin to quell a
rebellion.
*
1960 -
Ted Williams becomes the fourth member of the
500 home run club with a
home run at
Cleveland Stadium in
Cleveland, Ohio.
*
1961 - The
New Democratic Party of
Canada is founded with the merger of the
Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (
CCF) and the
Canadian Labour Congress.
*
1963 - The
United States Supreme Court ruled 8 to 1 in
Abington School District v. Schempp against allowing the reciting of
Bible verses and the
Lord's Prayer in
public schools.
*
1971 - Representatives of
Japan and the
United States sign the
Okinawa Reversion Agreement, setting out a plan where the
U.S. would return control of
Okinawa.
*
1972 -
Watergate scandal: Five
White House operatives are arrested for burglarizing the offices of the
Democratic National Committee, in an attempt by some members of the
Republican party to illegally
wiretap the opposition.
*
1982 - The body of "
God's Banker",
Roberto Calvi is found hanging beneath
Blackfriars Bridge in
London.
*
1987 - With the death of the last individual, the
Dusky Seaside Sparrow becomes extinct.
*
1991 -
Apartheid: The
South African
Parliament repeals the
Population Registration Act, which had required all racial classification of all
South Africans at birth.
*
1992 - A '
Joint Understanding' agreement on
arms reduction is signed by
U.S. President George H. W. Bush and
Russian
President Boris Yeltsin (this would be later codified in
START II).
*
1994 - Following a televised low-speed highway chase and a failed attempt at
suicide,
O.J. Simpson is arrested for the murders of his wife,
Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend
Ronald Goldman.
*
1995 - First
Pride march in
Scotland.
*
1239 - King
Edward I of England (d.
1307)
*
1603 -
Joseph of Cupertino, Italian saint (d.
1663)
*
1682 - King
Charles XII of Sweden (d.
1718)
*
1691 -
Giovanni Paolo Pannini, Italian painter and architect (d.
1765)
*
1693 -
Johann Georg Walch, German theologian (d.
1775)
*
1703 -
John Wesley, English founder of Methodism (d.
1791)
*
1704 -
John Kay, English inventor (d.
1780)
*
1714 -
Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten, German philosopher (d.
1762)
* 1714 -
César-François Cassini de Thury, French astronomer (d.
1784)
*
1718 -
George Howard, British field marshal (d.
1796)
*
1742 -
William Hooper, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (d.
1790)
*
1808 -
Henrik Wergeland, Norwegian author (d.
1845)
*
1810 -
Ferdinand Freiligrath, German writer (d.
1876)
*
1811 -
Jón Sigurðsson, Icelandic independence fighter (d.
1879)
*
1818 -
Charles Gounod, French composer (d.
1893)
*
1832 - Sir
William Crookes, English physicist and chemist (d.
1919)
*
1839 - Fr.
Arthur Tooth SSC, Anglican
Clergyman prosecuted for
ritualist activities (d.
1931)
*
1867 -
John Robert Gregg, inventor of
shorthand system (d.
1948)
*
1880 -
Carl Van Vechten, American writer and photographer (d.
1964)
*
1881 -
Tommy Burns, Canadian boxer (d.
1955)
*
1882 -
Igor Stravinsky, Russian composer (d.
1971)
*
1888 -
Heinz Guderian, German General (d.
1954)
*
1898 -
M.C. Escher, Dutch artist (d.
1972)
* 1898 -
Carl Hermann, German physicist (d.
1961)
*
1900 -
Martin Bormann, Nazi official (d.
1945)
*
1902 -
Sammy Fain, American popular music composer (d.
1989)
*
1904 -
Ralph Bellamy, American actor (d.
1991)
*
1907 -
Charles Eames, American designer and architect (d.
1978)
*
1909 -
Elmer Lee Andersen, Governor of Minnesota (d.
2004)
*
1910 -
Red Foley, American musician (d.
1968)
* 1910 -
George Hees, Canadian politician (d.
1996)
*
1914 -
John Hersey, American author (d.
1993)
*
1915 -
Karl Targownik, Hungarian psychiatrist (d.
1996)
* 1915 -
David "Stringbean" Akeman, American banjo player and actor (d.
1973)
*
1917 -
Atle Selberg, Norwegian mathematician
*
1920 -
François Jacob, French biologist, recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine*
1923 -
Elroy 'Crazylegs' Hirsch, American football player (d.
2004)
*
1927 -
Martin Böttcher, German conductor
*
1929 -
Tigran Petrosian, Georgian chess player (d.
1984)
*
1930 -
Brian Statham, English cricketer (d.
2000)
*
1933 -
Christian Ferras, French violinist (d.
1982)
* 1933 -
Harry Browne, American free-market libertarian writer, politician, and investment analyst (d.
2006)
*
1936 -
Ken Loach, British director
*
1940 -
George Akerlof, American economist,
Nobel Prize laureate
*
1942 -
Mohamed ElBaradei, Egyptian International Atomic Energy Agency director, recipient of the
Nobel Peace Prize*
1943 -
Newt Gingrich, American politician
*
1945 -
Tommy Franks, American General
* 1945 -
Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London
* 1945 -
Eddy Merckx, Belgian cyclist
* 1945 -
Frank Ashmore, American actor
*
1946 -
Peter Rosei, Austrian writer
* 1946 -
Barry Manilow, American musician
*
1948 -
Aurelio López, baseball player (d.
1992)
*
1957 -
Jon Gries, American actor
*
1957 -
Martin Dillon, American Opera Singer (d.
2005)
*
1958 -
Jello Biafra, American musician and activist
*
1960 -
Michael Monroe, Finnish singer (
Hanoi Rocks)
*
1963 -
Greg Kinnear, American actor
*
1964 -
Michael Gross, German swimmer
* 1964 -
Rinaldo Capello, Italian racing driver
*
1965 -
Dermontti Dawson, American football, center
*
1966 -
Jason Patric, American actor
*
1969 -
Paul Tergat, Kenyan athlete
*
1970 -
Jason Hanson, American football player
* 1970 -
Sasha Sokol, Mexican singer and actress
* 1970 -
Will Forte, American writer, actor and comedian
*
1971 -
Bif Naked, Canadian punk rock musician
* 1971 -
Paulina Rubio, Mexican singer
*
1975 -
Joshua Leonard, American actor
* 1975 -
Chloe Jones, American actor (d.
2005)
*
1977 -
Mark Tauscher,
National Football League player
* 1977 -
Branko Tomovic, Serbian actor
*
1978 -
Kumiko Aso, Japanese actress
*
1979 -
Nick Rimando, American soccer player
*
1980 -
Kimeru, Japanese singer
*
1980 -
Venus Williams, American tennis player
*
1982 -
Will Allen, American football player
*
1983 -
Lee Ryan, singer - formally of British boyband
Blue* 1983 -
Kazunari Ninomiya, Japanese singer and actor
*
1985 -
Marcos Baghdatis, Cypriot professional tennis player
*
1987 -
Nozomi Tsuji, Japanese singer (
W (Double You),
Morning Musume, and
MiniMoni)
* 1987 -
Anžej Dežan,
Slovene singer
*
1025 -
Bolesław I the Brave, first king of Poland
*
1091 -
Dirk V,
Count of Holland (b.
1052)
*
1463 - Princess
Catherine of Portugal, writer (b.
1436)
*
1565 -
Ashikaga Yoshiteru, Japanese shogun (b.
1536)
*
1694 -
Philip Cardinal Howard, English Catholic Cardinal (b.
1629)
*
1696 -
John III Sobieski, King of Poland (b.
1629)
*
1719 -
Joseph Addison, English politician and writer (b.
1672)
*
1734 -
Claude-Louis-Hector de Villars, Marshal of France (b.
1653)
*
1740 -
William Wyndham, English politician (b.
1687)
*
1762 -
Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon, French writer (b.
1674)
*
1775 - Major
John Pitcairn, British marine (killed in battle) (b.
1722)
*
1797 -
Agha Muhammad Khan, Shah of Persia (b.
1742)
*
1813 -
Charles Middleton, 1st Baron Barham, English sailor and politician (b.
1726)
*
1898 -
Edward Burne-Jones, English artist (b.
1833)
*
1904 -
Nikolai Ivanovich Bobrikov, Russian politician, Governor-General of Finland (assassinated) (b.
1839)
*
1940 -
Arthur Harden, English chemist,
Nobel Prize laureate (b.
1865)
*
1942 -
Charles Fitzpatrick, Canadian politician (b.
1853)
*
1952 -
Jack Parsons, American rocket-fuel pioneer and renegade occultist (b.
1914)
*
1956 -
Paul Rostock, German doctor (b.
1892)
* 1956 -
Bob Sweikert, American racing driver (b.
1926)
*
1957 -
Dorothy Richardson, English writer (b.
1873)
*
1961 -
Jeff Chandler, American actor (b.
1918)
*
1979 -
Duffy Lewis, baseball player (b.
1888)
*
1981 -
Richard O'Connor, British general (b.
1889)
*
1982 -
Roberto Calvi, Italian banker (b.
1920)
*
1986 -
Kate Smith, American singer (
God Bless America) (b.
1907)
*
1987 -
Dick Howser, baseball player and manager (b.
1936)
*
1996 -
Thomas Kuhn, American philosopher of science (b.
1922)
*
2001 -
Donald J. Cram, American chemist,
Nobel Prize laureate (b.
1919)
*
2002 -
Willie Davenport, American athlete (b.
1943)
* 2002 -
Fritz Walter, German footballer (b.
1920)
*
2004 -
Gerry McNeil, Canadian hockey player (b.
1926)
*
2005 -
Karl Mueller, American bassist (
Soul Asylum) (b.
1962)
*
2006 -
Cláudio Besserman Vianna, aka "Bussunda", Brazilian comedian (b.
1962)
*
Iceland's national day, celebrating independence from
Denmark in
1944.
*National holiday of
West Germany until
1990, see
Workers' Uprising of 1953 in East Germany.
Liturgical feasts
*
Saint Albert Chmielowski*
Saint Gondulf*
Saint Hervé patron of the blind
*
Saint Manuel*
Saint Rainier*
Saint Alena of Dilbeek (died 640)
*
BBC: On This Day*
Encyclopædia Britannica: This Day in HistoryJune 16 -
June 18 -
May 17 -
July 17 --
listing of all days
