February 17

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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Events

• 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

• 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)
• 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

• 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

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

External links

• BBC: On This Day

February 16 – February 18 – January 17 – March 17 — listing of all days