This Day in History for 17th May
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Historical Events
Results 1 - 100 of 210
218 - 7th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet
352 - Liberius begins his reign as Catholic Pope replacing Julius I
884 - St Adrian III begins his reign as Catholic Pope
1521 - Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, is executed for treason.
1525 - Battle at Zabern: duke of Lutherans beats rebels
1527 - Pánfilo de Narváez departs to explore Florida
1536 - Anne Boleyns 4 "lovers" executed
1544 - Scot earl Matthew van Lennox signs secret treaty with Henry VIII
1579 - Artois/Henegouwen/French-Flanders sign Treaty/Peace of Parma recognizing Spanish duke van Parma as land guardian
1590 - Anne of Denmark is crowned Queen of Scotland.
1620 - 1st merry-go-round seen at a fair (Philippapolis, Turkey)
1630 - Italian Jesuit Niccolo Zucchi, 1st to see 2 belts on Jupiter surface
1631 - Earl Johann Tilly attacks Maagdenburg
1648 - Emperor Ferdinand III defeats Maximilian I of Bavaria
1672 - Frontenac becomes governor of New France (Canada)
1673 - Louis Joliet & Jacques Marquette begin exploring Mississippi
1678 - King Charles II & Louis XIV sign secret treaty
1712 - Maximilian Emanuel of Bavaria honored as "sovereign of Netherlands"
1733 - England passes Molasses Act, putting high tariffs on rum & molasses imported to the colonies from a country other than British possessions
1742 - Frederick great (Emperor of Prussia) beats Austrians
1744 - French army takes Austrian Netherlands
1750 - -18] Tax revolt in Gorinchem
1756 - Britain declares war on France (7 Years' or French & Indian War)
1775 - American Revolutionary War: the Continental Congress bans trade with Canada.
1787 - English slave ship Sisters, from Africa to Cuba, capsizes
1792 - 24 merchants form NY Stock Exchange at 70 Wall Street
1794 - Hard frost in southern New England
1803 - John Hawkins & Richard French patent the Reaping Machine
1804 - Lewis & Clark begin exploration of Louisiana Purchase
1809 - Papal States annexed by France
1814 - Denmark cedes Norway to Sweden (Natl Day)
1814 - Norwegian constitution passed by constitutent assembly at Eidsvoll
1814 - Occupation of Monaco changes from French to Austrian.
1837 - Royal Decides installs the Weapon of Belgium firm(ly)
1845 - Rubber band patents
1846 - Saxophone is patents by Antoine Joseph Sax
1848 - Premier earl Schimmelpenninck resigns
1849 - Fire destroy Centrum in St Louis Missouri
1853 - Thorbeckes liberals win 2nd-Parliamentary election
1860 - German football club TSV 1860 München is founded
1862 - Battle of Princeton WV, ends, about 128 casualities
1863 - Battle of Big Black River Bridge, MS
1863 - Rosalía de Castro publishes Cantares Gallegos, her first book in the Galician language.
1864 - Battle of Adairsville Georgia, Union forces Confederates to retreat
1865 - The International Telegraph Union (later the International Telecommunication Union) is established.
1871 - Indians fighter Gen Sherman escapes in ambulance vs Comanches
1872 - Bohemian Club incorporated
1875 - 1st Kentucky Derby: Oliver Lewis aboard Aristides wins in 2:37.75
1876 - 7th US Cavalry under Custer leaves Ft Lincoln
1877 - Edwin T Holmes installs 1st telephone switchboard burglar alarm
1881 - 7th Kentucky Derby: Jim McLaughlin aboard Hindoo wins in 2:40
1881 - Frederick Douglass appointed recorder of deeds for Wash DC
1881 - Revised version of New Testament
1883 - Buffalo Bill Cody's 1st wild west show premieres in Omaha
1884 - Alaska becomes a US territory
1890 - Clyde Fitch's "Beau Brummel," premieres in NYC
1890 - Comic Cuts, 1st weekly comic paper, published in London
1890 - Pietro Costanzi's opera "Rustic Chivalry," premieres in Rome
1894 - 19th Preakness: Fred Taral aboard Assignee wins in 1:49.25
1895 - W G Grace completes his 100th 100 v Somerset at Bristol
1898 - Camp Merritt forms in Presidio [see 0503]
1899 - Victoria & Albert Museum foundation laid England
1900 - British troops relieve Mafeking (Cape Colony)
1902 - Greek archaeologist Valerios Stais discovers the Antikythera mechanism, an ancient mechanical analog computer.
1903 - Cleve Indians beat NY Highlanders 9-2 in Columbus Ohio
1904 - Maurice Ravel's "Shéhérazade," premieres in Paris
1905 - Waseda U of Tokyo defeats LA High School 5-3 in baseball
1906 - Switzerland's Simpion Tunnel open to rail traffic
1909 - White firemen on Georgia RR strike to protest hiring blacks
1910 - Canada sets the designs for the 1-50 cent coins
1911 - 36th Preakness: Eddie Dugan aboard Watervale wins in 1:51
1915 - 40th Preakness: Douglas Hoffman aboard Rhine Maiden wins in 1:58
1915 - Cubs George "Zip" Zabel relieves with 2 outs in 1st & winds up with 4-3 19-inning win over Brooklyn in longest relief job ever
1915 - Last liberal British govt of Asquith falls
1915 - National Baptist Convention chartered
1916 - British Summer Time (Daylight Savings), 1st introduced
1919 - War Department (UK) orders use of National Star Insignia on all airplanes.
1920 - 1st De Havilland double-decker flight (London) lands in Schiphol
1920 - 1st flight by Dutch airlines KLM (Koninklijke-Luchtvaart-Maatschappij)
1921 - Belgian-Luxembourg sign customs union
1921 - President Harding opens (via telephone) 1st Valencia Orange Show
1923 - Fire during closing day ceremonies at Grover Cleveland School (SC)
1924 - 50th Kentucky Derby: John Mooney aboard Black Gold wins in 2:05.2
1925 - Cleveland Indian Tris Speaker gets his 3,000th hit
1926 - Chiang Kai-shek is made supreme war lord in Canton
1926 - German govt of Marx takes power
1927 - Chicago Cubs beat Boston Braves, 4-3, in 22 innings
1927 - U.S. Army aviation pioneer, Major Harold Geiger, dies in the crash of his Airco DH.4 de Havilland plane at Olmstead Field, Pennsylvania
1928 - 9th modern Olympic games opens in Amsterdam
1930 - 56th Kentucky Derby: Earl Sande aboard Gallant Fox wins in 2:07.6
1932 - Congress changes name "Porto Rico" to "Puerto Rico"
1933 - Vidkun Quisling and Johan Bernhard Hjort form Nasjonal Samling — the national-socialist party of Norway.
1937 - Juan Negrin succeeds Largo Caballero as Spain's premier
1938 - Congress approves Vinson Naval Act, which funds a two-ocean navy
1938 - Radio quiz show "Information Please!" debuts on NBC Blue Network
1939 - 1st sports telecast-Columbia vs Princeton-college baseball
1940 - Germany occupies Brussels, Belgium & begins invasion of France
1940 - Nazi's bombs Middelburg/B IJzerdrat begins illegal defiance
1941 - Pennsylvania declares legal holiday to honor A's manager Connie Mack
1942 - Dutch SS vows loyalty to Hitler
Famous Birthdays
Results 1 - 100 of 254
1155 - Jien, Japanese poet and historian (d. 1225)
1443 - Edmund, Earl of Rutland, brother of Kings Edward IV of England and Richard III of England
1444 - Sandro Botticelli, Italian painter (Birth of Venus)
1451 - Engelbert II, earl of Nassau-Dillenburg-Dietz/viceroy of Luxembourg
1490 - Albrecht von Hohenzollern, 1st duke of Prussia
1551 - Martinus A del Rio, Spanish/South Neth lawyer/historian/theologist
1551 - Martin Delrio, Flemish theologian and occultist (d. 1601)
1568 - Christoph Thomas Walliser, composer
1576 - Ferdinand van Apshoven, the Older, Flemish painter, baptized
1628 - Archduke Ferdinand Charles of Austria, Regent of the Tyrol (d. 1662)
1682 - Bartholomew Roberts, Welsh pirate (d. 1722)
1691 - Antoine Court, French reformed theologist
1706 - Andreas Felix von Oefele, German historian and librarian (d. 1780)
1718 - Robert Darcy, 4th Earl of Holderness, English diplomat and politician (d. 1778)
1732 - Francesco Pasquale Ricci, composer
1741 - John Penn, US attorney (signed Declaration of Independence) [OS=May 6]
1743 - Seth Warner, American revolutionary leader (d. 1784)
1749 - Edward Jenner, England, physician, discovered vaccination
1758 - John St Aubyn, British fossil collector (d. 1839)
1768 - Caroline, Brunswick, Queen Consort of King George IV
1768 - Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey, English general (d. 1854)
1794 - Anna Brownell Jameson, Dublin, writer
1796 - Martinus J Niewindt, bishop of Curacao (christen slaves)
1800 - Carl Friedrich Zollner, composer
1803 - Robert Smith Surtees, novelist
1804 - Ottho G Heldring, Dutch vicar/reformer (Heldring Institutions)
1808 - Charles-Louis-Adolphe Vogel, composer
1812 - Joseph Warren Revere, Brig General (Union volunteers), died in 1880
1819 - Johann Nepomuk Kafka, composer
1821 - Sebastian Kneipp, German naturopathist (d. 1897)
1823 - Charlotte Helen Sainton-Dolby, contralto/composer
1836 - Joseph Norman Lockyer, discoverer (Helium)/founder (Nature magazine)
1836 - Virginie Loveling, Belgian writer and poet (d. 1923)
1844 - Julius Wellhausen, German biblical scholar (d. 1918)
1846 - Edmund Bishop, English secretary of Thomas Carlyle
1850 - Antonio Scontrino, composer
1867 - Gerrit Mannoury, Dutch mathematician/philosopher
1868 - Horace Elgin Dodge, American automobile manufacturer (d. 1920)
1871 - Henricus P Bremmer, art historian (Modern Kunstwerken)
1873 - Dorothy Miller Richardson, Abingdon Berkshire, novelist
1873 - Henri Barbusse, Asnieres France, novelist (Le Feu)
1876 - Alban Collignon, Belgian sport journalist
1879 - Simon Petlyura, Ukrainian independence fighter (d. 1926)
1886 - Alfonso XIII of Spain (d. 1941)
1888 - A P "Tich" Freeman, cricket leg-spinner (legend for Kent & England)
1888 - Selmer Jackson, Iowa, actor (Life & Legend of Wyatt Earp)
1889 - Alfonso Reyes, Mexican poet/historian/diplomat (Higenia Cruel)
1890 - Philip James, composer
1891 - Princess Alexandra, Duchess of Fife (d. 1959)
1896 - Brazilio da Cunha Luz Itibere, composer
1896 - Hannah Tillich, writer
1897 - Odd Hassel, Norwegian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1981)
1898 - Alfred Joseph Casson, Canadian painter (d. 1992)
1899 - Ralf Harolde, Pittsburgh PA, actor (Framed, Smart Money, Tip-off)
1900 - Nicolai Berezowsky, composer
1900 - Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran's ayatollah (1979-89)
1901 - Werner Egk, Auchsesheim Germany, composer (Die Zaubergeige)
1902 - John Vincent, composer
1903 - Douglas Packard, British Lt General
1903 - Cool Papa Bell, baseball player (d. 1991)
1904 - Jean Gabin, French actor (d. 1976)
1905 - John Patrick, screenwriter
1906 - Eric Mensforth, president (Westland Aircraft)
1906 - Zinka Milanov, Croatian soprano (d. 1989)
1907 - Charles Cawley, British chief scientist/minister of power
1907 - Horace McMahon, South Norwalk Ct, actor (Martin Kane Private Eye)
1907 - Ilona Schacherer Elek, Budapest Hung, fencer (Olympic-gold-1936, 48)
1908 - Sigismund Toduta, composer
1908 - Zinka Milanov, Zagreb Yugoslavia, soprano (Ljublama Opera 1927)
1909 - Edward Playfair, British senior civil servant
1909 - Magda Schneider, actress (Eva, Going Gay, Be Mine Tonight)
1911 - Knut Anders Haukfield, SOE Operative
1911 - Maureen O'Sullivan, Boyle Ireland, actress (Tarzan, Pride & Prejudice)
1911 - Lisa Fonssagrives, Swedish-born supermodel (d. 1992)
1912 - Archibald Cox, special prosecutor (Watergate)
1912 - Clarence "Ace" Parker, NFL QB (Brooklyn, Boston Yanks)
1912 - Sandor Vegh, violinist teacher conductor
1913 - Alec Ogilvie, CEO (Powell Duffryn)
1913 - Lord Hirshfield, chartered accountant
1913 - Hans Ruesch, Swiss racing driver (d. 2007)
1914 - Guido Masanetz, composer
1915 - Joseph D Craggs, electrical engineer
1916 - Cornelis A Eman, Aruban politician
1916 - John Hinde, photographer/circus promoter
1918 - Birgit Nilsson, Karup Sweden, operatic soprano (Elektra, Salome)
1919 - Antonio Aguilar, Mexican singer and actor (d. 2007)
1919 - Merle Miller, American biographer (d. 1986)
1920 - Harriet Van Horne, Syracuse NY, columnist/panelist (Leave it to Girls)
1920 - Lydia Wideman, Finland, 10K cross country skier (Olympic-gold-1952)
1921 - Dennis Brain, London England, french-hornist (Serenade)
1921 - John Garlick, British senior civil servant
1921 - Bob Merrill, American composer and lyricist (d. 1998)
1923 - Michael Beetham, Marshal (RAF)
1923 - Miles Wingate, deputy master (Trinity House)
1923 - Peter Mennin[i], Erie Pennsylvania, composer (Moby Dick)
1924 - Frantisek Kovaricek, composer
1924 - Lord Tombs, CEO (Rolls Royce)
1924 - Thomas Baird, vice-admiral
1926 - Cicely Berry, voice director (Royal Shakespeare Company)
1926 - David Young, Lt-Gen/CEO (Cairn Tech)
Famous Deaths
Results 1 - 100 of 116
1050 - Guido van Arezzo, Italian music theorist, dies
1189 - Minamoto no Yoshitsune, Japanese general (b. 1159)
1336 - Emperor Go-Fushimi of Japan (b. 1288)
1365 - Louis VI the Roman, Duke of Bavaria and Elector of Brandenburg (b. 1328)
1395 - Constantine Dragas, Serbian ruler of a semi-independent realm
1464 - Thomas de Ros, 10th Baron de Ros, English politician (executed) (b. 1427)
1510 - Alessandro di Botticelli, painter (Birth of Venus), dies at about 65
1510 - Sandro Botticelli, [Alessandro di Mariano del Filpepi], painter, dies
1521 - Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, English politician (b. 1478)
1575 - Matthew Parker, archbishop of Canterbury (1559-75), dies at 68
1591 - Jost/Jobst/Jodocus Amman, Swiss cartoonist/graphic artist, dies at 51
1606 - Forges Dimitri #1, czar of Russia (1605-06), murdered
1626 - Juan Pujol, Catalan composer (b. 1570)
1695 - Cornelis de Heem, painter, dies
1727 - Catherine I, Empress of Russia (1725-27), dies
1729 - Samuel Clarke, theologian, dies
1765 - Alexis Claude Clairault, French mathematician (b. 1713)
1796 - Jacob Wilhelm Lustig, composer, dies at 89
1797 - Michel-Jean Sedaine, French dramatist (b. 1719)
1801 - William Heberden, English physician (b. 1710)
1807 - John Gunby, Maryland Soldier in the American Revolutionary War (b. 1745)
1809 - Leopold Auenbrugger von Auenbrugg, physician, dies
1822 - Armand-Emmanuel du Plessis, Duc de Richelieu, French-Russian statesman (b. 1766)
1829 - John Jay, first Chief Justice of the United States (b. 1745)
1838 - Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, French diplomat (b. 1754)
1838 - René Caillé, French explorer (b. 1799)
1839 - Archibald Alison, Scottish author (b. 1757)
1840 - Niccolo Paganini, composer, dies at 57
1851 - Jean E "Adrian" van Bevervoorde, journalist (Treason), dies at 31
1864 - N Hawthorne, writer, dies at 59
1866 - Adolf Bernhard Marx, composer, dies at 70
1868 - Isami Kondo, Shinsengumi Commander (b. 1834)
1872 - Fryderyk Edward Sobolewski, composer, dies at 63
1875 - John C. Breckinridge, Vice President of the United States (b. 1821)
1879 - Asa Packer, railroad magnate and founder of Lehigh Valley Railroad (b. 1805)
1883 - Lydia Estes Pinklham, patent-medicine manufacturer, dies
1884 - Louis Brassin, composer, dies at 43
1886 - John Deere, American blacksmith and manufacturer (b. 1804)
1888 - Giacomo Zanella, Italian poet (b. 1820)
1889 - William Roxby Beverly, artist, dies
1892 - Gyorgy Klapka, Hungarian general/parliament leader, dies at 72
1914 - Peter Leyten, bishop of Breda (1885-1914), dies at 79
1916 - Gervais Bernard Gaston Salvayre, composer, dies at 68
1916 - Boris Borisovich Galitzine, Russian physicist (b. 1862)
1917 - Charles Anthoni Johnson Brooke, ruler of Sarawak (b. 1829)
1919 - Bohumil Pazdirek, composer, dies at 80
1919 - Guido von List, German occult author (b. 1848)
1920 - Maitland Hathorn, cricketer (325 runs in 12 Tests S Afr 1901-11), dies
1926 - Lucien Herr, French leader (Correspondance entre Schiller), dies
1927 - Harold Geiger, U.S. Army aviation pioneer (b. 1884)
1930 - Herbert David Croly, US founder (New Republic), dies at 61
1931 - Johan [Eliza J] de Master, art critic/writer, dies
1931 - Timothy Cole, wood engraver, dies
1935 - Paul Dukas, French composer (b. 1865)
1936 - Panagis Tsaldaris, twice Greek prime minister (b. 1868)
1938 - Jakob Ehrlich, Austrian politician and zionist (b. 1877)
1943 - Montagu Love, actor (Wind), dies at 65
1945 - Jan van Geenen, resistance fighter, dies
1945 - Sasaki Shigetsu Sokei-an, founder 1st Zen Institute of America, dies
1947 - George William Forbes, Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1869)
1950 - Eduardo Fabini, composer, dies at 67
1951 - Karl Heinrich David, composer, dies at 66
1953 - Eric De Lamarter, composer, dies at 73
1955 - Alan Fairfax, cricketer (10 Tests for Australia 1928-31), dies
1955 - Francesco Balilla Pratella, composer, dies at 75
1955 - Leslie Hylton, cricketer (West Indies quickie 1939), hung for murder
1957 - Shalva Azmayparashvili, composer, dies at 54
1961 - French of Cauwelaert, Flemish minister/mayor of Antwerp, dies at 81
1961 - Henri Gagnon, composer, dies at 74
1963 - John Wilce, physician and former head football coach at the Ohio State University (b. 1888)
1964 - Otto V Kuusinen, pres of Karelo-Finnish soviet rep (1940-56), dies 82
1967 - John Wesley Work, composer, dies at 65
1967 - Nigel Martin Balchin, novelist, dies
1969 - Joseph Beran, Czech archbishop of Prague/cardinal, dies at 80
1970 - Nigel M Balchin, English author (My Executioner), dies at 61
1973 - Alexander J Kropholler, Dutch architect/writer, dies at 91
1974 - Charles Braswell, actor (Only Game in Town), dies at 49
1974 - Ernest Nash, German born archaeologist (b. 1898)
1978 - John Selwyn Brooke Selwyn Lloyd, speaker of house of commons, dies
1981 - Hugo Freidhofer, composer, dies at 80
1981 - Jeannette Ridlon Piccard, 1st US woman free balloon pilot, dies
1985 - Bobby Ewing, (Patrick Duffy) killed off on Dallas
1985 - Hugh Burden, actor (Night of Laughing Dead), dies at 72
1985 - Abe Burrows, songwriter, composer, and writer (b. 1910)
1987 - Gunnar Myrdal, Sweden, economist (Nobel 1974), dies at 88
1989 - Robert Webber, actor (Nuts, Assassin, 10), dies at 74
1992 - George Hurrell, Hollywood photographer, dies of cancer at 87
1992 - Lawrence Welk, conductor/accordionist (Lawrence Welk Show), dies at 89
1992 - Leonardo del Ferro, [Keyser], US epic tenor, dies
1992 - Warren Neal Boxer, dies of AIDS at 34
1994 - Alain Cuny, [René X Marie], French actor (La Dolce Vita), dies at 85
1994 - Andrew Brown, film Producer, dies at 55
1994 - Donald Keith Falkner, singer, dies at 94
1994 - Willian Noel Moffat, architect, dies at 82
1995 - Nathan "Dambuza" Mdledle, singer, dies at 72
1996 - Rusi Modi, cricketer (736 runs 10 post-war Tests for India), dies
1996 - Scott Evans Brayton, racing car driver, dies at 37
1996 - Willi Daume, olympic organiser, dies at 82
1996 - Willis Conover, broadcaster, dies at 75
1996 - Kevin Gilbert, American singer, composer and instrumentalist (b. 1966)

