On this day: 17 February
Events, births and deaths on 17 February. Every date is checked against Wikidata.
Years ago today
1 year ago2025
- Deaths ·
- Deaths · James Harrison
- Deaths · Paquita la del Barrio
10 years ago2016
- Deaths · Andrzej Żuławski
- Events · February 2016 Ankara bombing
- Deaths · Mohamed Hassanein Heikal
100 years ago1926
- Births · Friedrich Cerha
1000 years ago1026
Within 100 years of that
- 1028 · Births · Al-Juwayni
Events · 29
- 1370(Julian date)Battle of Rudau — 1370 battle
- 1500(Julian date)Battle of Hemmingstedt — battle between Kalmar Union forces and Dithmarschen peasant militiamen 17 February, 1500 in modern-day Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
- 16741674 Ambon earthquake and megatsunami — Earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia
- 1739Battle of Vasai — 1739 conflict between the Portuguese and Maratha Empires in India
- 1814Battle of Mormans — 1814 battle during the War of the Sixth Coalition
- 1838Weenen massacre — 1838 massacre of Voortrekkers by Zulu
- 1854Orange Free State — independent Boer sovereign republic in Southern Africa between 1854–1902
- 1863International Committee of the Red Cross — humanitarian institution based in Geneva, Switzerland, and a three-time Nobel Prize Laureate
- 1913Armory Show — 1913 International Exhibition of Modern Art
- 1944Battle of Eniwetok — 1944 World War II battle
- 1944Operation Hailstone — 1944 United States naval operation during World War II
- 1948Alwaziri coup — 1948 conflict in the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen
- 19591959 Turkish Airlines Gatwick crash — 1959 aviation accident
- 19641964 Gabon coup d'état — 1964 overthrow of Gabonese President Léon M'ba by the military
- 1966Aeroflot Flight 65 — aviation accident
- 19741974 White House helicopter incident — 1974 incident in which a US Army pilot landed a stolen helicopter on the White House's south lawn
- 1978La Mon restaurant bombing — bomb attack in Northern Ireland
- 1979Sino-Vietnamese War — war between the People's Republic of China and Socialist Republic of Vietnam in 1979
- 1991Ryan International Airlines Flight 590 — 1991 aviation accident
- 1992Capture of Garadaghly — action of the Nagorno-Karabakh War
- 19961996 Biak earthquake — deadly 1996 earthquake and tsunami in eastern Indonesia
- 20062006 Southern Leyte mudslide — major landslide (rockslide-debris avalanche)
- 2008Kosovo — country in southeastern Europe
- 20082008 Kosovo declaration of independence — declaration of independence for Kosovo
- 2008Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo — Legislature of the Republic of Kosovo
- 2011Bahrain Bloody Thursday — name given by protesters in Bahrain to the fourth day of their national uprising
- 2014Gyeongju Mauna Ocean Resort collapse — Collapse in Gyeongju, Gyeongsangbuk-do, South Korea
- 20152015 Haiti Carnival stampede — 2015 stampede during a Mardi Gras parade in Port-au-Prince, Haiti
- 2016February 2016 Ankara bombing — 2016 bombing in Ankara, Turkey by Kurdish separatists
Births · 60
- 624(Julian date)Wu Zetian — founding empress of Zhou dynasty (r. 690–705); de facto ruler of Tang dynasty from 665 to 690
- 1519Francis, Duke of Guise — French soldier and politician (1519-1563)
- 1653Arcangelo Corelli — Italian violinist and composer (1653–1713)
- 1740Horace Bénédict de Saussure — Genevan scientist (1740–1799)
- 1752Friedrich Maximilian Klinger — German dramatist and novelist (1752-1831)
- 1781René Laennec — French physician, inventor of stethoscope (1781-1826)
- 1796Philipp Franz von Siebold — German biologist and traveller (1796-1866)
- 1820Henri Vieuxtemps — Belgian violinist and composer (1820-1881)
- 1821Lola Montez — Irish dancer and actress (1821–1861)
- 1836Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer — Spanish poet
- 1862Mori Ōgai — Japanese novelist and army physician (1862-1922)
- 1874Thomas John Watson, Sr. — USA IBM executive and art collector (1874-1956)
- 1877André Maginot — French minister of war (1922 - '24; 1929 - '32)
- 1877Isabelle Eberhardt — Swiss explorer and author (1877-1904)
- 1888Otto Stern — German-American physicist (1888–1969)
- 1890Ronald Fisher — British statistician, evolutionary biologist and geneticist (1890–1962)
- 1903Sadegh Hedayat — Iranian writer
- 1904Hans Morgenthau — American political scientist (1904–1980)
- 1914Arthur Kennedy — American actor (1914–1990)
- 1916Raf Vallone — Italian actor (1916-2002)
- 1925Hal Holbrook — American actor (1925–2021)
- 1929Alejandro Jodorowsky — Chilean-French filmmaker and comics writer
- 1930Ruth Rendell — British writer (1930-2015)
- 1934Alan Bates — English actor (1934–2003)
- 1934Barry Humphries — Australian comedian and actor (1934–2023)
Deaths · 60
- 364Jovian — Roman emperor from 363 to 364
- 440(Julian date)Mesrop Mashtots — Armenian theologian and linguist (362–440)
- 1220(Julian date)Theobald I, Duke of Lorraine — Duke of lorraine
- 1339(Julian date)Otto, Duke of Austria — Duke of Austria
- 1371(Julian date)Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria — Tsar of Bulgaria (r. 1331 to 1371)
- 1600Giordano Bruno — Italian Dominican friar, philosopher and mathematician (1548–1600)
- 1609Ferdinando I de' Medici — Grand Duke of Tuscany (1549-1609)
- 1624Juan de Mariana — Spanish historian
- 1673Molière — French playwright and actor (1622–1673)
- 1680Jan Swammerdam — Dutch entomologist and beekeeper (1637-1680)
- 1715Antoine Galland — French orientalist, numismatist and translator (1646–1715)
- 1732Louis Marchand — French keyboardist and composer
- 1841Ferdinando Carulli — Italian composer
- 1854John Martin — English painter, engraver and illustrator (1789–1854)
- 1856Heinrich Heine — German poet, writer and literary critic (1797–1856)
- 1872José Burgos — Filipino priest martyred in 1872
- 1872Jacinto Zamora — Filipino priest martyred in 1872
- 1874Adolphe Quetelet — Belgian astronomer, mathematician, statistician and sociologist (1796-1874)
- 1875Friedrich Wilhelm Argelander — German astronomer (1799–1875)
- 1890Christopher Latham Sholes — American politician (1819–1890)
- 1909Gerónimo — leader of the Bedonkohe Apache (1829-1909)
- 1912Edgar Evans — Welsh explorer (1876–1912)
- 1919Wilfrid Laurier — 7th prime minister of Canada (1841-1919)
- 1924Oskar Merikanto — Finnish musician and composer (1868–1924)
- 1934Albert I of Belgium — King of the Belgians from 1909 to 1934 (1875–1934)
Dates verified against Wikidata (CC0). Titles and descriptions come from Wikidata.