February 17

February 17 in recent years
2025 (Monday)
2024 (Saturday)
2023 (Friday)
2022 (Thursday)
2021 (Wednesday)
2020 (Monday)
2019 (Sunday)
2018 (Saturday)
2017 (Friday)
2016 (Wednesday)

February 17 is the 48th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 317 days remaining until the end of the year (318 in leap years).

Events

Up to 1900

364 – Roman Emperor Jovian dies under suspicious circumstances, after a short reign of eight months.
1164 – A major flood on what is now Germany's North Sea coast, kills 20,000 people.
1370 – The Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Teutonic Knights meet in the Battle of Rudau.
1400 – The body of Richard II of England is put on display at the Old St. Paul's Cathedral in London.
1600 – Philosopher Giordano Bruno is burned to death for heresy in Rome.
1621 – Myles Standish is appointed as the first commander of Plymouth Colony.
1753 – Sweden changes from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar. February 17 is followed by March 1.
1801 – The United States House of Representatives chooses Thomas Jefferson to become the next President of the United States.
1854 – The United Kingdom recognises the independent Orange Free State.
1863 – A group of citizens from Geneva founds the International Committee for Relief of the Wounded, which later becomes the International Red Cross.
1864 – American Civil War: The H. L. Hunley becomes the first submarine to engage and sink a warship, the USS Housatonic.
1865 – American Civil War: Union troops capture Columbia, South Carolina. As this state is particularly seen as responsible for starting the war, the city is virtually flattened.
1867 – Gyula Andrassy is declared Prime Minister of Hungary after the creation of the co-operative monarchy of Austria-Hungary.
1871 – The victorious Prussian Army parades through Paris after the end of the Siege of Paris in the Franco-Prussian War.
1900 – Wilhelm II of Germany declares the Western Samoan Islands a "German Protectorate".

1901 – 2000

1904 – Madame Butterfly premieres at La Scala opera house in Milan.
1913 – The Armory Art Show begin in New York City, showing works by artists who become influential later in the 20th century.
1917 – The French troop transporter Athos is sunk, killing 754 people.
1924 – Johnny Weissmuller sets a world record in the 100-metre freestyle swimming.
1933 – Newsweek magazine is published for the first time.
1944 – World War II: The Battle of Eniwetok Atoll begins, ending in an American victory over Japanese forces on February 22.
1949 – Chaim Weizmann becomes President of Israel.
1959 – Vanguard 2, the first weather satellite, is launched to measure cloud–cover distribution.
1962 – Parts of northern Germany are severely flooded in the night from February 16, causing 300 deaths in the city of Hamburg alone.
1964 – President of Gabon Leon M'ba is removed from office in a coup by his rival, Jean-Hilaire Aubame. M'ba is reinstated by France the next day.
1965 – Project Ranger: The Ranger 8 space probe is launched to the "Sea of Tranquility" on the Moon.
1968 – In Springfield, Massachusetts, the James Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame opens.
1972 – U.S. President Richard Nixon visits China.
1974 – Michele Catain, an American crew member and real estate agent, marries David Thomas Durboraw, an American businessman, in Los Angeles, California.
1979 – The Sino-Vietnamese War begins.
1980 – Krzyzstof Wielicki and Leszek Clichy becomes the first people to reach the top of Mount Everest during the winter season.
1992 – American serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer is sentenced to life imprisonment.
1993 – The Neptune ferry sinks off Haiti. It is not known exactly how many people were killed, though it is thought to have been at least 1,500.
1995 – The Cenepa War between Peru and Ecuador is ended by a United Nations ceasefire.
1996 – An earthquake of magnitude 8.2 strikes Irian Jaya, the Indonesian part of the island of New Guinea, killing 166 people.
1996 – The NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft is launched to the asteroid 433 Eros.
1996 – After being defeated in a game of chess on February 10, Garry Kasparov wins a six-match series 4–2 against the computer Deep Blue.
1998 – Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict: Armenian troops kill between 70 and 90 Azerbaijani civilians in the village of Qaradagli.

From 2001

2003 – London's Congestion charging system begins.
2006 – A massive mudslide in Southern Leyte, Philippines, kills 1,126 people.
2008 – Kosovo declares independence from Serbia. However, Serbia does not recognise Kosovo as an independent state, and its status is still in dispute as of 2014.
2011 – Bahraini security forces launch a pre-dawn raid on protesters at the Pearl Roundabout in Manama.
2011 – Protests begin in Libya against Muammar al-Gaddafi. Soon after, Libya enters into a state of civil war between pro– and anti-Gaddafi fighters. Gaddafi is killed in October.
2012 – President of Germany Christian Wulff resigns over a home-loan scandal, becoming the shortest-serving President ever of the Federal Republic of Germany. Horst Seehofer becomes interim-President until a successor can be found. Joachim Gauck becomes President just over a month later.
2014 – A building collapse in Geongju, South Korea, kills at least 10 people, most of them students.

Births

Up to 1800

624 – Wu Zetian, Chinese Empress of the Zhou Dynasty (d. 705)
1192 – Minamoto no Sanetomo, Japanese shogun (d. 1219)
1490 – Charles III, Duke of Bourbon (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 cardinal (d. 1653)
1653 – Arcangelo Corelli, Italian composer (d. 1713)
1699 – Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff, Prussian soldier, painter and architect (d. 1753)
1718 – Matthew Tilgh, American Continental Congressman (d. 1790)
1723 – Tobias Mayer, German astronomer (d. 1762)
1740 – John Sullivan, American general, politician and Governor of New Hampshire (d. 1795)
1752 – Friedrich Maximilian Klinger, German writer (d. 1831)
1754 – Nicolas Baudin, French explorer (d. 1803)
1781 – René Laennec, French physician (d. 1826)
1782 – Fyodor Ivanovich Tolstoy, Russian aristocrat (d. 1846)
1792 – Karl Ernst von Baer, German biologist (d. 1876)
1796 – Giovanni Pacini, Italian opera composer (d. 1867)
1796 – Philipp Franz von Siebold, German physician (d. 1886)

1801 – 1900

1817 – Edouard Thilges, 7th Prime Minister of Luxembourg (d. 1904)
1820 – Elzear-Alexandre Taschereau, French cardinal (d. 1898)
1820 – Henri Vieutemps, Belgian composer (d. 1881)
1821 – Lola Montez, Irish dancer (d. 1861)
1836 – Gustavo Adolfo Becquer, Spanish poet (d. 1870)
1848 – Louisa Lawson, Australian writer and feminist (d. 1920)
1848 – Albert Gustaf Dahlman, Swedish executioner (d. 1920)
1854 – Friedrich Alfred Krupp, German industrialist (d. 1902)
1861 – Princess Helena of Waldeck and Pyrmont (d. 1922)
1862 – Mori Ogai, Japanese novelist and poet (d. 1922)
1862 – Eugen Schmidt, Danish athlete (d. 1931)
1863 – Fyodor Sologub, Russian writer (d. 1927)
1864 – Banjo Paterson, Australian poet (d. 1941)
1866 – Henry Hollis Horton, 40th Governor of Tennessee (d. 1934)
1877 – Isidora Sekulic, Serbian writer (d. 1958)
1877 – Andre Maginot, French politician (d. 1932)
1885 – Romano Guardini, German theologian (d. 1968)
1887 – Joseph Bech, Prime Minister of Luxembourg (d. 1975)
1888 – Otto Stern, German physicist (d. 1969)
1890 – Ronald Fisher, English statistician, biologist and geneticist (d. 1962)
1891 – Abraham Fraenkel, German-Israeli mathematician (d. 1965)
1892 – Marjorie Fielding, British actress (d. 1956)
1893 – Wally Pipp, American baseball player (d. 1965)
1894 – Hendrik Kramers, Dutch physicist (d. 1952)

1901 – 1950

1901 – Philotheus Boehner, German monk and medieval scholar (d. 1955)
1903 – Sadeq Hedayat, Iranian writer (d. 1951)
1904 – Hans Morgenthau, German political philosopher (d. 1980)
1908 – Bo Yibo, Chinese politician (d. 2005)
1908 – Jacobus van Egmond, Dutch cyclist (d. 1969)
1910 – Arthur Hunnicutt, American actor (d. 1979)
1916 – Alexander Obolensky, Russian prince and England rugby player (d. 1940)
1917 – Abdur Rahman Badawi, Egyptian philosopher (d. 2002)
1917 – Guillermo Gonzalez Camarena, Mexican inventor (d. 1965)
1918 – Volodymyr Shcherbytsky, Prime Minister of Ukraine (d. 1990)
1919 – Kathleen Freeman, American actress (d. 2001)
1920 – Ivo Caprino, Norwegian animated movie director (d. 2001)
1920 – Annie Glenn, American activist (d. 2020)
1923 – Buddy DeFranco, American jazz musician (d. 2014)
1923 – John M. Allegro, English archaeologist and author (d. 1988)
1923 – Alden W. Clausen, American banker (d. 2013)
1924 – Margaret Truman, American writer (d. 2008)
1925 – Hal Holbrook, American actor
1925 – Ron Goodwin, English composer and conductor
1927 – Juan Almeida Bosque, Cuban Communist revolutionary (d. 2009)
1929 – Alejandro Jodorowsky, Chilean writer
1929 – Patricia Routledge, British actress
1930 – Ruth Rendell, British writer (d. 2015)
1931 – Buddy Ryan, American football coach (d. 2016)
1931 – Jirina Jiraskova, Czech actress (d. 2013)
1933 – Craig L. Thomas, American politician (d. 2007)
1933 – Larry Jennings, American magician (d. 1997)
1934 – Barry Humphries, Australian actor and comedian
1934 – Alan Bates, British actor (d. 2003)
1935 – Christina Pickles, British actress
1937 – Willi Koslowski, German footballer
1937 – Rita Süssmuth, German politician
1937 – Mary Ann Mobley, American actress and beauty queen (d. 2014)
1939 – Clement Richard, Canadian businessman and politician
1940 – Gene Pitney, American singer (d. 2006)
1941 – Julia McKenzie, English actress and theatre director
1942 – Huey Newton, American political activist (d. 1989)
1943 – Costas Azariadis, Greek economist
1944 – Bruce Fogle, Canadian-born British veterinarian and writer
1944 – Karl Jenkins, Welsh saxophonist, keyboardist and composer
1945 – Brenda Fricker, Irish actress
1946 – André Dussollier, French actor
1948 – Rick Majerus, American basketball player
1948 – Don Scardino, American television director and actor
1948 – José José, Mexican singer-songwriter, producer and actor
1949 – Fred Frith, English musician and composer
1949 – Dennis Green, American football coach (d. 2016)
1950 – Rickey Medlocke, American guitarist
1950 – Graham Stringer, English politician

1951 – 1975

1954 – Rene Russo, American actress
1955 – Mo Yan, Chinese novelist and Nobel Prize winner
1957 – Loreena McKennitt, Canadian singer-songwriter, harpist and pianist
1959 – Aryeh Deri, Israeli rabbi and politician
1959 – Rowdy Gaines, American swimmer
1961 – Andrey Korotayev, Russian anthropologist and economic historian
1961 – Panna Rittikrai, Thai actor, director and screenwriter (d. 2014)
1961 – Angela Eagle, English politician
1961 – Maria Eagle, English politician
1962 – Sarah Wollaston, English politician
1962 – Lou Diamond Phillips, American actor
1963 – Michael Jordan, American basketball player
1963 – Alison Hargreaves, British mountain climber (d. 1995)
1963 – Larry the Cable Guy, American comedian and actor
1964 – Jim Jordan, American politician
1965 – Michael Bay, American director and producer
1966 – Luc Robitaille, Canadian ice hockey player
1968 – Giuseppe Signori, Italian footballer
1969 – Tuesday Knight, American actress
1970 – Dominic Purcell, English-Australian actor
1971 – Denise Richards, American actress
1971 – Carlos Gamarra, Paraguayan footballer
1972 – Billie Joe Armstrong, American lead singer of Green Day
1972 – Philippe Candeloro, French figure skater
1972 – Taylor Hawkins, American musician
1973 – Shirley Clamp, Swedish singer

From 1976

1976 – Kelly Carlson, American actress
1979 – Cara Black, Zimbabwean tennis player
1981 – Paris Hilton, American socialite and heiress
1981 – Joseph Gordon-Levitt, American actor
1981 – Pontus Segerström, Swedish footballer (d. 2014)
1981 – Andrew Stephenson, English politician
1982 – Daniel Merriwether, Australian singer
1982 – Adriano Leite Ribeiro, Brazilian footballer
1983 – Nguyen Tien Minh, Vietnamese badminton player
1984 – AB de Villiers, South African cricketer
1984 – Drew Miller, American ice hockey player
1985 – Anders Jacobsen, Norwegian ski jumper
1985 – Mario Bolatti, Argentine footballer
1988 – Natascha Kampusch, Austrian kidnapping victim
1989 – Rebecca Adlington, British swimmer
1989 – Stacey McClean, British singer
1989 – Chord Overstreet, American actor
1991 – Ed Sheeran, British singer-songwriter
1991 – Bonnie Wright, British actress
1992 – Meaghan Jette Martin, American actress
1993 – Marc Marquez, Spanish racing driver
1993 – Nicola Leali, Italian footballer
1993 – Philip Wiegratz, German actor
1996 – Sasha Pieterse, South African-born American actress

Deaths

Up to 1900

197 – Clodius Albinus, would-be Roman emperor (killed in battle)
306 – Theodore of Amasea, Roman soldier and Christian martyr
364 – Jovian, Roman emperor (b. ca. 332)
1339 – Otto the Merry, Duke of Austria
1371 – Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria
1600 – Giordano Bruno, Italian religious reformer (burned at the stake) (b. 1548)
1609 – Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1549)
1652 – Gregorio Allegri, Italian composer (b. 1582)
1673 – Molière, French playwright (b. 1622)
1680 – Jan Swammerdam, Dutch scientist (b. 1637)
1768 – Arthur Onslow, English lawyer and politician (b. 1691)
1827 – Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, Swiss educator and reformer (b. 1746)
1848 – George W. Campbell, Scottish-born 5th United States Secretary of the Treasury (b. 1769)
1854 – John Martin, English painter (b. 1789)
1856 – Heinrich Heine, German writer (b. 1797)
1883 – Vasudeo Balwant Phadke, Indian revolutionary (b. 1855)
1883 – Napoleon Coste, French guitarist, composer (b. 1806)
1890 – Christopher Latham Sholes, American inventor (b. 1819)
1891 – Theophil Hansen, Danish-Austrian educator and architect (b. 1813)

1901 – 2000

1901 – Ethelbert Nevin, American pianist and composer (b. 1862)
1905 – William Bickerton, English-American religious leader (b. 1815)
1909 – Geronimo, Apache leader (b. 1829)
1912 – Edgar Evans, Welsh navy officer (b. 1876)
1919 – Wilfrid Laurier, seventh Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1841)
1924 – Oskar Merikanto, Finnish composer (b. 1868)
1934 – King Albert I of Belgium (b. 1875)
1934 – Siegbert Tarrasch, German chess player (b. 1862)
1939 – Willy Hess, German violinist (b. 1859)
1943 – Konstantin Bogaevsky, Russian painter (b. 1872)
1943 – Armand J. Piron, American jazz musician (b. 1888)
1946 – Dorothy Gibson, American actress and singer (b. 1889)
1961 – Nita Noldi, American actress (b. 1894)
1962 – Joseph Kearns, American actor (b. 1907)
1962 – Bruno Walter, German conductor (b. 1876)
1970 – Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Israeli writer (b. 1888)
1970 – Alfred Newman, American movie composer (b. 1900)
1982 – Thelonious Monk, American jazz pianist (b. 1917)
1982 – Lee Strasberg, American acting teacher, actor (b. 1901)
1986 – Jiddu Krishnamurti, Indian philosopher (b. 1895)
1988 – Karpoori Thakur, Indian politician, 1st Chief Minister of Bihar (b. 1924)
1988 – John M. Allegro, English archaeologist and scholar (b. 1923)
1989 – Lefty Gomez, American baseball player (b. 1908)
1990 – Jean-Marc Bolvin, French mountaineer (b. 1951)
1994 – Gretchen Fraser, American ski racer (b. 1919)
1994 – Randy Shilts, writer, AIDS activist (b. 1951)
1998 – Ernst Jünger, militaristic German writer (b. 1895)

From 2001

2001 – Khalid Abdul Muhammed, Nation of Islam spokesman (b. 1948)
2004 – José López Portillo, former President of Mexico (b. 1920)
2005 – Dan O'Herlihy, Irish movie actor (b. 1919)
2005 – Omar Sivori, Argentine footballer (b. 1935)
2007 – Maurice Papon, French Nazi collaborator (b. 1910)
2010 – Kathryn Grayson, American singer and actress (b. 1922)
2011 – Perry Moore, American writer and movie producer (b. 1971)
2012 – Ulric Neisser, German-born American psychologist (b. 1928)
2013 – Richard Briers, British actor (b. 1934)
2013 – Mindy McCready, American country music singer (b. 1975)
2014 – Frankie Kao, Taiwanese singer (b. 1950)
2014 – Loni Nest, German-American actress (b. 1915)
2014 – Joe Bell, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1923)
2015 – Andrzej Koszewski, Polish composer (b. 1922)
2015 – Cathy Ubels-Veen, Dutch politician (b. 1928)
2016 – Mohamed Hassanein Heikal, Egyptian journalist (b. 1923)
2016 – Alexander Gutman, Russian film director (b. 1945)
2016 – Akbar Kakkattil, Indian writer (b. 1954)
2016 – Andrzej Zulawski, Polish film director and writer (b. 1940)
2017 – Nicole Bass, American bodybuilder and professional wrestler (b. 1964)
2017 – Warren Frost, American actor (b. 1925)
2017 – Börge Hellström, Swedish writer (b. 1957)
2017 – Erland Kops, Danish badminton player (b. 1937)
2017 – Robert H. Michel, American politician (b. 1923)
2017 – Michael Novak, American theologian and writer (b. 1933)
2017 – Tom Regan, American philosopher (b. 1938)
2017 – Peter Skellern, English singer-songwriter (b. 1947)

Observances

Celebrated as Independence Day in Kosovo
Revolution Day (Libya)