February 17

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 - Moličre, 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
  

  External links

• BBC: On This Day

February 16 - February 18 - January 17 - March 17 -- listing of all days