On this day in History - Dec. 17

• 0283 - St Gaius becomes Pope.
• 0384 - St Siricius becomes Pope.
• 1187 - Pope Gregory VIII [Alberto de Morra] dies. Italian Pope
• 1195 - Baldwin V, Count of Hainaut dies (b. 1150)
• 1239 - Kujo Yoritsugu was born (d. 1256). Japanese shogun.
• 1267 - Emperor Go-Uda of Japan was born (d. 1324).
• 1273 - Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi dies (b. 1207). Persian poet and mystic.
• 1471 - Isabel of Portugal dies (b. 1397). Duchess of Burgundy.
• 1493 - Paracelso was born (d. 1754). Swiss alquimist and phyician
• 1531 - Installation de l'Inquisition à Lisbonne par le pape Clément VII
• 1538 - Pope Paul III excommunicates King Henry VIII of England
• 1586 - The reign of Emperor Go-Yozei, the 107th imperial ruler of Japan, begins.
• 1637 - The Shimabara Rebellion breaks out in Japan.
• 1663 - Dona Ana de Souza, Queen Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba (Angola) dies (b. 1583).
• 1718 - England declared war on Spain.
• 1734 - Maria I of Portugal was born (d. 1816). Portuguese queen.
• 1749 - Domenico Cimarosa was born (d. 1801). Italian composer.
• 1763 - Frederick Christian, Elector of Saxony dies (b. 1722)
• 1770 - Johann Friedrich Schubert, born this day, composer.
• 1770 - Ludwig van Beethoven is baptized (d. 1827). German Composer.
• 1777 - France recognized American independence.
• 1778 - Humphry Davy was born (d. 1829). English chemist.
• 1787 - Jan Evangelista Purkyne was born (d. 1869). Czech anatomist.
• 1796 - Thomas Chandler Haliburton, Canadian novelist (d. 1865)
• 1797 - Joseph Henry, was born ; US, Scientist / inventor / pioneer of electromagnetism .
• 1799 - Titian Peale was born (d. 1885). American artist.
• 1807 - John Greenleaf Whittier was born [d. 1892]. American Poet and abolicionist. Whittier was a pioneer in regional literature as well as a crusader for many humanitarian causes.
• 1812 - Kaspar Hauser dies (b. 1812). German foundling.
• 1830 - Simon Bolivar died in Santa Marta [b. 1783]; General and Venezuelan statesman, first President of Colombia.
• 1830 - Jules de Goncourt was born (d. 1870). French publisher.
• 1833 - Kaspar Hauser dies (b. 1812). German foundling.
• 1843 - A Christmas Carol a fictional short story by Charles Dickens is published.
• 1853 - Herbert Beerbohm Tree was born (d. 1917). English actor
• 1853 - Emile Roux was born (d. 1933). French physician.
• 1859 - Paul César Helleu was born (d. 1927). French artist.
• 1862 - General Ulysses S. Grant issues General Order No. 11, expelling Jews from Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky.
• 1872 - Mistinguett was born (d. 1956). French actress and singer.
• 1873 - Ford Madox Ford was born (d. 1939). English writer.
• 1874 - William Lyon Mackenzie King was born (d. 1950). Tenth Prime Minister of Canada
• 1887 - Josef Lada was born (d. 1957). Czech painter.
• 1888 - King Alexander I of Yugoslavia was born (d. 1934)
• 1892 - Sam Barry was born (d. 1950). American basketball coach.
• 1893 - Erwin Piscator was born (d. 1966). German film director.
• 1894 - Arthur Fiedler was born (d. 1979). American conductor.
• 1897 - Alphonse Daudet dies. French writer.
• 1901 - Lee Strasberg was born (d. 1982). Austrian-born actor and director.
• 1903 - Erskine Caldwell was born (d. 1987). American author.
• 1903 - Ray Noble was born (d. 1978). English musician.
• 1903 - Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first flight in a heavier-than-air plane at Kitty Hawk, N.C.
• 1905 - Érico Veríssimo was born. Brazilian writer.
• 1906 - Fernando Lopes Graça was born in Tomar. Portuguese composer and musicologist.
• 1907 - Independence of Bhutan
• 1907 - William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin dies (b. 1824). Irish-born physicist.
• 1908 - Willard Frank Libby was born (d. 1980). American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate.
• 1909 - King Leopold II of Belgium , dies (b. 1835)
• 1911 - André Claveau was born (d. 2003). French singer.
• 1916 - Penelope Fitzgerald was born (d. 2000). English writer.
• 1917 - Elizabeth Garrett Anderson dies (b. 1836). English physician.
• 1919 - Uruguay becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
• 1925 - Manuel Teixeira Gomes abandona definitivamente Portugal.Depois de ser eleito presidente, o seu mandato foi marcado por grande instabilidade política e social, conduzindo à sua resignação em 11 de Dezembro de 1925. Em 17 de Dezembro, embarca no paquete grego "Zeus". Nunca mais regressará a Portugal.
• 1925 - Russia & Turkey sign non-aggresion pact.
• 1929 - Manuel Gomes da Costa dies. President of Portuguese Republic in 1926.
• 1929 - Jacqueline Hill was born (d. 1993). British actress
• 1929 - William Safire was born. American columnist
• 1930 - Bob Mathias was born. American athlete
• 1930 - Armin Mueller-Stahl was born. German actor
• 1930 - Bob Guccione, was born. Publisher of Penthouse magazine.
• 1935 - First flight of the Douglas DC-3 airplane.
• 1937 - Jaime Lerner was born. Brazilian architect and urbanist.
• 1938 - Peter Snell was born. New-Zealand athlet.
• 1939 - the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee "Graf Spee" was scuttled by its crew, ending the World War II Battle of the River Plate off Uruguay.
• 1939 - Eddie Kendricks was born (d. 1992). American musician.
• 1941 - Nazi siege of Sevastopol begins.
• 1941 - Dutch & Australian troops lands on Portuguese-Timor.
• 1941 - Gene Clark was born (d. 1991). American musician.
• 1942 - Paul Butterfield was born (d. 1987). American musician.
• 1943 - Ron Geesin was born. Scottish musician
• 1943 - Lauren Hutton was born. American model and actress
• 1944 - Jack L. Chalker was born. Canadian novelist
• 1944 - Bernard Hill was born. English actor
• 1944 -The U.S. Army announced the end of its policy of holding Japanese-Americans in internment camps, allowing "evacuees" to return home.
• 1944 - Ference Bene, was born, Hungary, record 12 soccer goals (Olympic Gold-1964).
• 1945 - Honduras becomes member of United Nations
• 1945 - Elvin Hayes was born. American basketball player
• 1945 - Ernie Hudson was born. American actor.
• 1949 - Paul Rodgers was born. British singer (Free)
• 1951 - Ken Hitchcock was born. Canadian hockey coach
• 1951 - Tatyana Kazankina was born,in Petrovsk, USSR;middle distance runner (Olympic Gold-1976).
• 1953 - Dmitri Shostakovitch' 10th Symphony, premieres in Leningrad.
• 1955 - Brad Davis was born. American basketball player
• 1957 - the United States successfully test-fired the Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time.
• 1957 - "Partido Acción Nacional" is created in Mexico.
• 1957 - Dorothy L. Sayers dies (b. 1893). English writer.
• 1958 - Mike Mills, was born, rock musician (R.E.M.).
• 1960 - Emperor Haile Selassie returns to Ethiopia after being ousted by his son.
• 1961 - India seizes Goa, Damão and Diu from Portugal.
• 1961 - A fire at a circus in Niteroi, Brazil kills 323 people.
• 1963 -Tsjoi Doo Sun forms government in South Korea.
• 1964 - Victor Franz Hess was born (d. 1883). Austrian-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate.
• 1966 - Kristiina Ojuland was born. Estonian politician.
• 1968 - Paul Tracy was born. Canadian race car driver.
• 1969 - General Costa e Silva dies in Rio de Janeiro (b. 1902). President of Brazil
• 1969 - Signature d'un traité d'amitié de 20 ans entre l'Algérie et la Tunisie.
• 1969 - The U.S. Air Force ended its "Project Blue Book" and concluded that there was no evidence of extraterrestrial activity behind UFO (OVNI) sightings.
• 1969 - SALT I talks begin.
• 1970 - My Lai trial begins.
• 1970 - Coastal cities events Mass riots in the coastal cities of Poland ended in massacre of shipyard workers in Gdynia .
• 1970 - Joshua Seth was born. American voice actor and hypnotist
• 1971 - Antoine Rigaudeau was born. French basketball player
• 1971 - Alan Khan was born. South African Radio DJ and breakfast TV host on am2day
• 1971 - Cease fire between India & Pakistan in Kashmir .
• 1972 - Ivan Pedroso was born. Cuba, long jumper (Olympics-4th-92) .
• 1973 - The American Psychiatric Association removes homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses.
• 1973 - Paula Radcliffe, was born, distance runner in athletics .
• 1975 - Milla Jovovitch was born in Kiev. Ukrainian actress and model.
• 1975 - Nick Dinsmore was born. American professional wrestler.
• 1975 - Lynette Fromme was sentenced in federal court in Sacramento, Calif., to life in prison for her attempt on the life of President Ford.
• 1978 - OPEC raises oil prices 18% .
• 1978 - Referendum approves new constitution of Rwanda.
• 1979 - in a case that aggravated racial tensions, Arthur McDuffie, a black insurance executive, was fatally beaten after a police chase in Miami. (Four white police officers were later acquitted of charges stemming from McDuffie’s death.)
• 1981 - members of the Red Brigades kidnapped Brigadier General James L. Dozier, the highest-ranking U.S. Army official in southern Europe, from his home in Verona, Italy. (Dozier was rescued 42 days later).
• 1982 - Tootsie opens in theaters, starring Dustin Hoffman, Jessica Lange, Teri Garr, Dabney Coleman, Charles Durning, Bill Murray, Sydney Pollack, George Gaynes, and Geena Davis.
• 1983 - Bomb attack on Harrod's war house in London, 5 killed, 94 injured.
• 1983 - A fire at a night club in Madrid kills 82.
• 1986 - Eugene Hasenfus, the American convicted by Nicaragua for his part in running guns to the Contras, was pardoned, then released.
• 1986 - Vanessa Zima was born in Phillipsburg, New Jersey. American actress.
• 1986 - US Congress forms "Irangate" committee.
• 1987 - Irving Allen doies (b.1916). American producer.
• 1987 - Marguerite Yourcenar dies (b. 1903). Novelist (Memoirs of Hadrien). First woman to be electedd for The French Academy (Académie française)
• 1989 - The first half-hour length episode of The Simpsons debuts with their Christmas special, "Simpsons Roasting Over an Open Fire".
• 1989 - Brazil holds its first direct free election in 29 years. Fernando Collor de Mello is elected President.
• 1989 - Full scale street manifestations and riots in Timisoara ignite the Romanian Revolution
• 1992 - North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) signed by U.S (President Bush)., Canada, (Prime Minister Brian Mulroney) and Mexico (President Carlos Salinas) in separate ceremonies.
• 1992 - Dana Andrews dies (b. 1909). American actor.
• 1993 - American troops are pulled out of Somalia following a series of gun battles with Somali troops under the command of General Mohammed Farah Aidid.
• 1993 -Tennis star Boris Becker (26) weds Barbara Feltus (27)
• 1994 - North Korea shot down a U.S. Army helicopter which had strayed north of the demilitarized zone — the co-pilot, Chief Warrant Officer David Hilemon, was killed; the pilot, Chief Warrant Officer Bobby Hall, was captured and held for nearly two weeks.
• 1994 -Six shots were fired at the White House by an unidentified gunman.
• 1994 - Lisbon 94 — European Capital of Culture ends.
• 1996 - Inauguration de la Bibliothèque François-Miterrand par Jacques Chirac
• 1996 -Guerrilheiros do Movimento Revolucionário Tupac Amaru invadem a residência do embaixador japonês em Lima, Peru, e fazem 500 reféns.
• 1996- A Assembléia Geral das Nações Unidas elege Kofi Annan, do país africano de Gana, como seu novo secretário-geral.
• 1996 -Stanko Todorov, PM of Bulgaria (1971-81), dies
• 1997 - A chartered Yakovlev-42 from Ukraine crashes into the mountains near Katerini, Greece killing 70
• 1998 - Claudia Benton (b. 1959) is murdered in her West University, Texas home by Angel Maturino Resendiz. Peruvian child psychologist.
• 1999 - Grover Washington, Jr. dies (b. 1943). American musician.
• 2002 - Peace accord signed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
• 2002 - Giovanni Intra dies; born in New Zealand in 1968, co-founder in 1998 (with artist Steve Hanson) of China Art Objects Galleries in Los Angeles.
• 2003 - First supersonic flight by Scaled Composites SpaceShipOne
• 2003 - The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is the third and final Lord of the Rings movie to open in theaters.
• 2003 - The British government announced the first reported case of a person dying from the human form of mad cow disease after a blood transfusion from an infected donor.
• 2003 - Ed Devereaux dies (b. 1925). Australian actor.
• 2003 - Otto Graham dies (b. 1921). American football player.
• Roman festivals - Saturnalia, in honor of Saturn, began.
• R.C. Saints - O Sapientia ; Saint Lazarus
• Bhutan - National Day (1907)
• USA - Wright Brothers Day (by Presidential Proclamation)