On this day in History - Oct. 17

• 539 BC - King Cyrus of Persia marches into the city of Babylon, releasing the Jews from almost 70 years of exile and making the first Human Rights Declaration.
• 0532 - Pope Boniface II dies.
• 1066 - Battle of Hastings.
• 1091 - T8/F4 tornado strikes the heart of London.
• 1174 - Queen Petronila of Aragon dies (b. 1135).
• 1244 - Battle of La Forbie: Crusaders are defeated by Khwarezmians & Egyptians.
• 1253 - Ivo of Kermartin was born (d. 1303). French saint.
• 1346 - Battle of Neville's Cross: King David II of Scotland is captured by Edward III of England at Calais, and imprisoned in the Tower of London for eleven years.
• 1448 - Second Battle of Kosovo, where the mainly Hungarian army lead by John Hunyadi fought an Ottoman army lead by Murad II.
• 1456 - The University of Greifswald is established, making it the second oldest university in northern Europe (also for a period the oldest in Sweden, and Prussia)
• 1563 - Jodocus Hondius was born (d. 1611). Flemish cartographer.
• 1577 - Cristofano Allori was born (d. 1621). Italian painter.
• 1582 - Johann Gerhard was born (d. 1637). German Lutheran leader.
• 1586 - Philip Sidney dies killed in battle (b. 1554). English courtier, soldier, and writer.
• 1604 - Kepler's Star: German astronomer Johannes Kepler observes that an exceptionally bright star had suddenly appeared in the constellation Ophiuchus, which turned out to be the last supernova to have been observed in our own galaxy, the Milky Way.
• 1610 - French king Louis XIII is crowned in Rheims.
• 1616 - John Pitts dies (b. 1560). Catholic scholar and writer.
• 1623 - Francis Turretin was born (d. 1687). Swiss theologian.
• 1651 - Defeated by Oliver Cromwell at Worcester, Charles II of England flees to France
• 1660 - Nine Regicides, the men who signed the death warrant of Charles I, are hanged, drawn and quartered, another is hanged.
• 1660 - Adrian Scrope dies (b. 1601). English regicide
• 1662 - Charles II of England sells Dunkerque to France for 40 000 pounds.
• 1673 - Thomas Clifford, 1st Baron Clifford of Chudleigh dies (b. 1630). English statesman.
• 1688 - Domenico Zipoli was born (d. 1726). Italian composer.
• 1711 - Jupiter Hammon was born. America's first published black poet.
• 1719 - Jacques Cazotte was born (d. 1792). French writer.
• 1744 - Giuseppe Antonio Guarneri dies. Violins maker.
• 1757 - René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur dies (b. 1683). French scientist.
• 1760 - Claude Henri de Rouvroy was born. Philosopher.
• 1776 - Pierre François le Courayer dies (b. 1681). French theologian.
• 1777 - American troops defeat the British in the Battle of Saratoga.
• 1780 - William Cookworthy dies (b. 1705). English chemist.
• 1781 - General Charles Cornwallis offers his surrender to the American revolutionaries at Yorktown, Virginia
• 1786 - Johann Ludwig Aberli dies (b. 1723). Swiss artist.
• 1797 - Treaty of Campo-Formio, in Italy, is signed between France and Austria.
• 1798 - Francisco Lacerda e Almeida dies. Portuguese explorer and geographer.
• 1800 - England takes control of the Dutch colony of Curaçao.
• 1806 - Jean-Jacques Dessalines dies (b. 1758). Haitian independence leader.
• 1806 - Former leader of the Great Slave Rebellion of 1791, Emperor Jacques I of Haiti was assassinated after an oppressive rule.
• 1811 - Albertus van Raalte was born (d. 1876). Dutch/American religious leader.
• 1813 - Georg Büchner was born (d. 1837). German playwright.
• 1814 - London Beer Flood occurs in London killing nine.
• 1817 - Sir Syed Ahmad Khan was born (d. 1898). Famous Indian Muslim intellectual of the 19th Century.
• 1820 - Édouard Roche was born (d. 18 Apr. 1883). French astronomer.
• 1836 - Orest Kiprensky dies (b. 1782). Russian painter.
• 1837 - Johann Nepomuk Hummel dies (b. 1778). Austrian pianist and composer.
• 1847 - Chiquinha Gonzaga (Francisca Edwiges Neves Gonzaga) was born (d. 1935). Brazilian composer and conductor.
• 1849 - Frederic Chopin dies in Paris (b. 1810). Polish-French musician and composer.
• 1853 - Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia was born (d. 1920).
• 1860 - First The Open Championship (referred to in North America as the British Open).
• 1864 - Elinor Glyn was born (d. 1943). British writer.
• 1865 - James Rudolph Garfield was born (d. 1950). American politician.
• 1867 - Josep Puig Cadafalch was born (d. 23 Dec. 1956). Spanish architect.
• 1868 - Laura Secord dies (b. 1775). Canadian heroine of the war of 1812.
• 1886 - Spring Byington was born (d. 1971). American actress.
• 1887 - Gustav Kirchhoff dies (b. 1824). German physicist.
• 1888 - Thomas Edison files a patent for the Optical Phonograph (the first movie).
• 1888 - Paul Bernays was born (d. 18 Sep 1977). Swiss mathematician and logician who is known for his attempts to develop a unified theory of mathematics
• 1889 - Nikolai Gavrilovitch Tchernichevski dies (b. 1828). Russian socialist revolucionary.
• 1890 - Roy Kilner was born (d. 1928). English cricketer.
• 1892 - Herbert Howells was born (d. 1983). English composer.
• 1892 - Theodor Eicke was born (d. 1943). Nazi official.
• 1893 - Spring Byington was born. Actress (Please Don't Eat the Daisies, Angels in the Outfield, Jezebel, Little Women, Laramie, December Bride).
• 1893 - Marie Edme Patrice Maurice de Mac-Mahon dies. President of France (24 May 1873 - 30 Jan 1879).
• 1894 - Pablo de Rokha was born. Chilean poet.
• 1895 - Arthur Duarte was born. Portuguese film director and actor. [director :O Costa do Castelo (1943), A Menina da Rádio (1944), O Leão da Estrela (1947), O Noivo das Caldas (1956), etc.]
• 1898 - Simon Vestdijk was born (d. 1971). Dutch writer.
• 1898 - Shinichi Suzuki was born (d. 1998). Japanese violin teacher.
• 1900 - Jean Arthur was born (d. 1991). American actress.
• 1902 - Irene Ryan was born (d. 26 Apr 1973). American actress.
• 1903 - Nathanael West was born (d. 1940). American writer (Miss Lonelyhearts, Day of the Locust),
• 1906 - Paul Derringer was born (d. 1987). American baseball player.
• 1907 - Guglielmo Marconi's company begins the first commercial transatlantic wireless service between Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada and Clifden, Ireland.
• 1907 - Vladimir Vladimirovich Belousov was born (d. 25 Dec 1990). Soviet geologist and geophysicist whose theory of density differentiation (1942) held that movements of the Earth's surface is a result of gradual internal structural changes as denser matter sinks towards the Earth's centre.
• 1908 - Red Rolfe was born (d. 1969). American baseball player.
• 1910 - Julia Ward Howe dies (b. 1819). American composer and abolitionist.
• 1912 - Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia declare war on the Ottoman Empire, joining Montenegro in the First Balkan War.
• 1912 - Pope John Paul I was born (d. 1978).
• 1912 - Jack Owens, The Cruising Crooner was born (d. 1982). American singer and songwriter.
• 1914 - Jerry Siegel was born (d. 1998). American cartoonist.
• 1915 - Arthur Miller was born (d. 2005). American playwright.
• 1917 - First British bombing of Germany in World War I.
• 1917 - Marsha Hunt was born in Chicago, Illinois. American actress.
• 1917 - Alexandre Cabral was born (d. 1996). Portuguese writer and translator. Important investigator of the Camilo Castelo Branco's work (Dicionário de Camilo).
• 1917 - Sumner Locke Elliott was born (d. 1991). Australian (later American) novelist.
• 1918 - Rita Hayworth was born (d. 1987). American actress.
• 1919 - Isaak Markovich Khalatnikov was born. Russian physicist
• 1920 - Montgomery Clift was born († 23 Jul 1966). American actor.
• 1920 - Miguel Delibes was born. Spanish novelista, dramatist and journalist.
• 1921 - Tom Poston was born. American actor and comedian.
• 1921 - Maria Gorokhovskaya was born (d. 2001). Soviet gymnast.
• 1922 - Pierre Juneau was born. Canadian film and broadcast executive
• 1922 - Luiz Bonfá was born (d. 2001). Brazilian guitarist and composer.
• 1923 - Charles McClendon was born (d. 2001). LSU Tigers head football coach.
• 1923 - Barney Kessel was born (d. 2004). American jazz guitarist.
• 1924 - Antonio Ramos Rosa was born in Faro. Portuguese essayst and poet. Awarded with "Prémio Pessoa" in 1988.
• 1925 - Harry Carpenter was born. English sports commentator.
• 1926 - Beverly Garland was born. Actress.
• 1926 - Julie Adams was born in Waterloo, Iowa. American actress.
• 1930 - Robert Atkins was born (d. 2003). American nutritionist.
• 1930 - Jimmy Breslin was born. American writer.
• 1930 - Joe Erskine was born. American welterweight boxer and long distance runner
• 1931 - José Alencar was born. Vice-president of Brazil.
• 1931 - Ernst Hinterberger was born. Austrian writer.
• 1931 - Al Capone convicted of income tax evasion and sentenced to eleven years in prison. (He was released in 1939).
• 1931 - Alfons Maria Jakob dies (b. 1884). German neurologist.
• 1933 - Albert Einstein, fleeing Nazi Germany, moves to the US.
• 1933 - Jeanine Deckers was born (d. 1985). Belgian nun and singer.
• 1934 - Johnny Haynes was born (d. 2005). English footballer.
• 1934 - Santiago Ramón y Cajal dies (b. 1 May 1852). Spanish hystologist who (with Camillo Golgi) awarded in 1906 the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for establishing the neuron, or nerve cell, as the basic unit of nervous structure.
• 1936 - Hiroo Kanamori was born. Japanese seismologist.
• 1937 - Huey, Dewey and Louie, Donald Duck's three almost identical nephews, first appear in a newspaper comic strip.
• 1937 - Paxton Whitehead was born. English actor.
• 1938 - António Calvário was born in Mozambique. Portuguese singer.
• 1938 - Evel Knievel was born (d. 2007). American motorcycle daredevil.
• 1938 - Karl Kautsky dies. Austrian socialist theoretic.
• 1940 - Jim Smith was born. English footballer and manager.
• 1940 - Peter Stringfellow was born. British nightclub owner.
• 1941 - For the first time in World War II, a German submarine attacks an American ship.
• 1941 - Earl Thomas Conley was born. American country music singer.
• 1941 - Jim Seals was born. American singer/songwriter (Seals and Crofts).
• 1942 - Gary Puckett was born. American musician.
• 1943 - Stefan Starzyński dies. Polish politician.
• 1944 - Rufino Blanco Fombona dies. Venezuelan writer.
• 1945 - A massive number of people gather in the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina to demand Juan Peron's release. This is known to the Peronists as the Día de la lealtad (day of loyalty) or San Perón (Saint Perón). It's considered the birthday of Peronism.
• 1946 - Sir Cameron Mackintosh was born. British stage producer and director.
• 1946 - Adam Michnik was born. Polish activist.
• 1946 - Bob Seagren was born. American athlete.
• 1946 - Drusilla Modjeska was born. Australian writer and editor.
• 1946 - Michael Hossack was born. American rock drummer (The Doobie Brothers).
• 1947 - Gene Green was born. American politician.
• 1947 - Michael McKean was born. American actor and comedian.
• 1948 - Margot Kidder was born. Canadian actress.
• 1948 - George Wendt was born. American actor.
• 1948 - Robert Jordan was born (d. 2007). American novelist.
• 1950 - Howard Rollins was born (d. 1996). American actor.
• 1955 - Georgios Alogoskoufis was born. Greek politician.
• 1956 - The first commercial nuclear power station was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II in Sellafield,in Cumbria, England.
• 1956 - Mae Jemison was born. American astronaut
• 1956 - Patrick McCrory was born. American politician and Mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina
• 1957 - French author Albert Camus was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature.
• 1957 - Lawrence Bender was born. American film producer.
• 1957 - Steve McMichael was born. American football player.
• 1958 - Alan Jackson was born. American singer and songwriter.
• 1958 - Charlie Townsend dies (b. 1876). English cricketer.
• 1958 - Paul Outerbridge dies (b. 1896). American photographer.
• 1959 - Mark Peel was born. Australian historian and academic.
• 1959 - Richard Roeper was born. American film critic.
• 1959 - Ron Drummond was born. American writer, editor, and independent scholar.
• 1959 - Russell Gilbert was born. Australian comedian and actor.
• 1960 - Rob Marshall was born. American theater and film director.
• 1960 - Guy Henry was born. English actor.
• 1961 - Scores of Algerian protesters (some claim up to 400) are massacred by the Paris police at the instigation of Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon, then chief of the Prefecture of Police.
• 1962 - Mike Judge was born. Ecuadoran-born cartoonist and writer.
• 1962 - Natalia Goncharova dies (b. 1882). Russian painter.
• 1963 - Norm Macdonald was born. Canadian comedian and actor.
• 1963 - Sergio Goycochea was born. Argentine football player.
• 1963 - Jacques Hadamard dies (b. 1865). French mathematician.
• 1965 - The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair closes after a two year run. More than 51 million people had attended the two-year event.
• 1965 - Aravinda de Silva was born. Sri Lankan cricketer.
• 1965 - John Barton King dies (b. 1873). American cricketer.
• 1966 - A fire at a building in New York, New York kills 12 firefighters.
• 1966 - Botswana and Lesoto are admitted as ONU members.
• 1966 - Mark Gatiss was born. English actor.
• 1966 - Tommy Kendall was born. American race car driver and television personality.
• 1966 - Wieland Wagner dies (b. 1917). German stage director.
• 1967 - The musical Hair opens at the Anspacher Theater on Broadway.
• 1967 - René Dif was born. Danish musician (Aqua).
• 1967 - Henry Pu Yi dies (b. 1906). Last emperor of China.
• 1968 - The 1968 Olympics Black Power salute is performed by Tommie Smith and John Carlos.
• 1968 - Ziggy Marley was born. Jamaican musician.
• 1969 - Ernie Els was born. South African golfer.
• 1969 - Rick Mercer was born. Canadian comedian.
• 1969 - Wood Harris was born. African American actor.
• 1970 - Montreal, Quebec: Quebec Vice-Premier and Minister of Labour Pierre Laporte murdered by members of the FLQ terrorist group.
• 1970 - Anwar Sadat becomes president of Egypt
• 1970 - Montreal, Quebec: Quebec Vice-Premier and Minister of Labour Pierre Laporte murdered by members of the FLQ terrorist group.
• 1970 - Anil Kumble was born. Indian cricketer.
• 1970 - John Mabry was born. American baseball player.
• 1970 - Pierre Laporte dies assassinated (b. 1921). Vice-Premier of Quebec.
• 1970 - Vola Vale dies (b. 1867). American actress.
• 1971 - Blues Saraceno was born. American guitarist.
• 1971 - Chris Kirkpatrick was born. American singer ('N Sync).
• 1972 - Eminem was born. American rapper.
• 1972 - Wyclef Jean was born. Haitian-born singer.
• 1972 - Joe McEwing was born. Baseball player.
• 1972 - Tarkan was born. Turkish singer.
• 1972 - Billy Williams dies (b. 1910). American singer.
• 1972 - Prince George of Yugoslavia dies (b. 1887).
• 1972 - Turk Broda dies (b. 1914). National Hockey League goaltender.
• 1973 - OPEC starts an oil embargo against a number of western countries, considered to have helped Israel in its war against Syria.
• 1973 - Ingeborg Bachmann dies (b. 1926). Austrian writer.
• 1973 - Gene Krupa dies (b. 1909). American drummer.
• 1973 - Ingeborg Bachmann dies (b. 1926). Austrian writer.
• 1974 - Ariel Levy was born. American feminist writer.
• 1974 - Bárbara Paz was born. Brazilian actress.
• 1974 - Janne Puurtinen was born. Finnish keyboarder (HIM).
• 1974 - John Rocker was born. American baseball player.
• 1974 - Matthew Macfadyen was born. British actor.
• 1975 - Francis Bouillon was born. National Hockey League defenseman.
• 1976 - Sebastián Abreu was born. Uruguayan footballer.
• 1977 - West German commandos stormed a hijacked Lufthansa Flight 181 that was on the ground in Mogadishu, Somalia, freeing all 86 hostages and killing three of the four hijackers, four days after it was hijacked.
• 1977 - Bryan Bertino was born. American film director and screenwriter.
• 1977 - Dudu Aouate was born. Israeli footballer.
• 1979 - Mother Teresa awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
• 1979 - The Department of Education Organization Act is signed into law creating the US Department of Education and US Department of Health and Human Services. Both replace the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.
• 1979 - Kimi Räikkönen was born. Finnish race car driver.
• 1979 - Kostas Tsartsaris was born. Greek basketball player.
• 1979 - Marcela Bovio was born. Mexican singer and violinist (Elfonía, Stream of Passion).
• 1979 - S. J. Perelman dies (b. 1904). American writer and humorist.
• 1979 - John Stuart dies (b. 1898). Scottish actor.
• 1980 - Pope welcomes Queen of England to the Vatican.
• 1980 - Alessandro Piccolo was born. Italian racing driver.
• 1980 - Ekaterina Gamova was born. Russian volleyball player.
• 1981 - Albert Cohen dies (b. 1895). Swiss author.
• 1982 - Nick Riewoldt was born. Australian rules footballer.
• 1983 - Daniel Booko was born. American actor.
• 1983 - Ivan Saenko was born. Russian football player.
• 1983 - Raymond Aron dies (b. 1905). French philosopher and sociolog.
• 1984 - Henri Michaux dies (b. 1899). French painter and poet.
• 1984 - The New York Times runs an article titled "CIA primer tells nicaraguan rebels how to kill", which describes a secret "Psychological Operations in Guerilla Warfare" manual that the CIA supplied to the Contras and that gives instructions on how to kidnap and assassinate civil officials such as judges and policemen.
• 1984 - Mário Silva, pintor português, obtém o Prémio Siena 1982, em Itália, pela sua obra Quadrado de Ouro.
• 1984 - Chris Lowell was born. American actor.
• 1984 - Jelle Klaasen was born. Dutch darts player.
• 1984 - Randall Munroe was born. American webcomic author.
• 1987 - Abdul Malek Ukil was born (d. 1925). Bangladeshi politician.
• 1987 - Bea Alonzo was born. Filipina actress.
• 1987 - Jarosław Fojut was born. Polish footballer.
• 1989 - Loma Prieta earthquake (7.1 on the Richter scale) hits the San Francisco Bay Area.
• 1989 - Phoebe Tonkin was born. Australian actress.
• 1990 - Taylor Parks was born. Stand-Up Comic.
• 1991 - Tennessee Ernie Ford dies (b. 1919). American singer and television performer.
• 1992 - The United Nations General Assembly declares October 17 as the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, to be observed beginning in 1993. Resolution 47/196 of 22 December 1992.
• 1992 - Presidential elections in Angola Eduardo dos Santos (MPLA) wins with 49,57% of votes / Eleições presidenciais em Angola dão 49,57 % a Eduardo dos Santos (MPLA) e 40,07 % a Jonas Savimbi (UNITA).
• 1992 - Matthew Crane was born. British operatic singer.
• 1992 - Sam Concepcion was born. Filipino performer and actor.
• 1992 - Herman Johannes dies (b. 1912). Indonesian professor, scientist and politician.
• 1992 - Orestis Laskos dies (b. 1908). Greek film director, screenwriter and actor.
• 1993 - Criss Oliva dies (b. 1963). American musician (Savatage).
• 1994 - Draft peace treaty between Israel and Jordan.
• 1994 - Peace treaty between the government of Angola and UNITA.
• 1995 - Alexandria, McKenzie and Megan Calabrese were born. American triplets and actresses.
• 1996 - Chris Acland dies (b. 1966). English drummer (Lush).
• 1998 - At Jesse, in the Niger Delta, Nigeria, a petroleum pipeline explodes killing about 1200 villagers, some of whom are scavenging gasoline.
• 1998 - O ex-governante chileno, Augusto Pinochet é detido em Londres por orden do juiz espanhol Garzón.
• 1998 - Hakim Mohammed Said dies (b. 1920). Pakistani scholar and philanthropist.
• 1998 - Joan Hickson dies (b. 1906). British actress.
• 1999 - Nicholas Metropolis dies (b. 1915). Greek-American mathematician, physicist and computer scientist.
• 2000 - Train crash at Hatfield, north of London, leading to collapse of Railtrack.
• 2000 - Fariba Hashtroudi, Iranian archeologist and journalist receives the 2000 Human Right Prize for Literature.
• 2000 - Leo Nomellini dies (b. 1924). American wrestler.
• 2001 - Jay Livingston dies (b. 1915). American songwriter.
• 2001 - Rehavam Zeevi dies (b. 1926). Israeli politician.
• 2002 - Aileen Riggin dies (b. 1906). American swimmer.
• 2002 - Derek Bell dies. Irish harpist (The Chieftans).
• 2003 - Carlos Mesa becomes President of Bolivia.
• 2003 - The pinnacle was fitted on the roof of Taipei 101, a 106-floor skyscraper in Taipei, allowing it to surpass the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur by 50 meters (165 feet) and become the World's tallest highrise.
• 2003 - Eunuchs in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh float the political party Jiti Jitayi Politics.
• 2004 - Uzi Hitman dies (b. 1952). Israeli singer.
• 2005 - Ba Jin dies (b. 1904). Chinese writer.
• 2005 - Franky Gee dies (b. 1964). European techno artist.
• 2006 - The United States population reaches 300 million.
• 2006 - Daniel Emilfork dies (b. 1924). French actor.
• 2006 - Christopher Glenn dies (b. 1938). American newscaster.
• 2007 - The Dalai Lama receives the United States Congressional Gold Medal.
• 2007 - Digital switchover begins in the United Kingdom in the small seaside town of Whitehaven. BBC Two was the first channel to be taken off the analogue network. Digital Switchover in the UK will continue for the next 5 years.
• 2007 - Joey Bishop dies (b. 1918). American entertainer, member of the Rat Pack.
• 2007 - Teresa Brewer dies (b. 1931). American pop and jazz singer.
• United States - Black Poetry Day.
• International Day for Eradication of Poverty (United Nations) / Dia Internacional para a Erradicação da Pobreza
• R.C. Saints - Saint Ignatius of Antioch; translation of Saint Audrey (Æthelthryth); Saint Richard Gwyn; Saint Catervus; Saint Marguerite Marie Alacoque.
• Haiti - Death of Jean-Jacques Dessalines (1806), State holiday.
• French Republican Calendar - Aubergine (Eggplant) Day, twenty-sixth day in the Month of Vendémiaire.