June 17

Events
Up to 1900
1462 Vlad III the Impaler attempts to kill Ottoman Empire Sultan Mehmed II forcing him to retreat to Wallachia.
1497 Battle of Deptford Bridge - Forces under King Henry VII soundly defeat troops led by Michael An Gof.
1565 Matsunaga Hisahide assassinates the 13th Ashikaga Shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiteru.
1579 Sir Francis Drake claims a land he calls Nova Albion (modern California) for England.
1596 Willem Barents reaches Svalbard during his attempt to find the Northeast Passage.
1631 Mumtaz Mahal died during childbirth. Her husband, Mughal emperor Shah Jahan I, then spent more than 20 years having her tomb, the Taj Mahal, built.
1673 French explorers Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet reach the Mississippi River.
1775 American Revolutionary War: Battle of Bunker Hill - The British forces take Bunker Hill outside of Boston.
1789 In France, the Third Estate declares itself as a national assembly.
1839 In the Kingdom of Hawaii, Kamehameha III issues the Edict of Toleration which gives Roman Catholics the freedom to worship in the Hawaiian Islands. The Hawaii Catholic Church and the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace is later established as a result.
1843 The Wairau Affray, the first serious clash of arms between Maori and British settlers in the New Zealand Land Wars, takes place.
1863 Battle of Aldie in the Gettysburg Campaign of the American Civil War
1876 American Indian Wars: Battle of the Rosebud - 1,500 Sioux and Cheyenne led by Crazy Horse beat back General George Crook forces at Rosebud Creek in Montana Territory.
1877 American Indian Wars: The Nez Perce defeat United States Cavalry in the Battle of White Bird Canyon, in what was then the Idaho Territory.
1885 The Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbor.
1898 The Navy Hospital Corps is established.
1900 Boxer Rebellion: Allied Japanese and Western forces capture Taku Forts, Tianjin, China.
1901 2000
1911 The University of Iceland is founded.
1928 Aviator Amelia Earhart starts her attempt to become the first woman to fly in an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean. She was a passenger; Wilmer Stutz was pilot and Lou Gordon, mechanic.
1929 A magnitude 7.8 earthquake hits Murdison, New Zealand, killing 17 people. It was New Zealand's deadliest natural disaster at the time.
1930 U.S. President Herbert Hoover signs the Smoot-Hawley Tariff into law.
1930 Bonus Army: Around a thousand World War I veterans mass at the United States Capitol as the U.S. Senate considers a bill that would give them certain benefits.
1933 Union Station Massacre: In Kansas City, Missouri, four FBI agents and captured fugitive Frank Nash were gunned down by gangsters attempting to free Nash.
1939 Convicted murderer Eugen Weidmann is executed in the last public guillotining in France.
1940 World War II: Operation Ariel begins - Allied troops start to evacuate France, following Germany's takeover of Paris and most of the nation.
1940 World War II: Sinking of the RMS Lancastria by the Luftwaffe near Saint-Nazaire, France.
1940 The three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania fall under the occupation of the Soviet Union.
1944 Iceland becomes independent from Denmark and forms a republic.
1948 A Douglas DC-6 carrying United Air Lines Flight 624 crashes near Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania, killing all 43 people on board.
1953 Workers Uprising: In East Germany, the Soviet Union orders a division of troops into East Berlin to quell a rebellion.
1958 The Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Crossing, while being built to connect Vancouver to North Vancouver in Western Canada, collapses into the Burrard Inlet, killing many of the ironworkers and injuring others.
1961 The New Democratic Party of Canada is founded with the merger of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and the Canadian Labour Congress.
1963 The United States Supreme Court ruled 8 to 1 in Abington School District v. Schempp against allowing the reciting of Bible verses and the Lord's Prayer in public schools.
1967 The People's Republic of China announces its first test of a thermonuclear weapon.
1969 Boris Spassky defeats Tigran Petrosian to become world chess champion.
1971 Representatives of Japan and the United States sign the Okinawa Reversion Agreement, setting out a plan where the U.S. would return control of Okinawa.
1971 Richard Nixon declares the US War on Drugs.
1972 Watergate scandal: Five White House operatives are arrested for breaking in to the offices of the Democratic National Committee, in an attempt by the Republican party to illegally wiretap the opposition.
1974 The IRA carries an attack on the British Parliament in London.
1982 The body of "God's Banker", Roberto Calvi, is found hanging beneath Blackfriars Bridge in London.
1985 Space Shuttle Discovery lifts off on Mission STS-51-G. On board is Saudi Arabian Prince Sultan bin Salman Al Saud, the first Arab in space.
1987 The Dusky Seaside Sparrow becomes extinct.
1991 Apartheid: The South African Parliament repeals the Population Registration Act, which had required all racial classification of all South Africans at birth.
1992 A 'Joint Understanding' agreement on arms reduction is signed by U.S. President George H. W. Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin (this would be later codified in START II).
1994 Following a televised highway chase and a failed attempt at suicide, O. J. Simpson is arrested for the murders of his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman.
From 2001
2012 Greece holds its second parliamentary election in the space of six weeks, with no party winning overall control.
2012 Egypt holds the second round of its first Presidential election since Hosni Mubarak left office following the 2011 Egyptian protests.
2013 Singapore is hit by the worst haze since 1997. The PSI levels reaches levels not seen since 2006, with a PSI of 155 recorded at 10pm, after air quality plummeted into the "Unhealthy" range at 2pm.
2015 Charleston church shooting: 9 people are killed in a shooting at a prayer meeting in Charleston, South Carolina. Local politician and pastor Clementa C. Pinckney is among those killed.
2017 The 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup starts, with hosts Russia defeating New Zealand 2-0.
2017 Massive wildfires break out in central Portugal, killing at least 60 people.
2018 2018 FIFA World Cup: Mexico defeat defending champions Germany in both teams' first group match of the competition.
2019 Former President of Egypt Mohamed Morsi reportedly dies after fainting while on trial in Cairo.
2020 The English Premier League returns after being halted in March because of COVID-19.
Births
Up to 1900
801 Drogo of Metz, son of Charlemagne (d. 855)
1239 King Edward I of England (d. 1307)
1530 Francois de Montmorency, French politician (d. 1579)
1603 Joseph of Cupertino, Italian saint (d. 1663)
1604 John Maurice, Prince of Nassau-Siegen (d. 1679)
1625 Peder Hansen Resen, Danish historian and legal scholar (d. 1688)
1631 Gauhara Begum, daughter of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal (d. 1706)
1658 Diogo de Medonca Corte-Real, Portuguese diplomat and statesman (d. 1736)
1682 King Charles XII of Sweden (d. 1718)
1691 Giovanni Paolo Pannini, Italian painter and architect (d. 1765)
1703 John Wesley, English theologian, founder of Methodism (d. 1791)
1714 Cesar-Francois Cassini de Thury, French astronomer (d. 1784)
1808 Henrik Wergeland, Norwegian writer (d. 1845)
1810 Ferdinand Freiligrath, German writer (d. 1876)
1811 Jon Sigurdsson, Icelandic independence fighter (d. 1879)
1811 Adolphe d'Ennery, French writer (d. 1899)
1818 Charles Gounod, French composer (d. 1893)
1818 Sophie of Wurttemberg, Queen of the Netherlands (d. 1877)
1832 Sir William Crookes, physicist and chemist (d. 1919)
1835 Eugene Borel, Swiss politician (d. 1892)
1858 Ebenezer Sumner Draper, 44th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1914)
1861 Omar Bundy, American general (d. 1940)
1863 Charles Michael, Duke of Mecklenburg (d. 1934)
1867 Henry Lawson, Australian poet (d. 1922)
1867 John Robert Gregg, American educator, publisher and humanitarian (d. 1948)
1869 Aloys, Prince of Liechtenstein (d. 1955)
1880 Carl Van Vechten, American photographer (d. 1964)
1881 Tommy Burns, Canadian boxer (d. 1955)
1882 Igor Stravinsky, Russian composer (d. 1971)
1882 Adolphus Frederick IV, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (d. 1918)
1884 Prince Wilhelm, Duke of Sodermanland, Swedish royal (d. 1965)
1897 Maria Izilda de Castro Ribeiro, Brazilian saint (d. 1911)
1898 M. C. Escher, Dutch artist (d. 1972)
1898 Harry Patch, British World War I veteran and supercentenarian (d. 2009)
1898 Carl Hermann, German physicist (d. 1961)
1900 Martin Bormann, Nazi official (d. 1945)
1901 1950
1903 Ruth Graves Wakefield, American inventor of the chocolate-chip cookie (d. 1977)
1904 Ralph Bellamy, American actor and comedian (d. 1987)
1907 Charles Eames, American designer and architect (d. 1978)
1907 Maurice Cloche, French director and screenwriter (d. 1990)
1909 Elmer L. Andersen, Governor of Minnesota (d. 2004)
1910 Red Foley, American country musician (d. 1968)
1914 John Hersey, American writer (d. 1993)
1914 Julian Marias, Spanish philosopher (d. 2005)
1915 Karl Targownik, psychiatrist (d. 1996)
1915 David "Stringbean" Akeman, American banjo player and actor (d. 1973)
1915 Mario Echandi Jimenez, President of Costa Rica (d. 2011)
1916 Terry Gilkyson, American singer, songwriter, guitarist and composer (d. 1999)
1917 Atle Selberg, Norwegian mathematician
1917 Dufferin Roblin, Premier of Manitoba (d. 2010)
1919 Beryl Reid, English actress (d. 1996)
1920 Francois Jacob, French biologist and Nobel Prize winner (d. 2013)
1920 Setsuko Hara, Japanese actress (d. 2015)
1922 John Amis, British journalist and critic (d. 2013)
1923 Elroy 'Crazylegs' Hirsch, American football player (d. 2004)
1923 Anthony Bevilacqua, American cardinal (d. 2012)
1923 Larry Kwong, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2019)
1924 William MacDonald, English-Australian serial killer (d. 2014)
1925 Alexander Shulgin, American pharmacologist and chemist (d. 2014)
1928 Juan Maria Bordaberry, President of Uruguay (d. 2011)
1928 Peter Shirayanagi, Japanese cardinal (d. 2009)
1929 Tigran Petrosian, Armenian chess player (d. 1984)
1929 James Shigeta, American actor (d. 2014)
1930 Princess Lalla Aicha of Morocco (d. 2011)
1930 Brian Statham, English cricketer (d. 2000)
1931 John Baldessari, American painter (d. 2020)
1932 Derek Ibbotson, English runner
1932 Peter Lupus, American actor
1932 John Murtha, American politician (d. 2010)
1933 Harry Browne, American actor
1933 Christian Ferras, French violinist (d. 1982)
1936 Ken Loach, British movie director
1937 Clodovil Hernandes, Brazilian entertainer (d. 2009)
1937 Ted Nelson, American sociologist and philosopher
1938 Grethe Ingmann, Danish singer (d. 1990)
1939 Krzysztof Zanussi, Polish film and theatre director
1940 George Akerlof, American economist
1942 Roger Steffens, American actor, author, photographer and producer
1942 Mohamed ElBaradei, Egyptian International Atomic Energy Agency Director
1943 Newt Gingrich, American politician
1943 Barry Manilow, American musician
1944 Chris Spedding, British guitarist
1945 Ken Livingstone, British politician, former Mayor of London
1945 Eddy Merckx, Belgian cyclist
1945 Frank Ashmore, American actor
1946 Eduardo Camano, Argentine politician
1946 Peter Rosei, Austrian writer
1947 Linda Chavez, American writer
1947 George S. Clinton, American composer, songwriter and musician
1948 Hrafn Gunnlaugsson, Icelandic movie director
1948 Joaquin Almunia, Spanish politician
1949 Tom Corbett, American politician, 46th Governor of Pennsylvania
1949 Snakefinger, British musician, singer and songwriter (d. 1987)
1949 John Craven, English economist and academic
1951 1975
1951 John Garrett, Canadian ice hockey player
1951 Paul McGuinness, manager of U2
1951 Starhawk, American author and activist
1952 Estelle Morris, Baroness Morris of Yardley, English politician
1952 Judith Macgregor, English diplomat
1952 Sergio Marchionne, Italian-Canadian businessman (d. 2018)
1952 Mike Milbury, American ice hockey player, coach and manager
1954 Mark Linn-Baker, American actor and director
1957 Phil Chevron, Irish musician, singer and songwriter (d. 2013)
1957 Jon Gries, American actor
1958 Jello Biafra, American musician, politician
1959 Nikos Stavropoulos, Greek basketball player
1959 Baltazar Maria de Morais Junior, Brazilian footballer
1960 Thomas Haden Church, American actor
1963 Christophe Barratier, French film producer, director and screenwriter
1963 Greg Kinnear, American actor
1964 Michael Gross, swimmer
1966 Jason Patric, American actor
1966 Tory Burch, American fashion designer, businesswoman and philanthropist
1967 Eric Stefani, American musician (No Doubt)
1968 Minoru Suzuki, Japanese professional wrestler and mixed martial arts artist
1969 Paul Tergat, Kenyan runner
1969 Ilya Tsymbalar, Russian footballer (d. 2013)
1970 Michael Showalter, American actor, writer and director
1971 Paulina Rubio, Mexican singer
1972 Sebastian White, English musician (Oasis)
1973 Leander Paes, Indian tennis player
1975 Chloe Jones, American pornographic actress (d. 2005)
1975 Joshua Leonard, American actor
1975 Nestor Pitana, Argentine football referee
From 1976
1976 Scott Adkins, English actor and martial artist
1976 Peter Svidler, Russian chess player
1978 Isabelle Delobel, French ice dancer
1979 Nick Rimando, footballer
1979 Young Maylay, American rapper
1980 Venus Williams, American tennis player
1980 Kimeru, Japanese singer and actor
1981 Shane Watson, Australian cricketer
1982 Arthur Darvill, English actor
1982 Alex Rodrigo Dias da Costa, Brazilian footballer
1983 Connie Fisher, British stage actress
1983 Lee Ryan, British singer (Blue)
1983 Kazunari Ninomiya, Japanese actor
1985 Marcos Baghdatis, Cypriot tennis player
1985 Rafael Sobis, Brazilian footballer
1986 Apoula Edel, American footballer
1986 Helen Glover, British rower
1987 Nozomi Tsuji, Japanese singer
1987 Kendrick Lamar, American rapper
1987 L'ubos Kamenar, Slovakian footballer
1988 Andrew Ogilvy, Australian basketball player
1988 Stephanie Rice, Australian swimmer
1989 Simone Battle, American actress and singer (d. 2014)
1990 Alan Dzagoev, Russian footballer
1990 Joel Robles, Spanish footballer
1990 Jordan Henderson, English footballer
1990 Laura Wright, English singer
1993 Jean Marie Froget, Mauritian swimmer
1995 Arkadiusz Reca, Polish footballer
Deaths
Up to 1900
676 Pope Adeodatus II
850 Tachibana no Kachiko, Japanese Empress (b. 786)
924 Edward the Elder, Saxon King of England (b. 874)
1025 Boleslaw I the Brave, King of Poland (b. 967)
1091 Dirk V, Count of Holland (b. 1052)
1463 Princess Catherine of Portugal (b. 1436)
1501 John I Albert, King of Poland (b. 1459)
1565 Ashikaga Yoshiteru, Ashikaga shogun (b. 1536)
1631 Mumtaz Mahal, wife of Shah Jahan, inspiration for the Taj Mahal (b. 1593)
1694 Philip Howard, English cardinal (b. 1629)
1696 John III Sobieski, King of Poland (b. 1629)
1719 Joseph Addison, English politician and writer (b. 1672)
1734 Claude-Louis-Hector de Villars, Marshal of France (b. 1653)
1740 William Wyndham, 3rd Baronet, British politician (b. 1687)
1775 John Pitcairn, British military officer (b. 1722)
1775 Joseph Warren, American soldier (b. 1741)
1797 Agha Muhammad Khan, Persian Shah of Qajar dynasty (b. 1742)
1813 Charles Middleton, 1st Baron Barham, Scottish-English admiral and politician (b. 1726)
1839 Lord William Bentinck, British Governor-General of India (b. 1774)
1842 Arthur Conolly, British traveler, military and diplomat (b. 1807)
1858 Rani Lakshmibai, Indian political figure (b. 1828)
1866 Lewis Cass, American politician (b. 1782)
1898 Edward Burne-Jones, English artist (b. 1833)
1901 2000
1904 Nikolai Bobrikov, Russian politician (b. 1839)
1917 Jose Manuel Pando, Bolivian politician (b. 1848)
1936 Henri Louis Le Chatelier, French chemist and physicist (b. 1850)
1936 Julius Seljamaa, Estonian politician, diplomat and journalist (b. 1883)
1939 Eugen Weidmann, last public guillotine execution in France (b. 1908)
1940 Arthur Harden, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1865)
1941 Johan Wagenaar, Dutch composer and organist (b. 1862)
1956 Paul Rostock, German doctor (b. 1892)
1957 Dorothy Richardson, English feminist writer (b. 1873)
1960 Pierre Reverdy, French writer (b. 1889)
1961 Jeff Chandler, actor (b. 1918)
1963 Aleksander Keskula, Estonian politician (b. 1882)
1968 Jose Nasazzi, Uruguayan footballer (b. 1901)
1968 A. M. Cassandre, Ukrainian-French artist (b. 1901)
1979 Duffy Lewis, Major League Baseball player (b. 1888)
1982 Roberto Calvi, Italian banker (b. 1920)
1986 Kate Smith, American singer (b. 1907)
1987 Dick Howser, American baseball player and manager (b. 1936)
1996 Thomas Kuhn, American philosopher of science (b. 1922)
1998 John Carberry, American cardinal (b. 1904)
1999 Basil Hume, English Roman Catholic cardinal (b. 1931)
2000 Ismail Mahomed, 17th Chief Justice of South Africa (b. 1931)
From 2001
2001 Donald J. Cram, American chemist (b. 1919)
2001 Thomas Joseph Winning, Archbishop of Glasgow (b. 1925)
2002 Willie Davenport, athlete (b. 1943)
2002 Fritz Walter, German footballer (b. 1920)
2004 Gerry McNeil, hockey player (b. 1926)
2004 Sara Lidman, Swedish writer (b. 1923)
2006 Arthur Franz, American actor (b. 1920)
2007 Angelo Felici, Italian cardinal (b. 1919)
2008 Tsutomu Miyazaki, Japanese serial killer (b. 1962)
2008 Cyd Charisse, American dancer and actress (b. 1921)
2009 Ralf Dahrendorf, German-born sociologist and politician (b. 1929)
2012 Rodney King, American victim of police brutality (b. 1965)
2013 James Holshouser, 68th Governor of North Carolina (b. 1934)
2014 Jorge Romo, Mexican footballer (b. 1924)
2014 Larry Zeidel, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1928)
2014 Patsy Byrne, English actress (b. 1933)
2015 Ron Clarke, Australian athlete and former Mayor of Gold Coast, Queensland (b. 1937)
2015 Suleyman Demirel, 9th President of Turkey (b. 1924)
2015 Jeralean Talley, American supercentenarian (b. 1899)
2015 Roberto M. Levingston, Argentine general and politician (b. 1920)
2015 Clementa C. Pinckney, American politician and pastor (b. 1973)
2015 Nelson Doubleday, Jr., American publisher (b. 1933)
2015 John David Crow, American football player (b. 1935)
2015 Nicola Badalucco, Italian screenwriter and journalist (b. 1929)
2015 Chang Ch'ung-ho, Chinese-American poet, calligrapher and opera singer (b. 1914)
2016 Ruben Aguirre, Mexican actor (b. 1934)
2016 Attrell Cordes, American singer (P.M. Dawn) (b. 1970)
2016 Ron Lester, American actor (b. 1970)
2016 David Morgenthaler, American businessman (b. 1919)
2017 Baldwin Lonsdale, President of Vanuatu (b. 1950)
2017 Luis Lusquinos, Argentine politician (b. 1951)
2017 Venus Ramey, American beauty pageant contestant (b. 1924)
2017 Leopoldo S. Tumulak, Filipino Roman Catholic prelate (b. 1944)
2017 Elias Burstein, American physicist (b. 1917)
2017 Pierre Imhasly, Swiss author and poet (b. 1939)
2017 Emil Wojtaszek, Polish politician (b. 1927)
2018 Elizabeth Brackett, American journalist (b. 1941)
2018 Zhao Nanqi, Korean-born Chinese general and politician (b. 1927)
2018 Igor Muradyan, Armenian political activist (b. 1957)
2019 Philipp Bobkov, Russian intelligence officer (b. 1925)
2019 Darwin Hindman, American politician (b. 1933)
2019 Mohamed Morsi, 5th President of Egypt (b. 1951)
2019 Salvatore Senese, Italian magistrate and politician (b. 1935)
2019 Gloria Vanderbilt, American socialite, fashion designer and artist (b. 1924)
2020 Marlene Ahrens, Chilean athlete (b. 1933)
2020 Tariq Aziz, Pakistani actor and television host (b. 1936)
2020 William C. Dement, American sleep researcher (b. 1928)
2020 Terry Dicks, British politician (b. 1937)
2020 Gyorgy Karpati, Hungarian water polo player (b. 1935)
2020 Petr Kral, Czech writer (b. 1941)
2020 Jean Kennedy Smith, American diplomat (b. 1928)
2020 Willie Thorne, British snooker player (b. 1954)
2020 Vatanyar Yagyua, Russian politician (b. 1938)
Observances
Independence Day (Iceland)
Day of German Unity, observed on June 17 in West Germany until 1990, to commemorate East Germany's Workers' Uprising in 1953
Soviet occupation Day (Latvia)
Father's Day (El Salvador, Guatemala)
Bunker Hill Day (Sussex County, Massachusetts)
World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought
Days of the year