February 17

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.
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 - Rene 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 Sussmuth, 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 - Andre Dussollier, French actor
1948 - Rick Majerus, American basketball player
1948 - Don Scardino, American television director and actor
1948 - Jose Jose, 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 Segerstrom, 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 - Moliere, 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 Junger, militaristic German writer (b. 1895)
From 2001
2001 - Khalid Abdul Muhammed, Nation of Islam spokesman (b. 1948)
2004 - Jose Lopez 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 - Borge Hellstrom, 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)
Days of the year