December 17
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
December 17 is the 351st day of the year (352nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 14 days remaining until the end of the year.
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Births [change]
- 1267 – Emperor Go-Uda, emperor of Japan (d. 1324)
- 1619 – Prince Rupert, Royalist commander in the English Civil War (d. 1682)
- 1632 – Anthony Wood, English antiqurian (d. 1695)
- 1685 – Thomas Tickell, English writer (d. 1740)
- 1706 – Émilie du Châtelet, French mathematician and physicist (d. 1749)
- 1734 – Maria I of Portugal (d. 1816)
- 1749 – Domenico Cimarosa, Italian composer (d. 1801)
- 1758 – Nathaniel Macon, American politician (d. 1837)
- 1778 – Humphrey Davy, English chemist (d. 1829)
- 1796 – Thomas Chandler Haliburton, Canadian novelist (d. 1865)
- 1799 – Titian Peale, American artist (d. 1885)
- 1807 – John Greenleaf Whittier, American poet and abolitionist (d. 1892)
- 1830 – Jules de Goncourt, French publisher (d. 1870)
- 1842 – Sophus Lie, Norwegian mathematician (d. 1899)
- 1853 – Herbert Beerbohm Tree, English actor (d. 1917)
- 1872 – Mistinguett, French actress and singer (d. 1956)
- 1873 – Ford Madox Ford, English writer (d. 1939)
- 1874 – William Lyon Mackenzie King, tenth Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1950)
- 1892 – Sam Barry, American basketball coach (d. 1950)
- 1893 – Erwin Piscator, German film director (d. 1966)
- 1894 - Wim Schermerhorn, Prime Minister of the Netherlands (d. 1977)
- 1894 – Arthur Fiedler, American conductor (d. 1979)
- 1901 – Lee Strasberg, Austrian-born actor and director (d. 1982)
- 1903 – Erskine Caldwell, American author (d. 1987)
- 1903 – Ray Noble, English musician {d. 1978}
- 1906 – Simo Häyhä, Finnish soldier (d. 2002)
- 1908 – Willard Frank Libby, American physicist and chemist (d. 1980)
- 1911 – André Claveau, French singer (d. 2003)
- 1916 – Penelope Fitzgerald, English writer (d. 2000)
- 1929 – William Safire, American columnist (d. 2009)
- 1929 – Jacqueline Hill, British actress (d. 1993)
- 1930 – Bob Guccione, American magazine publisher (d. 2010)
- 1930 – Bob Mathias, American athlete
- 1930 – Armin Mueller-Stahl, German actor
- 1936 - Pope Francis
- 1936 – Tommy Steele, English singer and actor
- 1938 – Gordon Lightfoot, Canadian musician
- 1938 – Peter Snell, New Zealand athlete
- 1939 – Eddie Kendricks, American musician (d. 1992)
- 1941 – Gene Clark, American musician (d. 1991)
- 1942 – Paul Butterfield, American musician (d. 1987)
- 1943 – Ron Geesin, Scottish musician
- 1943 – Lauren Hutton, American model and actress
- 1944 – Jack L. Chalker, American novelist
- 1944 – Lorne Michaels, Canadian television producer
- 1944 – Bernard Hill, English actor
- 1945 – Christopher Cazenove, British actor (d. 2010)
- 1945 – Jacqueline Wilson, English writer
- 1945 – Elvin Hayes, American basketball player
- 1945 – Ernie Hudson, American actor
- 1946 – Eugene Levy, Canadian actor
- 1947 – Wes Studi, American actor
- 1949 – Paul Rodgers, British singer (Free)
- 1951 – Ken Hitchcock, Canadian ice hockey coach
- 1953 – Bill Pullman, American actor
- 1955 – Brad Davis, American basketball player
- 1958 - Mike Mills, American musician
- 1963 – Jon Kalman Stefansson, Icelandic writer
- 1966 – Kristiina Ojuland, Estonian politician
- 1966 – Valery Liukin, Soviet gymnast
- 1967 – Gigi D'Agostino, Italian musician and DJ
- 1968 – Paul Tracy, Canadian race car driver
- 1971 – Antoine Rigaudeau, French basketball player
- 1973 – Paula Radcliffe, English runner
- 1975 – Nick Dinsmore, American professional wrestler
- 1975 – Milla Jovovich, Ukrainian-born actress and model
- 1976 – Patrick Mueller, Swiss footballer
- 1976 – Takeo Spikes, American football player
- 1977 – Liedson, Portuguese footballer
- 1978 – Manny Pacquiao, Filipino boxer and politician
- 1979 – William Green, American football player
- 1981 – Tim Wiese, German footballer
- 1982 – Boubacar Sanogo, Ivory Coast footballer
- 1987 – Bradley Manning, American soldier, leaked information on WikiLeaks
- 1988 - David Rudisha, Kenyan athlete
- 1989 – Andre Ayew, Ghanaian footballer
- 2007 – James, Viscount Severn, British royal and youngest grandchild of Elizabeth II
Deaths [change]
- 942 – William I of Normandy
- 1187 – Pope Gregory VIII
- 1195 – Baldwin V, Count of Hainaut (b. 1150)
- 1273 – Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi, Persian poet and mystic (b. 1207)
- 1663 – Queen Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba (b. 1583)
- 1721 – Richard Lumley, 1st Earl of Scarbrough, English statesman (b. 1640)
- 1812 – Kaspar Hauser, German foundling (b. 1812)
- 1830 – Simón Bolívar, Latin American politician and activist (b. 1783)
- 1897 – Alphonse Daudet, French writer (b. 1840)
- 1907 – William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, Irish-born physicist (b. 1824)
- 1909 – King Léopold II of Belgium (b. 1835)
- 1917 – Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, English physician (b. 1836)
- 1933 – Thubten Gyatso, 13th Dalai Lama (b. 1876)
- 1957 – Dorothy L. Sayers, English writer (b. 1893)
- 1964 – Victor Franz Hess, Austrian-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1883)
- 1967 – Harold Holt, Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1908)
- 1987 – Irving Allen, American producer (b. 1916)
- 1987 – Marguerite Yourcenar, Belgian novelist (b. 1903)
- 1992 – Dana Andrews, American actor (b. 1909)
- 1998 – Claudia Benton, Peruvian child psychologist (b. 1959)
- 1999 – Grover Washington Jr., American musician (b. 1943)
- 2003 – Ed Devereaux, Australian actor (b. 1925)
- 2003 – Otto Graham, American football player (b. 1921)
- 2009 – Jennifer Jones, American actress (b. 1919)
- 2010 – Captain Beefheart, American musician (b. 1941)
- 2011 – Cesaria Evora, Cape Verdean singer (b. 1941)
- 2011 – Kim Jong-il, North Korean leader (b. 1941)
- 2012 - Dina Manfredini, Italian-born American supercentenarian (b. 1897)
- 2012 - Daniel Inouye, United States Senator from Hawaii (b. 1924)
Events [change]
- 942 – William I of Normandy is assassinated.
- 1538 – Pope Paul III excommunicates King Henry VIII of England.
- 1637 – In Japan, the Shimabara Rebellion led by Amakusa Shigeharu against daimyo Matsukura Shigeharu begins.
- 1718 – Great Britain declares war on Spain.
- 1790 – The Aztec calendar stone Piedra del Sol is discovered during building work in Mexico City.
- 1862 – Ulysses S. Grant issues General Order Number 11, expelling Jews from Tennessee, Mississippi and Kentucky.
- 1865 – First performance of Franz Schubert's 'Unfinished' Symphony
- 1903 – The Wright Brothers make their first powered and heavier-than-air flight in the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
- 1907 – Ugyen Wangchuck becomes the first King of Bhutan.
- 1919 – Uruguay becomes a signatory of the Buenos Aires Copyright Treaty.
- 1926 – Antanas Smetona becomes President of Lithuania.
- 1941 – World War II: Japanese forces land in Northern Borneo.
- 1961 – The world's biggest circus tragedy occurs in Niteroi, Brazil when the circus is set on fire by angry workers, killing 323 people.
- 1967 – Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt goes missing on a diving trip. He is declared dead two days later.
- 1970 – The current flag of Oman comes into use.
- 1973 – 30 passengers are killed in an attack by Palestinian terrorists at Rome's Leonardo da Vinci Airport.
- 1981 – Senegal and Gambia form the Senegambia Confederation.
- 1983 – An IRA bomb at a Harrods Department store in London kills 6 people.
- 1989 – Fernando Collor de Mello is elected President of Brazil.
- 1989 – The first full length episode of The Simpsons aires.
- 2003 – The Soham murder trial ends with Ian Huntley being found guilty of the murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman near Soham, Cambridgeshire, in 2002.
- 2004 – Out of health and cultural reasons, Bhutan bans the sale of tobacco.
- 2005 – King Jigme Singye Wangchuck of Bhutan decides to abdicate the throne.
- 2010 – Tunisian fruit seller Mohamed Bouazizi sets himself on fire in an act of protest. He dies as a result of this on January 4, 2011. Shortly after, Tunisia's President, Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali is overthrown, and this starts a series of uprisings across North Africa and the Middle East.
- 2010 – Murder of Joanna Yeates: Vincent Tabak murders Joanna Yeates at her home in Clifton, Bristol. More than 10 months later, he is sentenced to life imprisonment.
- 2011 – A typhoon hits the island of Mindanao in the southern Philippines, killing at least 400 people.
- 2011 - North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il dies. His son, Kim Jong-un, takes over from him.
Observances [change]
- National Day of Bhutan
