Famous Events For February 17 – Today In History

February 17: Today in History – Historical Events

Early Centuries – February 17 Historic Events – Before the 1700s

1. 17th Feb 1600: Philosopher Giordano Bruno is burnt alive in Rome for heresy.
2. 17th Feb 1621: Myles Standish on this day was elected as the first Commander of Plymouth Colony.
3. 17th Feb 1670: France and Bavaria on this day signed the military assistance treaty.
4. 17th Feb 1691: The English patent for the American postal service was on this day granted to Thomas Neale.

18th Century – What Happened on February 17 – The 1700s

5. 17th Feb 1772: The first partition of Poland was signed in Vienna by Russia, Prussia, and Austria.

19th Century – February 17 This Day That Year – The 1800s

6. 17th Feb 1801: The US House of Representatives on this day broke the electoral college ties and chooses Thomas Jefferson as President superseding Aaron Burr.
7. 17th Feb 1814: The French Imperial Army defeated Russian and Austrian forces in the war of the Sixth Coalition.
8. 17th Feb 1817: Baltimore on this day became the first to have gas-lit streetlights.
9. 17th Feb 1818: The “draisine”, the earlier form of bicycle was patented by Baron Karl von Drais de Sauerbrun on this day.
10. 17th Feb 1848: Toscana on this day gets a liberal Constitution.
11. 17th Feb 1854: Britain on this day recognized the independence of Orange Free State in South Africa.
12. 17th Feb 1865: Colombia burned as the Confederates were evacuating and the Union forces were moving in.

13. 17th Feb 1867: Gyula Andressy became the Prime Minister of Hungary.
14. 17th Feb 1867: The first ship passed through the Suez Canal today.
15. 17th Feb 1870: Mississippi on this day became the 9th state to be readmitted to the U.S. after the Civil War.
16. 17th Feb 1870: Ester Morris was on this day appointed as Justice of Peace in the United States. She was the first woman to occupy the position in the US.
17. 17th Feb 1876: Julius Burns was on this day credited to be the first to can sardines.
18. 17th Feb 1878: The first large city telephone exchange was opened on this day in San Francisco. It had 18 lines.
19. 17th Feb 1880: Alexander II, the Tsar of Russia survived an assassination attempt today.
20. 17th Feb 1883: A free toilet in London was patented by A Ashwell on this day.
21. 17th Feb 1897: The National Congress of Mothers was on this day organized in Washington DC.

20th Century – Important Events On This Day February 17th – The 1900s

22. 17th Feb 1902: There was a general strike in Barcelona and the nearby towns. The government troops’ reprisal resulted in 40 deaths.
23. 17th Feb 1905: Frances Willard became on this day the first woman to be honored in the National Statutory Hall.
24. 17th Feb 1911: The first hydroplane flight to and from a ship took place today (Glenn Curtis, San Diego)
25. 17th Feb 1911: General Motors installed an electric start for the first time on their Cadillac car. Till now cars had to be started by cranking manually.
26. 17th Feb 1913: The first minimum wage law in the United States took effect today in Oregon.
27. 17th Feb 1917: In Australia, the Nationalist Party took over the coalition government on this day.
28. 17th Feb 1925: The New Yorker, a weekly magazine with a focus on cultural life in New York was published for the first time today.

29. 17th Feb 1926: An avalanche in Utah buried 75 in Sap Gulch. 40 people die.
30. 17th Feb 1931: A sporting event in Japan, a baseball game, was televised for the first time.
31. 17th Feb 1933: The U.S. Senate on this day passed the Blaine Act which would end the era of prohibition in the U.S.
32. 17th Feb 1934: The first automobile driver’s course was introduced in State College, Pennsylvania.
33. 17th Feb 1938: In London the first public experimental demonstration of Baird Colour TV was held on this day.
34. 17th Feb 1938: On this day a date was set for a referendum by about 2 million farmers of the United States farming controls regarding tobacco and cotton farming.
35. 17th Feb 1940: 299 British prisoners were released by the crew of the British destroyer Cossack who boarded the German Altmark in Jossingfjord, Norway. They engaged in a close-quarter battle with the Germans including hand-to-hand fight, fighting with bayonets, and even using cutlasses. This is the last record of a cutlass being used in a Royal Naval action.
36. 17th Feb 1943: Dutch churches on this day protested against the persecution of Jews.

37. 17th Feb 1943: Adolf Hitler on this day visited the headquarters of Field Marshal Eric von Manstein in Zaporozje, Ukraine. He stayed there till the 19th.
38. 17th Feb 1944: The US on this day began night bombing of Turk.
39. 17th Feb 1946: Humanistic covenant established in Amsterdam on this day.
40. 17th Feb 1947: After the end of World War II, there was a cold war between the U.S. and Russia. America on this day introduced the transmission of Voice of America to the Russian people as part of the propaganda campaign against communism and Russia.
41. 17th Feb 1947: A manifest was published on this day against “Godless communism” by Dutch RC bishops.
42. 17th Feb 1949: Chaim Weitzman was on this day elected as the first President of Israel.
43. 17th Feb 1950: A train crash at the Rockville Centre in New York resulted in 31 deaths.
44. 17th Feb 1950: Edward Sanders of Britain who was working as a junior assistant to an American businessman on this day pleaded guilty to espionage and sabotage.

45. 17th Feb 1959: Vanguard II, the first weather satellite weighing 9.8 KG was launched on this day.
46. 17th Feb 1962: There was a severe storm in Hamburg which killed 265 people.
47. 17th Feb 1964: The U.S. Supreme Court on this day ruled one man one vote.
48. 17th Feb 1964: The U.S. Supreme Court on this day ruled that congressional districts within each state should have approximately equal population.
49. 17th Feb 1964: The Law of civil rights was on this day accepted by the U.S. House of Representatives.
50. 17th Feb 1965: Gambia on this day became independent. It was the last of Britain’s West African Colonies to gain independence.
51. 17th Feb 1965: The U.S. on this day launched Ranger 8 which will transmit 7,137 lunar pictures.
52. 17th Feb 1966: The French satellite Diapason D-1A was launched into the earth’s orbit today.
53. 17th Feb 1967: Soviet satellite Kosmos 140 was on this day launched to the earth’s orbit.

54. 17th Feb 1969: Golda Meir was on this day sworn in as Israel’s first woman prime minister.
55. 17th Feb 1970: US army officer Jeffery McDonald murdered his wife and two small daughters today.
56. 17th Feb 1972: Sales of Volkswagen Beetle exceed the sales of Ford Model T.
57. 17th Feb 1972: U.S. President Richard Nixon leaves Washington, DC for China.
58. 17th Feb 1972: The British parliament on this day voted to join the European Common Market.
59. 17th Feb 1974: There was a stampede during a soccer match in Cairo, Egypt. 49 people died in the stampede.
60. 17th Feb 1976: Macau on this day adopted its constitution.
61. 17th Feb 1978: The Provincial Irish Republican Army’s incendiary bomb at the La Mon restaurant near Belfast killed 11 civilians, and an RUC officer and injured 30 people on this day.
62. 17th Feb 1979: Tensions between Vietnam and China had increased after the Vietnam War because of the strengthening of the ties between Vietnam and Russia. China on this day invaded Vietnam.

63. 17th Feb 1981: Chrysler Corporation on this day reported the largest corporate loss in US history.
64. 17th Feb 1983: U.S. performs nuclear test at its test site in Nevada.
65. 17th Feb 1983: Netherlands adopted its constitution on this day.
66. 17th Feb 1985: U.S. postage stamp price for first class mail was raised from 20 cents to 22 cents.
67. 17th Feb 1986: Ann Tyler on this day won the National Critics Book Circle Award for her book “The Accidental Tourist”.
68. 17th Feb 1986: N’djamena airport in Chad was on this day attacked by Libyan bombers.
69. 17th Feb 1987: A group of Sri Lankan Tamils protested against the deportation bid by taking off their clothes at Heathrow airport in London. They were later taken to a detention center.
70. 17 Feb 1988: UN truce observer Lt Col William Higgins was day by the Lebanese terrorists. He was later killed by them.
71. 17th Feb 1989: U.S.S.R on this day performed a nuclear test at Kazakh U.S.S.R.
72. 17th Feb 1989: Mauritania, Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, and Morocco on this day formed a common market.
73. 17th Feb 1989: A six-week study of the Arctic Circle did not show an Ozone hole.
74. 17th Feb 1993: A passenger ferry “The Neptune” on this day sank near Haiti after overturning. Approximately 900 people drowned.

75. 17th Feb 1995: A lawsuit that claimed that US tobacco companies knew the addictive nature of nicotine and knowingly manipulated its levels to keep consumers hooked was filed today by the US federal judge.
76. 17th Feb 1995: Collin Ferguson on this day was convicted of six counts of murder for the Long Island Rail Road commuter train murders.
77. 17th Feb 1998: Larry Wayne Harris and Bill Levitt were on this day arrested for possession of anthrax.
78. 17th Feb 1998: Twenty-year-old U.S. Naval Academy cadet Diane Zamora was convicted of capital murder.

21st Century – February 17 This Day In History – The 2000s

79. 17th Feb 2003: There was a stampede in the Chicago nightclub “The Epitome”. 21 people were killed in the stampede.
80. 17th Feb 2006: There was a massive mudslide in the Philippines, which buried a whole village including a secondary school with 250 children. Only one kid could be rescued. The death toll is estimated at 1,100.
81. 17th Feb 2006: The United States on this day asked the Palestinian authorities to return the $ 50 million American aid as they were unhappy with the Hamas-led government refusing to recognize Israel.
82. 17th Feb 2007: Actor Sylvester Stallone was detained by the Australian customs authorities as they claimed the X-ray of his baggage showed some banned substances.
83. 17th Feb 2007: The U.S. Senate on this day blocked the vote on the Iraqi surge by deciding not to debate the resolution criticizing President Bush’s troop surge in Iraq.
84. 17th Feb 2007: Hillary Clinton the Presidential nominee of the Democrats called for a 90-day deadline withdrawal of American troops from Iraq.
85. 17th Feb 2008: Kosovo on this day declared independence. Kosovo’s parliament on this day endorsed the declaration of independence from Serbia.

86. 17th Feb 2009: The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (A.R.R.A.) on this day became law with President Obama signing the $787 billion act into law in Denver, Colorado. This is intended to create 3.5 million jobs and rebuild the economy.
87. 17th Feb 2010: A dozen French winemakers and traders were on this day found guilty of a scam of selling 18 million bottles of fake Pinot Noir to leading US buyers.
88. 17th Feb 2011: A tourist boat carrying 25 passengers across Halong Bay in Vietnam sank. Fifteen people were rescued and twelve including the tour guide drowned.
89. 17th Feb 2012: Germany’s president, Christian Wulff on this day resigned on corruption charges.
90. 17th Feb 2012: A Greek museum showcasing the history of the Olympics was robbed today. Thieves took away several priceless artifacts after overpowering the guard.
91. 17th Feb 2013: President Rafael Correa recorded a landslide victory in the general elections in Ecuador.
92. 17th Feb 2013: In a car bombing in Bagdad, 37 people were killed and 130 were injured.
93. 17th Feb 2013: Hellas gold mine in Greece was attacked on this day by masked who set fire to machinery and vehicles. It was under protest earlier as there was a fear that it would damage the environment.
94. 17th Feb 2013: A gas explosion destroyed an apartment complex in Frenštát pod RadhoŠtĕm in the Czech Republic. 5 people were killed and 11 injured in the explosion.
95. 17th Feb 2014: Somayya Jibarti on this day became the first woman editor in Saudi Arabia when The Saudi Gazette made her the editor-in-chief.
96. 17th Feb 2014: The U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry claimed on this day that climate change requires urgent action and only a small window of time remains open.
97. 17th Feb 2016: Apple’s CEO Tim Cook on this day confirmed that Apple will contest an FBI order to unlock the phone of San Bernardino gunman Syed Rizwan Farook.
98. 17th Feb 2016: After the Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao made a TV comment that gays are worse than animals Nike ended its sponsorship deal with him.
99. 17th Feb 2016: A car bomb attack by Kurdish militants on a military convoy in Ankara, Turkey killed 28 people.
100. 17th Feb 2016: A.B.C Entertainment group announces Channing Dungey as its new president, the first African-American to lead a major broadcast network.

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