/year

February 17 in history

194 sourced entries recorded on February 17, from 306 CE to 2025 CE. Every line is quoted from the revision it came from.

Events

  • 763An Lushan Rebellion: Emperor Shi Chaoyi hangs himself to avoid being captured by Tang troops sent by the renegade Li Huaixian, ending the 7-year rebellion against the Tang dynasty in China.source
  • 1024According to the cartulary-chronicle of the Bèze Abbey (officially the Abbaye Saint-Pierre et Saint-Paul de Bèze) in the Burgundy region of France, the brothers Girard and Lambert repent of their seizure of the village of Viévigne and restore the property to the Abbey "for the good of their souls".source
  • 1099Raymond IV sends a small part of his army under Raymond Pilet to attack the port of Tortosa on the Syrian coast. The Crusaders led many fires around the port to make believe their number is greater than it is. Fooled by the deception, the governor and the garrison flees by sea in the night leaving the port open for the Crusaders to capture. The port becomes strategically important for supplies.source
  • 1200Al-Adil I, Ayyubid ruler of Damascus, Jerusalem, and parts of the Jazira takes control of Egypt, and is recognized as sultan of the Ayyubid Empire. During his reign, he promotes trade and good relations with the Crusader States. His son Al-Kamil becomes the effective ruler (viceroy) of Egypt.source
  • 1307Eight days after their capture at Loch Ryan, Thomas de Brus, and Alexander de Brus, Reginald Crawford are all executed. Thomas and Alexander are taken to Carlisle, where hanged, drawn and quartered.source
  • 1371Rival brothers Ivan Sratsimir and Ivan Shishman become co-Emperors of Bulgaria after the death of their father, Ivan Alexander. Bulgaria is weakened by the split.source
  • 1411Ottoman Interregnum: Süleyman Çelebi, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, is strangled to death after being forced by his brother Musa Çelebi, to flee the Ottoman capital, Edirne. Rule of the Ottoman domains in Europe (Rumelia) passes to Musa.source
  • 1439In the Duchy of Cieszyn in Poland, Duke Wenceslaus I marries Elisabeth of Hohenzollern, the daughter of the Elector of Brandenburg, Friedrich.source
  • 1454The Feast of the Pheasant takes place in Lille.source
  • 1461Second Battle of St Albans, England: The Earl of Warwick's army is defeated by a Lancastrian force under Queen Margaret, who recovers control for her husband.source
  • 1500Battle of Hemmingstedt: The Danish army fails to conquer the peasants' republic of Dithmarschen.source
  • 1510Afonso de Albuquerque reaches Goa and successfully enters with little conflictsource
  • 1553In India, Timmaraja Wodeyar II becomes the sixth maharaja of the Kingdom of Mysore (a vassal state of the Vijayanagara Empire), after the death of his father, the Maharaja Chamaraja Wodeyar III.source
  • 1568Treaty of Adrianople (sometimes called the Peace of Adrianople): The Habsburgs agree to pay tribute to the Ottomans.source
  • 1600On his way to be burned at the stake for heresy in Rome, Giordano Bruno has his tongue "imprisoned" after he refuses to stop talking.source
  • 1603Anglo-Spanish War: The Battle of Puerto Caballos is fought off of the coast of Guatemala by two Spanish Navy galleons, and eight English Navy and French pirate ships. The English-French soldiers and pirates, commanded by Christopher Newport and Michael Geare, plunder Puerto Caballos over the next two weeks, and the Spanish defenders suffer 230 casualties.source
  • 1604King James issues an order for all Jesuits and all Roman Catholic priests to leave his kingdom by March 19.source
  • 1615Japan's envoy to Europe, Hasekura Tsunenaga, receives a Christian baptism by the royal chaplain, Diego de Guzmán, and receives the European name Felipe Francisco Hasekura.source
  • 1616Manchurian leader Qing Tai Zu, referred to in the west as "Nurhaci", declares himself khan and crowns himself as Emperor of China, founding the Later Jin dynasty.source
  • 1621Myles Standish is appointed as the first commander of Plymouth Colony.source
  • 1627England lands the first European settlers on Barbados.source
  • 1639Ballet de cour staged at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye on the theme of the happy birth last year of the Dauphin.source
  • 1642The Treaty of Axim is signed between the Dutch West India Company and the chiefs of the Nzema people in the modern-day African nation of Ghana.source
  • 1688James Renwick, the last of the Covenanters in Scotland to be martyred for opposing the authority of King Charles II, is publicly hanged at Grassmarket square in Edinburgh.source
  • 1692An annular solar eclipse is visible across Russia, western Mongolia, Xinjiang, Iran, Afghanistan and Iran.source
  • 1698The Maratha Empire fort at Gingee falls after a siege of almost nine years by the Mughal Empire as King Rajaram escapes to safety. General Swarup Singh Bundela, who led the scaling of the fortress walls and Gingee's capture, is rewarded by Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb with command of the area.source
  • 1701February 17 (February 6, 1700 O.S.) – The 5th Parliament of William III in England assembles. Future British Prime Minister Robert Walpole enters the House of Commons for the first time and soon makes his name as a spokesman for Whig policy.source
  • 1710Mauritius, a Dutch colony since 1638, is abandoned by the Dutch.source
  • 1720The Treaty of The Hague is signed between Spain, Britain, France, Austria and the Dutch Republic, ending the War of the Quadruple Alliance with effect from May 20.source
  • 1720Treaty of The Hague signed between Spain, Britain, France, Austria and the Dutch Republic, ending the War of the Quadruple Alliance.source
  • 1720Treaty of The Hague signed between Britain, France, Austria, the Dutch Republic and Spain ending the War of the Quadruple Alliance.source
  • 1753The concept of electrical telegraphy is first published in the form of a letter to Scots' Magazine from a writer who identifies himself only as "C.M.". Titled "An Expeditious Method of Conveying Intelligence", C.M. suggests that static electricity (generated by 1753 from "frictional machines") could send electric signals across wires to a receiver. Rather than the dot and dash system later used by Samuel F.B. Morse, C.M. proposes that "a set of wires equal in number to the letters of the alphabet, be extended horizontally between two given places" and that on the receiving side, "Let a ball be suspended from every wire" and that a paper with a letter on it be underneath each wire.source
  • 1753Sweden replace the Julian calendar with the Gregorian calendar.source
  • 1769The British House of Commons votes not to allow MP John Wilkes to take his seat after he wins a by-election, on the grounds that he was an outlaw when standing.source
  • 1772The First Partition of Poland is agreed to by Russia and Prussia, later including Austria.source
  • 1776Edward Gibbon publishes the first volume of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.source
  • 1782Battle of Sadras (Anglo-French War (1778–1783)): A French fleet under the Baillie de Suffren clashes with the British in the Bay of Bengalsource
  • 1788The uninhabited Lord Howe Island is discovered by the brig HMS Supply, commanded by Lieutenant Ball, who is on his way from Botany Bay to Norfolk Island with convicts to start a penal settlement there. They arrive at Norfolk Island on March 6.source
  • 1788the uninhabited Lord Howe Island is discovered by the brig HMS Supply, commanded by Lieutenant Ball, who is on his way from Botany Bay to Norfolk Island with convicts to start a penal settlement there.source
  • 1798Federalist Congressman Roger Griswold of Connecticut attacks Vermont Representative Matthew Lyon with a walking stick in the chambers of the United States House of Representatives.source
  • 1798The French corvette Cérès was wrecked on the shores of Norway.source
  • 1801An electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr is resolved, when Jefferson is elected President of the United States and Burr Vice President by the United States House of Representatives.source
  • 1807Henry Christopher is elected first President of the State of Haiti, ruling the northern part of the country.source
  • 1809Miami University (Ohio) is established (by Act of February 2) on the township of land required to be set aside for it, under the conditions of the Miami Purchase in 1794.source
  • 1810Napoleon I decrees that Rome would become the second capital of the French Empire.source
  • 1815The Spanish reconquest of Spanish America begins.source
  • 1818the remains of King Robert the Bruce found at Dunfermline Abbey.source
  • 1838Weenen massacre: Zulu impis massacre about 532 Voortrekkers, Khoikhoi and Basuto around the site of Weenen in South Africa.source
  • 1848John Bird Sumner is nominated as Archbishop of Canterbury.source
  • 184965 people, almost all under the age of 20, are crushed to death in a panic caused by a small fire in the Theatre Royal, Glasgow.source
  • 1850February 8–17 – Battle at Fort Utah: The Nauvoo Legion kills Timpanogos hostile to the Mormon settlement at Fort Utah on the orders of Brigham Young.source
  • 1854The British recognize the independence of the Orange Free State in Southern Africa; its official independence is declared six days later in the Orange River Convention.source
  • 1859French naval forces under Charles Rigault de Genouilly capture the city and Citadel of Saigon in Vietnam, beginning the Siege of Saigon.source
  • 1863The "Committee of the Five" holds their first meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, which is regarded as the foundation of the International Committee of the Red Cross, following the lead of humanitarian businessman Henry Dunant.source
  • 1864The tiny Confederate hand-propelled submarine H. L. Hunley sinks the USS Housatonic, using a spar torpedo in Charleston Harbor, becoming the first submarine to sink an enemy ship, although the submarine and her crew of eight are also lost.source
  • 1864American Civil War: The Confederate submarine Hunley torpedoes the USS Housatonic, becoming the first submarine to sink an enemy ship (the sub and her crew of 8 are also lost).source
  • 1865American Civil War: Columbia, South Carolina burns as Confederate forces flee from advancing Union forces.source
  • 1873The Daily Southern Cross Newspaper prints a hoax report of a Russian invasion of Auckland.source
  • 1877Major General Charles George Gordon of the British Army is appointed Governor-General of the Sudan.source
  • 1882The first cricket Test match at the Sydney Cricket Ground begins.source
  • 1889The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds is founded in Manchester (England), originally known as "The Plumage League" to campaign against the use of plumage in women's clothing.source
  • 1890The British steamship Duburg is wrecked in the South China Sea: 400 lives are lostsource
  • 1893February 11–19 – White Star Line cargo liner SS Naronic sinks without a trace in heavy seas on the Liverpool–New York transatlantic passage.source
  • 189417 February-15 March – first exhibition of La Libre Esthétique in Brussels.source
  • 1894Outlaw John Wesley Hardin is released from prison.source
  • 1897Filipino forces win in the Battle of Zapote Bridge at the boundary of Las Piñas and Cavite.source
  • 1899The research vessel SS Southern Cross, on an Antarctic expedition led by Carsten Borchgrevink, arrives at Cape Adare and begins unloading 90 sledge dogs – the first ever on the continent – and two Norwegian Sámi crewmen, who become the first humans to spend the night in Antarctica. Over the next 12 days, the rest of the 31-man crew builds a temporary settlement.source
  • 1900Second Boer War: Battle of Paardeberg – British troops defeat the Boers.source
  • 1904Puccini's opera Madama Butterfly debuts at La Scala in Milan, to no great acclaim. On May 28 a revised version opens in Brescia, to huge success.source
  • 1907The cargo ship SS Orianda sinks off Barry after colliding with the SS Heliopolis, with the loss of 14 crew.source
  • 1911The first "quasi-official" airmail flight occurs, when Fred J. Wiseman carries three letters between Petaluma and Santa Rosa, California.source
  • 1913February 9–19 — Ten Tragic Dayssource
  • 1914Karl Staaff steps down as Prime Minister of Sweden in the aftermath of the Courtyard Crisis. He is replaced by Hjalmar Hammarskjöld, father of Dag Hammarskjöld.source
  • 1918beginning of the Ice Cruise of the Baltic Fleet, transferring Russian ships from Reval and Helsingfors to Kronstadtsource
  • 1919February 16–21 – Estonian War of Independence: Uniformed peasants in Saaremaa rebel against the government of Estonia; the rebellion is crushed by government forces, leaving more than 200 dead.source
  • 1920February 12–24 – Conference of London: Leaders of the United Kingdom, France and Italy meet to discuss the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire.source
  • 1922February 10–17 – Modern Art Week in São Paulo marks the start of Modernism in Brazil.source
  • 1928February 11 – 19 – The 1928 Winter Olympics are held in St. Moritz, Switzerland, the first as a separate event. Sonja Henie of Norway wins her first gold medal, in women's figure skating.source
  • 1933Repeal of Prohibition in the United States: The Blaine Act passes the United States Senate, submitting the proposed Twenty-first Amendment to the Constitution to the states for ratification. The amendment is ratified on December 5, ending prohibition in the United States.source
  • 1933Repeal of Prohibition in the United States: The Blaine Act passes the Senate, submitting the proposed Twenty-first Amendment to the Constitution to the states for ratification to end prohibition in the United States.source
  • 1936February 10–19 – Second Italo-Ethiopian War: Battle of Amba Aradam – Italian forces gain a decisive tactical victory, effectively neutralizing the army of the Ethiopian Empire.source
  • 1936Ole Nikolai Ingebrigtsen Strømme, politician and Minister (born 1876)source
  • 1936The first superhero to wear a skin-tight costume and mask, The Phantom, makes his appearance in U.S. newspapers.source
  • 1940Waldemar Christofer Brøgger, geologist and mineralogist (born 1851)source
  • 1942Singapore is renamed Shōnan ("Light of the South").source
  • 1947Cold War: The Voice of America begins to transmit radio broadcasts into Eastern Europe and the Soviet Unionsource
  • 1949Chaim Weizmann begins his term as the first president of Israel.source
  • 1952February 14–25 – The Winter Olympics are held in Oslo, Norway.source
  • 1954Miki Berkovich, former Israeli basketball player.source
  • 1955A fire broke out at Seibo no Sono (Our Lady's Garden) in Totsuka-ku, Yokohama. According to a report from Japan Fire and Disaster Management Agency (JFDMA), it resulted in the death of 99 people.source
  • 1956February 14–25 – The 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union is held in Moscow.source
  • 1957A fire at a home for the elderly in Warrenton, Missouri, United States, kills 72 people.source
  • 1959Vanguard 2, the first weather satellite, is launched to measure cloud cover for the United States Navy.source
  • 1959Turkish Airlines aircraft SEC crashed in London. Prime minister Adnan Menderes survivedsource
  • 1962Heavy storms and high tides result in the North Sea flood of 1962 on Germany's North Sea coast, mainly around Hamburg; more than 300 people die and thousands lose their homes.source
  • 1968February 6–18 – The 1968 Winter Olympics are held in Grenoble, France.source
  • 1970Shmuel Yosef Agnon (born 1888), Austro-Hungarian (Galicia)-born Israeli author and Nobel Prize laureate.source
  • 1971UEFA Euro 1972 qualifying: Albania is defeated by West Germany 0-1 at Qemal Stafa Stadium, Tiranasource
  • 1972Volkswagen Beetle sales exceed those of the Ford Model T when the 15,007,034th Beetle is produced.source
  • 1974Zamalek disaster: A soccer stampede occurs in Cairo, killing 49.source
  • 1975A 6.0 magnitude earthquake near the Myanmar border is felt in 9 provinces including Bangkok.source
  • 1977The French newspaper Le Monde reported that the Khmer Rouge had systematically executed all officials from the previous government by the ruling Maoist entity of Angkar Padevat (The Revolutionary Organization), both the flags of Democratic Kampuchea and Vietnam share a common Marxist-Leninist aesthetic, with both relying on a bold red background to symbolize the revolution and the struggles for national liberation, the yellow silhouette of a three-towered temple represented Kampuchean tradition and agricultural prosperity by the representative of the ancient Angkor Wat adapted by the Khmer Rouge guerrillas in the 1950s before it was constituted to become a new state flag on 5 January 1976 as part of socialist movement, blood, and the resolute struggle of the Kampuchean people for liberation and state-building to evoke the idea that the "new" revolutionary people of Cambodia could rebuild a powerful medieval state, it remains unique among communist state flags for featuring a national/religious heritage monument instead of a star or a hammer and sickle that was used by Stalin and Mao.source
  • 1979The People's Republic of China invades northern Vietnam, launching the Sino-Vietnamese War.source
  • 1981February 17–22 – Pope John Paul II visits the Philippines.source
  • 1981February 17–22 – First papal visit of Pope John Paul II in the country; during the visit, he beatified Lorenzo Ruiz.source
  • 1982February 11-19: the 1982 Amílcar Cabral Cup took place in Praiasource
  • 1984the national airport authority, Aeroportos e Segurança Aérea, was establishedsource
  • 1984February 8–19 – The 1984 Winter Olympics are held in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia.source
  • 1986The Single European Act is signed.source
  • 1986Queronque rail accidentsource
  • 1988U.S. Lieutenant Colonel William R. Higgins, serving with a United Nations group monitoring a truce in southern Lebanon, is kidnapped (and later killed by his captors).source
  • 19881988 Oshakati bomb blast: A bomb explodes outside the First National Bank in Oshakati, Namibia, killing 27 and injuring 70.source
  • 1989South African police raid the home of Winnie Mandela and arrest four of her bodyguards.source
  • 1996The 8.2 Mw Biak earthquake strikes the Papua province of eastern Indonesia with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). A large tsunami followed, leaving 166 people dead or missing and 423 injured.source
  • 2000Microsoft releases Windows 2000.source
  • 2006A massive mudslide occurs in Southern Leyte, Philippines killing an estimated 1,126 people.source
  • 2008Kosovo formally declares independence from Serbia, to a mixed response from the international community.source
  • 2010Rwanda will be the global host of World Environment Day on 5 June 2010.source
  • 2013Bodu Bala Sena hold a meeting in Maharagama, Colombo which is attended by around 16,000 people including 1,300 monks.source
  • 2021February 13–February 17 – A major winter storm kills at least 136 people and causes over 9.9 million power outages in the U.S.source
  • 2022Panama-flagged car carrier MV Felicity Ace is abandoned approximately 90 nautical miles southwest of the Azores following a severe fire on board. The ship's entire 22-man crew safely evacuates using lifeboats.source
  • 20252025 Indonesian protests: A series of ongoing nationwide protests are held following the enactment of a legislation increasing military involvement in civilian government roles.source

Births

  • 624Wu Zetian, Empress of the Zhou dynasty (died 705)source
  • 1028Al-Juwayni, Persian scholar and imam (died 1085)source
  • 1451Raffaello Maffei, Italian theologian (died 1522)source
  • 1490Charles III, Duke of Bourbon, French military leader (died 1527)source
  • 1490Charles III, Duke of Bourbon (d.1527)source
  • 1519François, Duke of Guise, French soldier and politician (died 1563)source
  • 1524Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine, French cardinal (died 1574)source
  • 1524Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine (died 1574)source
  • 1574Pedro Téllez-Girón, 3rd Duke of Osuna, Spanish nobleman and politician (died 1624)source
  • 1581Fausto Poli, Italian Catholic prelate and cardinal (died 1653)source
  • 1653Arcangelo Corelli, Italian composer (died 1713)source
  • 1690Samuel Phillips, American clergyman (died 1771)source
  • 1690Marcello Papiniano Cusani, Italian archbishop (died 1766)source
  • 1699Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff, painter and architect in Prussia (died 1753)source
  • 1740John Sullivan, American General in the American Revolutionary War, delegate in the Continental Congress (died 1795)source
  • 1754Nicolas Baudin, French explorer (died 1803)source
  • 1762John Cooke, English captain (died 1805)source
  • 1781René Laennec, French physician and inventor (died 1826)source
  • 1792Karl Ernst von Baer, German naturalist (died 1876)source
  • 1821Lola Montez, Irish-Spanish dancer, royal mistress (died 1861)source
  • 1823Princess Paula of Brazil, princess of the Empire of Brazilsource
  • 1836Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, poet (died 1870)source
  • 1855Otto Liman von Sanders, German general (died 1929)source
  • 1875Rómulo Sebastián Naón, lawyer, politician and diplomat, Ambassador to the United States 1910-1919 (died 1941)source
  • 1877Isabelle Eberhardt, Swiss explorer, writer (died 1904)source
  • 1877Isabelle Eberhardt, explorer and author (died 1904 in Algeria)source
  • 1903Sadegh Hedayat, Iranian writer.source
  • 1934Barry Humphries, Australian actor, comedian (died 2023)source
  • 1936Jim Brown, African-American football player and actor (died 2023)source
  • 1936Stipe Šuvar, sociologist and politician (died 2004)source
  • 1963Michael Jordan, American basketball playersource
  • 1995Madison Keys, American tennis playersource

Deaths

  • 306Theodore of Amasea, Roman soldier and martyrsource
  • 364Emperor Jovian dies after a reign of eight months. He is found dead in his tent at Tyana (Asia Minor) en route back to Constantinople, in suspicious circumstances.source
  • 364Jovian, Roman emperor (born 331)source
  • 440Mesrob, Armenian monk and linguist (born 362)source
  • 661Finan of Lindisfarne, Irish-born bishopsource
  • 1071Frozza Orseolo, German noblewoman (born 1015)source
  • 1129Constantine II, Armenian princesource
  • 1178Evermode of Ratzeburg, German bishopsource
  • 1220Theobald I, German nobleman (born 1191)source
  • 1228Henry I, German nobleman and knight (born 1155)source
  • 1339Otto, Duke of Austria (born 1301)source
  • 1371Ivan Alexander of Bulgariasource
  • 1504Eberhard II, Duke of Württemberg (born 1447)source
  • 1600Giordano Bruno, Italian philosopher (burned at the stake) (born 1548)source
  • 1609Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (born 1549)source
  • 1647Johann Heermann, German poet, hymn-writer (born 1585)source
  • 1673Molière, French writer and actor (born 1622)source
  • 1680Jan Swammerdam, Dutch scientist (born 1637)source
  • 1680Denzil Holles, 1st Baron Holles, English statesman and writer (born 1599)source
  • 1688James Renwick, Scottish minister and Covenanter martyr (born 1662)source
  • 1702Peder Syv, Danish historian (born 1631)source
  • 1710George Bull, English theologian and Bishop of St David's (born 1634)source
  • 1718Charlotte Lee, Countess of Lichfield, illegitimate daughter of King Charles II of England (born 1664)source
  • 1732Louis Marchand, French organist and harpsichordist (born 1669)source
  • 1760Franz Anton Danreiter was a renowned architect, court gardener, and draftsman.source
  • 1768Arthur Onslow, English politician (born 1691)source
  • 1801Princess Philippine Charlotte of Prussia (born 1716)source
  • 1827Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, Swiss pedagogue (born 1746)source
  • 1831Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (born 1785)source
  • 1854John Martin, English painter (born 1789)source
  • 1856Heinrich Heine, German writer (born 1797)source
  • 1872Filipino priests José Burgos, Mariano Gomez and Jacinto Zamora, collectively known as Gomburza, are executed in Bagumbayan Fields, Manila, Philippines by the authorities of New Spain, on charges of subversion arising from the 1872 Cavite mutiny.source
  • 1905Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia, the Governor-General of Moscow and uncle of Tsar Nicholas II, is assassinated.source
  • 1905Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia (born 1857)source
  • 1907Henry Steel Olcott, American officer, theosophist (born 1832)source
  • 1909Geronimo, Apache leader (born 1829)source
  • 1919Sir Wilfrid Laurier, 7th Prime Minister of Canada (born 1841)source
  • 1920A woman named Anna Anderson tries to commit suicide in Berlin and is taken to a mental hospital where she claims she is Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia.source
  • 2015Carnival festivities are cancelled after at least twenty people are killed in a float accident in Port-au-Prince.source
  • 2021Rush Limbaugh, 70, American Hall of Fame radio host (The Rush Limbaugh Show), author, and political commentator, complications from lung cancer.source