October 17 in History

Historical Events on October 17

1091

London tornado of 1091: A tornado thought to be of strength T8/F4 strikes the heart of London.
1346

Battle of Neville's Cross: King David II of Scotland is captured by the English near Durham, and imprisoned in the Tower of London for eleven years.
1448

Second Battle of Kosovo, where the mainly Hungarian army led by John Hunyadi is defeated by an Ottoman army led by Sultan Murad II.
1456

The University of Greifswald is established, making it the second oldest university in northern Europe (also for a period the oldest in Sweden, and Prussia).
1558

Poczta Polska, the Polish postal service, is founded.
1604

Kepler's Supernova: German astronomer Johannes Kepler observes a supernova in the constellation Ophiuchus.
1610

French king Louis XIII is crowned in Reims Cathedral.
1660

Nine regicides, the men who signed the death warrant of Charles I, are hanged, drawn and quartered.
1662

Charles II of England sells Dunkirk to France for 40,000 pounds.
1771

Premiere in Milan of the opera Ascanio in Alba, composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, age 15.
1777

American Revolutionary War: British General John Burgoyne surrenders his army at Saratoga, New York.
1781

American Revolutionary War: British General Charles, Earl Cornwallis surrenders at the Siege of Yorktown.
1800

Britain takes control of the Dutch colony of Curaçao.
1806

Former leader of the Haitian Revolution, Emperor Jacques I of Haiti is assassinated after an oppressive rule.
1814

Eight people die in the London Beer Flood.
1827

Bellini's third opera, Il pirata, is premiered at Teatro alla Scala di Milano
1860

First The Open Championship (referred to in North America as the British Open).
1861

Nineteen people are killed in the Cullin-la-ringo massacre, the deadliest massacre of Europeans by aborigines in Australian history.
1888

Thomas Edison files a patent for the Optical Phonograph (the first movie).
1907

Guglielmo Marconi's company begins the first commercial transatlantic wireless service between Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada and Clifden, Ireland.
1912

Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia declare war on the Ottoman Empire, joining Montenegro in the First Balkan War.
1919

RCA is incorporated as the Radio Corporation of America.
1931

Al Capone is convicted of income tax evasion.
1933

Albert Einstein flees Nazi Germany and moves to the United States.
1940

The body of Communist propagandist Willi Münzenberg found in South France, starting a never-resolved mystery.
1941

World War II: a German submarine attacks an American ship for the first time in the war.
1941

German troops execute the male population of the villages Kerdyllia in Serres, Greece.
1943

The Burma Railway (Burma-Thailand Railway) is completed.
1943

The Holocaust in Poland: Sobibór extermination camp is closed.
1945

A massive number of people, headed by CGT, gather in the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires, Argentina to demand Juan Perón's release.
1945

Archbishop Damaskinos of Athens becomes Prime Minister of Greece between the pull-out of the German occupation force in 1944 and the return of King Georgios II to Greece.
1956

The first commercial nuclear power station is officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II in Sellafield, in Cumbria, England.
1956

Donald Byrne and Bobby Fischer play a famous chess game called The Game of the Century. Fischer beat Byrne and wins a Brilliancy prize.
1961

Scores of Algerian protesters (some claim up to 400) are massacred by the Paris police at the instigation of former Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon, then chief of the Prefecture of Police.
1965

The 1964-65 New York World's Fair closes after a two-year run. More than 51 million people had attended the event.
1966

The 23rd Street Fire in New York City kills 12 firefighters, the fire department's deadliest day until the September 11, 2001 attacks.
1970

Montreal: Quebec Vice-Premier and Minister of Labour Pierre Laporte was murdered by members of the FLQ terrorist group.
1973

OPEC imposes an oil embargo against a number of Western countries, considered to have helped Israel in its war against Egypt and Syria.
1977

German Autumn: Four days after it is hijacked, Lufthansa Flight 181 lands in Mogadishu, Somalia, where a team of German GSG 9 commandos later rescues all remaining hostages on board.
1979

Mother Teresa is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
1979

The Department of Education Organization Act is signed into law creating the US Department of Education and US Department of Health and Human Services.
1980

As part of the Holy See-United Kingdom relations a British monarch makes the first state visit to the Vatican
1989

The 6.9 Mw Loma Prieta earthquake shakes the San Francisco Bay Area and the Central Coast with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). Sixty-three people were killed.
1989

Peaceful Revolution: The East German Politburo votes to remove Erich Honecker from his role as General Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany.
1992

Having gone to the wrong house for a Halloween party, Japanese exchange student Yoshihiro Hattori is shot and killed by the homeowner in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
1994

Russian journalist Dmitry Kholodov is assassinated while investigating corruption in the armed forces.
2000

Train crash at Hatfield, north of London, leading to collapse of Railtrack.
2001

Israeli tourism minister Rehavam Ze'evi becomes the first Israeli minister to be assassinated in a terrorist attack.
2003

The pinnacle is fitted on the roof of Taipei 101, a 101-floor skyscraper in Taipei, allowing it to surpass the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur by 56 metres (184 ft) and become the world's tallest highrise.

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