October 17
Events
Pre-1600
- 690 - Empress Wu Zetian establishes the Zhou Dynasty of China.
- 1091 - London tornado of 1091: A tornado thought to be of strength T8/F4 strikes the heart of London.
- 1346 - The English capture King David II of Scotland at Neville's Cross and imprison him for eleven years.
- 1448 - An Ottoman army defeats a Hungarian army at the Second Battle of Kosovo.
- 1456 - The University of Greifswald is established as the second oldest university in northern Europe.
- 1534 - Anti-Catholic posters appear in Paris and other cities supporting Huldrych Zwingli's position on the Mass.
- 1558 - Poczta Polska, the Polish postal service, is founded.
1601–1900
- 1604 - Kepler's Supernova is observed in the constellation of Ophiuchus.
- 1610 - French king Louis XIII is crowned in Reims Cathedral.
- 1660 - The nine regicides who signed the death warrant of Charles I of England are hanged, drawn and quartered.
- 1662 - Charles II of England sells Dunkirk to Louis XIV of France for 40,000 pounds.
- 1713 - Great Northern War: Russia defeats Sweden in the Battle of Kostianvirta in Pälkäne.
- 1771 - Premiere in Milan of the opera Ascanio in Alba, composed by Mozart at 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.
- 1797 - Treaty of Campo Formio is signed between France and Austria, ending the War of the First Coalition.
- 1800 - War of the Second Coalition: Britain takes control of the Dutch colony of Curaçao.
- 1806 - Former leader of the Haitian Revolution, Emperor Jacques I, is assassinated after an oppressive rule.
- 1811 - The silver deposits of Agua Amarga are discovered in Chile becoming in the following years instrumental for the Patriots to finance the Chilean War of Independence.
- 1814 - Eight people die in the London Beer Flood.
- 1850 - Riots start, which lead to a massacre in Aleppo.
- 1860 - First The Open Championship.
- 1861 - Aboriginal Australians kill nineteen Europeans in the Cullin-la-ringo massacre.
1901–present
- 1907 - Marconi begins the first commercial transatlantic wireless service.
- 1912 - Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia declare war on the Ottoman Empire, joining Montenegro in the First Balkan War.
- 1919 - Leeds United F.C. founded at Salem Chapel, Holbeck after the winding up of Leeds City F.C. for making illegal payments to players during World War I
- 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 is found in South France, starting a never-resolved mystery.
- 1941 - World War II: The USS Kearny becomes the first U.S. Navy vessel to be torpedoed by a U-boat.
- 1943 - The Burma Railway is completed.
- 1943 - Nazi Holocaust in Poland: Sobibór extermination camp is closed.
- 1945 - A large demonstration in Buenos Aires, Argentina, demands Juan Perón's release.
- 1952 - Indonesian Army elements surrounded the Merdeka Palace demanding President Sukarno disband the Provisional People's Representative Council.
- 1956 - The first commercial nuclear power station is officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II in Sellafield, England.
- 1961 - Directed by their chief Maurice Papon, Paris police massacre scores of Algerian protesters.
- 1961 - The first attempt of the apartheid analogy by Ahmad Shukeiri.
- 1965 - The 1964–65 New York World's Fair closes after two years and more than 51 million attendees.
- 1966 - The 23rd Street Fire in New York City kills 12 firefighters.
- 1969 - The Caravaggio painting Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence is stolen from the Oratory of Saint Lawrence in Palermo.
- 1970 - FLQ terrorists murder Quebec Vice-Premier and Minister of Labour Pierre Laporte.
- 1973 - OPEC imposes an oil embargo against countries they deem to have helped Israel in the Yom Kippur War.
- 1977 - The hijacked Lufthansa Flight 181 lands in Mogadishu. The remaining hostages are later rescued.
- 1979 - Mother Teresa is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
- 1979 - The Department of Education Organization Act creates the U.S. Department of Education.
- 1980 - As part of the Holy See–United Kingdom relations a British monarch makes the first state visit to the Vatican.
- 1988 - Uganda Airlines Flight 775 crashes at Rome–Fiumicino International Airport, in Rome, Italy, killing 33 people.
- 1989 - The 6.9 Loma Prieta earthquake shakes the San Francisco Bay Area and the Central Coast, killing 63.
- 1989 - The East German Politburo votes to remove Erich Honecker from his role as General Secretary.
- 1991 - Rudrapur bombings by Sikh separatists, who explode two bombs, during a Ramlila Hindu celebration in Rudrapur, Uttarakhand, killing 41 people.
- 1992 - Having gone to the wrong house, Japanese student Yoshihiro Hattori is killed by the homeowner in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
- 1994 - Russian journalist Dmitry Kholodov is assassinated while investigating corruption in the armed forces.
- 2000 - The Hatfield rail crash leads to the collapse of Railtrack.
- 2001 - Israeli tourism minister Rehavam Ze'evi is assassinated by Hamdi Quran, a member of the PFLP, thus becoming the highest-ranking Israeli to be killed by a Palestinian.
- 2004 - A fire that lasted over 15 hours destroyed almost one third of the East Tower of the Parque Central Urban Complex in Caracas, Venezuela.
- 2017 - Syrian civil war: The Syrian Democratic Forces capture the last foothold of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Raqqa, marking the end of the Battle of Raqqa.
- 2018 - The recreational use of cannabis is legalized in Canada.
- 2018 - A mass shooting and bombing at Kerch Polytechnic College in Crimea kills 21 people including the attacker and injures 70 others.
- 2019 - Drug dealers in Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico force the government to back down on an arrest.
- 2019 - The 17 October Revolution starts in Lebanon.
- 2023 - An explosion at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza kills hundreds of Palestinians during the Gaza war.
Births
Pre-1600
- 503 - Lý Nam Đế, first emperor of Vietnam
- 1253 - Ivo of Kermartin, French priest and saint
- 1493 - Bartolommeo Bandinelli, Italian sculptor
- 1500 - Alonso de Orozco Mena, Spanish Roman Catholic priest
- 1538 - Irene di Spilimbergo, Italian Renaissance poet and painter
- 1577 - Cristofano Allori, Italian painter
- 1577 - Dmitry Pozharsky, Russian prince
- 1582 - Johann Gerhard, German theologian and academic
- 1587 - Nathan Field, English dramatist and actor
1601–1900
- 1623 - Francis Turretin, Swiss-Italian minister, theologian, and academic
- 1629 - Balthasar Charles, Prince of Asturias
- 1688 - Domenico Zipoli, Italian missionary and composer
- 1711 - Jupiter Hammon, American poet
- 1719 - Jacques Cazotte, French author and academic
- 1720 - Maria Teresa Agnesi Pinottini, Italian harpsichord player and composer
- 1725 - John Wilkes, English journalist and politician
- 1729 - Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny, French composer and academic
- 1735 - Franz Xaver Feuchtmayer the Younger, German Baroque artist
- 1759 - Andrey Voronikhin, Russian architect and painter
- 1760 - Claude Henri de Rouvroy, comte de Saint-Simon, French economist and philosopher
- 1768 - Sophie von Dönhoff, morganatic spouse by bigamy to King Frederick William II of Prussia
- 1779 - Louis Charles, French prince of the blood
- 1779 - José Andrés Pacheco de Melo, Argentine statesman and priest
- 1780 - Richard Mentor Johnson, American politician, ninth Vice President of the United States
- 1781 - Johann Friedrich Meckel, German anatomist
- 1784 - Fructuoso Rivera, first president of Uruguay
- 1785 - Christen Smith, Norwegian scientist
- 1792 - John Bowring, English polyglot and governor of Hong Kong
- 1797 - Juan Lavalle, Argentine politician
- 1803 - Ferenc Deák, Hungarian politician
- 1810 - Adolphe-Félix Cals, French painter
- 1811 - Albertus van Raalte, Dutch-American pastor and educator
- 1813 - Georg Büchner, German-Swiss poet and playwright
- 1814 - Yakiv Holovatsky, Ukrainian historian, scholar, and poet
- 1817 - Syed Ahmad Khan, Indian philosopher and scholar
- 1821 - Alexander Gardner, Scottish photographer
- 1828 - Aureliano Maestre de San Juan, Spanish scientist
- 1833 - José E. Días, Paraguayan general
- 1835 - Louis-Léon Cugnot, French sculptor
- 1835 - Paul Haenlein, German mechanical engineer
- 1840 - André Gill, French caricaturist
- 1844 - Gustave Schlumberger, French historian
- 1845 - John J. Gardner, American politician
- 1853 - Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia
- 1859 - Childe Hassam, American painter and illustrator
- 1860 - Henry Campbell Black, founder of Black's Law Dictionary
- 1864 - Elinor Glyn, English author, screenwriter, and producer
- 1865 - James Rudolph Garfield, American lawyer and politician, 23rd United States Secretary of the Interior
- 1867 - Josep Puig i Cadafalch, Catalan architect who designed the Casa Martí
- 1871 - Segundo de Chomón, Spanish cinematographer, director, and screenwriter
- 1876 - Hippolyte Aucouturier, French road cyclist
- 1878 - Jacobo Fitz-James Stuart, Spanish politician and 17th Duke of Alba
- 1880 - Jesús Reyes Ferreira, Mexican artist and art collector
- 1881 - Maria Dulęba, Polish actress
- 1882 - Haritina Korotkevich, Russian war heroine
- 1883 - Alexander Neill, Scottish educator
- 1883 - Thaddeus Shideler, American hurdler
- 1886 - Spring Byington, American actress
- 1889 - Mikha'il Na'ima, Lebanese author
- 1890 - Roy Kilner, English cricketer
- 1892 - Theodor Eicke, German SS general
- 1892 - Herbert Howells, English organist, composer, and educator
- 1893 - Raffaele Bendandi, Italian clockmaker and seismologist
- 1894 - Prince René, Italian Prince of Denmark
- 1894 - Pablo de Rokha, Chilean poet
- 1895 - Miguel Ydígoras Fuentes, President of Guatemala
- 1895 - Doris Humphrey, American dancer and choreographer
- 1896 - Roman Petrovich, Russian prince
- 1898 - Shinichi Suzuki, Japanese violinist and educator
- 1898 - Eileen Sedgwick, American actress
- 1898 - Simon Vestdijk, Dutch author and poet
- 1900 - C. C. van Asch van Wijck, Dutch artist and sculptor
- 1900 - Jean Arthur, American actress
- 1900 - Yvor Winters, American critic and poet