17 December

Events

Pre-1600

*497 BC – The first Saturnalia festival was celebrated in ancient Rome.
* 546 – Siege of Rome: The Ostrogoths under king Totila plunder the city, by bribing the Eastern Roman garrison.
* 920 – Romanos I Lekapenos is crowned co-emperor of the underage Constantine VII.
* 942 – Assassination of William I of Normandy.
* 1297 – King Kyawswa of Pagan is overthrown by the three Myinsaing brothers, marking the de facto end of the Pagan Kingdom.
* 1354 – Margaret II, Countess of Hainaut and Holy Roman Empress and her son William I, Duke of Bavaria, sign a peace treaty ending the Hook and Cod wars.
*1398 – Sultan Nasir-u Din Mehmud's armies in Delhi are defeated by Timur.
*1538 – Pope Paul III excommunicates Henry VIII of England.
*1583 – Cologne War: Forces under Ernest of Bavaria defeat troops under Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg at the Siege of Godesberg.
*1586 – Go-Yōzei becomes Emperor of Japan.

1601–1900

*1665 – The first account of a blood transfusion is published, in the form of a letter from physician Richard Lower to chemist Robert Boyle, in ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society''
*1718 – War of the Quadruple Alliance: Great Britain declares war on Spain.
*1777 – American Revolution: France formally recognizes the United States.
*1790 – The Aztec calendar stone is discovered at El Zócalo, Mexico City.
*1807 – Napoleonic Wars: France issues the Milan Decree, which confirms the Continental System.
*1812 – War of 1812: U.S. forces attack a Lenape village in the Battle of the Mississinewa.
*1819 – Simón Bolívar declares the independence of Gran Colombia in Angostura (now Ciudad Bolívar in Venezuela).
*1835 – The second Great Fire of New York destroys of New York City's Financial District.
*1837 – A fire in the Winter Palace of Saint Petersburg kills 30 guards.
*1862 – American Civil War: General Ulysses S. Grant issues '' General Order No. 11'', expelling Jews from parts of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky.
*1865 – First performance of the Unfinished Symphony by Franz Schubert.
*1892 – First issue of ''Vogue'' is published.
*1896 – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's Schenley Park Casino, which was the first multi-purpose arena with the technology to create an artificial ice surface in North America, is destroyed in a fire.

1901–present

*1903 – The Wright brothers make the first controlled powered, heavier-than-air flight in the ''Wright Flyer'' at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
*1907 – Ugyen Wangchuck is crowned first King of Bhutan.
*1918 – Darwin Rebellion: Up to 1,000 demonstrators march on Government House in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia.
*1926 – Antanas Smetona assumes power in Lithuania as the 1926 coup d'état is successful.
*1927 – Indian revolutionary Rajendra Lahiri is hanged in Gonda jail, Uttar Pradesh, India, two days before the scheduled date.
*1928 – Indian revolutionaries Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev Thapar and Shivaram Rajguru assassinate British police officer James Saunders in Lahore, Punjab, to avenge the death of Lala Lajpat Rai at the hands of the police. The three were executed in 1931.
*1933 – The first NFL Championship Game is played at Wrigley Field in Chicago between the New York Giants and Chicago Bears. The Bears won 23–21.
*1935 – First flight of the Douglas DC-3.
*1938 – Otto Hahn discovers the nuclear fission of the heavy element uranium, the scientific and technological basis of nuclear energy.
*1939 – World War II: Battle of the River Plate: The '' Admiral Graf Spee'' is scuttled by Captain Hans Langsdorff outside Montevideo.
*1943 – All Chinese are again permitted to become citizens of the United States upon the repeal of the Act of 1882 and the introduction of the Magnuson Act.
*1944 – World War II: Battle of the Bulge: Malmedy massacre: American 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion POWs are shot by Waffen-SS Kampfgruppe Joachim Peiper.
*1945 – Kurdistan flag day, the flag of Kurdistan was raised for the first time in Mahabad in eastern Kurdistan.
*1947 – First flight of the Boeing B-47 Stratojet strategic bomber.
*1948 – The Finnish Security Police is established to remove communist leadership from its predecessor, the State Police.
*1950 – The F-86 Sabre's first mission over Korea.
*1951 – The American Civil Rights Congress delivers "We Charge Genocide" to the United Nations.
*1957 – The United States successfully launches the first Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
*1960 – Troops loyal to Emperor Haile Selassie in Ethiopia crush the coup that began December 13, returning power to their leader upon his return from Brazil. Haile Selassie absolves his son of any guilt.
* 1960 – Munich C-131 crash: Twenty passengers and crew on board as well as 32 people on the ground are killed.
*1961 – Niterói circus fire: Fire breaks out during a performance by the Gran Circus Norte-Americano in the city of Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, killing more than 500.
*1967 – Harold Holt, Prime Minister of Australia, disappears while swimming near Portsea, Victoria, and is presumed drowned.
*1969 – Project Blue Book: The United States Air Force closes its study of UFOs.
*1970 – Polish protests: In Gdynia, soldiers fire at workers emerging from trains, killing dozens.
*1973 – Thirty passengers are killed in an attack by Palestinian terrorists on Rome's Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport.
*1981 – American Brigadier General James L. Dozier is abducted by the Red Brigades in Verona, Italy.
*1983 – Provisional IRA members detonate a car bomb at Harrods Department Store in London. Three police officers and three civilians are killed.
*1989 – Romanian Revolution: Protests continue in Timișoara, Romania, with rioters breaking into the Romanian Communist Party's District Committee building and attempting to set it on fire.
* 1989 – Fernando Collor de Mello defeats Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the second round of the Brazilian presidential election, becoming the first democratically elected President in almost 30 years.
* 1989 – ''The Simpsons'' premieres on television with the episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire".
*1997 – Peruvian internal conflict: Fourteen members of the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement provoke a hostage crisis by taking over the Japanese embassy in Lima.
* 1997 – Aerosvit Flight 241: A Yakovlev Yak-42 crashes into the Pierian Mountains near Thessaloniki Airport in Thessaloniki, Greece, killing all 70 people on board.
*2002 – Second Congo War: The Congolese parties of the Inter Congolese Dialogue sign a peace accord which makes provision for transitional governance and legislative and presidential elections within two years.
*2003 – The Soham murder trial ends at the Old Bailey in London, with Ian Huntley found guilty of two counts of murder. His girlfriend, Maxine Carr, is found guilty of perverting the course of justice.
* 2003 – SpaceShipOne, piloted by Brian Binnie, makes its first powered and first supersonic flight.
* 2003 – Sex work rights activists establish December 17 (or "D17") as International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers to memorialize victims of a serial killer who targeted prostitutes, and highlight State violence against sex workers by police and others.
*2005 – Anti-World Trade Organization protesters riot in Wan Chai, Hong Kong.
* 2005 – Jigme Singye Wangchuck abdicates the throne as King of Bhutan.
*2009 – sinks off the coast of Lebanon, resulting in the deaths of 44 people and over 28,000 animals.
*2010 – Mohamed Bouazizi sets himself on fire. This act became the catalyst for the Tunisian Revolution and the wider Arab Spring.
*2014 – The United States and Cuba re-establish diplomatic relations after severing them in 1961.

Births

Pre-1600

*1239 – Kujō Yoritsugu, Japanese shōgun (died 1256)
*1267 – Emperor Go-Uda of Japan (died 1324)
*1554 – Ernest of Bavaria, Roman Catholic bishop (died 1612)
*1556 – Abdul Rahim Khan-I-Khana, poet in Mughal Empire (died 1627)
*1574 – Pedro Téllez-Girón, 3rd Duke of Osuna, Spanish nobleman and politician (died 1624)

1601–1900

*1616 – Roger L'Estrange, English pamphleteer and author (died 1704)
*1619 – Prince Rupert of the Rhine (died 1682)
*1632 – Anthony Wood, English historian and author (died 1695)
*1685 – Thomas Tickell, English poet (died 1740)
*1699 – Charles-Louis Mion, French composer and educator (died 1775)
*1706 – Émilie du Châtelet, French mathematician and physicist (died 1749)
*1734 – Maria I of Portugal (died 1816)
*1749 – Domenico Cimarosa, Italian composer and educator (died 1801)
*1778 – Humphry Davy, English chemist and physicist (died 1829)
*1796 – Thomas Chandler Haliburton, Canadian judge and politician (died 1865)
*1797 – Joseph Henry, American physicist and engineer (died 1878)
*1807 – John Greenleaf Whittier, American poet and activist (died 1892)
*1812 – Vilhelm Petersen, Danish painter (died 1880)
*1827 – Alexander Wassilko von Serecki, Austrian lawyer and politician (died 1893)
*1830 – Jules de Goncourt, French author and critic (died 1870)
*1835 – Alexander Emanuel Agassiz, Swiss-American ichthyologist and engineer (died 1910)
*1840 – Nozu Michitsura, Japanese field marshal (died 1908)
*1842 – Sophus Lie, Norwegian mathematician and academic (died 1899)
*1847 – Émile Faguet, French author and critic (died 1916)
*1853 – Pierre Paul Émile Roux, French physician and immunologist, co-founded the Pasteur Institute (died 1933)
*1858 – Eva Nansen, Norwegian mezzo-soprano singer and pioneer on women skiing (died 1907)
*1859 – Paul César Helleu, French painter and illustrator (died 1927)
*1866 – Kazys Grinius, Lithuanian physician and politician, third President of Lithuania (died 1950)
*1873 – Ford Madox Ford, English novelist, poet, and critic (died 1939)
*1874 – William Lyon Mackenzie King, Canadian economist and politician, tenth Prime Minister of Canada (died 1950)
*1881 – Aubrey Faulkner, South African-English cricketer and coach (died 1930)
*1884 – Alison Uttley, English children's book writer (died 1976)
*1887 – Josef Lada, Czech painter and illustrator (died 1957)
*1890 – Prince Joachim of Prussia (died 1920)
*1892 – Sam Barry, American basketball player and coach (died 1950)
*1893 – Charles C. Banks, English captain and pilot (died 1971)
* 1893 – Erwin Piscator, German director and producer (died 1966)
*1894 – Arthur Fiedler, American conductor (died 1979)
* 1894 – Patrick Flynn, Irish-American runner and soldier (died 1969)
* 1894 – Wim Schermerhorn, Dutch cartographer, engineer, and politician, Prime Minister of the Netherlands (died 1977)
*1895 – Gerald Patterson, Australian tennis player (died 1967)
*1898 – Loren Murchison, American sprinter (died 1979)
*1900 – Mary Cartwright, English mathematician and academic, one of the first people to analyze a dynamical system with chaos (died 1998)

1901–present

*1903 – Erskine Caldwell, American novelist and short story writer (died 1987)
* 1903 – Ray Noble, English bandleader, composer, and actor (died 1978)
*1904 – Paul Cadmus, American painter and illustrator (died 1999)
*1905 – Simo Häyhä, Finnish soldier and sniper (died 2002)
* 1905 – Mohammad Hidayatullah, 11th Chief Justice of India, and politician, sixth Vice President of India (died 1992)
* 1905 – Erico Verissimo, Brazilian author and translator (died 1975)
*1906 – Fernando Lopes-Graça, Portuguese composer and conductor (died 1994)
* 1906 – Russell C. Newhouse, American pilot and engineer (died 1998)
*1908 – Willard Libby, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1980)
*1910 – Eknath Easwaran, Indian-American educator and author (died 1999)
* 1910 – Sy Oliver, American singer-songwriter and trumpet player (died 1988)
*1912 – Edward Short, Baron Glenamara, English captain and politician, Lord President of the Council (died 2012)
*1913 – Burt Baskin, American businessman, co-founded Baskin-Robbins

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