September 17

September 17 is the 260th day of the year (261st in leap years). There are 105 days remaining.

Events

• 1394 - King Charles VI of France orders all Jews expelled from France
• 1462 - Battle of Swiecin, called also Battle of Zarnowiec, during Thirteen Years' War
• 1630 - City of Boston, Massachusetts founded
• 1776 - Presidio of San Francisco founded
• 1787 - United States Constitution completed
• 1809 - Peace between Sweden and Russia in the Finnish War. The territory to become Finland is ceded to Russia by the Treaty of Fredrikshamn.
• 1859 - Joshua A. Norton declares himself Emperor Norton I of the United States
• 1862 - Battle of Antietam
• 1900 - Philippine-American War: Filipinos under Juan Cailles defeat Americans under Colonel Benjamin F. Cheatham at Mabitac.
• 1908 - Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge crashes a Wright Brothers airplane and becomes the first airplane fatality
• 1920 - National Football League organized in Canton, Ohio
• 1939 - Soviet Union attacks Poland
• 1944 - British troops parachute into Arnhem, as a part of Operation Market Garden
• 1947 - James V. Forrestal was sworn in as the 1st Secretary of Defense of United States
• 1948 - Lehi (also know as the Stern gang) assassinates Count Folke Bernadotte, who was appointed by the UN to mediate between the Arabs and Jews
• 1951 - Robert A. Lovett was sworn in as the 4th Secretary of Defense of United States
• 1976 - Space shuttle unveiled
• 1978 - Camp David peace agreement between Israel and Egypt
• 1983 - Vanessa Williams becomes first African-American Miss America
• 1984 - Brian Mulroney sworn in as Prime Minister of Canada
• 1988 - Opening ceremony of the Games of the XXIV Olympiad in Seoul, South Korea
• 1991 - North Korea and South Korea joined the United Nations
• 2001 - The Late Show with David Letterman is the first TV talk show to return to the airwaves six days after terrorists attack the United States in New York City and Washington D.C.
• 2001 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average opens for the first time after the September 11 attacks. The stocks plummet throughout the trading session and posts its biggest point drop in its history closing down 684.81 points to 8920.70.

Births

• 879 - King Charles III of France (d. 929)
• 1271 - Wenceslas II of Bohemia and Poland (d. 1305)
• 1550 - Pope Paul V (d. 1621)
• 1743 - Marquis de Condorcet, mathematician, philosopher, and political scientist (d. 1794)
• 1819 - Thomas Hendricks, former Vice President of the United States (d. 1885)
• 1857 - Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, rocket scientist, inventor (d. 1935)
• 1874 - Ben Turpin, actor, comedian (d. 1940)
• 1879 - Rube Foster, Negro League baseball star (some sources say 1878) (d. 1930)
• 1883 - William Carlos Williams, physician and writer (d. 1963)
• 1890 - Gabriel Heatter, journalist (d. 1972)
• 1900 - John Willard Marriott, hotelier (d. 1985)
• 1907 - Warren Burger, 15th Chief Justice of the United States (d. 1995)
• 1922 - Agostinho Neto, Angolan politician (d. 1979)
• 1923 - Hank Williams, musician (d. 1953)
• 1927 - George Blanda, National Football League and American Football League star
• 1928 - Roddy McDowall, actor (d. 1998)
• 1929 - Sir Stirling Moss, Formula One racer
• 1930 - Edgar Mitchell, astronaut
• 1931 - Anne Bancroft, actress
• 1934 - Maureen Connolly, tennis star (d. 1969)
• 1935 - Ken Kesey, author (d. 2001)
• 1937 - Orlando Cepeda, Baseball Hall of Famer
• 1947 - Tessa Jowell, British politician
• 1947 - Jeff MacNelly, Pulitzer Prize winning political cartoonist
• 1948 - John Ritter, actor (d. 2003)
• 1950 - Narendra Modi, chief minister of Gujarat
• 1951 - Cassandra Peterson (Elvira), actress
• 1956 - Rita Rudner, comedienne
• 1962 - Baz Luhrmann, film director and producer
• 1969 - Ken Doherty, Irish snooker player
• 1973 - Anastacia, singer
• 1974 - Rasheed Wallace, NBA basketball player
• 1983 - Jennifer Peña, Mexican-American (Tejano) singer

Deaths

• 1771 - Tobias Smollett, Scottish novelist (b. 1721)
• 1863 - Alfred de Vigny, author
• 1873 - Alexander Berry, Scotish adventurer, founder of Berry, Australia.
• 1908 - Lt. Thomas Selfridge, first to die in an airplane crash. Orville Wright was the pilot.
• 1972 - Akim Tamiroff, actor
• 1973 - Hugo Winterhalter, band leader
• 1980 - Anastasio Somoza Debayle, former president of Nicaragua
• 1984 - Richard Basehart, actor
• 1993 - Christian Nyby, film and television director
• 1996 - Spiro Agnew, former Vice President of the United States
• 1997 - Red Skelton, actor, comedian

Holidays

• Feast of Hildegard of Bingen
• The fourth day of the Eleusinian mysteries in ancient Greek mythology, when the initiates sacrificed a pig.

September 16 · September 18 · August 17 · October 17 · more historical anniversaries