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October 17
Events - 539 BC - King Cyrus The Great of Persia marches into the city of Babylon, releasing the Jews from almost 70 years of exile and making the first Human Rights Declaration.
- 1244 - Battle of La Forbie: Crusaders are defeated by Khwarezmians and Egyptians.
- 1346 - Battle of Neville's Cross: King David II of Scotland is captured by Edward III of England at Calais, and imprisoned in the Tower of London for eleven years.
- 1448 - Second Battle of Kosovo, where the mainly Hungarian army led by John Hunyadi were defeated by an Ottoman army led by Sultan Murad II.
- 1604 - Kepler's Star: German astronomer Johannes Kepler observes that an exceptionally bright star had suddenly appeared in the constellation. Ophiuchus, which turned out to be the last supernova to have been observed in our own galaxy, the Milky Way.
- 1610 - French king Louis XIII is crowned in Rheims.
- 1660 - Nine Regicides, the men who signed the death warrant of Charles I, are hanged, drawn and quartered, another is hanged.
- 1662 - Charles II of England sells Dunkirk to France for 40,000 pounds.
- 1777 - American troops defeat the British in the Battle of Saratoga.
- 1781 - General Charles Cornwallis offers his surrender to the American revolutionists at Yorktown, Virginia.
- 1797 - Treaty of Campo Formio is signed between France and Austria.
- 1800 - England takes control of the Dutch colony of Curaçao.
- 1806 - Former leader of the Haitian Revolution, Emperor Jacques I of Haiti was assassinated after an oppressive rule.
- 1860 - First The Open Championship (referred to in North America as the British Open).
- 1888 - Thomas Edison files a patent for the Optical Phonograph (the first movie).
- 1907 - Guglielmo Marconi's company begins first regular commercial trans-Atlantic 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.
- 1917 - First British bombing of Germany in World War I.
- 1931 - Al Capone convicted of income tax evasion.
- 1933 - Albert Einstein, fleeing Nazi Germany, moves to the US.
- 1937 - Huey, Dewey and Louie, Donald Duck's three almost identical nephews, first appear in a newspaper comic strip.
- 1941 - For the first time in World War II, a German submarine attacks an American ship.
- 1945 - A massive number of people, headed by CGT and Evita, gather in the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina to demand Juan Peron's release. This is known to the Peronists as the Día de la lealtad (day of loyalty). It's considered the birthday of Peronism.
- 1961 - Scores of Algerian protesters (some claim up to 400) are massacred by the Paris police at the instigation of Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon, then chief of the Prefecture of Police.
- 1965 - The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair closes after a two year run. More than 51 million people had attended the two-year event.
- 1966 - A fire at a building in New York, New York kills 12 firefighters, the New York City Fire Department's deadliest day until the September 11, 2001 attacks.
- 1967 - The musical Hair opens at the Anspacher Theater on Broadway.
- 1968 - The 1968 Olympics Black Power salute is performed by Tommie Smith and John Carlos.
- 1970 - Montreal, Quebec: Quebec Vice-Premier and Minister of Labour Pierre Laporte murdered by members of the FLQ terrorist group.
- 1973 - OPEC starts an oil embargo against a number of western countries, considered to have helped Israel in its war against Syria.
- 1977 - German Autumn: Four days after it was 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 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. Both replace the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.
- 1989 - Loma Prieta earthquake (7.1 on the Richter scale) hits the San Francisco Bay Area and causes 57 deaths directly (and 6 indirectly).
- 1992 - The United Nations General Assembly declares October 17 as the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, to be observed beginning in 1993. Resolution 47/196 of 22 December 1992.
- 2000 - Train crash at Hatfield, north of London, leading to collapse of Railtrack.
- 2003 - The pinnacle was 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 50 meters (165 feet) and become the World's tallest highrise.
- 2003 - Eunuchs in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh float the political party Jiti Jitayi Politics.
- 2006 - The United States population reaches 300 million.
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