17th December anniversaries

• Birth
  • 1908
  • United States
  • "Birth of Willard Frank Libby, American physical chemist who developed radiocarbon dating, Nobel Prize winner."
• event
  • 1538
  • Henry VIII ex-communicated
  • 1968
  • "Mary Bell, aged 11, was sentenced to life in detention for killing two small boys, Newcastle, UK."
  • 1969
  • "The US Air Force closed Project Blue Book, concluding that there was no evidence of extraterrestrials in the thousands of UFO sightings they had investigated. (701 of the 12,618 sightings still remained unidentified)"
  • 1978
  • OPEC announced a 14.5% rise in oil prices by the end of 1979 .
  • 1983
  • "A car bomb exploded near Harrods department store, London, killing three police officers and three members of the public."
  • 1986
  • "Davina Thompson had the world's first heart, lung and liver transplant, Papworth Hospital, Cambridge"
  • 1989
  • The Simpsons premiered on the Fox network in the USA
• Death
  • 1907
  • "William Thomson, Lord Kelvin died 1907 (born 1824). Physicist who devised the Kelvin absolute scale for temperature. He worked on electrical and thermodynamic analysis, acted as a consultant on the laying of a transatlantic telegraph cable, and detected g"
  • 1909
  • "Death of King Léopold II of Belgium, succeeded by his nephew Albert I"
  • 1999
  • United States
  • "Death of Grover Washington, Jr., American jazz-funk saxophonist"

17th November anniversaries

• Birth
  • 9
  • Italy
  • "Birth of Vespasian, Emperor of the Roman Empire (6979 AD)"
  • 1807
  • Birth of Henry Philpott controversial Bishop of Worcester.
• event
  • 1292
  • Great Britain
  • "King Edward I awards Scottish crown to John Baliol ('Toom Tabard', or 'empty coat')"
  • 1855
  • Livingstone finds the Victoria Falls
  • 1869
  • Egypt
  • Suez Canal opens more
  • 1959
  • The De Beers diamond company in South Africa announced that they had produced the worlds first synthetic industrial diamonds
  • 1969
  • "The first strategic arms limitation talks (SALT) between the USA and the USSR opened in Helsinki, Finland"
  • 1989
  • Thousands of protesters marched through Prague demanding an end to Communist rule in Czechoslovakia. Riot police crushed the revolt
• Death
  • 1558
  • Great Britain
  • Queen Mary Tudor of England dies and is succeeded by her half-sister Elizabeth – Protestantism restored in England more
  • 1708
  • "Death of Ludolf Backhuysen, Dutch artist ."
  • 1858
  • "Death of Robert Owen, Welsh social reformer, one of the founders of socialism and the cooperative movement."
  • 1929
  • "Death of Herman Hollerith, American statistician, inventor of the tabulating machine, an early mechanical computer that used punched cards and was an important precursor to modern electronic computers"
  • 1959
  • "Death of Heitor Villa-Lobos, Brazilian composer"
  • 1971
  • Great Britain
  • "Death of Dame Gladys Cooper, Actress" more
  • 1998
  • "Death of Esther Rolle, American actress ."

17th September anniversaries

• Birth
  • 1928
  • Great Britain
  • "Birth of Roddy McDowall, British actor ."
  • 1934
  • "Birth of Maureen (Little Mo) Connolly, American tennis player, the first woman to win the Grand Slam"
  • 1883
  • "Birth of William Carlos Williams, American doctor and Pulitzer Prize winning writer, poet and playwright."
• event
  • 1928
  • "The Okeechobee hurricane hit south-eastern Florida, killing over 2,500 people."
  • 1931
  • "RCA-Victor demonstrated the first long-playing record, known as a Program Transcription (PT)"
  • 1939
  • The Soviet Union invaded Poland
  • 1944
  • Operation Market Garden - Allied invasion of Holland
  • 1983
  • Vanessa Williams became the first black Miss America .
  • 1996
  • United States
  • "The civil trial of O J Simpson opened in Santa Monica, USA. He had been found not guilty of murdering his wife and her friend in a criminal trial the previous year"
  • 1533
  • Great Britain
  • Anne Boleyn gives birth to a daughter Elizabeth. more
  • 1809
  • "The Finnish War ended when Sweden and Russia signed the Treaty of Fredrikshamn, which ceded Finland to Russia"
  • 1908
  • United States
  • "The first aircraft fatality occurred at Fort Myer, Virginia when a propeller came loose on a plane piloted by Orville Wright. Lt Thomas Selfridge, a passenger, died of a fractured skull." more
• Death
  • 1948
  • "Death of Count Folke Bernadotte, Swedish diplomat, assassinated ."
  • 1997
  • "Death of Red Skelton (Richard Bernard Skelton), American comedian"
  • 454
  • Egypt
  • "Death of Pope Dioscorus I of Alexandria, 25th Pope of the Coptic Church." more
  • 1179
  • Germany
  • "Death of St. Hildegard of Bingen, German composer." more
  • 1574
  • Spain
  • "Death of Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, Spanish explorer who founded the city of St Augustine, Florida." more
  • 1771
  • Great Britain
  • "Death of Tobias Smollett, Scottish writer." more

17th October anniversaries

• Birth
  • 1859
  • "Birth of (Frederick) Childe Hassam, American Impressionist artist"
  • 1918
  • "Birth of Rita Hayworth, American actress ."
• event
  • 1346
  • Great Britain
  • Battle of Neville Cross
  • 1860
  • Great Britain
  • The Open Championship (golf) begins the 1st Professional Golf Tournament.
  • 1895
  • "First people in Britain to be charged with motor offences – John Henry Knight and James Pullinger of Farnham, Surrey "
  • 1919
  • The Radio Corporation of America (RCA) was founded
  • 1933
  • Physicist Albert Einstein arrived in the USA as a refugee from Nazi Germany.
  • 1979
  • Albania
  • "Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her humanitarian work in Calcutta, India"
  • 1989
  • "Loma Prieta Earthquake: An earthquake in San Francisco, California killed 63 people, injured 3,500 and damaged 100,000 buildings"
• Death
  • 1660
  • Great Britain
  • "The Ten Regicides responsible for the execution of King Charles 1st were drawn and quartered. Thomas Harrison, John Jones, Adrian Scrope, John Carew, Thomas Scot and Gregory Clement, who had signed the death warrant; the preacher Hugh Peters; Francis Hack"
  • 1934
  • Spain
  • "Death of Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Nobel Prize-winning Spanish histologist and neuroscientist, one of the founders of modern neuroscience"
  • 1979
  • "Death of S.J. Perelman, American author, humorist and screenwriter"
  • 1998
  • "Death of Joan Hickson, British actress ."

17th August anniversaries

• Birth
  • 1786
  • "Birth of Davy Crockett, legendary American frontiersman." more
  • 1959
  • United States
  • "Birth of David Koresh, American leader of the Branch Davidians religious cult whose members were killed by the FBI in the Waco siege of 1993" more
• event
  • 1648
  • Great Britain
  • Battle of Preston
  • 1807
  • United States
  • Inaugural journey of the North River Steamboat on its transit between New York City and Albany - the first commercial steamboat service in the world. more
  • 1820
  • Great Britain
  • Trial of Queen Caroline wife of George IV. more
  • 1896
  • Great Britain
  • "First fatality in Britain caused by a motor car when Bridget Driscoll, en-route to a folk dancing display at Crystal Palace, stepped in front of a vehicle travelling at 4 mph." more
  • 1908
  • France
  • "Premiere in Paris of Fantasmagorie, the first animated cartoon." more
  • 1953
  • United States
  • The first meeting of Narcotics Anonymous took place in California. more
  • 1969
  • United States
  • "Hurricane Camille hit the coast of Mississippi, killing 248 people and causing $1.5 billion worth of damage"
  • 1978
  • United States
  • "Double Eagle II became the first hot-air balloon to cross the Atlantic, flown by Americans Max Anderson, Ben Abruzzo and Larry Newman."
  • 1989
  • Great Britain
  • Electronic tagging of a criminal was used for the first time in Britain
  • 1998
  • United States
  • US President Bill Clinton admitted having an inappropriate relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
  • 1999
  • Turkey
  • "A powerful earthquake struck Izmit, Western Turkey, flattening much of the town and killing more than 17,000 with many more injured." more
• Death
  • 1809
  • Great Britain
  • "Death of Matthew Boulton, British manufacturer and engineer."
  • 1942
  • Russian Federation
  • "Death in Auschwitz of Irene Nemirovsky Ukranian born French novelist, who despite being a Catholic was executed for having Jewish parents." more
  • 1983
  • United States
  • "Death of Ira Gershwin, American lyricist ."
  • 1988
  • Pakistan
  • "Death of Zia ul-Haq, President of Pakistan, along with several others, when their plane exploded in mid-air in mysterious circumstances."

17th July anniversaries

• Birth
  • 1907
  • Great Britain
  • "Humphry Ellis born 1907 (died 2000). Creator, at first in Punch, of AJ Wentworth, the self-important and incompetent prep-school master."
• event
  • 1841
  • Great Britain
  • First issue of Punch the humorous magazine that gave birth to the modern cartoon. more
  • 1858
  • Netherlands
  • "The Lutine Bell was recovered from the seabed in the Vlie Seaway, Netherlands – subsequently hung in Lloyd’s of London."
  • 1933
  • United States
  • The American research plane ‘Lituanica’ crashed in mysterious circumstances near Lithuania after successfully crossing the Atlantic.
  • 1979
  • Nicaragua
  • "Nicaraguan President General Anastasio Somoza Debayle resigned and fled to exile in Miami, allowing the left-wing Sandinistas to seize power"
  • 1989
  • United States
  • The US Air Forces B-2 Stealth Bomber made its first flight
• Death
  • 1959
  • United States
  • "Death of Eugene Meyer, American businessman and financier, first president of the World bank, publisher of the Washington Post newspaper"
  • 1959
  • United States
  • "Death of Billie Holiday, American jazz singer"

17th June anniversaries

• Birth
  • 1239
  • Great Britain
  • "Birth of Edward I, King of England." more
  • 1682
  • Sweden
  • "Birth of Charles XII, King of Sweden"
  • 1703
  • Great Britain
  • "Birth of John Wesley, founder of Methodism"
  • 1808
  • Norway
  • "Birth of Henrik Wergeland, Norwegian writer ."
  • 1818
  • France
  • "Birth of Charles-Francois Gounod, composer"
  • 1832
  • Great Britain
  • "Birth of William Crookes, British chemist and physicist who discovered thallium and invented several measuring instruments that were fundamental in the development of atomic physics"
  • 1882
  • Russian Federation
  • "Birth of Igor Stravinsky, Russian composer"
• event
  • 1497
  • Great Britain
  • Battle of Deptford Bridge (AKA Battle of Blackheath) ended the Cornish rebellion against Henry VII. more
  • 1497
  • Great Britain
  • Battle of Blackheath
  • 1579
  • Great Britain
  • Francis Drake landed in California and claimed it for England more
  • 1673
  • France
  • Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet arrived at the Mississippi River and are the first Europeans to make a detailed study of its course. more
  • 1809
  • France
  • French Emperor Napoleon I annexed the Papal States
  • 1885
  • United States
  • The Statue of Liberty arrived in New York. more
  • 1939
  • France
  • "The last public guillotining in France. Eugen Weidmann, a German serial killer, was executed outside the Saint-Pierre prison, Versailles" more
  • 1950
  • United States
  • First kidney transplant took place
  • 1970
  • United States
  • Polaroid camera patented by Edwin Land
  • 1994
  • United States
  • O.J. Simpson was arrested in California for the murders of his wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman.
• Death
  • 1631
  • India
  • "Death of Mumtaz Mahal in childbirth, wife of Shah Jahan I who built the Taj Mahal as her mausoleum." more
  • 1845
  • Great Britain
  • "Death of Richard Barham, (nom de plume Thomas Ingoldsby) author of the Ingoldsby Legends" more
  • 1898
  • Great Britain
  • "Death of Edward Burne-Jones, British artist ."
  • 1963
  • Great Britain
  • "Death of John Cowper-Powys, British writer" more