SomeFacts | February 17

On this day - February 17

1370 — Northern Crusades: Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Teutonic ...

1411 — Following the successful campaigns during the Ottoman ...

1500 — Duke Frederick of Schleswig-Holstein and King John of Denmark ...

1600 — On his way to be burned at the stake for heresy, at Campo ...

1616 — Nurhaci proclaims himself Khan of the Later Jin, precursor to ...

1621 — Myles Standish is appointed as first military commander of the ...

1674 — An earthquake strikes the Indonesian island of Ambon. It ...

1676 — Sixteen men of Pascual de Iriate's expedition are lost at ...

1739 — The Battle of Vasai commences as the Marathas move to invade ...

1753 — In Sweden, February 17 is followed by March 1 as the country ...

1801 — United States presidential election: A tie in the Electoral ...

1814 — War of the Sixth Coalition: The Battle of Mormant.

1819 — The United States House of Representatives passes the Missouri ...

1838 — In the Weenen massacre, hundreds of Voortrekkers along the ...

1854 — The United Kingdom recognizes the independence of the Orange ...

1859 — Cochinchina Campaign: The French Navy captures the Citadel of ...

1863 — A group of citizens of Geneva found an International Committee ...

1864 — American Civil War: The H. L. Hunley becomes the first ...

1865 — American Civil War: Columbia, South Carolina, is burned as ...

1905 — Russian Revolution of 1905: Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of ...

1913 — The Armory Show opens in New York City, displaying works of ...

1919 — The Ukrainian People's Republic asks the Entente and the ...

1944 — World War II: Operation Hailstone begins: U.S. naval air, ...

1944 — World War II: The Battle of Eniwetok begins. The battle ends ...

1948 — The Al-Waziri coup briefly ousts the ruling Hamidaddin dynasty ...

1949 — Chaim Weizmann begins his term as the first President of ...

1959 — A Turkish Airlines Vickers Viscount crashes near Gatwick ...

1959 — Project Vanguard: Vanguard 2: The first weather satellite is ...

1964 — Gabonese president Léon M'ba is toppled by a coup and his ...

1964 — In Wesberry v. Sanders the Supreme Court of the United States ...

1965 — Project Ranger: The Ranger 8 probe launches on its mission to ...

1966 — Aeroflot Flight 065 crashes during take-off from Sheremetyevo ...

1969 — American aquanaut Berry L. Cannon dies of carbon dioxide ...

1970 — The family of Jeffrey R. MacDonald, United States Army ...

1972 — Cumulative sales of the Volkswagen Beetle exceed those of the ...

1974 — Robert K. Preston, a disgruntled U.S. Army private, buzzes the ...

1978 — The Troubles: The Provisional IRA detonates an incendiary bomb ...

1979 — The Sino-Vietnamese War begins.

1980 — First winter ascent of Mount Everest by Krzysztof Wielicki and ...

1991 — Ryan International Airlines Flight 590 crashes during takeoff ...

1992 — First Nagorno-Karabakh War: Armenian troops massacre more than ...

1995 — The Cenepa War between Peru and Ecuador ends on a ceasefire ...

1996 — The 8.2 Mw Biak earthquake shakes the Papua province of ...

1996 — NASA's Discovery Program begins as the NEAR Shoemaker ...

1996 — In Philadelphia, world champion Garry Kasparov beats the Deep ...

2006 — A massive mudslide occurs in Southern Leyte, Philippines; the ...

2008 — Kosovo declares independence from Serbia.

2011 — Arab Spring: In Bahrain, security forces launch a deadly ...

2011 — Arab Spring: Libyan protests against Muammar Gaddafi's ...

2015 — Eighteen people are killed and 78 injured in a stampede at a ...

2016 — Military vehicles explode outside a Turkish Armed Forces ...