December 17 Historical Events
The following events took place on December 17. The list is arranged in chronological order.
Found 62 events. Showing 1 - 30.
- 497 BCThe first Saturnalia festival was celebrated in ancient Rome.
- 546Siege of Rome: The Ostrogoths under king Totila plunder the city, by bribing the Byzantine garrison.
- 920Romanos I Lekapenos is crowned co-emperor of the underage Constantine VII.
- 942Assassination of William I of Normandy.
- 1398Sultan Nasir-u Din Mehmud’s armies in Delhi are defeated by Timur.
- 1538Pope Paul III excommunicates Henry VIII of England.
- 1583Cologne War: Forces under Ernest of Bavaria defeat troops under Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg at the Siege of Godesberg.
- 1586Go-Yōzei becomes Emperor of Japan.
- 1600Marriage of Henry IV of France and Marie de' Medici.
- 1718War of the Quadruple Alliance: Great Britain declares war on Spain.
- 1777American Revolution: France formally recognizes the United States.
- 1790Discovery of the Aztec calendar stone.
- 1807Napoleonic Wars: France issues the Milan Decree, which confirms the Continental System.
- 1812War of 1812: U.S. forces attack a Lenape village in the Battle of the Mississinewa.
- 1813The Sûreté Nationale, the national police force of France, is founded, headed by Eugène François Vidocq.
- 1819Simón Bolívar declares the independence of Gran Colombia in Angostura (now Ciudad Bolívar in Venezuela).
- 1835Great Fire of New York: Fire levels lower Manhattan.
- 1837A fire in the Winter Palace of Saint Petersburg kills 30 guards.
- 1862American Civil War: General Ulysses S. Grant issues General Order No. 11, expelling Jews from parts of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky.
- 1865First performance of the Unfinished Symphony by Franz Schubert.
- 1892First issue of Vogue is published
- 1896Pittsburgh, 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.
- 1903The Wright brothers make the first controlled powered, heavier-than-air flight in the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
- 1907Ugyen Wangchuck is crowned first King of Bhutan
- 1918Darwin Rebellion: Up to 1,000 demonstrators march on Government House in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia.
- 1919Uruguay becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
- 1926Antanas Smetona assumes power in Lithuania as the 1926 coup d'état is successful.
- 1927Indian revolutionary Rajendra Lahiri is hanged in Gonda jail, Uttar Pradesh, India, two days before the scheduled date.
- 1928Indian 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.
- 1935First flight of the Douglas DC-3.
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