17 May History


Month:                           Date:     

  • 1540    -    Afgan chief Sher Khan defeats Mongul Emperor Humayun at Kanauj.
  • 1630    -    Italian Jesuit Niccolo Zucchi sees the belts on Jupiter's surface.
  • 1681    -    Louis XIV sends and expedition to aid James II in Ireland. As a result, England declares war on France.
  • 1756    -    Britain declares war on France.
  • 1792    -    Merchants form the New York Stock Exchange at 70 Wall Street.
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  • 1814    -    Denmark cedes Norway to Sweden.
  • 1863    -    Union General Ulysses Grant continues his push towards Vicksburg at the Battle of the Big Black River Bridge.
  • 1875    -    The first Kentucky Derby is run in Louisville.
  • 1881    -    Frederick Douglass is appointed recorder of deeds for Washington, D.C.
  • 1940    -    Germany occupies Brussels, Belgium and begins the invasion of France.
  • 1954    -    The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously rules for school integration in Brown v. Board of Education.
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  • 1973    -    The Senate Watergate Committee begins its hearings.

  • 17 May Birthdays

  • 1444    -    Sandro Botticelli, painter (The Birth of Venus).
  • 1749    -    Edward Jenner, physician.
  • 1836    -    Joseph Norman Lockyer, British astonomer, discovered helium.
  • 1866    -    Erik Alfred Leslie Satie, French composer.
  • 1900    -    Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iranian religious leader.
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  • 1903    -    James "Cool Papa" Bell, baseball player.
  • 1912    -    Archibald Cox, special prosecutor in the Watergate hearings, fired by President Nixon.