17 June History
- 362 - Emperor Julian issues an edict banning Christians from teaching in Syria.
- 1579 - Sir Francis Drake claims San Francisco Bay for England.
- 1775 - The British take Bunker Hill outside of Boston, after a costly battle.
- 1799 - Napoleon Bonaparte incorporates Italy into his empire.
- 1848 - Austrian General Alfred Windischgratz crushes a Czech uprising in Prague.
- 1854 - The Red Turban revolt breaks out in Guangdong, China.
- 1856 - The Republican Party opens its first national convention in Philadelphia.
- 1861 - President Abraham Lincoln witnesses Dr. Thaddeus Lowe demonstrate the use of a hot-air balloon.
- 1863 - On the way to Gettysburg, Union and Confederate forces skirmish at Point of Rocks, Maryland.
- 1872 - George M. Hoover begins selling whiskey in Dodge City, Kansas–a town which had previously been "dry."
- 1876 - General George Crook's command is attacked and bested on the Rosebud River by 1,500 Sioux and Cheyenne under the leadership of Crazy Horse.
- 1912 - The German Zeppelin SZ 111 burns in its hanger in Friedrichshafen.
- 1913 - U.S. Marines set sail from San Diego to protect American interests in Mexico.
- 1917 - The Russian Duma meets in secret session in Petrograd and votes for an immediate Russian offensive against the German Army.
- 1924 - The Fascist militia marches into Rome.
- 1926 - Spain threatens to quit the League of Nations if Germany is allowed to join.
- 1930 - The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Bill becomes law, placing the highest tariff on imports to the United States.
- 1931 - British authorities in China arrest Indochinese Communist leader Ho Chi Minh.
- 1932 - The U.S. Senate defeats the Bonus Bill as 10,000 veterans mass around the Capitol.
- 1940 - The Soviet Union occupies Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.
- 1942 - Yank a weekly magazine for the U.S. armed services, begins publication.
- 1944 - French troops land on the island of Elba in the Mediterranean.
- 1950 - Surgeon Richard Lawler performs the first kidney transplant operation in Chicago.
- 1953 - Soviet tanks fight thousands of Berlin workers rioting against the East German government.
- 1963 - The U.S. Supreme Court bans the required reading of the Lord's prayer and Bible in public schools.
- 1965 - 27 B-52s hit Viet Cong outposts, but lose two planes in South Vietnam.
- 1970 - North Vietnamese troops cut the last operating rail line in Cambodia.
- 1972 - Five men are arrested for burglarizing Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C.
- 1994 - Millions of Americans watch former football player O.J. Simpson–facing murder charges–drive his Ford Bronco through Los Angeles, followed by police.
17 June Birthdays
- 1239 - Edward I (Longshanks), King of England (1272-1307).
- 1703 - John Wesley, English evangelist and theologian, founder of the Methodist movement.
- 1742 - William Hooper, signer of the Declaration of Independence.
- 1871 - James Weldon Johnson, African-American poet and novelist (The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man).
- 1880 - Carl Van Vechten, writer.
- 1882 - Igor Stravinsky, Russian-born U.S. composer (The Rite of Spring, The Firebird).
- 1914 - John Hersey, novelist and journalist (Men of Bataan, Hiroshima).
- 1942 - Rod Padgett, poet.