December 17

December 17 is the 351st day of the year (352nd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 14 days remaining.

Events:

• 283 - St. Gaius becomes Pope
• 1538 - Pope Paul III excommunicates King Henry VIII of England
• 1558 - Elizabeth I of England accedes to the throne
• 1819 - Colombia declares its independence from Spain
• 1869 - Suez Canal opens
• 1903 - First powered flight, by the Wright Brothers.
• 1961 - India seizes Goa from Portugal
• 1969 - U.S. Air Force announces that its UFO investigations have found no evidence of extraterrestrial spacecraft.
• 1969 - SALT I talks begin
• 1970 - My Lai trial begins
• 1973 - The American Psychiatric Association removes homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses.

Births:

• 1770 - Ludwig van Beethoven, composer (+ 1827)
• 1778 - Humphry Davy, chemist
• 1799 - Titian Peale[?], artist
• 1807 - John Greenleaf Whittier[?], poet, abolitionist (+ 1892)
• 1830 - Jules Alfred Huot de Goncourt[?], Prix Goncourt (+ 1870)
• 1853 - Herbert Beerbohm Tree, actor (+ 1917)
• 1872 - Mistinguett, actress, singer (+ 1956)
• 1873 - Ford Madox Ford, writer
• 1874 - William Lyon Mackenzie King, tenth Prime Minister of Canada (+ 1950)
• 1893 - Erwin Piscator[?], film director (+ 1966)
• 1894 - Arthur Fiedler[?], conductor
• 1894 - Hans Henny Jahnn[?], dramatist, narrator and essayist (+ 1959)
• 1901 - Lee Strasberg[?], actor, director, acting teacher (+ 1982)
• 1903 - Erskine Caldwell[?], author (+ 1987)
• 1906 - Soichiro Honda , automobile pioneer
• 1908 - Willard Frank Libby[?], physicist and chemist, inventor of radicocarbon dating[?] (+ 1980)
• 1916 - Shelby Foote[?], historian
• 1925 - Rock Hudson, actor (+ 1985)
• 1930 - Armin Mueller-Stahl[?], actor
• 1930 - Bob Mathias[?], athlete
• 1931 - Constantin Freiheer von Heeremann[?], president of Germany's National Farmers' Union[?]
• 1930 - Bob Guccione[?], publisher of Penthouse magazine
• 1938 - Gordon Lightfoot, musician
• 1939 - Eddie Kendricks[?], musician
• 1941 - Gene Clark[?], musician
• 1942 - Paul Butterfield, musician (+ 1987)
• 1942 - Martin Scorsese, director
• 1943 - Lauren Hutton[?], model (person)|model]], actress
• 1944 - Jack L. Chalker, novelist
• 1944 - Danny DeVito, actor
• 1944 - Lorne Michaels, producer
• 1945 - Elvin Hayes[?], basketball star
• 1947 - Wes Studi[?], actor
• 1958 - Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, actress
• 1960 - RuPaul, model, actress, television personality
• 1966 - Sophie Marceau, actress
• 1975 - Milla Jovovich, acress, model

Deaths:

• 1273 - Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi, Persian poet and sufi mystic
• 1558 - Queen Mary I of England
• 1830 - Simon Bolivar, South American politician and activist
• 1907 - William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, physicist
• 1909 - King Leopold II of Belgium
• 1929 - Herman Hollerith, computer pioneer
• 1957 - Dorothy L. Sayers, writer
• 1987 - Irving Allen[?], producer
• 1992 - Dana Andrews, actor
• 1999 - Grover Washington Jr.[?], musician

Holidays and Observances:

• Roman Empire - Saturnalia in honor of Saturn

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See Also:

December 16 - December 18 - November 17 - January 17 -- listing of all days

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December