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This day in history

This day in history: 17 June

Events, births and deaths on this date, ordered by how many people look them up.

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Key facts

401 historical events, births and deaths are listed for 17 June.
Entries come from Wikipedia’s day pages and are ordered by page views.
2021: Juneteenth National Independence Day is signed into law by President Joe Biden, to become the first federal holiday established since Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1983.

Holidays and observances

Albert Chmielowski

Botolph (England and Scandinavia)

Father's Day (El Salvador, Guatemala)

Gondulphus of Berry

Hypatius of Bithynia (Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic Churches)

Icelandic National Day, celebrates the independence of Iceland from Kingdom of Denmark in 1944

June 17 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

National Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Forest Fires (Portugal)

Occupation of the Latvian Republic Day (Latvia)

Samuel and Henrietta Barnett (Church of England)

Events

2021Juneteenth National Independence Day is signed into law by President Joe Biden, to become the first federal holiday established since Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1983.

2017A series of wildfires in central Portugal kill at least 64 people and injure 204 others.

2015Nine people are killed in a mass shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.

1994Following a televised low-speed highway chase, O. J. Simpson is arrested for the murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman.

1992A "joint understanding" agreement on arms reduction is signed by U.S. president George Bush and Russian president Boris Yeltsin (this would be later codified in START II).

1991Apartheid: The South African Parliament repeals the Population Registration Act which required racial classification of all South Africans at birth.

1989Interflug Flight 102 crashes during a rejected takeoff from Berlin Schönefeld Airport, killing 21 people.

1987With the death of the last individual of the species, the dusky seaside sparrow becomes extinct.

1985Space Shuttle program: STS-51-G mission: Space Shuttle Discovery launches carrying Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the first Arab and first Muslim in space, as a payload specialist.

1972Watergate scandal: Five White House operatives are arrested for burgling the offices of the Democratic National Committee during an attempt by members of the administration of President Richard M. Nixon to illegally wiretap the political op

1971U.S. president Richard Nixon in a televised press conference calls drug abuse "America's public enemy number one", starting the war on drugs.

1967Nuclear weapons testing: China announces a successful test of its first thermonuclear weapon.

1963A day after South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem announced the Joint Communiqué to end the Buddhist crisis, a riot involving around 2,000 people breaks out. One person is killed.

1963The United States Supreme Court rules 8–1 in Abington School District v. Schempp against requiring the reciting of Bible verses and the Lord's Prayer in public schools.

1960The Nez Perce tribe is awarded $4 million for of land undervalued at four cents/acre in the 1863 treaty.

1958The Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Crossing, in the process of being built to connect Vancouver and North Vancouver (Canada), collapses into the Burrard Inlet killing 18 ironworkers and injuring others.

1953Cold War: East Germany Workers Uprising: In East Germany, the Soviet Union orders a division of troops into East Berlin to quell a rebellion.

1952Guatemala passes Decree 900, ordering the redistribution of uncultivated land.

1948United Air Lines Flight 624, a Douglas DC-6, crashes near Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania, killing all 43 people on board.

1944Iceland declares independence from Denmark and becomes a republic.

1940The three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania fall under the occupation of the Soviet Union.

1940World War II: is attacked and sunk by the Luftwaffe near Saint-Nazaire, France. At least 3,000 are killed in Britain's worst maritime disaster.

1940World War II: The British Army's 11th Hussars assault and take Fort Capuzzo in Libya from Italian forces.

1939Last public guillotining in France: Eugen Weidmann, a convicted murderer, is executed in Versailles outside the Saint-Pierre prison.

1933Union Station massacre: In Kansas City, Missouri, four FBI agents and captured fugitive Frank Nash are gunned down by gangsters attempting to free Nash.

1932Bonus Army: Around a thousand World War I veterans amass at the United States Capitol as the U.S. Senate considers a bill that would give them certain benefits.

1930U.S. president Herbert Hoover signs the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act into law.

1929The town of Murchison, New Zealand is rocked by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake killing 17. At the time it was New Zealand's worst natural disaster.

1922Portuguese naval aviators Gago Coutinho and Sacadura Cabral complete the first aerial crossing of the South Atlantic.

1910Aurel Vlaicu pilots an A. Vlaicu nr. 1 on its first flight.

1901The College Board introduces its first standardized test, the forerunner to the SAT.

1900Boxer Rebellion: Western Allied and Japanese forces capture the Taku Forts in Tianjin, China.

1898The United States Navy Hospital Corps is established.

1885The Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbor.

1877American Indian Wars: Battle of White Bird Canyon: The Nez Perce defeat the U.S. Cavalry at White Bird Canyon in the Idaho Territory.

1876American Indian Wars: Battle of the Rosebud: One thousand five hundred Sioux and Cheyenne led by Crazy Horse beat back General George Crook's forces at Rosebud Creek in Montana Territory.

1863American Civil War: Battle of Aldie in the Gettysburg campaign.

1861American Civil War: Battle of Vienna, Virginia.

1843The Wairau Affray, the first serious clash of arms between Māori and British settlers in the New Zealand Wars, takes place.

1839In the Kingdom of Hawaii, Kamehameha III issues the edict of toleration which gives Roman Catholics the freedom to worship in the Hawaiian Islands. The Hawaii Catholic Church and the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace are established as a resul

Born on this day

2003Rizki Juniansyah, Indonesian weightlifter

2000Odessa A'zion, American actress

1999Elena Rybakina, Russian-born Kazakhstani tennis player

1999Henri Jokiharju, Finnish ice hockey player

1997Alexander Bublik, Russian-born Kazakhstani tennis player

1997KJ Apa, New Zealand actor

1997Raluca Șerban, Romanian-Cypriot tennis player

1995Aoi Morikawa, Japanese actress and model

1995Clément Lenglet, French footballer

1995Michel-Friedrich Schiefler, German politician

1994Amari Cooper, American football player

1993Nikita Kucherov, Russian ice hockey player

1991Daniel Tupou, Australian-Tongan rugby league player

1990Jordan Henderson, English footballer

1990Josh Mansour, Australian rugby league player

1989Georgios Tofas, Cypriot footballer

1989Simone Battle, American singer and actress

1988Andrew Ogilvy, Australian basketball player

1988Shaun MacDonald, Welsh footballer

1988Stephanie Rice, Australian swimmer

1987Kendrick Lamar, American rapper

1987Nozomi Tsuji, Japanese singer and actress

1986Apoula Edel, Armenian footballer

1986Helen Glover, English rower

1985Marcos Baghdatis, Cypriot tennis player

1985Özge Akın, Turkish sprinter

1985Rafael Sóbis, Brazilian footballer

1984Michael Mathieu, Bahamian sprinter

1984Si Tianfeng, Chinese race walker

1983Lee Ryan, English singer/actor

1983Vlasis Kazakis, Greek footballer

1982Alex Rodrigo Dias da Costa, Brazilian footballer

1982Arthur Darvill, English actor

1982Jodie Whittaker, English actress

1982Marek Svatoš, Slovak ice hockey player

1982Stanislava Hrozenská, Slovak tennis player

1982Stefan Hodgetts, English racing driver

1981Kyle Boller, American football player

1981Shane Watson, Australian cricketer

1980Elisa Rigaudo, Italian race walker

Died on this day

2021Kenneth Kaunda, Zambian educator and politician, first president of Zambia

2020Jean Kennedy Smith, American activist, humanitarian, author and diplomat (United States Ambassador to Ireland, 1993–1998)

2019Gloria Vanderbilt, American artist, author actress, fashion designer, heiress and socialite

2019Mohamed Morsi, Egyptian professor and politician, first elected president of Egypt after Egyptian revolution

2017Baldwin Lonsdale, president of Vanuatu

2015Clementa C. Pinckney, American minister and politician

2015John David Crow, American football player and coach

2015Roberto M. Levingston, Argentinian general and politician, 36th President of Argentina

2015Ron Clarke, Australian runner and politician, Mayor of the Gold Coast

2015Süleyman Demirel, Turkish engineer and politician, 9th President of Turkey

2014Arnold S. Relman, American physician and academic

2014Éric Dewailly, Canadian epidemiologist and academic

2014Larry Zeidel, Canadian-American ice hockey player and sportscaster

2014Patsy Byrne, English actress

2014Stanley Marsh 3, American businessman and philanthropist

2013Atiqul Haque Chowdhury, Bangladeshi playwright and producer

2013Bulbs Ehlers, American basketball player

2013James Holshouser, American politician, 68th Governor of North Carolina

2013Michael Baigent, New Zealand-English theorist and author

2013Pierre F. Côté, Canadian lawyer and civil servant

2012Fauzia Wahab, Pakistani actress and politician

2012Nathan Divinsky, Canadian mathematician and chess player

2012Patricia Brown, American baseball player

2012Rodney King, American victim of police brutality

2012Stéphane Brosse, French mountaineer

2011Rex Mossop, Australian rugby player and sportscaster

2009Darrell Powers, American sergeant

2009Ralf Dahrendorf, German-English sociologist and politician

2008Cyd Charisse, American actress and dancer

2007Gianfranco Ferré, Italian fashion designer

Quote of the day

“Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labour does the body.”

Seneca

Questions people ask

Where do the entries come from?

From Wikipedia’s on-this-day pages for this language, updated once a day and ordered by how often each article is read.

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