June 17

June 17 is the 168th day of the year (169th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 197 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

Up to 1900

1462 – Vlad III the Impaler attempts to kill Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II forcing him to retreat to Wallachia.
1497 – Battle of Deptford Bridge – Forces under King Henry VII soundly defeat troops led by Michael An Gof.
1565 – Matsunaga Hisahide assassinates the 13th Ashikaga Shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiteru.
1579 – Sir Francis Drake claims a land he calls Nova Albion (modern California) for England.
1596 – Willem Barents reaches Svalbard during his attempt to find the Northeast Passage.
1631 – Mumtaz Mahal died during childbirth. Her husband, Mughal emperor Shah Jahan I, then spent more than 20 years having her tomb, the Taj Mahal, built.
1673 – French explorers Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet reach the Mississippi River.
1775 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Bunker Hill – The British forces take Bunker Hill outside of Boston.
1789 – In France, the Third Estate declares itself as a national assembly.
1839 – In 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 is later established as a result.
1843 – The Wairau Affray, the first serious clash of arms between Maori and British settlers in the New Zealand Land Wars, takes place.
1863 – Battle of Aldie in the Gettysburg Campaign of the American Civil War
1876 – American Indian Wars: Battle of the Rosebud – 1,500 Sioux and Cheyenne led by Crazy Horse beat back General George Crook forces at Rosebud Creek in Montana Territory.
1877 – American Indian Wars: The Nez Perce defeat United States Cavalry in the Battle of White Bird Canyon, in what was then the Idaho Territory.
1885 – The Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbor.
1898 – The Navy Hospital Corps is established.
1900 – Boxer Rebellion: Allied Japanese and Western forces capture Taku Forts, Tianjin, China.

1901 – 2000

1911 – The University of Iceland is founded.
1928 – Aviator Amelia Earhart starts her attempt to become the first woman to fly in an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean. She was a passenger; Wilmer Stutz was pilot and Lou Gordon, mechanic.
1929 – A magnitude 7.8 earthquake hits Murdison, New Zealand, killing 17 people. It was New Zealand's deadliest natural disaster at the time.
1930 – U.S. President Herbert Hoover signs the Smoot-Hawley Tariff into law.
1930 – Bonus Army: Around a thousand World War I veterans mass at the United States Capitol as the U.S. Senate considers a bill that would give them certain benefits.
1933 – Union Station Massacre: In Kansas City, Missouri, four FBI agents and captured fugitive Frank Nash were gunned down by gangsters attempting to free Nash.
1939 – Convicted murderer Eugen Weidmann is executed in the last public guillotining in France.
1940 – World War II: Operation Ariel begins – Allied troops start to evacuate France, following Germany's takeover of Paris and most of the nation.
1940 – World War II: Sinking of the RMS Lancastria by the Luftwaffe near Saint-Nazaire, France.
1940 – The three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania fall under the occupation of the Soviet Union.
1944 – Iceland becomes independent from Denmark and forms a republic.
1948 – A Douglas DC-6 carrying United Air Lines Flight 624 crashes near Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania, killing all 43 people on board.
1953 – Workers Uprising: In East Germany, the Soviet Union orders a division of troops into East Berlin to quell a rebellion.
1958 – The Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Crossing, while being built to connect Vancouver to North Vancouver in Western Canada, collapses into the Burrard Inlet, killing many of the ironworkers and injuring others.
1961 – The New Democratic Party of Canada is founded with the merger of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and the Canadian Labour Congress.
1963 – The United States Supreme Court ruled 8 to 1 in Abington School District v. Schempp against allowing the reciting of Bible verses and the Lord's Prayer in public schools.
1967 – The People's Republic of China announces its first test of a thermonuclear weapon.
1969 – Boris Spassky defeats Tigran Petrosian to become world chess champion.
1971 – Representatives of Japan and the United States sign the Okinawa Reversion Agreement, setting out a plan where the U.S. would return control of Okinawa.
1971 – Richard Nixon declares the US War on Drugs.
1972 – Watergate scandal: Five White House operatives are arrested for breaking in to the offices of the Democratic National Committee, in an attempt by the Republican party to illegally wiretap the opposition.
1974 – The IRA carries an attack on the British Parliament in London.
1982 – The body of "God's Banker", Roberto Calvi, is found hanging beneath Blackfriars Bridge in London.
1985 – Space Shuttle Discovery lifts off on Mission STS-51-G. On board is Saudi Arabian Prince Sultan bin Salman Al Saud, the first Arab in space.
1987 – The Dusky Seaside Sparrow becomes extinct.
1991 – Apartheid: The South African Parliament repeals the Population Registration Act, which had required all racial classification of all South Africans at birth.
1992 – A 'Joint Understanding' agreement on arms reduction is signed by U.S. President George H. W. Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin (this would be later codified in START II).
1994 – Following a televised highway chase and a failed attempt at suicide, O. J. Simpson is arrested for the murders of his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman.

From 2001

2012 – Greece holds its second parliamentary election in the space of six weeks, with no party winning overall control.
2012 – Egypt holds the second round of its first Presidential election since Hosni Mubarak left office following the 2011 Egyptian protests.
2013 – Singapore is hit by the worst haze since 1997. The PSI levels reaches levels not seen since 2006, with a PSI of 155 recorded at 10pm, after air quality plummeted into the "Unhealthy" range at 2pm.
2015 – Charleston church shooting: 9 people are killed in a shooting at a prayer meeting in Charleston, South Carolina. Local politician and pastor Clementa C. Pinckney is among those killed.
2017 – The 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup starts, with hosts Russia defeating New Zealand 2–0.
2017 – Massive wildfires break out in central Portugal, killing at least 60 people.
2018 – 2018 FIFA World Cup: Mexico defeat defending champions Germany in both teams' first group match of the competition.
2019 – Former President of Egypt Mohamed Morsi reportedly dies after fainting while on trial in Cairo.
2020 – The English Premier League returns after being halted in March because of COVID-19.

Births

Up to 1900

801 – Drogo of Metz, son of Charlemagne (d. 855)
1239 – King Edward I of England (d. 1307)
1530 – François de Montmorency, French politician (d. 1579)
1603 – Joseph of Cupertino, Italian saint (d. 1663)
1604 – John Maurice, Prince of Nassau-Siegen (d. 1679)
1625 – Peder Hansen Resen, Danish historian and legal scholar (d. 1688)
1631 – Gauhara Begum, daughter of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal (d. 1706)
1658 – Diogo de Medonca Corte-Real, Portuguese diplomat and statesman (d. 1736)
1682 – King Charles XII of Sweden (d. 1718)
1691 – Giovanni Paolo Pannini, Italian painter and architect (d. 1765)
1703 – John Wesley, English theologian, founder of Methodism (d. 1791)
1714 – César-François Cassini de Thury, French astronomer (d. 1784)
1808 – Henrik Wergeland, Norwegian writer (d. 1845)
1810 – Ferdinand Freiligrath, German writer (d. 1876)
1811 – Jón Sigurðsson, Icelandic independence fighter (d. 1879)
1811 – Adolphe d'Ennery, French writer (d. 1899)
1818 – Charles Gounod, French composer (d. 1893)
1818 – Sophie of Württemberg, Queen of the Netherlands (d. 1877)
1832 – Sir William Crookes, physicist and chemist (d. 1919)
1835 – Eugene Borel, Swiss politician (d. 1892)
1858 – Ebenezer Sumner Draper, 44th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1914)
1861 – Omar Bundy, American general (d. 1940)
1863 – Charles Michael, Duke of Mecklenburg (d. 1934)
1867 – Henry Lawson, Australian poet (d. 1922)
1867 – John Robert Gregg, American educator, publisher and humanitarian (d. 1948)
1869 – Aloys, Prince of Liechtenstein (d. 1955)
1880 – Carl Van Vechten, American photographer (d. 1964)
1881 – Tommy Burns, Canadian boxer (d. 1955)
1882 – Igor Stravinsky, Russian composer (d. 1971)
1882 – Adolphus Frederick IV, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (d. 1918)
1884 – Prince Wilhelm, Duke of Södermanland, Swedish royal (d. 1965)
1897 – Maria Izilda de Castro Ribeiro, Brazilian saint (d. 1911)
1898 – M. C. Escher, Dutch artist (d. 1972)
1898 – Harry Patch, British World War I veteran and supercentenarian (d. 2009)
1898 – Carl Hermann, German physicist (d. 1961)
1900 – Martin Bormann, Nazi official (d. 1945)

1901 – 1950

1903 – Ruth Graves Wakefield, American inventor of the chocolate-chip cookie (d. 1977)
1904 – Ralph Bellamy, American actor and comedian (d. 1987)
1907 – Charles Eames, American designer and architect (d. 1978)
1907 – Maurice Cloche, French director and screenwriter (d. 1990)
1909 – Elmer L. Andersen, Governor of Minnesota (d. 2004)
1910 – Red Foley, American country musician (d. 1968)
1914 – John Hersey, American writer (d. 1993)
1914 – Julian Marias, Spanish philosopher (d. 2005)
1915 – Karl Targownik, psychiatrist (d. 1996)
1915 – David "Stringbean" Akeman, American banjo player and actor (d. 1973)
1915 – Mario Echandi Jiménez, President of Costa Rica (d. 2011)
1916 – Terry Gilkyson, American singer, songwriter, guitarist and composer (d. 1999)
1917 – Atle Selberg, Norwegian mathematician
1917 – Dufferin Roblin, Premier of Manitoba (d. 2010)
1919 – Beryl Reid, English actress (d. 1996)
1920 – François Jacob, French biologist and Nobel Prize winner (d. 2013)
1920 – Setsuko Hara, Japanese actress (d. 2015)
1922 – John Amis, British journalist and critic (d. 2013)
1923 – Elroy 'Crazylegs' Hirsch, American football player (d. 2004)
1923 – Anthony Bevilacqua, American cardinal (d. 2012)
1923 – Larry Kwong, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2019)
1924 – William MacDonald, English-Australian serial killer (d. 2014)
1925 – Alexander Shulgin, American pharmacologist and chemist (d. 2014)
1928 – Juan María Bordaberry, President of Uruguay (d. 2011)
1928 – Peter Shirayanagi, Japanese cardinal (d. 2009)
1929 – Tigran Petrosian, Armenian chess player (d. 1984)
1929 – James Shigeta, American actor (d. 2014)
1930 – Princess Lalla Aicha of Morocco (d. 2011)
1930 – Brian Statham, English cricketer (d. 2000)
1931 – John Baldessari, American painter (d. 2020)
1932 – Derek Ibbotson, English runner
1932 – Peter Lupus, American actor
1932 – John Murtha, American politician (d. 2010)
1933 – Harry Browne, American actor
1933 – Christian Ferras, French violinist (d. 1982)
1936 – Ken Loach, British movie director
1937 – Clodovil Hernandes, Brazilian entertainer (d. 2009)
1937 – Ted Nelson, American sociologist and philosopher
1938 – Grethe Ingmann, Danish singer (d. 1990)
1939 – Krzysztof Zanussi, Polish film and theatre director
1940 – George Akerlof, American economist
1942 – Roger Steffens, American actor, author, photographer and producer
1942 – Mohamed ElBaradei, Egyptian International Atomic Energy Agency Director
1943 – Newt Gingrich, American politician
1943 – Barry Manilow, American musician
1944 – Chris Spedding, British guitarist
1945 – Ken Livingstone, British politician, former Mayor of London
1945 – Eddy Merckx, Belgian cyclist
1945 – Frank Ashmore, American actor
1946 – Eduardo Camaño, Argentine politician
1946 – Peter Rosei, Austrian writer
1947 – Linda Chavez, American writer
1947 – George S. Clinton, American composer, songwriter and musician
1948 – Hrafn Gunnlaugsson, Icelandic movie director
1948 – Joaquín Almunia, Spanish politician
1949 – Tom Corbett, American politician, 46th Governor of Pennsylvania
1949 – Snakefinger, British musician, singer and songwriter (d. 1987)
1949 – John Craven, English economist and academic

1951 – 1975

1951 – John Garrett, Canadian ice hockey player
1951 – Paul McGuinness, manager of U2
1951 – Starhawk, American author and activist
1952 – Estelle Morris, Baroness Morris of Yardley, English politician
1952 – Judith Macgregor, English diplomat
1952 – Sergio Marchionne, Italian-Canadian businessman (d. 2018)
1952 – Mike Milbury, American ice hockey player, coach and manager
1954 – Mark Linn-Baker, American actor and director
1957 – Phil Chevron, Irish musician, singer and songwriter (d. 2013)
1957 – Jon Gries, American actor
1958 – Jello Biafra, American musician, politician
1959 – Nikos Stavropoulos, Greek basketball player
1959 – Baltazar Maria de Morais Junior, Brazilian footballer
1960 – Thomas Haden Church, American actor
1963 – Christophe Barratier, French film producer, director and screenwriter
1963 – Greg Kinnear, American actor
1964 – Michael Gross, swimmer
1966 – Jason Patric, American actor
1966 – Tory Burch, American fashion designer, businesswoman and philanthropist
1967 – Eric Stefani, American musician (No Doubt)
1968 – Minoru Suzuki, Japanese professional wrestler and mixed martial arts artist
1969 – Paul Tergat, Kenyan runner
1969 – Ilya Tsymbalar, Russian footballer (d. 2013)
1970 – Michael Showalter, American actor, writer and director
1971 – Paulina Rubio, Mexican singer
1972 – Sebastian White, English musician (Oasis)
1973 – Leander Paes, Indian tennis player
1975 – Chloe Jones, American pornographic actress (d. 2005)
1975 – Joshua Leonard, American actor
1975 – Néstor Pitana, Argentine football referee

From 1976

1976 – Scott Adkins, English actor and martial artist
1976 – Peter Svidler, Russian chess player
1978 – Isabelle Delobel, French ice dancer
1979 – Nick Rimando, footballer
1979 – Young Maylay, American rapper
1980 – Venus Williams, American tennis player
1980 – Kimeru, Japanese singer and actor
1981 – Shane Watson, Australian cricketer
1982 – Arthur Darvill, English actor
1982 – Alex Rodrigo Dias da Costa, Brazilian footballer
1983 – Connie Fisher, British stage actress
1983 – Lee Ryan, British singer (Blue)
1983 – Kazunari Ninomiya, Japanese actor
1985 – Marcos Baghdatis, Cypriot tennis player
1985 – Rafael Sobis, Brazilian footballer
1986 – Apoula Edel, American footballer
1986 – Helen Glover, British rower
1987 – Nozomi Tsuji, Japanese singer
1987 – Kendrick Lamar, American rapper
1987 – L'ubos Kamenar, Slovakian footballer
1988 – Andrew Ogilvy, Australian basketball player
1988 – Stephanie Rice, Australian swimmer
1989 – Simone Battle, American actress and singer (d. 2014)
1990 – Alan Dzagoev, Russian footballer
1990 – Joel Robles, Spanish footballer
1990 – Jordan Henderson, English footballer
1990 – Laura Wright, English singer
1993 – Jean Marie Froget, Mauritian swimmer
1995 – Arkadiusz Reca, Polish footballer

Deaths

Up to 1900

676 – Pope Adeodatus II
850 – Tachibana no Kachiko, Japanese Empress (b. 786)
924 – Edward the Elder, Saxon King of England (b. 874)
1025 – Boleslaw I the Brave, King of Poland (b. 967)
1091 – Dirk V, Count of Holland (b. 1052)
1463 – Princess Catherine of Portugal (b. 1436)
1501 – John I Albert, King of Poland (b. 1459)
1565 – Ashikaga Yoshiteru, Ashikaga shogun (b. 1536)
1631 – Mumtaz Mahal, wife of Shah Jahan, inspiration for the Taj Mahal (b. 1593)
1694 – Philip Howard, English cardinal (b. 1629)
1696 – John III Sobieski, King of Poland (b. 1629)
1719 – Joseph Addison, English politician and writer (b. 1672)
1734 – Claude-Louis-Hector de Villars, Marshal of France (b. 1653)
1740 – William Wyndham, 3rd Baronet, British politician (b. 1687)
1775 – John Pitcairn, British military officer (b. 1722)
1775 – Joseph Warren, American soldier (b. 1741)
1797 – Agha Muhammad Khan, Persian Shah of Qajar dynasty (b. 1742)
1813 – Charles Middleton, 1st Baron Barham, Scottish-English admiral and politician (b. 1726)
1839 – Lord William Bentinck, British Governor-General of India (b. 1774)
1842 – Arthur Conolly, British traveler, military and diplomat (b. 1807)
1858 – Rani Lakshmibai, Indian political figure (b. 1828)
1866 – Lewis Cass, American politician (b. 1782)
1898 – Edward Burne-Jones, English artist (b. 1833)

1901 – 2000

1904 – Nikolai Bobrikov, Russian politician (b. 1839)
1917 – José Manuel Pando, Bolivian politician (b. 1848)
1936 – Henri Louis Le Chatelier, French chemist and physicist (b. 1850)
1936 – Julius Seljamaa, Estonian politician, diplomat and journalist (b. 1883)
1939 – Eugen Weidmann, last public guillotine execution in France (b. 1908)
1940 – Arthur Harden, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1865)
1941 – Johan Wagenaar, Dutch composer and organist (b. 1862)
1956 – Paul Rostock, German doctor (b. 1892)
1957 – Dorothy Richardson, English feminist writer (b. 1873)
1960 – Pierre Reverdy, French writer (b. 1889)
1961 – Jeff Chandler, actor (b. 1918)
1963 – Aleksander Kesküla, Estonian politician (b. 1882)
1968 – José Nasazzi, Uruguayan footballer (b. 1901)
1968 – A. M. Cassandre, Ukrainian-French artist (b. 1901)
1979 – Duffy Lewis, Major League Baseball player (b. 1888)
1982 – Roberto Calvi, Italian banker (b. 1920)
1986 – Kate Smith, American singer (b. 1907)
1987 – Dick Howser, American baseball player and manager (b. 1936)
1996 – Thomas Kuhn, American philosopher of science (b. 1922)
1998 – John Carberry, American cardinal (b. 1904)
1999 – Basil Hume, English Roman Catholic cardinal (b. 1931)
2000 – Ismail Mahomed, 17th Chief Justice of South Africa (b. 1931)

From 2001

2001 – Donald J. Cram, American chemist (b. 1919)
2001 – Thomas Joseph Winning, Archbishop of Glasgow (b. 1925)
2002 – Willie Davenport, athlete (b. 1943)
2002 – Fritz Walter, German footballer (b. 1920)
2004 – Gerry McNeil, hockey player (b. 1926)
2004 – Sara Lidman, Swedish writer (b. 1923)
2006 – Arthur Franz, American actor (b. 1920)
2007 – Angelo Felici, Italian cardinal (b. 1919)
2008 – Tsutomu Miyazaki, Japanese serial killer (b. 1962)
2008 – Cyd Charisse, American dancer and actress (b. 1921)
2009 – Ralf Dahrendorf, German-born sociologist and politician (b. 1929)
2012 – Rodney King, American victim of police brutality (b. 1965)
2013 – James Holshouser, 68th Governor of North Carolina (b. 1934)
2014 – Jorge Romo, Mexican footballer (b. 1924)
2014 – Larry Zeidel, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1928)
2014 – Patsy Byrne, English actress (b. 1933)
2015 – Ron Clarke, Australian athlete and former Mayor of Gold Coast, Queensland (b. 1937)
2015 – Süleyman Demirel, 9th President of Turkey (b. 1924)
2015 – Jeralean Talley, American supercentenarian (b. 1899)
2015 – Roberto M. Levingston, Argentine general and politician (b. 1920)
2015 – Clementa C. Pinckney, American politician and pastor (b. 1973)
2015 – Nelson Doubleday, Jr., American publisher (b. 1933)
2015 – John David Crow, American football player (b. 1935)
2015 – Nicola Badalucco, Italian screenwriter and journalist (b. 1929)
2015 – Chang Ch'ung-ho, Chinese-American poet, calligrapher and opera singer (b. 1914)
2016 – Rubén Aguirre, Mexican actor (b. 1934)
2016 – Attrell Cordes, American singer (P.M. Dawn) (b. 1970)
2016 – Ron Lester, American actor (b. 1970)
2016 – David Morgenthaler, American businessman (b. 1919)
2017 – Baldwin Lonsdale, President of Vanuatu (b. 1950)
2017 – Luis Lusquiños, Argentine politician (b. 1951)
2017 – Venus Ramey, American beauty pageant contestant (b. 1924)
2017 – Leopoldo S. Tumulak, Filipino Roman Catholic prelate (b. 1944)
2017 – Elias Burstein, American physicist (b. 1917)
2017 – Pierre Imhasly, Swiss author and poet (b. 1939)
2017 – Emil Wojtaszek, Polish politician (b. 1927)
2018 – Elizabeth Brackett, American journalist (b. 1941)
2018 – Zhao Nanqi, Korean-born Chinese general and politician (b. 1927)
2018 – Igor Muradyan, Armenian political activist (b. 1957)
2019 – Philipp Bobkov, Russian intelligence officer (b. 1925)
2019 – Darwin Hindman, American politician (b. 1933)
2019 – Mohamed Morsi, 5th President of Egypt (b. 1951)
2019 – Salvatore Senese, Italian magistrate and politician (b. 1935)
2019 – Gloria Vanderbilt, American socialite, fashion designer and artist (b. 1924)
2020 – Marlene Ahrens, Chilean athlete (b. 1933)
2020 – Tariq Aziz, Pakistani actor and television host (b. 1936)
2020 – William C. Dement, American sleep researcher (b. 1928)
2020 – Terry Dicks, British politician (b. 1937)
2020 – György Kárpáti, Hungarian water polo player (b. 1935)
2020 – Petr Král, Czech writer (b. 1941)
2020 – Jean Kennedy Smith, American diplomat (b. 1928)
2020 – Willie Thorne, British snooker player (b. 1954)
2020 – Vatanyar Yagyua, Russian politician (b. 1938)

Observances

Independence Day (Iceland)
Day of German Unity, observed on June 17 in West Germany until 1990, to commemorate East Germany's Workers' Uprising in 1953
Soviet occupation Day (Latvia)
Father's Day (El Salvador, Guatemala)
Bunker Hill Day (Sussex County, Massachusetts)
World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought