June 17Birthdays & History

On this day: June 17 in history

Oldest first. Tap a year to see it on the World Chronicle timeline.

1. 653Pope Martin I is arrested and taken to Constantinople, due to his opposition to monothelitism.EuropeMiddle East
2. 656After a prolonged siege by rebels who demand his abdication, caliph Uthman is assassinated as the rebels enter his palace.Middle East
3. 1128Former Empress Matilda, daughter and designated heiress of king Henry I of England, marries Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou.Europe
4. 1242Following the Disputation of Paris, twenty-four carriage loads of Jewish religious manuscripts are burnt in Paris.Europe
5. 1300Turku Cathedral is consecrated by Bishop Magnus I in the city of Turku (Swedish: Åbo).Europe
6. 1397The Kalmar Union is formed under the rule of Margaret I of Denmark.Europe
7. 1462Vlad the Impaler attempts to assassinate Mehmed II (The Night Attack at Târgovişte), forcing him to retreat from Wallachia.EuropeMiddle East
8. 1497Battle of Deptford Bridge: Forces under King Henry VII defeat troops led by Michael An Gof.Europe
9. 1579Sir Francis Drake claims a land he calls Nova Albion (modern California) for England.North AmericaEurope
10. 1596The Dutch explorer Willem Barentsz discovers the Arctic archipelago of Spitsbergen.Europe
11. 1631Mumtaz Mahal dies during childbirth. Her husband, Mughal emperor Shah Jahan I, will spend the next 17 years building her mausoleum, the Taj Mahal.Asia
12. 1665Battle of Montes Claros: Portugal definitively secures independence from Spain in the last battle of the Portuguese Restoration War.Europe
13. 1673French explorers Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet reach the Mississippi River and become the first Europeans to make a detailed account of its course.EuropeNorth America
14. 1767Samuel Wallis, a British sea captain, sights Tahiti and is considered the first European to reach the island.EuropeOceania
15. 1773Cúcuta, Colombia, is founded by Juana Rangel de Cuéllar.Latin America
16. 1775American Revolutionary War: Colonists inflict heavy casualties on British forces while losing the Battle of Bunker Hill.North AmericaEurope
17. 1789In France, the Third Estate declares itself the National Assembly.Europe
18. 1794Foundation of Anglo-Corsican Kingdom.Europe
19. 1795The burghers of Swellendam expel the Dutch East India Company magistrate and declare a republic.EuropeAsia
20. 1831The steam locomotive Best Friend of Charleston causes the first boiler explosion caused by a steam locomotive.North America
21. 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 result.North AmericaEurope
22. 1843The Wairau Affray, the first serious clash of arms between Māori and British settlers in the New Zealand Wars, takes place.EuropeOceania
23. 1861American Civil War: Battle of Vienna, Virginia.North America
24. 1863American Civil War: Battle of Aldie in the Gettysburg campaign.North America
25. 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.North America
26. 1877American Indian Wars: Battle of White Bird Canyon: The Nez Perce defeat the U.S. Cavalry at White Bird Canyon in the Idaho Territory.North America
27. 1885The Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbor.North America
28. 1898The United States Navy Hospital Corps is established.North America
29. 1900Boxer Rebellion: Western Allied and Japanese forces capture the Taku Forts in Tianjin, China.AsiaAsia
30. 1901The College Board introduces its first standardized test, the forerunner to the SAT.North America
31. 1910Aurel Vlaicu pilots an A. Vlaicu nr. 1 on its first flight.Europe
32. 1922Portuguese naval aviators Gago Coutinho and Sacadura Cabral complete the first aerial crossing of the South Atlantic.Europe
33. 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.Oceania
34. 1930U.S. president Herbert Hoover signs the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act into law.North America
35. 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.North America
36. 1933Union Station massacre: In Kansas City, Missouri, four FBI agents and captured fugitive Frank Nash are gunned down by gangsters attempting to free Nash.North America
37. 1939Last public guillotining in France: Eugen Weidmann, a convicted murderer, is executed in Versailles outside the Saint-Pierre prison.Europe
38. 1940World War II: The British Army's 11th Hussars assault and take Fort Capuzzo in Libya from Italian forces.EuropeAfrica
39. 1940The three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania fall under the occupation of the Soviet Union.Europe
40. 1940World War II: RMS Lancastria is attacked and sunk by the Luftwaffe near Saint-Nazaire, France. At least 3,000 are killed in Britain's worst maritime disaster.Europe
41. 1944Iceland declares independence from Denmark and becomes a republic.Europe
42. 1948United Air Lines Flight 624, a Douglas DC-6, crashes near Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania, killing all 43 people on board.North America
43. 1952Guatemala passes Decree 900, ordering the redistribution of uncultivated land.Latin America
44. 1953Cold War: East Germany Workers Uprising: In East Germany, the Soviet Union orders a division of troops into East Berlin to quell a rebellion.Europe
45. 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.North America
46. 1960The Nez Perce tribe is awarded $4 million for 7 million acres (28,000 km2) of land undervalued at four cents/acre in the 1863 treaty.North America
47. 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.North America
48. 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.Asia
49. 1967Nuclear weapons testing: China announces a successful test of its first thermonuclear weapon.Asia
50. 1971U.S. president Richard Nixon in a televised press conference calls drug abuse "America's public enemy number one", starting the war on drugs.North America
51. 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 opposition as part of a broader campaign to subvert the democratic process.North America
52. 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.Middle East
53. 1987With the death of the last individual of the species, the dusky seaside sparrow becomes extinct.North America
54. 1989Interflug Flight 102 crashes during a rejected takeoff from Berlin Schönefeld Airport, killing 21 people.Europe
55. 1991Apartheid: The South African Parliament repeals the Population Registration Act which required racial classification of all South Africans at birth.Africa
56. 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).North AmericaEurope
57. 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.North America
58. 2015Nine people are killed in a mass shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.AfricaNorth America
59. 2017A series of wildfires in central Portugal kill at least 64 people and injure 204 others.Europe
60. 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.North America

Source: Wikipedia "June 17" / CC BY-SA 4.0