Historical Events

17 Feb 1461
Wars of the Roses Second Battle of St Albans - Lancastrian army defeats Yorkists and recapture King Henry VI
17 Feb 1500
Battle of Hemmingstedt - German peasant army repels ducal army of Schleswig and Holstein
17 Feb 1568
Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II agrees to pay tribute to the Ottoman Empire for peace
17 Feb 1600
Philosopher Giordano Bruno is burned alive at Campo de Fiori in Rome charged with heresy.
17 Feb 1634
William Prynne tried in Star Chamber for publishing Histrio-masti
17 Feb 1670
France & Bavaria sign military assistance treaty
17 Feb 1691
Thomas Neale granted English patent for American postal service
17 Feb 1714
Parliament of Paris accepts Pope Clemens XIs Unigenitus degree
17 Feb 1772
1st Partition of Poland signed in Vienna by Austria Prussia and Russia
17 Feb 1795
Thomas Seddal harvests 8.3-kg potato from his garden Chester England
17 Feb 1814
Battle of Mormant French Imperial army defeat Russian Austrian forces (War of the Sixth Coalition)
17 Feb 1818
Baron Karl von Drais de Sauerbrun patents draisine (early bicycle)
17 Feb 1854
Britain recognises independence of Orange Free State (South Africa)
17 Feb 1864
Confederate submarine HL Hunley sinks Union ship Housatonic
17 Feb 1865
Columbia South Carolina burns down during American Civil War
17 Feb 1876
Sardines first canned by Julius Wolff in Eastport Maine
17 Feb 1878
1st telephone exchange in San Francisco opens with 18 phones
17 Feb 1880
Tsar Alexander II of Russia survives an assassination attempt
17 Feb 1882
1st Test Cricket match played at Sydney Cricket Ground
17 Feb 1896
Muzzling Order on the London County Council enforced
17 Feb 1897
National Organization of Mothers forms (Parent Teacher Association)
17 Feb 1902
A general strike in Barcelona and nearby towns leads to government-troop reprisals that leave 40 dead
17 Feb 1905
Frances Willard becomes 1st women honored in National Statuary Hall
17 Feb 1911
1st hydroplane flight to & from a ship (Glenn Curtiss San Diego)
17 Feb 1913
1st minimum wage law in US takes effect (Oregon)
17 Feb 1915
Edward Stone 1st US combatant to die in WW I is mortally wounded
17 Feb 1916
RombergHanleyAtteridgeSmiths musical premieres in NYC
17 Feb 1917
In Australia Nationalist Party takes over a coalition government
17 Feb 1924
Johnny Weissmuller sets 100-yard freestyle record (52.4 seconds)
17 Feb 1926
Avalanche buries 75 in Sap Gulch Bingham Utah 40 die
17 Feb 1927
Toronto Maple Leafs beat the New York Americans 4-1 in the teams first game since changing name from St. Patricks
17 Feb 1928
American brothers Jennison and John Heaton fight out the top placings in the cresta (now known as skeleton) at the St. Moritz Winter Olympics Jennison takes the gold by 1.0s
17 Feb 1928
Johan Grttumsbrten leads a Norwegian sweep of the medals in the 18k cross country at the St. Moritz Winter Olympics he also wins the Nordic combined gold the following day
17 Feb 1930
French government of Andr Tardieu falls for the first time
17 Feb 1931
1st telecast of a sporting event in Japan (baseball)
17 Feb 1931
Hockeys Hershey Bears (now with AHL) 1st game
17 Feb 1933
First issue of American news magazine Newsweek is published
17 Feb 1933
Marinus van der Lubbe arrives in Glindow at Potsdam
17 Feb 1933
US Senate accept Blaine Act ending prohibition
17 Feb 1934
1st high school auto driving course offered (State College Penn)
17 Feb 1936
-58F (-50C) McIntosh South Dakota (state record)
17 Feb 1936
S. N. Behrmans play End of Summer premieres in NYC
17 Feb 1936
The worlds first superhero The Phantom a cartoon strip by Lee Falk makes his first appearance in comics.
17 Feb 1938
1st public experimental demonstration of Baird color TV (London)
17 Feb 1940
Altmark Incident Crew of the British destroyer Cossack board German Altmark in Jssingfjord Norway releasing 299 British prisoners after hand-to-hand fighting with bayonets and the last recorded Royal Naval action with cutlass
17 Feb 1943
Dutch churches protest at Seyss-Inquart against persecution of Jews
17 Feb 1943
Major General Omar Bradley flies to Washington D.C.
17 Feb 1943
NY Yankee Joe DiMaggio enlists into the US army
17 Feb 1944
Battle of Eniwetok Atoll begins US victory on Feb 22
17 Feb 1947
Dutch RC bishops publish manifest against godless communism
17 Feb 1949
Chaim Weitzman elected 1st president of Israel
17 Feb 1949
Ice Pairs Championship at Paris won by Andrea Kekesy and Ede Kiraly of Hungary
17 Feb 1949
Ladies Figure Skating Champions in Paris won by Alena Vrzanova of CZE
17 Feb 1949
Mens Figure Skating Championship in Paris won by Richard Button of the USA
17 Feb 1950
31 die in a train crash in Rockville Center NY
17 Feb 1951
Detroit right wing Gordie Howe scores his 100th career NHL goal and adds an assist in a 2-1 Red Wings victory away to the Montreal Canadiens
17 Feb 1952
Montreal Canadiens center Elmer Lach picks up his 354th career assist in a 3-2 loss at the NY Rangers to become the NHLs all-time assists leader passes Bill Cowleys mark
17 Feb 1952
Trude Jochum-Beiser of Austria wins the downhill gold medal at the Oslo Winter Olympics second career gold medal after taking out the combined event at St. Moritz (1948)
17 Feb 1954
WAST (now WNYT) TV channel 13 in Albany-Troy NY (NBC) 1st broadcast
17 Feb 1955
Ice Dance Championship at Vienna Austria won by J WestwoodDemmy GRB
17 Feb 1955
Ice Pairs Championship at Vienna won by Frances Dafoe and Norris Bowden of Canada
17 Feb 1955
KTVF TV channel 11 in Fairbanks AK (CBSABC) begins broadcasting
17 Feb 1955
Ladies Figure Skating Championship in Vienna won by Tenley Albright US
17 Feb 1955
Mike Souchak sets PGA 72-hole record of 257 (not broken until 2001)
17 Feb 1956
Ice Dance Championship at Garmisch won by Pamela WeightP Thomas GRB
17 Feb 1956
Ice Pairs Championship at Garmisch won by Schwarz & Oppelt of AUT
17 Feb 1956
Ladies Figure Skating Championship in Garmisch won by Carol Heiss USA
17 Feb 1956
Mens Figure Skating Championship in Garmisch won by H A Jenkins USA
17 Feb 1957
A fire at a home for the elderly in Warrenton Missouri kills 72 people.
17 Feb 1958
WETV (now WPBA) TV channel 30 in Atlanta GA (PBS) begins broadcasting
17 Feb 1959
1st weather satellite launched Vanguard 2 9.8 kg
17 Feb 1963
Toru Terasawa runs world record marathon (21515.8
17 Feb 1964
101st member elected to baseballs hall of fame (Luke Appling)
17 Feb 1964
US House of Representatives accept Law on the civil rights
17 Feb 1964
US Supreme Court rules - 1 man 1 vote (Westberry v Sanders)
17 Feb 1964
WMEM TV channel 10 in Presque Isle ME (PBS) begins broadcasting
17 Feb 1965
US Ranger 8 launched will transmit 7137 lunar pictures
17 Feb 1965
US-Japan baseball relations suspended over Masanori Murakami dispute
17 Feb 1966
French satellite Diapason D-1A launch into Earth orbit
17 Feb 1967
Beatles release Penny Lane & Strawberry Fields
17 Feb 1967
Kosmos 140 (Soyuz Test) launches into Earth orbit
17 Feb 1968
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Springfield Massachusetts opens
17 Feb 1968
Frenchman Jean Claude-Killy completes a clean sweep of thealpine skiing events at the Grenoble Winter Olympics when he wins the slalom also takes out the downhill and giant slalom
17 Feb 1968
Norwegian cross country skier Ole Ellefster wins 50k event at the Grenoble Winter Olympics 2nd gold medal of the Games (4 x 10k relay)
17 Feb 1968
Soviet Union wins its 3rd Olympic ice hockey gold medal in Grenoble clinch title with final round 5-0 win over Canada Soviet LW Anatoli Firsov top scores with 16 points
17 Feb 1969
Cloud Nine 9th studio album by The Temptations is released (Grammy Award Best Rhythm & Blues Performance by a Duo or Group Billboard Album of the Year )
17 Feb 1970
US army officer Jeffrey MacDonald murders his pregnant wife and two small daughters
17 Feb 1970
Robert Marascos Childs Play premieres in NYC
17 Feb 1971
England regains cricket Ashes with a 2-0 series win
17 Feb 1972
British Parliament votes to join the European Common Market
17 Feb 1972
TV comedy MASH adapted from the movie starring Alan Alda Loretta Swit and Wayne Rogers debuts on CBS in the US
17 Feb 1973
Rodney Redmond scores 107 on debut v Pakistan his only Test Cricket
17 Feb 1974
49 die in stampede for seats at soccer match Cairo Egypt
17 Feb 1974
Robert K. Preston a disgruntled U.S. Army private buzzes the White House with a stolen helicopter.
17 Feb 1974
16th Daytona 500 Richard Petty wins (140.894 MPH)
17 Feb 1976
Rockabye Hamlet opens at Minskoff Theater NYC for 7 performances
17 Feb 1976
Macau adopts constitution (Organic Law of Macau)
17 Feb 1976
NZ scores their 1st innings win in Test Cricket v India
17 Feb 1978
11 civilians and 1 RUC officer are killed and 30 wounded by a Provisional Irish Republican Army incendiary bomb at the La Mon Restaurant near Belfast
17 Feb 1979
China invades Vietnam marking the start of the Sino-Vietnamese War
17 Feb 1979
Eric Heiden equals skating world record 1000m (114.99)
17 Feb 1980
22nd Daytona 500 Buddy Baker wins (177.602 MPH)
17 Feb 1980
Sapporo downhill silver medallist Annemarie Moser-Prll of Austria goes one better with gold at the Lake Placid Winter Olympics
17 Feb 1980
Swedish cross-country skier Thomas Wassberg earns first of 4 career Olympic gold medals in the 15k at Lake Placid wins by 0.01s from Finlands Juha Mieto closest margin of victory ever in Olympic cross-country skiing
17 Feb 1981
Chrysler Corp reports largest corporate losses in US history
17 Feb 1982
Commencement of Sri Lankas 1st Test Cricket match v England
17 Feb 1984
34th Berlin International Film Festival Love Streams wins the Golden Bear
17 Feb 1984
Biathletes Eirik Kvalfoss of Norway and West German Peter Angerer finish 2nd & 3rd respectively in the relay at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics both have complete sets of medals from biathlon events at the Games
17 Feb 1985
1st class postage rises from 20 cents to 22 cents
17 Feb 1985
1st daynight game at the MCG Australia v England
17 Feb 1985
3rd person to receive an artificial heart (Murray Haydon)
17 Feb 1985
Laffit Pincay Jr is third to ride 6000th winners at Santa Anita
17 Feb 1985
27th Daytona 500 Bill Elliott wins (172.265 MPH)
17 Feb 1986
Howard Stern radio show returns to NYC morning radio (WXRK 92.3 FM)
17 Feb 1986
Johnson & Johnson announces it no longer sell capsule drugs
17 Feb 1986
Libyan bombers attack Ndjamena Airport in Chad
17 Feb 1987
Don Mattingly wins highest salary arbitration (1975000 per year)
17 Feb 1987
Michelle Renee Royer 21 (Texas) crowned 36th Miss USA
17 Feb 1988
Lebanese terrorists kidnap UN truce observer Lt Col William Higgins
17 Feb 1988
US Lt Col Williamm Higgins kidnapped by Lebanese terrorists & later killed
17 Feb 1989
6-week study of Arctic atmosphere shows no ozone hole
17 Feb 1989
Mauritania Morocco Algeria Tunisia & Libya form common market
17 Feb 1989
Orel Hershiser Dodger pitcher signs record 7.9M-3 year contract
17 Feb 1991
33rd Daytona 500 Ernie Irvan wins (148.148 MPH)
17 Feb 1993
Haitian ferry boat capsize in storm 800-2000 die
17 Feb 1993
Mark Foster swims world record 50m free style (21.60 sec)
17 Feb 1993
Hartford right wing Pat Verbeek scores his 300th career NHL goal and adds his 300th career assist in a 5-3 Whalers home loss to the Buffalo Sabres
17 Feb 1995
11th Soap Opera Digest Awards - Days of Our Lives wins
17 Feb 1995
Colin Fergusson found guilty of killing 6 people on the Long Island Rail Road in NY
17 Feb 1995
Federal judge allows lawsuit claiming US tobacco makers knew nicotine was addictive & manipulated its levels to keep customers hooked
17 Feb 1996
1st full ODI for the Netherlands v NZ cricket World Cup Nolan Clarke makes ODI debut for Netherlands at age 47
17 Feb 1997
Weekly Standard shows evidence Larry Flint sexually abused his daughter
17 Feb 1998
US Naval Academy cadet Diane Zamora 20 convicted of capital murder
17 Feb 1998
Larry Wayne Harris & Bill Levitt arrested for possession of anthrax
17 Feb 1998
USA Womens Ice Hockey Team beats Canada and wins the first Olympic Gold medal
17 Feb 2002
Westlife go to No.1 on the UK singles chart with World Of Our Own. The Irish boy bands 10th UK No.1 single.
17 Feb 2002
44th Daytona 500 Ward Burton wins (130.81 MPH)
17 Feb 2006
A massive mudslide occurs in Southern Leyte Philippines the official death toll is set at 1126.
17 Feb 2008
50th Daytona 500 Ryan Newman wins (152.672 MPH)
17 Feb 2012
Approximately 70 ancient Olympic artifacts are stolen from the Archaeological Museum of Greece
17 Feb 2012
The President of Germany Christian Wulff resigns over a corruption scandal
17 Feb 2012
43rd NAACP Image Awards The Help wins Outstanding Motion Picture
17 Feb 2013
37 people are killed and 130 are injured in a series of Baghdad car bombings
17 Feb 2013
5 people are killed and 11 are injured after a gas explosion destroyed an apartment complex in Frentt pod Radhotm Czech Republic
17 Feb 2013
President Rafael Correa wins the Ecuadorian general election in a landslide victory
17 Feb 1461
Wars of the Roses Second Battle of St Albans - Lancastrian army defeats Yorkists and recaptures King Henry VI
17 Feb 1600
Philosopher Giordano Bruno is burned alive at Campo de Fiori in Rome charged with heresy by the Roman Inquisition
17 Feb 1634
Puritan author William Prynne tried in Star Chamber for publishing Histrio-masti criticising the theatre
17 Feb 1924
American swimmer Johnny Weissmuller sets 100m world freestyle record 57.4s at Miami FL
17 Feb 1964
101st member elected to Baseball Hall of Fame Chicago WS shortstop Luke Appling
17 Feb 1974
16th Daytona 500 Richard Petty first driver to win back-to-back titles at Daytona his 5th Great American race
17 Feb 1980
22nd Daytona 500 Buddy Baker wins ahead of Bobby Allison and Neil Bonnett
17 Feb 1985
27th Daytona 500 After taking pole at then-record speed of 205.114 mph Bill Elliott dominates race leading 136 of 200 laps
17 Feb 1991
33rd Daytona 500 Ernie Irvan driving for Morgan-McClure Motorsports coasts to win after challengers crash on finals laps
17 Feb 1998
NASAs Voyager 1 spacecraft overtakes Pioneer 10 to become the farthest object from earth in space
17 Feb 2002
44th Daytona 500 Ward Burtons win first for Dodge since Richard Pettys victory in the 1974 race
17 Feb 2008
50th Daytona 500 Ryan Newman wins shootout going into the final turn from Tony Stewart and the Busch brothers Kurt and Kyle
17 Feb 2013
62nd NBA All-Star Game Toyota Centre Houston TX West beats East 143-138 MVP Chris Paul LA Clippers G
17 Feb 1670
France and Bavaria sign military assistance treaty
17 Feb 1795
Thomas Seddal harvests 8.3-kg potato from his garden in Chester England
17 Feb 1864
Confederate submarine HL Hunley sinks Union ship Housatonic - world first successful submarine attack
17 Feb 1883
A Ashwell patents vacantengaged toilet lock in London
17 Feb 1897
National Organization of Mothers formed in American by Alice McLellan Birney and Phoebe Apperson Hearst (Parent Teacher Association)
17 Feb 1916
Sigmund Romberg James Hanley Harold R. Atteridge and Edgar Smiths musical Robinson Crusoe Jr. premieres in NYC
17 Feb 1933
US Senate accepts Blaine Act ending prohibition
17 Feb 1944
Operation Hailstone US begins night bombing of Truk island in the Pacific
17 Feb 1953
DSB soccer team forms in Eindhoven (now PSV Eindhoven) Netherlands
17 Feb 1977
Kalakuta Republic commune of Nigerian musician and activist Fela Kuti burnt to the ground by soldiers in Lagos
17 Feb 1981
Chrysler Corporation reports largest corporate losses in US history
17 Feb 1985
Laffit Pincay Jr.is third to ride 6000th winners at Santa Anita
17 Feb 1986
Johnson & Johnson announces it will no longer sell capsule drugs
17 Feb 1988
US Lt Col William Higgins kidnapped in south Lebanon by Lebanese terrorists & later killed
17 Feb 1995
11th US Soap Opera Digest Awards - Days of Our Lives wins
17 Feb 2003
The London Congestion Charge scheme begins in London England
17 Feb 2013
Jess Cameron with 75 and Elise Perry 3-27 lead Australia to 114 run win over West Indies in the Womens Cricket World Cup Final in Bombay India
17 Feb 1882
Australian cricket opening bowlers Joey Palmer (768) and Edwin Evans (364) dismiss England for 133 in 2nd Test first Test match played at Sydney Cricket Ground
17 Feb 1927
Deems Taylors opera The Kings Henchman with libretto by Edna St. Vincent Millay premieres at the Metropolitan Opera NYC
17 Feb 1952
Montreal Canadiens center Elmer Lach picks up his 354th career assist in a 3-2 loss at the NY Rangers to become NHLs all-time assists leader passes Bill Cowleys mark
17 Feb 1963
Japanese runner Toru Terasawa runs a world record marathon (21515.8) at the Beppu Marathon on the island of Kyushu Japan
17 Feb 1985
Panamanian jockey Laffit Pincay Jr.is third to ride 6000 winners wins aboard Dorias Delight in the 5th race at Santa Anita Park
17 Feb 2014
Belarusian biathlete Darya Domracheva wins her 3rd gold medal of the Sochi Winter Olympics in the mass start also wins individual and pursuit gold
17 Feb 1600
Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno is burned alive at Campo de Fiori in Rome convicted of heresy by the Roman Inquisition [1]
17 Feb 1865
Columbia in South Carolina burns down during the American Civil War
17 Feb 1950
Two Long Island Rail Road trains collide head-on killing 32 near Rockville Centre Long Island New York
17 Feb 1955
American golfer Mike Souchak sets PGA 72-hole record of 257 (not broken until 2001)
17 Feb 1964
101st member elected to Baseball Hall of Fame Chicago White Sox shortstop Luke Appling
17 Feb 1967
Parlophone releases the Beatles double A side single Penny Lane & Strawberry Fields in the UK
17 Feb 1980
Derrynaflan Hoard of five priceless 8th9th century liturgical vessels discovered with metal detectors on Derrynaflan Island County Tipperary - one of Irelands most exciting archaeological finds [1]
17 Feb 1864
Confederate submarine CSS H.L. Hunley sinks Union ship USS Housatonic at Charleston South Carolina in the worlds first successful submarine attack crews of both vessels were killed [1]
17 Feb 1878
1st telephone exchange in San Francisco California opens with 18 phones
17 Feb 1883
Arthur Ashwell patents vacantengaged toilet lock in London England
17 Feb 1905
American educator and womens suffragist Frances Willard becomes 1st women honored in National Statuary Hall in the US Capital building Washington D.C.
17 Feb 1913
US State of Oregon becomes second to enact minimum wage law
17 Feb 1934
1st high school auto driving course offered (State College Pennsylvania)
17 Feb 1968
Frenchman Jean Claude-Killy completes a clean sweep of the alpine skiing events at the Grenoble Winter Olympics when he wins the slalom also takes out the downhill and giant slalom
17 Feb 1976
Cliff Jones theatrical rock opera Rockabye Hamlet starring Beverly DAngelo opens at Minskoff Theater NYC runs for 7 performances
17 Feb 1985
Colombian drug lord the Godmother of Cocaine Griselda Blanco arrested in Irvine California - later convicted and serves 15 years for manufacturing and distributing cocaine [1]
17 Feb 2012
Friso Prince of Orange-Nassau (31) buried under an avalanche while skiing in Lech Austria suffers oxygen deprivation and lapses into a terminal coma
17 Feb 1674
Ambon earthquake and megatsunami kills at least 2322 people in the Maluku Islands (modern Indonesia) tsunami reaches height of 100 meters (330 ft) [1]
17 Feb 1911
(Glenn Curtiss demonstrates his Triad hydroplanes flight to and from a ship landing alongside USS Pennsylvania and having the craft lifted aboard by crane in San Diego Bay California after lunch the plane was returned to the water and took off for land [1]
17 Feb 1927
Toronto Maple Leafs in the teams first game since changing name from St. Patricks beat the visiting New York Americans 4-1 at the Mutual Street Arena
17 Feb 2014
American pair Meryl Davis and Charlie White win the first Olympic gold medal for the US in ice dance at the Sochi Winter Games
17 Feb 2014
Belarus takes the aerials double at the Sochi Winter Olympics when Anton Kushnir wins the mens event Alla Tsuper claims the womens section
17 Feb 2016
Car bomb attack on military convoy in Ankara Turkey by Kurdish militant eaves 28 dead
17 Feb 2016
Channing Dungey announced new President of ABC Entertainment Group first African-American to lead a major US broadcast network
17 Feb 2016
Oldest known case of human-Neanderthal sex (100000 yrs ago) revealed by Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (Leipzig) 50000 yr old Neanderthal womans remains from Altai mountains show traces of Homo Sapiens DNA
17 Feb 2017
Discovery of a new mostly underwater continent Zealandia in the South Pacific announced in research journal GSA Today
17 Feb 2018
10k freestyle cross country champion Ragnhild Haga and 30k classical winner Marit Bjrgen win their 2nd Olympic gold medal in Pyeongchang as part of Norways 4 x 5k relay team
17 Feb 2018
3 suicide bombers kill 18 in Konduga north-east Nigeria
17 Feb 2018
Britains Lizzy Yarnold wins her 2nd consecutive Olympic womens skeleton gold medal in Pyeongchang also wins event in Sochi (2014)
17 Feb 2018
Czech skier Ester Ledeck wins super-G gold medal at Pyeongchang Winter Olympics later wins parallel giant slalom snowboarding to be first female to win gold in different sports at a single Games