September 17 - Definition and Overview

September 17 is the 260th day of the year (261st in leap years). There are 105 days remaining.

Events

• 1176 - Battle of Myriokephalon
• 1394 - King Charles VI of France orders all Jews expelled from France
• 1462 - Battle of Swiecin, called also Battle of Zarnowiec, during Thirteen Years' War
• 1630 - City of Boston, Massachusetts founded
• 1776 - Presidio of San Francisco founded
• 1787 - The text of the United States Constitution was agreed in Philadelphia
• 1809 - Peace between Sweden and Russia in the Finnish War. The territory to become Finland is ceded to Russia by the Treaty of Fredrikshamn.
• 1859 - Joshua A. Norton declares himself Emperor Norton I of the United States
• 1862 - George McClellan halted the northward drive of Robert E. Lee's Confederate army at Antietam (See Battle of Antietam)
• 1894 - Battle of Yalu River, the largest naval engagement of the First Sino-Japanese War.
• 1900 - Philippine-American War: Filipinos under Juan Cailles defeat Americans under Colonel Benjamin F. Cheatham at Mabitac.
• 1908 - Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge crashes a Wright Brothers airplane and becomes the first airplane fatality
• 1920 - National Football League organized in Canton, Ohio
• 1939 - The Soviet Union joined Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland during the Polish Defence War of 1939
• 1944 - British troops parachute into Arnhem, as a part of Operation Market Garden
• 1947 - James V. Forrestal was sworn in as the 1st Secretary of Defense of United States
• 1948 - Lehi (also know as the Stern gang) assassinates Count Folke Bernadotte, who was appointed by the UN to mediate between the Arabs and Jews
• 1951 - Robert A. Lovett was sworn in as the 4th Secretary of Defense of United States
• 1976 - The first Space Shuttle, Enterprise, was unveiled by NASA
• 1978 - The Camp David Accords were signed by Israel and Egypt
• 1983 - Vanessa Williams becomes first African American Miss America
• 1984 - Brian Mulroney sworn in as Prime Minister of Canada
• 1988 - Opening ceremony of the Games of the XXIV Olympiad in Seoul, South Korea
• 1991 - Lithuania, North Korea and South Korea joined the United Nations.
• 2001 - The Late Show with David Letterman is the first TV talk show to return to the airwaves six days after terrorists attack the United States in New York City and Washington D.C.
• 2001 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average opens for the first time after the September 11 attacks. The stocks plummet throughout the trading session and posts its biggest point drop in its history closing down 684.81 points to 8920.70.
• 2004 - Tamil is declared first classical language in India.
• 2004 - Barry Bonds reaches an elite number of 700 homeruns in Major League Baseball.

Births

• 879 - King Charles III of France (d. 929)
• 1271 - Wenceslas II of Bohemia and Poland (d. 1305)
• 1550 - Pope Paul V (d. 1621)
• 1743 - Marquis de Condorcet, mathematician, philosopher, and political scientist (d. 1794)
• 1819 - Thomas Hendricks, former Vice President of the United States (d. 1885)
• 1857 - Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, rocket scientist, inventor (d. 1935)
• 1874 - Ben Turpin, actor, comedian (d. 1940)
• 1879 - Rube Foster, Negro League baseball star (some sources say 1878) (d. 1930)
• 1883 - William Carlos Williams, physician and writer (d. 1963)
• 1890 - Gabriel Heatter, journalist (d. 1972)
• 1892 - Katharine S. White, gardener, fiction editor of the New Yorker, wife of E. B. White
• 1900 - John Willard Marriott, hotelier (d. 1985)
• 1907 - Warren Burger, 15th Chief Justice of the United States (d. 1995)
• 1918 - Chaim Herzog, President of Israel (d. 1997)
• 1922 - Agostinho Neto, Angolan politician (d. 1979)
• 1923 - Hank Williams, musician (d. 1953)
• 1927 - George Blanda, National Football League and American Football League star
• 1928 - Roddy McDowall, actor (d. 1998)
• 1929 - Sir Stirling Moss, Formula One racer
• 1930 - Edgar Mitchell, astronaut
• 1931 - Anne Bancroft, actress
• 1934 - Maureen Connolly, tennis star (d. 1969)
• 1935 - Ken Kesey, author (d. 2001)
• 1937 - Orlando Cepeda, Baseball Hall of Famer
• 1939 - David Souter, US Supreme Court Associate Justice
• 1942 - Des Lynam, Television Presenter
• 1944 - Reinhold Messner, mountain climber
• 1947 - Tessa Jowell, British politician
• 1947 - Jeff MacNelly, Pulitzer Prize winning political cartoonist
• 1948 - John Ritter, actor (d. 2003)
• 1950 - Narendra Modi, chief minister of Gujarat
• 1951 - Cassandra Peterson (Elvira), actress
• 1956 - Rita Rudner, comedienne
• 1960 - Damon Hill, 1996 Formula 1 World Champion
• 1962 - Baz Luhrmann, film director and producer
• 1969 - Ken Doherty, Irish snooker player
• 1973 - Anastacia, singer
• 1974 - Rasheed Wallace, NBA basketball player
• 1975 - Jimmie Johnson, NASCAR race car driver
• 1983 - Jennifer Peña, Mexican-American (Tejano) singer

Deaths

• 1771 - Tobias Smollett, Scottish novelist (b. 1721)
• 1808 - Benjamin Bourne, politician (b. 1755)
• 1836 - Antoine Laurent de Jussieu, botanist (b. 1748)
• 1863 - Alfred de Vigny, author
• 1873 - Alexander Berry, Scotish adventurer, founder of Berry, Australia
• 1908 - Lt. Thomas Selfridge, first to die in an airplane crash. Orville Wright was the pilot.
• 1938 - Bruno Jasieński, Polish poet (b. 1901)
• 1966 - Fritz Wunderlich, tenor
• 1972 - Akim Tamiroff, actor
• 1973 - Hugo Winterhalter, band leader
• 1980 - Anastasio Somoza Debayle, former president of Nicaragua
• 1984 - Richard Basehart, actor
• 1991 - Zino Francescatti, French violinist (b. 1902)
• 1993 - Christian Nyby, film and television director
• 1996 - Spiro Agnew, former Vice President of the United States
• 1997 - Red Skelton, actor, comedian

Holidays and observances

• Feast of Hildegard of Bingen
• The fourth day of the Eleusinian Mysteries in ancient Greek mythology, when the initiates sacrificed a pig.
• Feast of Saint Lambert (martyr)

September 16 · September 18 · August 17 · October 17 · more historical anniversaries