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April 17: Today in History – Historical Events
Early Centuries – April 17 Historic Events – Before the 1700s
1. 17th April 1492: Christopher Columbus today signed a contract with Spain to find a passage to Asia and the Indies.
2. 17th April 1521: The Roman Catholic Church excommunicated Martin Luther today.
3. 17th April 1524: Giovanni Verrazano discovered the New York Harbor.
4. 17th April 1535: Antonio Mendonza was today appointed the first viceroy of New Spain.
5. 17th April 1629: The American Massachusetts Bay Colony was the first to import horses into the colonies.
18th Century – What Happened on April 17 – The 1700s
6. 17th April 1704: John Campbell published the Boston “News Letter”, which eventually became the successful American Newspaper.
7. 17th April 1758: Frances Williams, the first African-American to graduate from a college in the western hemisphere, published a collection of Latin poems.
19th Century – April 17 This Day That Year – The 1800s
8. 17th April 1808: Bayonne Decree by Napoleon I of France ordered the seizure of U.S. ships.
9. 17th April 1810: Lewis M. Norton patented the pineapple cheese.
10. 17th April 1824: Russia abandoned all North American claims south of 54’40”.
11. 17th April 1860: New Yorkers today learned of a new law requiring fire escapes to be provided to tenement houses.
12. 17th April 1861: Virginia seceded from the Union. It became the eighth state to do so.
13. 17th April 1864: Trading of prisoners was banned by U.S. Civil War General, General Grant.
14. 17th April 1865: Mary Surratt was today arrested as a conspirator in the assassination of Lincoln.
15. 17th April 1875: Sir Neville Chamberlain invented the game “snooker”.
16. 17th April 1895: The Treaty of Shimonoseki was signed by China and Japan to end the first Sino-Japanese war. China ceded Taiwan to Japan as per the treaty.
20th Century – Important Events On This Day April 17th – The 1900s
17. 17th April 1900: The Instrument of Cession was signed by 7 high chiefs of American Samoa.
18. 17th April 1905: US Supreme Court judges maximum work day as unconstitutional.
19. 17th April 1916: The American Academy of Arts and Letters today obtained a charter from the U.S. Congress.
20. 17th April 1920: American Professional Football Association forms (NFL).
21. 17th April 1927: In Japan, the government of Wakarsoeki falls. Baron Tanaka becomes Premier.
22. 17th April 1930: DuPont scientist Elmer K. Bolton invented neoprene using Julius Nieuwland’s divinyl acetylene.
23. 17th April 1935: “Lights Out” which debuted on NBC Radio today ran until 1952.
24. 17th April 1941: The first helicopter lift-off from the water was today accomplished by Igor Sikorsky near Stratford, CT.
25. 17th April 1941: In World War II the Kingdom of Yugoslavia surrendered to Germany.
26. 17th April 1941: The Office of Price Administration was established in the U.S. to handle rationing.
27. 17th April 1942: French General Henri Giraud, who was a prisoner of war, escaped from his castle prison in Festung Königstein.
28. 17th April 1942: 12 Lacasters bomb MAN factory in Augsburg.
29. 17th April 1942: Operations to destroy the Sobibor Concentration Camp began today.
30. 17th April 1943: Marshal Admiral Yamamoto flies from Truk to Rabaul.
31. 17th April 1945: Benito Mussolini flees from Saló to Milan.
32. 17th April 1945: During the battle of Mindanao, US troops landed in central Mindanao in the Philippines.
33. 17th April 1945: The 8th Air Force bombs Dresden.
34. 17th April 1945: German occupiers flood Wieringermeer in the Netherlands.
35. 17th April 1946: The last of the French troops left Syria.
36. 17th April 1946: Syria declares independence from the French administration.
37. 17th April 1947: Jackie Robinson of Brooklyn Dodgers performed a bunt for his first major league hit.
38. 17th April 1948: Two days after the death of President Manuel Roxas, Elpidio Quirino takes the oath of office to assume the Presidency of the Philippines.
39. 17th April 1956: In Bulgaria, Premier Tchervenkov resigns from office.
40. 17th April 1956: Premium Savings Bonds were introduced in Great Britain today.
41. 17th April 1956: USSRT’s Parliament “Cominform” dissolves.
42. 17th April 1958: Brussels (Belgium) World Fair opens today.
43. 17th April 1960: American Samoa sets up a constitutional government.
44. 17th April 1961: In an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro, about 1,400 U.S.-supported Cuban exiles invaded Cuba at the Bay of Pigs.
45. 17th April 1964: Jerrie Mock flew an airplane solo around the world. She became the first woman to accomplish this feat
46. 17th April 1964: The Mustang model was today unveiled by the Ford Motor Company.
47. 17th April 1966: The 100th International soccer match was played today between the Netherlands and Belgium. Netherlands won 3-1.
48. 17th April 1967: After it was off air for a week, Short Wave Radio NY Worldwide goes back on the air.
49. 17th April 1967: Surveyor 3 was launched today. It made a soft landing on the moon on 20th April.
50. 17th April 1967: The U.S. Supreme Court barred Muhammad Ali’s request to be blocked from induction into the U.S. Army.
51. 17th April 1969: In Los Angeles, Sirhan Sirhan was convicted of assassinating U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy.
52. 17th April 1969: 21-year-old Bernadette Devlin, a People’s Democracy activist, became the youngest woman Member of Parliament ever elected to Westminster.
53. 17th April 1969: Alexander Dubcek, Chairman of the Czechoslovak Communist Party was deposed today.
54. 17th April 1970: “Apollo 13”, which had suffered an oxygen tank explosion in orbit during the moon mission, returned to Earth safely.
55. 17th April 1971: Egypt, Libya, and Syria form federation (FAR).
56. 17th April 1971: Sheikh Mujibur Rahman forms the People’s Republic of Bangladesh.
57. 17th April 1972: Revised Dutch constitution was proclaimed today.
58. 17th April 1973: German counter-terrorist unit GSG 9 was founded today.
59. 17th April 1974: The military academy in Heliopolis in Egypt was today assaulted by Muslim fundamentalists.
60. 17th April 1977: In Belgium the parliamentary elections were won by Christian-democrats.
61. 17th April 1978: Today a record 63,500,000 shares were traded on the New York Stock Exchange.
62. 17th April 1978: Carl Sagan was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for “Dragons of Eden”.
63. 17th April 1979: Four Royal Ulster Constabulary offices were killed by a provisional Irish Republican Army van bomb in Bessbrook, County Armagh. It is believed that the bomb was the largest PIRA bomb used up to that point.
64. 17th April 1982: US performs nuclear test at its Nevada Test Site.
65. 17th April 1982: Canada adopts its constitution.
66. 17th April 1983: First National Coin Week begins.
67. 17th April 1983: India successfully launched the SLV-3 rocket and entered the space age.
68. 17th April 1983: Police today routed 1,000 Solidarity supporters in Warsaw.
69. 17th April 1983: A transit strike in New York which had begun on 7th March ended today.
70. 17th April 1984: Demonstrators outside the Libyan Embassy in London were fired upon by someone inside, killing an English Police Woman and injuring 11 others.
71. 17th April 1985: The cabinet in Lebanon resigned as Shiites took W. Beirut today.
72. 17th April 1985: The new 22-cent “LOVE” stamp was unveiled by the U.S. Postal Service today.
73. 17th April 1986: Netherlands and Scilly Islands sign a peace treaty.
74. 17th April 1986: IBM produces the first megabit-chip.
75. 17th April 1986: Larry McMurtry was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for “Lonesome Dove”.
76. 17th April 1987: USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR.
77. 17th April 1987: Richard Wilbur was today appointed as US poet laureate.
78. 17th April 1989: Soviet-US agreement allows Soviets to fight US pros.
79. 17th April 1989: Courts gave Solidarity legal status in Poland today.
80. 17th April 1989: Maximum unemployment benefit in New York state was raised to $245 per week.
81. 17th April 1990: There was a gas explosion in a passenger train in Kumrahar in India. 80 people died in the explosion.
82. 17th April 1991: Railroad workers in the US go on strike.
83. 17th April 1993: STS-56 “Discovery” lands today.
84. 17th April 1993: Two former police officers were today convicted in Los Angeles by a federal jury of violating the civil rights of beaten motorist Rodney King. Two others were acquitted.
85. 17th April 1994: Aruba government of Oduber falls.
86. 17th April 1996: Erik and Lyle Menendez were today sentenced to life in prison without parole for killing their parents.
87. 17th April 1997: John Bell at the age of 115 receives a new pacemaker.
88. 17th April 1999: In India, the government of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee fell after losing a vote of confidence.
21st Century – April 17 This Day In History – The 2000s
89. 17th April 2001: A letter between US governor Jeb Bush and Gale, stating that the Bush administration has decided to ahead with plans to auction 6 million acres of potentially oil-and-gas-rich seabed in the Gulf of Mexico was released.
90. 17th April 2002: The exhibit “Skin Deep-A History of Tattooing” opened today at the National Maritime Museum in London.
91. 17th April 2002: In friendly fire from two US Air Force F-16s, four Canadian soldiers were killed in Afghanistan. This was the first death in the combat zone for Canada since the Korean War.
92. 17th April 2012: St Cuthbert Gospel, Europe’s oldest intact book of the 8th century was purchased by the British Library for 9 million pounds.
93. 17th April 2013: In a US drone attack, 5 people were killed in Wana in Pakistan.
94. 17th April 2013: South Korean supply delegation was today blocked by North Korea from the Kaesong joint industrial zone.
95. 17th April 2013: A fertilizer plant in West Texas exploded killing 15 and injuring 100 people.
96. 17th April 2013: New Zealand today legalized same-sex marriage.
97. 17th April 2014: In Algeria, Abdelaziz Bouteflika wins the fourth term as President of Algeria.
98. 17th April 2015: The Pulitzer Prize board awarded a posthumous Special Citation to Jazz composer and musician John Coltrane.
99. 17th April 2015: James Anderson today became the highest wicket-taking bowler in England’s test cricket history.
100. 17th April 2017: The first living giant shipworm at 3 ft was found in the Philippines, really a type of clam.
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