September 17

What happened that day?

• 2016: Two bombs explode in Seaside Park, New Jersey, and Manhattan, New York. 31 people are injured in the Manhattan bombing.
• 2011: Occupy Wall Street movement begins in Zuccotti Park, New York City.
• 2006: An audio tape of a private speech by Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány is leaked to the public, in which he confessed that his Hungarian Socialist Party had lied to win the 2006 election, sparking widespread protests across the country.
• 2006: Fourpeaked Mountain in Alaska erupts, marking the first eruption for the long-dormant volcano in at least 10,000 years.
• 2001: The New York Stock Exchange reopens for trading after the September 11 attacks, the longest closure since the Great Depression.
• 1992: An Iranian Kurdish leader and his two joiners are assassinated by political militants in Berlin, Germany.
• 1991: The first version of the Linux kernel (0.01) is released to the Internet.
• 1991: Estonia, North Korea, South Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, the Marshall Islands and Micronesia join the United Nations.
• 1983: Vanessa Williams becomes the first black Miss America.
• 1980: Former Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza Debayle is killed in Asunción, Paraguay.
• 1980: After weeks of strikes at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, Poland, the nationwide independent trade union Solidarity is established.
• 1978: The Camp David Accords are signed by Israel and Egypt.
• 1976: The first Space Shuttle, Enterprise, is unveiled by NASA.
• 1974: Bangladesh, Grenada and Guinea-Bissau join the United Nations.
• 1965: The Battle of Chawinda is fought between Pakistan and India.
• 1961 -The Minnesota Vikings play and win their first regular season National Football League game.: null
• 1961: The world's first retractable roof stadium, the Civic Arena, opens in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
• 1954: The novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding is first published.
• 1949: The Canadian steamship SS Noronic burns in Toronto Harbour with the loss of over 118 lives.
• 1948: The Nizam of Hyderabad surrenders his sovereignty over the Hyderabad State and joins the Indian Union.
• 1948: The Lehi (also known as the Stern gang) assassinates Count Folke Bernadotte, who was appointed by the United Nations to mediate between the Arab nations and Israel.
• 1944: World War II: German forces are attacked by the Allies in the Battle of San Marino.
• 1944: World War II: Soviet troops launch the Tallinn Offensive against Germany and pro independence Estonian units.
• 1944: World War II: Allied Airborne troops parachute into the Netherlands as the "Market" half of Operation Market Garden.
• 1941: World War II: Soviet forces enter Tehran marking the end of the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran.
• 1941: World War II: A decree of the Soviet State Committee of Defense, restoring Vsevobuch in the face of the Great Patriotic War, is issued.
• 1940: World War II: Following Nazi Germany's defeat in the Battle of Britain, Hitler postpones Operation Sea Lion indefinitely.
• 1939: World War II: German submarine U-29 sinks the British aircraft carrier HMS Courageous.
• 1939: World War II: The Soviet Union joins Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland during the Polish Defensive War of 1939.
• 1932: A speech by Laureano Gómez leads to the escalation of the Leticia Incident.
• 1930: The Kurdish Ararat rebellion is suppressed by the Turks.
• 1928: The Okeechobee hurricane strikes southeastern Florida, killing more than 2,500 people.
• 1925: Frida Kahlo suffers near-fatal injuries in a bus accident in Mexico, causing her to abandon her medical studies and take up art
• 1924: The Border Protection Corps is established in the Second Polish Republic for the defence of the eastern border against armed Soviet raids and local bandits.
• 1916: World War I: Manfred von Richthofen ("The Red Baron"), a flying ace of the German Luftstreitkräfte, wins his first aerial combat near Cambrai, France.
• 1914: World War I: The Race to the Sea begins.
• 1914: Andrew Fisher becomes Prime Minister of Australia for the third time.
• 1908: The Wright Flyer flown by Orville Wright, with Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge as passenger, crashes, killing Selfridge, who becomes the first airplane fatality.
• 1901: Second Boer War: Boers capture a squadron of the 17th Lancers at the Battle of Elands River.
• 1901: Second Boer War: A Boer column defeats a British force at the Battle of Blood River Poort.
• 1900: Philippine-American War: Filipinos under Juan Cailles defeat Americans under Colonel Benjamin F. Cheatham Jr. at Mabitac.
• 1894: Battle of the Yalu River, the largest naval engagement of the First Sino-Japanese War.
• 1862: American Civil War: The Allegheny Arsenal explosion results in the single largest civilian disaster during the war.
• 1862: American Civil War: George B. McClellan halts the northward drive of Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army in the single-day Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest day in American military history.
• 1861: Argentine Civil Wars: The State of Buenos Aires defeats the Argentine Confederation at the Battle of Pavón.
• 1859: Joshua A. Norton declares himself "Norton I, Emperor of the United States."
• 1849: American abolitionist Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery.
• 1809: Peace between Sweden and Russia in the Finnish War; the territory that will become Finland is ceded to Russia by the Treaty of Fredrikshamn.
• 1794: France completes its conquest of the Austrian Netherlands at the Battle of Sprimont.
• 1793: France's Army of the Eastern Pyrenees defeats a Spanish force at the Battle of Peyrestortes.
• 1787: The United States Constitution is signed in Philadelphia.
• 1778: The Treaty of Fort Pitt is signed. It is the first formal treaty between the United States and a Native American tribe (the Lenape or Delaware Indians).
• 1776: The Presidio of San Francisco is founded in New Spain.
• 1775: American Revolutionary War: The Invasion of Canada begins with the Siege of Fort St. Jean.
• 1683: Antonie van Leeuwenhoek writes a letter to the Royal Society describing "animalcules": the first known description of protozoa.
• 1658: The Battle of Vilanova is fought between Portugal and Spain during the Portuguese Restoration War.
• 1631: Sweden wins a major victory at the Battle of Breitenfeld against the Holy Roman Empire during the Thirty Years' War.
• 1630: The city of Boston, Massachusetts is founded.
• 1620: The Ottoman Empire defeats the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth during the Battle of Cecora.
• 1577: The Treaty of Bergerac is signed between Henry III of France and the Huguenots.
• 1462: A Polish army under Piotr Dunin decisively defeats the Teutonic Order at the Battle of Świecino.
• 1382: Louis the Great's daughter, Mary, is crowned "king" of Hungary.
• 1176: The Battle of Myriokephalon is the last attempt by the Byzantine Empire to recover Anatolia from the Seljuk Turks.
• 1111: Highest Galician nobility led by Pedro Fróilaz de Traba and the bishop Diego Gelmírez crown Alfonso VII as "King of Galicia".
• 456: Remistus, Roman general (magister militum), is besieged by a Gothic force at Ravenna and later executed in the Palace in Classis, outside the city.