What are the important events that happened on April 17? Here are historical events, facts, and some myths about this day.
April 17: Facts & Myths About This Day
April 17 is the 107th day of the year 2025 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 258 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Thursday.
Under the Julian calendar, this day is April 4, 2025 – a Thursday. Both day of the week are the same but did you notice the difference with the Gregorian calendar?
When this day started, 29,080,800 minutes has elapsed since midnight of January 1, 1970 – the Unix epoch.
Strange as it may, if we name this day after a polygon then it will be called ‘hectaheptagon’ day.
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Aries is the zodiac sign of a person born on this day. Diamond is the modern birthstone for this month. Opal is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years.
According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 306 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year.
The ancient Maya civilization believes that the end of the world will happen on December 21, 2012. There are now 4,500 days since this fabled cataclysmic event.
Do people and celebrities interest you? Discover all the April 17 famous birthdays who share your special day. Learn some fun facts about your birthday!
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April 17 Historical Events
- 1521 –Martin Luther speaks to the assembly at the Diet of Worms, refusing to recant his teachings.
- 1905 –The Supreme Court of the United States decides Lochner v. New York which holds that the “right to free contract” is implicit in the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.
- 1907 –The Ellis Island immigration center processes 11,747 people, more than on any other day.
- 1945 –Brazilian forces liberate the town of Montese, Italy, from German Nazi forces.
- 1946 –Syria obtains its Independence from the French occupation.
- 1961 –Bay of Pigs Invasion: A group of CIA financed and trained Cuban exiles lands at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba with the aim of ousting Fidel Castro.
- 1964 –Jerrie Mock becomes the first woman to circumnavigate the world by air.
- 1969 –Czechoslovakian Communist Party chairman Alexander Dubček is deposed.
- 1975 –The Cambodian Civil War ends. The Khmer Rouge captures the capital Phnom Penh and Cambodian government forces surrender.
- 1986 –The Three Hundred and Thirty Five Years’ War between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly ends.
Who were born on April 17?
- 1798 –Étienne Bobillier, French mathematician (d. 1840)
- 1865 –Ursula Julia Ledochowska, Polish-Austrian Catholic saint (d. 1939)
- 1905 –Arthur Lake, American actor (d. 1987)
- 1918 –William Holden, American actor (d. 1981)
- 1964 –Ken Daneyko, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1975 –Travis Roy, American hockey player
- 1977 –Phil Jamieson, Australian singer (Grinspoon)
- 1978 –Loukas Louka, Greek-Cypriot footballer
- 1980 –Curtis Woodhouse, English footballer/boxer
- 1983 –Andrea Marcato, Italian rugby player
Who died on April 17?
- 1574 –Joachim Camerarius, German classical scholar (b. 1500)
- 1680 –Kateri Tekakwitha, first American Indian to receive beatification (b. 1656)
- 1696 –Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, French writer (b. 1626)
- 1849 –Pedro Ignacio de Castro Barros, Argentine statesman and priest (b. 1777)
- 1873 –Fyodor Petrovich Tolstoy, Russian painter (b. 1783)
- 1882 –George Jennings Sanitary engineer (b. 1810)
- 1930 –Alexander Golovin, Russian painter (b. 1863)
- 1988 –Louise Nevelson, American sculptor (b. 1900)
- 1990 –Reverend Ralph Abernathy, American civil rights activist (b. 1936)
- 2008 –Aimé Césaire, French Martinican poet and politician (b. 1913)
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