What are the important events that happened on May 17? Here are historical events, facts, and some myths about this day.
May 17: Facts & Myths About This Day
May 17 is the 138th day of the year 2024 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 228 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Friday.
Under the Julian calendar, this day is May 4, 2024 – a Friday. Both day of the week are the same but did you notice the difference with the Gregorian calendar?
When this day started, 28,598,400 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 ‘hectatriacontaoctagon’ day.
Taurus is the zodiac sign of a person born on this day. Emerald is the modern birthstone for this month. Sapphire is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years.
According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 257 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 4,165 days since this fabled cataclysmic event.
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May 17 Historical Events
- 1775 –American Revolutionary War: the Continental Congress bans trade with Quebec.
- 1805 –Muhammad Ali becomes Wāli of Egypt.
- 1900 –Second Boer War: British troops relieve Mafeking.
- 1933 –Vidkun Quisling and Johan Bernhard Hjort form Nasjonal Samling — the national-socialist party of Norway.
- 1970 –Thor Heyerdahl sets sail from Morocco on the papyrus boat Ra II to sail the Atlantic Ocean.
- 1983 –The U.S. Department of Energy declassifies documents showing world’s largest mercury pollution event in Oak Ridge, Tennessee (ultimately found to be 4.2 million pounds), in response to the Appalachian Observer’s Freedom of Information Act request.
- 1984 –Prince Charles calls a proposed addition to the National Gallery, London, a “monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend,” sparking controversies on the proper role of the Royal Family and the course of modern architecture.
- 1992 –Three days of popular protests against the government of Prime Minister of Thailand Suchinda Kraprayoon begin in Bangkok, leading to a military crackdown that results in 52 officially confirmed deaths, many disappearances, hundreds of injuries, and over 3,500 arrests.
- 1997 –Troops of Laurent Kabila march into Kinshasa. Zaire is officially renamed Democratic Republic of the Congo.
- 2004 –Massachusetts becomes the first U.S. state to legalize same-sex marriage.
Who were born on May 17?
- 1758 –John St Aubyn, British fossil collector (d. 1839)
- 1844 –Julius Wellhausen, German biblical scholar (d. 1918)
- 1898 –Alfred Joseph Casson, Canadian painter (d. 1992)
- 1909 –Julius Sumner Miller, American physicist (d. 1987)
- 1941 –Grace Zabriskie, American actress
- 1959 –Marcelo Loffreda, Argentine rugby player and coach
- 1975 –Jonti Picking, British cartoonist
- 1980 –Davor Džalto, Serbian/Croatian art historian
- 1981 –Lim Jeong Hee, Korean singer
- 1996 –Ryan Ochoa, American teen actor
Who died on May 17?
- 1189 –Minamoto no Yoshitsune, Japanese general (b. 1159)
- 1536 –Henry Norris, English courtier and Groom of the Stool (executed) (b. c. 1482)
- 1643 –Giovanni Picchi, Italian composer
- 1838 –René Caillé, French explorer (b. 1799)
- 1875 –John C. Breckinridge, 14th Vice President of the United States (b. 1821)
- 1916 –Boris Borisovich Galitzine, Russian physicist (b. 1862)
- 1951 –William Birdwood, 1st Baron Birdwood, British general (b. 1865)
- 2004 –Ezzedine Salim, leader of the Iraqi Governing Council (b. 1943)
- 2009 –Mario Benedetti, Uruguayan journalist, novelist, and poet (b. 1920)
- 2011 –Harmon Killebrew, American baseball player (b. 1936)
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