What are the important events that happened on October 17? Here are historical events, facts, and some myths about this day.
October 17: Facts & Myths About This Day
October 17 is the 291st day of the year 2024 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 75 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Thursday.
Under the Julian calendar, this day is October 4, 2024 – a Thursday. Both day of the week are the same but did you notice the difference with the Gregorian calendar?
When this day started, 1,729,123,200 seconds 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 ‘dihectaenneacontahenagon’ day.
Libra is the zodiac sign of a person born on this day. Opal is the modern birthstone for this month. Jasper is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years.
According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 104 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 4,318 days since this fabled cataclysmic event.
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October 17 Historical Events
- 539 BC –Cyrus the Great marches into the city of Babylon, releasing the Jews from almost 70 years of exile. Cyrus allows the Jews to return to Yehud Medinata and rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem.
- 1610 –French king Louis XIII is crowned in Rheims.
- 1662 –Charles II of England sells Dunkirk to France for 40,000 pounds.
- 1800 –Britain takes control of the Dutch colony of Curaçao.
- 1888 –Thomas Edison files a patent for the Optical Phonograph (the first movie).
- 1931 –Al Capone convicted of income tax evasion.
- 1943 –Burma Railway (Burma-Thailand Railway) is completed.
- 1964 –Prime Minister of Australia Robert Menzies opens the artificial Lake Burley Griffin in the middle of the capital Canberra.
- 1973 –OPEC starts an oil embargo against a number of western countries, considered to have helped Israel in its war against Syria.
- 1998 –At Jesse, in the Niger Delta, Nigeria, a petroleum pipeline explodes killing about 1200 villagers, some of whom are scavenging gasoline.
Who were born on October 17?
- 1892 –Herbert Howells, English composer (d. 1983)
- 1906 –Paul Derringer, American baseball player (d. 1987)
- 1915 –Arthur Miller, American playwright (d. 2005)
- 1923 –Barney Kessel, American musician (d. 2004)
- 1942 –Gary Puckett, American musician
- 1951 –Roger Pontare, Swedish singer
- 1959 –Richard Roeper, American film critic
- 1972 –Joe McEwing, American baseball player
- 1974 –Ariel Levy, American feminist writer
- 1987 –Jarosław Fojut, Polish footballer
Who died on October 17?
- 1174 –Queen Petronila of Aragon (b. 1135)
- 1616 –John Pitts, Catholic scholar and writer. (b. 1560)
- 1806 –Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Haitian independence leader (b. 1758)
- 1868 –Laura Secord, Canadian heroine of the war of 1812 (b. 1775)
- 1963 –Jacques Hadamard, French mathematician (b. 1865)
- 1966 –Wieland Wagner, German stage director (b. 1917)
- 1978 –Giovanni Gronchi, 3rd President of the Italian Republic (b. 1887)
- 1992 –Herman Johannes, Indonesian professor, scientist and politician (b. 1912)
- 2004 –Uzi Hitman, Israeli singer (b. 1952)
- 2007 –Joey Bishop, American entertainer, member of the Rat Pack (b. 1918)
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