Events on February 17 45
Year 364
Roman Emperor Jovian dies after a reign of eight months. He is found dead in his tent at Tyana (Asia Minor) en route back to Constantinople in suspicious circumstances.
Year 1370
Northern Crusades: Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Teutonic Knights meet in the Battle of Rudau.
Year 1411
Following the successful campaigns during the Ottoman Interregnum, Musa Çelebi, one of the sons of Bayezid I, becomes Sultan with the support of Mircea I of Wallachia.
Year 1500
Duke Friedrich and Duke Johann attempt to subdue the peasantry of Dithmarschen, Denmark, in the Battle of Hemmingstedt.
Year 1600
The philosopher Giordano Bruno is burned alive, for heresy, at Campo de' Fiori in Rome.
Year 1621
Myles Standish is appointed as first military commander of the English Plymouth Colony in North America.
Year 1753
In Sweden February 17 is followed by March 1 as the country moves from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar.
Year 1801
An electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr is resolved when Jefferson is elected President of the United States and Burr, Vice President by the United States House of Representatives.
Year 1819
The United States House of Representatives passes the Missouri Compromise for the first time.
Year 1838
Weenen massacre: Hundreds of Voortrekkers along the Blaukraans River, Natal are killed by Zulus.
Year 1859
Cochinchina Campaign: The French Navy captured the Citadel of Saigon, a fortress that was manned by 1,000 Nguyễn dynasty soldiers, en route to conquering Saigon and other regions of southern Viet Nam.
Year 1863
A group of citizens of Geneva founded an International Committee for Relief to the Wounded, which later became known as the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Year 1864
American Civil War: The H. L. Hunley becomes the first submarine to engage and sink a warship, the USS Housatonic.
Year 1865
American Civil War: Columbia, South Carolina, is burned as Confederate forces flee from advancing Union forces.
Year 1871
The victorious Prussian Army parades through Paris, France, after the end of the Siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War.
Year 1913
The Armory Show opens in New York City, displaying works of artists who are to become some of the most influential painters of the early 20th century.
Year 1919
The Ukrainian People's Republic asks Entente and the US for help fighting the Bolsheviks.
Year 1944
World War II: The Battle of Eniwetok begins: The battle ends in an American victory on February 22.
Year 1944
World War II: Operation Hailstone begins: U.S. naval air, surface, and submarine attack against Truk Lagoon, Japan's main base in the central Pacific, in support of the Eniwetok invasion.
Year 1959
Project Vanguard: Vanguard 2: The first weather satellite is launched to measure cloud-cover distribution.
Year 1964
In Wesberry v. Sanders the Supreme Court of the United States rules that congressional districts have to be approximately equal in population.
Year 1964
Gabonese president Léon M'ba is toppled by a coup and his rival, Jean-Hilaire Aubame, is installed in his place.
Year 1965
Project Ranger: The Ranger 8 probe launches on its mission to photograph the Mare Tranquillitatis region of the Moon in preparation for the manned Apollo missions. Mare Tranquillitatis or the "Sea of Tranquility" would become the site chosen for the Apollo 11 lunar landing.
Year 1968
In Springfield, Massachusetts, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame opens.
Year 1974
Robert K. Preston, a disgruntled U.S. Army private, buzzes the White House in a stolen helicopter.
Year 1978
The Troubles: The Provisional IRA detonates an incendiary bomb at the La Mon restaurant, near Belfast, killing 12 and seriously injuring 30 others, all Protestants.
Year 1992
Nagorno-Karabakh War: Armenian troops massacre more than 20 Azerbaijani civilians during the Capture of Garadaghly.
Year 1996
In Philadelphia, world champion Garry Kasparov beats the Deep Blue supercomputer in a chess match.
Year 1996
NASA's Discovery Program begins as the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft lifts off on the first mission ever to orbit and land on an asteroid, 433 Eros.
Year 1996
The 8.2 Mw Biak earthquake shakes the Papua province of eastern Indonesia with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). A large tsunami followed, leaving one-hundred sixty-six people dead or missing and 423 injured.
Year 2006
A massive mudslide occurs in Southern Leyte, Philippines; the official death toll is set at 1,126.
Year 2011
Libyan protests begin. In Bahrain, security forces launched a deadly pre-dawn raid on protesters in Pearl Roundabout in Manama, the day is locally known as Bloody Thursday.
Year 2015
Eighteen people are killed and 78 injured in a stampede at a Mardi Gras parade in Haiti.
Year 2016
Military vehicles explode outside a Turkish Armed Forces barracks in Ankara, Turkey, killing at least 29 people and injuring 61 others.