What Happened on February 17th in History
30 historical events on this date
The Ukrainian People's Republic asks the Entente and the United States for help fighting the Bolsheviks.
The Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR) was a short-lived state in Eastern Europe. Prior to its proclamation, the Central Council of Ukraine was elected in March 1917 as a result of the February...
World War II: The Battle of Eniwetok begins. The battle ends in an American victory on February 22.
World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major...
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.
Operation Hailstone was a large-scale United States Navy air and surface attack on Truk Lagoon on 17â18 February 1944, conducted as part of the American offensive drive against the Imperial Japanese...
The Al-Waziri coup briefly ousts the ruling Hamidaddin dynasty of Yemen; Imam Yahya Muhammad Hamid ed-Din is killed.
The al-Waziri coup, also known as the Yahya clan coup, was a violent dynasty overthrow attempt in the Kingdom of Yemen in 1948, which caused around 5,000 fatalities. During the coup attempt, Imam...
Chaim Weizmann begins his term as the first President of Israel.
Chaim Azriel Weizmann was an Israeli statesman, biochemist, and Zionist leader who served as president of the Zionist Organization and later as the first president of Israel. He was elected on 16...
Project Vanguard: Vanguard 2: The first weather satellite is launched to measure cloud-cover distribution.
Project Vanguard was a program managed by the United States Navy Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), which intended to launch the first artificial satellite into low Earth orbit using a Vanguard rocket...
A Turkish Airlines Vickers Viscount crashes near Gatwick Airport, killing 14; Turkish prime minister Adnan Menderes survives the crash.
Turkish Airlines, or legally TĂŒrk Hava Yolları Anonim OrtaklıÄı, is the flag carrier of Turkey. As of June 2024, it operates scheduled services to 352 destinations in Europe, Asia, Oceania, Africa,...
In Wesberry v. Sanders the Supreme Court of the United States rules that congressional districts have to be approximately equal in population.
Wesberry v. Sanders, 376 U.S. 1 (1964), was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case in which the Court ruled that districts in the United States House of Representatives must be approximately equal in...
Gabonese president LĂ©on M'ba is toppled by a coup and his rival, Jean-Hilaire Aubame, is installed in his place.
Gabriel LĂ©on M'ba was a Gabonese politician who served as both the first Prime Minister (1959â1961) and later, the President of Gabon, from 1961 until his death in 1967.
Project Ranger: The Ranger 8 probe launches on its mission to photograph the Mare Tranquillitatis region of the Moon in preparation for the crewed Apollo missions. Mare Tranquillitatis or the "Sea of Tranquility" would become the site chosen for the Apollo 11 lunar landing.
The Ranger program was a series of uncrewed space missions by the United States in the 1960s whose objective was to obtain the first close-up images of the surface of the Moon. The Ranger spacecraft...
Aeroflot Flight 065 crashes during take-off from Sheremetyevo International Airport, killing 21.
Aeroflot Flight 065 was a scheduled passenger flight operated by Aeroflot. On 17 February 1966, the Tupolev Tu-114 operated by the airline crashed during take-off from Sheremetyevo International...
American aquanaut Berry L. Cannon dies of carbon dioxide poisoning while attempting to repair a leak in the SEALAB III underwater habitat. The SEALAB project was subsequently abandoned.
Berry Louis Cannon was an American aquanaut who served on the SEALAB II and III projects of the United States Navy. Cannon died while attempting to repair SEALAB III. A U.S. Navy Board of Inquiry...
The family of Jeffrey R. MacDonald, United States Army captain, is found murdered in their home in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, US. Eventually, MacDonald was charged with and convicted of the murder of his pregnant wife and two daughters.
Jeffrey Robert MacDonald is an American former medical doctor and United States Army captain who was convicted in August 1979 of murdering his pregnant wife and two daughters in February 1970 while...
Cumulative sales of the Volkswagen Beetle exceed those of the Ford Model T.
The Volkswagen Beetle, officially the Volkswagen Type 1, is a small family car produced by the German company Volkswagen from 1938 to 2003. A global cultural icon known for its bug-like design, the...
Robert K. Preston, a disgruntled U.S. Army private, buzzes the White House in a stolen helicopter.
On February 17, 1974, U.S. Army Private First Class Robert Kenneth Preston (1953â2009) took off in a stolen Bell UH-1B Iroquois "Huey" helicopter from Tipton Field, Maryland, and landed it on the...
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.
The Troubles were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted for about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it began...
The Sino-Vietnamese War begins.
The Sino-Vietnamese War was a war which occurred in early 1979 between China and Vietnam. China launched an offensive ostensibly in response to Vietnam's invasion and occupation of Cambodia in 1978,...
First winter ascent of Mount Everest by Krzysztof Wielicki and Leszek Cichy.
Mount Everest is the highest mountain on Earth above sea level. It lies in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas and marks part of the ChinaâNepal border at its summit. Its height was most...
Ryan International Airlines Flight 590 crashes during takeoff from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, killing both pilots, the aircraft's only occupants.
Ryan International Airlines Flight 590 was a cargo flight carrying mail for the United States Postal Service from Greater Buffalo International Airport (BUF) in Buffalo, New York, to Indianapolis...
First Nagorno-Karabakh War: Armenian troops massacre more than 20 Azerbaijani civilians during the Capture of Garadaghly.
The First Nagorno-Karabakh War was an ethnic and territorial conflict that took place from February 1988 to May 1994 in the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in southwestern Azerbaijan between the...
The Cenepa War between Peru and Ecuador ends on a ceasefire brokered by the UN.
The Cenepa War or Third Ecuadorian-Peruvian War, also known as the Alto Cenepa War, was a brief and localized military conflict between Ecuador and Peru, fought over control of an area in the...
In Philadelphia, world champion Garry Kasparov beats the Deep Blue supercomputer in a chess match.
Philadelphia, colloquially referred to as Philly, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the sixth-most populous city in the United States. Its population was 1.60 million...
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.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government responsible for the United States' civil space program and for research in aeronautics and...
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 166 people dead or missing and 423 injured.
The 1996 Biak earthquake, or the Irian Jaya earthquake, occurred on 17 February at 14:59:30 local time near Biak Island, Indonesia. The earthquake, which occurred on the New Guinea Trench, had a...
A massive mudslide occurs in Southern Leyte, Philippines; the official death toll is set at 1,126.
On February 17, 2006, a massive rock slide-debris avalanche occurred in the Philippine province of Southern Leyte, causing widespread damage and loss of life. The deadly landslide followed a 10-day...
Kosovo declares independence from Serbia.
Kosovo, officially the Republic of Kosovo, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe with partial diplomatic recognition. It is bordered by Albania to the southwest, Montenegro to the west, Serbia...
Arab Spring: Libyan protests against Muammar Gaddafi's regime begin.
The Arab Spring was a series of pro-democracy anti-government protests, uprisings, and armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in Tunisia in response...
Arab Spring: In Bahrain, security forces launch a deadly pre-dawn raid on protesters in Pearl Roundabout in Manama; the day is locally known as Bloody Thursday.
Bahrain, officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, is an island country in West Asia. Situated near the western shore of the Persian Gulf, the country comprises a small archipelago of 33 natural islands...
Eighteen people are killed and 78 injured in a stampede at a Mardi Gras parade in Haiti.
On February 17, 2015, starting at around 2:48 AM, a stampede occurred during the traditional Mardi Gras parade on Champ de Mars in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince. Initial reports stated that at...
Military vehicles explode outside a Turkish Armed Forces barracks in Ankara, Turkey, killing at least 29 people and injuring 61 others.
The February 2016 Ankara bombing killed at least 30 people and injured 60 in the capital of Turkey. According to Turkish authorities, the attack targeted a convoy of vehicles carrying both civilian...