What Happened on May 17th in History

The Columbia Lions and the Princeton Tigers play in the United States' first televised sporting event, a collegiate baseball game in New York City.

The Columbia University Lions are the collective athletic teams and their members from Columbia University, an Ivy League institution in New York City, United States. The current director of...

World War II: Germany occupies Brussels, Belgium.

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: Dambuster Raids commence by No. 617 Squadron RAF.

Operation Chastise, commonly known as the Dambusters Raid, was an attack on German dams carried out on the night of 16/17 May 1943 by 617 Squadron RAF Bomber Command, later called the Dam Busters,...

Delta Air Lines Flight 318 crashes near Marshall, Texas, killing 19.

The crash of Delta Air Lines Flight 318 was an accident involving a Douglas DC-3 of the American airline Delta Air Lines 13 miles (21 km) east of Marshall, Texas, United States on May 17, 1953,...

The United States Supreme Court hands down a unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, outlawing racial segregation in public schools.

The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over...

In Cuba, the First Agrarian Reform Law – a cornerstone of the Cuban Revolution – is signed by Fidel Castro, aiming to eliminate large foreign-owned estates and redistribute land to over 100,000 peasants.

The agrarian reforms in Cuba sought to break up large landholdings and redistribute land to those peasants who worked it, to cooperatives, and the state. Laws relating to land reform were...

Six-Day War: President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt demands dismantling of the peace-keeping UN Emergency Force in Egypt.

The Six-Day War, or the 1967 Arab–Israeli war, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab states, primarily Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, in the context of the Arab–Israeli conflict. In the war,...

Venera program: Soviet Venera 6 begins its descent into the atmosphere of Venus, sending back atmospheric data before being crushed by pressure.

The Venera program was a series of space probes developed by the Soviet Union between 1961 and 1984 to gather information about the planet Venus. A total of eighteen probes were sent, including two...

Watergate scandal: Televised hearings begin in the United States Senate.

The Watergate scandal, or simply Watergate, was a political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon. On June 17, 1972, operatives associated with Nixon's...

The Troubles: Thirty-three civilians are killed and 300 injured when the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) detonates four car bombs in Dublin and Monaghan, Ireland.

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...

Police in Los Angeles raid the Symbionese Liberation Army's headquarters, killing six members, including Camilla Hall.

The City of Los Angeles Police Department, also known as the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), is the primary law enforcement agency of Los Angeles, California, United States. With 8,832...

Nolan Bushnell opens the first Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre (later renamed Chuck E. Cheese) in San Jose, California.

Nolan Kay Bushnell is an American businessman and electrical engineer. He established Atari, Inc., and the Chuck E. Cheese chain. He has been inducted into the Video Game Hall of Fame and the...

General Chun Doo-hwan of South Korea seizes control of the government and declares martial law in order to suppress student demonstrations.

Chun Doo-hwan was a South Korean army general and politician who served as the fifth president of South Korea from 1980 to 1988. A member of the Democratic Justice Party, he ruled the country as a...

On the eve of presidential elections, Maoist guerrilla group Shining Path attacks a polling location in Chuschi (a town in Ayacucho), starting the Internal conflict in Peru.

Maoism, officially Mao Zedong Thought, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed while trying to realise a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the...

Rioting breaks out in downtown Miami, following the acquittal of four white police officers in the killing of Arthur McDuffie, a black insurance salesman.

The 1980 Miami riots were race riots that occurred in Miami, Florida, United States, starting in earnest on May 18, 1980, following an all-White male jury acquitting five white Dade County Public...

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 [1.9 kt]), in response to the Appalachian Observer's Freedom of Information Act request.

The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees national energy policy and energy production, the research and development of...

Lebanon, Israel, and the United States sign an agreement on Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.

Lebanon, officially the Lebanese Republic, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to...

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.

Charles III is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms.

Iran–Iraq War: An Iraqi Dassault Mirage F1 fighter jet fires two missiles into the U.S. Navy warship USS Stark, killing 37 and injuring 21 of her crew.

The Iran–Iraq War began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran in September 1980. After eight years of conflict, both countries accepted a ceasefire deal brokered by the United Nations, which became...

The General Assembly of the World Health Organization (WHO) eliminates homosexuality from the list of psychiatric diseases.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in...

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, hundreds of injuries, many disappearances, and more than 3,500 arrests.

Black May, also known as "Bloody May", was a series of mass protests and subsequent crackdowns by the Thai military and royal police in Bangkok in May 1992. A rally of over 200,000 people led by...

Malawi holds its first multi-party elections.

Malawi, officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast, and Mozambique to the east, south,...

Shawn Nelson steals an M60 tank from the California Army National Guard Armory in San Diego and proceeds to go on a rampage.

On May 17, 1995, 35-year-old Shawn Timothy Nelson stole an M60A3 tank from a local California Army National Guard armory in San Diego and drove six miles (9.7 km) through nearby neighborhoods,...

Troops of Laurent-Désiré Kabila march into Kinshasa. Zaire is officially renamed Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Laurent-Désiré Kabila usually known as Laurent Kabila or Kabila the Father, was a Congolese rebel and politician who served as the third president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1997...

Arsenal and Galatasaray fans clash in the 2000 UEFA Cup Final riots in Copenhagen.

The Arsenal Football Club is an English professional football club based in Islington, North London, England. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Domestically,...

The first legal same-sex marriages in the U.S. are performed in the state of Massachusetts.

Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage or same-gender marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same legal sex or gender. As of 2026, marriage between same-sex couples is legally...

The aircraft carrier USS Oriskany is sunk in the Gulf of Mexico as an artificial reef.

USS Oriskany (CV/CVA-34) was one of the few Essex-class aircraft carriers completed after World War II for the United States Navy. The ship was named for the Battle of Oriskany during the...

Trains from North and South Korea cross the 38th Parallel in a test-run agreed by both governments. This is the first time that trains have crossed the Demilitarized Zone since 1953.

North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the...

Pamir Airways Flight 112 crashes in Afghanistan's Shakardara District, killing 44.

Pamir Airways Flight 112 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Kunduz Airport, Kunduz to Kabul International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. On 17 May 2010, the flight operated by an Antonov...

A military plane crash in northern Laos kills 17 people.

On 17 May 2014, an Antonov An-74 transport aircraft of the Lao People's Liberation Army Air Force crashed while en route to Xiangkhouang Province, northern Laos, killing all but one of the 17 people...