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What happened in history on this day: December 17?
On December 17 in ...
- 1777 - France recognizes independence of English colonies in America.
- 1791 - New York City traffic regulation creates first one-way street in America.
- 1792 - The US Mint strikes first coin patterns, copper cents with silver centers.
- 1803 - Louisiana Purchase formally transferred from France to US for $27 million.
- 1821 - Kentucky abolishes debtors prisons.
- 1860 - Congress authorizes $10 million in interest-bearing Treasury notes.
- 1860 - Anaheim Township created in Los Angeles County.
- 1862 - General Ulysses Grant issues order #11, expelling Jews from Tennessee.
- 1864 - Battle of Franklin, Tennessee.
- 1878 - Gold and paper money exchangeable at par in USA, ending Civil War inflation.
- 1895 - Anti-Saloon League of America formed in Washington DC.
- 1895 - George Brownell patents a machine to make paper twine (Massachusetts, USA).
- 1895 - US President Grover Cleveland warns Great Britain of aggressions to Venezuela over boundary dispute with British Guiana.
- 1900 - New Ellis Island Immigration station completed, at cost of $1.5 million.
- 1903 - At 10:35 AM, the first sustained, controlled, powered aircraft flight is made by Orville Wright of Dayton, Ohio, in 12hp Flyer I at Kill Devil Hills, Kittyhawk, North Carolina. The flight lasts 12 seconds, travelling 120 feet. Brother Wilbur Wright then flies 852 feet for 59 seconds.
- 1924 - First US diesel electric locomotive enters service, in Bronx, New York.
- 1927 - US submarine S-4 sinks after collision, kills all 34 aboard.
- 1936 - Ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and dummy Charlie McCarthy make their radio debut on Rudy Vallee's Royal Gelatin Hour.
- 1944 - US Army announces end of excluding Japanese-Americans from West Coast; Japanese-Americans are released from detention camps.
- 1946 - US V-2 rocket reaches 183 km at White Sands Proving Grounds, New Mexico, USA.
- 1950 - The US Treasury Department bans the purchase and import of North Korea stamps.
- 1953 - US Federal Communications Commission reverses its prior approval of a color television format that favored CBS-TV, instead approving RCA's black and white-compatible color TV specifications, benefitting the RCA-owned National Broadcasting Company.
- 1954 - First fully automated railroad freight yard (Gary, Indiana, USA).
- 1957 - US successfully test-fires Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile.
- 1965 - Astrodome opens, first event is Judy Garland and Supremes concert.
- 1965 - Largest newspaper - Sunday New York Times at 946 pages (50 cents).
- 1969 - US Air Force closes Project Blue Book, concluding no evidence of extraterrestrial spaceships behind thousands of UFO sightings.
- 1970 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.
- 1975 - Lynette Fromme is sentenced to life for attempt on US President Gerald Ford's life.
- 1976 - Superstation WTBS in Atlanta goes national.
- 1979 - Stanley Barrett in Budweiser rocket car reaches 1190 km/h (739.666 MPH, record for wheeled vehicle).
- 1985 - US President Ronald Reagan signs the Gold Bullion Coin Act of 1985 (Public Law 99-185) directing Treasury to issue 0.9167 fine gold bullion coins: $50 (one ounce), $25 (half ounce), $10 (quarter ounce), $5 (tenth ounce). The gold is to be acquired from natural deposits in the US or territory or possession when possible, and when not, from the US reserves. Profits from sales would be used to pay down the national debt.
- 1986 - US Congress forms "Irangate" committee.
- 1988 - USS Tennessee, first submarine to carry Trident 2 missiles, commissioned.
- 1996 - At the Sandia National Laboratory in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the "Option Red" supercomputer is started up, performing one trillion floating-point operations per second, making it the fastest computer in the world. The US$55 million computer uses 9072 Intel Pentium Pro processors with 600 GB memory and 2 terabyte disc storage.
- 2014 - U.S. President Barack Obama announces the resumption of normal relations between the U.S. and Cuba.
Births on December 17
- 1824 - Birth of Thomas Starr King in New York City, New York, USA; Unitarian clergyman (Christianity and Humanity).
- 1894 - Birth of Arthur Fiedler in Boston, Massachusetts, USA; viola player, longtime conductor of the Boston Pops (1930-1979).
- 1895 - Birth of David Butler in San Francisco, California, USA; director (April in Paris, Calamity Jane).
- 1904 - Birth of Paul Cadmus in New York City, New York, USA; etcher/painter (Sailors and Floozies).
- 1911 - Birth of William Roerick in Hoboken, New Jersey, USA; actor (Henry Chamberlain - The Guiding Light TV show, Playhouse 90 TV show, Kraft TV Theatre TV show, Another World TV show, Law and Order TV show).
- 1926 - Birth of Patrice Wymore in Miltonville, Kansas, USA; actress (The Big Tree).
- 1927 - Birth of Richard Long in Chicago, Illinois, USA; actor (The Big Valley TV show, Professor - Nanny and the Professor TV show, 77 Sunset Strip TV show, Pantomime Quiz TV show, Bourbon Street Beat TV show).
- 1937 - Birth of Art Neville in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA; vocalist (Neville Brothers).
- 1939 - Birth of Eddie Kendricks in Birmingham, Alabama, USA; singer (The Temptations - "My Girl", "The Way You Do the Things You Do" (1964), solo - "Keep on Truckin'", "Boogie Down").
- 1939 - Birth of James Booker in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA; rhythm and blues musician (Gonzo).
- 1939 - Birth of Novella Nelson in Brooklyn, New York, USA; actress (Nellie Cole - Chiefs).
- 1942 - Birth of Paul Butterfield in Chicago, Illinois, USA; blues musician (The Paul Butterfield Blues Band - "Better Days").
- 1945 - Birth of Ernie Hudson in Benton Harbor, Michigan, USA; actor (Ghostbusters, Weeds, Oz, Desperate Housewives).
- 1947 - Birth of Marilyn Hassett in Los Angeles, California, USA; actress (Bell Jar, Other Side of Mountain).
- 1953 - Birth of Barry Livingston in Los Angeles, California, USA; actor (Ernie - My Three Sons, Sons and Daughters).
- 1959 - Birth of Michelle Mackall in Washington DC, USA; LPGA golfer (1995 Friendly's-32nd).
- 1959 - Birth of Tammie Green in Somerset, Ohio, USA; LPGA golfer (1989 du Maurier Ltd Classic).
- 1962 - Birth of Rocco Anthony Mediate in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, USA; PGA golfer (1991 Doral-Ryder).
- 1964 - Birth of Eric Brown in New York City, New York, USA; actor (Buzz - Mama's Family).
- 1965 - Birth of Scott Edward Gump in Rockledge, Florida, USA; PGA golfer (1991 International-second).
- 1968 - Birth of Curtis Pride in Washington DC; outfielder (Detroit Tigers).
- 1968 - Birth of Jeff[rey] Klepacki in Kearny, New Jersey, USA; rower (Olympics-1992, 1996).
- 1969 - Birth of Dean Wilson in Kaneohe, Hawaii, USA; golfer (1991 Western Athletic).
- 1969 - Birth of Marc Davis in Oceanside, California, USA; 3K steeplechase runner (Goodwill-gold-1994).
- 1971 - Birth of Alyson Habetz in Crowley, Louisiana, USA; female pitcher (Colorado Silver Bullets).
- 1971 - Birth of Nikki McCray in Collierville, Tennessee, USA; basketball guard (Olympics-gold-1996).
- 1975 - Birth of Napiera Danielle Groves; Miss USA-Washington DC (1997, Miss Congeniality).
- 1979 - Birth of Cheri Vivette Alexander; Miss District of Columbia Teen USA (1997).
Deaths on December 17
- 1881 - Lewis H Morgan, US ethnologist (Iroquois-Indians), dies at age 62.
- 1973 - Charles G Abbot, US astronomer (Sun Constant), dies at age 101.
- 1991 - John Blatnik, American politician (Representative-Minnesota, 1947-75), dies at age 80.
- 1992 - Death of Dana Andrews at age 83 from pneumonia and congestive heart failure in Los Alamitos, California, USA; actor (Laura movie, Best Years of Our Lives movie, I Was a Communist for the FBI radio show, Bright Promise TV show, Playhouse 90 TV show, Falcon Crest TV show, Ike TV show, Alcoa Premiere TV show, Ben Casey TV show, The Dick Powell Show TV show).
- 1993 - Janet Margolin, US actress (Annie Hall), dies at age 50 of ovarian cancer.
- 1999 - Grover Washington Junior, jazz saxophonist and composer, suffers a heart attack and collapses after taping four songs for The Saturday Early Show on CBS, dying in hospital in New York City.
- 2008 - Sammy Baugh, football player who set numerous passing records with the Washington Redskins (1937-1952), dies at age 94 in Rotan, Texas, USA.
- 2016 - Death of Henry Heimlich, American physician (born 1920).
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