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What happened in history on this day: February 17?
On February 17 in ...
- 1801 - US House of Representatives breaks electoral college tie, chooses Thomas Jefferson as President over Aaron Burr.
- 1817 - First US city lit by gas (Baltimore, Maryland).
- 1864 - Confederate submarine HL Hunley sinks USA ship Housatonic (first submarine to sink an enemy ship).
- 1865 - Battle of Charleston, South Carolina.
- 1865 - Columbia, South Carolina, burns down.
- 1876 - Sardines are first canned (Julius Wolff in Eastport, Maine).
- 1897 - National Congress of Parents and Teachers (PTA) organizes (Washington DC).
- 1911 - First amphibian flight to and from a ship, by Glenn Curtiss, San Diego, California.
- 1913 - First minimum wage law in US takes effect (Oregon).
- 1913 - New York Armory Show introduces painters Picasso, Matisse, Duchamp to US public.
- 1926 - Avalanche buries 75 people in Sap Gulch in Bingham, Utah, USA; 40 die.
- 1933 - First issue of Newsweek magazine published.
- 1933 - US Senate accepts Blaine Act ending prohibition.
- 1934 - First high school auto driving course offered (State College, Pennsylvania).
- 1936 - -58 degrees F (-50 degrees C) in McIntosh, South Dakota (state record).
- 1942 - US Army General Douglas MacArthur reaches Australia and takes command of Allied forces.
- 1944 - Battle of Eniwetok Atoll begins; US victory on February 22.
- 1947 - Voice of America begins broadcasting to USSR.
- 1950 - 31 die in a train crash in Rockville Center, New York.
- 1950 - Banker James Warburg tells US Senate: "We shall have world government whether or not we like it. The only question is whether world government will be achieved by conquest or consent."
- 1954 - The Detroit Auto Show opens for press previews, in Michigan. The Ford Motor Company shows its new two-seat convertible, calling it a "personal car", with the name "Fairlane".
- 1957 - Fire in Warreton, Missouri, kills 72.
- 1958 - Comic strip BC first appears.
- 1959 - First weather satellite launched, Vanguard 2, 9.8kg.
- 1964 - US Supreme court rules - one man one vote (Westberry versus Sanders).
- 1965 - US Ranger 8 launched; will transmit 7,137 lunar pictures.
- 1981 - Chrysler Corp reports largest corporate loss in US history.
- 1983 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.
- 1985 - US Postal Services raises first class letter postage from 20 cents to 22 cents for the first ounce.
- 1986 - Johnson and Johnson announces it no longer sells capsule drugs.
- 1987 - Michelle Renee Royer, age 21, of Texas, crowned 36th Miss USA.
- 1988 - US Lieutenant Colonel William Higgins, serving with a United Nations group monitoring a truce in southern Lebanon, is kidnapped by Lebanese terrorists.
- 1992 - A court in Milwaukee, Wisconsin sentences serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer to life in prison.
- 1995 - Colin Ferguson is convicted of six counts of murder for the December 1993 Long Island Rail Road shootings and later receives a 200+ year sentence.
- 1995 - Federal judge allows lawsuit claiming US tobacco makers knew nicotine was addictive and manipulated its levels to keep customers hooked.
- 1996 - In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Garry Kasparov beats IBM's "Deep Blue" computer in a second chess match.
- 2000 - In San Francisco, California, Microsoft unveils the Windows 2000 operating system. 1.5 million copies are sold in the first two months.
- 2008 - Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Company recalls 143 million pounds of beef, the USA's largest meat recall in California, due to the slaughter of cattle unfit for human consumption.
- 2009 - US President Barack Obama signs into law a US$787 billion economic stimulus plan.
- 2009 - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charges Texas billionaire Allen Stanford and three of his companies with fraudulently selling US$8 billion in high-yield certificates of deposit. Stanford International Bank is based in Antigua with 30,000 clients in 131 countries and US$8.5 billion in assets.
- 2009 - Trump Entertainment Resorts casino operator files for bankruptcy protection in New Jersey, with assets of about US$2.1 billion and total debts of about $1.74 billion as of the end of 2008.
Births on February 17
- 1895 - Birth of Anita Stewart in New York City, New York, USA; actress (South of Hell Mountain).
- 1902 - Birth of Marian Anderson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; operatic contralto (banned by D A R).
- 1907 - Birth of Alec Wilder in Rochester, New York, USA; composer (1973 ASCAP award).
- 1908 - Birth of Staats Cotsworth in Oak Park, Illinois, USA; actor (Peyton Place).
- 1908 - Birth of Walter L "Red" Barber in Mississippi, USA; sports announcer (Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Yankees).
- 1910 - Birth of Marc Lawrence in New York City, New York, USA; actor (The Man With the Golden Gun).
- 1911 - Birth of Arthur Hunnicutt in Gravelly, Arkansas, USA; actor (Big Sky, Apache Uprising).
- 1912 - Birth of Andre [Alice Mary] Norton in Cleveland, Ohio, USA; science fiction writer (Beast Master, Stand and Deliver).
- 1914 - Birth of Arthur Kennedy in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA; actor (Fantastic Voyage, Peyton Place).
- 1914 - Birth of [Bert de] Wayne Morris in Los Angeles, California, USA; WWII-pilot/actor (Paths of Glory).
- 1919 - Birth of Jock Mahoney in Chicago, Illinois, USA; actor (Dallas, Yancy Derringer, Day of Fury).
- 1919 - Birth of Kathleen Freeman in Chicago, Illinois, USA; actress (Beverly Hillbillies).
- 1923 - Birth of Alden Winship Clausen in Hamilton, Illinois, USA; banker (President of World Bank).
- 1924 - Birth of Margaret Truman in Missouri, USA; president's daughter, writer (Murder at FBI), pianist.
- 1925 - Birth of Hal Holbrook in Cleveland, Ohio, USA; actor (All the President's Men, Mark Twain).
- 1926 - Birth of Lee Hoiby in Madison, Wisconsin, USA; composer (1957 Arts and Letters).
- 1929 - Birth of Chaim Potok in New York City, New York, USA; novelist (The Promise).
- 1932 - Birth of Buck Trent in Spartanburg, South Carolina, USA; banjoist/singer (Hee Haw).
- 1936 - Birth of Jim Brown in Georgia, USA; NFL full back (Cleveland Browns), actor (The Dirty Dozen).
- 1939 - Birth of Mary Ann Mobley in Biloxi, Mississippi, USA; Miss America-1959/actress (Diff'rent Strokes).
- 1941 - Birth of Gene Pitney in Hartford, Connecticut, USA; singer/songwriter ("Town Without Pity").
- 1946 - Birth of Zina Bethune in New York City, New York, USA; actress (Nurses, Who's That Knocking at My Door).
- 1947 - Birth of Dodie Stevens [Geraldine Ann Pasquale] in Chicago, Illinois, USA; actress (Mary Hartman!).
- 1958 - Birth of Karen Lende O'Connor in Concord, Massachusetts, USA; equestrian 3-day (Olympics-silver-1996).
- 1959 - Birth of Richard Karn in Seattle, Washington, USA; actor (Al - Home Improvement).
- 1961 - Birth of Deb[ra] Richardson in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; beach volleyball player (Olympics-1996).
- 1963 - Birth of Michael "Air" Jordan in Brooklyn, New York, USA; NBA guard/forward (Chicago Bulls).
- 1964 - Birth of Mike Campbell in Seattle, Washington, USA; pitcher (Chicago Cubs).
- 1965 - Birth of Clayton Prince in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; actor (Dark Justice, Reuben - Another World).
- 1965 - Birth of Jim Bowie; Japanese/US baseball infielder (Oakland Athletics).
- 1967 - Birth of Michelle Forbes in Austin, Texas, USA; actress (Ensign Ro - Star Trek: The Next Generation).
- 1968 - Birth of Celita Schutz in Riverdale, New Jersey, USA; half-middleweight judoka (Olympics-1996).
- 1970 - Birth of Tommy Moe in Anchorage, Alaska, USA; nordic skier (Olympics-gold/silver-1994).
- 1972 - Birth of Lloy Ball in Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA; volleyball setter (Olympics-1996).
- 1972 - Birth of Stephen Robinson in Arlington, Virginia, USA; rower (Olympics-1996).
- 1974 - Birth of Jerry O'Connell in New York City, New York; actor (Scream 2, Sliders, Andrew Clements - My Secret Identity).
- 1981 - Birth of Donielle Thompson in Wheatridge, Colorado; gymnast (World-bronze-1995, Olympics-1996).
Deaths on February 17
- 1907 - Henry Steel Olcott, US co-founder (Theosophist Society-Madras), dies at age 74.
- 1908 - Geronimo, Apache chief, dies at about age 79.
- 1966 - Death of Hans Hofmann at age 85 in New York City, New York, USA; painter (Expressionist, Hans Hofmann School of Fine Art in New York, paint-dripping technique).
- 1970 - Alfred Newman, US composer, dies at age 69.
- 1979 - Death of William Gargan, American actor (Rain, Bells of Saint Mary, New Adventures of Martin Kane), at age 73 (born 1905).
- 1982 - Theolonious S Monk, American jazz pianist/composer (Blue Monk), dies at age 64 (born 1917).
- 1994 - Randy Shilts, American journalist (And the band played on), dies of AIDS at age 41 (born 1951).
- 1997 - Death of Zein Isa, Palestinian militant imprisoned in the United States for the honor killing of his daughter.
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