On this day in history

June 17

28 births · 13 deaths · 5 events

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Anniversary highlights

Event anniversary

Watergate scandal

54 years ago

Born this day

1980

Venus Williams

Turns 46

Photo (modified): Tatiana from Moscow, Russia · CC BY-SA 2.0

Oldest record

787th

Edward I of England

birth anniversary

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Famous births28

1239 · 787 yrs

Edward I of England

Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots (Latin: Malleus Scotorum), was King of England from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he was Lord of Ireland, and from 1254 to 1306 ruled Gascony as Duke of Aquitaine in his capacity as a vassal of the French king.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 68

View profile Photo (modified): Remiguis Goebel · Public domain

1682 · 344 yrs

Carl XII of Sweden

Charles XII, sometimes Carl XII (Swedish: Karl XII; 17 June 1682 – 30 November 1718 O.S.), was King of Sweden from 1697 to 1718. He belonged to the House of Palatinate-Zweibrücken, a branch line of the House of Wittelsbach.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 36

View profile Photo (modified): David von Krafft · Public domain

1703 · 323 yrs

John Wesley

John Wesley (28 June 1703 – 2 March 1791) was an English cleric, theologian, and evangelist who was a principal leader of a revival movement within the Church of England known as Methodism. The societies he founded became the dominant form of the ongoing independent Methodist movement.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ReligionDied aged 87

View profile Photo (modified): George Romney · Public domain

1818 · 208 yrs

Charles Gounod

Charles-François Gounod (UK: GOO-noh, US: goo-NOH; French:; 17 June 1818 – 18 October 1893) was a French composer, conductor, and organist of the Romantic era. He wrote twelve operas, of which the most popular has always been Faust (1859); his Roméo et Juliette (1867) also remains in the international repertoire.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MusicDied aged 75

View profile Photo (modified): Nadar / Adam Cuerden · Public domain

1832 · 194 yrs

William Crookes

Sir William Crookes (17 June 1832 – 4 April 1919) was an English chemist and physicist who attended the Royal College of Chemistry, now part of Imperial College London, and worked on spectroscopy. He was a pioneer of vacuum tubes, inventing the Crookes tube, which was made in 1875.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 86

View profile Photo (modified): George Charles Beresford (1864-1938) · Public domain

1849 · 177 yrs

Sergei Witte

Count Sergei Yulyevich Witte (Russian: Сергей Юльевич Витте, romanized: Sergey Yulyevich Vitte, IPA:; 29 June 1849 – 13 March 1915), also known as Sergius Witte, was a Russian statesman who served as the first prime minister of the Russian Empire, replacing the emperor as head of government.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsDied aged 65

View profile Photo (modified): Chapiro, St. Petersburg · Public domain

1888 · 138 yrs

Heinz Guderian

Heinz Wilhelm Guderian (German:; 17 June 1888 – 14 May 1954) was a German army general and military theorist. A pioneer and advocate of what would come to be called the "blitzkrieg" approach, he played a central role in the development of the panzer division concept and tank warfare more broadly.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MilitaryWould be 138

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1898 · 128 yrs

M. C. Escher

Maurits Cornelis Escher (Dutch:; 17 June 1898 – 27 March 1972) was a Dutch graphic artist who made woodcuts, lithographs, and mezzotints, many of which were inspired by mathematics. Despite wide popular interest, for most of his life Escher was neglected in the art world, even in his native Netherlands.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ArtWould be 128

View profile Photo (modified): Hans Peters for Anefo · CC0

1900 · 126 yrs

Martin Bormann

Martin Ludwig Bormann (17 June 1900 – 2 May 1945) was a German Nazi Party official, head of the Nazi Party Chancellery, and private secretary to Adolf Hitler. Bormann gained immense power by using his position as Hitler's private secretary to control the flow of information and access to Hitler.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Notable PeopleWould be 126

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown · CC BY-SA 3.0 de

1920 · 106 yrs

François Jacob

François Jacob (French:; 17 June 1920 – 19 April 2013) was a French biologist. He shared the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Jacques Monod and André Lwoff "for their discoveries concerning genetic control of enzyme and virus synthesis".

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 106

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1929 · 97 yrs

Tigran Petrosian

Tigran Vardani Petrosian (Armenian: Տիգրան Վարդանի Պետրոսյան; Russian: Тигран Вартанович Петросян; 17 June 1929 – 13 August 1984) was a Soviet-Armenian chess grandmaster.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

SportsWould be 97

View profile Photo (modified): uploader Koperczak ( talk ) 08:49, 3 April 2009 (UTC), photographer unknown · Public domain

1936 · 90 yrs

Ken Loach

Kenneth Charles Loach (born 17 June 1936) is a retired English filmmaker. His socially critical directing style and socialist views are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as poverty (Poor Cow, 1967), homelessness (Cathy Come Home, 1966), and labour rights (Riff-Raff, 1991, and The Navigators, 2001).

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

FilmAge 90

View profile Photo (modified): Georges Biard · CC BY-SA 3.0

Showing 12 of 28

Famous deaths13

1501 · 525 yrs

John I Albert

John I Albert (Polish: Jan I Olbracht; 27 December 1459 – 17 June 1501) was King of Poland and (disputed) Supreme Duke of Lithuania from 1492 to his death, as well as Duke of Głogów from 1491 to 1498. He was the fourth Polish sovereign from the Jagiellonian dynasty and the son of Casimir IV and Elizabeth of Austria.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 41

View profile Photo (modified): Marcello Bacciarelli · Public domain

1631 · 395 yrs

Mumtaz Mahal

Mumtaz Mahal (Persian pronunciation:; lit. 'The Exalted One of the Palace'; born Arjumand Banu Begum; 27 April 1593 – 17 June 1631) was the empress of the Mughal Empire from 1628 to 1631 as the chief consort of the fifth Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 38

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1696 · 330 yrs

John III Sobieski

John III Sobieski (Polish: Jan III Sobieski (Polish pronunciation:); Lithuanian: Jonas III Sobieskis (Lithuanian pronunciation:); Latin: Ioannes III Sobiscius (Latin pronunciation:) 17 August 1629 – 17 June 1696) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1674 until his death in 1696.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 66

View profile Photo (modified): Marcello Bacciarelli · Public domain

1719 · 307 yrs

Joseph Addison

Joseph Addison (1 May 1672 – 17 June 1719) was a British writer and politician. He was the eldest son of Lancelot Addison.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 47

View profile Photo (modified): After Godfrey Kneller · Public domain

1858 · 168 yrs

Rani Lakshmibai

Lakshmibai, Rani of Jhansi (Hindi: Jhānsi Ki Rāni; born Manikarnika Tambe; 1827–30, or 1835 – 18 June 1858) was one of the leading figures of the Indian Rebellion of 1857.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 29

View profile Photo (modified): the lost gallery · CC BY 2.0

1940 · 86 yrs

Arthur Harden

Sir Arthur Harden, FRS (12 October 1865 – 17 June 1940) was a British biochemist. He shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1929 with Hans Karl August Simon von Euler-Chelpin for their investigations into the fermentation of sugar and fermentative enzymes.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 74

View profile Photo (modified): Nobel Foundation · Public domain

1996 · 30 yrs

Thomas Kuhn

Thomas Samuel Kuhn (July 18, 1922 – June 17, 1996) was an American historian and philosopher of science whose 1962 book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions was influential in both academic and popular circles. The book popularized the term paradigm shift, which has since become an English-language idiom.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScholarshipWould be 104

View profile Photo (modified): Bob Bielk · Public domain

2001 · 25 yrs

Donald J. Cram

Donald James Cram (April 22, 1919 – June 17, 2001) was an American chemist who shared the 1987 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Jean-Marie Lehn and Charles J.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 107

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2002 · 24 yrs

Fritz Walter

Friedrich "Fritz" Walter (German:; 31 October 1920 – 17 June 2002) was a German footballer who spent his entire senior career at 1. FC Kaiserslautern.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

SportsWould be 105

View profile Photo (modified): Magnussen, Friedrich (1914-1987) · CC BY-SA 3.0 de

2015 · 11 yrs

Süleyman Demirel

Süleyman Sami Demirel (1 November 1924 – 17 June 2015) was a Turkish politician, engineer, and statesman who served as the president of Turkey from 1993 to 2000. He previously served as the prime minister of Turkey seven times between 1965 and 1993.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 101

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

2019 · 7 yrs

Mohamed Morsi

Mohamed Mohamed Morsi Eissa Al-Ayyat (Arabic: مُحَمَّد مُحَمَّد مُرْسِي عِيسَى العَيَّاط, romanized: Muḥammad Muḥammad Mursī ʿĪsā al-ʿAyyāṭ, IPA:; 8 August 1951 – 17 June 2019) was an Egyptian politician, engineer, and professor who served as the fifth president of Egypt from 2012 to 2013, when General Abdel Fattah…

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 75

View profile Photo (modified): Wilson Dias/ABr · CC BY 3.0 br

2021 · 5 yrs

Kenneth Kaunda

Kenneth Kaunda (28 April 1924 – 17 June 2021), also known as KK, was a Zambian politician who served as the first president of Zambia from 1964 to 1991.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 102

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown photographer · Public domain

Showing 12 of 13

Events5

1775 · 251 yrs

Battle of Bunker Hill

The Battle of Bunker Hill was fought on June 17, 1775, during the siege of Boston in the first stage of the American Revolutionary War. The battle is named after Bunker Hill in Charlestown, Massachusetts, which was peripherally involved.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

1962 · 64 yrs

1962 FIFA World Cup Final

The 1962 FIFA World Cup final was the deciding match of the 1962 FIFA World Cup. The match was held at the Estadio Nacional in Santiago, and was contested by Czechoslovakia and Brazil.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Sports

1972 · 54 yrs

Watergate scandal

The Watergate scandal, or simply Watergate, was a political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

History

2017 · 9 yrs

2017 Pedrógão Grande Wildfire

A series of four initial deadly wildfires erupted across central Portugal in the afternoon of 17 June 2017 within minutes of each other, resulting in at least 66 deaths and 204 injured people.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Disaster

2018 · 8 yrs

Prespa agreement

The Prespa Agreement, also known as the Treaty of Prespa, the Prespes deal or the Prespa accord, is an agreement reached in 2018 between Greece and the then-Republic of Macedonia, under the auspices of the United Nations, resolving a long-standing naming dispute between the two countries.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

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