On this day in history

October 17

25 births · 18 deaths · 5 events

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Anniversary highlights

Event anniversary

216

Oktoberfest

216 years ago

Born this day

1972

Eminem

Turns 54

Photo (modified): Brendan_linden · CC0

Oldest record

578th

Battle of Kosovo

event anniversary

Famous births25

1696 · 330 yrs

Augustus III of Poland

Augustus III of Poland (German: August III.; Polish: August III Sas – "the Saxon"; Lithuanian: Augustas III; 17 October 1696 – 5 October 1763) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1733 until 1763, as well as Elector of Saxony in the Holy Roman Empire where he was known as Frederick Augustus II (German:…

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RoyaltyDied aged 66

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1760 · 266 yrs

Claude Henri de Rouvroy, comte de Saint-Simon

Claude Henri de Rouvroy, Comte de Saint-Simon (French:; 17 October 1760 – 19 May 1825), better known as Henri de Saint-Simon (French:), was a French political, economic and socialist theorist and businessman whose thought had a substantial influence on politics, economics, sociology and the philosophy of science.

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ScienceDied aged 64

View profile Photo (modified): Godefroy Engelmann the Elder · Public domain

1780 · 246 yrs

Richard Mentor Johnson

Richard Mentor Johnson (October 17, 1780 – November 19, 1850) was an American lawyer, military officer, and politician who served as the ninth vice president of the United States from 1837 to 1841 under President Martin Van Buren.

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PoliticsDied aged 70

View profile Photo (modified): John Neagle · Public domain

1817 · 209 yrs

Syed Ahmed Khan

Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (17 October 1817 – 27 March 1898), also spelled Sayyid Ahmad Khan, was an Indian Muslim reformer, philosopher, and educationist in nineteenth-century British India.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ActivismDied aged 80

View profile Photo (modified): The original uploader was Rama's Arrow at English Wikipedia . Later versions were uploaded by Megapixie , Arslan1080 , R · Public domain

1900 · 126 yrs

Jean Arthur

Jean Arthur (born Gladys Georgianna Greene; October 17, 1900 – June 19, 1991) was an American film and theater actress whose career began in silent films in the early 1920s and lasted until the early 1950s. Arthur had feature roles in three Frank Capra films: Mr.

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FilmWould be 126

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

1908 · 118 yrs

Dmitriy Ustinov

Dmitry Fyodorovich Ustinov (Russian: Дмитрий Фёдорович Устинов; 30 October 1908 – 20 December 1984) was a Soviet politician and a Marshal of the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

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MilitaryWould be 118

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1912 · 114 yrs

John Paul I

Pope John Paul I (born Albino Luciani; 17 October 1912 – 28 September 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City from 26 August 1978 until his death 33 days later. His reign is among the shortest in papal history, giving rise to the first year of three popes since 1605.

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ReligionWould be 114

View profile Photo (modified): Anefo · CC0

1915 · 111 yrs

Arthur Miller

Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright and essayist in 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are All My Sons (1947), Death of a Salesman (1949), The Crucible (1953), and A View from the Bridge (1955).

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LiteratureWould be 111

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1917 · 109 yrs100 Club

Marsha Hunt

Marsha Hunt (born Marcia Virginia Hunt; October 17, 1917 – September 7, 2022) was an American actress with a career spanning nearly 80 years. She was blacklisted by Hollywood film studio executives in the 1950s during McCarthyism.

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FilmWould be 109

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1918 · 108 yrs

Rita Hayworth

Rita Hayworth (born Margarita Carmen Cansino; October 17, 1918 – May 14, 1987) was an American actress, dancer, and pin-up girl. She achieved fame in the 1940s as one of the top stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood, and appeared in 61 films over 38 years.

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FilmWould be 108

View profile Photo (modified): Columbia Pictures; photographer not identified · Public domain

1919 · 107 yrs

Zhao Ziyang

Zhao Ziyang (17 October 1919 – 17 January 2005) was a Chinese politician. He served as the premier of China from 1980 to 1987, as vice chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1981 to 1982, and as the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party from 1987 to 1989.

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MilitaryWould be 107

View profile Photo (modified): Rob Bogaerts / Anefo · CC0

1920 · 106 yrs

Montgomery Clift

Edward Montgomery Clift (October 17, 1920 – July 23, 1966) was an American actor. A four-time Academy Award nominee, he was known for his portrayal of "moody, sensitive young men", according to The New York Times.

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FilmWould be 106

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Showing 12 of 25

Famous deaths18

1586 · 440 yrs

Philip Sidney

Sir Philip Sidney (30 November 1554 – 17 October 1586) was an English poet, courtier, scholar and soldier who is remembered as one of the most prominent figures of the Elizabethan age.

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LiteratureDied aged 31

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1705 · 321 yrs

Ninon de Lenclos

Anne "Ninon" de l'Enclos, also spelled Ninon de Lenclos and Ninon de Lanclos (10 November 1620 – 17 October 1705), was a French writer, courtesan and patron of the arts.

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LiteratureDied aged 84

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1740 · 286 yrs

Anna I of Russia

Anna Ioannovna (Russian: Анна Иоанновна; 7 February 1693 – 28 October 1740), also russified as Anna Ivanovna and sometimes anglicized as Anne, served as regent of the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia from 1711 until 1730 and then ruled as Empress of Russia from 1730 to 1740.

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RoyaltyDied aged 47

View profile Photo (modified): Louis Caravaque · Public domain

1806 · 220 yrs

Jean-Jacques Dessalines

Jean-Jacques Dessalines (French pronunciation:; Haitian Creole: Jan-Jak Desalin; 20 September 1758 – 17 October 1806) was the first Haitian Emperor, leader of the Haitian Revolution, and the first ruler of an independent Haiti under the 1805 constitution.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsDied aged 48

View profile Photo (modified): Louis Rigaud · Public domain

1849 · 177 yrs

Frédéric Chopin

Frédéric François Chopin (born Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin; 1 March 1810 – 17 October 1849) was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the early Romantic period who wrote primarily for solo piano.

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MusicDied aged 39

View profile Photo (modified): Louis-Auguste Bisson · Public domain

1887 · 139 yrs

Gustav Kirchhoff

Gustav Robert Kirchhoff (German:; 12 March 1824 – 17 October 1887) was a German physicist and mathematician who contributed to the fundamental understanding of electrical circuits, spectroscopy, and the emission of black-body radiation by heated objects. He coined the term black body in 1860.

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ScienceDied aged 63

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

1889 · 137 yrs

Nikolay Chernyshevsky

Nikolay Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky (24 July 1828 – 29 October 1889) was a Russian literary and social critic, journalist, novelist, democrat, and socialist philosopher, often identified as a utopian socialist and leading theoretician of Russian nihilism and the Narodniks.

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LiteratureDied aged 61

View profile Photo (modified): Studio fotografico di S. I. Klimaševkaja · Public domain

1934 · 92 yrs

Santiago Ramón y Cajal

Santiago Ramón y Cajal (Spanish:; 1 May 1852 – 17 October 1934) was a Spanish neuroscientist, pathologist, and histologist specialising in neuroanatomy, and the central nervous system. He and Camillo Golgi received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1906.

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ScienceDied aged 82

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1938 · 88 yrs

Karl Kautsky

Karl Johann Kautsky (German:; 16 October 1854 – 17 October 1938) was an Austrian-born Marxist theorist. One of the most authoritative promulgators of orthodox Marxism, he was for decades the leading theorist of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the Second International.

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PoliticsDied aged 84

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown · Public domain

1962 · 64 yrs

Natalia Goncharova

Natalia Sergeevna Goncharova (Russian: Ната́лья Серге́евна Гончаро́ва, IPA:; 3 July 1881 – 17 October 1962) was a Russian avant-garde artist, painter, costume designer, writer, illustrator, and set designer. Goncharova's lifelong partner was fellow Russian avant-garde artist Mikhail Larionov.

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ArtWould be 145

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

1967 · 59 yrs

Puyi

Puyi (Chinese: 溥儀; pinyin: Pǔ Yí; Wade–Giles: P'u-i; 7 February 1906 – 17 October 1967) was the last emperor of China, having reigned as the Xuantong Emperor of the Qing dynasty (1908–1912, with a brief restoration in 1917) and later as the Kangde Emperor of Manchukuo, a Japanese puppet state during World War II.

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RoyaltyWould be 120

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1973 · 53 yrs

Ingeborg Bachmann

Ingeborg Bachmann (Austrian German:; 25 June 1926 – 17 October 1973) was an Austrian poet and author. She is regarded as one of the major voices of German-language literature in the 20th century.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureWould be 100

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Showing 12 of 18

Events5

1448 · 578 yrs

Battle of Kosovo

The Second Battle of Kosovo (Hungarian: második rigómezei csata, Turkish: İkinci Kosova Muharebesi) was a land battle between a Hungarian-led Crusader army and the Ottoman Empire at Kosovo field (the Field of Blackbirds) that took place from 17–20 October 1448.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

1810 · 216 yrs

Oktoberfest

Oktoberfest (German pronunciation:; Bavarian: Oktobafest/d'Wiesn) is the world's largest Volksfest. It combines a beer festival with a fun fair and is held annually in Munich on the Theresienwiese from mid-September to the first Sunday in October.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Culture

1814 · 212 yrs

London Beer Flood

The London Beer Flood was an accident at Meux & Co's Horse Shoe Brewery, London, on 17 October 1814. It took place when one of the 22-foot-tall (6.7 m) wooden vats of fermenting porter burst.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Disaster

1854 · 172 yrs

Siege of Sevastopol

The Siege of Sevastopol (at the time called in English the Siege of Sebastopol) lasted from October 1854 until September 1855, during the Crimean War.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

2018 · 8 yrs

Kerch Polytechnic College massacre

On 17 October 2018, a school shooting and bombing attack occurred at the Kerch Polytechnic College in Kerch, Crimea. The perpetrator, Vladislav Roslyakov, who was an 18-year-old student at the college, killed 20 people and wounded 73 others before killing himself.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Tragedy

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