On this day in history

September 17

28 births · 14 deaths · 5 events

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Anniversary highlights

Event anniversary

1988 Summer Olympics

38 years ago

Born this day

1950

Narendra Modi

Turns 76

Oldest record

1147th

Charles the Simple

birth anniversary

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Famous births28

AD 879 · 1147 yrs

Charles the Simple

Charles III (17 September 879 – 7 October 929), called the Simple or the Straightforward (from the Latin Carolus Simplex), was the king of West Francia from 898 until 922 and the king of Lotharingia from 911 until 919–923. He was a member of the Carolingian dynasty.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 50

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Photo: Georges Rouget · Public domain

1552 · 474 yrs

Paul V

Pope Paul V (Latin: Paulus PP. V; Italian: Paolo V) (17 September 1552 – 28 January 1621), born Camillo Borghese, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 16 May 1605 to his death, in January 1621.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ReligionDied aged 68

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Photo: Attributed to Caravaggio · Public domain

1743 · 283 yrs

Jean-Antoine-Nicolas de Caritat de Condorcet

Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas de Caritat, Marquis of Condorcet (French:; 17 September 1743 – 29 March 1794), known as Nicolas de Condorcet, was a French philosopher, political economist, politician, and mathematician.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 50

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Photo: Unidentified painter / Formerly attributed to Jean-Baptiste Greuze · Public domain

1826 · 200 yrs

Bernhard Riemann

Georg Friedrich Bernhard Riemann (German:; 17 September 1826 – 20 July 1866) was a German mathematician who made profound contributions to analysis, number theory, and differential geometry.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 39

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Photo: Unknown author · Public domain

1857 · 169 yrs

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky

Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky (Russian: Константи́н Эдуа́рдович Циолко́вский Russian pronunciation:; 17 September 1857 – 19 September 1935) was a Russian rocket scientist who pioneered astronautics. Along with Hermann Oberth and Robert H.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 78

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Photo: Unknown author · Public domain

1859 · 167 yrs

Billy the Kid

Henry McCarty (September 17 or November 23, 1859 – July 14, 1881), alias William H. Bonney, better known as Billy the Kid, was an American outlaw and gunfighter of the Old West who was linked to nine murders. He was solely responsible for four of them, and he may have played a role in five, alongside other men.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Notable PeopleDied aged 21

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Photo: Ben Wittick (1845–1903) · Public domain

1869 · 157 yrs

Christian Lous Lange

Christian Lous Lange (17 September 1869 – 11 December 1938) was a Norwegian historian, teacher, and political scientist. He was one of the world's foremost exponents of the theory and practice of internationalism.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsDied aged 69

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Photo: Unknown author · Public domain

1883 · 143 yrs

William Carlos Williams

William Carlos Williams (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963) was an American poet and physician closely associated with modernism and imagism. His Spring and All (1923) was written in the wake of T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land (1922).

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureWould be 143

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Photo: Unknown author · Public domain

1885 · 141 yrs

Uzeyir Hajibeyov

Uzeyir bey Abdulhuseyn bey oghlu Hajibeyov (18 September 1885 – 23 November 1948) was an Azerbaijani composer, musicologist, and teacher. He is recognized as the father of Azerbaijani classical music.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MusicWould be 141

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Photo: Naum Granovsky · Public domain

1908 · 118 yrs

David Oistrakh

David Fyodorovich Oistrakh (30 September 1908 – 24 October 1974) was a Soviet Russian violinist, violist, and conductor. He was also Professor at the Moscow Conservatory, People's Artist of the USSR (1953), and Laureate of the Lenin Prize (1960).

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MusicWould be 118

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Photo: Главархив Москвы · CC BY 4.0

1918 · 108 yrs

Chaim Herzog

Chaim Herzog (Hebrew: חַיִּים הֶרְצוֹג‎; 17 September 1918 – 17 April 1997) was an Irish-Israeli politician, military officer, lawyer and author who served as President of Israel from 1983 to 1993.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 108

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Photo: Knesset photographer · CC BY-SA 4.0

1922 · 104 yrs

Agostinho Neto

António Agostinho Neto Kilamba (17 September 1922 – 10 September 1979) was an Angolan communist revolutionary, politician and poet. He served as the first president of Angola from 1975 to 1979, after leading the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) during the war for independence.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 104

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Photo: Rob Mieremet / Anefo · CC0

Showing 12 of 28

Famous deaths14

1621 · 405 yrs

Robert Bellarmine

Robert Bellarmine (Italian: Roberto Francesco Romolo Bellarmino; 4 October 1542 – 17 September 1621) was an Italian Jesuit and a cardinal of the Catholic Church. He was canonized a saint in 1930 and named Doctor of the Church, one of only 27 at the time.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ReligionDied aged 78

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Photo: Unknown author · CC0

1665 · 361 yrs

Philip IV of Spain

Philip IV (Spanish: Felipe Domingo Victor de la Cruz de Austria y Austria, Portuguese: Filipe III; 8 April 1605 – 17 September 1665), also called the Planet King (Spanish: Rey Planeta), was King of Spain from 1621 to his death and (as Philip III) King of Portugal from 1621 to 1640.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 60

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Photo: Diego Velázquez · Public domain

1836 · 190 yrs

Antoine Laurent de Jussieu

Antoine Laurent de Jussieu (French pronunciation:; 12 April 1748 – 17 September 1836) was a French botanist, notable as the first to publish a natural classification of flowering plants; much of his system remains in use today.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 88

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Photo: Design by Charles Thévenin (1764-1838), published in London, 1 March 1803, by Thornton · Public domain

1863 · 163 yrs

Alfred de Vigny

Alfred Victor, Comte de Vigny (French pronunciation:; 27 March 1797 – 17 September 1863) was a French poet and an early French Romanticist. He also produced novels, plays, and translations of Shakespeare.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 66

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Photo: Nadar · Public domain

1879 · 147 yrs

Eugène Viollet-le-Duc

Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (French:; 27 January 1814 – 17 September 1879) was a French architect and writer, famous for his restoration of the most prominent medieval landmarks in France.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ArtDied aged 65

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Photo: Paul Dujardin · Public domain

1904 · 122 yrs

Kartini

Raden Adjeng Kartini, also known as Raden Ayu Kartini (21 April 1879 – 17 September 1904), was a prominent Indonesian advocate of women's rights and female education. She was born into an aristocratic Javanese family in the Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia).

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ActivismWould be 147

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Photo: fotografer tidak diketahui. · CC BY-SA 3.0

1915 · 111 yrs

Remy de Gourmont

Remy de Gourmont (4 April 1858 – 27 September 1915) was a French Symbolist poet, novelist, and influential critic. He was widely read in his era, and an important influence on Blaise Cendrars and Georges Bataille.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 57

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Photo: Albert Harlingue · Public domain

1936 · 90 yrs

Henry Louis Le Châtelier

Henry Louis Le Chatelier (French pronunciation:; 8 October 1850 – 17 September 1936) was a French chemist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He devised Le Chatelier's principle, used by chemists to predict the effect a changing condition has on a system in chemical equilibrium.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 85

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Photo: Unknown author · Public domain

1948 · 78 yrs

Ruth Benedict

Ruth Fulton Benedict (June 5, 1887 – September 17, 1948) was an American anthropologist and folklorist. She was born in New York City, attended Vassar College, and graduated in 1909.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Notable PeopleWould be 139

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Photo: World Telegram staff photographer · Public domain

1948 · 78 yrs

Folke Bernadotte

Folke Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg (Swedish:; 2 January 1895 – 17 September 1948) was a Swedish nobleman and diplomat. In World War II, he negotiated the release of about 450 Danish Jews and 30,550 non-Jewish prisoners of many nations from the Nazi German Theresienstadt Ghetto.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 131

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Photo: Unknown author · Public domain

1994 · 32 yrs

Karl Popper

Sir Karl Raimund Popper (28 July 1902 – 17 September 1994) was an Austrian–British philosopher, academic and social commentator.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PhilosophyWould be 124

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Photo: Franz Barta · No restrictions

1996 · 30 yrs

Spiro Agnew

Spiro Theodore Agnew (November 9, 1918 – September 17, 1996) was the 39th vice president of the United States, serving from 1969 until his resignation in 1973 under President Richard Nixon.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 107

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Photo: Seems to be his official VPOTUS portrait, and a small version is licensed as such at Wikipedia. · Public domain

Showing 12 of 14

Events5

1939 · 87 yrs

Soviet invasion of Poland

The Soviet invasion of Poland was a military conflict by the Soviet Union without a formal declaration of war. On 17 September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east, 16 days after Nazi Germany invaded Poland from the west.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

1944 · 82 yrs

Operation Market Garden

Operation Market Garden was an Allied military operation during the Second World War, fought in the German-occupied Netherlands from 17 to 25 September 1944.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

1978 · 48 yrs

Camp David Accords

The Camp David Accords were a pair of political agreements signed by Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin on 17 September 1978, following twelve days of secret negotiations at Camp David, the country retreat of the president of the United States in Maryland.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Politics

1988 · 38 yrs

1988 Summer Olympics

The 1988 Summer Olympics (Korean: 1988년 하계 올림픽), officially the Games of the XXIV Olympiad (제24회 올림픽경기대회) and officially branded as Seoul 1988 (서울 1988), were an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October 1988 in Seoul, South Korea.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Sports

2011 · 15 yrs

Occupy Wall Street

Occupy Wall Street (O.W.S.) was a left-wing populist and progressive movement against economic inequality, capitalism, corporate greed, big finance, and the influence of money in politics.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

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