May 17 facts for kids

May 17 is the 137th day of the year (138th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 228 days remain until the end of the year.

May 17 is a special day with many interesting events throughout history. People around the world celebrate different things on this day, from important historical moments to the birthdays of famous people. Let's explore some of the cool things that happened on May 17!

Historical Events on May 17

Early History (Before 1600)

• In 1395, the Wallachian army bravely defeated an invading Ottoman army in the Battle of Rovine.
• In 1521, Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, a powerful English noble, faced serious charges.
• In 1527, Pánfilo de Narváez left Spain to explore Florida with 600 men. Sadly, by 1536, only four of them survived the journey.
• In 1536, George Boleyn, 2nd Viscount Rochford, and four other men faced serious charges.
• Also in 1536, the marriage between Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn was officially ended.
• In 1590, Anne of Denmark was crowned Queen of Scotland.

From 1600 to 1900

• In 1642, Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve founded the city of Ville Marie de Montréal in Canada.
• In 1648, Emperor Ferdinand III won a battle against Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria in the Battle of Zusmarshausen.
• In 1673, explorers Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette began their journey to explore the mighty Mississippi River.
• In 1756, the Seven Years' War officially began when Great Britain declared war on France.
• In 1760, French forces who were trying to capture Quebec had to retreat when the Royal Navy arrived to help the British soldiers there.
• In 1792, the New York Stock Exchange, a very important financial market, was created under the Buttonwood Agreement.
• In 1805, Muhammad Ali Pasha became the leader of Egypt.
• In 1809, Emperor Napoleon I ordered that the Papal States be added to the French Empire.
• In 1814, control of Monaco changed from French to Austrian.
• Also in 1814, the Constitution of Norway was signed, and Crown Prince Christian Frederick of Denmark was chosen to be the King of Norway.
• In 1859, members of the Melbourne Football Club wrote down the first rules for Australian Rules Football.
• In 1863, Rosalía de Castro published Cantares Gallegos, the very first book written in the Galician language.
• In 1865, the International Telegraph Union was created in Paris. This organization later became the International Telecommunication Union.
• In 1875, a horse named Aristides won the first-ever Kentucky Derby race with jockey Oliver Lewis.
• In 1900, the famous children's book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, written by L. Frank Baum, was first published in the United States.

Modern Times (1901-Present)

• In 1902, Greek archaeologist Valerios Stais found the Antikythera mechanism, an amazing ancient mechanical analog computer.
• In 1914, the Protocol of Corfu was signed, giving full freedom to Northern Epirus while it remained part of Albania.
• In 1915, the last British Liberal Party government, led by H. H. Asquith, ended.
• In 1933, Vidkun Quisling and Johan Bernhard Hjort formed Nasjonal Samling, a political party in Norway.
• In 1939, the Columbia Lions and the Princeton Tigers played in the United States' first televised sports event, a college baseball game.
• In 1940, during World War II, Germany took control of Brussels, Belgium.
• In 1943, also during World War II, the famous Dambuster Raids began, carried out by No. 617 Squadron RAF.
• In 1954, the United States Supreme Court made a very important decision in Brown v. Board of Education, saying that racial segregation in public schools was against the law.
• In 1967, during the Six-Day War, President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt asked for the peace-keeping UN Emergency Force to leave Egypt.
• In 1969, the Soviet Venera 6 spacecraft began its journey into the atmosphere of Venus, sending back information before it was crushed by the intense pressure.
• In 1973, the Watergate scandal hearings began to be shown on television in the United States Senate.
• In 1977, Nolan Bushnell opened the first Chuck E. Cheese restaurant, which was a fun place for families with games and pizza.
• In 1980, General Chun Doo-hwan took control of the government in South Korea and declared martial law.
• Also in 1980, a group called Shining Path attacked a voting place in Chuschi, Peru, starting a conflict in the country.
• In 1983, the United States Department of Energy released documents showing a very large mercury pollution event in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
• Also in 1983, Lebanon, Israel, and the United States signed an agreement for Israel to leave Lebanon.
• In 1984, Prince Charles famously called a new building design for the National Gallery, London, a "monstrous carbuncle," which caused a lot of discussion about modern architecture.
• In 1992, three days of protests against the government began in Bangkok, Thailand, leading to a military response.
• In 1994, Malawi held its first multi-party elections, allowing people to vote for different political parties.
• In 1997, troops led by Laurent-Désiré Kabila marched into Kinshasa, and Zaire was officially renamed the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
• In 2004, the first legal same-sex marriages in the U.S. took place in Massachusetts.
• In 2006, the aircraft carrier USS Oriskany was sunk in the Gulf of Mexico to become an artificial reef, a home for sea life.
• In 2007, trains from North Korea and South Korea crossed the 38th Parallel for the first time since 1953, as a test run.
• In 2014, a military plane crash in northern Laos sadly killed 17 people.

People Born on May 17

Historical Figures (Before 1900)

• In 1490, Albert, Duke of Prussia, who was the last Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, was born.
• In 1551, Martin Delrio, a Belgian scholar interested in the occult, was born.
• In 1568, Anna Vasa of Sweden, a Swedish princess, was born.
• In 1682, Bartholomew Roberts, a famous Welsh pirate, was born.
• In 1749, Edward Jenner, an English physician who created the first vaccine for smallpox, was born.
• In 1768, Caroline of Brunswick, who became Queen of the United Kingdom, was born.
• Also in 1768, Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey, an English general, was born.
• In 1860, Erik Satie, a French pianist and composer, was born.
• In 1868, Horace Elgin Dodge, who co-founded the famous car company Dodge, was born.
• In 1886, Alfonso XIII of Spain, a Spanish monarch, was born.
• In 1893, Frederick McKinley Jones, an American inventor and entrepreneur, was born.
• In 1897, Odd Hassel, a Norwegian chemist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, was born.

Modern Personalities (1901-Present)

• In 1903, Cool Papa Bell, a legendary American baseball player, was born.
• In 1911, Maureen O'Sullivan, an Irish-American actress, was born.
• In 1912, Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner, an American inventor, was born.
• In 1918, Birgit Nilsson, a famous Swedish opera singer, was born.
• In 1919, Antonio Aguilar, a popular Mexican singer and actor, was born.
• In 1931, Marshall Applewhite, who founded the Heaven's Gate group, was born.
• In 1936, Dennis Hopper, a well-known American actor and director, was born.
• In 1939, Gary Paulsen, a beloved American author of children's books, was born.
• In 1940, Alan Kay, an American computer scientist, was born.
• In 1942, Taj Mahal, an American blues singer and musician, was born.
• In 1943, Sirajuddin of Perlis, a Malaysian royal, was born.
• In 1945, Tony Roche, an Australian tennis player, was born.
• In 1949, Bill Bruford, an English drummer, was born.
• In 1950, Janez Drnovšek, who became the second President of Slovenia, was born.
• In 1955, Bill Paxton, an American actor and director, was born.
• In 1956, Sugar Ray Leonard, a famous American boxer, was born.
• Also in 1956, Bob Saget, an American comedian and actor, was born.
• In 1961, Enya, a popular Irish singer and songwriter, was born.
• In 1962, Craig Ferguson, a Scottish-American comedian and talk show host, was born.
• In 1965, Trent Reznor, an American singer-songwriter and producer, was born.
• In 1970, Jordan Knight, an American singer and actor, was born.
• In 1971, Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, a Dutch royal, was born.
• In 1974, Andrea Corr, an Irish singer and actress, was born.
• In 1976, Wang Leehom, a famous American-Taiwanese singer and actor, was born.
• In 1982, Tony Parker, a French-American basketball player, was born.
• In 1985, Derek Hough, an American dancer and actor, was born.
• Also in 1985, Matt Ryan, an American football player, was born.
• In 1988, Nikki Reed, an American actress and singer, was born.
• In 1989, Tessa Virtue, a Canadian ice dancer, was born.
• In 1994, Julie Anne San Jose, a Filipina singer, was born.

People Who Died on May 17

Historical Figures (Before 1900)

• In 528, Empress Dowager Hu of Northern Wei and her grandson Yuan Zhao, who was an emperor, passed away.
• In 924, Li Maozhen, a Chinese warlord, died.
• In 1510, Sandro Botticelli, a famous Italian painter, passed away.
• In 1521, Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, an English politician, died.
• In 1536, George Boleyn, 2nd Viscount Rochford, and other courtiers like William Brereton and Henry Norris, passed away.
• In 1727, Catherine I of Russia, who was Empress of Russia, died.
• In 1829, John Jay, an American politician and the first Chief Justice of the United States, passed away.
• In 1838, Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, a French politician, died.
• In 1886, John Deere, the American blacksmith who founded the Deere & Company, passed away.

Modern Personalities (1900-Present)

• In 1935, Paul Dukas, a French composer, died.
• In 1947, George Forbes, who was the 22nd Prime Minister of New Zealand, passed away.
• In 1987, Gunnar Myrdal, a Swedish economist who won the Nobel Prize in Economics, died.
• In 1992, Lawrence Welk, a popular American bandleader, passed away.
• In 2004, Tony Randall, a well-known American actor, died.
• In 2005, Frank Gorshin, an American actor, passed away.
• In 2007, Lloyd Alexander, an American author, died.
• In 2009, Mario Benedetti, a Uruguayan author and poet, passed away.
• In 2011, Harmon Killebrew, a famous American baseball player, died.
• In 2012, Donna Summer, a very popular American singer-songwriter, passed away.
• In 2013, Jorge Rafael Videla, an Argentine dictator, died.
• In 2014, Gerald Edelman, an American biologist who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, passed away.
• In 2019, Herman Wouk, an American author, died.
• In 2022, Vangelis, a Greek musician and composer, passed away.

Holidays and Celebrations on May 17

• Birthday of the Raja is celebrated in Perlis, Malaysia.
• Christian feast days include:
  • Giulia Salzano
  • Paschal Baylón
  • William Hobart Hare (Episcopal Church (USA))
  • Restituta
• Children's Day is celebrated in Norway.
• Constitution Day is observed in Nauru.
• Constitution Day (Norway) is also celebrated in Norway.
• The Baháʼí Faith celebrates the Feast of ‘Aẓamat.
• Galician Literature Day or Día das Letras Galegas is celebrated in Galicia, Spain.
• International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia is observed worldwide.
• Liberation Day is celebrated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
• National Day Against Homophobia is observed in Canada.
• Navy Day (Argentina) is celebrated in Argentina.
• World Hypertension Day helps raise awareness about high blood pressure.
• World Information Society Day is an international day focusing on how information and communication technologies can help societies.

See also

In Spanish: 17 de mayo para niños