February 17 facts for kids

February 17 is the 48th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 317 days remain until the end of the year (318 in leap years).

February 17th is a day filled with many interesting moments throughout history. From important battles and scientific discoveries to the birthdays of famous people and special holidays, each year on this date brings new stories to light. Let's explore some of the key events that have happened on February 17th.

Events

Important Moments in History

What Happened Long Ago

• 1370 – In the Northern Crusades, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Teutonic Knights fought in the Battle of Rudau.
• 1411 – Musa Çelebi, a son of Bayezid I, became the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. He had help from Mircea I of Wallachia.
• 1500 – Duke Friedrich and Duke Johann tried to control the farmers of Dithmarschen, Denmark, in the Battle of Hemmingstedt.
• 1600 – The philosopher Giordano Bruno was silenced before being executed in Rome.
• 1616 – Nurhaci declared himself the leader of the Later Jin, which later became the powerful Qing Dynasty.
• 1621 – Myles Standish was chosen as the first military leader of the English Plymouth Colony in North America.
• 1674 – A huge earthquake and tsunami hit the Indonesian island of Ambon. The giant wave was about 100 meters (328 feet) tall and sadly, over 2,300 people lost their lives.
• 1676 – Sixteen men from an expedition led by Pascual de Iriate were lost near the Strait of Magellan.
• 1739 – The Battle of Vasai began as the Marathas started to take over land held by the Portuguese.
• 1753 – Sweden changed its calendar! February 17th was followed directly by March 1, as the country switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar.
• 1801 – In the U.S. presidential election, Thomas Jefferson became President of the United States and Aaron Burr became Vice President. This happened after a tie in the Electoral College was decided by the United States House of Representatives.
• 1814 – During the War of the Sixth Coalition, the Battle of Mormant took place.
• 1819 – The United States House of Representatives first passed the Missouri Compromise, which was an important agreement about slavery in new U.S. territories.
• 1854 – The United Kingdom officially recognized the Orange Free State as an independent country.
• 1859 – The French Navy captured the Citadel of Saigon in Viet Nam, a big step in their plan to conquer Saigon and other southern regions.
• 1863 – A group of people in Geneva started a committee to help wounded soldiers. This group later became known as the International Committee of the Red Cross, which helps people all over the world.
• 1864 – During the American Civil War, the submarine  H. L. Hunley made history by becoming the first submarine to sink an enemy warship, the USS Housatonic.
• 1865 – In the American Civil War, Columbia, South Carolina, was burned as Confederate forces retreated from advancing Union troops.

More Recent Events

• 1905 – Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia was killed in the Moscow Kremlin.
• 1913 – The Armory Show opened in New York City. It showed art by many influential painters of the early 20th century.
• 1919 – The Ukrainian People's Republic asked for help from the Entente and the United States to fight against the Bolsheviks.
• 1944 – During World War II, the Battle of Eniwetok began. It ended with an American victory a few days later.
• 1944 – Also in World War II, Operation Hailstone started. This was a major U.S. naval attack against Truk Lagoon, a key Japanese base in the Pacific.
• 1948 – The Alwaziri coup briefly removed the ruling family of Yemen.
• 1949 – Chaim Weizmann began his term as the first President of Israel.
• 1959 – Project Vanguard launched Vanguard 2, the first weather satellite. Its job was to measure how clouds were spread across the Earth.
• 1959 – A Turkish Airlines plane crashed near Gatwick Airport, but Turkish prime minister Adnan Menderes survived.
• 1964 – The Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Wesberry v. Sanders that congressional districts must have roughly the same number of people.
• 1964 – Gabonese president Léon M'ba was removed from power by a coup.
• 1965 – Project Ranger launched the Ranger 8 probe. Its mission was to take pictures of the Moon's Mare Tranquillitatis area to prepare for the Apollo missions. This area, also called the "Sea of Tranquility," was later chosen for the Apollo 11 moon landing.
• 1969 – American aquanaut Berry L. Cannon died while trying to fix a leak in the SEALAB III underwater habitat. The SEALAB project was then stopped.
• 1972 – The total number of Volkswagen Beetle cars sold passed the number of Ford Model T cars sold.
• 1974 – Robert K. Preston, a U.S. Army private, flew a stolen helicopter very close to the White House.
• 1979 – The Sino-Vietnamese War began.
• 1980 – Krzysztof Wielicki and Leszek Cichy became the first people to climb Mount Everest in winter.
• 1992 – During the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, Armenian troops harmed many Azerbaijani civilians during the Capture of Garadaghly.
• 1995 – The Cenepa War between Peru and Ecuador ended with a ceasefire arranged by the UN.
• 1996 – In Philadelphia, world chess champion Garry Kasparov won a chess match against the Deep Blue supercomputer.
• 1996 – NASA's Discovery Program started with the launch of the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft. This was the first mission ever to orbit and land on an asteroid, 433 Eros.
• 1996 – A strong earthquake hit the Papua province of eastern Indonesia. A large tsunami followed, causing many deaths and injuries.
• 2006 – A huge mudslide happened in Southern Leyte, Philippines, leading to many deaths.
• 2008 – Kosovo declared independence from Serbia. This independence is still partially recognized by other countries.
• 2011 – As part of the Arab Spring, protests against Muammar Gaddafi's regime began in Libya.
• 2011 – Also in the Arab Spring, security forces in Bahrain launched a pre-dawn raid on protesters in Pearl Roundabout in Manama. This day is known as Bloody Thursday.

Famous Birthdays

• 624 – Wu Zetian, a powerful Chinese empress.
• 1028 – Al-Juwayni, an important Persian scholar.
• 1490 – Charles III, a French duke.
• 1519 – Francis, a French military leader.
• 1653 – Arcangelo Corelli, a famous Italian violinist and composer.
• 1781 – René Laennec, a French doctor who invented the stethoscope.
• 1796 – Philipp Franz von Siebold, a German doctor and botanist.
• 1820 – Henri Vieuxtemps, a Belgian violinist and composer.
• 1821 – Lola Montez, an Irish-American actress and dancer.
• 1843 – Aaron Montgomery Ward, an American businessman who started Montgomery Ward.
• 1848 – Louisa Lawson, an Australian poet and publisher.
• 1864 – Banjo Paterson, a well-known Australian journalist, author, and poet.
• 1874 – Thomas J. Watson, an American businessman.
• 1888 – Otto Stern, a German-American physicist who won the Nobel Prize.
• 1890 – Ronald Fisher, an English-Australian statistician and biologist.
• 1900 – Ruth Clifford, an American actress.
• 1912 – Andre Norton, an American author.
• 1914 – Arthur Kennedy, an American actor.
• 1919 – Kathleen Freeman, an American actress and singer.
• 1920 – Annie Glenn, an American advocate for people with disabilities.
• 1925 – Hal Holbrook, an American actor and director.
• 1929 – Alejandro Jodorowsky, a Chilean-French director and screenwriter.
• 1929 – Chaim Potok, an American rabbi and author.
• 1929 – Patricia Routledge, an English actress and singer.
• 1934 – Barry Humphries, an Australian comedian and actor.
• 1936 – Jim Brown, a famous American football player and actor.
• 1940 – Vicente Fernández, a Mexican singer-songwriter and actor.
• 1940 – Gene Pitney, an American singer-songwriter.
• 1942 – Huey P. Newton, an American activist who helped start the Black Panther Party.
• 1944 – Karl Jenkins, a Welsh musician and composer.
• 1945 – Brenda Fricker, an Irish actress.
• 1948 – José José, a Mexican singer-songwriter and actor.
• 1954 – Rene Russo, an American actress.
• 1955 – Mo Yan, a Chinese author who won the Nobel Prize.
• 1956 – Richard Karn, an American actor and game show host.
• 1957 – Loreena McKennitt, a Canadian singer-songwriter.
• 1962 – Lou Diamond Phillips, an American actor and director.
• 1963 – Larry the Cable Guy, an American comedian.
• 1963 – Jen-Hsun Huang, a Taiwanese-American businessman who co-founded Nvidia.
• 1963 – Michael Jordan, one of the greatest American basketball players of all time.
• 1965 – Michael Bay, an American director and producer.
• 1966 – Luc Robitaille, a Canadian ice hockey player.
• 1971 – Denise Richards, an American model and actress.
• 1972 – Billie Joe Armstrong, an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.
• 1972 – Taylor Hawkins, an American musician.
• 1974 – Jerry O'Connell, an American actor and director.
• 1976 – Kelly Carlson, an American actress and model.
• 1981 – Joseph Gordon-Levitt, an American actor, director, and producer.
• 1981 – Paris Hilton, an American model and media personality.
• 1984 – AB de Villiers, a South African cricketer.
• 1984 – Marcin Gortat, a Polish basketball player.
• 1989 – Rebecca Adlington, an English swimmer.
• 1989 – Chord Overstreet, an American actor and singer.
• 1991 – Ed Sheeran, a popular English singer-songwriter.
• 1991 – Jeremy Allen White, an American actor.
• 1991 – Bonnie Wright, an English actress and filmmaker.
• 1993 – Marc Márquez, a Spanish motorcycle racer.
• 1995 – Madison Keys, an American tennis player.
• 1996 – Sasha Pieterse, a South African-American actress and singer.

People We Remember

• 364 – Jovian, a Roman emperor.
• 440 – Mesrop Mashtots, an Armenian monk who created the Armenian alphabet.
• 923 – Al-Tabari, a Persian scholar.
• 1600 – Giordano Bruno, an Italian philosopher.
• 1673 – Molière, a famous French actor and playwright.
• 1715 – Antoine Galland, a French scholar who translated One Thousand and One Nights.
• 1841 – Ferdinando Carulli, an Italian guitarist and composer.
• 1856 – Heinrich Heine, a German journalist and poet.
• 1874 – Adolphe Quetelet, a Belgian astronomer and mathematician.
• 1890 – Christopher Latham Sholes, an American who helped invent the modern typewriter.
• 1905 – Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia, a Russian royal.
• 1909 – Geronimo, a famous Native American tribal leader.
• 1919 – Wilfrid Laurier, the 7th Prime Minister of Canada.
• 1934 – Albert I of Belgium, the King of the Belgians.
• 1962 – Bruno Walter, a German-American conductor.
• 1969 – Berry L. Cannon, an American aquanaut.
• 1970 – Shmuel Yosef Agnon, an Israeli novelist who won the Nobel Prize.
• 1970 – Alfred Newman, an American composer and conductor.
• 1977 – Janani Luwum, an Ugandan archbishop.
• 1982 – Thelonious Monk, a famous American jazz pianist and composer.
• 1982 – Lee Strasberg, an American actor and director.
• 1986 – Krishnamurti, an Indian-American philosopher.
• 1994 – Randy Shilts, an American journalist and author.
• 1998 – Ernst Jünger, a German soldier and author.
• 2004 – José López Portillo, the 51st President of Mexico.
• 2005 – Omar Sívori, an Argentinian footballer.
• 2006 – Ray Barretto, an American drummer.
• 2013 – Richard Briers, an English actor.
• 2014 – Bob Casale, an American musician.
• 2016 – Mohamed Hassanein Heikal, an Egyptian journalist.
• 2021 – Rush Limbaugh, an American talk show host.

Special Days

• Christian feast day:
  • Seven Founders of the Servite Order
  • Alexis Falconieri
  • Constabilis
  • Donatus, Romulus, Secundian, and Companions
  • Fintan of Clonenagh
  • Janani Luwum (Anglican Communion)
  • Lommán of Trim
  • February 17 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
• Independence Day, celebrating when Kosovo declared its independence in 2008.
• Revolution Day (Libya)

See also

In Spanish: 17 de febrero para niños