This is a list of selected April 17 anniversaries that appear in the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases, you can be bold and edit this page. Please read the selected anniversaries guidelines before making your edit. However, if your addition might be controversial or on a day that is or will soon be on the Main Page, please post your suggestion on the talk page instead.
Please note that the events listed on the Main Page are chosen based more on relative article quality and to maintain a mix of topics, not based solely on how important or significant their subjects are. Only four to five events are posted at a time and thus not everything that is "most important and significant" can be listed. In addition, an event is generally not posted this year if it is also the subject of the scheduled featured article or picture of the day.
To report an error when this appears on the Main Page, see Main Page errors. Please remember that this list defers to the supporting articles, so it is best to achieve consensus and make any necessary changes there first.
Images
Use only ONE image at a time
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Henri Giraud -
Mam Tor, Peak District -
Artist's impression of Kepler-186f -
Superstructure of Minas Geraes
Ineligible
| Blurb | Reason |
|---|---|
| World Hemophilia Day | needs 3rd party refs |
| 1555 – After 18 months of resistance, Siena surrendered to Florence and was annexed into the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. | unreferenced section |
| 1797 – Citizens of Verona, Italy, began an unsuccessful eight-day rebellion against the French occupying forces. | refimprove section, empty sections |
| 1869 – The Free and Sovereign State of Morelos, named after José María Morelos, the hero of the Siege of Cuautla, was admitted as the 27th state of Mexico. | referencing, recentism |
| 1876 – Six Irish Fenians imprisoned in the Convict Establishment in Western Australia escaped and fled to the U.S. | primary sources |
| 1895 – The Empire of Japan and the Qing Empire of China signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki to end the First Sino-Japanese War. | refimprove |
| 1912 – Soldiers of the Russian Empire's army fired upon striking gold miners in northeast Siberia near the Lena River, killing at least 150 people. | refimprove |
| 1937 – Daffy Duck made his debut in a short cartoon by the Warner Bros. Studio. | refimprove |
| 1942 – World War II: Captured French general Henri Giraud escaped from German captivity in the Königstein Castle. | many CN tags (5) |
| 1961 – Armed Cuban exiles backed by the CIA invaded Cuba, landing in the Bay of Pigs, with the aim of overthrowing the Cuban government under Fidel Castro. | page numbers needed |
| 1969 – Czechoslovak Communist Party chairman Alexander Dubček was deposed. | refimprove section |
| 1971 – Headed by Prime Minister Tajuddin Ahmad, the Provisional Government of Bangladesh was founded. | multiple issues |
| 1982 – A new patriated Constitution of Canada, including the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, a bill of rights intended to protect certain political and civil rights of people in Canada, was signed into law by Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada. | refimprove |
| 2013 – An ammonium nitrate explosion occurred at a fertilizer company facility in West, Texas, U.S., killing 15 people and injuring 160 others. | outdated |
| Sean Bean |b|1959 | refimprove section |
Eligible
- 1080 – Canute IV became King of Denmark upon the death of his brother Harald III.
- 1797 – French Revolutionary Wars: British forces commanded by Lieutenant-General Ralph Abercromby invaded the Spanish colonial port of San Juan, Puerto Rico.
- 1907 – Minas Geraes (pictured), the first of three Brazilian dreadnought battleships, was laid down, sparking a vastly expensive South American naval arms race with Argentina and Chile.
- 1951 – The Peak District was designated the first national park in the United Kingdom.
- 1969 – Sirhan Sirhan was convicted of the assassination of United States Senator Robert F. Kennedy.
- 1971 – Ustaše-affiliated Croatian separatists attacked the Yugoslav embassy in Stockholm, fatally shooting the ambassador, Vladimir Rolović.
- 1975 – The Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh, the capital of the Khmer Republic, ending the Cambodian Civil War and establishing the socialist state of Democratic Kampuchea.
- 1986 – Having supposedly been at war for 335 years without a single shot having been fired and no casualties incurred, the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly declared peace.
- 2014 – NASA announced the discovery of Kepler-186f, the first exoplanet with a radius similar to Earth's discovered in the habitable zone of another star.
- Born/died: | Bernard of Italy |d|818| Marino Faliero |d|1355| Benjamin Franklin |d|1790| Mary Jefferson Eppes |d|1804| Hannah Webster Foster |d|1840| William R. Day |b|1849| Cap Anson |b|1852|Karen Blixen |b|1885| Neville McNamara |b|1923| Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu |d|1954| Elda Emma Anderson |d|1961| Vikram |b|1966 Victoria Beckham|b|1974
April 17: Evacuation Day in Syria (1946)
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- 1362 – Lithuanian Crusade: After a month-long siege, forces of the Teutonic Order captured and destroyed Kaunas Castle (reconstruction pictured), which was defended by troops of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
- 1783 – The Mechanical Turk, a fraudulent chess-playing "machine" by Wolfgang von Kempelen that was secretly controlled by a hidden human, began a tour of Europe.
- 1809 – Napoleonic Wars: After a three-day chase, the French ship D'Hautpoul was captured off Puerto Rico by a British squadron under Alexander Cochrane.
- 1973 – George Lucas began writing a 13-page film treatment that later formed the basis of Star Wars.
- 1984 – Metropolitan Police officer Yvonne Fletcher was shot and killed while on duty during a protest outside the Libyan embassy in London, resulting in an 11-day police siege of the building and a breakdown of Libya–United Kingdom relations.
- Eliza Acton (b. 1799)
- Sirimavo Bandaranaike (b. 1916)
- Ralph Abernathy (d. 1990)