December 17

December 17 is the 351st day of the year (352nd in leap years) in the
Gregorian Calendar. There are 14 days remaining.

Events:

   * 283 - St. Gaius becomes Pope
   * 1538 - Pope Paul III excommunicates King Henry VIII of England
   * 1558 - Elizabeth I of England accedes to the throne
   * 1819 - Colombia declares its independence from Spain
   * 1869 - Suez Canal opens
   * 1903 - First powered flight, by the Wright Brothers.
   * 1961 - India seizes Goa from Portugal
   * 1969 - U.S. Air Force announces that its UFO investigations have found
     no evidence of extraterrestrial spacecraft.
   * 1969 - SALT I talks begin
   * 1970 - My Lai trial begins
   * 1973 - The American Psychiatric Association removes homosexuality from
     its list of mental illnesses.

Births:

   * 1770 - Ludwig van Beethoven, composer (+ 1827)
   * 1778 - Humphry Davy, chemist
   * 1799 - Titian Peale, artist
   * 1807 - John Greenleaf Whittier, poet, abolitionist (+ 1892)
   * 1830 - Jules Alfred Huot de Goncourt, Prix Goncourt (+ 1870)
   * 1853 - Herbert Beerbohm Tree, actor (+ 1917)
   * 1872 - Mistinguett, actress, singer (+ 1956)
   * 1873 - Ford Madox Ford, writer
   * 1874 - William Lyon Mackenzie King, tenth Prime Minister of Canada (+
     1950)
   * 1893 - Erwin Piscator, film director (+ 1966)
   * 1894 - Arthur Fiedler, conductor
   * 1894 - Hans Henny Jahnn, dramatist, narrator and essayist (+ 1959)
   * 1901 - Lee Strasberg, actor, director, acting teacher (+ 1982)
   * 1903 - Erskine Caldwell, author (+ 1987)
   * 1906 - Soichiro Honda , automobile pioneer
   * 1908 - Willard Frank Libby, physicist and chemist, inventor of
     radicocarbon dating (+ 1980)
   * 1916 - Shelby Foote, historian
   * 1925 - Rock Hudson, actor (+ 1985)
   * 1930 - Armin Mueller-Stahl, actor
   * 1930 - Bob Mathias, athlete
   * 1931 - Constantin Freiheer von Heeremann, president of Germany's
     National Farmers' Union
   * 1930 - Bob Guccione, publisher of Penthouse magazine
   * 1938 - Gordon Lightfoot, musician
   * 1939 - Eddie Kendricks, musician
   * 1941 - Gene Clark, musician
   * 1942 - Paul Butterfield, musician (+ 1987)
   * 1942 - Martin Scorsese, director
   * 1943 - Lauren Hutton, model (person)|model]], actress
   * 1944 - Jack L. Chalker, novelist
   * 1944 - Danny DeVito, actor
   * 1944 - Lorne Michaels, producer
   * 1945 - Elvin Hayes, basketball star
   * 1947 - Wes Studi, actor
   * 1958 - Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, actress
   * 1960 - RuPaul, model, actress, television personality
   * 1975 - Milla Jovovich, acress, model

Deaths:

   * 1273 - Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi, Persian poet and sufi mystic
   * 1558 - Queen Mary I of England
   * 1830 - Simon Bolivar, South American politician and activist
   * 1907 - William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, physicist
   * 1909 - King Leopold II of Belgium
   * 1929 - Herman Hollerith, computer pioneer
   * 1957 - Dorothy L. Sayers, writer
   * 1987 - Irving Allen, producer
   * 1992 - Dana Andrews, actor
   * 1999 - Grover Washington Jr., musician

Holidays and Observances:

   * Roman Empire - Saturnalia in honor of Saturn

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