Sunday, 17th May 2026 in Prag

17th May in the Stars – Star Sign Taurus

Today, the zodiac sign Taurus celebrates its birthday.

Personality Profile

Personality Those born on May 17th blend Taurus dependability with Mercury's intellect into a compelling presence. They think practically, communicate articulately, and find beauty in simple things. Master Number 22 gifts them spiritual depth that transcends material concerns.

Strengths & Weaknesses Their greatest strength lies in transforming smart ideas into tangible reality. Steadfastness and intellectual sharpness are signature assets. However, stubbornness and perfectionist tendencies can stall relationships and projects if unchecked.

Love In relationships, these individuals are loyal, sensual, and emotionally profound. They value intellectual connection alongside physical attraction. Taking time to trust is natural; those who win their hearts receive unwavering devotion.

Caree & Finance Professionally, they excel in fields merging creativity with strategy: architecture, financial planning, craftsmanship. Financial security matters deeply, but not at any cost; they build sustainable wealth thoughtfully. Entrepreneurship suits their nature well.

Health Self-care is no luxury for these natives but a necessity. A balanced lifestyle with movement, nutritious eating, and relaxation keeps them centered. Stress relief through nature and creative hobbies proves essential.

That night, the moon was in its waxing gibbous phase.

Chinese year of the Horse (Fire).

Fun Facts About 17th May

Name Days in Your Language: Pascal, Pascha, Pascual, Turner

Someone born on this day would be just 14 days old today — roughly 359 hours, 21,551 minutes, or 1,293,100 seconds spent on Earth so far.

It's the 137. day of the year. In 2026, 17th May falls on a Sunday.

There are 228 days still to come.

We’re currently in Week 20 — the year marches on.

Famous Birthdays on 17th May

On this day, 228 notable people were born on 17th May — spanning from 1155 to 1994. From world leaders to artists and scientists, discover who shares this birthday.

17/05/1994

Julie Anne San Jose, Filipina singer-songwriter

Julie Anne Peñaflorida San Jose is a Filipino singer and actress. She rose to prominence after competing in the reality singing competition Popstar Kids in 2005.

17/05/1991

Johanna Konta, Australian-English tennis player

Johanna Konta is a British-Australian former professional tennis player. Konta won four singles titles on the WTA Tour, along with eleven titles in singles and four in doubles on the ITF Women's Circuit. She was British No. 1 and reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 4 on 17 July 2017. She reached the semifinals of the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the French Open.

Adil Omar, Pakistani rapper and music producer

Adil Omar is a Pakistani rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer and filmmaker from Islamabad. In addition to being a solo artist, he is also involved in songwriting and production for other artists.

Abigail Raye, Canadian field hockey player

Abigail Raye is a British-born Belgian field hockey player. She has represented Canada and Belgium at international level.

17/05/1990

Will Clyburn, American basketball player

William Dalen Clyburn is an American professional basketball player for FC Barcelona of the Liga ACB and the EuroLeague. Clyburn attended three colleges, from 2008 to 2013: Marshalltown Community College, University of Utah, and Iowa State University before playing professionally in Germany, Israel, Turkey, and Russia. He was the top scorer in the Israel Basketball Premier League in 2015–16. Clyburn was named the EuroLeague Final Four MVP in 2019.

Fabian Giefer, German footballer

Fabian Giefer is a German professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper. Currently a free agent, he last played for Würzburger Kickers.

Charlie Gubb, New Zealand rugby league player

Charlie Gubb is a New Zealand former professional rugby league footballer who last played for the Widnes Vikings in the Super League.

Katrina Hart, English runner

Katrina Hart is an English athlete who won a gold medal for England at the 2010 Commonwealth Games competing in women's 100 m T37. She had competed at the 2008 Paralympics but was forced to withdraw through injury, and has won multiple medals at the IPC Athletics World Championships.

Guido Pella, Argentine tennis player

Guido Pella is an Argentine former professional tennis player. In August 2019, Pella reached his career best world No. 20 in singles. In July 2019, he peaked at No. 55 in doubles.

17/05/1989

Mose Masoe, New Zealand rugby league player

Mose Masoe is a former Samoa international rugby league footballer who last played as a prop for Hull Kingston Rovers in the Super League.

Rain Raadik, Estonian basketball player

Rain Raadik is an Estonian professional basketball player who plays for Valentino Basket Castellaneta of the Serie C Italian Basketball League. He is a 2.08 m tall power forward and center. He also represented the Estonian national basketball team internationally.

Tessa Virtue, Canadian ice dancer

Tessa Jane McCormick Virtue is a Canadian retired ice dancer. With ice dance partner Scott Moir, she is the 2010 and 2018 Olympic champion, the 2014 Olympic silver medallist, a three-time World champion, a three-time Four Continents champion, the 2016–17 Grand Prix Final champion, an eight-time Canadian National champion, the 2006 World Junior champion and the 2006 Junior Grand Prix gold medallists. Virtue and Moir are also the 2018 Olympic gold medallists in the team event and the 2014 Olympic silver medallists in the team event. Upon winning their third Olympic gold they became the most decorated Olympic figure skaters of all time. Widely regarded as one of the greatest ice dance teams of all time, they are the only ice dancers in history to achieve a Super Slam, having won all major international competitions in their senior and junior careers. Virtue and Moir are holders of the world record score for the now-defunct original dance.

17/05/1988

Nikki Reed, American actress, singer, and screenwriter

Nikki Reed is an American actress, screenwriter, and entrepreneur best known for her role as Rosalie Hale in The Twilight Saga (2008–12). Reed rose to prominence when she starred in and co-wrote the psychological drama film Thirteen (2003) with director Catherine Hardwicke, for which she won Best Breakthrough Performance and was nominated for Best First Screenplay at the 19th Independent Spirit Awards.

17/05/1987

Edvald Boasson Hagen, Norwegian cyclist

Edvald Boasson Hagen is a Norwegian former road racing cyclist, who competed as a professional from 2006 to 2024. He was ranked as no. 3 in the world by UCI as of 31 August 2009, when he was 22 years old. He is known as an all-rounder, having won the Norwegian National Road Race Championships in 2012, 2015 and 2016. He is also a ten-time winner of the Norwegian National Time Trial Championships.

Aleandro Rosi, Italian footballer

Aleandro Rosi is an Italian professional footballer who plays for Serie C Group B club Torres. Known for his versatility, he plays as a full-back, a winger along the right flank, offensively and defensively, and for his pace.

17/05/1986

Marius Činikas, Lithuanian footballer

Marius Činikas is a Lithuanian futsal player and former footballer.

Timo Simonlatser, Estonian skier

Timo Simonlatser is an Estonian cross-country skier who has competed since 2005. He finished 27th in the individual sprint at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

Jodie Taylor, English footballer

Jodie Lee Taylor is an English former professional footballer who last played as a striker for Arsenal of WSL. She began her club career with local team Tranmere Rovers and had brief spells in her home country with Birmingham City and Lincoln Ladies. A well-travelled player, she has also played abroad in the United States, Canada, Australia, Sweden and France.

17/05/1985

Teófilo Gutiérrez, Colombian footballer

Teófilo Antonio "Teo" Gutiérrez Roncancio is a Colombian professional footballer who plays as a forward for Atlético Junior. He was a Colombian international and captained the country at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil.

Derek Hough, American actor, singer, and dancer

Derek Bruce Hough is an American professional Latin and ballroom dancer, choreographer, actor, singer, and television personality. From 2007 to 2016, Hough was a professional dancer on the ABC dance competition series Dancing with the Stars, winning the show a record-breaking six times with his celebrity partners. For his work, Hough received 14 nominations for the Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Choreography, winning the award 4 times. Hough later became a judge on the series beginning with its 29th season.

Christine Nesbitt, Canadian speed skater

Christine Nesbitt is a Canadian retired long track speed skater who currently resides in Vancouver, British Columbia. She won the gold medal in the 1000 metres event at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. She had previously won a silver medal in the team pursuit at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. She is also the 2011 sprint champion, 2012 1500 metres world champion, three-time world champion for 1000 metres, and three-time world champion for team pursuit. On 4 June 2015 she announced her retirement.

Todd Redmond, American baseball player

Todd Richard Redmond is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He was selected by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 2004 MLB draft and traded to the Atlanta Braves four years later, but never appeared with either team. Redmond was acquired by the Cincinnati Reds in 2012, and made his MLB debut later that year. He later spent three seasons with the Toronto Blue Jays.

Matt Ryan, American football player

Matthew Thomas Ryan is an American professional football executive and former player who is the president of football for the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League (NFL). He played as a quarterback for 15 seasons, primarily with the Falcons. Nicknamed "Matty Ice", he ranks among the league's all-time top 10 in pass attempts, pass completions, passing yards, and passing touchdowns. Ryan played college football for the Boston College Eagles, winning the Manning and Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Awards in 2007. He was selected third overall by the Falcons in the 2008 NFL draft.

17/05/1984

Christian Bolaños, Costa Rican footballer

Christian Bolaños Navarro is a Costa Rican former professional footballer who played as a right winger. After his international debut with the Costa Rica national team in 2005, Bolaños earned over 80 international caps and played at three FIFA World Cups.

Christine Ohuruogu, English runner

Christine Ijeoma Ohuruogu is a British former track and field athlete who specialised in the 400 metres, the event for which she is an Olympic, World and Commonwealth champion. The Olympic champion in 2008, and silver medalist in 2012, she is a double World Champion, having won the 400 m at the 2007 and 2013 World Championships. She has also won six World championship medals in the women's 4 × 400 m relay as part of the Great Britain and Northern Ireland team and bronze Olympic medals in the women's 4 × 400 m relay at the 2008 Beijing Games and the 2016 Rio Games, her final Olympics. Ohuruogu shares with Merlene Ottey and Usain Bolt the record for medalling in most successive global championships – 9 – between the 2005 World Championships in Athletics and the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Christine Robinson, Canadian water polo player

Christine Robinson is a Canadian water polo player. She is a student at McGill University. She was part of the 7th place women's water polo team at the 2004 Summer Olympics. She won a gold medal at the 2003 FINA Junior Water Polo World Championships in Calgary.

Passenger, English singer-songwriter and musician

Michael David Rosenberg, better known by his stage name Passenger, is an English indie folk singer, songwriter and musician. From the 2000s, Rosenberg fronted a band by the same name; he opted to keep the Passenger moniker for his solo work after the band dissolved. Rosenberg is best known for the 2012 song "Let Her Go", which topped the charts in 16 countries and accumulated more than 4 billion views on YouTube. Because Rosenberg was based in Australia at the time of release, it is the most-viewed Australian YouTube video ever. In 2014, the song was nominated for the Brit Award for British Single of the Year, and he received the British Academy's Ivor Novello Award for Most Performed Work.

17/05/1983

Channing Frye, American basketball player

Channing Thomas Frye is an American former professional basketball player. A power forward-center, he played college basketball for the Arizona Wildcats. He was selected eighth overall by the New York Knicks in the 2005 NBA draft, and was the first college senior to be selected in that draft. He also played for the Portland Trail Blazers, Phoenix Suns, Orlando Magic, Cleveland Cavaliers and Los Angeles Lakers, winning an NBA Championship with the Cavaliers in the 2016 NBA Finals.

Chris Henry, American football player (died 2009)

Christopher Henry was an American professional football player who was a wide receiver for five seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the West Virginia Mountaineers and was selected by the Bengals in the third round of the 2005 NFL draft.

Nicky Hofs, Dutch footballer

Nicky Hofs is a Dutch former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He spent most of his professional career with Vitesse. After retiring, he began working as a youth and assistant coach within the Vitesse organisation.

Kevin Kingston, Australian rugby league player

Kevin Kingston is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played as a hooker for the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks, Parramatta Eels and the Penrith Panthers in the National Rugby League (NRL) in the 2000s and 2010s.

Danniel Librelon, Brazilian politician

Danniel Librelon Dias de Castro is a Brazilian politician serving as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro since 2019. In 2023, he served as group leader of the Republicans.

Jeremy Sowers, American baseball player

Jeremy Bryan Sowers is an American former professional baseball pitcher and current executive. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Cleveland Indians from 2006 to 2009, and is currently the manager of major league operations for the Tampa Bay Rays.

17/05/1982

Matt Cassel, American football player

Matthew Brennan Cassel is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons. He was a member of seven NFL teams, most notably the New England Patriots and Kansas City Chiefs. Cassel played college football for the USC Trojans and was selected by the Patriots in the seventh round of the 2005 NFL draft. Since retiring, he has served as a television football analyst on NBC Sports Boston, as well as Big Ten and Notre Dame college football games on NBC and Peacock.

Dan Hardy, English mixed martial artist

Daniel Mark Hardy is an English former mixed martial artist who fought in the welterweight division. During his professional MMA career, which began in 2004, Hardy fought in multiple promotions, such as Cage Force and Cage Warriors, before signing a contract with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) in 2008. In 2010, he fought Georges St-Pierre for the UFC Welterweight Championship, but lost the bout via decision.

Reiko Nakamura, Japanese swimmer

Reiko Nakamura is a Japanese Olympic and Asian record-holding swimmer.

Tony Parker, French-American basketball player

William Anthony Parker Jr. is a French-American former professional basketball player and majority owner of LDLC ASVEL of the LNB Élite and the EuroLeague. The son of a basketball pro, Parker started his career at Paris Basket Racing in the French basketball league before joining the San Antonio Spurs of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was selected by the Spurs with the 28th overall pick in the 2001 NBA draft, and quickly became their starting point guard. Parker won four NBA championships, all of which were with the Spurs. He also played for ASVEL Basket in France during the 2011 NBA lockout, and finished his playing career after one season with the Charlotte Hornets. He retired as the ninth leading scorer and ranks fifth in career assists in NBA playoffs history.

Chloe Smith, English politician

Chloe Rebecca Smith is a British Conservative Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Norwich North from 2009 to 2024. She previously served as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions from September to October 2022 and Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology from April to July 2023.

17/05/1981

Beñat Albizuri, Spanish cyclist

Beñat Albizuri Aransolo is a Spanish former professional road bicycle racer, who rode professionally between 2006 and 2008, entirely for Euskaltel–Euskadi.

Leon Osman, English footballer

Leon Osman is an English former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He spent almost all of his career at Everton, making 433 appearances and scoring 57 goals. Earlier in his career he spent time on loan at Football League clubs Carlisle United and Derby County. Osman earned two international caps for the England national team, making his debut at the age of 31.

Lim Jeong-hee, South Korean singer

Lim Jeong-hee, also known as J-Lim, is a South Korean singer who debuted in 2005 under JYP Entertainment. One of her notable performances in 2005 was the 5th Pattaya Music Festival in Thailand, which helped promote and expose her to the foreign music industry. She was signed under Big Hit Music in 2012 and left the company in 2015, going on to join her current agency, Oscar ENT.

Chris Skidmore, English historian and politician

Christopher James Skidmore is a British former Conservative Party politician and author of popular history who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Kingswood in South Gloucestershire from 2010 to 2024.

Giannis Taralidis, Greek footballer

Giannis Taralidis is a Greek former professional footballer who played as a midfielder.

17/05/1980

Davor Džalto, Bosnian historian and philosopher

Davor Džalto is an artist, art historian, theologian and philosopher of Bosnian-Herzegovinian origin.

Fredrik Kessiakoff, Swedish cyclist

Fredrik Carl Wilhelm Kessiakoff is a Swedish former professional road bicycle racer. Kessiakoff turned to road racing in 2009, having had a successful career as a professional mountain biker for many years, winning the Swedish national championship 4 times, and finishing third at the 2006 World Mountain biking championships. He twice represented Sweden at the Olympics. Kessiakoff retired in 2014.

Alistair Overeem, Dutch mixed martial artist and kickboxer

Alistair Cees Overeem is a Dutch former professional mixed martial artist and kickboxer. He is a former Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion, Dream Heavyweight Champion, K-1 World Grand Prix Champion, and was the first fighter to hold world titles in MMA and K-1 kickboxing at the same time. Overeem is also a one-time challenger for the UFC Heavyweight Championship.

Ariën van Weesenbeek, Dutch drummer

Epica is a Dutch symphonic metal band founded by guitarist and vocalist Mark Jansen after his departure from After Forever. Originally formed as a symphonic metal band with gothic influences, Epica later incorporated strong death metal elements into their sound. Starting with their third album, progressive metal influences also became evident. Additionally, the band often incorporates thrash metal and groove metal riffs, black metal elements, power metal sections, and influences from Arabic music. Some songs also incorporate electronic elements, djent transitions, and folk metal melodies inspired by Middle Eastern, Chinese, and Celtic traditions.

17/05/1979

David Jarolím, Czech footballer

David Jarolím is a Czech football manager and former player who most recently managed Ústí nad Labem. A central midfielder by position, Jarolím was known for his stamina, passing and technical skill.

Wayne Thomas, English footballer

Wayne Junior Robert Thomas is an English retired footballer and current football coach. He is currently working as a PE teacher at Haberdashers' Boys' School. In 2015, he was employed as an academy coach at the New York Red Bulls. Thomas played as a defender and has represented twelve clubs, including Torquay United, Stoke City, Burnley and Southampton.

17/05/1978

John Foster, American baseball player and coach

John Norman Foster is an American former professional baseball pitcher and current coach. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Atlanta Braves and Milwaukee Brewers. After retiring as a player, Foster coached summer league and college baseball. From 2017 to 2024, Foster coached in Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL), for the CTBC Brothers. He currently serves as a minor league pitching rehab coordinator for the Athletics.

Paddy Kenny, English footballer

Patrick Joseph Kenny is a former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He is currently goalkeeping coach at Matlock Town.

Carlos Peña, Dominican-American baseball player

Carlos Felipe Peña is a Dominican former professional baseball first baseman and current broadcaster. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Texas Rangers, Oakland Athletics, Detroit Tigers, Boston Red Sox, Tampa Bay Devil Rays/Rays, Chicago Cubs, Houston Astros, and Kansas City Royals.

Magdalena Zděnovcová, Czech tennis player

Magdalena Zděnovcová is a former Czech tennis player.

17/05/1976

Kandi Burruss, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress

Kandi Lenice Burruss is an American singer, songwriter, actress and television personality. She first gained notice in 1992 as a member of the multi-platinum R&B female vocal group Xscape. As a songwriter, she has received writing credits on the singles "Bills, Bills, Bills" by Destiny's Child, "There You Go" by Pink, "Break Up with Your Girlfriend, I'm Bored" by Ariana Grande, and "Shape of You" by Ed Sheeran. In 2000, she won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song for her work on the TLC hit song "No Scrubs".

Shayne Dunley, Australian rugby league player

Shayne Dunley is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s and 2000s, he played in the National Rugby League (NRL) between 1998 and 2007. He played as either a halfback or hooker.

José Guillén, Dominican-American baseball player

José Manuel Guillén is a Dominican former professional baseball outfielder. Guillén played for ten Major League Baseball (MLB) teams in his career.

Daniel Komen, Kenyan runner

Daniel Kipngetich Komen is a Kenyan middle- and long-distance runner. Remembered for his rivalry with Haile Gebrselassie, his most notable achievements came in a two-year period between 1996 and 1998, during which he broke a string of world records.

Wang Leehom, American-Taiwanese singer-songwriter, producer, actor, and director

Wang Leehom, sometimes credited as Leehom Wang, is an American singer-songwriter, actor, producer, and film director. His music is known for fusing hip-hop and R&B, with traditional Chinese music.

Mayte Martínez, Spanish runner

María Teresa "Mayte" Martínez Jiménez is a Spanish athlete competing in the 800 m. She has reached 4 consecutive finals in the World Championships, being third with an incredible last straight in Osaka. She took part in 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games, being eliminated in the semifinals. She could not participate in 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing with an injury.

Kirsten Vlieghuis, Dutch freestyle swimmer

Kirsten Vlieghuis is a former freestyle swimmer from The Netherlands, who won two bronze medals at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, United States, in the 400m and 800m freestyle competition. She also competed in the 2000 Summer Olympics.

17/05/1975

Marcelinho Paraíba, Brazilian footballer

Marcelo dos Santos, known as Marcelinho, is a Brazilian professional football coach and former player who played as an attacking midfielder.

Alex Wright, German wrestler

Alexander Wright is a German former professional wrestler and professional wrestling promoter. He wrestled professionally in Germany and Japan before signing with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 1994. He is known for his iconic dance to his techno entrance theme song. He remained a prominent mid-card performer during his seven-year tenure with WCW, including reigns as a one time Cruiserweight Champion, a one time World Television Champion and a one time World Tag Team Champion.

17/05/1974

Andrea Corr, Irish singer-songwriter, pianist, and actress

Andrea Jane Corr is an Irish musician and actress. Corr debuted in 1990 as the lead singer of the Celtic folk rock and pop rock group the Corrs along with her three elder siblings Caroline, Sharon and Jim. Aside from singing lead vocals, Corr plays the tin whistle, the ukulele and the piano.

Wiki González, Venezuelan baseball player

Wiklenman Vicente González is a Venezuelan former professional baseball catcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the San Diego Padres, Seattle Mariners, and Washington Nationals in parts of seven seasons from 1999 to 2006. Listed at 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m), 175 pounds (79 kg), González batted and threw right-handed.

Eddie Lewis, American international soccer player

Edward James Lewis is an American former soccer player and entrepreneur.

17/05/1973

Josh Homme, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer

Joshua Michael Homme III is an American musician, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. He is best known as the founder and only continuous member of the rock band Queens of the Stone Age, which he formed in 1996 shortly after breakup of his previous band Kyuss. Homme is the band's primary songwriter and mainly sings lead vocals and plays guitar. He also plays drums in the rock band Eagles of Death Metal, which he co-founded in 1998.

17/05/1972

Barry Hayles, English born Jamaican international footballer

Barrington Edward Hayles is a football coach and former player who played as a striker. Born in England, he was capped ten times by Jamaica at international level.

17/05/1971

Mark Connors, Australian rugby player

Mark Connors is an Australian rugby union footballer. He is currently the Queensland Reds third most capped player ever, playing 134 games for the side. He has played for Australia 20 times, including their victory in the 1999 Rugby World Cup.

Shaun Hart, Australian footballer, coach, and sportscaster

Shaun Hart is a former Australian rules football player, who played for the Brisbane Bears and Brisbane Lions in the Australian Football League. Hart played in Brisbane's Lions hat trick of premierships from 2001 to 2003 as well as in the Bears reserves premiership in 1991. He is currently the director of coaching at Port Adelaide Power and has also been an assistant coach.

Stella Jongmans, Dutch athlete

Stella Jongmans is a retired Dutch athlete who specialised in the 800 metres. She won the gold at the 1995 Summer Universiade and silver at the 1996 European Indoor Championships. In addition, she represented The Netherlands at two Olympic Games, in 1992 and 1996.

Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, Dutch royal

Máxima is Queen of the Netherlands as the wife of King Willem-Alexander.

Gina Raimondo, Governor of Rhode Island

Gina Marie Raimondo is an American politician and businesswoman who served as the 40th United States secretary of commerce from 2021 to 2025. As a member of the Democratic Party, she served as the 75th governor of Rhode Island from 2015 to 2021 and was the first woman to serve in the role.

17/05/1970

Hubert Davis, American basketball player and coach

Hubert Ira Davis Jr. is a former professional basketball player and former head basketball coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels men's team. Before his coaching career, Davis played for North Carolina from 1988 to 1992 and in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the New York Knicks, Toronto Raptors, Dallas Mavericks, Washington Wizards, Detroit Pistons, and New Jersey Nets from 1992 to 2004. He holds the franchise single-season and career three-point field goal shooting percentage records for the Knicks. He is the nephew of Walter Davis, another former Tar Heel and NBA player.

Jordan Knight, American singer-songwriter and actor

Jordan Nathaniel Marcel Knight is an American pop singer and songwriter. He is the lead vocalist of the boy band New Kids on the Block (NKOTB), which rose to fame in the 1980s and 1990s, using a falsetto style of singing influenced by The Stylistics. After New Kids on the Block split in 1994, he launched a solo career.

Matt Lindland, American mixed martial artist, wrestler, and politician

Matthew James Lindland, is an American retired mixed martial artist, Olympic wrestler, speaker, actor, coach, entrepreneur, and politician. He won the Oregon Republican Party's nomination for the Oregon House of Representatives, District 52 seat on May 20, 2008. He also started an apparel company named Dirty Boxer. In mixed martial arts, Lindland competed primarily in the Middleweight division for the UFC, Strikeforce. Affliction, the IFL, Cage Rage, the WFA, and BodogFIGHT.

Jodie Rogers, Australian diver

Jodie Rogers is an Australian diver.

René Vilbre, Estonian director and screenwriter

René Vilbre is an Estonian film director

17/05/1969

Keith Hill, English footballer and manager

Keith John Hill is an English professional former footballer and football manager who was most recently manager of National League club Scunthorpe United.

17/05/1968

Dave Abbruzzese, American rock drummer and songwriter

David James Abbruzzese is an American musician who was the drummer for the American rock band Pearl Jam from 1991 to 1994. He replaced drummer Matt Chamberlain in 1991, shortly before the release of the band's debut album, Ten. Abbruzzese played on the band's following records, Vs. and Vitalogy.

17/05/1967

Mohamed Nasheed, Maldivian lawyer and politician 4th President of the Maldives

Mohamed Nasheed GCSK, also known as Anni, is a Maldivian politician and activist who served as the fourth president of the Maldives from 2008 until his controversial resignation in 2012. A founding member of the Maldivian Democratic Party, he subsequently served as the 19th speaker of the People's Majlis from May 2019 until his resignation in November 2023. He is the first democratically elected president of the Maldives and the only president to resign from office.

Patrick Ortlieb, Austrian skier

Patrick Ortlieb is a former World Cup alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist from Austria. A specialist in the speed events, he was also a world champion in the downhill event.

17/05/1966

Qusay Hussein, Iraqi soldier and politician (died 2003)

Qusay Saddam Hussein al-Nasiri al-Tikriti was an Iraqi politician, military officer, and the second son of Saddam Hussein. He was appointed as his father's heir apparent in 2000. He was deputy head of the Iraqi Special Security Organization and was also in charge of the Republican Guard, a branch of the Iraqi military.

Mark Kratzmann, Australian tennis player and coach

Mark Edward Kratzmann is a former Australian professional tennis player.

Danny Manning, American basketball player and coach

Daniel Ricardo Manning is an American college basketball coach and former professional player who is an assistant men's basketball coach at the University of Colorado. Manning played high-school basketball at Page High School in Greensboro, North Carolina, as well as Lawrence High School in Lawrence, Kansas. He played college basketball for the Kansas Jayhawks, and played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for 14 years. After retiring from professional basketball Manning became an assistant coach at his alma mater, the University of Kansas. He won the national championship with the Jayhawks in 1988 as a player, and again as an assistant in 2008. He is the all-time leading scorer in Kansas basketball history with 2,951 points. The next closest player to his point total is Nick Collison, who is 854 points behind Manning.

Gilles Quénéhervé, French sprinter

Gilles Quénéhervé is a retired French sprinter who specialized in the 200 metres.

17/05/1965

Trent Reznor, American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer

Michael Trent Reznor is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and composer. He came to prominence as the founder, lead singer, multi-instrumentalist, and primary songwriter of the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. The band's line-up has constantly changed, with Reznor being its only official member from its creation in 1988 until 2016, when he added English musician and frequent collaborator Atticus Ross as its second permanent member.

Jeremy Vine, English journalist and author

Jeremy Guy Vine is an English television and radio presenter and journalist. He is best known as the host of his BBC Radio 2 lunchtime programme which presents news, views, interviews with live guests, consumer issues and popular music.

Luann de Lesseps, American singer and television personality

Luann de Lesseps is an American television personality, singer, model, and author. She is best known as an original cast member of the Bravo reality television series The Real Housewives of New York City, featuring in the first 13 of 15 seasons since its 2008 premiere. In 2018, she began headlining "Countess and Friends", a cabaret show of her own making.

17/05/1964

Stratos Apostolakis, Greek footballer and coach

Stratos Apostolakis, nicknamed The Turbo, is a Greek former professional footballer who played as a defender or a defensive midfielder.

Mauro Martini, Italian race car driver

Mauro Martini is a former Italian race car driver.

Menno Oosting, Dutch tennis player (died 1999)

Menno Oosting was a professional tennis player from the Netherlands, who won seven ATP Tour doubles titles out of 18 finals in his career.

17/05/1963

Jon Koncak, American basketball player

Jon Francis Koncak is an American former professional basketball player. A 7 ft (2.1 m) center / power forward from Southern Methodist University (SMU), Koncak was selected with the fifth pick in the 1985 NBA draft by the Atlanta Hawks. Koncak spent ten seasons with the Hawks (1985–1995), mainly in a reserve role, then concluded his career with the Orlando Magic. He retired in 1996 with career totals of 3,520 points and 3,856 rebounds.

Page McConnell, American keyboard player and songwriter

Page Samuel McConnell is an American multi-instrumentalist, most noted for his work as the keyboardist and a songwriter for the band Phish.

17/05/1962

Lise Lyng Falkenberg, Danish journalist and author

Lise Lyng Falkenberg is a Danish writer of mostly fiction, biographies and works of literary studies.

Andrew Farrar, Australian rugby league player and coach

Andrew Farrar is an Australian former rugby league footballer and coach. He played for the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, Western Suburbs, Wigan and the Illawarra Steelers. Farrar also played for New South Wales in the State of Origin on several occasions and played for Australia in the 1988 World Cup Final. As a coach he worked with the Illawarra Steelers, the St. George Illawarra Dragons and the Wigan Warriors, and from 2017 to 2019 was the General Manager of Football at the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs.

Craig Ferguson, Scottish-American comedian, actor, and talk show host

Craig Ferguson is a Scottish and American actor, comedian, writer and television host. He hosted the CBS late-night talk show The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (2005–2014), for which he won a Peabody Award for his interview with South African archbishop Desmond Tutu in 2009. He is currently the host of Scrabble (2026–present) on The CW Network.

Jane Moore, English journalist and author

Jane Moore is an English journalist, writer, and television personality. She is a columnist for the tabloid The Sun and writes regular articles for the newspaper The Sunday Times. She was a panellist and anchor on the ITV lunchtime chat show Loose Women between 1999 and 2002, returning as a regular panellist from 2013 onwards. Since 2018, Moore has been regularly relief-anchoring Loose Women. In 2024, Moore appeared as a contestant on the twenty-fourth series of the ITV reality show I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!.

Rosalind Picard, American computer scientist and engineer, co-founded Affectiva

Rosalind Wright Picard is an American electrical engineer and computer scientist who is the Grover M. Hermann Professor of Health Sciences and Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She is the founder and director of the Affective Computing Research Group at the MIT Media Lab, and co-founder of the startups Affectiva and Empatica.

17/05/1961

Enya, Irish singer-songwriter and producer

Eithne Pádraigín Ní Bhraonáin, known mononymously as Enya, is an Irish singer and composer. With an estimated equivalent of more than 80 million albums sold, Enya is one of the world's best-selling music artists; she is the best-selling Irish solo artist, and the second-best-selling music act from Ireland overall, after the band U2. Enya's music has been widely recognised for its use of multi-layers of her own vocals and instrumentation, lengthened reverb, and interwoven elements of Celtic music.

Jamil Azzaoui, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist

Jamil Azzaoui, also known mononymously as Jamil is a Canadian humorous artist / comedian, musician (guitarist) and an artist agent of Moroccan origin living in Montreal and well known in France and the francophone countries.

Justin King, English businessman

Justin Matthew King CBE is an English businessman. He was the CEO of J Sainsbury plc, parent company of the supermarket chain Sainsbury's, for ten years before stepping down in July 2014.

17/05/1960

Lou DiBella, American boxing promoter, actor, and producer

Louis John DiBella Jr. is an American boxing promoter, minor league baseball team owner and television/film producer.

Simon Fuller, English talent manager and producer, created the Idols series

Simon Robert Fuller is a British entrepreneur, artist manager, and film and television producer. He is the creator of the Idols TV format, including the British series Pop Idol and the American series American Idol.

17/05/1959

Marcelo Loffreda, Argentine rugby player and coach

Marcelo Loffreda is an Argentine former rugby union footballer and coach. Loffreda won 44 caps with one as captain, playing at centre for the Argentine rugby union side. He played much of his career outside the legendary Hugo Porta and scored 4 test tries.

17/05/1958

Paul Di'Anno, English rock singer-songwriter (died 2024)

Paul Andrews, better known by his stage name Paul Di'Anno, was an English heavy metal singer. He was the lead vocalist for Iron Maiden from 1978 to 1981. In his post-Maiden career, Di'Anno issued numerous albums over the years, as both a solo artist and as a member of bands such as Gogmagog, Di'Anno's Battlezone, Killers, Rockfellas, and Warhorse. Together with fellow Iron Maiden member Dennis Stratton, he joined Praying Mantis for the recording of their 1990 live album Live at Last.

17/05/1957

Pascual Pérez, Dominican baseball player (died 2012)

Pascual Gross Pérez was a Dominican professional baseball player who pitched in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Atlanta Braves, Montreal Expos, and New York Yankees from 1980 to 1991. He was an MLB All-Star in 1983 with the Braves.

17/05/1956

Sugar Ray Leonard, American boxer

Ray Charles Leonard, better known as Sugar Ray Leonard, is an American former professional boxer. Often regarded as one of the greatest boxers of all time, he competed professionally between 1976 and 1997, winning world titles in five weight classes; the lineal championship in three weight classes; as well as the undisputed welterweight championship. Leonard was part of the "Four Kings", a group of boxers who all fought each other throughout the 1980s, consisting of Leonard, Roberto Durán, Thomas Hearns, and Marvin Hagler. Leonard was the only one of them to beat the other three. As an amateur, Leonard won a light welterweight gold medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics.

Annise Parker, American politician

Annise Danette Parker is an American politician from the state of Texas. A Democrat, Parker served as the 61st Mayor of Houston, Texas, from 2010 until 2016. She also served as an at-large member of the Houston City Council from 1998 to 2003 and as city controller from 2004 to 2010.

Bob Saget, American comedian, actor, and television host (died 2022)

Robert Lane Saget was an American stand-up comedian, actor, director, and television host. He portrayed Danny Tanner on the sitcom Full House (1987–1995) and its sequel Fuller House (2016–2020). Saget was the original host of America's Funniest Home Videos (1989–1997), and the voice of narrator Ted Mosby on the sitcom How I Met Your Mother (2005–2014). He was simultaneously known for his family-friendly image and his profane comedian persona, with his 2014 album That's What I'm Talkin' About being nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album.

Dave Sim, Canadian cartoonist and author

Dave Sim is a Canadian cartoonist and publisher, known for his comic book Cerebus, his artistic experimentation, his advocacy of self-publishing and creators' rights, and his controversial political and philosophical beliefs.

17/05/1955

Bill Paxton, American actor and director (died 2017)

William Paxton was an American actor, filmmaker and musician. A versatile character actor known for his distinctive Texan drawl and everyman screen persona, he was a four-time Golden Globe Award and a Primetime Emmy Award nominee, among other accolades.

David Townsend, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2005)

David Edward Townsend was an American musician best known as the guitarist for the R&B band Surface.

17/05/1954

Michael Roberts, South African-English jockey

Michael Roberts is a South African jockey currently a trainer in South Africa. He lives with his wife Verna and two daughters, Melanie and Carolyn. Roberts has had a successful career, winning many English and South African races multiple times. He was British flat racing Champion Jockey in 1992. His most famous equine partner was the double Eclipse Stakes winner, Mtoto.

17/05/1952

Howard Hampton, Canadian lawyer and politician

Howard George Hampton is a politician who was a member of Provincial Parliament for the province of Ontario. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, Canada, from 1987 to 1999 in the electoral district of Rainy River, and from 1999 to 2011 in the redistributed electoral district of Kenora—Rainy River. A member of the Ontario New Democratic Party, he was also the party's leader from 1996 to 2009. Hampton retired from the legislature at the 2011 Ontario provincial election and subsequently joined Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP as a member of the law firm's corporate social responsibility and aboriginal affairs groups.

17/05/1951

Simon Hughes, English lawyer and politician

Sir Simon Henry Ward Hughes is a British former politician. He is now the Chancellor of London South Bank University, and a strategic adviser to Talgo, a Spanish manufacturer of trains. Hughes was deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2010 to 2014, and from 2013 until 2015 was Minister of State at the Ministry of Justice. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency of Bermondsey and Old Southwark from 1983 until 2015. He declined a position in the House of Lords in 2015.

17/05/1950

Howard Ashman, American playwright and composer (died 1991)

Howard Elliott Ashman was an American playwright, lyricist, and stage director. He is most widely known for his work on feature films for Walt Disney Animation Studios, for which Ashman wrote the lyrics and Alan Menken composed the music. Ashman has been credited as being a main driving force behind the Disney Renaissance. His work included songs for Little Shop of Horrors, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin. He died of AIDS complications in 1991.

Keith Bradley, Baron Bradley, English accountant and politician

Keith John Charles Bradley, Baron Bradley, is a British Labour Party politician and life peer. He was formerly the Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for Manchester Withington from 1987 until 2005.

Janez Drnovšek, Slovenian economist and politician, 2nd President of Slovenia (died 2008)

Janez Drnovšek was a Slovenian liberal politician, President of the Presidency of Yugoslavia (1989–1990), Prime Minister of Slovenia and President of Slovenia (2002–2007).

Alan Johnson, English politician, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer

Alan Arthur Johnson is a British former politician who served as Secretary of State for Education and Skills from 2006 to 2007, Secretary of State for Health from 2007 to 2009, Home Secretary from 2009 to 2010, and Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2010 to 2011. A member of the Labour Party, he was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle from 1997 to 2017.

Valeriya Novodvorskaya, Russian journalist and politician (died 2014)

Valeriya Ilyinichna Novodvorskaya was a Russian and Soviet dissident, writer and liberal politician. She was the founder and the chairwoman of the Democratic Union party and a member of the editorial board of The New Times.

17/05/1949

Bill Bruford, English drummer, songwriter, and producer

William Scott Bruford is an English drummer and percussionist. He is known for his work from the late-1960s to the 1990s, primarily as both a founding member of Yes and as a member of three forms of King Crimson.

Keith, American pop singer

James Barry Keefer, known professionally as Keith, is an American vocalist. His best-known song was "98.6" which reached No. 7 on Billboard Hot 100 in 1966. He legally changed his name to Bazza Keefer in 1988, in memory of his mother.

17/05/1948

Dick Gaughan, Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist

Richard Peter Gaughan is a Scottish musician, singer and songwriter, particularly of folk and social protest songs. He is regarded as one of Scotland's leading singer-songwriters.

17/05/1947

Stephen Platten, English bishop

Stephen George Platten, is a retired Anglican prelate, the last to serve as diocesan Bishop of Wakefield in the Church of England.

17/05/1946

Udo Lindenberg, German singer-songwriter and drummer

Udo Lindenberg is a German singer, composer, and painter.

17/05/1945

B.S. Chandrasekhar, Indian cricketer

Bhagwat Subramanya Chandrasekhar is an Indian former cricketer who played as a leg spinner. Considered among the top echelon of leg spinners, Chandrasekhar along with E.A.S. Prasanna, Bishen Singh Bedi and Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan constituted the Indian spin quartet that dominated spin bowling during the 1960s and 1970s. At a very young age, polio left his right arm withered. Chandrasekhar played 58 Test matches, capturing 242 wickets at an average of 29.74 in a career that spanned sixteen years. He is one of only two test cricketers in history with more wickets than total runs scored, the other being Chris Martin.

Tony Roche, Australian tennis player and coach

Anthony Dalton Roche AO MBE, professionally known as Tony Roche is an Australian former professional tennis player.

17/05/1944

Jesse Winchester, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (died 2014)

James Ridout "Jesse" Winchester Jr. was an American-Canadian musician and songwriter. He was born and raised in the southern United States. Opposed to the Vietnam War, he moved to Canada in 1967 to avoid the draft. During that time, he began his career as a solo artist. His highest-charting recordings were "Yankee Lady" in 1970 and "Say What" in 1981. He became a Canadian citizen in 1973, gained amnesty in the U.S. in 1977 and settled in Memphis, Tennessee in 2002.

17/05/1943

Sirajuddin of Perlis, Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia

Sirajuddin ibni Almarhum Tuanku Syed Putra Jamalullail is the current Raja of Perlis, reigning since 2000. He reigned as the twelfth Yang di-Pertuan Agong from 2001 to 2006.

Johnny Warren, Australian footballer, coach, and sportscaster (died 2004)

John Norman Warren was an Australian soccer player, coach, administrator, writer and broadcaster. He was known as Captain Socceroo for his passionate work to promote the game in Australia. The award for the best player in the A-League is named the Johnny Warren Medal in his honour.

17/05/1942

Taj Mahal, American blues singer-songwriter and musician

Henry St. Claire Fredericks Jr., better known by his stage name Taj Mahal, is an American blues musician. He plays the guitar, piano, banjo, harmonica, and many other instruments along with singing and whistling, often incorporating elements of world music into his work. Mahal has done much to reshape the definition and scope of blues music over the course of his more than 50-year career by fusing it with nontraditional forms, including sounds from the Caribbean, Africa, India, Hawaii, and the South Pacific.

17/05/1941

David Cope, American composer and author (died 2025)

David Howell Cope was an American author, composer, scientist and Dickerson Professor of Music at UC Santa Cruz. His primary area of research involved artificial intelligence and music; he wrote programs and algorithms that can analyze existing music and create new compositions in the style of the original input music. He taught the groundbreaking summer workshop in Workshop in Algorithmic Computer Music (WACM) that was open to the public as well as a general education course entitled Artificial Intelligence and Music for enrolled UCSC students. Cope was also co-founder and CTO Emeritus of Recombinant Inc., a music technology company. He died of congestive heart failure on May 4, 2025, at the age of 83.

Ben Nelson, American lawyer and politician, 37th Governor of Nebraska

Earl Benjamin Nelson is an American politician, attorney, and businessman who served as a United States senator from Nebraska from 2001 to 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 37th governor of Nebraska from 1991 to 1999. As of 2026, he is the last Democrat to have won or held statewide office in Nebraska.

17/05/1940

Alan Kay, American computer scientist and academic

Alan Curtis Kay is an American computer scientist who pioneered work on object-oriented programming and windowing graphical user interface (GUI) design. At Xerox PARC he led the design and development of the first modern windowed computer desktop interface. There he also led the development of the influential object-oriented programming language Smalltalk, both personally designing most of the early versions of the language and coining the term "object-oriented." He has been elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Royal Society of Arts. He received the Turing Award in 2003.

Reynato Puno, Filipino lawyer and jurist, 22nd Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines

Reynato Serrano Puno, KGCR is a Filipino jurist. He served as the 22nd chief justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines from December 8, 2006, by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo until his mandatory retirement on May 17, 2010. Puno had initially been appointed to the Supreme Court as an associate justice on June 28, 1993.

17/05/1939

Hugh Dykes, Baron Dykes, English politician

Hugh John Maxwell Dykes, Baron Dykes, is a British politician and member of the House of Lords. He served as a Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) from 1970 to 1997, and later defected to the Liberal Democrats.

Gary Paulsen, American author (died 2021)

Gary James Paulsen was an American writer of children's and young adult fiction, best known for coming-of-age stories about the wilderness. He was the author of more than 200 books and wrote more than 200 magazine articles and short stories, and several plays, all primarily for teenagers. He won the Margaret Edwards Award from the American Library Association in 1997 for his lifetime contribution in writing for teens.

17/05/1938

Jason Bernard, American actor (died 1996)

Jason Bernard was an American actor.

Marcia Freedman, Israeli activist (died 2021)

Marcia Judith Freedman was an American-Israeli activist and politician. She advocated for a two-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, as well as for women's and gay rights. Born in Newark, New Jersey, Freedman immigrated to Israel in 1969, where she played a leading role in the development of the second-wave feminist movement during the 1970s. She served as a member of the Knesset from 1973 to 1977.

Pervis Jackson, American R&B bass singer (died 2008)

Pervis Jackson was an American R&B singer, noted as the bass singer for The Spinners, and was one of the group's original members as well as their spokesman.

17/05/1937

Hazel R. O'Leary, American lawyer and politician, 7th United States Secretary of Energy

Hazel Reid O'Leary is an American lawyer, politician, and university administrator who served as the 7th United States secretary of energy from 1993 to 1997. A member of the Democratic Party, O'Leary was the first woman and first African American to hold that post. She also served as the 14th president of Fisk University from 2004 to 2013, a historically black college and her alma mater. O'Leary's tenure at Fisk came amid financial difficulty for the school, during which time she increased enrollment and contentiously used the school's art collection to raise funds.

17/05/1936

Dennis Hopper, American actor and director (died 2010)

Dennis Lee Hopper was an American actor, filmmaker, photographer and visual artist. He is considered one of the key figures of the New Hollywood era. He earned prizes from the Cannes Film Festival and Venice International Film Festival as well as nominations for two Academy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award and two Golden Globe Awards.

17/05/1935

Dennis Potter, English voice actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (died 1994)

Dennis Christopher George Potter was an English television dramatist, screenwriter and journalist. He is best known for his BBC television serials Pennies from Heaven (1978) and The Singing Detective (1986) as well as the BBC television plays Blue Remembered Hills (1979) and Brimstone and Treacle (1976). His television dramas, often set or partly set in the Forest of Dean of his childhood, mixed fantasy and reality, the personal and the social, and often used themes and images from popular culture. Potter is widely regarded as one of the most influential and innovative dramatists to have worked in British television.

17/05/1934

Friedrich-Wilhelm Kiel, German educator and politician (died 2022)

Friedrich-Wilhelm Kiel was a German politician and member of the FDP.

Earl Morrall, American football player and coach (died 2014)

Earl Edwin Morrall was an American professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) for 21 seasons. He was the last remaining player from the 1950s still active in the NFL. He started for six teams, most notably the Baltimore Colts and Miami Dolphins. He became known as one of the greatest backup quarterbacks in NFL history, having served in the capacity for two Hall of Fame quarterbacks in Johnny Unitas and Bob Griese. An injury to Unitas in 1968 saw Morrall step in to become the starter; he guided the Colts to a 13–1 record and won league MVP. He also led them to their first NFL Championship win in nine years before ineffective play in Super Bowl III saw him benched for Unitas. Two years later, in Super Bowl V, Morrall came off the bench for an injured Unitas and kept the Colts in the game before they ultimately won on a last-second field goal. In his first season with Miami in 1972, he came off the bench when Griese became injured early in the year, with Morrall winning all nine starts; Morrall started the first two playoff games, with Griese playing in each game before being named the starter for Super Bowl VII, where the Dolphins completed the only perfect season in NFL history.

Ronald Wayne, American computer scientist, co-founded Apple Computer

Ronald Gerald Wayne is an American retired electronics industry business executive. He co-founded Apple Computer Company—which later became Apple Inc.—as a partnership with Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs on April 1, 1976, providing administrative oversight and documentation for the new venture. He has been often referred to by media as the 'forgotten founder' of Apple.

17/05/1933

Yelena Gorchakova, Russian javelin thrower (died 2002)

Yelena Yegorovna Gorchakova was a Russian javelin thrower who won bronze medals at the 1952 and 1964 Olympics. Her 1964 bronze was a disappointment as she set a world record in the qualification that remained unbeaten for eight years.

17/05/1932

Rodric Braithwaite, English soldier and diplomat, British Ambassador to Russia

Sir Rodric Quentin Braithwaite, is a British former diplomat and author.

Peter Burge, Australian cricketer (died 2001)

Peter John Parnell Burge was an Australian cricketer who played in 42 Test matches between 1955 and 1966. After retiring as a player he became a highly respected match referee, overseeing 25 Tests and 63 One Day Internationals.

Ozzie Virgil Sr., Dominican baseball player and coach (died 2024)

Osvaldo José Virgil Pichardo was a Dominican professional baseball player and coach. He was the first person from the Dominican Republic to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) post-integration, appearing in 324 MLB games between 1956 and 1969 as a utility player for the New York / San Francisco Giants, Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Athletics, Baltimore Orioles, and the Pittsburgh Pirates.

17/05/1931

Marshall Applewhite, American cult leader, founded Heaven's Gate (died 1997)

Marshall Herff Applewhite Jr., also known as Do, among other names, was an American religious leader who founded and led the Heaven's Gate new religious movement, and organized their mass suicide in 1997. The suicide is the largest mass suicide to occur inside the United States.

Dewey Redman, American saxophonist (died 2006)

Walter Dewey Redman was an American saxophonist who performed free jazz as a bandleader, and as a member of bands including those led by Ornette Coleman and Keith Jarrett.

17/05/1929

Branko Zebec, Croatian and Yugoslav football player and coach (died 1988)

Branislav "Branko" Zebec was a Croatian footballer and manager who played for Yugoslavia.

17/05/1926

David Ogilvy, 13th Earl of Airlie, English-Scottish soldier and politician (died 2023)

David George Coke Patrick Ogilvy, 13th Earl of Airlie, was a Scottish landowner, soldier, banker and peer.

Dietmar Schönherr, Austrian-Spanish actor, director, and screenwriter (died 2014)

Dietmar Otto Schönherr was an Austrian film actor. He appeared in 120 films between 1944 and 2014. He was famous for playing the role of Major Cliff Allister McLane in the German science fiction series Raumpatrouille. He was born in Innsbruck, Austria. He was married to the Danish actress Vivi Bach from 1965 until her death in 2013. In 2011 he was awarded with the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class.

Franz Sondheimer, German-English chemist and academic (died 1981)

Franz Sondheimer FRS was a German-born British professor of chemistry. In 1960, he was awarded the Israel Prize for his contributions to science.

17/05/1924

Roy Bentley, English footballer (died 2018)

Roy Thomas Frank Bentley was an English football player and manager.

Francis Tombs, Baron Tombs, English engineer and politician (died 2020)

Francis Leonard Tombs, Baron Tombs was an English industrialist and politician who served as a crossbench member of the House of Lords from 1990 until his retirement in 2015.

17/05/1923

Michael Beetham, English commander and pilot (died 2015)

Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Michael James Beetham, was a Second World War bomber pilot and a high-ranking commander in the Royal Air Force from the 1960s to the 1980s. As Chief of the Air Staff during the Falklands War, he was involved in the decision to send the Task Force to the South Atlantic. At the time of his death, Beetham was one of only six people holding his service's most senior rank and, excluding Prince Philip's honorary rank, he had the longest time in that rank, making him the senior Marshal of the Royal Air Force.

17/05/1922

Jean Rédélé, French racing driver, founded Alpine (died 2007)

Jean Rédélé, was an automotive pioneer, pilot and founder of the French automotive brand Alpine.

17/05/1921

Dennis Brain, English horn player (died 1957)

Dennis Brain was a British horn player. From a musical family – his father and grandfather were horn players – he attended the Royal Academy of Music in London. During the Second World War he served in the Royal Air Force, playing in its band and orchestra. After the war, he was the principal horn of the Philharmonia and Royal Philharmonic orchestras, and played in chamber ensembles.

Bob Merrill, American composer and screenwriter (died 1998)

Henry Robert Merrill Levan was an American songwriter, theatrical composer, lyricist, and screenwriter. Merrill was one of the most successful songwriters of the 1950s on the US and UK single charts. His musicals for the Broadway stage include Carnival! and Funny Girl (lyrics).

17/05/1920

Harry Männil, Estonian-Venezuelan businessman, co-founded ACO Group (died 2010)

Harry Männil, also known as Harry Mannil Laul,[a] was an Estonian businessman, art collector, and cultural benefactor in several countries.

17/05/1919

Antonio Aguilar, Mexican singer-songwriter, producer, actor, and screenwriter (died 2007)

José Pascual Antonio Aguilar Márquez Barraza, known as Antonio Aguilar, was a Mexican singer and actor. He recorded over 150 albums, which sold 25 million copies, and acted in more than 120 films. He was given the honorific nickname "El Charro de México" because he is credited with popularizing the Mexican equestrian sport la charrería to international audiences.

Gustav Naan, Russian-Estonian physicist and philosopher (died 1994)

Gustav Naan was a Soviet and Estonian physicist and philosopher. According to the Estonian Encyclopedia's definition, he "wrote plenty of irritating publicist articles".

17/05/1918

Joan Benham, English actress (died 1981)

Joan Benham was an English actress best known for her portrayal of Lady Prudence Fairfax in the ITV period drama series Upstairs, Downstairs. She was born in London and was the first cousin of Hollywood actress Olive Sturgess.

Birgit Nilsson, Swedish operatic soprano (died 2005)

Märta Birgit Nilsson was a Swedish dramatic soprano. Although she sang a wide repertoire of operatic and vocal works, Nilsson was best known for her performances in the operas of Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss. Her voice was noted for its overwhelming force, bountiful reserves of power, and the gleaming brilliance and clarity in the upper register.

17/05/1914

Robert N. Thompson, American-Canadian chiropractor and politician (died 1997)

Robert Norman Thompson was a Canadian politician, chiropractor, and educator. He was born in Duluth, Minnesota, to Canadian parents and moved to Canada in 1918 with his family. Raised in Alberta, he graduated from the Palmer School of Chiropractic in 1939 and worked as a chiropractor and then as a teacher before serving in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II.

17/05/1913

Hans Ruesch, Swiss racing driver and author (died 2007)

Hans Ruesch was a Swiss racing driver, a novelist, and an internationally prominent activist against animal experiments and vivisection. Ruesch has been described as a pioneer of the anti-vivisection movement.

17/05/1912

Archibald Cox, American lawyer and politician, 31st United States Solicitor General (died 2004)

Archibald Cox Jr. was an American legal scholar who served as U.S. Solicitor General under President John F. Kennedy and as a special prosecutor during the Watergate scandal. During his career, he was a pioneering expert on labor law and was also an authority on constitutional law. The Journal of Legal Studies has identified Cox as one of the most cited legal scholars of the 20th century.

Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner, American inventor (died 2006)

Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner was an African American inventor who created an adjustable sanitary belt. to keep menstrual pads securely in place. She has been granted five patents in between 1956 and 1987, one of the highest totals awarded to an African American female inventor. All of her inventions provided solutions to common household and personal care issues; including improving menstrual hygiene products.

17/05/1911

Lisa Fonssagrives, Swedish-American model (died 1992)

Lisa Fonssagrives was a Swedish model, dancer, sculptor, and photographer. She is widely credited with having been the first supermodel.

Maureen O'Sullivan, Irish-American actress (died 1998)

Maureen Paula O'Sullivan was an Irish-American actress who played Jane in the Tarzan series of films during the era of Johnny Weissmuller. She starred in dozens of feature films across a span of more than half a century and performed with such stars as Laurence Olivier, Greta Garbo, Fredric March, William Powell, Myrna Loy, Marie Dressler, Wallace Beery, Lionel Barrymore, the Marx Brothers and Woody Allen. In 2020, she was listed at number eight on The Irish Times list of Ireland's greatest film actors.

17/05/1909

Julius Sumner Miller, American physicist and academic (died 1987)

Julius Sumner Miller was an American physicist and television personality. He is best known for his work on children's television programs in North America and Australia.

17/05/1906

Zinka Milanov, Croatian-American soprano and educator (died 1989)

Zinka Milanov was a Croatian operatic dramatic soprano who had a major career centered on the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. After finishing her education in Zagreb, Milanov made her debut in 1927 in Ljubljana as Leonora in Giuseppe Verdi's Il Trovatore. From 1928 to 1936, she was the leading soprano of the Croatian National Theatre. In 1937, Milanov performed at the Metropolitan Opera for the first time, where she continued to sing until 1966. She also performed as a concert singer and was a noted vocal coach and teacher. Milanov is the sister of the composer and pianist Božidar Kunc.

17/05/1904

Marie-Anne Desmarest, French author (died 1973)

Marie-Anne Desmarest was a French writer.

17/05/1903

Cool Papa Bell, American baseball player and manager (died 1991)

James Thomas "Cool Papa" Bell was an American center fielder and pitcher in Negro league baseball and the Mexican League from 1922 to 1946. He is considered to have been one of the fastest men ever to play the game. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974. He ranked 66th on a list of the greatest baseball players published by The Sporting News in 1999.

17/05/1901

Werner Egk, German pianist and composer (died 1983)

Werner Egk, born Werner Joseph Mayer, was a German composer.

17/05/1899

Carmen de Icaza, Spanish writer (died 1979)

María Carmen de Icaza y de León, 8th Baroness of Claret was a Spanish journalist and novelist from 1935–60. She enjoyed success with her 1936 novel, Cristina Guzmán, which was subsequently adapted for the stage, television and cinema. By 1945, she was a best-selling writer in Spain. Her father was Mexican writer and diplomat Francisco A. de Icaza.

17/05/1898

A. J. Casson, Canadian painter (died 1992)

Alfred Joseph Casson was a member of the Canadian group of artists known as the Group of Seven. He joined the group in 1926 at the invitation of Franklin Carmichael, replacing Frank Johnston. Casson is best known for his depictions in his signature limited palette of southern Ontario, and for being the youngest member of the Group of Seven.

17/05/1897

Odd Hassel, Norwegian chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1981)

Odd Hassel was a Norwegian physical chemist and Nobel Laureate.

17/05/1895

Saul Adler, Belarusian-English captain and parasitologist (died 1966)

Saul Adler OBE FRS was an Israeli expert on parasitology.

Reinhold Saulmann, Estonian sprinter and bandy player (died 1936)

Reinhold Saulmann was an Estonian track and field sprinter.

17/05/1893

Frederick McKinley Jones, American inventor and entrepreneur (died 1961)

Frederick McKinley Jones was an American inventor, entrepreneur, engineer, winner of the National Medal of Technology, and an inductee of the National Inventors Hall of Fame. He innovated mobile refrigeration technology. Jones received 61 patents, including 40 for refrigeration technology, and also revolutionized the cinema industry by creating a superior sound system for projectors at the time. Jones co-founded Thermo King and also served as a sergeant in World War I. Due to his contributions to refrigeration technology, Jones is called the "Father of Refrigerated Transportation", and the "King of Cool".

17/05/1891

Napoleon Zervas, Greek general and politician (died 1957)

Napoleon Zervas was a Hellenic Army officer and resistance leader during World War II. He organized and led the National Republican Greek League (EDES), the second most significant, in terms of size and activity, resistance organization against the Axis Occupation of Greece.

17/05/1889

Dorothy Gibson, American actress and singer (died 1946)

Dorothy Gibson was an American actress, socialite and artist's model, active in the early 20th century. She survived the sinking of the Titanic and starred in the first motion picture based on the disaster.

Alfonso Reyes, Mexican author (died 1959)

Alfonso Reyes Ochoa was a Mexican writer, philosopher and diplomat. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature five times and has been acclaimed as one of the greatest authors in the Spanish language. He served as ambassador of Mexico to Argentina and Brazil.

17/05/1888

Tich Freeman, English cricketer (died 1965)

Alfred Percy "Tich" Freeman was an English first-class cricketer. A leg spin bowler for Kent County Cricket Club and England, he is the only man to take 300 wickets in an English season, and is the second most prolific wicket-taker in first-class cricket history.

17/05/1886

Alfonso XIII of Spain, Spanish monarch (died 1941)

Alfonso XIII, also known as El Africano or the African for his Africanist views, was King of Spain from his birth until 14 April 1931, when the Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed. He became a monarch at birth as his father, Alfonso XII, had died the previous year. Alfonso's mother, Maria Christina of Austria, served as regent until he assumed full powers on his sixteenth birthday in 1902.

17/05/1882

Karl Burman, Estonian architect and painter (died 1965)

Karl Burman sen. was an Estonian architect and painter.

17/05/1874

George Sheldon, American diver (died 1907)

George Herbert Sheldon was an American diver who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics and won the inaugural platform diving competition.

17/05/1873

Henri Barbusse, French author and journalist (died 1935)

Henri Barbusse was a French novelist, short story writer, journalist, poet and political activist. He began his literary career in the 1890s as a Symbolist poet and continued as a neo-Naturalist novelist; in 1916, he published Under Fire, a novel about World War I based on his experience which is described as one of the earliest works of the Lost Generation movement or as the work which started it; the novel had a major impact on the later writers of the movement, namely on Ernest Hemingway and Erich Maria Remarque. Barbusse is considered one of the important French writers of 1910–1939 who mingled the war memories with moral and political meditations.

Dorothy Richardson, English author and journalist (died 1957)

Dorothy Miller Richardson was a British author and journalist. Author of Pilgrimage, a sequence of 13 semi-autobiographical novels published between 1915 and 1967—though Richardson saw them as chapters of one work—she was one of the earliest modernist novelists to use stream of consciousness as a narrative technique. Richardson also emphasises in Pilgrimage the importance and distinct nature of female experiences. The title Pilgrimage alludes not only to "the journey of the artist ... to self-realisation but, more practically, to the discovery of a unique creative form and expression".

17/05/1870

Newton Moore, Australian politician, 8th Premier of Western Australia (died 1936)

Major General Sir Newton James Moore, was an Australian politician, businessman and army officer. He served as the eighth Premier of Western Australia from 1906 to 1910 and, following service in the First World War, was a member of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom from 1918 to 1932. He was the father of Sir Rodney Moore.

17/05/1868

Horace Elgin Dodge, American businessman, co-founded Dodge (died 1920)

Horace Elgin Dodge Sr. was an American automobile manufacturing pioneer and co-founder of Dodge Brothers Company.

Panagis Tsaldaris, Greek politician, Prime Minister of Greece (died 1936)

Panagis Tsaldaris was a Greek politician who served as Prime Minister of Greece twice. He was a revered conservative politician and leader for many years (1922–1936) of the conservative People's Party in the period before World War II. He was the husband of Lina Tsaldari, a Greek suffragist, member of Parliament, and the Minister for Social Welfare.

17/05/1866

Erik Satie, French pianist and composer (died 1925)

Eric Alfred Leslie Satie, better known as Erik Satie, was a French composer and pianist. The son of a French father and a British mother, he studied at the Paris Conservatoire but was undistinguished and did not obtain a diploma. In the 1880s he worked as a pianist in café-cabarets in Montmartre, Paris, and began composing works, mostly for solo piano, such as his Gymnopédies and Gnossiennes. He also wrote music for a Rosicrucian sect to which he was briefly attached.

17/05/1864

Louis Richardet, Swiss target shooter (died 1923)

Louis Marcel Richardet was a Swiss sports shooter who competed in the early 20th century. He participated in Shooting at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris and won two gold medals with the Military pistol and rifle teams for Switzerland.

Ante Trumbić, Croatian lawyer and politician, 27th Mayor of Split (died 1938)

Ante Trumbić was a Yugoslav and Croatian lawyer and politician in the early 20th century.

17/05/1863

Léon Gérin, Canadian lawyer, sociologist, and civil servant (died 1951)

Léon Gérin was a Canadian lawyer, civil servant, and sociologist.

17/05/1860

Martin Kukučín, Slovak author and playwright (died 1928)

Martin Kukučín was a Slovak prose writer, dramatist and publicist. He was the most notable representative of Slovak literary realism, and is considered one of the founders of modern Slovak prose.

Charlotte Barnum, American mathematician and social activist (died 1934)

Charlotte Cynthia Barnum, mathematician and social activist, was the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in mathematics from Yale University.

17/05/1845

Jacint Verdaguer, Catalan priest and poet (died 1902)

Jacint Verdaguer i Santaló was a Spanish writer and priest, regarded as one of the greatest poets of Catalan literature and a prominent literary figure of the Renaixença, a cultural revival movement of the late Romantic era. The bishop Josep Torras i Bages, one of the main figures of Catalan nationalism, called him the "Prince of Catalan poets". He was also known as mossèn (Father) Cinto Verdaguer, because of his career as a priest, and informally also simply "mossèn Cinto".

17/05/1836

Virginie Loveling, Belgian author and poet (died 1923)

Virginie (Marie) Loveling was a Flemish author of poetry, novels, essays and children's stories. She also wrote under the pseudonym W. E. C. Walter. She did write sentimentally early in her career but her later novels dealt with difficult subjects directly.

17/05/1835

Thomas McIlwraith, Scottish-Australian politician, 8th Premier of Queensland (died 1900)

Sir Thomas McIlwraith was for many years the dominant figure of colonial politics in Queensland. He was Premier of Queensland from 1879 to 1883, again in 1888, and for a third time in 1893. In common with most politicians of his era, McIlwraith was an influential businessman, who combined his parliamentary career with a prosperous involvement in the pastoral industry.

17/05/1821

Sebastian Kneipp, German priest and therapist (died 1897)

Sebastian Kneipp was a German Catholic priest and one of the forefathers of the naturopathic movement. He is most commonly associated with the "Kneipp Cure" form of hydrotherapy, the application of water through various methods, temperatures, and pressures, which he claimed to have therapeutic or healing effects, thus building several hospitals in Bad Wörishofen.

17/05/1818

Ezra Otis Kendall, American professor, astronomer and mathematician (died 1899)

Ezra Otis Kendall (1818–1899) was an American professor, astronomer and mathematician. He was known for his work in uranography.

17/05/1794

Anna Brownell Jameson, Irish-English author (died 1860)

Anna Brownell Jameson was an Anglo-Irish art historian whose work spanned art and literary criticism, philosophy, travel writing, and feminism. She became very well known for her extensive writings. Jameson was connected to some of the most prominent names of the period including Joanna Baillie, Fanny Kemble, Elizabeth Barrett-Browning and Robert Browning, Harriet Martineau, Ottilie von Goethe, Lady Byron, Harriet Hosmer, Ada Lovelace, Charles and Elizabeth Eastlake, and Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon. She was also a pioneer of the women's rights movement in the UK.

17/05/1768

Caroline of Brunswick (died 1821)

Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Queen of Hanover from 29 January 1820 until her death in 1821 as the estranged wife of King George IV. She was Princess of Wales from 1795 to 1820.

Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey, English general and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (died 1854)

Field Marshal Henry William Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey, styled Lord Paget between 1784 and 1812 and known as the Earl of Uxbridge between 1812 and 1815, was a British Army officer and politician. After serving as a member of parliament for Carnarvon and then for Milborne Port, he took part in the Flanders Campaign and then commanded the cavalry for Sir John Moore's army in Spain during the Peninsular War; his cavalry showed distinct superiority over their French counterparts at the Battle of Sahagún and at the Battle of Benavente, where he defeated the elite chasseurs of the French Imperial Guard. During the Hundred Days he led the charge of the heavy cavalry against Comte d'Erlon's column at the Battle of Waterloo. At the end of the battle, he lost part of one leg to a cannonball. In later life, he served twice as Master-General of the Ordnance and twice as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.

17/05/1758

Sir John St Aubyn, 5th Baronet, English politician (died 1839)

Sir John St Aubyn, 5th Baronet, was a British Member of Parliament, High Sheriff of Cornwall and Grand Master of the Freemasons. Born in London, he succeeded to the baronetcy on 12 October 1772, at which point he inherited Clowance, the family's estate near Crowan, Cornwall.

17/05/1749

Edward Jenner, English physician and microbiologist (died 1823)

Edward Jenner was an English physician and scientist who pioneered the concept of vaccines and created the smallpox vaccine, the world's first vaccine. The terms vaccine and vaccination are derived from Variolae vaccinae, the term devised by Jenner to denote cowpox. He used it in 1798 in the title of his Inquiry into the Variolae vaccinae known as the Cow Pox, in which he described the protective effect of cowpox against smallpox.

17/05/1743

Seth Warner, American colonel (died 1784)

Seth Warner was an American soldier. He was a Revolutionary War officer from Vermont who rose to the rank of Continental colonel and was often given the duties of a brigade commander. He is best known for his leadership in the capture of Fort Crown Point, the Battle of Longueuil, the siege of Quebec, the retreat from Canada, and the battles of Hubbardton and Bennington.

17/05/1732

Francesco Pasquale Ricci, Italian violinist and composer (died 1817)

Francesco Pasquale Ricci, was an Italian composer and violinist.

17/05/1718

Robert Darcy, 4th Earl of Holderness, English politician and diplomat, Secretary of State for the Southern Department (died 1778)

Robert Darcy, 4th Earl of Holderness,, known before 1721 as Lord Darcy and Conyers, was a British diplomat and politician who served as Secretary of State for the Northern Department from 1754 to 1761.

17/05/1706

Andreas Felix von Oefele, German historian and librarian (died 1780)

Andreas Felix von Oefele was a German historian and librarian.

17/05/1698

Gio Nicola Buhagiar, Maltese painter (died 1752)

Gio Nicola Buhagiar was a Maltese painter.

17/05/1682

Bartholomew Roberts, Welsh pirate (died 1722)

Bartholomew Roberts, born John Roberts, was a Welsh pirate who was, measured by vessels captured, the most successful pirate of the Golden Age of Piracy. During his piratical career, he took over 400 prize ships, although most were mere fishing boats. Roberts raided ships off the Americas and the West African coast between 1719 and 1722; he is also noted for creating his own pirate code, and adopting an early variant of the Skull and Crossbones flag.

17/05/1636

Edward Colman, English Catholic courtier under Charles II (died 1678)

Edward Colman or Coleman was an English Catholic courtier under Charles II of England. He was hanged, drawn and quartered on a treason charge, having been implicated by Titus Oates in his false accusations concerning a Popish Plot. He is a Catholic martyr, beatified by Pope Pius XI in 1929.

17/05/1628

Ferdinand Charles, Archduke of Austria (died 1662)

Ferdinand Charles was the Archduke of Further Austria, including Tyrol, from 1632 to 1662. He was the firstborn son of Archduke Leopold V of Further Austria and Claudia de' Medici. Until 1646, his mother Claudia served as regent and de facto ruler. Ferdinand Charles was a patron of the arts with Italian opera performed at his court. Despite this, he was a poor ruler and lived an extravagant lifestyle, drained the treasury, and held illegal executions.

17/05/1610

Stefano della Bella, Italian engraver and etcher (died 1664)

Stefano della Bella was an Italian draughtsman and printmaker known for etchings of a great variety of subjects, including military and court scenes, landscapes, and lively genre scenes. He left 1052 prints, and several thousand drawings, but only one known painting. He was born and later died in Florence, Italy.

17/05/1568

Anna Vasa of Sweden, Swedish princess (died 1625)

Anna Vasa of Sweden was a Swedish princess heavily involved in the politics of that country and of Poland. She was starosta of Brodnica and Golub. The youngest child of King John III of Sweden and Catherine Jagiellon, she was close to her brother Sigismund Vasa, King of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania (1587–1632) and King of Sweden (1592–1599). Raised a Catholic, Anna converted to Lutheranism in 1584. Though she had several suitors, she remained unmarried.

17/05/1551

Martin Delrio, Belgian occultist and theologian (died 1601)

Martin Anton Delrio SJ was a Dutch Jesuit theologian. He studied at numerous institutions, receiving a master's degree in law from Salamanca in 1574. After a period of political service in the Spanish Netherlands, he became a Jesuit in 1580.

17/05/1500

Federico II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua (died 1540)

Federico II of Gonzaga was the ruler of the Italian city of Mantua from 1519 until his death. He was also Marquis of Montferrat from 1536.

17/05/1490

Albert, Duke of Prussia, last Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights (died 1568)

Albert of Prussia was a German prince who was the 37th grand master of the Teutonic Knights and, after converting to Lutheranism, became the first ruler of the Duchy of Prussia, the secularized state that emerged from the former Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights. Albert was the first European ruler to establish Lutheranism, and thus Protestantism, as the official state religion of his lands. He proved instrumental in the political spread of Protestantism in its early stage, ruling the Prussian lands for nearly six decades (1510–1568).

17/05/1451

Engelbert II of Nassau, Count of Nassau-Vianden and Lord of Breda (1475–1504) (died 1504)

Engelbert II of Nassau, Engelbrecht in Dutch, was count of Nassau and Vianden and lord of Breda, Lek, Diest, Roosendaal, Nispen and Wouw. He was a soldier and courtier, for some time leader of the Privy council of the Duchy of Burgundy and a significant patron of the arts.

17/05/1443

Edmund, Earl of Rutland (died 1460)

Edmund, Earl of Rutland, was the fourth child and second surviving son of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, and Cecily Neville. He was a younger brother of Edward, Earl of March, the future King Edward IV who came to the throne in 1461, the year after Edmund's death. He was born in Rouen, then the capital of English-occupied France and his father held the office of Lieutenant of France. He was killed at the age of 17 either during or shortly after the Battle of Wakefield, during the Wars of the Roses.

17/05/1155

Jien, Japanese monk, poet, and historian (died 1225)

Jien was a Japanese poet, historian, and Buddhist monk.

Lives Remembered on 17th May

On 17th May, 106 remarkable people passed away — from 528 to 2024. Remember the lives and legacies of those we lost on this day.

17/05/2024

Bud Anderson, American World War II flying ace (born 1922)

Clarence Emil "Bud" Anderson was an officer in the United States Air Force and a triple ace of World War II. During the war he was the highest scoring flying ace in his P-51 Mustang squadron.

Sid Going, New Zealand rugby union footballer (born 1943)

Sidney Milton Going was a New Zealand rugby union footballer. Dubbed Super Sid by his fans, he played 86 matches, including 29 tests, for the All Blacks between 1967 and 1977. He represented North Auckland domestically.

17/05/2022

Vangelis, Greek musician, composer (born 1943)

Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou, mainly known professionally as Vangelis, was a Greek composer, arranger, performer and producer of music. He released material of wide musical genres such as electronic music, progressive rock, ambient, and classical orchestral music. He is primarily known for his film scores, composing the Academy Award-winning score to Chariots of Fire (1981), as well as composing the scores of Blade Runner (1982), Missing (1982), Antarctica (1983), The Bounty (1984), 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992), and Alexander (2004), and the 1980 PBS documentary series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage by Carl Sagan.

17/05/2020

Lucky Peterson, American blues singer, keyboardist and guitarist (born 1964)

Judge Kenneth "Lucky" Peterson was an American musician who played contemporary blues, fusing soul, R&B, gospel and rock and roll. He was a vocalist, guitarist and keyboardist. Music journalist Tony Russell, in his book The Blues - From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray has said, "he may be the only blues musician to have had national television exposure in short pants."

17/05/2019

Herman Wouk, American author (born 1915)

Herman Wouk was an American author. He published 15 novels, many of them historical fiction such as The Caine Mutiny (1951), for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1952. Other well-known works included The Winds of War and War and Remembrance, the bildungsroman Marjorie Morningstar; and non-fiction such as This Is My God, an explanation of Judaism from a Modern Orthodox perspective, written for Jewish and non-Jewish readers. His books have been translated into 27 languages.

17/05/2017

Todor Veselinović, Serbian football player and manager (born 1930)

Todor "Toza" Veselinović was a Yugoslav and Serbian football manager and player.

17/05/2015

Lionel Pickens, American rapper (born 1983)

Lionel Du Fon Pickens, professionally known as Chinx, was an American rapper. He was a member of The Rockaway Riot Squad alongside fellow slain rapper Stack Bundles. Chinx later joined French Montana's Coke Boys Records, gaining recognition for his appearances on the Coke Boys mixtapes and the Cocaine Riot mixtape series. He was killed in a drive-by shooting in Jamaica, Queens on May 17, 2015. Two men have since been arrested in the case.

17/05/2014

Gerald Edelman, American biologist and immunologist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1929)

Gerald Maurice Edelman was an American biologist who shared the 1972 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for work with Rodney Robert Porter on the immune system. Edelman's Nobel Prize-winning research concerned discovery of the structure of antibody molecules. In interviews, he has said that the way the components of the immune system evolve over the life of the individual is analogous to the way the components of the brain evolve in a lifetime. There is a continuity in this way between his work on the immune system, for which he won the Nobel Prize, and his later work in neuroscience and in philosophy of mind.

C. P. Krishnan Nair, Indian businessman, founded The Leela Palaces, Hotels and Resorts (born 1922)

Captain Chittarath Poovakkatt Krishnan Nair was an Indian businessman who founded The Leela Group. He was a 2010 recipient of the Padma Bhushan, given by Government of India. He was sometimes popularly known as Captain Nair due to his service in the Indian Army.

Douangchay Phichit, Laotian politician (born 1944)

Lieutenant general Douangchay Phichit was a Laotian politician from Attapeu and a Politburo member of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party. He served as the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defense.

Thongbanh Sengaphone, Laotian politician (born 1953)

Thongbanh Sengaphone was a Laotian politician and member of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP). He served as Minister of Public Security and held seats in the LPRP's Central Committee and the Secretariat.

17/05/2013

Philippe Gaumont, French cyclist (born 1973)

Philippe Gaumont was a French professional road racing cyclist. He earned a bronze medal in the 1992 Summer Olympics, 100 km team time trial. In 1997, he won the Belgian classic Gent–Wevelgem and he was twice individual pursuit French national champion, in 2000 and 2002. In 2004, Gaumont quit professional cycling and later ran a café in Amiens.

Peter Schulz, German politician, Mayor of Hamburg (born 1930)

Peter Schulz was a German politician, member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and First Mayor of Hamburg.

Ken Venturi, American golfer and sportscaster (born 1931)

Kenneth Paul Venturi was an American professional golfer and golf broadcaster. In a career shortened by injuries, he won 14 events on the PGA Tour including a major, the U.S. Open in 1964. Shortly before his death in 2013, Venturi was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Jorge Rafael Videla, Argentine Commander in Chief and dictator (born 1925)

General Jorge Rafael Videla was an Argentine military dictator and the president of Argentina from 1976 to 1981 during the National Reorganization Process. His rule, which was during the time of Operation Condor, was among the most infamous in Latin America during the Cold War due to its high level of human rights abuses including abductions, torture, executions and systematic kidnapping of children from female prisoners, as well as severe economic mismanagement.

17/05/2012

Gideon Ezra, Israeli geographer and politician, Israeli Minister in the Prime Minister's Office (born 1937)

Gideon Ezra was an Israeli politician. He served as a member of the Knesset for Likud and Kadima between 1996 and 2012 and also held several ministerial portfolios.

Patrick Mafisango, Congolese-Rwandan footballer (born 1980)

Patrick Mutesa Mafisango was a Rwandan international footballer who played as a midfielder.

Donna Summer, American singer-songwriter (born 1948)

Donna Adrian Gaines, known professionally as Donna Summer, was an American singer and songwriter. She gained prominence during the disco era of the 1970s and became known as the "Queen of Disco", while her music gained a global following.

17/05/2011

Harmon Killebrew, American baseball player and sportscaster (born 1936)

Harmon Clayton Killebrew Jr., nicknamed "the Killer" and "Hammerin' Harmon", was an American professional baseball player as a first baseman, third baseman, and left fielder. He spent most of his 22-year career in Major League Baseball (MLB) with the Minnesota Twins. A prolific power hitter, Killebrew had the fifth-most home runs in major league history at the time of his retirement. He was second only to Babe Ruth in American League (AL) home runs, and was the AL career leader in home runs by a right-handed batter. Killebrew was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1984.

17/05/2010

Yvonne Loriod, French pianist, composer, and educator (born 1924)

Yvonne Louise Georgette Loriod-Messiaen was a French pianist, teacher, and composer, and the second wife of composer Olivier Messiaen. Her sister was the Ondes Martenot player Jeanne Loriod.

Walasse Ting, Chinese-American painter and poet (born 1929)

Walasse Ting was a Chinese-American visual artist and poet. His colorful paintings have attracted critical admiration and a popular following. Common subjects include nude women and cats, birds and other animals.

17/05/2009

Mario Benedetti, Uruguayan journalist, author, and poet (born 1920)

Mario Benedetti Farrugia, was a Uruguayan journalist, novelist, and poet and an integral member of the Generación del 45. Despite publishing more than 80 books and being published in twenty languages, he was not well known in the English-speaking world. In the Spanish-speaking world, he is considered one of Latin America's most important writers of the latter half of the 20th century.

Jung Seung-hye, South Korean journalist and producer (born 1965)

Jung Seung-hye was a South Korean film producer.

17/05/2007

Lloyd Alexander, American soldier and author (born 1924)

Lloyd Chudley Alexander was an American author of more than 40 books, primarily fantasy novels for children and young adults. Over his seven-decade career, Alexander wrote 48 books, and his work has been translated into 20 languages. His most famous work is The Chronicles of Prydain, a series of five high fantasy novels whose conclusion, The High King, was awarded the 1969 Newbery Medal for excellence in American children's literature. He won U.S. National Book Awards in 1971 and 1982.

T. K. Doraiswamy, Indian poet and author (born 1921)

T. K. Doraiswamy, also known by his pen name Nakulan, was an Indian poet, professor of English, novelist, translator and short fiction writer, who wrote both in Tamil and English, and is known for his surrealism and experimentation as well as free verse. He served as Professor of English, Mar Ivanios College, Thiruvananthapuram for four decades.

17/05/2006

Cy Feuer, American director, producer, and composer (born 1911)

Cyrus "Cy" Feuer was an American theatre producer, director, composer, musician, and half of the celebrated producing duo Feuer and Martin. He won three competitive Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre, and a Lifetime Achievement Tony Award. He was also nominated for Academy Awards as the producer of Storm Over Bengal and Cabaret.

17/05/2005

Frank Gorshin, American actor (born 1934)

Frank John Gorshin Jr. was an American actor, comedian and impressionist. He made many guest appearances on television variety and talk shows, including The Ed Sullivan Show, Tonight Starring Steve Allen, The Dean Martin Show and Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

17/05/2004

Jørgen Nash, Danish poet and painter (born 1920)

Jørgen Nash was a Danish artist, writer and central proponent of Situationism.

Tony Randall, American actor (born 1920)

Anthony Leonard Randall was an American actor, comedian, director, producer and singer, active in film, television and stage.

Ezzedine Salim, Iraqi politician (born 1943)

Ezzedine Salim, also known as Abdelzahra Othman Mohammed, was an Iraqi politician, author, educator, Islamist theorist and one of the leading members of the Iraqi Dawa Movement between 1980 and 2004. He served as the President of the Governing Council of Iraq for sixteen days in 2004.

17/05/2002

László Kubala, Hungarian-Spanish footballer, coach, and manager (born 1927)

László Kubala was a professional footballer. He played as a forward for Ferencváros, Slovan Bratislava, Barcelona, and Espanyol, among other clubs. Regarded as one of the greatest players in history, Kubala is considered a hero of Barcelona. He was born in Hungary but also had Czechoslovak and Spanish citizenship, and played for the national teams of all three countries.

Aşık Mahzuni Şerif, Turkish poet and composer (born 1940)

Şerif Cırık, popularly known as Aşık Mahsuni Şerif, was a Turkish ashik, folk musician, composer, poet, and author. Aşık is a title used to indicate his position as a respected musician and his relationship with Alevism.

17/05/2001

Jacques-Louis Lions, French mathematician (born 1928)

Jacques-Louis Lions was a French mathematician who made contributions to the theory of partial differential equations and to stochastic control, among other areas. He received the SIAM's John von Neumann Lecture prize in 1986 and numerous other distinctions. Lions is listed as an ISI highly cited researcher.

Frank G. Slaughter, American physician and author (born 1908)

Frank Gill Slaughter, pen-name Frank G. Slaughter, pseudonym C. V. Terry, was an American novelist and physician whose books sold more than 60 million copies. His novels drew on his own experience as a doctor and his interest in history and the Bible. Through his novels, he often introduced readers to new findings in medical research and new medical technologies.

17/05/2000

Donald Coggan, English archbishop (born 1909)

Frederick Donald Coggan, Baron Coggan, was the 101st Archbishop of Canterbury from 1974 to 1980. As Archbishop of Canterbury, he "revived morale within the Church of England, opened a dialogue with Rome and supported women's ordination". He had previously been successively the Bishop of Bradford and the Archbishop of York.

17/05/1999

Bruce Fairbairn, Canadian trumpet player and producer (born 1949)

Bruce Earl Fairbairn was a Canadian musician and record producer.

Lembit Oll, Estonian chess Grandmaster (born 1966)

Lembit Oll was an Estonian chess grandmaster.

17/05/1996

Kevin Gilbert, American singer-songwriter and producer (born 1966)

Kevin Matthew Gilbert was an American singer, songwriter, musician, composer, and producer. He was best known for his solo progressive rock projects, Toy Matinee and his contributions to Tuesday Night Music Club (1993), the debut studio album of Sheryl Crow. Kevin Gilbert was found dead at his Los Angeles-area home on May 18, 1996, at the age of 29.

17/05/1995

Toe Blake, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (born 1912)

Joseph Hector "Toe" Blake was a Canadian ice hockey player and coach in the National Hockey League (NHL). Blake played in the NHL from 1935 to 1948 with the Montreal Maroons and Montreal Canadiens. He led the NHL in scoring in 1939, while also winning the Hart Trophy for most valuable player, and served as captain of the Canadiens from 1940 to his retirement. He won the Stanley Cup three times as a player: in 1935 with the Maroons, and in 1944 and 1946 with the Canadiens. While with the Canadiens, Blake played on a line with Elmer Lach and Maurice Richard which was dubbed the Punch line, as all three were highly-skilled players. In 2017, Blake was named one of the '100 Greatest NHL Players' in history. He was also known as "The Old Lamplighter" due to his skill for putting the puck in the net.

17/05/1992

Lawrence Welk, American accordion player and bandleader (born 1903)

Lawrence Welk was an American accordionist, bandleader, and television impresario, who hosted The Lawrence Welk Show from 1951 to 1982. The program was known for its light and family-friendly style, and the easy listening music featured became known as "champagne music" to his radio, television, and live-performance audiences.

17/05/1987

Gunnar Myrdal, Swedish economist, sociologist, and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1898)

Karl Gunnar Myrdal was a Swedish economist and sociologist. In 1974, he received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences along with Friedrich Hayek for "their pioneering work in the theory of money and economic fluctuations and for their penetrating analysis of the interdependence of economic, social and institutional phenomena." When his wife, Alva Myrdal, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1982, they became the fourth ever married couple to have won Nobel Prizes, and the first and only to win independent of each other.

17/05/1985

Abe Burrows, American director, composer, and author (born 1910)

Abe Burrows was an American writer, composer, humorist, director for radio and the stage, and librettist for Broadway musicals. His versatile career in radio, Broadway, and television spanned many decades. He is best known for co-writing the book to the award-winning musicals Guys and Dolls and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

17/05/1980

Gündüz Kılıç, Turkish football player and coach (born 1918)

"Baba" Gündüz Kılıç was a Turkish football player and coach. He was Ali Kılıç's son and Altemur Kılıç's brother.

17/05/1977

Charles E. Rosendahl, American admiral and pilot (born 1892)

Charles Emery Rosendahl was a highly decorated vice admiral in the United States Navy, and an advocate of lighter-than-air flight.

17/05/1974

Ernest Nash, German-American photographer and scholar (born 1898)

Ernest Nash was a student of Roman architecture and pioneer of archaeological photography. Nash was born as Ernst Nathan in Potsdam, Germany, but later changed his name to Nash when he was living in the United States between 1939 and 1952.

17/05/1964

Nandor Fodor, Hungarian-American psychologist and parapsychologist (born 1895)

Nandor Fodor was a British and American parapsychologist, psychoanalyst, author and journalist of Hungarian origin.

17/05/1963

John Wilce, American football player, coach, and physician (born 1888)

John Woodworth Wilce was an American college football player and coach, physician, and university professor. He served as the head football coach at Ohio State University from 1913 to 1928, compiling a record of 78–33–9. Wilce coached Chic Harley and led Ohio State to their first win over rival Michigan, in 1919. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1954.

17/05/1960

Jules Supervielle, Uruguayan-French poet and author (born 1884)

Jules Supervielle was a Franco-Uruguayan poet and writer born in Montevideo. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature three times.

17/05/1951

William Birdwood, Anglo-Indian field marshal (born 1865)

Field Marshal William Riddell Birdwood, 1st Baron Birdwood, was a senior and highly decorated and distinguished British Indian Army officer. He saw active service in the Second Boer War on the staff of Lord Kitchener. Birdwood saw action again in the First World War, initially as commander of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps during the Gallipoli campaign in 1915, leading the landings on the peninsula and then the evacuation later in the year, before becoming commander of the Australian Corps and the Fifth Army on the Western Front during the closing stages of the war. He then went on to be general officer commanding the Northern Army in India in 1920 and Commander-in-Chief, India, in 1925, and retired as a field marshal.

17/05/1947

George Forbes, New Zealand farmer and politician, 22nd Prime Minister of New Zealand (born 1869)

George William Forbes was a New Zealand politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of New Zealand from 28 May 1930 to 6 December 1935. He was the last leader of the remnant of the Liberal Party having entered the House of Representatives in 1908 as a Radical in that Party. Forbes was a co-founder of the United Party in 1927. Later he was a founder of the New Zealand National Party in 1936 and the Party's first parliamentary leader.

17/05/1943

Johanna Elberskirchen, German author and activist (born 1864)

Johanna Elberskirchen was a feminist writer and activist for the rights of women, gays and lesbians as well as blue-collar workers. She published books on women's sexuality and health among other topics. Her last known public appearance was in 1930 in Vienna, where she gave a talk at a conference organised by the World League for Sexual Reform. She was open about her own homosexuality which made her a somewhat exceptional figure in the feminist movement of her time. Her career as an activist was ended in 1933, when the Nazi Party rose to power. There is no public record of a funeral but witnesses report that Elberskirchen's urn was secretly put into the grave of Hildegard Moniac, who had been her life partner.

17/05/1938

Jakob Ehrlich, Czech-Austrian academic and politician (born 1877)

Jakob Ehrlich was an early Zionist and leader of the Jewish Community in Vienna, Austria. Ehrlich represented the city's 180,000 Jewish citizens in the city government before World War II, and was among those deported in the "Prominententransport" to the Nazi concentration camp at Dachau, soon after the German army entered Vienna in March 1938. He died in Dachau a few weeks later, from beatings. His wife, Irma Hutter Ehrlich emigrated to England, then the USA with their son where she was active in the rescue of Jewish children from Europe, working with WIZO and Hadassah.

17/05/1936

Panagis Tsaldaris, Greek lawyer and politician, 124th Prime Minister of Greece (born 1868)

Panagis Tsaldaris was a Greek politician who served as Prime Minister of Greece twice. He was a revered conservative politician and leader for many years (1922–1936) of the conservative People's Party in the period before World War II. He was the husband of Lina Tsaldari, a Greek suffragist, member of Parliament, and the Minister for Social Welfare.

17/05/1935

Paul Dukas, French composer, critic, and educator (born 1865)

Paul Abraham Dukas was a French composer, critic, scholar and teacher. A studious man of retiring personality, he was intensely self-critical and abandoned and destroyed many of his compositions. His best-known work is the orchestral piece The Sorcerer's Apprentice, the fame of which has eclipsed that of his other surviving works, largely due to its usage in the 1940 Disney film Fantasia. Among these are the opera Ariane et Barbe-bleue, his Symphony in C and Piano Sonata in E-flat minor, the Variations, Interlude and Finale on a Theme by Rameau, and a ballet, La Péri.

17/05/1934

Cass Gilbert, American architect (born 1859)

Cass Gilbert was an American architect. An early proponent of skyscrapers, his works include the Woolworth Building, the United States Supreme Court building, the state capitols of Minnesota, Arkansas, and West Virginia, the Detroit Public Library, the Saint Louis Art Museum and Public Library. His public buildings in the Beaux Arts style reflect the optimistic American sense that the nation was heir to Greek democracy, Roman law and Renaissance humanism. Gilbert's achievements were recognized in his lifetime; he served as president of the American Institute of Architects in 1908–09.

17/05/1927

Harold Geiger, American pilot and lieutenant (born 1884)

Major Harold Geiger was an American military officer and pioneer U.S. Army aviator, who was killed in an airplane crash in 1927. He was U.S. military aviator number 6. He was also a balloonist. Spokane International Airport is designated with the International Air Transport Association airport code GEG in his memory.

17/05/1922

Dorothy Levitt, English racing driver and journalist (born 1882)

Dorothy Elizabeth Levitt was a British racing driver and journalist. She was the first British woman racing driver, holder of the world's first water speed record, the women's world land speed record holder, and an author. She was a pioneer of female independence and female motoring and taught Queen Alexandra and the Royal Princesses how to drive. In 1905, she established the record for the longest drive achieved by a lady driver by driving a De Dion-Bouton from London to Liverpool and back over two days, receiving the soubriquets in the press of the Fastest Girl on Earth, and the Champion Lady Motorist of the World.

17/05/1921

Karl Mantzius, Danish actor and director (born 1860)

Karl Mantzius was a Danish actor, stage and film director, theatre scholar, and operatic baritone.

17/05/1919

Guido von List, Austrian-German journalist, author, and poet (born 1848)

Guido Karl Anton List, better known as Guido von List, was an Austrian occultist, journalist, playwright, and novelist. He expounded a modern Pagan new religious movement known as Wotanism, which he claimed was the revival of the religion of the ancient German race, and which included an inner set of Ariosophical teachings that he termed Armanism.

17/05/1917

Clara Ayres, American nurse (born 1880)

Clara Ayres was an American nurse who joined the United States Army during the First World War. Ayres and Helen Burnett Wood were the first two women to be killed while serving in the United States military, following an explosion on USS Mongolia on May 17, 1917.

Charles Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak (born 1829)

Sir Charles Anthoni Johnson Brooke was the head of state of Sarawak from 3 August 1868 until his death. He succeeded his uncle, James Brooke, who was the first of the so-called "White Rajahs" of Sarawak.

17/05/1916

Boris Borisovich Golitsyn, Russian physicist and seismologist (born 1862)

Prince Boris Borisovich Golitsyn was a prominent Russian Empire physicist who invented the first electromagnetic seismograph in 1906. He was one of the founders of modern seismology. In 1911 he was chosen to be the president of the International Seismology Association.

17/05/1911

Frederick August Otto Schwarz, German-American businessman, founded FAO Schwarz (born 1836)

Frederick August Otto Schwarz was a German-born American toy retailer known for founding FAO Schwarz.

17/05/1888

Giacomo Zanella, Italian priest and poet (born 1820)

Giacomo Zanella was an Italian poet.

17/05/1886

John Deere, American blacksmith and businessman, founded the Deere & Company (born 1804)

John Deere was an American blacksmith, businessman, inventor and politician. He founded Deere & Company, one of the largest and leading agricultural and construction-equipment manufacturers in the world. Born in Rutland, Vermont, Deere moved to Illinois and invented the first commercially successful steel plow in 1837.

17/05/1880

Ziya Pasha, Greek author and translator (born 1826)

Ziya Pasha, the pseudonym of Abdul Hamid Ziyaeddin, was an Ottoman writer, translator and administrator. He was one of the most important authors during the Tanzimat period of the Ottoman Empire, along with İbrahim Şinasi and Namık Kemal.

17/05/1879

Asa Packer, American businessman, founded Lehigh University (born 1805)

Asa Packer was an American businessman who pioneered railroad construction, was active in Pennsylvania politics, and founded Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He was a conservative and religious man who reflected the image of the typical Connecticut Yankee. He served two terms in the United States House of Representatives from 1853 to 1857.

17/05/1875

John C. Breckinridge, American lawyer and politician, 14th Vice President of the United States, Confederate States general (born 1821)

John Cabell Breckinridge was an American politician who served as the 14th vice president of the United States, with President James Buchanan, from 1857 to 1861, and as a general in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. Assuming office at the age of 36, Breckinridge is the youngest vice president in U.S. history. He was also the Southern Democratic candidate in the 1860 presidential election, losing to antislavery Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln.

17/05/1868

Kondō Isami, Japanese commander (born 1834)

Kondō Isami was a Japanese swordsman and samurai of the late Edo period. He was the fourth generation master of Tennen Rishin-ryū and was famed for his role as commander of the Shinsengumi.

17/05/1839

Archibald Alison, Scottish priest and author (born 1757)

Archibald Alison was a Scottish Anglican priest and essayist.

17/05/1838

René Caillié, French explorer and author (born 1799)

Auguste René Caillié was a French explorer and the first European to return alive from the town of Timbuktu. Caillié had been preceded at Timbuktu by a British officer, Major Gordon Laing, who was murdered in September 1826 on leaving the city. Caillié was therefore the first to return alive.

Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, French politician, Prime Minister of France (born 1754)

Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, 1st Prince of Benevento, then Prince of Talleyrand, was a French secularized clergyman, statesman, and leading diplomat. After studying theology, he became Agent-General of the Clergy in 1780. In 1789, just before the French Revolution, he became Bishop of Autun. He worked at the highest levels of successive French governments, most commonly as foreign minister or in some other diplomatic capacity. He served as the French representative to the Congress of Vienna. His career spanned the regimes of Louis XVI, the years of the French Revolution, Napoleon, Louis XVIII, Charles X, and Louis Philippe I. Those Talleyrand served often distrusted him but found him extremely useful. The name "Talleyrand" has become a byword for crafty and cynical diplomacy.

17/05/1829

John Jay, American politician and diplomat, 1st Chief Justice of the United States (born 1745)

John Jay was an American statesman, diplomat, signatory of the Treaty of Paris, and a Founding Father of the United States. He served from 1789 to 1795 as the first chief justice of the United States and from 1795 to 1801 as the second governor of New York. Jay directed U.S. foreign policy for much of the 1780s and was an important leader of the Federalist Party after the ratification of the United States Constitution in 1788.

17/05/1822

Armand-Emmanuel de Vignerot du Plessis, Duc de Richelieu, French general and politician, 2nd Prime Minister of France (born 1766)

Armand Emmanuel Sophie Septimanie de Vignerot du Plessis, 5th Duke of Richelieu and Fronsac, was a French statesman during the Bourbon Restoration. He was known by the courtesy title of Count of Chinon until 1788, then Duke of Fronsac until 1791, when he succeeded his father as Duke of Richelieu.

17/05/1809

Leopold Auenbrugger, Austrian physician (born 1722)

Josef Leopold Auenbrugger or Avenbrugger, also known as Leopold von Auenbrugger, was an Austrian physician who invented percussion as a diagnostic technique. On the strength of this discovery, he is considered one of the founders of modern medicine.

17/05/1807

John Gunby, American general (born 1745)

John Gunby was an American planter and soldier from Somerset County, Maryland, who is considered by many to be "one of the most gallant officers of the Maryland Line under Gen. Smallwood". He entered service volunteering as a minuteman in 1775 and fought for the American cause until the end earning praise as probably the most brilliant soldier whom Maryland contributed to the War of Independence. Gunby was also the grandfather of Senator Ephraim King Wilson II.

17/05/1801

William Heberden, English physician and scholar (born 1710)

William Heberden FRS was an English physician.

17/05/1797

Michel-Jean Sedaine, French playwright and composer (born 1719)

Michel-Jean Sedaine was a French dramatist and librettist, especially noted for his librettos for opéras comiques, in which he took an important and influential role in the advancement of the genre from the period of Charles-Simon Favart to the beginning of the Revolution.

17/05/1765

Alexis Clairaut, French mathematician, astronomer, and geophysicist (born 1713)

Alexis Claude Clairaut was a French mathematician, astronomer, and physicist. He was a prominent Newtonian whose work helped to establish the validity of the principles and results that Sir Isaac Newton had outlined in the Principia of 1687. Clairaut was one of the key figures in the expedition to the Lapland that helped to confirm Newton's deduction of the figure of the Earth. In that context, Clairaut deduced what is now known as Clairaut's theorem. He also tackled the gravitational three-body problem, being the first to obtain a satisfactory result for the apsidal precession of the Moon's orbit. In mathematics he is also credited with Clairaut's theorem on mixed partial derivatives, Clairaut's equation, and Clairaut's relation in differential geometry.

17/05/1729

Samuel Clarke, English clergyman and philosopher (born 1675)

Samuel Clarke was an English philosopher and Anglican priest. He is considered the major British figure in philosophy between John Locke and George Berkeley. Clarke's altered, Nontrinitarian revision of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer continues to influence worship among modern Unitarians.

17/05/1727

Catherine I of Russia (born 1684)

Catherine I was Empress of Russia from 8 February 1725 until her death in 1727. She was previously empress consort of Russia from 1721 to 1725 as the second wife of Peter the Great, and tsaritsa consort from 1712 to 1721.

17/05/1643

Giovanni Picchi, Italian organist and composer (born 1571)

Giovanni Picchi was an Italian composer, organist, lutenist, and harpsichordist of the early Baroque era. He was a late follower of the Venetian School, and was influential in the development and differentiation of instrumental forms which were just beginning to appear, such as the sonata and the ensemble canzona; in addition he was the only Venetian of his time to write dance music for harpsichord.

17/05/1626

Joan Pau Pujol, Catalan organist and composer (born 1570)

Joan Pau Pujol was a Catalan and Spanish composer and organist of the late Renaissance and early Baroque. While best known for his sacred music, he also wrote popular secular music.

17/05/1607

Anna d'Este, French princess (born 1531)

Anna d'Este was an important princess with considerable influence at the court of France and a central figure in the French Wars of Religion. In her first marriage, she was Duchess of Aumale, then of Guise, in her second marriage, Duchess of Nemours and Genevois.

17/05/1606

False Dmitriy I, pretender to the Russian throne (born 1582)

False Dmitry I or Pseudo-Demetrius I reigned as the Tsar of all Russia from 10 June 1605 until his death on 17 May 1606 under the name of Dmitriy Ivanovich. Dmitry ascended to the throne after the deposition of Tsar Feodor II and ruled for 11 months before he was assassinated in the 1606 Moscow Uprising and replaced with Tsar Vasili IV. Dmitry was a pretender who impersonated Dmitry of Uglich, a son of Ivan the Terrible, and his reign formed part of the Time of Troubles.

17/05/1575

Matthew Parker, English archbishop and academic (born 1504)

Matthew Parker was an English bishop. He was the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Church of England from 1559 to his death. He was also an influential theologian and arguably the co-founder of a distinctive tradition of Anglican theological thought.

17/05/1558

Francisco de Sá de Miranda, Portuguese poet (born 1485)

Francisco de Sá de Miranda was a Portuguese poet of the Renaissance.

17/05/1551

Shin Saimdang, South Korean poet and calligraphist (born 1504)

Shin Saimdang was a Korean artist, writer, calligraphist, and poet, who lived during the Joseon period. She was born in Gangneung, Gangwon Province. Her birth home, Ojukheon, which is also her maternal family's home, is well-preserved to this day. She was the mother of the Korean Confucian scholar Yi I. Often held up as a model of Confucian ideals, her respectful nickname was Eojin. Her real name was Shin In-seon. Her pen names were Saim, Saimdang, Inimdang, and Imsajae.

17/05/1546

Philipp von Hutten, German explorer (born 1511)

Philipp von Hutten was a German adventurer and an early European explorer and conquistador of Venezuela. He is a significant figure in the history of Klein-Venedig, the concession of Venezuela Province to the Welser banking family by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain.

17/05/1536

George Boleyn, 2nd Viscount Rochford, English courtier and diplomat, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports (born 1504)

George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford was an English courtier and nobleman who played a prominent role in the politics of the early 1530s as the brother of Anne Boleyn, second wife of King Henry VIII. George was the maternal uncle of Queen Elizabeth I, although he died long before his niece ascended the throne. Following his father's promotion in the peerage in 1529 to Earl of Wiltshire and Earl of Ormond, he adopted his father's junior title Viscount Rochford as a courtesy title. He was accused of incest with his sister Anne during the period of her trial for high treason, as a result of which both were executed.

William Brereton, English courtier (born 1487)

William Brereton, c. 1487/1490 – 17 May 1536, was a member of a prominent Cheshire family who served as a courtier to Henry VIII. In May 1536, Brereton was accused of committing adultery with Anne Boleyn, the king's second wife, and executed for treason along with her brother George Boleyn, Henry Norris, Francis Weston and a musician, Mark Smeaton. Most historians are now of the opinion that Anne Boleyn, Brereton and their co-accused were innocent.

Henry Norris, English courtier (born 1482)

Henry Norris was an English courtier who was Groom of the Stool in the privy chamber of King Henry VIII. While a close servant of the King, he also supported the faction in court led by Queen Anne Boleyn, and when Anne fell out of favour, he was among those accused of treason and adultery with her. He was found guilty and executed, together with the Queen's brother, George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford, Sir Francis Weston, William Brereton and Mark Smeaton. Most historical authorities argue that the accusations were untrue and part of a plot to get rid of Anne.

17/05/1521

Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, Welsh politician, Lord High Constable of England (born 1478)

Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham KG KB was an English nobleman. He was the son of Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and Katherine Woodville and nephew of Elizabeth Woodville and King Edward IV. Thus, Edward Stafford was a first cousin once removed of King Henry VIII. He frequently attended the courts of Henry VII and Henry VIII. He was convicted of treason and executed on 17 May 1521.

17/05/1510

Sandro Botticelli, Italian painter (born 1445)

Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, better known as Sandro Botticelli or simply Botticelli, was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. Botticelli's posthumous reputation suffered until the late 19th century, when he was rediscovered by the Pre-Raphaelites who stimulated a reappraisal of his work. Since then, his paintings have been seen to represent the linear grace of late Italian Gothic and some Early Renaissance painting, even though they date from the latter half of the Italian Renaissance period.

17/05/1464

Thomas de Ros, 9th Baron de Ros, English politician (born 1427)

Thomas Ros or Roos, 9th Baron Ros of Helmsley was a follower of the House of Lancaster during the Wars of the Roses.

17/05/1395

Konstantin Dejanović/Constantine Dragaš, Serbian ruler (born 1355)

Konstantin (Kostadin) Dejanović or Konstantin Dragaš was a Serbian magnate that ruled a large province in eastern Macedonia under Ottoman suzerainty, during the fall of the Serbian Empire. He succeeded his older brother Jovan Dragaš, who had been an Ottoman vassal since the Battle of Maritsa (1371) which had devastated part of the Serbian nobility. The brothers had their own government and minted coins according to the Nemanjić style. His daughter Jelena married Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos in 1392. He fell at the Battle of Rovine, serving the Ottomans against Wallachia, fighting alongside Serbian magnates Stefan Lazarević and Marko Mrnjavčević.

17/05/1365

Louis II, Elector of Brandenburg (born 1328)

Louis the Roman was the eldest son of Holy Roman Emperor Louis IV by his second wife, Margaret II, Countess of Hainaut, and a member of the House of Wittelsbach. Louis was Duke of Upper Bavaria as Louis VI (1347–1365) and Margrave of Brandenburg (1351–1365) as Louis II. As of 1356, he also served as Prince-Elector of Brandenburg.

17/05/1336

Go-Fushimi, emperor of Japan (born 1288)

Emperor Go-Fushimi was the 93rd emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. His reign spanned the years from 1298 to 1301.

17/05/1299

Daumantas of Pskov, Lithuanian prince (born c. 1240)

Daumantas was a Lithuanian nobleman who reigned as Prince of Pskov from 1266 until he died in 1299. Originally a Duke of Nalšia in the Kingdom of Lithuania, Daumantas fled internal political conflict and sought refuge in Pskov, eventually becoming its ruler. Under his leadership, Pskov asserted greater political autonomy and achieved de facto independence from Novgorod.

17/05/1296

Agnes of Bohemia, Duchess of Austria (born 1269)

Agnes of Bohemia was a Bohemian princess, Countess of Habsburg, and Duchess of Austria.

17/05/0946

Al-Qa'im bi-Amr Allah, Fatimid caliph (born 893)

Abū al-Qāsim Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh, better known by his regnal name al-Qāʾim (القائم) or al-Qāʾim bi-Amr Allāh, was the twelfth Isma'ili Imam and second caliph of the Fatimid dynasty, ruling in Ifriqiya from 934 to 946, succeeding his father Abd Allah al-Mahdi Billah.

17/05/0924

Li Maozhen, Chinese warlord and king (born 856)

Li Maozhen, born Song Wentong (宋文通), courtesy name Zhengchen (正臣), formally Prince Zhongjing of Qin (秦忠敬王), was the only ruler of the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period state Qi (901–924). He had become a powerful warlord during the reign of Emperor Zhaozong of Tang, the penultimate emperor of the preceding Tang dynasty, with his power centered on his capital Fengxiang, and at times had effective control of Emperor Zhaozong. However, his power gradually waned due to defeats at the hands of fellow warlords Wang Jian and Zhu Quanzhong. After Zhu usurped the Tang throne and established Later Liang, Li Maozhen refused to submit and continued to use the Tang-bestowed title of Prince of Qi as well as maintain the Tang era name, but his territory became even more reduced due to wars with Former Shu and Later Liang. After Later Liang was conquered by Later Tang, whose Emperor Zhuangzong claimed to be a legitimate successor of Tang, Li Maozhen submitted as a subject and was created the Prince of Qin in 924. He died soon thereafter, and was succeeded as by his son Li Jiyan as the military governor (Jiedushi) of Fengxiang, but as Li Jiyan was not made the Prince of Qi or Qin at that point, this was typically viewed as the end of Qi as an independent state.

17/05/0896

Liu Jianfeng, Chinese warlord

Liu Jianfeng, courtesy name Ruiduan (銳端), was a Chinese military general and politician during the Tang dynasty. He controlled Wu'an Circuit from 894 to his death in 896.

17/05/0528

Empress Dowager Hu of Northern Wei

Empress Dowager Hu, formally Empress Ling (靈皇后), was an empress dowager of the Xianbei-led Chinese Northern Wei dynasty (515–528). She was a concubine of Emperor Xuanwu, and she became regent and empress dowager after her son Emperor Xiaoming became emperor after Emperor Xuanwu's death in 515. She was considered to be intelligent but overly lenient, and during her regency, many agrarian rebellions occurred while corruption raged among imperial officials. In 528, she was believed to have poisoned her son Emperor Xiaoming after he tried to have her lover Zheng Yan (鄭儼) executed. This caused the general Erzhu Rong to attack and capture the capital Luoyang. Erzhu threw her into the Yellow River to drown.

Yuan Yong, imperial prince of Northern Wei

Yuan Yong (元雍), né Tuoba Yong (拓跋雍), courtesy name Simu (思穆), formally Prince Wenmu of Gaoyang (高陽文穆王), was an imperial prince of the Xianbei-led Chinese Northern Wei dynasty. He was very powerful during the reign of his grandnephew Emperor Xiaoming, and by corrupt means grew very rich. This, however, drew resentment from the populace, and after Emperor Xiaoming's death in 528 and the subsequent overthrowing of Emperor Xiaoming's mother Empress Dowager Hu by the general Erzhu Rong, Erzhu had him and over 2,000 other officials slaughtered at Heyin.

Yuan Zhao, emperor of Northern Wei (born 526)

Yuan Zhao, also known in historiography as Youzhu of Northern Wei, was briefly an emperor of the Xianbei-led Chinese Northern Wei dynasty.

Celebrations & Special Days Worldwide on 17th May

Birthday of the Raja (Perlis)

Public holidays in Malaysia are regulated at both federal and state levels, mainly based on a list of federal holidays observed nationwide plus a few additional holidays observed by each individual state and federal territory. The public holidays are a mix of secular holidays celebrating the nation and its history, and selected traditional holidays of the various ethnic and religious groups that make up the country.

Christian feast day: Giulia Salzano

Giulia Salzano was an Italian Roman Catholic professed religious and the founder of the Catechetical Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (1905). Salzano served as a teacher prior to becoming a religious and since 1865 worked in Casoria as a teacher for children where she demonstrated herself as an apt catechist and instructor.

Christian feast day: Blessed Ivan Ziatyk

Beatification is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their name. Beati is the plural form, referring to those who have undergone the process of beatification; they possess the title of "Blessed" before their names and are often referred to in English as "a Blessed" or, plurally, "Blesseds".

Christian feast day: Paschal Baylon

Paschal Baylón was a Spanish Catholic religious brother in the Order of Friars Minor.

Christian feast day: Peter Lieou

Peter Lieou also known as Liu Wenyuan Petrus / Baiduo / Peter Liu Wenyuan was Chinese Catholic convert, layman, missionary and a martyr. He was exiled and was strangled to death in a prison for being a Christian and preaching Christianity in China.

Christian feast day: William Hobart Hare (Episcopal Church (USA))

William Hobart Hare was an American bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church.

Christian feast day: Restituta

Restituta is a Berber saint and martyr of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches. She was said to have been born in Carthage or Teniza and martyred under Roman Emperor Diocletian. The location and date of her martyrdom are not precisely known. She sometimes is considered one of the Martyrs of Abitinae, Roman Province of Africa, a group of North Africans including Dativus, Saturninus, et alia, who were martyred in AD 304.

Christian feast day: May 17 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

May 16 - Eastern Orthodox Church calendar - May 18

Children's Day (Norway)

Children's Day is a commemorative date celebrated annually in honour of children, whose date of observance varies by country. In 1925, International Children's Day was first proclaimed in Geneva during the World Conference on Child Welfare. Since 1950, it is celebrated on 1 June in many countries that were part of the Eastern Bloc and Non-Aligned Movement, which follow the suggestion from Women's International Democratic Federation. World Children's Day is celebrated on 20 November to commemorate the issuance of the Declaration of the Rights of the Child by the UN General Assembly on 20 November 1959, along with the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child on that date in 1989. In some countries, it is Children's Week and not Children's Day.

Constitution Day (Nauru)

Constitution Day is a holiday to honour the constitution of a country. Constitution Day is often celebrated on the anniversary of the signing, promulgation or adoption of the constitution, or in some cases, to commemorate the change to constitutional monarchy.

Constitution Day (Norway)

Constitution Day is the National Day of Norway, observed annually with an official public holiday on 17 May. Among Norwegians, the day is referred to as Syttende mai, Nasjonaldagen, or Grunnlovsdagen, although the latter is less frequent.

Feast of ‘Aẓamat (Baháʼí Faith, day shifts with March Equinox, see List of observances set by the Baháʼí calendar)

The Baháʼí calendar used in the Baháʼí Faith is a solar calendar consisting of nineteen months and four or five intercalary days, with new year at the moment of Northern spring equinox. Each month is named after a virtue, as are the days of the week. The first year is dated from 1844 CE, the year in which the Báb began teaching.

Galician Literature Day or Día das Letras Galegas (Galicia)

Galician Literature Day is a public holiday observed in Galicia, Spain. It is a celebration of the Galician language and its literature which was inaugurated by the Royal Galician Academy in 1963. This celebration has taken place on May 17 each year since 1963. In the year 1991 Galician Literature Day was declared a public holiday in all Galicia.

International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia

The International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT) , also called International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia (IDAHOTB), is observed on 17 May and aims to coordinate international events that raise awareness of LGBTQ rights violations and stimulate interest in LGBTQ rights work worldwide. By 2016, the commemorations had taken place in over 130 countries.

Liberation Day (Democratic Republic of the Congo)

Liberation Day is a day, often a public holiday, that marks the liberation of a place, similar to an independence day, but differing from it because it does not involve the original creation of statehood. It commemorates the end of an occupation or the fall of a regime or the liberation from both a foreign occupation and a collaborationist regime.

Navy Day (Argentina)

Several nations observe or have observed a Navy Day to recognize their navy.

World Hypertension Day

World Hypertension Day (WHD) is a day designated and initiated by The World Hypertension League (WHL), which is itself an umbrella to organizations of 85 national hypertension societies and leagues. The day was initiated to increase the awareness of hypertension. This was especially important because of the lack of appropriate knowledge among hypertensive patients. The WHL launched its first WHD on May 14, 2005. Since 2006, the WHL has been dedicating May 17 of every year as WHD.

World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (International)

World Telecommunication and Information Society Day is an international day proclaimed in November 2006 by the International Telecommunication Union Plenipotentiary Conference in Antalya, Turkey, to be celebrated annually on 17 May.

What Happened on 17th May?

60 significant events took place on Wednesday, 17th May — stretching from 352 to 2014. Explore the moments that shaped history on this day.

17/05/2014

A military plane crash in northern Laos kills 17 people.

On 17 May 2014, an Antonov An-74 transport aircraft of the Lao People's Liberation Army Air Force crashed while en route to Xiangkhouang Province, northern Laos, killing all but one of the 17 people on board. Among the victims were several Laotian politicians travelling to attend a ceremony celebrating the 55th anniversary of the second division of the Lao People's Army.

17/05/2010

Pamir Airways Flight 112 crashes in Afghanistan's Shakardara District, killing 44.

Pamir Airways Flight 112 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Kunduz Airport, Kunduz to Kabul International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. On 17 May 2010, the flight operated by an Antonov An-24 crashed into terrain shortly before it was scheduled to land in Kabul, killing all 39 passengers and 5 crew.

17/05/2007

Trains from North and South Korea cross the 38th Parallel in a test-run agreed by both governments. This is the first time that trains have crossed the Demilitarized Zone since 1953.

North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu (Amnok) and Tumen rivers, and South Korea to the south at the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). The country's western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eastern border is defined by the Sea of Japan. Pyongyang is the capital and largest city.

17/05/2006

The aircraft carrier USS Oriskany is sunk in the Gulf of Mexico as an artificial reef.

USS Oriskany (CV/CVA-34) was one of the few Essex-class aircraft carriers completed after World War II for the United States Navy. The ship was named for the Battle of Oriskany during the Revolutionary War.

17/05/2004

The first legal same-sex marriages in the U.S. are performed in the state of Massachusetts.

Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage or same-gender marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same legal sex or gender. As of 2026, marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 38 countries, with a total population of 1.5 billion people. The most recent jurisdiction to legalize same-sex marriage is Thailand.

17/05/2000

Arsenal and Galatasaray fans clash in the 2000 UEFA Cup Final riots in Copenhagen.

The Arsenal Football Club is an English professional football club based in Islington, North London, England. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Domestically, Arsenal have won 14 league titles, a record 14 FA Cups, 2 League Cups, 17 FA Community Shields and a Football League Centenary Trophy. In European football, they have won one European Cup Winners' Cup and one Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. In terms of trophies won, it is the third-most successful club in English football, and one of the most successful clubs in world football.

17/05/1997

Troops of Laurent-Désiré Kabila march into Kinshasa. Zaire is officially renamed Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Laurent-Désiré Kabila usually known as Laurent Kabila or Kabila the Father, was a Congolese rebel and politician who served as the third president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1997 until his assassination in 2001.

17/05/1995

Shawn Nelson steals an M60 tank from the California Army National Guard Armory in San Diego and proceeds to go on a rampage.

On May 17, 1995, 35-year-old Shawn Timothy Nelson stole an M60A3 tank from a local California Army National Guard armory in San Diego and drove six miles (9.7 km) through nearby neighborhoods, crushing cars and infrastructure in his path—though without injuring anyone.

17/05/1994

Malawi holds its first multi-party elections.

Malawi, officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast, and Mozambique to the east, south, and southwest. Malawi spans over 118,484 km2 (45,747 sq mi) and has a population of 22,224,282. Lilongwe is its capital and largest city.

17/05/1992

Three days of popular protests against the government of Prime Minister of Thailand Suchinda Kraprayoon begin in Bangkok, leading to a military crackdown that results in 52 officially confirmed deaths, hundreds of injuries, many disappearances, and more than 3,500 arrests.

Black May, also known as "Bloody May", was a series of mass protests and subsequent crackdowns by the Thai military and royal police in Bangkok in May 1992. A rally of over 200,000 people led by Chamlong Srimuang was held on 17 May, caused by the extending of the military regime of Suchinda Kraprayoon, the 1991 Thai coup d'état leader. An estimated 52 to 100 protesters were killed, 696 were injured, and 175 had "disappeared" afterwards. King Bhumibol Adulyadej summoned both Chamlong and Suchinda on 20 May, and the Suchinda regime later received a sweeping amnesty along with other law reforms, signed by Bhumibol.

17/05/1990

The General Assembly of the World Health Organization (WHO) eliminates homosexuality from the list of psychiatric diseases.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and has six regional offices and 150 field offices worldwide. Only sovereign states are eligible to join, and it is the largest intergovernmental health organization at the international level.

17/05/1987

Iran–Iraq War: An Iraqi Dassault Mirage F1 fighter jet fires two missiles into the U.S. Navy warship USS Stark, killing 37 and injuring 21 of her crew.

The Iran–Iraq War began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran in September 1980. After eight years of conflict, both countries accepted a ceasefire deal brokered by the United Nations, which became effective in August 1988. The war caused around 500,000 deaths, making it the deadliest conventional war ever fought between regular armies of developing countries.

17/05/1984

Prince Charles calls a proposed addition to the National Gallery, London, a "monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend", sparking controversies on the proper role of the Royal Family and the course of modern architecture.

Charles III is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms.

17/05/1983

The U.S. Department of Energy declassifies documents showing world's largest mercury pollution event in Oak Ridge, Tennessee (ultimately found to be 4.2 million pounds [1.9 kt]), in response to the Appalachian Observer's Freedom of Information Act request.

The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees national energy policy and energy production, the research and development of nuclear power, the military's nuclear weapons program, nuclear reactor production for the United States Navy, energy-related research, and energy conservation.

Lebanon, Israel, and the United States sign an agreement on Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.

Lebanon, officially the Lebanese Republic, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west; Cyprus lies a short distance from the coastline. Lebanon has a population of more than five million and an area of 10,452 square kilometres (4,036 sq mi). Beirut is the country's capital and largest city.

17/05/1980

General Chun Doo-hwan of South Korea seizes control of the government and declares martial law in order to suppress student demonstrations.

Chun Doo-hwan was a South Korean army general and politician who served as the fifth president of South Korea from 1980 to 1988. A member of the Democratic Justice Party, he ruled the country as a military dictator following a successful coup in December 1979. The period encompassing his presidency is known as the Fifth Republic of Korea.

On the eve of presidential elections, Maoist guerrilla group Shining Path attacks a polling location in Chuschi (a town in Ayacucho), starting the Internal conflict in Peru.

Maoism, officially Mao Zedong Thought, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed while trying to realise a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of China and later the People's Republic of China. A difference between Maoism and traditional Marxism–Leninism is that a united front of progressive forces in class society would lead the revolutionary vanguard in pre-industrial societies rather than communist revolutionaries alone. This theory, in which revolutionary praxis is primary and ideological orthodoxy is secondary, represents urban Marxism–Leninism adapted to pre-industrial China. Later theoreticians expanded on the idea that Mao had adapted Marxism–Leninism to Chinese conditions, arguing that he had in fact updated it fundamentally and that Maoism could be applied universally throughout the world. This ideology is often referred to as Marxism–Leninism–Maoism to distinguish it from the original ideas of Mao.

Rioting breaks out in downtown Miami, following the acquittal of four white police officers in the killing of Arthur McDuffie, a black insurance salesman.

The 1980 Miami riots were race riots that occurred in Miami, Florida, United States, starting in earnest on May 18, 1980, following an all-White male jury acquitting five white Dade County Public Safety Department officers in the death of Arthur McDuffie, a Black insurance salesman and United States Marine Corps lance corporal. McDuffie was beaten to death by four police officers after a traffic stop. After the officers were tried and acquitted on charges including manslaughter and evidence tampering, a riot broke out in the Black neighborhoods of Overtown and Liberty City on the night of May 17. Riots continued until May 20, resulting in at least 18 deaths and an estimated $100 million in property damage.

17/05/1977

Nolan Bushnell opens the first Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre (later renamed Chuck E. Cheese) in San Jose, California.

Nolan Kay Bushnell is an American businessman and electrical engineer. He established Atari, Inc., and the Chuck E. Cheese chain. He has been inducted into the Video Game Hall of Fame and the Consumer Electronics Association Hall of Fame, received the BAFTA Fellowship and the Nations Restaurant News "Innovator of the Year" award and was named one of Newsweek's "50 Men Who Changed America". He has started more than 20 companies and is one of the founding fathers of the video game industry. He is on the board of Anti-Aging Games. In 2012, he founded an educational software company called Brainrush that uses video game technology in educational software.

17/05/1974

The Troubles: Thirty-three civilians are killed and 300 injured when the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) detonates four car bombs in Dublin and Monaghan, Ireland.

The Troubles were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted for about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it began in the late 1960s and is usually deemed to have ended with the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. Although the Troubles mostly took place in Northern Ireland, at times violence spilled over into parts of the Republic of Ireland, England, and mainland Europe.

Police in Los Angeles raid the Symbionese Liberation Army's headquarters, killing six members, including Camilla Hall.

The City of Los Angeles Police Department, also known as the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), is the primary law enforcement agency of Los Angeles, California, United States. With 8,832 officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the third-largest municipal police department in the United States, after the New York City Police Department and the Chicago Police Department.

17/05/1973

Watergate scandal: Televised hearings begin in the United States Senate.

The Watergate scandal, or simply Watergate, was a political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon. On June 17, 1972, operatives associated with Nixon's 1972 re-election campaign were caught burglarizing and planting listening devices in the Democratic National Committee headquarters at Washington, D.C.'s Watergate complex. Nixon's efforts to conceal his administration's involvement led to an impeachment process and his resignation in August 1974.

17/05/1969

Venera program: Soviet Venera 6 begins its descent into the atmosphere of Venus, sending back atmospheric data before being crushed by pressure.

The Venera program was a series of space probes developed by the Soviet Union between 1961 and 1984 to gather information about the planet Venus. A total of eighteen probes were sent, including two related Vega probes.

17/05/1967

Six-Day War: President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt demands dismantling of the peace-keeping UN Emergency Force in Egypt.

The Six-Day War, or the 1967 Arab–Israeli war, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab states, primarily Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, in the context of the Arab–Israeli conflict. In the war, Israel captured and occupied the West Bank from Jordan, the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, and the Golan Heights from Syria.

17/05/1959

In Cuba, the First Agrarian Reform Law – a cornerstone of the Cuban Revolution – is signed by Fidel Castro, aiming to eliminate large foreign-owned estates and redistribute land to over 100,000 peasants.

The agrarian reforms in Cuba sought to break up large landholdings and redistribute land to those peasants who worked it, to cooperatives, and the state. Laws relating to land reform were implemented in a series of laws passed between 1959 and 1963 after the Cuban Revolution. The Institutio Nacional de Reforma Agraria (INRA)—an agency of the Cuban government responsible to implement the first and second Agrarian Reforms. The agency adapted the Soviet model of organisation—small collectives and large(er) state farms.

17/05/1954

The United States Supreme Court hands down a unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, outlawing racial segregation in public schools.

The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on questions of U.S. constitutional or federal law. It also has original jurisdiction over a narrow range of cases, specifically "all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party". In 1803, the court asserted itself the power of judicial review, the ability to invalidate a statute for violating a provision of the Constitution. It is also able to strike down presidential directives for violating either the Constitution or statutory law.

17/05/1953

Delta Air Lines Flight 318 crashes near Marshall, Texas, killing 19.

The crash of Delta Air Lines Flight 318 was an accident involving a Douglas DC-3 of the American airline Delta Air Lines 13 miles (21 km) east of Marshall, Texas, United States on May 17, 1953, killing all but one of the 20 people on board.

17/05/1943

World War II: Dambuster Raids commence by No. 617 Squadron RAF.

Operation Chastise, commonly known as the Dambusters Raid, was an attack on German dams carried out on the night of 16/17 May 1943 by 617 Squadron RAF Bomber Command, later called the Dam Busters, using special bouncing bombs developed by Barnes Wallis. The Möhne and Edersee dams were breached, causing catastrophic flooding of the Ruhr valley and of villages in the Eder valley; the Sorpe Dam sustained only minor damage. Two hydroelectric power stations were destroyed and several more damaged. Factories and mines were also damaged and destroyed. An estimated 1,600 civilians – about 600 Germans and 1,000 enslaved labourers, mainly Soviet – were killed by the flooding. Despite rapid repairs by the Germans, production did not return to normal until September. The RAF lost 56 aircrew, with 53 dead and three captured, amid losses of eight aircraft.

17/05/1940

World War II: Germany occupies Brussels, Belgium.

World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major roles, the latter enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the only nuclear weapons used in war. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing the death of 60 to 75 million people. Millions died as a result of massacres, starvation, disease, and genocides, including the Holocaust. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.

17/05/1939

The Columbia Lions and the Princeton Tigers play in the United States' first televised sporting event, a collegiate baseball game in New York City.

The Columbia University Lions are the collective athletic teams and their members from Columbia University, an Ivy League institution in New York City, United States. The current director of athletics is Peter Pilling.

17/05/1937

Spanish Civil War: The Largo Caballero government resigns in the wake of the Barcelona May Days, leading Juan Negrín to form a government, without the anarcho-syndicalist CNT, in its stead.

The Spanish Civil War was fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republicans and the Nationalist rebels. Republicans loyal to the left-leaning Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic included socialists, anarchists, communists, and separatists, supported by the Soviet Union. The opposing Nationalists were an alliance of fascist Falangists, monarchists, conservatives, and traditionalists, supported by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Initially led by a military junta, until General Francisco Franco was appointed supreme leader on 1 October 1936 of what he called the Spanish State. Due to the international political climate at the time, the war was variously viewed as class struggle, religious struggle, or struggle between republican democracy and dictatorship, revolution and counterrevolution, or between fascism and communism. The Nationalists won the war in early 1939, and ruled Spain until Franco's death in November 1975.

17/05/1933

Vidkun Quisling and Johan Bernhard Hjort form Nasjonal Samling — the national-socialist party of Norway.

Vidkun Abraham Lauritz Jonssøn Quisling was a Norwegian military officer, politician and Nazi collaborator who headed the puppet government of Norway during the country's occupation by Nazi Germany during World War II.

17/05/1915

The last British Liberal Party government (led by H. H. Asquith) falls.

The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties in the United Kingdom, along with the Conservative Party, in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Beginning as an alliance of Whigs, free trade-supporting Peelites, and reformist Radicals in the 1850s, by the end of the 19th century, it had formed four governments under William Ewart Gladstone. Despite being divided over the issue of Irish Home Rule, the party returned to government in 1905 and won a landslide victory in the 1906 general election. Under prime ministers Henry Campbell-Bannerman (1905–1908) and H. H. Asquith (1908–1916), the Liberal Party passed reforms that created a basic welfare state. Although Asquith was the party leader, its dominant figure was David Lloyd George.

17/05/1914

The Protocol of Corfu is signed, recognising full autonomy to Northern Epirus under nominal Albanian sovereignty.

The Protocol of Corfu, signed on 17 May 1914, was an agreement between the representatives of the Albanian Government and the Provisional Government of Northern Epirus, which officially recognized the area of Northern Epirus as an autonomous self-governing region under the sovereignty of the prince of the newly established Principality of Albania. The agreement granted the Greeks of the districts of Korytsa (Korçë) and Argyrokastro (Gjirokastër), which form Northern Epirus, wider religious, educational, cultural and political autonomy, inside the borders of the Albanian state.

17/05/1902

Greek archaeologist Valerios Stais discovers the Antikythera mechanism, an ancient mechanical analog computer.

Valerios Stais was a Greek archaeologist.

17/05/1900

The children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum, is first published in the United States. The first copy is given to the author's sister.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a 1900 children's fantasy novel written by the American author L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow. It is the first novel in the Oz series of books. A Kansas farm girl named Dorothy ends up in the magical Land of Oz after she and her pet dog Toto are swept away from their home by a cyclone. Upon her arrival in the magical world of Oz, she learns she cannot return home until she has destroyed the Wicked Witch of the West.

17/05/1875

Aristides wins the first Kentucky Derby with the jockey Oliver Lewis (2:37.75).

Aristides was an American Thoroughbred racehorse that won the first Kentucky Derby in 1875.

17/05/1865

The International Telegraph Union (later the International Telecommunication Union) is established in Paris.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for many matters related to information and communication technologies. It was established on 17 May 1865 as the International Telegraph Union, the first formal and permanent international organization. The organization significantly predates the UN, making it the oldest UN agency. Doreen Bogdan-Martin is the current secretary-general of the ITU, the first woman to serve as its head.

17/05/1863

Rosalía de Castro publishes Cantares Gallegos, the first book in the Galician language.

María Rosalía Rita de Castro, was a Galician poet and novelist, considered one of the most important figures of the 19th-century Spanish literature and modern lyricism. Widely regarded as the greatest Galician cultural icon, she was a leading figure in the emergence of the literary Galician language. Through her work, she projected multiple emotions, including the yearning for the celebration of Galician identity and culture, and female empowerment. She is credited with challenging the traditional female writer archetype.

American Civil War: During the Vicksburg campaign, Union forces under John A. McClernand defeat a Confederate rearguard and capture around 1,700 men at the Battle of Big Black River Bridge.

The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States between the Union and the Confederacy, which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union to preserve slavery in the United States, which they saw as threatened because of the election of Abraham Lincoln and the growing abolitionist movement in the North. The war ended with Union victory, the dissolution of the Confederacy and the abolition of slavery, freeing four million African Americans.

17/05/1859

Members of the Melbourne Football Club codify the first rules of Australian rules football.

The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Demons or colloquially the Dees, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier competition and plays its home games at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).

17/05/1814

Occupation of Monaco changes from French to Austrian.

Military occupation, also called belligerent occupation or simply occupation, is temporary hostile control exerted by a ruling power's military apparatus over a sovereign territory that is outside the legal boundaries of that ruling power's own sovereign territory. The controlled territory is called occupied territory, and the ruling power is called the occupant. Occupation's intended temporary nature distinguishes it from annexation and colonialism. The occupant often establishes military rule to facilitate administration of the occupied territory, though this is not a necessary characteristic of occupation.

The Constitution of Norway is signed and Crown Prince Christian Frederick of Denmark is elected King of Norway by the Norwegian Constituent Assembly.

The Constitution of Norway was adopted on 16 May and signed on 17 May 1814 by the Norwegian Constituent Assembly at Eidsvoll. The latter date is the National Day of Norway; it marks the establishment of the constitution.

17/05/1809

Emperor Napoleon I orders the annexation of the Papal States to the French Empire.

Napoleon Bonaparte, later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was Emperor of the French from 18 May 1804 until his first abdication in 1814, with a brief restoration during the Hundred Days in 1815. He rose to prominence as a general during the French Revolution and led a series of military campaigns across Europe and the Middle East during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. As a statesman, he implemented numerous legal and administrative reforms in France and Europe.

17/05/1805

Muhammad Ali becomes Wāli of Egypt.

Muhammad Ali was the Ottoman viceroy and governor who became the de facto ruler of Egypt from 1805 to 1848, widely considered the founder of modern Egypt. At the height of his rule in 1840, he controlled Egypt, Sudan, Hejaz, the Levant, Crete and parts of Greece and transformed Cairo from a mere Ottoman provincial capital to the center of an expansive empire.

17/05/1792

The New York Stock Exchange is formed under the Buttonwood Agreement.

The New York Stock Exchange is an American stock exchange headquartered at the New York Stock Exchange Building in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is the largest stock exchange in the world by market capitalization, exceeding $44 trillion in January 2026. The NYSE is owned by Intercontinental Exchange, an American holding company that it also lists. Previously, it was part of NYSE Euronext (NYX), which was formed by the NYSE's 2007 merger with Euronext. According to a Gallup poll conducted in 2022, approximately 58% of American adults reported having money invested in the stock market, either through individual stocks, mutual funds, or retirement accounts.

17/05/1760

French forces besieging Quebec retreat after the Royal Navy arrives to relieve the British garrison.

The siege of Quebec, also known as the second siege of Quebec, was a 1760 French attempt to retake Quebec City, in New France, which had been captured by Britain the previous year. The siege lasted from 29 April to 15 May, when British ships arrived to relieve the city and compelled the French commander, François Gaston de Lévis, to break off the siege and to retreat. The British launched the Montreal campaign a few months later, which resulted in the city's capture. French resistance ceased, and the British conquest of New France was complete, as was confirmed in 1763 by the Treaty of Paris.

17/05/1756

Seven Years' War formally begins when Great Britain declares war on France.

The Seven Years' War, 1756 to 1763, was a global war fought by numerous great powers, primarily in Europe, with significant subsidiary campaigns in North America and the Indian subcontinent. The warring states were Great Britain and Prussia fighting against France and Austria, with other countries joining these coalitions: Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Russia, plus Saxony and many other minor states of the Holy Roman Empire. Related conflicts include the Third Silesian War, French and Indian War, Third Carnatic War, Anglo-Spanish War (1762–1763), and Spanish–Portuguese War. Winston Churchill later famously referred to the conflict as the "First World War" due to its truly global scale, with major campaigns spanning five continents.

17/05/1673

Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette begin exploring the Mississippi River.

Louis Jolliet was a French-Canadian explorer known for his discoveries in North America. In 1673, Jolliet and Jacques Marquette, a Jesuit Catholic priest and missionary, were the first non-Natives to explore and map the Upper Mississippi River.

17/05/1648

An allied French and Swedish army defeats Imperial and Bavarian forces in the Battle of Zusmarshausen.

The Battle of Zusmarshausen was fought on 17 May 1648 between Bavarian-Imperial forces under von Holzappel and an allied Franco-Swedish army under the command of Carl Gustaf Wrangel and Turenne in the modern Augsburg district of Bavaria, Germany. The allied force emerged victorious, and the Imperial army was only rescued from annihilation by the stubborn rearguard fighting of Raimondo Montecuccoli and his cavalry.

17/05/1642

Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve founds the Ville Marie de Montréal.

Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve was a French military officer and the founder of Ville-Marie, now the city of Montreal.

17/05/1639

The treaty of Zuhab ends the fifteen-year-long war between the Ottomans and the Safavids.

The Treaty of Zuhab, also called Treaty of Qasr-e Shirin, signed on 17 May 1639 at Qasr-e Shirin in western Iran, ended the Ottoman–Safavid War of 1623–1639. It strove to clarify territorial divisions and borders between the Safavid and Ottoman Empires, serving as an important document for future agreements.

17/05/1590

Anne of Denmark is crowned Queen of Scotland.

Anne of Denmark was Queen of Scotland from her marriage to King James VI on 20 August 1589 and became the Queen of England and Ireland from the union of the Scottish and English Crowns on 24 March 1603 until her death in 1619.

17/05/1536

George Boleyn, 2nd Viscount Rochford and four other men are executed for treason.

George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford was an English courtier and nobleman who played a prominent role in the politics of the early 1530s as the brother of Anne Boleyn, second wife of King Henry VIII. George was the maternal uncle of Queen Elizabeth I, although he died long before his niece ascended the throne. Following his father's promotion in the peerage in 1529 to Earl of Wiltshire and Earl of Ormond, he adopted his father's junior title Viscount Rochford as a courtesy title. He was accused of incest with his sister Anne during the period of her trial for high treason, as a result of which both were executed.

Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn's marriage is annulled.

Henry VIII was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 22 April 1509, and King of Ireland from 18 June 1542, until his death in 1547.

17/05/1527

Pánfilo de Narváez departs Spain to explore Florida with 600 men – by 1536 only four survive.

Pánfilo de Narváez was a Spanish conquistador and soldier in the Americas. Born in Spain, he first sailed to the island of Jamaica in 1510 as a soldier. Pánfilo participated in the conquest of Cuba and led an expedition to Camagüey, escorting Bartolomé de las Casas.

17/05/1521

Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, is executed for treason.

Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham KG KB was an English nobleman. He was the son of Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and Katherine Woodville and nephew of Elizabeth Woodville and King Edward IV. Thus, Edward Stafford was a first cousin once removed of King Henry VIII. He frequently attended the courts of Henry VII and Henry VIII. He was convicted of treason and executed on 17 May 1521.

17/05/1395

Battle of Rovine: The Wallachians defeat an invading Ottoman army.

The Battle of Rovine took place on 17 May 1395. The Wallachian army led by Voivod Mircea the Elder opposed the Ottoman invasion personally led by Sultan Bayezid I the Thunderbolt. The Turkish force heavily outnumbered the Wallachian troops.

17/05/0884

Election of Pope Hadrian III following the death of Pope Marinus I earlier that month.

Pope Adrian III or Hadrian III was the bishop of Rome and leader of the Papal States from 17 May 884 to his death on 8 July 885. He served for little more than a year, during which he worked to help the people of Italy in a very troubled time of famine and war.

17/05/0352

Election of Pope Liberius following the death of Pope Julius I in the previous month.

Pope Liberius was the bishop of Rome from 17 May 352 until his death on 24 September 366. According to the Catalogus Liberianus, he was consecrated on 22 May as the successor to Julius I. He is not mentioned as a saint in the Roman Martyrology, making him the earliest pontiff not to be venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church and, along with Anastasius II, one of only two popes to be omitted from Catholic sainthood in the first 500 years of church history.

On this day

World Telecommunication Day

International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia

What the Weather Had in Store for Prag on 17th May 2026

17th May in the Stars – Star Sign Taurus

Personality Profile

Fun Facts About 17th May

Famous Birthdays on 17th May

Julie Anne San Jose, Filipina singer-songwriter

Johanna Konta, Australian-English tennis player

Adil Omar, Pakistani rapper and music producer

Abigail Raye, Canadian field hockey player

Will Clyburn, American basketball player

Fabian Giefer, German footballer

Charlie Gubb, New Zealand rugby league player

Katrina Hart, English runner

Guido Pella, Argentine tennis player

Mose Masoe, New Zealand rugby league player

Rain Raadik, Estonian basketball player

Tessa Virtue, Canadian ice dancer

Nikki Reed, American actress, singer, and screenwriter

Edvald Boasson Hagen, Norwegian cyclist

Aleandro Rosi, Italian footballer

Marius Činikas, Lithuanian footballer

Timo Simonlatser, Estonian skier

Jodie Taylor, English footballer

Teófilo Gutiérrez, Colombian footballer

Derek Hough, American actor, singer, and dancer

Christine Nesbitt, Canadian speed skater

Todd Redmond, American baseball player

Matt Ryan, American football player

Christian Bolaños, Costa Rican footballer

Christine Ohuruogu, English runner

Christine Robinson, Canadian water polo player

Passenger, English singer-songwriter and musician

Channing Frye, American basketball player

Chris Henry, American football player (died 2009)

Nicky Hofs, Dutch footballer

Kevin Kingston, Australian rugby league player

Danniel Librelon, Brazilian politician

Jeremy Sowers, American baseball player

Matt Cassel, American football player

Dan Hardy, English mixed martial artist

Reiko Nakamura, Japanese swimmer

Tony Parker, French-American basketball player

Chloe Smith, English politician

Beñat Albizuri, Spanish cyclist

Leon Osman, English footballer

Lim Jeong-hee, South Korean singer

Chris Skidmore, English historian and politician

Giannis Taralidis, Greek footballer

Davor Džalto, Bosnian historian and philosopher

Fredrik Kessiakoff, Swedish cyclist

Alistair Overeem, Dutch mixed martial artist and kickboxer

Ariën van Weesenbeek, Dutch drummer

David Jarolím, Czech footballer

Wayne Thomas, English footballer

John Foster, American baseball player and coach

Paddy Kenny, English footballer

Carlos Peña, Dominican-American baseball player

Magdalena Zděnovcová, Czech tennis player

Kandi Burruss, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress

Shayne Dunley, Australian rugby league player

José Guillén, Dominican-American baseball player

Daniel Komen, Kenyan runner

Wang Leehom, American-Taiwanese singer-songwriter, producer, actor, and director

Mayte Martínez, Spanish runner

Kirsten Vlieghuis, Dutch freestyle swimmer

Marcelinho Paraíba, Brazilian footballer

Alex Wright, German wrestler

Andrea Corr, Irish singer-songwriter, pianist, and actress

Wiki González, Venezuelan baseball player

Eddie Lewis, American international soccer player

Josh Homme, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer

Barry Hayles, English born Jamaican international footballer

Mark Connors, Australian rugby player

Shaun Hart, Australian footballer, coach, and sportscaster

Stella Jongmans, Dutch athlete

Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, Dutch royal

Gina Raimondo, Governor of Rhode Island