On this day: April 17

Events on April 17

• 1492 Spain and Christopher Columbus sign the Capitulations of Santa Fe for his voyage to Asia to acquire spices. Wikipedia
• 1521 Trial of Martin Luther over his teachings begins during the assembly of the Diet of Worms. Initially intimidated, he asks for time to reflect before answering and is given a stay of one day. Wikipedia
• 1783 The Mechanical Turk, a fraudulent chess-playing "machine" by Wolfgang von Kempelen that was secretly controlled by a hidden human, began a tour of Europe. Wikipedia
• 1797 Citizens of Verona begin an unsuccessful eight-day rebellion against the French occupying forces. Wikipedia
• 1861 The state of Virginia's secession convention votes to secede from the United States; Virginia later becomes the eighth state to join the Confederate States of America. Wikipedia
• 1863 American Civil War: Grierson's Raid begins: Troops under Union Army Colonel Benjamin Grierson attack central Mississippi. Wikipedia
• 1869 Morelos is admitted as the 27th state of Mexico. Wikipedia
• 1895 The Treaty of Shimonoseki between China and Japan is signed. This marks the end of the First Sino-Japanese War, and the defeated Qing Empire is forced to renounce its claims on Korea and to concede the southern portion of the Fengtian province, Taiwan and the Penghu to Japan. Wikipedia
• 1912 Russian troops open fire on striking goldfield workers in northeast Siberia, killing at least 150. Wikipedia
• 1925 The Communist Party of Korea (CPK) was founded in Japanese-ruled Korea (Chōsen) in Keijō (now Seoul) by Kim Yong-bom and Pak Hon-yong. Wikipedia
• 1931 After negotiations between Catalan and Spanish provisional governments, the Catalan Republic proclaimed in April 14 becomes the Generalitat de Catalunya, the autonomous government of Catalonia within the Spanish Republic. Wikipedia
• 1941 World War II: The Axis powers invasion of Yugoslavia is completed when it signs an armistice with Germany and Italy. Wikipedia
• 1942 World War II: Captured French general Henri Giraud escaped from German captivity in the Königstein Castle. Wikipedia
• 1945 World War II: Montese, Italy, is liberated from Nazi forces. Wikipedia
• 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion: A group of Cuban exiles financed and trained by the CIA lands at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba with the aim of ousting Fidel Castro. Wikipedia
• 1970 Apollo program: The damaged Apollo 13 spacecraft returns to Earth safely. Wikipedia
• 1973 George Lucas began writing a 13-page film treatment that later formed the basis of Star Wars. Wikipedia
• 1975 The Cambodian Civil War ends and the Cambodian Genocide begins. The Khmer Rouge captures the capital Phnom Penh and Cambodian government forces surrender. Wikipedia
• 1978 Mir Akbar Khyber is assassinated, provoking the Saur Revolution in Afghanistan. Wikipedia
• 1982 Constitution Act, 1982 Patriation of the Canadian constitution in Ottawa by Proclamation of Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada. Wikipedia
• 1986 An alleged state of war lasting 335 years between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly is declared over. Wikipedia
• 1992 The Katina P is deliberately run aground off Maputo, Mozambique, and 60,000 tons of crude oil spill into the ocean. Wikipedia
• 2006 A Palestinian suicide bomber detonated explosives in a restaurant in Tel Aviv, Israel, killing 11 people and injuring 70 others. Wikipedia
• 2013 The ceremonial funeral of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher takes place at St Paul's Cathedral. Wikipedia
• 2014 NASA announced the discovery of Kepler-186f, the first exoplanet with a radius similar to Earth's discovered in the habitable zone of another star. Wikipedia
• 2014 NASA's Kepler space telescope confirms the discovery of the first Earth-size planet in the habitable zone of another star. Wikipedia

Born on April 17

• 1277 Michael IX Palaiologos, Byzantine emperor (died 1320) Wikipedia
• 1497 Pedro de Valdivia, Spanish conquistador, conquered northern Chile (died 1553) Wikipedia
• 1573 Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria (died 1651) Wikipedia
• 1734 Taksin, King of Thailand (died 1782) Wikipedia
• 1820 Alexander Cartwright, American firefighter and (disputed) inventor of baseball (died 1892) Wikipedia
• 1837 J. P. Morgan, American banker and financier, founded J.P. Morgan & Co. (died 1913) Wikipedia
• 1849 William R. Day, American jurist and politician, 36th United States Secretary of State (died 1923) Wikipedia
• 1885 Karen Blixen, Danish writer (died 1962) Wikipedia
• 1897 Thornton Wilder, American novelist and playwright (died 1975) Wikipedia
• 1909 Alain Poher, French politician, President of France (died 1996) Wikipedia
• 1916 Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, world's first female prime minister (died 2000) Wikipedia
• 1918 William Holden, American actor (died 1981) Wikipedia
• 1919 Chavela Vargas, Costa Rican-Mexican singer-songwriter and actress (died 2012) Wikipedia
• 1951 Olivia Hussey, Argentinian-English actress (died 2024) Wikipedia
• 1952 Joe Alaskey, American voice actor (died 2016) Wikipedia
• 1957 Nick Hornby, English novelist, essayist, lyricist, and screenwriter Wikipedia
• 1959 Sean Bean, English actor Wikipedia
• 1972 Jennifer Garner, American actress Wikipedia
• 1974 Victoria Beckham, English singer and fashion designer Wikipedia
• 1985 Rooney Mara, American actress Wikipedia
• 1985 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, French tennis player Wikipedia
• 1986 Romain Grosjean, French race car driver Wikipedia

Died on April 17

• 648 Xiao, empress of the Sui dynasty Wikipedia
• 744 Al-Walid II, Umayyad caliph (born 706) Wikipedia
• 858 Benedict III, pope of the Catholic Church Wikipedia
• 1695 Juana Inés de la Cruz, Mexican poet and scholar (born 1651) Wikipedia
• 1790 Benjamin Franklin, American inventor, publisher, and politician, 6th President of Pennsylvania (born 1706) Wikipedia
• 1942 Jean Baptiste Perrin, French-American physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1870) Wikipedia
• 1975 Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Indian philosopher and politician, 2nd President of India (born 1888) Wikipedia
• 1976 Henrik Dam, Danish biochemist and physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1895) Wikipedia
• 1993 Turgut Özal, Turkish engineer and politician, 8th president of Turkey (born 1927) Wikipedia
• 1994 Roger Wolcott Sperry, American psychologist and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1913) Wikipedia
• 2013 Bi Kidude, Tanzanian Taarab singer (born ≈1910) Wikipedia
• 2014 Gabriel García Márquez, Colombian journalist and author, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1927) Wikipedia
• 2018 Barbara Bush, American political matriarch and literacy advocate, First Lady of the United States (1989–1993), and Second Lady of the United States (1981–1989) (born 1925) Wikipedia
• 2019 Alan García, Peruvian lawyer and politician, twice President of Peru (born 1949) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Donnán of Eigg Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Henry Heath Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Kateri Tekakwitha (Canada) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Robert of Molesme Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Shemon bar Sabbae Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: April 17 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Evacuation Day (Syria), celebrates the recognition of the independence of Syria from France in 1946. Wikipedia
• FAO Day (Iraq) Wikipedia
• Flag Day (American Samoa) Wikipedia
• Malbec World Day Wikipedia
• Women's Day (Gabon) Wikipedia
• World Hemophilia Day Wikipedia

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “April 17” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-09 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. We picked the 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths with the widest coverage across Wikipedia's language editions (counted from Wikidata) and sorted them by year; the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures.