On this day: May 17

Events on May 17

• 352 Election of Pope Liberius following the death of Pope Julius I in the previous month. Wikipedia
• 1395 An outnumbered Wallachian army repulsed invading Ottoman forces at the Battle of Rovine. Wikipedia
• 1521 Edward Stafford, whose father had been beheaded for rebelling against King Richard III of England, was himself executed for treason against King Henry VIII. Wikipedia
• 1536 Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn's marriage is annulled. Wikipedia
• 1590 Anne of Denmark was crowned the queen consort of Scotland in a ceremony at Holyrood Abbey in Edinburgh. Wikipedia
• 1756 Seven Years' War formally begins when Great Britain declares war on France. Wikipedia
• 1809 Emperor Napoleon I orders the annexation of the Papal States to the French Empire. Wikipedia
• 1863 American Civil War: At the Battle of Big Black River Bridge in Mississippi, Union forces under John A. McClernand defeated a Confederate rearguard and captured around 1,700 men. Wikipedia
• 1865 The International Telecommunication Union, which standardizes and regulates international radio and telecommunications, was founded as the International Telegraph Union in Paris. Wikipedia
• 1890 The opera Cavalleria rusticana by Pietro Mascagni, premieres at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome, beginning the verismo period in Italian opera. Wikipedia
• 1900 The first copies of the children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum were printed. Wikipedia
• 1900 Second Boer War: The Siege of Mafeking in South Africa was lifted after 217 days, a decisive victory for the British against the Boers. Wikipedia
• 1902 The Antikythera mechanism, the oldest known surviving geared mechanism, was discovered among artifacts retrieved from a shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera. Wikipedia
• 1914 Under the Protocol of Corfu, the Principality of Albania officially recognized Northern Epirus as an autonomous self-governing region. Wikipedia
• 1940 World War II: Germany occupies Brussels, Belgium. Wikipedia
• 1947 After renegotiating a contract with the makers of her signature perfume Chanel No. 5, Coco Chanel received a share of wartime profits from its sale, making her one of the richest women in the world. Wikipedia
• 1954 The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education, outlawing racial segregation in public schools because "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal" and therefore unconstitutional. Wikipedia
• 1973 Watergate scandal: Televised hearings begin in the United States Senate. Wikipedia
• 1974 The Troubles: The Ulster Volunteer Force detonated a series of car bombs in Dublin and Monaghan, Ireland, killing 34 people and injuring almost 300 others. Wikipedia
• 1987 An Iraqi jet fired two Exocet missiles at the American frigate USS Stark, killing 37 personnel and injuring 21 others. Wikipedia
• 1990 The General Assembly of the World Health Organization (WHO) eliminates homosexuality from the list of psychiatric diseases. Wikipedia
• 1995 Six-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the 11th Panchen Lama selected by the 14th Dalai Lama, was kidnapped by the Chinese government, who advocated a proxy. Wikipedia
• 1997 The First Congo War came to an end when Laurent-Désiré Kabila proclaimed himself president of Zaire, which was also renamed the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Wikipedia
• 2000 Following the killing of two English football fans by Galatasaray supporters in the previous month, British and Turkish hooligans rioted on the day of the UEFA Cup Final in Copenhagen, Denmark. Wikipedia
• 2004 Massachusetts became the first U.S. state to legalize same-sex marriage. Wikipedia
• 2014 A military plane crash killed 17 people and left one survivor in northern Laos. Wikipedia

Born on May 17

• 1490 Albert, Duke of Prussia, last Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights (died 1568) Wikipedia
• 1749 Edward Jenner, English physician and microbiologist (died 1823) Wikipedia
• 1866 Erik Satie, French pianist and composer (died 1925) Wikipedia
• 1873 Henri Barbusse, French author and journalist (died 1935) Wikipedia
• 1886 Alfonso XIII, Spanish monarch (died 1941) Wikipedia
• 1897 Odd Hassel, Norwegian chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1981) Wikipedia
• 1911 Maureen O'Sullivan, Irish-American actress (died 1998) Wikipedia
• 1918 Birgit Nilsson, Swedish operatic soprano (died 2005) Wikipedia
• 1936 Dennis Hopper, American actor and director (died 2010) Wikipedia
• 1940 Alan Kay, American computer scientist and academic Wikipedia
• 1950 Janez Drnovšek, Slovenian economist and politician, 2nd President of Slovenia (died 2008) Wikipedia
• 1955 Bill Paxton, American actor and director (died 2017) Wikipedia
• 1956 Bob Saget, American comedian, actor, and television host (died 2022) Wikipedia
• 1956 Sugar Ray Leonard, American boxer Wikipedia
• 1961 Enya, Irish singer-songwriter and producer Wikipedia
• 1965 Trent Reznor, American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Wikipedia
• 1967 Mohamed Nasheed, Maldivian lawyer and politician 4th President of the Maldives Wikipedia
• 1971 Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, Dutch royal Wikipedia
• 1980 Ariën van Weesenbeek, Dutch drummer Wikipedia
• 1982 Tony Parker, French-American basketball player Wikipedia
• 1985 Teófilo Gutiérrez, Colombian footballer Wikipedia
• 1988 Nikki Reed, American actress, singer, and screenwriter Wikipedia

Died on May 17

• 1510 Sandro Botticelli, Italian painter (born 1445) Wikipedia
• 1606 False Dmitriy I, pretender to the Russian throne (born 1582) Wikipedia
• 1727 Catherine I of Russia (born 1684) Wikipedia
• 1765 Alexis Clairaut, French mathematician, astronomer, and geophysicist (born 1713) Wikipedia
• 1829 John Jay, American politician and diplomat, 1st Chief Justice of the United States (born 1745) Wikipedia
• 1838 Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, French politician, Prime Minister of France (born 1754) Wikipedia
• 1875 John C. Breckinridge, American lawyer and politician, 14th Vice President of the United States, Confederate States general (born 1821) Wikipedia
• 1935 Paul Dukas, French composer, critic, and educator (born 1865) Wikipedia
• 1987 Gunnar Myrdal, Swedish economist, sociologist, and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1898) Wikipedia
• 2012 Donna Summer, American singer-songwriter (born 1948) Wikipedia
• 2013 Jorge Rafael Videla, Argentine Commander in Chief and dictator (born 1925) Wikipedia
• 2014 Gerald Edelman, American biologist and immunologist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1929) Wikipedia
• 2019 Herman Wouk, American author (born 1915) Wikipedia
• 2022 Vangelis, Greek musician, composer (born 1943) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Birthday of the Raja (Perlis) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Giulia Salzano Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Ivan Ziatyk Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Paschal Baylon Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Peter Lieou Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: William Hobart Hare (Episcopal Church (USA)) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Restituta Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: May 17 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Children's Day (Norway) Wikipedia
• Constitution Day (Nauru) Wikipedia
• Constitution Day (Norway) Wikipedia
• Feast of ‘Aẓamat (Baháʼí Faith, day shifts with March Equinox, see List of observances set by the Baháʼí calendar) Wikipedia
• Galician Literature Day or Día das Letras Galegas (Galicia) Wikipedia
• International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia Wikipedia
• Liberation Day (Democratic Republic of the Congo) Wikipedia
• Navy Day (Argentina) Wikipedia
• World Hypertension Day Wikipedia
• World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (International) Wikipedia

Sources

• Wikipedia — “May 17” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/May 17” — the anniversaries editors chose for the date and the article each one is about (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikidata — in how many language editions each entry's own article exists, used to fill the lists (CC0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• vacanza/holidays (open-source holiday rules, MIT licence) — holiday rules used to build the lists (checked 2026-10-15)

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “May 17” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-15 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. Every anniversary that Wikipedia's editors selected for May 17 stays on the list; the remaining places, up to 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths, go to the entries whose own article — about the event itself, or else the person or thing it is about — appears in the most language editions (counted from Wikidata); an article about a person or thing, which covers far more than one day, counts half. An entry with no article of its own counts, also at half, by the least covered article it links, and one that links only places counts for nothing. Each list runs by year, and the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures, audio and video.