On this day: September 17

Events on September 17

• 14 The Roman Senate decides to deify the late emperor Augustus. Wikipedia
• 1176 Byzantine–Seljuk wars: At the Battle of Myriokephalon in Phrygia, the Seljuq Turks prevented Byzantine forces from taking the interior of Anatolia. Wikipedia
• 1543 The first Finnish-language book, the Abckiria by Mikael Agricola, is published in Stockholm. Wikipedia
• 1620 Polish–Ottoman War: The Ottoman Empire defeats the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth during the Battle of Cecora. Wikipedia
• 1630 The city of Boston, Massachusetts, is founded in North America. Wikipedia
• 1787 The United States Constitution is signed at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, bringing the Constitutional Convention to an end. Wikipedia
• 1849 Harriet Tubman escaped from slavery in the U.S. state of Maryland, and later orchestrated the rescues of other slaves via the Underground Railroad. Wikipedia
• 1859 Disgruntled with the legal and political structures of the United States, Joshua Norton distributed letters to various newspapers in San Francisco proclaiming himself to be Emperor Norton. Wikipedia
• 1914 World War I: The Race to the Sea begins. Wikipedia
• 1939 Second World War: The Royal Navy lost its first warship in the war when German submarine U-29 torpedoed and sank HMS Courageous. Wikipedia
• 1939 World War II: The Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east, sixteen days after Nazi Germany's attack on the country from the west. Wikipedia
• 1939 World War II: The Soviet invasion of Poland begins. Wikipedia
• 1950 The Republic of India formally recognised the State of Israel. Wikipedia
• 1961 Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 706 crashes during takeoff from O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois, killing all 37 people on board. Wikipedia
• 1962 NASA announced the Next Nine astronauts selected for the purpose of landing on the moon. Wikipedia
• 1962 NASA announced the Next Nine astronauts selected for the purpose of landing on the Moon. Wikipedia
• 1970 The Jordanian army entered Amman as part of operations to oust Palestinian fedayeen from the country in events later known as Black September (smoke over city pictured). Wikipedia
• 1974 Bangladesh, Grenada and Guinea-Bissau join the United Nations. Wikipedia
• 1985 Four years after AIDS was first identified in the United States, Ronald Reagan publicly acknowledged AIDS (video featured) for the first time. Wikipedia
• 1991 Estonia, North Korea, South Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, the Marshall Islands and Micronesia join the United Nations. Wikipedia
• 1991 The first version of the Linux kernel (0.01) is released to the Internet. Wikipedia
• 2001 American president George W. Bush delivered remarks at the Islamic Center of Washington condemning Islamophobia in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. Wikipedia
• 2001 George W. Bush, president of the United States, delivers remarks at the Islamic Center of Washington praising Muslim Americans and condemning Islamophobia in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. Wikipedia
• 2008 Seven al-Qaeda fighters attack the embassy of the United States in Sanaa, Yemen, leaving 20 people dead. Wikipedia
• 2008 Seven al-Qaeda fighters attacked the United States embassy in Sanaa, Yemen, leaving 20 people dead. Wikipedia
• 2011 Adbusters, a Canadian anti-consumerist publication, organized a protest against corporate influence on democracy at Zuccotti Park in New York City that became known as Occupy Wall Street. Wikipedia

Born on September 17

• 879 Charles the Simple, Frankish king (died 929) Wikipedia
• 1550 Paul V, pope of the Catholic Church (died 1621) Wikipedia
• 1743 Marquis de Condorcet, French mathematician and political scientist (died 1794) Wikipedia
• 1826 Bernhard Riemann, German-Italian mathematician and academic (died 1866) Wikipedia
• 1857 Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Russian scientist and engineer (died 1935) Wikipedia
• 1859 Billy the Kid, American gunman (died 1881) Wikipedia
• 1869 Christian Lous Lange, Norwegian political scientist, historian, and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1938) Wikipedia
• 1883 William Carlos Williams, American poet, short story writer, and essayist (died 1963) Wikipedia
• 1900 Lena Frances Edwards, African-American physician, awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom (died 1986) Wikipedia
• 1918 Chaim Herzog, Irish-born Israeli general and politician, 6th President of Israel (died 1997) Wikipedia
• 1922 Agostinho Neto, Angolan poet and politician, 1st President of Angola (died 1979) Wikipedia
• 1923 Hank Williams, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 1953) Wikipedia
• 1931 Anne Bancroft, American actress (died 2005) Wikipedia
• 1935 Ken Kesey, American novelist, essayist, and poet (died 2001) Wikipedia
• 1944 Reinhold Messner, Italian mountaineer and explorer Wikipedia
• 1950 Narendra Modi, Indian politician; Chief Minister of Gujarat and 14th Prime Minister of India Wikipedia
• 1956 Almazbek Atambayev, Kyrgyz politician, 4th President of Kyrgyzstan Wikipedia
• 1958 Janez Janša, Slovenian politician, 5th Prime Minister of Slovenia Wikipedia
• 1960 Damon Hill, English racing driver and guitarist Wikipedia
• 1968 Anastacia, American singer-songwriter Wikipedia
• 1968 Tito Vilanova, Spanish footballer and manager (died 2014) Wikipedia
• 1975 Jimmie Johnson, American race car driver Wikipedia

Died on September 17

• 1179 Hildegard of Bingen, German abbess and polymath (born 1098) Wikipedia
• 1574 Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, Spanish admiral and explorer, founded St. Augustine, Florida (born 1519) Wikipedia
• 1621 Robert Bellarmine, Italian cardinal and saint (born 1542) Wikipedia
• 1665 Philip IV, king of Spain (born 1605) Wikipedia
• 1836 Antoine Laurent de Jussieu, French botanist and author (born 1748) Wikipedia
• 1862 Lawrence O'Bryan Branch, American politician and Confederate general (born 1820) Wikipedia
• 1862 William E. Starke, Confederate general (born 1814) Wikipedia
• 1863 Alfred de Vigny, French author, poet, and playwright (born 1797) Wikipedia
• 1879 Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, French architect and theorist (born 1814) Wikipedia
• 1948 Ruth Benedict, American anthropologist and academic (born 1887) Wikipedia
• 1961 Adnan Menderes, Turkish lawyer and politician, 9th Prime Minister of Turkey (born 1899) Wikipedia
• 1994 Karl Popper, Austrian-English philosopher and academic (born 1902) Wikipedia
• 1996 Spiro Agnew, American soldier and politician, 39th Vice President of the United States (born 1918) Wikipedia
• 2021 Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Algerian politician, President of Algeria (born 1937) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Australian Citizenship Day Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Albert of Vercelli Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Ariadne of Phrygia Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Cecilia Eusepi Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Stanislaus Papczyński Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Hildegard of Bingen Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Lambert Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Robert Bellarmine Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Satyrus of Milan Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Socrates and Stephen Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Zygmunt Szczęsny Feliński Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: September 17 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Constitution Day and Citizenship Day, observed on the previous Friday if it falls on a Saturday, the following Monday if on a Sunday; and the beginning of the Constitution Week (United States) Wikipedia
• Heroes' Day (Angola) Wikipedia
• Marathwada Liberation Day (Maharashtra) Wikipedia
• National Unity Day (Belarus) (since 2021) Wikipedia
• Operation Market Garden Anniversary is still remembered with parachuting and dedications on this day. (Netherlands) Wikipedia

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “September 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.