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Today in History ~ October 17
Events0733 - Battle at Poitiers: Charles Martel beats Abd al-Rachmans
1415 - Jewish autonomy in Palestine ends, as Raban Gamliel leaves office
1483 - The Reverend Tomas de Torquemada, OP, appointed inquisitor-general of Spain
1492 - Columbus sights isle of San Salvador (Watling Island, Bahamas)
1651 - Future King Charles II flees from England
1691 - New royal charter for Massachusetts, now including Maine, Plymouth
1707 - German composer Johann S Bach marries his niece Maria Bach
1720 - Pierre de Marivaux' "Arlequin Poli Par l'Amour," premieres in Paris
1777 - British General John Burgoyne surrenders over 5,000 British and Hessian troops to American troops in Saratoga, N.Y., a turning point of the Revolutionary War. [H]
1781 - Cornwallis defeated at Yorktown
1808 - Political rights of Jews suspended in Duchy of Warsaw
1815 - Napoleon arrives in St Helena
1825 - Franz Liszt's operetta Don Sanche premieres in Paris
1829 - Delaware River & Chesapeake Bay Canal formally opens
1831 - Felix Mendelssohn's 1st Piano concert in G, premieres
1835 - The first resolution formally creating the Texas Rangers is approved
1855 - Bessemer steelmaking process patented
1862 - Battle of Leetown & Thoroughfare Gap, VA
1863 - Lincoln calls for 300,000 additional volunteers to join the army
1871 - President Grant suspends writ of habeas corpus
1876 - Henry Morton Stanley's reaches Lualaba River
1877 - Henry Morton Stanley reaches Boma during trip cross Africa
1894 - Ohio national guard kills 3 lynchers while rescuing a black man
1906 - Wilhelm Voigt, a 57-year-old German shoemaker, impersonates an army officer and leads an entire squad of soldiers to help him steal 4,000 marks. [H]
1912 - Bulgaria, Greece & Serbia declares war on Turkey
1917 - 1st British bombing of Germany
1918 - Yugoslavia proclaims itself a republic
1919 - Radio Corporation of America (RCA) created
1931 - Al Capone convicted of income tax evasion and sentenced to 11 years in prison. (He was released in 1939.)
1933 - Albert Einstein arrived in the United States as a refugee from Nazi Germany.
1934 - "The Aldrich Family" premieres on radio
1941 - 1st US destroyer (Kearney) torpedoed by German submarine in WWII, off Iceland, killing eleven crew members and seriously wounding two.
1943 - Liberators sink U-540 & U-631
1945 - Col. Juan Peron staged a coup, becoming absolute ruler of Argentina. He remained in power for 11 years before being overthrown.
1951 - Egyptian army fires on British troops
1957 - Britain's Queen Elizabeth & Prince Philip visits White House
1957 - French author Albert Camus awarded Nobel Prize in Literature
1960 - Quiz Show Scandal, grand jury found that the popular television game show Twenty-One had provided contestants with questions and answers before the live programs were broadcast.
1961 - Battle of Paris -- police kill 210 Algerians who were protesting against police oppression and the curfew imposed against their community in Paris. [H]
1961 - Museum of Modern Art in NYC -- accidentally hung Matisse's painting, "Le Bateau" upside down. The painting attracted large numbers of viewers before the Museum fixed the mistake. It wasn't corrected until December 3rd
1964 - Yanks fire Manager Yogi Berra
1965 - "On A Clear Day You Can See Forever" opens in NYC for 280 performances
1967 - "Hair" premieres on Broadway
1972 - Bob Randall's "6 Rooms Riv Vu," premieres in NYC
1972 - Chuck Berry's "My Ding-a-ling," is #1
1973 - The Arab-dominated Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, commonly known as OPEC, said it would cut oil exports to the United States and other nations that provided military aid to Israel in the Yom Kippur War of October 1973. A full oil embargo hit the U.S. in December causing a serious energy crisis in 1973.
1974 - "Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope" closes at Playhouse NYC after 1065 per
1975 - UN passes resolution saying "Zionism is a form of racism"
1977 - West German commandos storm hijacked Lufthansa in Mogadishu, Somalia freeing all 86 hostages & killing 3 of 4 hijackers
1978 - President Carter signed a bill restoring U.S. citizenship to Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
1979 - Mother Teresa of India, a Roman Catholic nun who cared for the sick and poor, awarded Nobel Peace Prize
1979 - Pres Carter signs legislation creating Dept of Education
1982 - Sam Shepard's "True West" premieres in NYC
1986 - US Senate approved the first U.S. immigration law authorizing penalties for employers who hire illegal aliens & offered amnesty to illegals who entered prior to 1982
1986 - Yitzak Rabin forms Israeli government
1987 - 1st indoor World Series game (Minnesota Metrodome)
1987 - 1st lady Nancy Reagan undergoes a modified radical mastectomy
1989 - Earthquake (measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale) the most powerful California earthquake since the legendary temblor of 1906 struck the San Francisco Bay Area at evening rush hour, just before scheduled start of Game Three of the World Series in San Francisco. At least 67 people were killed or eventually died of injuries, $7 billion worth of damage.
1990 - U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar said military force would be a legitimate response to the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait if sanctions did not work.
1990 - "Les Miserables," opens at Imperial Theatre, NY & His Majesty's Theatre, Perth
1991 - The Atlanta Braves won their first National League pennant, defeating the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-to-0 in game seven of their playoff series.
1992 - The Justice Department said it'd probe the case of a prison inmate who says he was silenced during the 1988 presidential campaign after claiming he once sold marijuana to Dan Quayle.
1994 - Taxicab driver Jeremy Levine and passengers Mark Aylett and Carlos Aresse set a world record for the longest known taxicab ride.
1994 - Leaders of Israel and Jordan initialed a draft peace treaty.
1994 - North Korea agreed to freeze its nuclear weapons program and allow international inspections of its facilities.
1996 - O.J. Simpson, who had been acquitted in a highly publicized trial of murdering his estranged wife and her friend, went on trial in civil court in a suit brought by the victims' families, alleging responsibility for the deaths.
1996 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin fired security chief Alexander Lebed, one day after the former general was accused by a rival of building his own rogue army.
1996 - The Atlanta Braves won the National League Championship Series, beating the St. Louis Cardinals 15-to-0 in game seven.
1998 - By request of Spanish authorities, British police arrested former Chilean dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet for questioning about "crimes of genocide and terrorism that include murder."
2000 - Vice President Gore and his Republican challenger, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, meet in St. Louis for the third and final of their presidential debates.
2000 - Ending an emergency summit in Egypt, Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreed to publicly urge an end to a burst of bloody conflict and to consult within two weeks on restarting the ravaged Mideast peace process.
2000 - The New York Yankees followed the Mets into the World Series, beating the Seattle Mariners 9-to-7 and winning the American League championship series four games to two.
2001 - The anthrax scare continued as Congress began closing down for security sweeps after 321 staffers and police tested positive for exposure to anthrax.
Birthdays Today
1577 - Cristofano Allori, Italian painter (Judith)
1725 - John Wilkes, English journalist/MP/Lord Mayor of London, called for independence of Britain's American colonies
1813 - Georg Buchner, German playwright (Danton's Death/Woyzeck)
1864 - Elinor Glyn, British novelist (3 Weeks)
1880 - Charles Kraft (cheese mogul w/brother James: Kraft Food Company)
1883 - A S Neill, British headmaster (Summerhill)
1893 - Spring Byington (actress: Please Don't Eat the Daisies, Angels in the Outfield, In the Good Old Summertime, Jezebel, Little Women, Laramie, December Bride)
1898 - Shinichi Suzuki, music teacher
1900 - Jean Arthur (Gladys Greene) (actress: Shane, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Devil and Miss Jones, The Jean Arthur Show)
1902 - Irene Ryan (Noblette) (actress: The Beverly Hillbillies, Heading for Heaven)
1903 - Nathanael West, American novelist (Day of the Locusts)
1909 - Cozy (William) Cole (musician: drums: played w/Cab Calloway, Louie Armstrong; solo: Topsy; in films: Make Mine Music, The Glen Miller Story; started a drum school w/Gene Krupa)
1912 - John Paul I, [Albino Luciano], 263rd Roman Catholic pope (1978)
1914 - John Mosely, recording expert/entrepreneur
1915 - Arthur Miller (Tony Award-winning playwright: Death of a Salesman [1949]; Emmy Award-winning playwright: Playing for Time [1980-81], Death of a Salesman [1966-67], It Takes a Thief, Rhinoceros, The Misfits)
1918 - Rita Hayworth (Margarita Cansino) (actress: Miss Sadie Thompson, Pal Joey, Separate Tables, They Came to Cordura, You'll Never Get Rich)
1920 - Elie Abel (journalist: NBC News)
1920 - Montgomery Clift (actor: From Here to Eternity, Suddenly Last Summer, Judgment at Nuremberg, The Misfits, A Place in the Sun, Raintree County)
1926 or 1930 - Beverly Garland (Fessenden) (actress: My Three Sons, Scarecrow and Mrs. King, The Bing Crosby Show, DOA, The Desperate Hours)
1927 - Johnny Klippstein (baseball)
1927 - Tom Poston (Emmy Award-winning comedian, actor: The Steve Allen Show [1958-59]; On the Rocks, Bob, Mork & Mindy, Newhart; TV panelist: To Tell the Truth, A Perfect Little Murder, Up the Academy)
1930 - Jimmy Breslin (newspaper columnist; author: Table Money)
1938 - Robert "Evel" Knievel, motorcycle daredevil
1940 - James Seals (singer, musician: guitar, saxophone, fiddle: group: Seals and Crofts: Summer Breeze, Diamond Girl, Hummingbird, We May Never Pass this Way Again, Get Closer, You're the Love, I'll Play for You)
1942 - Gary Puckett (singer: group: The Union Gap: Young Girl, Woman, Woman, This Girl is a Woman Now, Over You, Lady Willpower)
1946 - Bob Seagren (National Track & Field Hall of Famer: Olympic gold medalist: pole vault [1968], silver [1972]; 1st American to clear 18'; winner of World Superstars competition [1976])
1947 - Michael McKean (actor: LaVerne & Shirley, Grand, The Brady Bunch Movie, Radioland Murders, Planes, Trains & Automobiles, This is Spinal Tap, Coneheads, The Big Picture, Used Cars)
1948 - George Wendt (actor: Cheers, Man of the House, Never Say Die, Fletch, No Small Affair)
1948 - Margot Kidder (actress: Superman series, The Amityville Horror, Vanishing Act, Nichols)
1949 - Bill Hudson (comedian, singer: group: The Hudson Brothers: So You are a Star, Rendevous; TV: The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Comedy Show; was married to actress Goldie Hawn)
1950 - Howard Rollins (actor: In the Heat of the Night, A Soldier's Story, Ragtime, The Member of the Wedding)
1957 - Vincent Van Patten (tennis player, actor: The Break, The Dirty Dozen: The Deadly Mission, Payback, Charley and the Angel, Apple's Way; son of actor, Dick Van Patten)
1958 - Alan Jackson (singer: Chattahoochie, Don't Rock the Jukebox)
Famous deaths
0532 - Boniface II, 1st "German" Pope, dies
1586 - Philip Sidney, English poet/diplomat, dies in battle at 32
1806 Jean Jacques Dessalines, Haiti's first emperor betrayed and killed at Pont-Rouge.
1837 - Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Austrian composer, dies at 58
1849 - Frederic F Chopin, Polish/French pianist/composer, dies at 39
1910 - Julia Ward Howe, composer (Battle Hymn of Republic), dies at 91
1966 - Wieland Wagner, German opera director/grandson of Richard Wagner, dies
1967 - Henry Pu Yi, last emperor of China, dies at 61
1975 - Vittorio Gui, Italian composer (Batture d'aspetto), dies at 90
1979 - S J Perelman, US humorist (Around the World in 80 Days), dies at 75
1990 - Ralph Abernathy, civil rights activist, dies at 64
1991 - Entertainer Tennessee Ernie Ford died in Reston, Va., at age 72.
1996 - Berthold Goldschmidt, composer/conductor, dies at 93
If you have other Birthdays or events to add for this day please E-mail me
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