Portal:University of Oxford/On this day/July 17

Births

• 1555 – Richard Carew (Christ Church), translator and antiquary
• 1909 – Arthur Geoffrey Walker (Balliol and Merton), mathematician
• 1910 – James Coyne, Governor of the Bank of Canada 1955–61
• 1917 – G. B. Caird (Mansfield and Queen's), Principal of Mansfield 1970–77 and Dean Ireland's Professor of the Exegesis of Holy Scripture 1977–84
• 1924 – John Dodson, 3rd Baron Monk Bretton (New College), agriculturist
• 1942 – Peter Sissons (University), television news journalist
• 1943 – Shlomo Ben-Ami, Israeli politician and diplomat
• 1951 – Andrew Robathan (Oriel), Conservative politician
• 1958 – Nick Newman, cartoonist and comedy sketchwriter
• 1971 – Josh Frydenberg (University), Australian banker and politician

Deaths

• 1304 – Edmund Mortimer, 2nd Baron Mortimer, English baron
• 1685 – John Robartes, 1st Earl of Radnor (Exeter), Lord President of the Council 1679–84
• 1790 – Adam Smith (Balliol), Scottish political economist
• 1907 – William Gunion Rutherford (Balliol and University), classical scholar and headmaster
• 1933 – Charles Carmichael Lacaita (Balliol), botanist and politician
• 1965 – Walter Evans-Wentz (Jesus), American anthropologist
• 1979 – Edward Akufo-Addo (St Peter's), President of Ghana 1970–72
• 2005 – Gavin Lambert (Magdalen), novelist and screenwriter
• 2009 – Leszek Kołakowski (All Souls), Polish philosopher and historian of ideas