Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/December 17
This is a list of selected December 17 anniversaries that appear in the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases, you can be bold and edit this page. Please read the selected anniversaries guidelines before making your edit. However, if your addition might be controversial or on a day that is or will soon be on the Main Page, please post your suggestion on the talk page instead.
Please note that the events listed on the Main Page are chosen based more on relative article quality and to maintain a mix of topics, not based solely on how important or significant their subjects are. Only four to five events are posted at a time and thus not everything that is "most important and significant" can be listed. In addition, an event is generally not posted this year if it is also the subject of the scheduled featured article or picture of the day.
To report an error when this appears on the Main Page, see Main Page errors. Please remember that this list defers to the supporting articles, so it is best to achieve consensus and make any necessary changes there first.
Staging area
Images
Use only ONE image at a time
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Demonstrators in the Darwin rebellion -
The Wright Flyer -
Wright Flyer -
Fire in the Winter Palace -
Aztec calendar stone -
Douglas DC-3 -
Ulysses S. Grant -
Antanas Smetona
Ineligible
| Blurb | Reason |
|---|---|
| O Antiphons begin (Christianity) | unreferenced section |
| National Day in Bhutan (1907) | refimprove section |
| 920 – Romanos I became co-Byzantine Emperor with the underage Constantine VII. | needs more footnotes |
| 1819 – The Republic of Gran Colombia in South America was established, with Simón Bolívar as its first president. | refimprove section |
| 1837 – A fire broke out in the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg, Russia, damaging the building and killing thirty guardsmen. | Needs additional references for deaths AND date. Two dates are cited in the article, neither has a reference. |
| 1865 - The Unfinished Symphony by Franz Schubert is performed publicly for the first time. | refimprove |
| 1892 - The first issue of Vogue is published. | neutrality section |
| 1907 – Ugyen Wangchuck was crowned the first King of Bhutan. | unreferenced section (Ancestry) |
| 1935 – The Douglas DC-3, one of the most significant transport aircraft ever built, made its maiden voyage to coincide with the anniversary of the Wright Flyer's first flight. | refimprove section |
| 1960 – A U.S. Air Force transport crashed into downtown Munich due to fuel contamination, killing all 20 people on board and 32 more on the ground. | refimprove |
| 1969 – The United States Air Force closed Project Blue Book, its study on unidentified flying objects, stating that further funding "cannot be justified either on the grounds of national security or in the interest of science." | refimprove sections |
| 2009 – The livestock transporter MV Danny F II capsized and sank in bad weather off the coast of Lebanon, resulting in 43 human and more than 28,000 sheep and cattle deaths. | internal inconsistencies |
| 2013 – The Istanbul Security Directory detained 47 people, most of them members of the ruling Justice and Development Party, on charges of corruption. | outdated |
Eligible
- 497 BC – The temple to the Roman god Saturn was dedicated in the Roman Forum; its anniversary was celebrated as Saturnalia.
- 546 – Rome was sacked by the Ostrogoths led by Totila after a year-long siege.
- 1583 – Cologne War: Forces under Ernest of Bavaria defeated Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg's troops at the siege of Godesberg.
- 1790 – The Aztec sun stone, now a modern symbol of Mexican culture, was excavated in the Zócalo, the main square of Mexico City.
- 1862 – American Civil War: Union General Ulysses S. Grant issued General Order No. 11, expelling Jews from Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky.
- 1903 – Aboard the Wright Flyer (pictured) in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville and Wilbur Wright conducted the first successful flights of a powered fixed-wing aircraft.
- 1918 – About 1,000 demonstrators marched (pictured) on Government House in Darwin, Australia, where they burned an effigy of Administrator John Gilruth and demanded his resignation.
- 1926 – A coup d'état by the Lithuanian military replaced the democratically elected President Kazys Grinius with Antanas Smetona.
- 1939 – World War II: After sustaining moderate damage in the Battle of the River Plate two days earlier, the German cruiser Graf Spee was scuttled by its commander, Hans Langsdorff, to avoid its internment by Uruguay.
- 1944 – Nazi troops under Joachim Peiper killed unarmed prisoners of war, captured during the Battle of the Bulge, with machine guns near Malmedy, Belgium.
- 1945 – The modern flag of Kurdistan was raised for the first time in Mahabad, Iran.
- 1951 – The Civil Rights Congress presented a document to the United Nations Genocide Convention charging the United States government with genocide against African Americans.
- 1983 – The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army detonated a car bomb outside Harrods in London, killing six people and injuring about 90 others.
- 1989 – The Simpsons, the longest running American prime-time entertainment series, made its debut on the Fox television network with the episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire".
- 1990 – American gay rights activist William E. Woods brought three same-sex couples to fill out marriage licenses in Honolulu, leading to the eventual legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States.
- Born/died this day: | Roger L'Estrange |b|1616| Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba |d|1663| Domenico Cimarosa |b|1749| Ludwig van Beethoven |baptised|1770| Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma |d|1847| Aubrey Faulkner |b|1881| Elizabeth Garrett Anderson |d|1917| Kenneth E. Iverson |b|1920| Daniel Inouye |d|2012| Eva Ekvall |d|2011
Notes
- Battle of the Bulge appears on December 16, so Malmedy massacre should not appear in the same year
- Tunisian Revolution appears on December 18, so Mohamed Bouazizi should not appear in the same year
December 17: Wright Brothers Day in the United States (1903); International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers
Memorial to victims killed during the 1970 Polish protests
- 942 – William Longsword of Normandy was ambushed and assassinated by supporters of Arnulf I, Count of Flanders, while the two were at a peace conference to settle their differences.
- 1948 – The Finnish Security Police was established to remove communist leadership from its predecessor, the State Police.
- 1967 – Harold Holt, Prime Minister of Australia, disappeared while swimming near Portsea, Victoria; his body was never recovered.
- 1970 – Polish soldiers fired at workers (memorial pictured) emerging from trains in Gdynia, beginning the government's crackdown on mass anti-communist protests across the country.
- 2010 – Arab Spring: Mohamed Bouazizi, a Tunisian street vendor, set himself on fire in protest against police harassment, triggering the Tunisian Revolution.
- Rumi (d. 1273)
- Émile Roux (b. 1853)
- Willard Libby (b. 1908)
- Alicia Boole Stott (d. 1940)
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