History of Today in India – 17 April

Explore the history of today 17 April in India, including important events, famous personalities, and milestones for UPSC SSC,Banking & PSC exams.

Last updated on 17 April 2026, 04:22 AM

📜 Important Events on 17 April in World History

17 Apr 2021: The funeral of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, takes place at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. Read more
17 Apr 2014: NASA's Kepler space telescope confirms the discovery of the first Earth-size planet in the habitable zone of another star. Read more
17 Apr 2013: An explosion at a fertilizer plant in the city of West, Texas, kills 15 people and injures 160 others. Read more
17 Apr 2006: A Palestinian suicide bomber detonates an explosive device in a Tel Aviv restaurant, killing 11 people and injuring 70. Read more
17 Apr 2003: Anneli Jäätteenmäki takes office as the first female prime minister of Finland. Read more
17 Apr 1998: Space Shuttle Columbia is launched on STS-90, the final Spacelab mission. Read more
17 Apr 1992: The Katina P is deliberately run aground off Maputo, Mozambique, and 60,000 tons of crude oil spill into the ocean. Read more
17 Apr 1986: An alleged state of war lasting 335 years between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly declared peace bringing an end to any hypothetical war that may have been legally considered to exist. Read more
17 Apr 1982: Constitution Act, 1982 Patriation of the Canadian constitution in Ottawa by Proclamation of Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada. Read more
17 Apr 1978: Mir Akbar Khyber is assassinated, provoking the Saur Revolution in Afghanistan. Read more
17 Apr 1975: The Cambodian Civil War ends and the Cambodian Genocide begins. The Khmer Rouge captures the capital Phnom Penh and Cambodian government forces surrender. Read more
17 Apr 1971: The Provisional Government of Bangladesh is formed. Read more
17 Apr 1970: Apollo program: The damaged Apollo 13 spacecraft returns to Earth safely. Read more
17 Apr 1969: Sirhan Sirhan is convicted of assassinating Robert F. Kennedy. Read more
17 Apr 1969: Communist Party of Czechoslovakia chairman Alexander Dubček is deposed. Read more
17 Apr 1964: Jerrie Mock completes the first around-the-world airplane flight by a woman. Her solo flight in the Spirit of Columbus, which took 29+1⁄2 days, took off and landed at the Port Columbus International Airport in Ohio. Read more
17 Apr 1961: Bay of Pigs Invasion: A group of Cuban exiles financed and trained by the CIA lands at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba with the aim of ousting Fidel Castro. Read more
17 Apr 1951: The Peak District becomes the United Kingdom's first National Park. Read more
17 Apr 1946: The last French troops are withdrawn from Syria. Read more
17 Apr 1945: World War II: Montese, Italy, is liberated from Nazi forces. Read more
17 Apr 1945: Historian Tran Trong Kim is appointed the Prime Minister of the Empire of Vietnam. Read more
17 Apr 1944: Forces of the Communist-controlled Greek People's Liberation Army attack the smaller National and Social Liberation resistance group, which surrenders. Its leader Dimitrios Psarros is murdered. Read more
17 Apr 1942: French prisoner of war General Henri Giraud escapes from his castle prison in Königstein Fortress. Read more
17 Apr 1941: World War II: The Axis powers invasion of Yugoslavia is completed when it signs an armistice with Germany and Italy. Read more
17 Apr 1931: After negotiations between Catalan and Spanish provisional governments, the Catalan Republic proclaimed in April 14 becomes the Generalitat de Catalunya, the autonomous government of Catalonia within the Spanish Republic. Read more
17 Apr 1925: The Communist Party of Korea (CPK) was founded in Japanese-ruled Korea (Chōsen) in Keijō (now Seoul) by Kim Yong-bom and Pak Hon-yong. Read more
17 Apr 1912: Russian troops open fire on striking goldfield workers in northeast Siberia, killing at least 150. Read more
17 Apr 1907: The Ellis Island immigration center processes 11,747 people, more than on any other day. Read more
17 Apr 1905: The Supreme Court of the United States decides Lochner v. New York, which holds that the "right to free contract" is implicit in the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Read more
17 Apr 1895: The Treaty of Shimonoseki between China and Japan is signed. This marks the end of the First Sino-Japanese War, and the defeated Qing Empire is forced to renounce its claims on Korea and to concede the southern portion of the Fengtian province, Taiwan and the Penghu to Japan. Read more
17 Apr 1876: Catalpa rescue: The rescue of six Fenian prisoners from Fremantle Prison in Western Australia. Read more
17 Apr 1869: Morelos is admitted as the 27th state of Mexico. Read more
17 Apr 1864: American Civil War: The Battle of Plymouth begins: Confederate forces attack Plymouth, North Carolina. Read more
17 Apr 1863: American Civil War: Grierson's Raid begins: Troops under Union Army Colonel Benjamin Grierson attack central Mississippi. Read more
17 Apr 1861: The state of Virginia's secession convention votes to secede from the United States; Virginia later becomes the eighth state to join the Confederate States of America. Read more

🎂 Important Births on 17 April in World History

17 Apr 2005: Antonio Nusa, Norwegian footballer Antonio Eromonsele Nordby Nusa is a Norwegian professional footballer who plays for German Bundesliga club RB Leipzig and the Norway national team. He's been described by many as one of the most exciting young prospects in world football. Read more
17 Apr 2001: Shin Ryujin, South Korean rapper, singer and dancer Shin Ryu-jin, known mononymously as Ryujin, is a South Korean rapper, singer, and dancer. She is a member of the South Korean girl group Itzy, formed by JYP Entertainment in 2019. Read more
17 Apr 2001: Violette Dorange, French Professional Round the World Sailor Violette Dorange is a French offshore professional sailor. She is an offshore sailor having competed extensively in the Figaro class before progressing to the IMOCA 60. Read more
17 Apr 1998: Anna Odine Strøm, Norwegian ski jumper and two-time Olympic champion Anna Odine Strøm is a Norwegian ski jumper. She won two gold medals and one silver medal at the 2026 Winter Olympics. Read more
17 Apr 1998: Suppapong Udomkaewkanjana (Saint), Thai actor and singer Suppapong Udomkaewkanjana, nicknamed Saint, is a Thai actor, producer and host. He gained fame through his role as Pete (Pichaya) in the 2018 TV series Love by Chance and as Tutor in the TV series Why R U? (2020). Read more
17 Apr 1996: Lorna Fitzgerald, British actress Lorna Katie Fitzgerald is a British actress from Northampton. Her most notable role to date is that of Abi Branning in the BBC soap opera EastEnders. Since leaving EastEnders in January 2018, Fitzgerald has developed her acting career on the stage and in movies. Read more
17 Apr 1996: Caitlin Parker, Australian boxer Caitlin Anne Parker is an Australian amateur boxer, who became the first female boxer from Australia to win an Olympic medal when she took bronze at the 2024 Paris Games. Parker has also won silver and bronze medals at two Commonwealth Games and bronze at the 2014 Youth Olympics. Read more
17 Apr 1996: Helene Spilling, Norwegian dancer Helene Spilling Ødegaard is a Norwegian professional dancer. She is best known for her appearances on Skal vi danse, the Norwegian edition of Dancing with the Stars, and was the winner of the 17th season in 2021. During her competitive dancing career, she won the Norwegian dance championship 17 times, and represented Norway in European and world tournaments. Read more
17 Apr 1995: Jung Wheein, South Korean singer Jung Whee-in, known mononymously as Wheein, is a South Korean singer. She rose to prominence in 2014, as a member of the Korean girl group Mamamoo. In 2017, her song "Anymore" with Jung Key, topped the Gaon Charts. In April 2018, she made her debut as a solo artist with her digital single "Easy", peaking at number three in South Korea. In September 2019, Wheein released her first single album Soar. Read more
17 Apr 1994: Alanna Goldie, Canadian fencer Alanna Goldie is a Canadian Olympic fencer. Read more
17 Apr 1994: Yang Hongseok, South Korean singer and actor Yang Hong-seok, better known by the mononym Hongseok, is a South Korean singer and actor. He debuted as a vocalist of the group boy band Pentagon in October 2016. Aside from group activities as singer, he has debuted as an actor in the Korean movie, The Love That's Left. Read more
17 Apr 1992: Lachlan Maranta, Australian rugby league footballer Lachlan Maranta is a professional Rugby league footballer who plays on the wing for the Wynnum Manly Seagulls in the Queensland Cup. Read more
17 Apr 1992: Jo Jinho, South Korean singer Jo Jin-ho, commonly known by the mononym Jinho, is a South Korean singer, songwriter, composer, vocal coach and member of South Korean boy group Pentagon under Cube Entertainment. In 2023, he participated in the JTBC singing competition program Phantom Singer 4, where his quartet Crezl ultimately placed third and officially debuted. Read more
17 Apr 1990: Jonathan Brown, Welsh footballer Jonathan David Brown is a Welsh professional footballer and former Wales under-21 international who plays as a winger. Read more
17 Apr 1989: Paraskevi Papachristou, Greek triple jumper Paraskevi "Voula" Papachristou is a Greek triple jumper and long jumper. She won two gold medals at the European Athletics U23 Championships and took the third place at the 2016 World indoor Championships. She was removed from the Greek team for the 2012 London Olympics by the Greek Olympic Committee after making a racist comment online. At the 2016 Summer Olympics' final in Rio de Janeiro, she took the 8th place. In 2018 she was the European Champion in Berlin with a jump of 14,60 metres. Read more
17 Apr 1989: Avi Kaplan, singer and songwriter Avriel Benjamin Kaplan is an American singer-songwriter. He is known for being the former vocal bass of the a cappella group Pentatonix from 2011 to 2017. As a part of the group, he released five studio albums, won three Grammy Awards, and sold over six million albums. Read more
17 Apr 1988: Takahiro Moriuchi, Japanese singer-songwriter Takahiro Moriuchi , known professionally as Taka, is a Japanese singer and musician who is the lead vocalist of the Japanese rock band One Ok Rock. Moriuchi is the band's main lyricist and composer. In 2017, Kerrang! magazine placed him at number 27 on their list of the "50 Greatest Rockstars in the World". He was also listed by Rock Sound magazine as one of "50 Most Influential Figures in Rock". Read more
17 Apr 1986: Romain Grosjean, French race car driver Romain David Jeremie Grosjean is a French and Swiss racing driver, who competes in the IMSA SportsCar Championship for Lamborghini and serves as a driver in the IndyCar Series for Dale Coyne. Grosjean competed under the French flag in Formula One between 2009 and 2020, and the IndyCar Series from 2021 to 2024 and in 2026. Read more
17 Apr 1985: Rooney Mara, American actress Patricia Rooney Mara is an American actress. Her accolades include nominations for two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and a British Academy Film Award. Read more
17 Apr 1985: Luke Mitchell, Australian actor and model Luke Mitchell (born 17 April 1985) is an Australian actor. He attended the Film and Television Studio International, and won the role of Chris Knight in Neighbours in 2008. Mitchell appeared as Will in the third season of H2O: Just Add Water in 2009. He starred as Romeo Smith in Home and Away from 2009 to 2013. The role saw Mitchell win the Most Popular New Male Talent Logie Award in 2010. Read more
17 Apr 1985: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, French tennis player Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is a French former professional tennis player. He was ranked as high as world No. 5 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which he achieved in February 2012. Tsonga won 18 singles titles on the ATP Tour, including two Masters 1000 titles. Read more
17 Apr 1984: Pablo Sebastián Álvarez, Argentinian footballer Pablo Sebastián Álvarez Valeira is an Argentine former football player, who played as a defender. He also holds a Spanish passport in accordance with his descent. Read more
17 Apr 1984: Jed Lowrie, American baseball player Jed Carlson Lowrie is an American former professional baseball infielder. He played 14 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Boston Red Sox, Houston Astros, Oakland Athletics, and New York Mets. Read more
17 Apr 1984: Raffaele Palladino, Italian footballer Raffaele Palladino is an Italian professional football coach and former player who is the head coach of Serie A club Atalanta. Read more
17 Apr 1983: Stanislav Chistov, Russian ice hockey player Stanislav Mikhailovich Chistov is a Russian former professional ice hockey player. Read more
17 Apr 1983: Roberto Jiménez, Peruvian footballer Roberto Carlos Jiménez Jiménez is a Peruvian former professional footballer who played as a forward. Read more
17 Apr 1983: Andrea Marcato, Italian rugby player Andrea Marcato is an Italian rugby union coach and former international player. He won 16 caps for Italy and played in the 2008 and 2009 Six Nations Championships.
After the end of his playing career he began coaching as the head coach of Petrarca Rugby, a position held from 2017 to 2024; since then Marcato has been assistant coach of the U-20 Italian national team. Read more
17 Apr 1982: Brad Boyes, Canadian ice hockey player Bradley Keith Boyes is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player, who spent thirteen seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of seven different teams. Read more
17 Apr 1982: Chuck Kobasew, Canadian ice hockey player Nicholas James Kobasew is a Canadian former professional ice hockey right winger who played eleven seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL). Read more
17 Apr 1982: Tyron Woodley, American mixed martial artist Tyron Lakent Woodley is an American professional mixed martial artist and professional boxer. He is a former UFC Welterweight Champion who defended his title four times. A professional since 2009, Woodley also competed at Strikeforce and was an NCAA Division I collegiate wrestler for the Missouri Tigers, becoming a two-time All-American and Big 12 Conference champion. Read more
17 Apr 1981: Jenny Meadows, English runner Jennifer Brenda "Jenny" Meadows is a retired British athlete. Her main event was the 800 metres although earlier in her career she also competed over the 400 metres. In the 800 m she won a bronze medal at the 2009 World Championships, and a silver at the 2010 World Indoor Championships. At the European Athletics Championships, Meadows took silver outdoors in 2010 and gold indoors in 2011. She also had some international success as part of the Great Britain women's 4 × 400 metres relay squad. Read more
17 Apr 1981: Hanna Pakarinen, Finnish singer-songwriter Hanna Helena Pakarinen is a Finnish pop and pop-rock singer who rose to fame as the winner of the first series of the Finnish singing competition Idols in 2004. Since then, she has represented Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2007 in her homeland, and has sold over 91,000 certified records in Finland, which places her among the top 50 best-selling female soloists in her home country. Read more
17 Apr 1981: Ryan Raburn, American baseball player Ryan Neil Raburn is an American former professional baseball outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Detroit Tigers, Cleveland Indians, Colorado Rockies and Washington Nationals. While primarily an outfielder, he played every position except for catcher and shortstop during his career. Read more
17 Apr 1981: Chris Thompson, English runner Christopher Peter Thompson is a British former long-distance runner, who won the silver medal in the 10,000 metres at the 2010 European Athletics Championships in Barcelona, on 27 July 2010 behind his compatriot Mo Farah. He competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics and the 2020 Summer Olympics. Read more
17 Apr 1981: Zhang Yaokun, Chinese footballer Zhang Yaokun is a retired Chinese footballer. Read more
17 Apr 1980: Fabián Vargas, Colombian footballer Fabián Andrés Vargas Rivera is a Colombian former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He spent most of his professional career playing for América de Cali and Boca Juniors, making more than 100 appearances for both clubs. He also played for Internacional, Almería, AEK Athens, Independiente, Barcelona SC, Millonarios, and La Equidad. At international level, he played for the Colombia national team 41 times and also captained the side. Read more
17 Apr 1980: Curtis Woodhouse, English footballer, boxer, and manager Curtis Woodhouse is an English former professional footballer turned professional boxer and football manager, most recently in charge of Marske United. Woodhouse played football as a central midfielder, and competed as a light-welterweight boxer. He is the former British light-welterweight champion. His career in the Football League spanned across nine seasons, earning four caps for the England under-21 football team. Woodhouse's professional boxing record stands at 29 fights 22 wins, 13 of which are by knock-out, and 7 defeats. Read more
17 Apr 1979: Eric Brewer, Canadian ice hockey player Eric Peter Brewer is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player who was a defenceman for sixteen seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 2000 to 2015. He is an NHL All-Star and Olympic gold medalist. Read more
17 Apr 1979: Marija Šestak, Serbian-Slovenian triple jumper Marija Šestak is a Serbian-born Slovenian triple jumper. Read more
17 Apr 1978: Monika Bergmann-Schmuderer, German skier Monika Bergmann-Schmuderer is a retired German alpine skier and gold medal winner at FIS Alpine World Ski Championships. Read more
17 Apr 1978: Lindsay Hartley, American actress Lindsay Korman is an American actress. She first came to attention with three long-running soap opera roles: Theresa Lopez-Fitzgerald on Passions, Cara Castillo on All My Children, and Arianna Hernandez on Days of Our Lives. Since leaving soap operas, Korman has appeared in a number of made for television films on the Lifetime network. Read more
17 Apr 1978: Daniel Hensel, German composer and musicologist Daniel Hensel is a German composer, VJ, musicologist and music theorist. He is known as a composer of expressive works of all musical genres whose works can be dedicated to "a thread of a tradition leading from Schubert via Mahler to Hensel's teacher Schedl in presence.[…]" His style contains all kinds of material, such as traditional tonal or harmonic as well as noise and electronic material. His works are published by Musikverlag Doblinger in Vienna. Read more
17 Apr 1978: Jason White, Scottish rugby player Jason Phillip Randall White is a Scottish former rugby union footballer. He was a utility forward who played in the second or back row of the scrum – lock, flanker, or number eight. White played at club level for Glasgow Caledonians ; the French Top 14 side ASM Clermont Auvergne; and English Premiership side Sale Sharks. He won 77 caps playing for Scotland, captaining the side on 19 occasions. Read more
17 Apr 1977: Chad Hedrick, American speed skater Chad Hedrick is an American inline speed skater and ice speed skater. He was born in Spring, Texas. Read more
17 Apr 1977: Frederik Magle, Danish composer, organist, and pianist Frederik Reesen Magle is a Danish composer, concert organist, and pianist. He writes contemporary classical music as well as fusion of classical music and other genres. His compositions include orchestral works, cantatas, chamber music, and solo works, including several compositions commissioned by the Danish royal family. Magle has gained a reputation as an organ virtuoso, and as a composer and performing artist who does not refrain from venturing into more experimental projects – often with improvisation – bordering jazz, electronica, and other non-classical genres. Read more
17 Apr 1976: Maurice Wignall, Jamaican hurdler and long jumper Maurice Andre Wignall is a Jamaican hurdling athlete. Read more
17 Apr 1975: Heidi Alexander, English politician Heidi Alexander is a British politician who has served as Secretary of State for Transport since November 2024. A member of the Labour Party, she has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Swindon South since 2024. Previously she was the MP for Lewisham East from 2010 to 2018. Read more
17 Apr 1975: Travis Roy, American ice hockey player (died 2020) Travis Matthew Roy was an American college ice hockey player, author and philanthropist. Read more
17 Apr 1974: Mikael Åkerfeldt, Swedish singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer Lars Mikael Åkerfeldt is a Swedish musician. He is the lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter for the progressive metal band Opeth. A former vocalist for the death metal supergroup Bloodbath, he was also the guitarist for the "one-off" band Steel, and a member of the collaboration Storm Corrosion with Steven Wilson. Read more
17 Apr 1974: Victoria Beckham, English singer and fashion designer Victoria Caroline, Lady Beckham, is an English fashion designer, singer, and television personality. She rose to prominence in the 1990s as a member of the pop group the Spice Girls, in which she was nicknamed Posh Spice. After the Spice Girls disbanded in 2000, Beckham signed with Virgin Records to release her debut solo album Victoria Beckham, which produced two UK Top 10 singles. Beckham has also become an internationally recognised style icon and fashion designer. Read more
17 Apr 1973: Katrin Koov, Estonian architect Katrin Koov is an Estonian architect. Read more
17 Apr 1973: Brett Maher, Australian basketball player and sportscaster Brett Steven Maher is an Australian retired professional basketball player. He played his entire seventeen-year career for his hometown Adelaide 36ers in the National Basketball League (NBL) from 1992 to 2009. Maher also represented Australia at the 1996, 2000 and 2004 Summer Olympic Games, as well as at the 1998 FIBA World Championship. Read more
17 Apr 1973: Theo Ratliff, American basketball player Theophalus Curtis Ratliff is an American former professional basketball player who played 16 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Read more
17 Apr 1972: Gary Bennett, American baseball player Gary David Bennett Jr. is an American former professional baseball catcher, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for several teams, from 1995 to 1996 and 1998 to 2008. Read more
17 Apr 1972: Tony Boselli, American football player and sportscaster Don Bosco Anthony Boselli Jr. is an American professional football executive and former tackle who is the executive vice president of football operations for the Jacksonville Jaguars of the National Football League (NFL). Boselli played in the NFL for seven seasons with the Jaguars. He played college football for the USC Trojans, winning the Morris Trophy in 1994. Boselli was the first player drafted by the Jaguars, who selected him second overall in the 1995 NFL draft. Read more
17 Apr 1972: Jennifer Garner, American actress Jennifer Anne Garner is an American actress. Born in Houston, Texas and raised in Charleston, West Virginia, Garner studied theater at Denison University and began acting as an understudy for the Roundabout Theatre Company in New York City. She had a starring role on the Fox teen drama series Time of Your Life (1999–2000) and supporting roles in the films Pearl Harbor (2001) and Catch Me If You Can (2002). Read more
17 Apr 1972: Muttiah Muralitharan, Sri Lankan cricketer Deshabandu Muttiah Muralitharan is a Sri Lankan cricket coach, businessman and former professional cricketer. Averaging over six wickets per Test match, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport. He is the only bowler to take 800 Test wickets and more than 530 One Day International (ODI) wickets. As of 2026, he has taken more wickets in international cricket than any other bowler. Muralitharan was a part of the Sri Lankan team that won the 1996 Cricket World Cup and the team which was joint-winners with India of the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy. Read more
17 Apr 1972: Yuichi Nishimura, Japanese footballer and referee Yuichi Nishimura is a Japanese football referee. He has refereed in the Japanese J. League Division 1 since 1999 and has been a full international referee for FIFA since 2004. Read more
17 Apr 1972: Terran Sandwith, Canadian ice hockey player Terran Sandwith is a Canadian former professional ice hockey defenceman who played eight games in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Edmonton Oilers during the 1997–98 season. Read more
17 Apr 1971: Claire Sweeney, English actress Claire Jane Sweeney is an English actress, singer, and television personality. Known for her portrayal of Lindsey Corkhill on Channel 4's Brookside (1991–2003), she also played Roxie Hart in Chicago and starred in touring productions of Guys and Dolls (2006), Tell Me on a Sunday (2011), Legally Blonde (2011), and Educating Rita (2012). She was a panellist on ITV's Loose Women between 2003 and 2005, and presented 60 Minute Makeover from 2004 to 2006. Her debut album, Claire, reached number 15 on the UK Albums Chart in 2002. Sweeney has portrayed Cassie Plummer on the ITV soap opera Coronation Street since 2023. Her other credits include Candy Cabs (2011), Scarborough (2019), and The Good Ship Murder (2023-2024). Read more
17 Apr 1970: Redman, American rapper, producer, and actor Reginald Noble, better known by his stage name Redman, is an American rapper and record producer. He rose to fame in the early 1990s as an artist on Def Jam Recordings. Read more
17 Apr 1968: Julie Fagerholt, Danish fashion designer Julie Fagerholt is a Danish fashion designer and founder of the luxury clothing brand Heartmade. She also creates haute couture. Her customers include Queen Mary of Denmark. Read more
17 Apr 1968: Phil Henderson, American basketball player and coach (died 2013) Phillip Terry Henderson was an American basketball player. He was best known for his collegiate career at Duke University, where he led the Blue Devils to three consecutive NCAA Final Four appearances. He was a second round pick of the Dallas Mavericks in the 1990 NBA draft, but never played in the NBA. Read more
17 Apr 1968: Eric Lamaze, Canadian jockey Eric Lamaze is a Canadian showjumper and Olympic champion. He won individual gold and team silver at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, riding Hickstead. Lamaze has won three Olympic medals, as well as four Pan American Games medals and one World Equestrian Games bronze. He is considered one of Canada's best showjumpers. He is currently banned from participating in equestrian activities until 2027. Read more
17 Apr 1968: Roger Twose, New Zealand cricketer Roger Graham Twose is an English-born New Zealand former cricketer, who played 16 Test matches and 87 One Day Internationals for New Zealand in the mid-1990s. In February 2021, Twose was appointed as the director of New Zealand Cricket. Twose was a member of the New Zealand team that won the 2000 ICC KnockOut Trophy. Read more
17 Apr 1968: Richie Woodhall, English boxer and trainer Richie Woodhall is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1990 to 2000. He held the WBC super-middleweight title from 1998 to 1999, as well as the Commonwealth middleweight title from 1992 to 1995, and the European middleweight title from 1995 to 1996. As an amateur, Woodhall won a gold medal at the 1990 Commonwealth Games and bronze at the 1988 Summer Olympics, both in the light-middleweight division. Read more
17 Apr 1967: Henry Ian Cusick, Peruvian-Scottish actor Henry Ian Cusick is a Peruvian-Scottish actor of television, film, and theatre and a television director best known as Desmond Hume in Lost, for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. He also starred as Jesus in The Gospel of John, Stephen Finch on Scandal, Marcus Kane on The 100, Dr. Jonas Lear in The Passage, and Russell "Russ" Taylor on MacGyver. Read more
17 Apr 1967: Kimberly Elise, American actress Kimberly Elise Trammel is an American actress. She made her feature-film debut in Set It Off (1996), and later received critical acclaim for her performance in Beloved (1998). Read more
17 Apr 1967: Marquis Grissom, American baseball player and coach Marquis Deon Grissom is an American former professional baseball center fielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Montreal Expos, Atlanta Braves, Cleveland Indians, Milwaukee Brewers, Los Angeles Dodgers, and San Francisco Giants between 1989 and 2005. Read more
17 Apr 1967: Ian Jones, New Zealand rugby player Ian Donald Jones is a former New Zealand rugby union player. He played 79 tests for the All Blacks. He is one of New Zealand's most capped locks and formed one of the most famous lock pairings in international rugby, often partnered with Robin Brooke in the All Blacks from 1992 to 1998. What Jones lacked in size he more than made up for in skill, Jones was picked over physically intimidating locks such as Mark Cooksley who was the tallest All Black ever. Jones made his All Black debut Saturday, 16 June 1990 v Scotland at Dunedin. At the time he was 23 years, 60 days old. Read more
17 Apr 1967: Barnaby Joyce, Australian politician, 17th Deputy Prime Minister of Australia Barnaby Thomas Gerard Joyce is an Australian politician who served as the deputy prime minister of Australia and the leader of the National Party from 2016 to 2018 and from 2021 to 2022. A member of One Nation, he has been the member of parliament (MP) for the New South Wales division of New England since 2013. Joyce previously held various ministerial positions in the Abbott, Turnbull, and Morrison governments. Read more
17 Apr 1967: Liz Phair, American singer-songwriter and guitarist Elizabeth Clark Phair is an American singer-songwriter and musician. Born in New Haven, Connecticut, Phair was raised primarily in the Chicago area. After graduating from Oberlin College in 1990, she attempted to start a musical career in San Francisco; however, she returned to her home in Chicago, where she began self-releasing audio cassettes under the name Girly-Sound. The tapes led to a recording contract with the independent record label Matador Records. Read more
17 Apr 1966: Vikram, Indian actor and singer Kennedy John Victor, known professionally as Chiyaan Vikram, is an Indian actor and playback singer who predominantly works in Tamil cinema. One of the highest paid actors, he is also among the most decorated actors in Indian cinema, with laurels including nine Filmfare Awards South, a National Film Award, four Tamil Nadu State Film Awards and the Kalaimamani Award from the Government of Tamil Nadu. Based on the earnings of Indian celebrities, Vikram was included in the Forbes India Celebrity 100 list for 2016 and 2018. Read more
17 Apr 1964: Ken Daneyko, Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster Kenneth Stephen Daneyko is a Canadian former professional ice hockey defenceman. He played his entire career with the New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League (NHL), winning three Stanley Cup championships with the team. He has been nicknamed "Mr. Devil" by Devils fans, as he currently holds both the franchise record for games played as a Devil with 1,283 games and in penalty minutes with 2,516. Daneyko now provides colour analysis alongside Don La Greca during broadcasts of Devils games on MSG Sportsnet. Read more
17 Apr 1964: Maynard James Keenan, American singer-songwriter and producer Maynard James Keenan is an American musician who is the lead singer of the rock bands Tool, A Perfect Circle, and Puscifer. Read more
17 Apr 1964: Rachel Notley, Canadian politician Rachel Anne Notley is a Canadian lawyer and former politician who was the 17th premier of Alberta from 2015 to 2019 and leader of the Alberta New Democratic Party (NDP) from 2014 to 2024. Notley was the member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Edmonton-Strathcona from 2008 to 2024. Read more
17 Apr 1964: Lela Rochon, American actress Lela Rochon Fuqua is an American actress. She is best known for her starring role as Robin Stokes in the 1995 romantic drama film Waiting to Exhale. Rochon also had roles in the films Harlem Nights (1989), Boomerang (1992), The Chamber (1996), Gang Related (1997), Knock Off (1998), Why Do Fools Fall in Love (1998), and Any Given Sunday (1999). Read more
17 Apr 1962: Paul Nicholls, English jockey and trainer Paul Frank Nicholls is a British National Hunt horse trainer with stables at Ditcheat, Somerset. A relatively successful jump jockey, Nicholls has become the leading National Hunt trainer of his generation in Britain, finishing the 2007–08 season with 155 winners and a record £4 million in prize money. As of April 2023, he has trained over 3,500 winners, won the 2012 Grand National, four Cheltenham Gold Cups and has been crowned British jump racing Champion Trainer fourteen times. Read more
17 Apr 1961: Norman Cowans, Jamaican-English cricketer Norman George Cowans is a former cricketer who mainly played as a right-arm fast bowler. He was the 500th cricketer to play Test cricket for England, featuring between 1982 and 1985 in 19 Test matches and 23 One Day Internationals. Cowans also played first-class and List A cricket for both Middlesex and Hampshire. Read more
17 Apr 1961: Boomer Esiason, American football player and sportscaster Norman Julius "Boomer" Esiason is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons, primarily with the Cincinnati Bengals. He played college football for the Maryland Terrapins and was selected in the second round of the 1984 NFL draft by the Bengals, where he spent 10 seasons. Esiason was also a member of the New York Jets and Arizona Cardinals. Read more
17 Apr 1961: Bella Freud, English fashion designer Isobel Lucia Freud, is a London-based fashion designer. Her work is known for its playful and often humorous use of language. She is the daughter of the painter Lucian Freud and great-granddaughter of Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis. She is also famous for her podcast, Fashion Neurosis. Read more
17 Apr 1960: Vladimir Polyakov, Russian pole vaulter Vladimir Polyakov is a retired Soviet pole vaulter who represented the Soviet Union and later Russia. On 26 June 1981 he managed to clear 5.81 metres, beating Thierry Vigneron's six-day-old world record. Two years later Polyakov lost the record to Pierre Quinon, who jumped 5.82. Polyakov won a silver medal at the 1982 European Championships, and won the European Indoor Championships in 1983. Read more
17 Apr 1959: Sean Bean, English actor Sean Bean is an English actor. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he made his professional debut in a production of Romeo and Juliet in 1983 at The Watermill Theatre. Retaining his Yorkshire accent, he first found mainstream success for his portrayal of Richard Sharpe in the ITV series Sharpe, which originally ran from 1993 to 1997. Read more
17 Apr 1959: Jimmy Mann, Canadian ice hockey player James Edward Mann is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player who played 293 games in the National Hockey League. He played for the Winnipeg Jets, Quebec Nordiques and the Pittsburgh Penguins. He makes regular appearances with a program for charity, called Oldtimers Hockey Challenge. Read more
17 Apr 1959: Li Meisu, Chinese shot putter Li Meisu is a retired Chinese shot putter who won the bronze medal at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. Read more
17 Apr 1958: Laslo Babits, Canadian javelin thrower (died 2013) Laslo Babits was a male javelin thrower from Canada. He competed for his native country at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California, finishing in 8th place. He set his personal best in 1984. Read more
17 Apr 1957: Teri Austin, Canadian actress Teresa "Teri" Austin is a Canadian animal care activist and former actress. She had her greatest acting success in the 1980s and 1990s, and is best known for her role as Jill Bennett in the CBS primetime soap opera Knots Landing, and as co-host of the Canadian reality series Thrill of a Lifetime. Read more
17 Apr 1957: Afrika Bambaataa, American disc jockey (died 2026) Lance Taylor, known professionally as Afrika Bambaataa, was an American disc jockey, rapper, paedophile and record producer. He was notable for releasing a series of genre-defining electro tracks in the 1980s that influenced the development of hip-hop culture. Bambaataa was one of the originators of breakbeat DJing. Read more
17 Apr 1957: Dwane Casey, American basketball coach Dwane Lyndon Casey is an American retired basketball coach who most recently served as the head coach of the Detroit Pistons before transitioning to a front office position with the team. He is a former NCAA basketball player and coach, having played and coached NCAA basketball for over a decade before moving on to the NBA. He was previously the head coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Toronto Raptors, with whom he won the NBA Coach of the Year Award in 2018. Read more
17 Apr 1957: Nick Hornby, English novelist, essayist, lyricist, and screenwriter Nicholas Peter John Hornby is an English writer. He is best known for his memoir Fever Pitch (1992) and novels High Fidelity (1995) and About a Boy (1998), all of which were adapted into feature films. Hornby's work frequently touches upon music, sport, and the aimless and obsessive natures of his protagonists. His books have sold more than 5 million copies worldwide as of 2018. In a 2004 poll for the BBC, Hornby was named the 29th most influential person in British culture. He has received two Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay nominations for An Education (2009), and Brooklyn (2015). Read more
17 Apr 1957: Julia Macur, English lawyer and judge Dame Julia Wendy Macur, DBE, known as The Rt Hon Lady Justice Macur, is a British judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales. Between April 2017 and December 2019, she was the Senior Presiding Judge for England and Wales. Read more
17 Apr 1957: Frank McDonough, British historian Frank McDonough is a British historian of the Third Reich and international history. Read more
17 Apr 1956: Colin Tyre, Lord Tyre, Scottish lawyer and judge Colin Jack Tyre, Lord Tyre, is a Scottish lawyer, former President of the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe, and a Senator of the College of Justice, a judge of the Supreme Courts of Scotland. Read more
17 Apr 1955: Todd Lickliter, American basketball player and coach Todd Arlan Lickliter is the former head coach of the Evansville Purple Aces men's basketball team of the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC). He was previously the head coach of Marian University, the University of Iowa, and Butler University men's basketball teams. He spent the 2011–12 season as an assistant coach at Miami (Ohio). Read more
17 Apr 1955: Pete Shelley, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2018) Pete Shelley was an English singer, songwriter and guitarist. He formed early punk band Buzzcocks with Howard Devoto in 1976, and became the lead singer and guitarist in 1977 when Devoto left. The group released their biggest hit "Ever Fallen in Love " in 1978. The band broke up in 1981 and reformed at the end of the decade. Shelley also had a solo career; his song "Homosapien" charted in Australasia and Canada in 1981 and 1982. Read more
17 Apr 1955: Mike Stroud, English physician and explorer Michael Adrian Stroud, OBE, FRCP is a professor of medicine and nutrition at Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust, England. He has interests in gastroenterology and human health under extreme conditions. After semi-retirement in 2016, he works part time. Read more
17 Apr 1954: Riccardo Patrese, Italian race car driver Riccardo Gabriele Patrese is an Italian former racing driver, who competed in Formula One from 1977 to 1993. Patrese was runner-up in the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in 1992 with Williams, and won six Grands Prix across 17 seasons. Read more
17 Apr 1954: Roddy Piper, Canadian professional wrestler and actor (died 2015) Roderick George Toombs, known by his ring name "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, was a Canadian professional wrestler and actor. Read more
17 Apr 1954: Michael Sembello, American singer-songwriter and guitarist Michael Andrew Sembello is an American singer, guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter, composer and producer. Read more
17 Apr 1952: Joe Alaskey, American voice actor (died 2016) Joseph Francis Alaskey III was an American actor and comedian. He was one of Mel Blanc's successors at the Warner Bros. Animation studio until his death. He alternated with Jeff Bergman, Greg Burson, Jim Cummings, Bob Bergen, Maurice LaMarche and Billy West in voicing Warner Bros. cartoon characters such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Sylvester, Tweety, Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn, Pepé Le Pew, Marvin the Martian, Speedy Gonzales, Wile E. Coyote, Road Runner and Taz, among many others. He also voiced Plucky Duck on Tiny Toon Adventures from 1990 to 1995. Alaskey was the second actor to voice Grandpa Lou Pickles on Nickelodeon's Rugrats. He would later reprise his role in the spin-off series All Grown Up!. Read more
17 Apr 1952: Pierre Guité, Canadian ice hockey player Pierre Guité is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player who played 377 games in the World Hockey Association. He played for the Quebec Nordiques, Michigan Stags, Baltimore Blades, Cincinnati Stingers and Edmonton Oilers. He was traded from the Nordiques to the financially troubled Stags, along with Michel Rouleau and Alain Caron, for Marc Tardif, just weeks before the Stags folded and the league took over the team, moving it to Baltimore. Read more
17 Apr 1952: John McColl, English general and politician, Lieutenant Governor of Jersey General Sir John Chalmers McColl, is a retired senior British Army officer and a past Lieutenant Governor of Jersey. McColl previously served as Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe from 2007 to 2011. Read more
17 Apr 1952: Željko Ražnatović, Serbian commander "Arkan" (died 2000) Željko Ražnatović, better known as Arkan, was a Serbian warlord, mobster and head of the Serb paramilitary force called the Serb Volunteer Guard during the Yugoslav Wars, considered one of the most feared and effective paramilitary forces during the wars. His paramilitary unit was responsible for numerous crimes in Eastern Bosnia, including murder, pillaging, rape and ethnic cleansings. Arkan was one of the most feared, celebrated and iconic figures in Serbia during his time. Read more
17 Apr 1952: John Robertson, Scottish businessman and politician John Webster Robertson is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Glasgow Anniesland and Glasgow North West from 2000 to 2015. Until 2010, he was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Yvette Cooper. Read more
17 Apr 1951: Olivia Hussey, Argentinian-English actress (died 2024) Olivia Hussey was an Argentine and British actress. The daughter of Argentine singer Osvaldo Ribó, Hussey was born in Buenos Aires and spent most of her early life in her mother's native England. She aspired to become an actress at a young age and studied drama at London's Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts. Read more
17 Apr 1951: Börje Salming, Swedish ice hockey player and businessman (died 2022) Anders Börje Salming was a Swedish ice hockey player. He was a defenceman who played professionally for 23 seasons, for the clubs Brynäs IF, Toronto Maple Leafs, Detroit Red Wings, and AIK. He spent 16 seasons with the Maple Leafs, who retired his number 21 in 2016. Salming holds several Maple Leafs records, including the most assists. Read more
17 Apr 1948: Jan Hammer, Czech pianist, composer, and producer Jan Hammer is a Czech-American musician, composer, and record producer. He rose to prominence while playing keyboards with the Mahavishnu Orchestra during the early 1970s, as well as with his film scores for television and film including "Miami Vice Theme" and "Crockett's Theme", from the 1980s television program Miami Vice. He has continued to work as both a musical performer and producer. Read more
17 Apr 1948: Alice Harden, American educator and politician (died 2012) Alice Varnado Harden was a Democratic member of the Mississippi Senate, representing the 28th District from 1988 until her death. She lived in Jackson and represented Hinds County. Read more
17 Apr 1948: Pekka Vasala, Finnish runner Pekka Antero Vasala is a retired Finnish middle-distance athlete who won an Olympic gold medal in the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. Vasala had a brilliant three-month period in 1972 when he won an Olympic gold medal at 1,500 meters and set a new European record in the 800 meters running 1:44.5. The time was only 0.2 seconds off the world record. His Olympic gold would be his only major international medal. He retired in 1974. Read more
17 Apr 1947: Nigel Emslie, Lord Emslie, Scottish lawyer and judge George Nigel Hannington Emslie, Lord Emslie is a retired judge of the Supreme Courts of Scotland. He is the son of former Lord President George Emslie, Baron Emslie, and older brother of fellow judge Derek Emslie, Lord Kingarth and rhino conservationist Dr Richard Emslie. Read more
17 Apr 1947: Richard Field, English lawyer and judge
Sir Richard Alan Field is a British judge of the High Court of England and Wales. Read more
17 Apr 1947: Sherrie Levine, American photographer Sherrie Levine is an American photographer, painter, and conceptual artist. Some of her work consists of exact photographic reproductions of the work of other photographers such as Walker Evans, Eliot Porter and Edward Weston. Read more
17 Apr 1947: Tsutomu Wakamatsu, Japanese baseball player, coach, and manager Tsutomu Wakamatsu is a Japanese former baseball player, coach, and manager for the Yakult Swallows in Nippon Professional Baseball. He batted left-handed, and threw right-handed. His number 1 is honoured by the Swallows. Read more
17 Apr 1946: Clare Francis, English sailor and author Clare Mary Francis MBE is a British novelist who in her first career as a yachtswoman has twice sailed across the Atlantic on her own. She was the first woman to skipper a successful boat on the Whitbread Around the World race. Read more
17 Apr 1943: Richard Allen Epstein, American lawyer, author, and academic Richard Allen Epstein is an American legal scholar known for his writings on torts, contracts, property rights, law and economics, classical liberalism, and libertarianism. He is the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law at New York University and the director of the Classical Liberal Institute. He also serves as a Senior Research Fellow at the Civitas Institute, as the Peter and Kirsten Bedford Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, and as a senior lecturer and the James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor of Law Emeritus at the University of Chicago. Read more
17 Apr 1942: Buster Williams, American jazz bassist Charles Anthony "Buster" Williams is an American jazz bassist. Williams is known for his membership in pianist Herbie Hancock's early 1970s group, as well as working with guitarist Larry Coryell, the Thelonious Monk repertory band Sphere and as the accompanist of choice for many singers, including Nancy Wilson. Read more
17 Apr 1942: Dnyaneshwar Agashe, Indian businessman and cricketer (died 2009) Dnyaneshwar Chandrashekhar Agashe was an Indian businessman, cricketer, cricket administrator, and philanthropist. He founded the Suvarna Sahakari Bank in 1969, and served as its managing director from its inception until his death. From 1970 to 1978, he served as the joint managing director of the Brihan Maharashtra Sugar Syndicate Ltd. with his brother, and then as the company's sole managing director from 1978 until his death. Read more
17 Apr 1941: Lagle Parek, Estonian architect and politician, Estonian Minister of the Interior Lagle Parek is an Estonian politician. She served as the Minister of the Interior in the first post-soviet government, led by the Prime Minister Mart Laar. Read more
17 Apr 1940: Eric Dancer, English businessman and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Devon
Sir Eric Dancer is a British businessman and formerly Lord-Lieutenant of Devon. Read more
17 Apr 1940: Billy Fury, English singer-songwriter (died 1983) Ronald Wycherley, known professionally as Billy Fury, was an English musician. An early star of rock and roll, he spent 332 weeks on the UK singles chart. His hit singles include "Wondrous Place", "Halfway to Paradise" and "Jealousy". Fury also maintained a film career, notably playing rock performers in Play It Cool in 1962 and That'll Be the Day in 1973. Read more
17 Apr 1940: John McCririck, English journalist (died 2019) John Michael McCririck was an English horse racing pundit, television personality and journalist. Read more
17 Apr 1940: Chuck Menville, American animator and screenwriter (died 1992) Charles David Menville was an American animator and writer for television. His credits included Batman: The Animated Series, Land of the Lost, The Real Ghostbusters, The Smurfs, Star Trek: The Animated Series, and Tiny Toon Adventures. Read more
17 Apr 1940: Anja Silja, German soprano and actress Anja Silja Regina Langwagen is a German soprano singer. Read more
17 Apr 1940: Agostino Vallini, Italian cardinal and vicar general of Rome Agostino Vallini is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church. He has been a cardinal since 2006. From 2008 to 2017, he served as Vicar General of Rome. He is also the Archpriest emeritus of the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran. Read more
17 Apr 1939: Robert Miller, American art dealer (died 2011) Robert Miller was an American art dealer. Read more
17 Apr 1938: Ben Barnes, American businessman and politician, 36th Lieutenant Governor of Texas Benny Frank Barnes is an American real estate magnate, politician, and crisis manager who served as the speaker of the Texas House of Representatives from 1965 to 1969 and as the 36th lieutenant governor of Texas from 1969 to 1973. He was a vice-chair and top fundraiser of John Kerry's presidential campaign. Barnes was also one of only eight persons who raised over $500,000 for Kerry. Read more
17 Apr 1938: Doug Lewis, Canadian lawyer and politician, 41st Canadian Minister of Justice Douglas Grinslade Lewis, is a Canadian accountant, lawyer and former politician. Read more
17 Apr 1938: Ronald H. Miller, American theologian, author, and academic (died 2011) Ronald H. Miller was professor of the Religion Department at Lake Forest College in Illinois. Miller earned a Ph.D. in Comparative Religions from Northwestern University, and a B.S and M.A from St. Louis University. He was a co-founder and co-director of Common Ground, an active adult education group for interfaith study and dialogue founded in 1975. Miller was vice-president of the Interreligious Engagement Project 21 and board member at Hands-of-Peace, an organization that brings American, and Palestinian and Israeli teenagers from the Middle East together for a two-week program in the United States. Miller lectured at countless churches, temples, mosques and centers across the country and wrote books aimed at a popular audience that convey contemporary issues in New Testament studies as well as in spirituality and philosophy. Read more
17 Apr 1938: Kerry Wendell Thornley, American theorist and author (died 1988) Kerry Wendell Thornley was an American author. He is known as the co-founder of Discordianism, in which context he is usually known as Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst or simply Lord Omar. He and Hill authored the religion's text Principia Discordia, Or, How I Found Goddess, and What I Did to Her When I Found Her. Thornley also was known for his 1962 manuscript The Idle Warriors, which was inspired by the activities of his acquaintance Lee Harvey Oswald before the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy. Read more
17 Apr 1937: Ronald Hamowy, Canadian historian and academic (died 2012) Ronald Hamowy was a Canadian academic, known primarily for his contributions to political and social academic fields. At the time of his death, he was professor emeritus of intellectual history at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. Hamowy was closely associated with the political ideology of libertarianism and his writings and scholarship place particular emphasis on individual liberty and the limits of state action in a free society. He is associated with a number of prominent American libertarian organizations. Read more
17 Apr 1937: Ferdinand Piëch, Austrian-German engineer and businessman (died 2019) Ferdinand Karl Piëch was an Austrian business magnate, engineer, and executive who held the positions of chairman of the executive board (Vorstandsvorsitzender) of the Volkswagen Group from 1993 to 2002, and chairman of the supervisory board (Aufsichtsratsvorsitzender) from 2002 to 2015. Read more
17 Apr 1936: Urs Wild, Swiss chemist (died 2022) Urs Paul Rolf Wild was a Swiss chemist. He became known for his pioneering works in single molecule detection. Read more
17 Apr 1935: Bud Paxson, American broadcaster, founded Home Shopping Network and Pax TV (died 2015) Lowell White "Bud" Paxson was an American media executive. In 1982, Paxson and his business partner, Roy Speer, co-founded the Home Shopping Club. He established Pax TV in 1998, a television network focusing on family-friendly content. Read more
17 Apr 1934: Don Kirshner, American songwriter and producer (died 2011) Donald Kirshner was an American music publisher, music consultant, rock music producer, talent manager, and songwriter. Dubbed "the Man with the Golden Ear" by Time, he was best known for managing songwriting talent as well as successful pop groups including the Monkees, Kansas, and the Archies. Read more
17 Apr 1934: Peter Morris, Australian-English surgeon and academic (died 2022) Sir Peter John Morris was an Australian surgeon and Nuffield professor of surgery at the University of Oxford. Morris was President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, founder of the Oxford Transplant Centre and director of the Centre for Evidence in Transplantation at the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Read more
17 Apr 1931: John Barrett, English tennis player and sportscaster John Edward Barrett, is a British retired tennis player, television commentator and author. Read more
17 Apr 1931: Malcolm Browne, American journalist and photographer (died 2012) Malcolm Wilde Browne was an American journalist and photographer, best known for his award-winning photograph of the self-immolation of Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức in 1963. Read more
17 Apr 1931: Bill Ramsey, American jazz and pop singer, journalist and actor (died 2021) William McCreery Ramsey was an American-German jazz and pop singer, journalist and actor famous for his German-language hits. He returned to Germany a year after he had served compulsory military service with the U.S. Air Force there. Active as a singer of jazz and pop already as a soldier, he made a career in different fields of musical entertainment. He sang and recorded German schlager, also German-language cover versions of English hits, jazz and swing. He appeared in films and television series, and ran popular series on radio and television as presenter. Read more
17 Apr 1930: Chris Barber, English trombonist and bandleader (died 2021) Donald Christopher Barber was an English jazz musician, best known as a bandleader and trombonist. He helped many musicians with their careers and had a UK top twenty trad jazz hit with "Petite Fleur" in 1959. These musicians included the blues singer Ottilie Patterson, who was at one time his wife, and Lonnie Donegan, whose appearances with Barber triggered the skiffle craze of the mid-1950s and who had his first transatlantic hit, "Rock Island Line", while with Barber's band. He provided an audience for Donegan and, later, Alexis Korner, and sponsored African-American blues musicians to visit Britain, making Barber a significant figure in launching the British rhythm and blues and "beat boom" of the 1960s. Read more
17 Apr 1929: James Last, German-American bassist, composer, and bandleader (died 2015) James Last was a German composer and big band leader of the James Last Orchestra. Initially a jazz bassist, his trademark "happy music" made his numerous albums best-sellers in Germany and the United Kingdom, with 65 of his albums reaching the charts in the UK alone. His composition "Happy Heart" became an international success in interpretations by Andy Williams and Petula Clark. Read more
17 Apr 1928: Victor Lownes, American businessman (died 2017) Victor Aubrey Lownes III was an executive for HMH Publishing Company Inc., later known as Playboy Enterprises, from 1955 through the early 1980s. Soon after he met Hugh Hefner in 1954, Hefner founded Playboy magazine, and Lownes eventually joined his publishing company, serving as vice president. Lownes was a close confidant of Hefner and gained a reputation for dating Playboy Playmates. Read more
17 Apr 1928: Cynthia Ozick, American short story writer, novelist, and essayist Cynthia Ozick is an American short story writer, novelist, and essayist. Read more
17 Apr 1928: Heinz Putzl, Austrian fencer Heinz Putzl is an Austrian former fencer. He competed at the 1948 and 1952 Summer Olympics. Read more
17 Apr 1928: Fabien Roy, Canadian accountant and politician (died 2023) Fabien Roy was a Canadian politician who was active in Quebec in the 1970s. Roy was elected to the National Assembly of Quebec and the House of Commons of Canada, and advocated social credit theories of monetary reform. Read more
17 Apr 1927: Margot Honecker, East German politician and First Lady (died 2016) Margot Honecker was an East German politician and influential member of the country's Communist government until 1989. From 1963 until 1989, she was Minister of National Education of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). She was married to Erich Honecker, leader of East Germany's ruling Socialist Unity Party from 1971 to 1989 and concurrently from 1976 to 1989 the country's head of state. Read more
17 Apr 1926: Joan Lorring, British actress (died 2014) Joan Lorring was an American actress and singer known for her work in film and theatre. For her role as Bessy Watty in The Corn Is Green (1945), Lorring was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Lorring also originated the role of Marie Buckholder in Come Back, Little Sheba on Broadway in 1950, for which she won a Donaldson Award. Read more
17 Apr 1926: Gerry McNeil, Canadian ice hockey player and manager (died 2004) Joseph Gerald George McNeil was a professional ice hockey goaltender who won three Stanley Cups with the Montreal Canadiens between 1947 and 1956. Read more
17 Apr 1925: René Moawad, Lebanese lawyer and politician, 13th President of Lebanon (died 1989) René Anis Moawad was a Lebanese politician who served as the 9th president of Lebanon for seventeen days, from 5 to 22 November 1989, before his assassination by unknown assailants. Read more
17 Apr 1924: Kenneth Norman Jones, Australian public servant (died 2022) Kenneth Norman Jones was an Australian senior public servant. Read more
17 Apr 1924: Donald Richie, American-Japanese author and critic (died 2013) Donald Richie was an American author, journalist, and film critic. He was known for writing about the Japanese people, the culture of Japan, and especially Japanese cinema. Although he considered himself primarily a film historian, Richie also directed a number of experimental films, the first when he was 17. He was awarded the Japanese Order of the Rising Sun in 2005. Read more
17 Apr 1923: Lindsay Anderson, English actor, director, and screenwriter (died 1994) Lindsay Gordon Anderson was an English filmmaker, theatre director, critic, and actor. He was considered a leading light of the Free Cinema movement and of the British New Wave, and a principal exponent of kitchen sink realism on both the stage and screen. Read more
17 Apr 1923: Solly Hemus, American baseball player, coach, and manager (died 2017) Solomon Joseph Hemus was an American professional baseball infielder, manager, and coach, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the St. Louis Cardinals and Philadelphia Phillies. Hemus is one of a select group of big league players to have held a dual role as a player-manager. Read more
17 Apr 1923: Neville McNamara, Australian air marshal (died 2014) Air Chief Marshal Sir Neville Patrick McNamara, was a senior commander of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). He served as Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), the RAAF's highest-ranking position, from 1979 until 1982, and as Chief of the Defence Force Staff (CDFS), Australia's top military role at the time, from 1982 until 1984. He was the second RAAF officer to hold the rank of air chief marshal. Read more
17 Apr 1923: Gianni Raimondi, Italian lyric tenor (died 2008) Gianni Raimondi was an Italian lyric tenor, particularly associated with the Italian repertory. Read more
17 Apr 1923: Harry Reasoner, American soldier and journalist (died 1991) Harry Reasoner was an American journalist for CBS and ABC News. He is known for his adroit use of language as a television commentator and as one of the original hosts of the news magazine 60 Minutes. Read more
17 Apr 1921: Melvin Storer, American shipfitter and navy diver (died 2003) Melvin Tyler Storer was an American shipfitter, navy diver and welder who served in the United States Navy Reserve on the USS West Virginia and USS Yarnall. He was aboard the USS California during the Attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II and was reported lost in action before being found as a survivor. Read more
17 Apr 1920: Edmonde Charles-Roux, French journalist and author (died 2016) Edmonde Charles-Roux was a French writer. Read more
17 Apr 1919: Gilles Lamontagne, Canadian lieutenant and politician, 24th Lieutenant Governor of Quebec (died 2016) Joseph Georges Gilles Claude Lamontagne was a Canadian politician who held a number of offices both in Quebec and federally. A Liberal, he was Mayor of Quebec City (1965–1977), Postmaster General of Canada (1978–1979), Minister of National Defence (1980–1983) and the 24th Lieutenant Governor of Quebec (1984–1990). Read more
17 Apr 1919: Chavela Vargas, Costa Rican-Mexican singer-songwriter and actress (died 2012) Chavela Vargas was a Costa Rican and Mexican singer. She gained widespread recognition for her distinctive interpretations of Mexican rancheras. However, her impact extends beyond this genre, encompassing various styles within popular Latin American music. Read more
17 Apr 1918: William Holden, American actor (died 1981) William Franklin Holden was an American actor and one of the biggest box-office draws of the 1950s. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the film Stalag 17 (1953) and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for The Blue Knight (1973). Read more
17 Apr 1916: Win Maung, 3rd President of Union of Myanmar (died 1989) Mahn Win Maung was a Burmese politician who served as the third president of Burma. Read more
17 Apr 1916: A. Thiagarajah, Sri Lankan educator and politician (died 1981) Arumugam Thiagarajah was a Sri Lankan Tamil teacher, politician and Member of Parliament. He died in May 1981, a day after being shot and injured an attack by a militant Tamil group. Read more
17 Apr 1916: Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, world's first female prime minister (died 2000) Sirima Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike, commonly known as Sirimavo Bandaranaike, was a Sri Lankan politician who served as Prime Minister of Sri Lanka from 1960 to 1965, from 1970 to 1977, and from 1994 to 2000. A chairperson of Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), she was the first woman in the world to be elected prime minister in 1960. Read more
17 Apr 1915: Martin Clemens, Scottish soldier (died 2009) Major Warren Frederick Martin Clemens was a British-Australian colonial administrator and military officer. In late 1941 and early 1942, while serving as a District Officer in the Solomon Islands, he helped prepare the area for eventual resistance to Japanese occupation. His additional duties as a coastwatcher alerted the Allies to Japanese plans to build an airstrip on Guadalcanal. This resulted in Allied carrier raids and eventually a landing by United States forces and the beginning of the epic struggle in the Solomons. Clemens then directly served the U.S. Marines in coordinating intelligence on Japanese activities. Read more
17 Apr 1915: Joe Foss, American general and politician, 20th Governor of South Dakota (died 2003) Joseph Jacob Foss was a United States Marine Corps Major and a leading Marine fighter ace in World War II. He received the Medal of Honor in recognition of his role in air combat during the Guadalcanal campaign. In postwar years, he was an Air National Guard Brigadier General, served as the 20th Governor of South Dakota (1955–1959), president of the National Rifle Association of America (NRA) and the first commissioner of the American Football League. He also was a television broadcaster. Read more
17 Apr 1915: Regina Ghazaryan, Armenian painter (died 1999) Regina Tadevosi Ghazaryan was an Armenian painter and public figure. Known as a friend and benefactor of Yeghishe Charents, she is credited with saving many of the poet's manuscripts during the regime of Joseph Stalin. Read more
17 Apr 1914: George Davis, American art director (died 1984) George Davis was an American art director and was the supervising art director at MGM from 1959 to 1970. He won two Academy Awards for Best Art Direction for his work on The Robe in 1954 and for The Diary of Anne Frank in 1960. Read more
17 Apr 1914: Mac Raboy, American illustrator (died 1967) Emmanuel "Mac" Raboy was an American comics artist best known for his comic-book work on Fawcett Comics' Captain Marvel Jr. and as the Sunday comic-strip artist of Flash Gordon for more than 20 years. Cartoonist Drew Friedman has stated, "Raboy was an expert technician with pen and brush, and his lush covers are some of the most unusually beautiful ever to grace comic books". Read more
17 Apr 1912: Marta Eggerth, Hungarian-American actress and singer (died 2013) Marta Eggerth was a Hungary-born American actress and singer from "The Silver Age of Operetta". Many of the 20th century's most famous operetta composers, including Franz Lehár, Fritz Kreisler, Robert Stolz, Oscar Straus, and Paul Abraham, composed works especially for her. Read more
17 Apr 1911: Hervé Bazin, French author and poet (died 1996) Hervé Bazin was a French writer, whose best-known novels covered semi-autobiographical topics of teenage rebellion and dysfunctional families. Read more
17 Apr 1911: Lester Rodney, American soldier and journalist (died 2009) Lester Rodney was an American journalist who helped break down the color barrier in baseball as sports writer for the Daily Worker. Read more
17 Apr 1910: Evangelos Averoff, Greek historian and politician, Greek Minister of Defence (died 1990) Evangelos Averoff-Tossizza was a Greek politician, leader of the New Democracy party (1981–1984), member of parliament, and author. Read more
17 Apr 1910: Ivan Goff, Australian screenwriter and producer (died 1999) Ivan Goff was an Australian screenwriter, best known for his collaborations with Ben Roberts including White Heat (1949), Man of a Thousand Faces (1957), Legend of the Lone Ranger (1981), and the pilot for Charlie's Angels (1976). Read more
17 Apr 1910: Helenio Herrera, French footballer and manager (died 1997) Helenio Herrera Gavilán was an Argentine and naturalised French football player and manager. He is best remembered for his success with the Inter Milan team known as Grande Inter in the 1960s. Read more
17 Apr 1909: Alain Poher, French politician, President of France (died 1996) Alain Émile Louis Marie Poher was a French politician who served as President of the Senate from 1968 to 1992. In this capacity, he was twice briefly acting President of France, in 1969 and 1974 following the resignation of Charles de Gaulle and the death of Georges Pompidou, respectively. Poher was affiliated with the Popular Republican Movement (MRP) until 1966 and later with the Democratic Centre (CD) and Centre of Social Democrats (CSD), which he joined in 1976. Read more
17 Apr 1906: Sidney Garfield, American physician, co-founded Kaiser Permanente (died 1984) Sidney R. Garfield was an American physician and a pioneer of health maintenance organizations. He co-founded the Kaiser Permanente healthcare system with businessman Henry J. Kaiser. He graduated from the University of Iowa College of Medicine in 1928, which is now called the Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine. Read more
17 Apr 1905: Louis Jean Heydt, American journalist and actor (died 1960) Louis Jean Heydt was an American character actor in film, television, and theatre, most frequently seen in hapless, ineffectual, or fall-guy roles. Read more
17 Apr 1905: Arthur Lake, American actor (died 1987) Arthur William Lake was an American actor known best for bringing Dagwood Bumstead, the bumbling husband of Blondie, to life in film, radio, and television. Read more
17 Apr 1903: Nicolas Nabokov, Russian-American composer and educator (died 1978) Nicolas Nabokov was a Russian-born composer, writer, and cultural figure. He became a U.S. citizen in 1939. Read more
17 Apr 1903: Gregor Piatigorsky, Ukrainian-American cellist and educator (died 1976) Gregor Piatigorsky was a Russian-born American cellist. Read more
17 Apr 1903: Morgan Taylor, American hurdler and coach (died 1975) Frederick Morgan Taylor was an American hurdler and the first athlete to win three Olympic medals in the 400 m hurdles. He was the flag bearer for the United States at his last Olympics in 1932. Read more
17 Apr 1899: Aleksander Klumberg, Estonian decathlete and coach (died 1958) Aleksander Klumberg was an Estonian decathlete. He represented Estonia in several events at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, and won the bronze medal in the decathlon at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris. In 1922, he became the first official world record holder in the decathlon. Arrested by the Soviet occupation authorities during World War II, Klumberg was deported from Estonia, imprisoned in a Russian Gulag camp from 1945 to 1954, and deported to Siberia in 1954–1955. Read more
17 Apr 1897: Nisargadatta Maharaj, Indian philosopher and educator (died 1981) Nisargadatta Maharaj was an Indian guru of nonduality, belonging to the Inchagiri Sampradaya, a lineage of teachers from the Navnath Sampradaya. Read more
17 Apr 1897: Thornton Wilder, American novelist and playwright (died 1975) Thornton Niven Wilder was an American playwright and novelist. He won three Pulitzer Prizes, for the novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey and for the plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth, and a U.S. National Book Award for the novel The Eighth Day. Read more
17 Apr 1897: Edouard Wyss-Dunant, Swiss physician and mountaineer (died 1983) Edouard Wyss-Dunant was a Swiss physician and alpinist. He had a distinguished career in medicine, both in his own country and abroad. He published a number of treatises in his professional capacity and was the author of several mountaineering books. He is best known for his leadership of the Swiss Expedition to Everest of 1952. Read more
17 Apr 1896: Señor Wences, Spanish-American ventriloquist (died 1999) Wenceslao Moreno Centeno, known professionally as Señor Wences, was a Spanish ventriloquist and comedian. His popularity grew with his frequent television appearances on CBS's The Ed Sullivan Show during the 1950s and 1960s. Later, he became popular with another generation of fans on The Muppet Show. Read more
17 Apr 1895: Robert Dean Frisbie, American soldier and author (died 1948) Robert Dean Frisbie was an American writer of travel literature about Polynesia. Read more
17 Apr 1891: George Adamski, Polish-American ufologist and author (died 1965) George Adamski was a Polish-American author who became widely known in ufology circles, and to some degree in popular culture, after he displayed numerous photographs in the 1940s and 1950s that he said were of alien spacecraft, claimed to have met with friendly Nordic alien or "Space Brothers", and claimed to have taken flights with them to the Moon and other planets. Read more
17 Apr 1888: Herms Niel, German soldier, trombonist, and composer (died 1954) Ferdinand Friedrich Hermann Nielebock, known as Herms Niel, was a German composer of military songs and marches. Read more
17 Apr 1882: Artur Schnabel, Polish pianist and composer (died 1951) Artur Schnabel was an Austrian-born classical pianist, composer and pedagogue. Schnabel was known for his intellectual seriousness as a musician, avoiding pure technical bravura. Among the 20th century's most respected and important pianists, his playing displayed marked vitality, profundity and spirituality in the Austro-German classics, particularly the works of Beethoven and Schubert. Read more
17 Apr 1879: Henri Tauzin, French hurdler (died 1918) Henri Alexis Tauzin was a French athlete who competed in the early twentieth century. He specialized in the 400 metres hurdles and won a silver medal in Athletics at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris, his birthplace. Read more
17 Apr 1878: Emil Fuchs, German-American lawyer and businessman (died 1961) Emil Edwin "Judge" Fuchs was a German-born American baseball owner and executive. Read more
17 Apr 1878: Demetrios Petrokokkinos, Greek tennis player (died 1942) Demetrios Stephen Petrokokkinos was a Greek tennis player. He competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens. Read more
17 Apr 1877: Matsudaira Tsuneo, Japanese diplomat (died 1949) Tsuneo Matsudaira was a Japanese diplomat and politician who served as the first President of the House of Councillors from 1947 to 1949. He previously served as Ambassador to the United States from 1924 to 1928, to Britain from 1929 to 1936, and Minister of the Imperial Household from 1936 to 1945. Read more
17 Apr 1875: Aleksander Tõnisson, Estonian general and politician, 5th Estonian Minister of War (died 1941) Aleksander Tõnisson VR I/1 was an Estonian military commander during the Estonian War of Independence. Read more
17 Apr 1868: Zdeňka Wiedermannová-Motyčková, Moravian educator (died 1915) Zdeňka Wiedermannová-Motyčková was a Moravian teacher, journal editor, and women's rights activist. Born into a family of progressive educators, she studied to become a teacher, graduating in 1886. Her Catholic education led her to more conservative values than her family's, but after teaching for several years, she began to recognize the disparities between women and men teachers, as well as those of their students. By 1898, she was publicly calling for equal pay for equal work and campaigning for equal education for boys and girls. In 1902, Wiedermannová founded and became chair of the Moravian Teachers Union, whose focus was to professionalize teaching standards. The following year, she opened a Girls' Academy in Brno, hoping later to include secondary education there. As the Austro-Hungarian Empire provided little funding for girls' education, she held lectures to provide for the operating costs of the academy. Finally in 1908, she successfully established the first girls' secondary school in Moravia. Read more
17 Apr 1866: Ernest Starling, English physiologist and academic (died 1927) Ernest Henry Starling was a British physiologist who contributed many fundamental ideas to this subject. These ideas were important parts of the British contribution to physiology, which at that time led the world. Read more
17 Apr 1865: Ursula Ledóchowska, Polish-Austrian nun and saint, founded the Congregation of the Ursulines of the Agonizing Heart of Jesus (died 1939) Julia Ledóchowska, USAHJ, in religion Maria Ursula of Jesus, was a Polish Catholic religious sister who founded the Ursulines of the Agonizing Heart of Jesus. Read more
17 Apr 1863: Augustus Edward Hough Love, English mathematician and theorist (died 1940) Augustus Edward Hough Love FRS, often known as A. E. H. Love, was an English mathematician famous for his work on the mathematical theory of elasticity. He also worked on wave propagation and his work on the structure of the Earth in Some Problems of Geodynamics won for him the Adams prize in 1911 when he developed a mathematical model of surface waves known as Love waves.
Love also contributed to the theory of tidal locking and introduced the parameters known as Love numbers, used in problems related to Earth tides, the tidal deformation of the solid Earth due to the gravitational attraction of the Moon and Sun. Read more
17 Apr 1852: Cap Anson, American baseball player and manager (died 1922) Adrian Constantine Anson, nicknamed "Cap", "Pop", and "Baby" was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) first baseman. Including his time in the National Association (NA), he played a record 27 consecutive seasons. Anson was regarded as one of the greatest players of his era and one of the first superstars of the game. He spent most of his career with the Chicago White Stockings/Colts franchise, serving as the club's manager, first baseman and, later in his tenure, minority owner. He led the team to six National League pennants from 1876 to 1886. Anson was one of baseball's first great hitters, and probably the first to tally over 3,000 career hits. In addition to being a star player, he innovated managerial tactics such as signals between players and the rotation of pitchers. Read more
17 Apr 1849: William R. Day, American jurist and politician, 36th United States Secretary of State (died 1923) William Rufus Day was an American diplomat and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1903 to 1922. Prior to his service on the Supreme Court, Day served as United States Secretary of State during the administration of President William McKinley. He also served as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and the United States Circuit Courts for the Sixth Circuit. Read more
17 Apr 1842: Maurice Rouvier, French businessman and politician, 53rd Prime Minister of France (died 1911) Maurice Rouvier was a French statesman of the "Opportunist" faction, who twice served as the Prime Minister of France. He is best known for his financial policies and his unpopular policies designed to avoid a rupture with Germany. Read more
17 Apr 1837: J. P. Morgan, American banker and financier, founded J.P. Morgan & Co. (died 1913) John Pierpont Morgan Sr. was an American financier and investment banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. As the head of the banking firm that ultimately became known as JPMorgan Chase & Co., he was a driving force behind the wave of industrial consolidations in the United States at the turn of the twentieth century. Read more
17 Apr 1833: Jean-Baptiste Accolay, Belgian violinist, composer, and conductor (died 1900) Jean-Baptiste Accolay was a Belgian violin teacher, violinist, conductor, and composer of the romantic period. His best-known composition is his one-movement student concerto in A minor. It was written in 1868, originally for violin and orchestra. Read more
17 Apr 1820: Alexander Cartwright, American firefighter and (disputed) inventor of baseball (died 1892) Alexander Joy Cartwright Jr. was a founding member of the New York Knickerbockers Base Ball Club in the 1840s. Although he was an inductee of the Baseball Hall of Fame and he was sometimes referred to as a "father of baseball", the importance of his role in the development of the game may have been exaggerated. Read more
17 Apr 1816: Thomas Hazlehurst, English architect and philanthropist (died 1876) Thomas Hazlehurst was known nationally as "the Chapel Builder" and more locally as "the Prince of Methodism" or "the Prince of the Wesleyans".
He was given these titles because of his generosity in paying wholly or largely for the building of some 12 chapels and three schools in the area of Runcorn, Widnes and the villages in north Cheshire. His father, also called Thomas, had founded a profitable soap and alkali manufacturing business, Hazlehurst & Sons, in Runcorn in 1816. Read more
17 Apr 1814: Josif Pančić, Serbian botanist and academic (died 1888) Josif Pančić was a Serbian botanist, physician, professor and academic. Born in the First French Empire, in present-day Croatia, he earned his medical degree in Hungary before moving to Serbia. He extensively documented the flora of Serbia, and is credited with having classified many species of plants which were unknown to the botanical community at that time. Pančić is credited with discovering the Serbian spruce. He is regarded as the father of Serbian botany. Read more

🕊️ Important Deaths on 17 April in World History

17 Apr 2022: Radu Lupu, Romanian pianist (born 1945) Radu Lupu was a Romanian pianist. He was widely recognized as one of the greatest pianists of his time. Read more
17 Apr 2019: Alan García, Peruvian lawyer and politician, twice President of Peru (born 1949) Alan Gabriel Ludwig García Pérez was a Peruvian politician who served as President of Peru for two non-consecutive terms, from 1985 to 1990 and from 2006 to 2011. He was the second leader of the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance (APRA), and its only member to serve as president. Mentored by the APRA's founder, Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre, he served in the Constituent Assembly of 1978–1979. Elected to the Peruvian Congress in 1980, he rose to the position of General Secretary of the APRA in 1982, and was elected to the presidency in 1985 in a landslide. Read more
17 Apr 2019: Gwen Marston, American quilter and writer (born 1936) Gwendolyn Joy Marston was an American quilter, quilt teacher, lecturer, and author who championed a style of quilting she called "liberated quiltmaking". She encouraged modern quilt makers to break away from using commercial patterns and to learn to design their own unique pieces of quilt art. Read more
17 Apr 2018: Barbara Bush, American political matriarch and literacy advocate, First Lady of the United States (1989–1993), and Second Lady of the United States (1981–1989) (born 1925) Barbara Bush was the first lady of the United States from 1989 to 1993, as the wife of George H. W. Bush, the 41st president of the United States. She was previously second lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989, when her husband was vice president under President Ronald Reagan, and founded the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy. Among her children are George W. Bush, the 43rd president of the United States, and Jeb Bush, the 43rd governor of Florida. Bush and Abigail Adams are the only two women to be the wife of one U.S. president and the mother of another. At the time she became first lady, she was the second oldest woman to hold the position, behind only Anna Harrison, who never lived in the capital. Bush was generally popular as first lady, recognized for her apolitical grandmotherly image. Read more
17 Apr 2018: Carl Kasell, American radio personality (born 1934) Carl Ray Kasell was an American radio personality. He was a newscaster for National Public Radio, and later was the official judge and scorekeeper of the weekly news quiz show Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me! until his retirement in 2014. Read more
17 Apr 2016: Chyna, American wrestler (born 1969) Chyna, also known as Joanie Laurer, was an American professional wrestler, fitness model, bodybuilder, actress, adult actress, and television personality. Read more
17 Apr 2016: Doris Roberts, American actress (born 1925) Doris May Roberts was an American actress and comedian whose career spanned seven decades of television and film. She received five Emmy Awards and a Screen Actors Guild award during her acting career, which began in 1948. Read more
17 Apr 2015: Robert P. Griffin, American soldier, lawyer, and politician (born 1923) Robert Paul Griffin was an American politician from the U.S. state of Michigan. A member of the Republican Party, he served in both chambers of the United States Congress as a Representative from 1957 to 1966 and a U.S. Senator from 1966 to 1979. He later served a Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court from 1987 to 1995. He co-sponsored the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959, which regulates the internal affairs of labor unions. As a deputy minority leader in the Senate, he called on President Richard Nixon, a fellow Republican, to resign during the Watergate scandal. Read more
17 Apr 2015: Scotty Probasco, American businessman and philanthropist (born 1928) Scott Livingston Probasco, Jr. was an American heir, businessman and philanthropist. Read more
17 Apr 2015: Jeremiah J. Rodell, American general (born 1921) Jeremiah J. Rodell was a brigadier general in the United States Air Force that served as Deputy Chief of Chaplains of the United States Air Force from 1978 to 1980. Read more
17 Apr 2015: A. Alfred Taubman, American businessman and philanthropist (born 1924) Adolph Alfred "Al" Taubman was an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist. Read more
17 Apr 2014: Gabriel García Márquez, Colombian journalist and author, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1927) Gabriel José García Márquez was a Colombian writer and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo or Gabito throughout Latin America. Considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century, particularly in the Spanish language, he was awarded the 1972 Neustadt International Prize for Literature and the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature. He pursued a self-directed education that resulted in leaving law school for a career in journalism. From early on he showed no inhibitions in his criticism of Colombian and foreign politics. In 1958, he married Mercedes Barcha Pardo; they had two sons, Rodrigo and Gonzalo. Read more
17 Apr 2014: Bernat Klein, Serbian-Scottish fashion designer and painter (born 1922) Bernat Klein CBE was a Serbian textile designer and painter. Based in Scotland, Klein supplied textiles to haute couture designers in the 1960s and 1970s, and later sold his own clothing collections. Read more
17 Apr 2014: Wojciech Leśnikowski, Polish–American architect and academic (born 1938) Wojciech Grzegorz Leśnikowski, was a Polish-American architect, writer and educator. He oversaw and participated in the design and construction of numerous large-scale architectural projects around the world. Read more
17 Apr 2014: Karpal Singh, Malaysian lawyer and politician (born 1940) Karpal Singh s/o Ram Singh Deo was an Indian Malaysian politician and lawyer. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency of Bukit Gelugor in the state of Penang from 2004 to 2014. During that time, he was also the National Chairman of the Democratic Action Party (DAP). Read more
17 Apr 2013: Carlos Graça, São Toméan politician, Prime Minister of São Tomé and Príncipe (born 1931) Carlos Alberto Monteiro Dias da Graça was a São Toméan politician who served as the country's sixth prime minister. Read more
17 Apr 2013: Bi Kidude, Tanzanian Taarab singer (born ≈1910) Fatuma binti Baraka, popularly known as Bi Kidude, was a Tanzanian taarab singer from Zanzibar. She has been called the "queen of taarab and Unyago music" and was inspired by earlier taarab singer Siti binti Saad. Read more
17 Apr 2013: Yngve Moe, Norwegian bass player and songwriter (born 1957) Yngve Moe was a Norwegian bass guitarist and founding member of the rock band Dance with a Stranger. Read more
17 Apr 2013: V. S. Ramadevi, Indian politician, 13th Governor of Karnataka (born 1934) V. S. Ramadevi was an Indian politician who was the first lady to become the 8th Governor of Karnataka and 9th Chief Election Commissioner of India from 26 November 1990 to 11 December 1990. She was the first woman to become Chief Election Commissioner of India. She was succeeded by T. N. Seshan. Ramadevi was the first woman to serve as Secretary General of the Rajya Sabha, from 1 July 1993 to 25 September 1997. She was also the first and to date, the only female Governor of Karnataka, from 2 December 1999 to 20 August 2002. Read more
17 Apr 2012: Leila Berg, English journalist and author (born 1917) Leila Berg was an English children's author, editor and play specialist. She was well known as a journalist and a writer on education and children's rights. Berg was a recipient of the Eleanor Farjeon Award. Read more
17 Apr 2012: J. Quinn Brisben, American educator and politician (born 1934) John Quinn Brisben was an American teacher, author, and political activist from Chicago, Illinois. Brisben was on the Socialist Party USA's presidential ticket twice. He was the party's vice-presidential nominee in 1976 alongside former Milwaukee mayor Frank P. Zeidler. In 1992, he returned to SPUSA's ticket when he ran as a candidate for president of the United States. Read more
17 Apr 2012: Dimitris Mitropanos, Greek singer (born 1948) Dimitris Mitropanos was a Greek singer. He was renowned for his mastery of laïkó, a Greek music style. Read more
17 Apr 2012: Nityananda Mohapatra, Indian journalist, poet, and politician (born 1912) Nityananda Mahapatra was an Indian Odia politician, poet and journalist. Read more
17 Apr 2012: Jonathan V. Plaut, American rabbi and author (born 1942) Jonathan V. Plaut was an American Reform rabbi and author. Plaut was the rabbi of Temple Beth Israel in Jackson, MI. Read more
17 Apr 2012: Stanley Rogers Resor, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 9th United States Secretary of the Army (born 1917) Stanley Rogers Resor was an American lawyer, military officer, and government official. Read more
17 Apr 2011: Eric Gross, Austrian-Australian pianist and composer (born 1926) Eric Gross AM was an Austrian–Australian pianist, composer and teacher. Read more
17 Apr 2011: Michael Sarrazin, Canadian actor (born 1940) Michael Sarrazin was a French Canadian actor. His most notable film was They Shoot Horses, Don't They?. Read more
17 Apr 2011: Robert Vickrey, American artist and author (born 1926) Robert Remsen Vickrey was an American artist and author based in Massachusetts who specialized in the ancient medium of egg tempera. His paintings are surreal dreamlike visions of sunset shadows of bicycles, nuns in front of mural-painted brick walls, and children playing. Read more
17 Apr 2008: Aimé Césaire, Caribbean-French poet and politician (born 1913) Aimé Fernand David Césaire was an Afro-Martiniquan French poet, author, and politician. He was one of the founders of the Négritude movement in Francophone literature" and coined the word "négritude" in French. He founded the Parti progressiste martiniquais in 1958, and served in the French National Assembly from 1945 to 1993 and as President of the Regional Council of Martinique from 1983 to 1988. He was also the Mayor of Fort-de-France for 56 years, from 1945 to 2001. Read more
17 Apr 2008: Danny Federici, American organist and accordion player (born 1950) Daniel Paul Federici was an American musician, best known as a founding member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, where he was its organist, accordionist and glockenspiel player. Federici appeared on ten of Springsteen's studio albums. Read more
17 Apr 2007: Kitty Carlisle, American actress, singer, socialite and game show panelist (born 1910) Kitty Carlisle Hart was an American stage and screen actress, opera singer, television personality and spokesperson for the arts. She was the leading lady in the Marx Brothers movie A Night at the Opera (1935) and was a regular panelist on the television game show To Tell The Truth (1956–1978). She served 20 years on the New York State Council on the Arts. Read more
17 Apr 2006: Jean Bernard, French physician and haematologist (born 1907) Jean Bernard was a French physician and haematologist. During his life, he served as president of the French Academy of Sciences and the French National Academy of Medicine. He was also the first president of the National Ethics Advisory Committee. Bernard was a professor of haematology and director of the Institute for Leukaemia at the University of Paris. Read more
17 Apr 2006: Scott Brazil, American director and producer (born 1955) Scott Brazil was an American television producer and director. Read more
17 Apr 2006: Henderson Forsythe, American actor (born 1917) Henderson Forsythe was an American actor. Forsythe was known for his role as Dr. David Stewart on the soap opera As the World Turns, a role he played for over 30 years (1960-1991), and for his work on the New York stage. Read more
17 Apr 2004: Edmond Pidoux, Swiss author and poet (born 1908) Edmond Pidoux was a Swiss author who wrote numerous poems, novels, and essays. He was particularly renowned for Biblical pieces such as L'histoire de Jonas. In 1982, he won the Prix du livre vaudois. He is a younger brother of the musicologist, Pierre Pidoux. Born in Belgium in 1908, this minister's son studied literature at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland and worked as a teacher and lecturer. He died at the age of 95 in 2004. Read more
17 Apr 2003: Robert Atkins, American physician and cardiologist, created the Atkins diet (born 1930) Robert Coleman Atkins was an American physician and cardiologist, best known for the Atkins Diet, which requires close control of carbohydrate consumption and emphasizes protein and fat as the primary sources of dietary calories in addition to a controlled number of carbohydrates from vegetables. Read more
17 Apr 2003: H. B. Bailey, American race car driver (born 1936) Herring Burl "H. B." Bailey was a NASCAR driver. He raced his No. 36 Pontiac part-time as an independent driver in the Grand National/Winston Cup series from 1962 to 1993, making 85 races over his career. Read more
17 Apr 2003: John Paul Getty Jr., American-English philanthropist (born 1932) Sir John Paul Getty, known widely as John Paul Getty Jr., was a British-American businessman, philanthropist, and book collector. He was the third son of the American-born British oil tycoon J. Paul Getty (1892–1976), who was once the richest man in the world. His mother was J. Paul Getty's fourth wife, Ann Rork. The Getty family's wealth was the result of the oil business founded by George Franklin Getty. One of his sons, Mark Getty, co-founded the visual media company Getty Images. Read more
17 Apr 2003: Earl King, American blues singer, guitarist and songwriter (born 1934) Earl Silas Johnson IV, known as Earl King, was an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter, most active in blues music. A composer of blues standards such as "Come On" and "Big Chief", he was an important figure in New Orleans R&B. Read more
17 Apr 2003: Yiannis Latsis, Greek businessman (born 1910) Ioannis "Yiannis" Latsis, also known as John Spyridon Latsis, was a Greek shipping multi-billionaire business magnate notable for his great wealth, influential friends, and charitable activities. Read more
17 Apr 1998: Linda McCartney, American photographer, activist, and musician (born 1941) Linda Louise, Lady McCartney was an American photographer, musician, cookbook author, and activist. She was the keyboardist and harmony vocalist in the band Wings that also featured her husband, Paul McCartney of the Beatles. Read more
17 Apr 1997: Chaim Herzog, Israeli general, lawyer, and politician, 6th President of Israel (born 1918) Chaim Herzog was an Irish-Israeli politician, military officer, lawyer and author who served as President of Israel from 1983 to 1993. Born in Belfast and raised primarily in Dublin, the son of Ireland's Chief Rabbi Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog, he immigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1935. He served in the Haganah Jewish paramilitary group during the 1936–1939 Arab revolt and in the British Army during World War II. Following the end of the British Mandate and Israel's Declaration of Independence in 1948, he served in the Israel Defense Forces and fought in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. He remained in the Israeli military as an officer following the war until retiring in 1962 with the rank of major-general. Read more
17 Apr 1996: Piet Hein, Danish poet and mathematician (born 1905) Piet Hein was a Danish polymath, often writing under the Old Norse pseudonym Kumbel, meaning "tombstone". His short poems, known as gruks or grooks, first started to appear in the daily newspaper Politiken shortly after the German occupation of Denmark in April 1940 under the pseudonym "Kumbel Kumbell". He also invented the Soma cube and the board game Hex. Read more
17 Apr 1995: Frank E. Resnik, American sergeant and businessman (born 1928) Frank E. Resnik was CEO (1984–1989) and Chairman (1989–1991) of Philip Morris USA. Read more
17 Apr 1994: Roger Wolcott Sperry, American psychologist and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1913) Roger Wolcott Sperry was an American neuropsychologist, neurobiologist, cognitive neuroscientist, and Nobel laureate who, together with David H. Hubel and Torsten Nils Wiesel, won the 1981 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work with split-brain research. A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Sperry as the 44th most cited psychologist of the 20th century. Read more
17 Apr 1993: Turgut Özal, Turkish engineer and politician, 8th president of Turkey (born 1927) Halil Turgut Özal was a Turkish politician, bureaucrat, engineer and statesman who served as the president of Turkey from 1989 to 1993. He previously served as the prime minister of Turkey from 1983 to 1989 as the leader of the Motherland Party. He was the deputy prime minister of Turkey in the military government of Bülend Ulusu between 1980 and 1982. Read more
17 Apr 1993: Gamal Hamdan, Egyptian scholar and geographer (born 1928) Gamal Hamdan was an Egyptian geographer and scholar known for his work on Egypt's geography, history, and culture. Read more
17 Apr 1990: Ralph Abernathy, American minister and activist (born 1936) Ralph David Abernathy Sr. was an American civil rights activist and Baptist minister. He was ordained in the Baptist tradition in 1948. Being a leader of the civil rights movement, Abernathy was a close friend and mentor of Martin Luther King Jr. and collaborated with him and E. D. Nixon to create the Montgomery Improvement Association, which led and co-created the Montgomery bus boycott and was an executive board member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Abernathy became president of the SCLC following the assassination of King in 1968 and led the Poor People's Campaign in Washington, D.C., in addition to other marches and demonstrations for disenfranchised Americans. He also served as an advisory committee member of the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE). Read more
17 Apr 1988: Louise Nevelson, Ukrainian-American sculptor and educator (born 1900) Louise Nevelson was an American sculptor known for her monumental, monochromatic, wooden wall pieces and outdoor sculptures. Born in Pereiaslav in the Poltava Governorate of the Russian Empire, she emigrated with her family to the United States in 1905. Nevelson learned English at school, as she spoke Yiddish at home. Read more
17 Apr 1987: Cecil Harmsworth King, English publisher (born 1901) Cecil Harmsworth King was Chairman of Daily Mirror Newspapers, Sunday Pictorial Newspapers and the International Publishing Corporation (1963–1968) and a director at the Bank of England (1965–1968). Read more
17 Apr 1987: Dick Shawn, American actor (born 1923) Dick Shawn was an American actor and comedian. He played a wide variety of supporting roles and was a prolific character actor. During the 1960s, he played small roles in madcap comedies, usually portraying caricatures of counterculture personalities, such as the hedonistic but mother-obsessed Sylvester Marcus in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), and the hippie actor Lorenzo Saint DuBois ("L.S.D.") in The Producers (1967). Beyond his film work, he appeared in numerous television shows from the 1960s through the 1980s. Read more
17 Apr 1986: Marcel Dassault, French businessman, founded Dassault Aviation (born 1892) Marcel Dassault was a French engineer and industrialist who spent his career in aircraft manufacturing. He was also involved in politics, serving intermittently over more than three decades in both houses of the French Parliament from 1951 until his death in 1986. Read more
17 Apr 1984: Claude Provost, Canadian-American ice hockey player (born 1933) Claude Joseph Antoine Provost was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. Read more
17 Apr 1983: Felix Pappalardi, American singer-songwriter, bass player, and producer (born 1939) Felix Albert Pappalardi Jr. was an American music producer, songwriter, vocalist, and bassist. He is best known as the bassist and co-lead vocalist of the band Mountain, whose song "Mississippi Queen" peaked at number 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became a classic rock radio staple. Read more
17 Apr 1977: William Conway, Irish cardinal (born 1913) William John Conway was an Irish cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church who served as Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland from 1963 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1965. He was head of the Catholic Church in Ireland during the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. Read more
17 Apr 1976: Henrik Dam, Danish biochemist and physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1895) Carl Peter Henrik Dam was a Danish biochemist and physiologist. Read more
17 Apr 1975: Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Indian philosopher and politician, 2nd President of India (born 1888) Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was an Indian academic, philosopher and statesman who served as the Vice President of India from 1952 to 1962 and President of India from 1962 to 1967. He was the ambassador of India to the Soviet Union from 1949 to 1952. He was also the vice-chancellor of Banaras Hindu University from 1939 to 1948 and the vice-chancellor of Andhra University from 1931 to 1936. Radhakrishnan is considered one of the most influential and distinguished 20th century scholars of comparative religion and philosophy, he held the King George V Chair of Mental and Moral Science at the University of Calcutta from 1921 to 1932 and Spalding Chair of Eastern Religion and Ethics at University of Oxford from 1936 to 1952. Read more
17 Apr 1967: Red Allen, American singer and trumpet player (born 1908) Henry James "Red" Allen Jr. was an American jazz trumpeter and vocalist whose playing has been described by Joachim-Ernst Berendt and others as the first to fully incorporate the innovations of Louis Armstrong. Read more
17 Apr 1961: Elda Anderson, American physicist and health researcher (born 1899) Elda Emma Anderson was an American physicist and health researcher. During World War II, she worked on the Manhattan Project at Princeton University and the Los Alamos National Laboratory, where she prepared the first sample of pure uranium-235 at the laboratory. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin, she became professor of physics at Milwaukee-Downer College in 1929. After the war, she became interested in health physics. She worked in the Health Physics Division of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and established the professional certification agency known as the American Board of Health Physics. Read more
17 Apr 1960: Eddie Cochran, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1938) Edward Ray Cochran was an American rock and roll musician. His songs, such as "Twenty Flight Rock", "Summertime Blues", "C'mon Everybody" and "Somethin' Else", captured teenage frustration and desire in the mid-1950s and early 1960s. Cochran experimented with multitrack recording, distortion techniques, and overdubbing, even on his earliest singles. Cochran played the guitar, piano, bass, and drums. His image as a sharply dressed and attractive young man with a rebellious attitude epitomized the stance of the 1950s rocker, and in death, Cochran achieved iconic status. Read more
17 Apr 1954: Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu, Romanian lawyer and politician, Romanian Minister of Justice (born 1900) Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu was a Romanian communist politician and leading member of the Communist Party of Romania (PCR), also noted for his activities as a lawyer, sociologist and economist. For a while, he was a professor at the University of Bucharest. Pătrășcanu rose to a government position before the end of World War II and, after having disagreed with Stalinist tenets on several occasions, eventually came into conflict with the Romanian Communist government of Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej. He became a political prisoner and was ultimately executed. Fourteen years after Pătrășcanu's death, Romania's new communist leader, Nicolae Ceaușescu, endorsed his rehabilitation as part of a change in policy. Read more
17 Apr 1948: Kantarō Suzuki, Japanese admiral and politician, 42nd Prime Minister of Japan (born 1868) Baron Kantarō Suzuki was a Japanese politician and admiral who served as prime minister of Japan from 7 April to 17 August 1945, during World War II. He was prime minister at the time of Japan's surrender on 15 August. Read more
17 Apr 1946: Juan Bautista Sacasa, Nicaraguan medical doctor, politician and 20th President of Nicaragua (born 1874) Juan Bautista Sacasa was the President of Nicaragua from 1 January 1933 to 9 June 1936. He was the eldest son of Roberto Sacasa and Ángela Sacasa Cuadra, the former's cousin twice removed. He was a relative of Benjamín Lacayo Sacasa. Read more
17 Apr 1944: J. T. Hearne, English cricketer and coach (born 1867) John Thomas Hearne was a Middlesex and England medium-fast bowler. His aggregate of 3061 first-class wickets is the greatest for any bowler of medium pace or above, and his 257 wickets in 1896 is the tenth highest total on record. In 1891, 1896, 1898, 1904 and 1910 Hearne headed the first-class bowling averages. Read more
17 Apr 1944: Dimitrios Psarros, Greek lieutenant, founded the National and Social Liberation (born 1893) Dimitrios Psarros was a Greek army officer, founder and leader of the resistance group National and Social Liberation (EKKA), the third-most significant organization of the Greek Resistance movement after the National Liberation Front (EAM) and the National Republican Greek League (EDES). In 1944, he was executed by Greek communist forces. Read more
17 Apr 1942: Jean Baptiste Perrin, French-American physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1870) Jean Baptiste Perrin was a French physicist who, in his studies of the Brownian motion of minute particles suspended in liquids, verified Albert Einstein's explanation of this phenomenon and thereby confirmed the atomic nature of matter. For this work, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1926. Read more
17 Apr 1936: Charles Ruijs de Beerenbrouck, Dutch lawyer and politician, 28th Prime Minister of the Netherlands (born 1873) Charles Joseph Marie Ruijs de Beerenbrouck was a Dutch politician of the Roman Catholic State Party (RKSP). He served as Chairman of the Council of Ministers from 9 September 1918 until 4 August 1925 and from 10 August 1929 until 26 May 1933. Read more
17 Apr 1933: Kote Marjanishvili, Georgian director and playwright (born 1872) Konstantine "Kote" Marjanishvili, also known by the Russified name Konstantin Aleksandrovich Mardzhanov, was a Georgian theater director regarded as an important contributor to the pre- and post-revolutionary evolution of Georgian, Russian and Soviet stages. One of the most prestigious and professional of Georgia’s directors, he was particularly famous for his lavish and massive theater shows. Read more
17 Apr 1930: Alexander Golovin, Russian painter and stage designer (born 1863) Aleksandr Yakovlevich Golovin was a Russian and Soviet decorator, painter, and stage designer. He designed productions for Sergei Diaghilev, Constantin Stanislavski, and Vsevolod Meyerhold. Read more
17 Apr 1923: Laurence Ginnell, Irish lawyer and politician (born 1852) Laurence Ginnell was an Irish nationalist politician, lawyer and Member of Parliament (MP) of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland as member of the Irish Parliamentary Party for North Westmeath at the 1906 UK general election. From 1910 he sat as an Independent Nationalist and at the 1918 general election he was elected for Sinn Féin. Read more
17 Apr 1921: Manwel Dimech, Maltese journalist, author, and philosopher (born 1860) Emmanuel Giovanni Salvatore Pietro Dimech, also known as Manwel Dimech was a Maltese socialist, philosopher, journalist, writer, poet and social revolutionary. Born in Valletta and brought up in extreme poverty and illiteracy, Dimech spent significant portions of his early life in the Maltese prison system, mostly on charges of petty theft. At the age of seventeen, Dimech was arrested for the crime of involuntary murder, and sentenced to seventeen years in jail. After being thrown in jail, Dimech started to educate himself and became a man of letters. Read more
17 Apr 1919: Svetozar Ćorović, Serbian novelist (born 1875) Svetozar Ćorović was a Bosnian Serb writer. In his books, he often wrote of life in Herzegovina and, more specifically, the city of Mostar. His brother was Vladimir Ćorović, a distinguished Serbian historian who was killed in 1941 during World War II in Greece. Read more
17 Apr 1892: Alexander Mackenzie, Scottish-Canadian politician, 2nd Prime Minister of Canada (born 1822) Alexander Mackenzie was a Scottish-Canadian stonemason and politician who served as the second prime minister of Canada from 1873 to 1878. Read more
17 Apr 1888: E. G. Squier, American archaeologist and journalist (born 1821) Ephraim George Squier, usually cited as E. G. Squier, was an American archaeologist, history writer, painter and newspaper editor. Read more
17 Apr 1882: George Jennings, English engineer and plumber, invented the flush toilet (born 1810) George Jennings was an English sanitary engineer and plumber who invented the first public flush toilets. These were first showcased at the Great Exhibition in 1851, and such was the popularity of his invention the first public toilets opened in 1852 and were known as ‘Public Waiting Rooms'. Read more
17 Apr 1843: Samuel Morey, American engineer (born 1762) Samuel Morey was an American inventor, who worked on early internal combustion engines and was a pioneer in steamships who accumulated a total of 20 patents. Read more
17 Apr 1840: Hannah Webster Foster, American journalist and author (born 1758)
Hannah Webster Foster was an American novelist. Read more

Why is 17 April Important in World History?

Several significant political, cultural, educational, and sporting events took place on 17 April, making it an important topic for general knowledge and competitive examinations.

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On 17 April, several important historical events, notable births, and major milestones occurred in World history.

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