History of Today in India – 17 May

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

Last updated on 17 May 2026, 09:11 AM

📜 Important Events on 17 May in World History

17 May 2014: A military plane crash in northern Laos kills 17 people. Read more
17 May 2010: Pamir Airways Flight 112 crashes in Afghanistan's Shakardara District, killing 44. Read more
17 May 2007: Trains from North and South Korea cross the 38th Parallel in a test-run agreed by both governments. This is the first time that trains have crossed the Demilitarized Zone since 1953. Read more
17 May 2006: The aircraft carrier USS Oriskany is sunk in the Gulf of Mexico as an artificial reef. Read more
17 May 2004: The first legal same-sex marriages in the U.S. are performed in the state of Massachusetts. Read more
17 May 2000: Arsenal and Galatasaray fans clash in the 2000 UEFA Cup Final riots in Copenhagen. Read more
17 May 1997: Troops of Laurent-Désiré Kabila march into Kinshasa. Zaire is officially renamed Democratic Republic of the Congo. Read more
17 May 1995: Shawn Nelson steals an M60 tank from the California Army National Guard Armory in San Diego and proceeds to go on a rampage. Read more
17 May 1994: Malawi holds its first multi-party elections. Read more
17 May 1992: Three days of popular protests against the government of Prime Minister of Thailand Suchinda Kraprayoon begin in Bangkok, leading to a military crackdown that results in 52 officially confirmed deaths, hundreds of injuries, many disappearances, and more than 3,500 arrests. Read more
17 May 1990: The General Assembly of the World Health Organization (WHO) eliminates homosexuality from the list of psychiatric diseases. Read more
17 May 1987: Iran–Iraq War: An Iraqi Dassault Mirage F1 fighter jet fires two missiles into the U.S. Navy warship USS Stark, killing 37 and injuring 21 of her crew. Read more
17 May 1984: Prince Charles calls a proposed addition to the National Gallery, London, a "monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend", sparking controversies on the proper role of the Royal Family and the course of modern architecture. Read more
17 May 1983: The U.S. Department of Energy declassifies documents showing world's largest mercury pollution event in Oak Ridge, Tennessee (ultimately found to be 4.2 million pounds [1.9 kt]), in response to the Appalachian Observer's Freedom of Information Act request. Read more
17 May 1983: Lebanon, Israel, and the United States sign an agreement on Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon. Read more
17 May 1980: General Chun Doo-hwan of South Korea seizes control of the government and declares martial law in order to suppress student demonstrations. Read more
17 May 1980: On the eve of presidential elections, Maoist guerrilla group Shining Path attacks a polling location in Chuschi (a town in Ayacucho), starting the Internal conflict in Peru. Read more
17 May 1980: Rioting breaks out in downtown Miami, following the acquittal of four white police officers in the killing of Arthur McDuffie, a Black insurance salesman. Read more
17 May 1977: Nolan Bushnell opens the first Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre (later renamed Chuck E. Cheese) in San Jose, California. Read more
17 May 1974: The Troubles: Thirty-three civilians are killed and 300 injured when the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) detonates four car bombs in Dublin and Monaghan, Ireland. Read more
17 May 1974: Police in Los Angeles raid the Symbionese Liberation Army's headquarters, killing six members, including Camilla Hall. Read more
17 May 1973: Watergate scandal: Televised hearings begin in the United States Senate. Read more
17 May 1969: Venera program: Soviet Venera 6 begins its descent into the atmosphere of Venus, sending back atmospheric data before being crushed by pressure. Read more
17 May 1967: Six-Day War: President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt demands dismantling of the peace-keeping UN Emergency Force in Egypt. Read more
17 May 1959: In Cuba, the First Agrarian Reform Law – a cornerstone of the Cuban Revolution – is signed by Fidel Castro, aiming to eliminate large foreign-owned estates and redistribute land to over 100,000 peasants. Read more
17 May 1954: The United States Supreme Court hands down a unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, outlawing racial segregation in public schools. Read more
17 May 1953: Delta Air Lines Flight 318 crashes near Marshall, Texas, killing 19. Read more
17 May 1943: World War II: Dambuster Raids commence by No. 617 Squadron RAF. Read more
17 May 1940: World War II: Germany occupies Brussels, Belgium. Read more
17 May 1939: The Columbia Lions and the Princeton Tigers play in the United States' first televised sporting event, a collegiate baseball game in New York City. Read more
17 May 1937: Spanish Civil War: The Largo Caballero government resigns in the wake of the Barcelona May Days, leading Juan Negrín to form a government, without the anarcho-syndicalist CNT, in its stead. Read more
17 May 1933: Vidkun Quisling and Johan Bernhard Hjort form Nasjonal Samling — the national-socialist party of Norway. Read more
17 May 1915: The last British Liberal Party government (led by H. H. Asquith) falls. Read more
17 May 1914: The Protocol of Corfu is signed, recognising full autonomy to Northern Epirus under nominal Albanian sovereignty. Read more
17 May 1902: Greek archaeologist Valerios Stais discovers the Antikythera mechanism, an ancient mechanical analog computer. Read more
17 May 1900: The children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum, is first published in the United States. The first copy is given to the author's sister. Read more
17 May 1875: Aristides wins the first Kentucky Derby with the jockey Oliver Lewis (2:37.75). Read more
17 May 1865: The International Telegraph Union (later the International Telecommunication Union) is established in Paris. Read more
17 May 1863: Rosalía de Castro publishes Cantares Gallegos, the first book in the Galician language. Read more
17 May 1863: American Civil War: During the Vicksburg campaign, Union forces under John A. McClernand defeat a Confederate rearguard and capture around 1,700 men at the Battle of Big Black River Bridge. Read more
17 May 1859: Members of the Melbourne Football Club codify the first rules of Australian rules football. Read more
17 May 1814: Occupation of Monaco changes from French to Austrian. Read more
17 May 1814: The Constitution of Norway is signed and Crown Prince Christian Frederick of Denmark is elected King of Norway by the Norwegian Constituent Assembly. Read more
17 May 1809: Emperor Napoleon I orders the annexation of the Papal States to the French Empire. Read more
17 May 1805: Muhammad Ali becomes Wāli of Egypt. Read more

🎂 Important Births on 17 May in World History

17 May 1994: Julie Anne San Jose, Filipina singer-songwriter Julie Anne Peñaflorida San Jose is a Filipino singer and actress. She rose to prominence after competing in the reality singing competition Popstar Kids in 2005. Read more
17 May 1991: Johanna Konta, Australian-English tennis player Johanna Konta is a British-Australian former professional tennis player. Konta won four singles titles on the WTA Tour, along with eleven titles in singles and four in doubles on the ITF Women's Circuit. She was British No. 1 and reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 4 on 17 July 2017. She reached the semifinals of the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the French Open. Read more
17 May 1991: Adil Omar, Pakistani rapper and music producer Adil Omar is a Pakistani rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer and filmmaker from Islamabad. In addition to being a solo artist, he is also involved in songwriting and production for other artists. Read more
17 May 1991: Abigail Raye, Canadian field hockey player Abigail Raye is a British-born Belgian field hockey player. She has represented Canada and Belgium at international level. Read more
17 May 1990: Will Clyburn, American basketball player William Dalen Clyburn is an American professional basketball player for FC Barcelona of the Liga ACB and the EuroLeague. Clyburn attended three colleges, from 2008 to 2013: Marshalltown Community College, University of Utah, and Iowa State University before playing professionally in Germany, Israel, Turkey, and Russia. He was the top scorer in the Israel Basketball Premier League in 2015–16. Clyburn was named the EuroLeague Final Four MVP in 2019. Read more
17 May 1990: Fabian Giefer, German footballer Fabian Giefer is a German professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper. Currently a free agent, he last played for Würzburger Kickers. Read more
17 May 1990: Charlie Gubb, New Zealand rugby league player Charlie Gubb is a New Zealand former professional rugby league footballer who last played for the Widnes Vikings in the Super League. Read more
17 May 1990: Katrina Hart, English runner Katrina Hart is an English athlete who won a gold medal for England at the 2010 Commonwealth Games competing in women's 100 m T37. She had competed at the 2008 Paralympics but was forced to withdraw through injury, and has won multiple medals at the IPC Athletics World Championships. Read more
17 May 1990: Guido Pella, Argentine tennis player Guido Pella is an Argentine former professional tennis player. In August 2019, Pella reached his career best world No. 20 in singles. In July 2019, he peaked at No. 55 in doubles. Read more
17 May 1989: Mose Masoe, New Zealand rugby league player Mose Masoe is a former Samoa international rugby league footballer who last played as a prop for Hull Kingston Rovers in the Super League. Read more
17 May 1989: Rain Raadik, Estonian basketball player Rain Raadik is an Estonian professional basketball player who plays for Valentino Basket Castellaneta of the Serie C Italian Basketball League. He is a 2.08 m tall power forward and center. He also represented the Estonian national basketball team internationally. Read more
17 May 1989: Tessa Virtue, Canadian ice dancer Tessa Jane McCormick Virtue is a Canadian retired ice dancer. With ice dance partner Scott Moir, she is the 2010 and 2018 Olympic champion, the 2014 Olympic silver medallist, a three-time World champion, a three-time Four Continents champion, the 2016–17 Grand Prix Final champion, an eight-time Canadian National champion, the 2006 World Junior champion and the 2006 Junior Grand Prix gold medallists. Virtue and Moir are also the 2018 Olympic gold medallists in the team event and the 2014 Olympic silver medallists in the team event. Upon winning their third Olympic gold they became the most decorated Olympic figure skaters of all time. Widely regarded as one of the greatest ice dance teams of all time, they are the only ice dancers in history to achieve a Super Slam, having won all major international competitions in their senior and junior careers. Virtue and Moir are holders of the world record score for the now-defunct original dance. Read more
17 May 1988: Nikki Reed, American actress, singer, and screenwriter Nikki Reed is an American actress, screenwriter, and entrepreneur best known for her role as Rosalie Hale in The Twilight Saga (2008–12). Reed rose to prominence when she starred in and co-wrote the psychological drama film Thirteen (2003) with director Catherine Hardwicke, for which she won Best Breakthrough Performance and was nominated for Best First Screenplay at the 19th Independent Spirit Awards. Read more
17 May 1987: Edvald Boasson Hagen, Norwegian cyclist Edvald Boasson Hagen is a Norwegian former road racing cyclist, who competed as a professional from 2006 to 2024. He was ranked as no. 3 in the world by UCI as of 31 August 2009, when he was 22 years old. He is known as an all-rounder, having won the Norwegian National Road Race Championships in 2012, 2015 and 2016. He is also a ten-time winner of the Norwegian National Time Trial Championships. Read more
17 May 1987: Aleandro Rosi, Italian footballer Aleandro Rosi is an Italian professional footballer who plays for Serie C Group B club Torres. Known for his versatility, he plays as a full-back, a winger along the right flank, offensively and defensively, and for his pace. Read more
17 May 1986: Marius Činikas, Lithuanian footballer Marius Činikas is a Lithuanian futsal player and former footballer. Read more
17 May 1986: Timo Simonlatser, Estonian skier Timo Simonlatser is an Estonian cross-country skier who has competed since 2005. He finished 27th in the individual sprint at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Read more
17 May 1986: Jodie Taylor, English footballer Jodie Lee Taylor is an English former professional footballer who last played as a striker for Arsenal of WSL. She began her club career with local team Tranmere Rovers and had brief spells in her home country with Birmingham City and Lincoln Ladies. A well-travelled player, she has also played abroad in the United States, Canada, Australia, Sweden and France. Read more
17 May 1985: Teófilo Gutiérrez, Colombian footballer Teófilo Antonio "Teo" Gutiérrez Roncancio is a Colombian professional footballer who plays as a forward for Atlético Junior. He was a Colombian international and captained the country at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil. Read more
17 May 1985: Derek Hough, American actor, singer, and dancer Derek Bruce Hough is an American professional Latin and ballroom dancer, choreographer, actor, singer, and television personality. From 2007 to 2016, Hough was a professional dancer on the ABC dance competition series Dancing with the Stars, winning the show a record-breaking six times with his celebrity partners. For his work, Hough received 14 nominations for the Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Choreography, winning the award 4 times. Hough later became a judge on the series beginning with its 29th season. Read more
17 May 1985: Christine Nesbitt, Canadian speed skater Christine Nesbitt is a Canadian retired long track speed skater who currently resides in Vancouver, British Columbia. She won the gold medal in the 1000 metres event at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. She had previously won a silver medal in the team pursuit at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. She is also the 2011 sprint champion, 2012 1500 metres world champion, three-time world champion for 1000 metres, and three-time world champion for team pursuit. On 4 June 2015 she announced her retirement. Read more
17 May 1985: Todd Redmond, American baseball player Todd Richard Redmond is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He was selected by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 2004 MLB draft and traded to the Atlanta Braves four years later, but never appeared with either team. Redmond was acquired by the Cincinnati Reds in 2012, and made his MLB debut later that year. He later spent three seasons with the Toronto Blue Jays. Read more
17 May 1985: Matt Ryan, American football player Matthew Thomas Ryan is an American professional football executive and former player who is the president of football for the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League (NFL). He played as a quarterback for 15 seasons, primarily with the Falcons. Nicknamed "Matty Ice", he ranks among the league's all-time top 10 in pass attempts, pass completions, passing yards, and passing touchdowns. Ryan played college football for the Boston College Eagles, winning the Manning and Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Awards in 2007. He was selected third overall by the Falcons in the 2008 NFL draft. Read more
17 May 1984: Christian Bolaños, Costa Rican footballer Christian Bolaños Navarro is a Costa Rican former professional footballer who played as a right winger. After his international debut with the Costa Rica national team in 2005, Bolaños earned over 80 international caps and played at three FIFA World Cups. Read more
17 May 1984: Christine Ohuruogu, English runner Christine Ijeoma Ohuruogu is a British former track and field athlete who specialised in the 400 metres, the event for which she is an Olympic, World and Commonwealth champion.
The Olympic champion in 2008, and silver medalist in 2012, she is a double World Champion, having won the 400 m at the 2007 and 2013 World Championships. She has also won six World championship medals in the women's 4 × 400 m relay as part of the Great Britain and Northern Ireland team and bronze Olympic medals in the women's 4 × 400 m relay at the 2008 Beijing Games and the 2016 Rio Games, her final Olympics. Ohuruogu shares with Merlene Ottey and Usain Bolt the record for medalling in most successive global championships – 9 – between the 2005 World Championships in Athletics and the 2016 Summer Olympics. Read more
17 May 1984: Christine Robinson, Canadian water polo player Christine Robinson is a Canadian water polo player. She is a student at McGill University. She was part of the 7th place women's water polo team at the 2004 Summer Olympics. She won a gold medal at the 2003 FINA Junior Water Polo World Championships in Calgary. Read more
17 May 1984: Passenger, English singer-songwriter and musician Michael David Rosenberg, better known by his stage name Passenger, is an English indie folk singer, songwriter and musician. From the 2000s, Rosenberg fronted a band by the same name; he opted to keep the Passenger moniker for his solo work after the band dissolved. Rosenberg is best known for the 2012 song "Let Her Go", which topped the charts in 16 countries and accumulated more than 4 billion views on YouTube. Because Rosenberg was based in Australia at the time of release, it is the most-viewed Australian YouTube video ever. In 2014, the song was nominated for the Brit Award for British Single of the Year, and he received the British Academy's Ivor Novello Award for Most Performed Work. Read more
17 May 1983: Channing Frye, American basketball player Channing Thomas Frye is an American former professional basketball player. A power forward-center, he played college basketball for the Arizona Wildcats. He was selected eighth overall by the New York Knicks in the 2005 NBA draft, and was the first college senior to be selected in that draft. He also played for the Portland Trail Blazers, Phoenix Suns, Orlando Magic, Cleveland Cavaliers and Los Angeles Lakers, winning an NBA Championship with the Cavaliers in the 2016 NBA Finals. Read more
17 May 1983: Chris Henry, American football player (died 2009) Christopher Henry was an American professional football player who was a wide receiver for five seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the West Virginia Mountaineers and was selected by the Bengals in the third round of the 2005 NFL draft. Read more
17 May 1983: Nicky Hofs, Dutch footballer Nicky Hofs is a Dutch former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He spent most of his professional career with Vitesse. After retiring, he began working as a youth and assistant coach within the Vitesse organisation. Read more
17 May 1983: Kevin Kingston, Australian rugby league player Kevin Kingston is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played as a hooker for the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks, Parramatta Eels and the Penrith Panthers in the National Rugby League (NRL) in the 2000s and 2010s. Read more
17 May 1983: Danniel Librelon, Brazilian politician Danniel Librelon Dias de Castro is a Brazilian politician serving as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro since 2019. In 2023, he served as group leader of the Republicans. Read more
17 May 1983: Jeremy Sowers, American baseball player Jeremy Bryan Sowers is an American former professional baseball pitcher and current executive. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Cleveland Indians from 2006 to 2009, and is currently the manager of major league operations for the Tampa Bay Rays. Read more
17 May 1982: Matt Cassel, American football player Matthew Brennan Cassel is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons. He was a member of seven NFL teams, most notably the New England Patriots and Kansas City Chiefs. Cassel played college football for the USC Trojans and was selected by the Patriots in the seventh round of the 2005 NFL draft. Since retiring, he has served as a television football analyst on NBC Sports Boston, as well as Big Ten and Notre Dame college football games on NBC and Peacock. Read more
17 May 1982: Dan Hardy, English mixed martial artist Daniel Mark Hardy is an English former mixed martial artist who fought in the welterweight division. During his professional MMA career, which began in 2004, Hardy fought in multiple promotions, such as Cage Force and Cage Warriors, before signing a contract with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) in 2008. In 2010, he fought Georges St-Pierre for the UFC Welterweight Championship, but lost the bout via decision. Read more
17 May 1982: Reiko Nakamura, Japanese swimmer Reiko Nakamura is a Japanese Olympic and Asian record-holding swimmer. Read more
17 May 1982: Tony Parker, French-American basketball player William Anthony Parker Jr. is a French-American former professional basketball player and majority owner of LDLC ASVEL of the LNB Élite and the EuroLeague. The son of a basketball pro, Parker started his career at Paris Basket Racing in the French basketball league before joining the San Antonio Spurs of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was selected by the Spurs with the 28th overall pick in the 2001 NBA draft, and quickly became their starting point guard. Parker won four NBA championships, all of which were with the Spurs. He also played for ASVEL Basket in France during the 2011 NBA lockout, and finished his playing career after one season with the Charlotte Hornets. He retired as the ninth leading scorer and ranks fifth in career assists in NBA playoffs history. Read more
17 May 1982: Chloe Smith, English politician Chloe Rebecca Smith is a British Conservative Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Norwich North from 2009 to 2024. She previously served as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions from September to October 2022 and Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology from April to July 2023. Read more
17 May 1981: Beñat Albizuri, Spanish cyclist Beñat Albizuri Aransolo is a Spanish former professional road bicycle racer, who rode professionally between 2006 and 2008, entirely for Euskaltel–Euskadi. Read more
17 May 1981: Leon Osman, English footballer Leon Osman is an English former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He spent almost all of his career at Everton, making 433 appearances and scoring 57 goals. Earlier in his career he spent time on loan at Football League clubs Carlisle United and Derby County. Osman earned two international caps for the England national team, making his debut at the age of 31. Read more
17 May 1981: Lim Jeong-hee, South Korean singer Lim Jeong-hee, also known as J-Lim, is a South Korean singer who debuted in 2005 under JYP Entertainment. One of her notable performances in 2005 was the 5th Pattaya Music Festival in Thailand, which helped promote and expose her to the foreign music industry. She was signed under Big Hit Music in 2012 and left the company in 2015, going on to join her current agency, Oscar ENT. Read more
17 May 1981: Chris Skidmore, English historian and politician Christopher James Skidmore is a British former Conservative Party politician and author of popular history who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Kingswood in South Gloucestershire from 2010 to 2024. Read more
17 May 1981: Giannis Taralidis, Greek footballer Giannis Taralidis is a Greek former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Read more
17 May 1980: Davor Džalto, Bosnian historian and philosopher Davor Džalto is an artist, art historian, theologian and philosopher of Bosnian-Herzegovinian origin. Read more
17 May 1980: Fredrik Kessiakoff, Swedish cyclist Fredrik Carl Wilhelm Kessiakoff is a Swedish former professional road bicycle racer. Kessiakoff turned to road racing in 2009, having had a successful career as a professional mountain biker for many years, winning the Swedish national championship 4 times, and finishing third at the 2006 World Mountain biking championships. He twice represented Sweden at the Olympics. Kessiakoff retired in 2014. Read more
17 May 1980: Alistair Overeem, Dutch mixed martial artist and kickboxer Alistair Cees Overeem is a Dutch former professional mixed martial artist and kickboxer. He is a former Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion, Dream Heavyweight Champion, K-1 World Grand Prix Champion, and was the first fighter to hold world titles in MMA and K-1 kickboxing at the same time. Overeem is also a one-time challenger for the UFC Heavyweight Championship. Read more
17 May 1980: Ariën van Weesenbeek, Dutch drummer Epica is a Dutch symphonic metal band founded by guitarist and vocalist Mark Jansen after his departure from After Forever. Originally formed as a symphonic metal band with gothic influences, Epica later incorporated strong death metal elements into their sound. Starting with their third album, progressive metal influences also became evident. Additionally, the band often incorporates thrash metal and groove metal riffs, black metal elements, power metal sections, and influences from Arabic music. Some songs also incorporate electronic elements, djent transitions, and folk metal melodies inspired by Middle Eastern, Chinese, and Celtic traditions. Read more
17 May 1979: David Jarolím, Czech footballer David Jarolím is a Czech football manager and former player who most recently managed Ústí nad Labem. A central midfielder by position, Jarolím was known for his stamina, passing and technical skill. Read more
17 May 1979: Wayne Thomas, English footballer Wayne Junior Robert Thomas is an English retired footballer and current football coach. He is currently working as a PE teacher at Haberdashers' Boys' School. In 2015, he was employed as an academy coach at the New York Red Bulls. Thomas played as a defender and has represented twelve clubs, including Torquay United, Stoke City, Burnley and Southampton. Read more
17 May 1978: John Foster, American baseball player and coach John Norman Foster is an American former professional baseball pitcher and current coach. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Atlanta Braves and Milwaukee Brewers. After retiring as a player, Foster coached summer league and college baseball. From 2017 to 2024, Foster coached in Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL), for the CTBC Brothers. He currently serves as a minor league pitching rehab coordinator for the Athletics. Read more
17 May 1978: Paddy Kenny, English footballer Patrick Joseph Kenny is a former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He is currently goalkeeping coach at Matlock Town. Read more
17 May 1978: Carlos Peña, Dominican-American baseball player Carlos Felipe Peña is a Dominican former professional baseball first baseman and current broadcaster. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Texas Rangers, Oakland Athletics, Detroit Tigers, Boston Red Sox, Tampa Bay Devil Rays/Rays, Chicago Cubs, Houston Astros, and Kansas City Royals. Read more
17 May 1978: Magdalena Zděnovcová, Czech tennis player Magdalena Zděnovcová is a former Czech tennis player. Read more
17 May 1976: Kandi Burruss, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress Kandi Lenice Burruss is an American singer, songwriter, actress and television personality. She first gained notice in 1992 as a member of the multi-platinum R&B female vocal group Xscape. As a songwriter, she has received writing credits on the singles "Bills, Bills, Bills" by Destiny's Child, "There You Go" by Pink, "Break Up with Your Girlfriend, I'm Bored" by Ariana Grande, and "Shape of You" by Ed Sheeran. In 2000, she won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song for her work on the TLC hit song "No Scrubs". Read more
17 May 1976: Shayne Dunley, Australian rugby league player Shayne Dunley is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s and 2000s, he played in the National Rugby League (NRL) between 1998 and 2007. He played as either a halfback or hooker. Read more
17 May 1976: José Guillén, Dominican-American baseball player José Manuel Guillén is a Dominican former professional baseball outfielder. Guillén played for ten Major League Baseball (MLB) teams in his career. Read more
17 May 1976: Daniel Komen, Kenyan runner Daniel Kipngetich Komen is a Kenyan middle- and long-distance runner. Remembered for his rivalry with Haile Gebrselassie, his most notable achievements came in a two-year period between 1996 and 1998, during which he broke a string of world records. Read more
17 May 1976: Wang Leehom, American-Taiwanese singer-songwriter, producer, actor, and director Wang Leehom, sometimes credited as Leehom Wang, is an American singer-songwriter, actor, producer, and film director. His music is known for fusing hip-hop and R&B, with traditional Chinese music. Read more
17 May 1976: Mayte Martínez, Spanish runner María Teresa "Mayte" Martínez Jiménez is a Spanish athlete competing in the 800 m. She has reached 4 consecutive finals in the World Championships, being third with an incredible last straight in Osaka. She took part in 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games, being eliminated in the semifinals. She could not participate in 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing with an injury. Read more
17 May 1976: Kirsten Vlieghuis, Dutch freestyle swimmer Kirsten Vlieghuis is a former freestyle swimmer from The Netherlands, who won two bronze medals at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, United States, in the 400m and 800m freestyle competition. She also competed in the 2000 Summer Olympics. Read more
17 May 1975: Marcelinho Paraíba, Brazilian footballer Marcelo dos Santos, known as Marcelinho, is a Brazilian professional football coach and former player who played as an attacking midfielder. Read more
17 May 1975: Alex Wright, German wrestler Alexander Wright is a German former professional wrestler and professional wrestling promoter. He wrestled professionally in Germany and Japan before signing with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 1994. He is known for his iconic dance to his techno entrance theme song. He remained a prominent mid-card performer during his seven-year tenure with WCW, including reigns as a one time Cruiserweight Champion, a one time World Television Champion and a one time World Tag Team Champion. Read more
17 May 1974: Andrea Corr, Irish singer-songwriter, pianist, and actress Andrea Jane Corr is an Irish musician and actress. Corr debuted in 1990 as the lead singer of the Celtic folk rock and pop rock group the Corrs along with her three elder siblings Caroline, Sharon and Jim. Aside from singing lead vocals, Corr plays the tin whistle, the ukulele and the piano. Read more
17 May 1974: Wiki González, Venezuelan baseball player Wiklenman Vicente González is a Venezuelan former professional baseball catcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the San Diego Padres, Seattle Mariners, and Washington Nationals in parts of seven seasons from 1999 to 2006. Listed at 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m), 175 pounds (79 kg), González batted and threw right-handed. Read more
17 May 1974: Eddie Lewis, American international soccer player Edward James Lewis is an American former soccer player and entrepreneur. Read more
17 May 1973: Josh Homme, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer Joshua Michael Homme III is an American musician, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. He is best known as the founder and only continuous member of the rock band Queens of the Stone Age, which he formed in 1996 shortly after breakup of his previous band Kyuss. Homme is the band's primary songwriter and mainly sings lead vocals and plays guitar. He also plays drums in the rock band Eagles of Death Metal, which he co-founded in 1998. Read more
17 May 1972: Barry Hayles, English born Jamaican international footballer Barrington Edward Hayles is a football coach and former player who played as a striker. Born in England, he was capped ten times by Jamaica at international level. Read more
17 May 1971: Mark Connors, Australian rugby player Mark Connors is an Australian rugby union footballer. He is currently the Queensland Reds third most capped player ever, playing 134 games for the side. He has played for Australia 20 times, including their victory in the 1999 Rugby World Cup. Read more
17 May 1971: Shaun Hart, Australian footballer, coach, and sportscaster Shaun Hart is a former Australian rules football player, who played for the Brisbane Bears and Brisbane Lions in the Australian Football League. Hart played in Brisbane's Lions hat trick of premierships from 2001 to 2003 as well as in the Bears reserves premiership in 1991. He is currently the director of coaching at Port Adelaide Power and has also been an assistant coach. Read more
17 May 1971: Stella Jongmans, Dutch athlete Stella Jongmans is a retired Dutch athlete who specialised in the 800 metres. She won the gold at the 1995 Summer Universiade and silver at the 1996 European Indoor Championships. In addition, she represented The Netherlands at two Olympic Games, in 1992 and 1996. Read more
17 May 1971: Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, Dutch royal Máxima is Queen of the Netherlands as the wife of King Willem-Alexander. Read more
17 May 1971: Gina Raimondo, Governor of Rhode Island Gina Marie Raimondo is an American politician and businesswoman who served as the 40th United States secretary of commerce from 2021 to 2025. As a member of the Democratic Party, she served as the 75th governor of Rhode Island from 2015 to 2021 and was the first woman to serve in the role. Read more
17 May 1970: Hubert Davis, American basketball player and coach Hubert Ira Davis Jr. is a former professional basketball player and former head basketball coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels men's team. Before his coaching career, Davis played for North Carolina from 1988 to 1992 and in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the New York Knicks, Toronto Raptors, Dallas Mavericks, Washington Wizards, Detroit Pistons, and New Jersey Nets from 1992 to 2004. He holds the franchise single-season and career three-point field goal shooting percentage records for the Knicks. He is the nephew of Walter Davis, another former Tar Heel and NBA player. Read more
17 May 1970: Jordan Knight, American singer-songwriter and actor Jordan Nathaniel Marcel Knight is an American pop singer and songwriter. He is the lead vocalist of the boy band New Kids on the Block (NKOTB), which rose to fame in the 1980s and 1990s, using a falsetto style of singing influenced by The Stylistics. After New Kids on the Block split in 1994, he launched a solo career. Read more
17 May 1970: Matt Lindland, American mixed martial artist, wrestler, and politician Matthew James Lindland, is an American retired mixed martial artist, Olympic wrestler, speaker, actor, coach, entrepreneur, and politician. He won the Oregon Republican Party's nomination for the Oregon House of Representatives, District 52 seat on May 20, 2008. He also started an apparel company named Dirty Boxer. In mixed martial arts, Lindland competed primarily in the Middleweight division for the UFC, Strikeforce. Affliction, the IFL, Cage Rage, the WFA, and BodogFIGHT. Read more
17 May 1970: Jodie Rogers, Australian diver Jodie Rogers is an Australian diver. Read more
17 May 1970: René Vilbre, Estonian director and screenwriter René Vilbre is an Estonian film director Read more
17 May 1969: Keith Hill, English footballer and manager Keith John Hill is an English professional former footballer and football manager who was most recently manager of National League club Scunthorpe United. Read more
17 May 1968: Dave Abbruzzese, American rock drummer and songwriter David James Abbruzzese is an American musician who was the drummer for the American rock band Pearl Jam from 1991 to 1994. He replaced drummer Matt Chamberlain in 1991, shortly before the release of the band's debut album, Ten. Abbruzzese played on the band's following records, Vs. and Vitalogy. Read more
17 May 1967: Mohamed Nasheed, Maldivian lawyer and politician 4th President of the Maldives Mohamed Nasheed GCSK, also known as Anni, is a Maldivian politician and activist who served as the fourth president of the Maldives from 2008 until his controversial resignation in 2012. A founding member of the Maldivian Democratic Party, he subsequently served as the 19th speaker of the People's Majlis from May 2019 until his resignation in November 2023. He is the first democratically elected president of the Maldives and the only president to resign from office. Read more
17 May 1967: Patrick Ortlieb, Austrian skier Patrick Ortlieb is a former World Cup alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist from Austria. A specialist in the speed events, he was also a world champion in the downhill event. Read more
17 May 1966: Qusay Hussein, Iraqi soldier and politician (died 2003) Qusay Saddam Hussein al-Nasiri al-Tikriti was an Iraqi politician, military officer, and the second son of Saddam Hussein. He was appointed as his father's heir apparent in 2000. He was deputy head of the Iraqi Special Security Organization and was also in charge of the Republican Guard, a branch of the Iraqi military. Read more
17 May 1966: Mark Kratzmann, Australian tennis player and coach Mark Edward Kratzmann is a former Australian professional tennis player. Read more
17 May 1966: Danny Manning, American basketball player and coach Daniel Ricardo Manning is an American college basketball coach and former professional player who is an assistant men's basketball coach at the University of Colorado. Manning played high-school basketball at Page High School in Greensboro, North Carolina, as well as Lawrence High School in Lawrence, Kansas. He played college basketball for the Kansas Jayhawks, and played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for 14 years. After retiring from professional basketball Manning became an assistant coach at his alma mater, the University of Kansas. He won the national championship with the Jayhawks in 1988 as a player, and again as an assistant in 2008. He is the all-time leading scorer in Kansas basketball history with 2,951 points. The next closest player to his point total is Nick Collison, who is 854 points behind Manning. Read more
17 May 1966: Gilles Quénéhervé, French sprinter Gilles Quénéhervé is a retired French sprinter who specialized in the 200 metres. Read more
17 May 1965: Trent Reznor, American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Michael Trent Reznor is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and composer. He came to prominence as the founder, lead singer, multi-instrumentalist, and primary songwriter of the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. The band's line-up has constantly changed, with Reznor being its only official member from its creation in 1988 until 2016, when he added English musician and frequent collaborator Atticus Ross as its second permanent member. Read more
17 May 1965: Jeremy Vine, English journalist and author Jeremy Guy Vine is an English television and radio presenter and journalist. He is best known as the host of his BBC Radio 2 lunchtime programme which presents news, views, interviews with live guests, consumer issues and popular music. Read more
17 May 1965: Luann de Lesseps, American singer and television personality Luann de Lesseps is an American television personality, singer, model, and author. She is best known as an original cast member of the Bravo reality television series The Real Housewives of New York City, featuring in the first 13 of 15 seasons since its 2008 premiere. In 2018, she began headlining "Countess and Friends", a cabaret show of her own making. Read more
17 May 1964: Stratos Apostolakis, Greek footballer and coach Stratos Apostolakis, nicknamed The Turbo, is a Greek former professional footballer who played as a defender or a defensive midfielder. Read more
17 May 1964: Mauro Martini, Italian race car driver Mauro Martini is a former Italian race car driver. Read more
17 May 1964: Menno Oosting, Dutch tennis player (died 1999) Menno Oosting was a professional tennis player from the Netherlands, who won seven ATP Tour doubles titles out of 18 finals in his career. Read more
17 May 1963: Jon Koncak, American basketball player Jon Francis Koncak is an American former professional basketball player. A 7 ft (2.1 m) center / power forward from Southern Methodist University (SMU), Koncak was selected with the fifth pick in the 1985 NBA draft by the Atlanta Hawks. Koncak spent ten seasons with the Hawks (1985–1995), mainly in a reserve role, then concluded his career with the Orlando Magic. He retired in 1996 with career totals of 3,520 points and 3,856 rebounds. Read more
17 May 1963: Page McConnell, American keyboard player and songwriter Page Samuel McConnell is an American multi-instrumentalist, most noted for his work as the keyboardist and a songwriter for the band Phish. Read more
17 May 1962: Lise Lyng Falkenberg, Danish journalist and author Lise Lyng Falkenberg is a Danish writer of mostly fiction, biographies and works of literary studies. Read more
17 May 1962: Andrew Farrar, Australian rugby league player and coach Andrew Farrar is an Australian former rugby league footballer and coach. He played for the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, Western Suburbs, Wigan and the Illawarra Steelers. Farrar also played for New South Wales in the State of Origin on several occasions and played for Australia in the 1988 World Cup Final. As a coach he worked with the Illawarra Steelers, the St. George Illawarra Dragons and the Wigan Warriors, and from 2017 to 2019 was the General Manager of Football at the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs. Read more
17 May 1962: Craig Ferguson, Scottish-American comedian, actor, and talk show host Craig Ferguson is a Scottish and American actor, comedian, writer and television host. He hosted the CBS late-night talk show The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (2005–2014), for which he won a Peabody Award for his interview with South African archbishop Desmond Tutu in 2009. He is currently the host of Scrabble (2026–present) on The CW Network. Read more
17 May 1962: Jane Moore, English journalist and author Jane Moore is an English journalist, writer, and television personality. She is a columnist for the tabloid The Sun and writes regular articles for the newspaper The Sunday Times. She was a panellist and anchor on the ITV lunchtime chat show Loose Women between 1999 and 2002, returning as a regular panellist from 2013 onwards. Since 2018, Moore has been regularly relief-anchoring Loose Women. In 2024, Moore appeared as a contestant on the twenty-fourth series of the ITV reality show I'm a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!. Read more
17 May 1962: Rosalind Picard, American computer scientist and engineer, co-founded Affectiva Rosalind Wright Picard is an American electrical engineer and computer scientist who is the Grover M. Hermann Professor of Health Sciences and Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She is the founder and director of the Affective Computing Research Group at the MIT Media Lab, and co-founder of the startups Affectiva and Empatica. Read more
17 May 1961: Enya, Irish singer-songwriter and producer Eithne Pádraigín Ní Bhraonáin, known mononymously as Enya, is an Irish singer and composer. With an estimated equivalent of more than 80 million albums sold, Enya is one of the world's best-selling music artists;.she is the best-selling Irish solo artist, and the second-best-selling music act from Ireland overall, after the band U2. Enya's music has been widely recognised for its use of multi-layers of her own vocals and instrumentation, lengthened reverb, and interwoven elements of Celtic music. Read more
17 May 1961: Jamil Azzaoui, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist Jamil Azzaoui, also known mononymously as Jamil is a Canadian humorous artist / comedian, musician (guitarist) and an artist agent of Moroccan origin living in Montreal and well known in France and the francophone countries. Read more
17 May 1961: Justin King, English businessman Justin Matthew King CBE is an English businessman. He was the CEO of J Sainsbury plc, parent company of the supermarket chain Sainsbury's, for ten years before stepping down in July 2014. Read more
17 May 1960: Lou DiBella, American boxing promoter, actor, and producer Louis John DiBella Jr. is an American boxing promoter, minor league baseball team owner and television/film producer. Read more
17 May 1960: Simon Fuller, English talent manager and producer, created the Idols series Simon Robert Fuller is a British entrepreneur, artist manager, and film and television producer. He is the creator of the Idols TV format, including the British series Pop Idol and the American series American Idol. Read more
17 May 1959: Marcelo Loffreda, Argentine rugby player and coach Marcelo Loffreda is an Argentine former rugby union footballer and coach. Loffreda won 44 caps with one as captain, playing at centre for the Argentine rugby union side. He played much of his career outside the legendary Hugo Porta and scored 4 test tries. Read more
17 May 1958: Paul Di'Anno, English rock singer-songwriter (died 2024) Paul Andrews, better known by his stage name Paul Di'Anno, was an English heavy metal singer. He was the lead vocalist for Iron Maiden from 1978 to 1981. In his post-Maiden career, Di'Anno issued numerous albums over the years, as both a solo artist and as a member of bands such as Gogmagog, Di'Anno's Battlezone, Killers, Rockfellas, and Warhorse. Together with fellow Iron Maiden member Dennis Stratton, he joined Praying Mantis for the recording of their 1990 live album Live at Last. Read more
17 May 1957: Pascual Pérez, Dominican baseball player (died 2012) Pascual Gross Pérez was a Dominican professional baseball player who pitched in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Atlanta Braves, Montreal Expos, and New York Yankees from 1980 to 1991. He was an MLB All-Star in 1983 with the Braves. Read more
17 May 1956: Sugar Ray Leonard, American boxer Ray Charles Leonard, better known as Sugar Ray Leonard, is an American former professional boxer. Often regarded as one of the greatest boxers of all time, he competed professionally between 1976 and 1997, winning world titles in five weight classes; the lineal championship in three weight classes; as well as the undisputed welterweight championship. Leonard was part of the "Four Kings", a group of boxers who all fought each other throughout the 1980s, consisting of Leonard, Roberto Durán, Thomas Hearns, and Marvin Hagler. Leonard was the only one of them to beat the other three. As an amateur, Leonard won a light welterweight gold medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics. Read more
17 May 1956: Annise Parker, American politician Annise Danette Parker is an American politician from the state of Texas. A Democrat, Parker served as the 61st Mayor of Houston, Texas, from 2010 until 2016. She also served as an at-large member of the Houston City Council from 1998 to 2003 and as city controller from 2004 to 2010. Read more
17 May 1956: Bob Saget, American comedian, actor, and television host (died 2022) Robert Lane Saget was an American stand-up comedian, actor, director, and television host. He portrayed Danny Tanner on the sitcom Full House (1987–1995) and its sequel Fuller House (2016–2020). Saget was the original host of America's Funniest Home Videos (1989–1997), and the voice of narrator Ted Mosby on the sitcom How I Met Your Mother (2005–2014). He was simultaneously known for his family-friendly image and his profane comedian persona, with his 2014 album That's What I'm Talkin' About being nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album. Read more
17 May 1956: Dave Sim, Canadian cartoonist and author Dave Sim is a Canadian cartoonist and publisher, known for his comic book Cerebus, his artistic experimentation, his advocacy of self-publishing and creators' rights, and his controversial political and philosophical beliefs. Read more
17 May 1955: Bill Paxton, American actor and director (died 2017) William Paxton was an American actor, filmmaker and musician. A versatile character actor known for his distinctive Texan drawl and everyman screen persona, he was a four-time Golden Globe Award and a Primetime Emmy Award nominee, among other accolades. Read more
17 May 1955: David Townsend, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2005) David Edward Townsend was an American musician best known as the guitarist for the R&B band Surface. Read more
17 May 1954: Michael Roberts, South African-English jockey

Michael Roberts is a South African jockey currently a trainer in South Africa. He lives with his wife Verna and two daughters, Melanie and Carolyn. Roberts has had a successful career, winning many English and South African races multiple times. He was British flat racing Champion Jockey in 1992. His most famous equine partner was the double Eclipse Stakes winner, Mtoto. Read more
17 May 1952: Howard Hampton, Canadian lawyer and politician Howard George Hampton is a politician who was a member of Provincial Parliament for the province of Ontario. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, Canada, from 1987 to 1999 in the electoral district of Rainy River, and from 1999 to 2011 in the redistributed electoral district of Kenora—Rainy River. A member of the Ontario New Democratic Party, he was also the party's leader from 1996 to 2009. Hampton retired from the legislature at the 2011 Ontario provincial election and subsequently joined Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP as a member of the law firm's corporate social responsibility and aboriginal affairs groups. Read more
17 May 1951: Simon Hughes, English lawyer and politician Sir Simon Henry Ward Hughes is a British former politician. He is now the Chancellor of London South Bank University, and a strategic adviser to Talgo, a Spanish manufacturer of trains. Hughes was deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2010 to 2014, and from 2013 until 2015 was Minister of State at the Ministry of Justice. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency of Bermondsey and Old Southwark from 1983 until 2015. He declined a position in the House of Lords in 2015. Read more
17 May 1950: Howard Ashman, American playwright and composer (died 1991) Howard Elliott Ashman was an American playwright, lyricist, and stage director. He is most widely known for his work on feature films for Walt Disney Animation Studios, for which Ashman wrote the lyrics and Alan Menken composed the music. Ashman has been credited as being a main driving force behind the Disney Renaissance. His work included songs for Little Shop of Horrors, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin. He died of AIDS complications in 1991. Read more
17 May 1950: Keith Bradley, Baron Bradley, English accountant and politician Keith John Charles Bradley, Baron Bradley, is a British Labour Party politician and life peer. He was formerly the Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for Manchester Withington from 1987 until 2005. Read more
17 May 1950: Janez Drnovšek, Slovenian economist and politician, 2nd President of Slovenia (died 2008) Janez Drnovšek was a Slovenian liberal politician, President of the Presidency of Yugoslavia (1989–1990), Prime Minister of Slovenia and President of Slovenia (2002–2007). Read more
17 May 1950: Alan Johnson, English politician, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer Alan Arthur Johnson is a British former politician who served as Secretary of State for Education and Skills from 2006 to 2007, Secretary of State for Health from 2007 to 2009, Home Secretary from 2009 to 2010, and Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2010 to 2011. A member of the Labour Party, he was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle from 1997 to 2017. Read more
17 May 1950: Valeriya Novodvorskaya, Russian journalist and politician (died 2014) Valeriya Ilyinichna Novodvorskaya was a Russian and Soviet dissident, writer and liberal politician. She was the founder and the chairwoman of the Democratic Union party and a member of the editorial board of The New Times. Read more
17 May 1949: Bill Bruford, English drummer, songwriter, and producer William Scott Bruford is an English drummer and percussionist. He is known for his work from the late-1960s to the 1990s, primarily as both a founding member of Yes and as a member of three forms of King Crimson. Read more
17 May 1949: Keith, American pop singer James Barry Keefer, known professionally as Keith, is an American vocalist. His best-known song was "98.6" which reached No. 7 on Billboard Hot 100 in 1966. He legally changed his name to Bazza Keefer in 1988, in memory of his mother. Read more
17 May 1948: Dick Gaughan, Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist Richard Peter Gaughan is a Scottish musician, singer and songwriter, particularly of folk and social protest songs. He is regarded as one of Scotland's leading singer-songwriters. Read more
17 May 1947: Stephen Platten, English bishop Stephen George Platten, is a retired Anglican prelate, the last to serve as diocesan Bishop of Wakefield in the Church of England. Read more
17 May 1946: Udo Lindenberg, German singer-songwriter and drummer Udo Lindenberg is a German singer, composer, and painter. Read more
17 May 1945: B.S. Chandrasekhar, Indian cricketer Bhagwat Subramanya Chandrasekhar is an Indian former cricketer who played as a leg spinner. Considered among the top echelon of leg spinners, Chandrasekhar along with E.A.S. Prasanna, Bishen Singh Bedi and Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan constituted the Indian spin quartet that dominated spin bowling during the 1960s and 1970s. At a very young age, polio left his right arm withered. Chandrasekhar played 58 Test matches, capturing 242 wickets at an average of 29.74 in a career that spanned sixteen years. He is one of only two test cricketers in history with more wickets than total runs scored, the other being Chris Martin. Read more
17 May 1945: Tony Roche, Australian tennis player and coach Anthony Dalton Roche AO MBE, professionally known as Tony Roche is an Australian former professional tennis player. Read more
17 May 1944: Jesse Winchester, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (died 2014) James Ridout "Jesse" Winchester Jr. was an American-Canadian musician and songwriter. He was born and raised in the southern United States. Opposed to the Vietnam War, he moved to Canada in 1967 to avoid the draft. During that time, he began his career as a solo artist. His highest-charting recordings were "Yankee Lady" in 1970 and "Say What" in 1981. He became a Canadian citizen in 1973, gained amnesty in the U.S. in 1977 and settled in Memphis, Tennessee in 2002. Read more
17 May 1943: Sirajuddin of Perlis, Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia Sirajuddin ibni Almarhum Tuanku Syed Putra Jamalullail is the current Raja of Perlis, reigning since 2000. He reigned as the twelfth Yang di-Pertuan Agong from 2001 to 2006. Read more
17 May 1943: Johnny Warren, Australian footballer, coach, and sportscaster (died 2004) John Norman Warren was an Australian soccer player, coach, administrator, writer and broadcaster. He was known as Captain Socceroo for his passionate work to promote the game in Australia. The award for the best player in the A-League is named the Johnny Warren Medal in his honour. Read more
17 May 1942: Taj Mahal, American blues singer-songwriter and musician Henry St. Claire Fredericks Jr., better known by his stage name Taj Mahal, is an American blues musician. He plays the guitar, piano, banjo, harmonica, and many other instruments along with singing and whistling, often incorporating elements of world music into his work. Mahal has done much to reshape the definition and scope of blues music over the course of his more than 50-year career by fusing it with nontraditional forms, including sounds from the Caribbean, Africa, India, Hawaii, and the South Pacific. Read more
17 May 1941: David Cope, American composer and author David Howell Cope was an American author, composer, scientist and Dickerson Professor of Music at UC Santa Cruz. His primary area of research involved artificial intelligence and music; he wrote programs and algorithms that can analyze existing music and create new compositions in the style of the original input music. He taught the groundbreaking summer workshop in Workshop in Algorithmic Computer Music (WACM) that was open to the public as well as a general education course entitled Artificial Intelligence and Music for enrolled UCSC students. Cope was also co-founder and CTO Emeritus of Recombinant Inc., a music technology company. He died of congestive heart failure on May 4, 2025, at the age of 83. Read more
17 May 1941: Ben Nelson, American lawyer and politician, 37th Governor of Nebraska Earl Benjamin Nelson is an American politician, attorney, and businessman who served as a United States senator from Nebraska from 2001 to 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 37th governor of Nebraska from 1991 to 1999. As of 2026, he is the last Democrat to have won or held statewide office in Nebraska. Read more
17 May 1940: Alan Kay, American computer scientist and academic Alan Curtis Kay is an American computer scientist who pioneered work on object-oriented programming and windowing graphical user interface (GUI) design. At Xerox PARC he led the design and development of the first modern windowed computer desktop interface. There he also led the development of the influential object-oriented programming language Smalltalk, both personally designing most of the early versions of the language and coining the term "object-oriented."
He has been elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Royal Society of Arts. He received the Turing Award in 2003. Read more
17 May 1940: Reynato Puno, Filipino lawyer and jurist, 22nd Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines Reynato Serrano Puno, KGCR is a Filipino jurist. He served as the 22nd chief justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines from December 8, 2006, by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo until his mandatory retirement on May 17, 2010. Puno had initially been appointed to the Supreme Court as an associate justice on June 28, 1993. Read more
17 May 1939: Hugh Dykes, Baron Dykes, English politician Hugh John Maxwell Dykes, Baron Dykes, is a British politician and member of the House of Lords. He served as a Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) from 1970 to 1997, and later defected to the Liberal Democrats. Read more
17 May 1939: Gary Paulsen, American author (died 2021) Gary James Paulsen was an American writer of children's and young adult fiction, best known for coming-of-age stories about the wilderness. He was the author of more than 200 books and wrote more than 200 magazine articles and short stories, and several plays, all primarily for teenagers. He won the Margaret Edwards Award from the American Library Association in 1997 for his lifetime contribution in writing for teens. Read more
17 May 1938: Jason Bernard, American actor (died 1996) Jason Bernard was an American actor. Read more
17 May 1938: Marcia Freedman, Israeli activist (died 2021) Marcia Judith Freedman was an American-Israeli activist and politician. She advocated for a two-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, as well as for women's and gay rights. Born in Newark, New Jersey, Freedman immigrated to Israel in 1969, where she played a leading role in the development of the second-wave feminist movement during the 1970s. She served as a member of the Knesset from 1973 to 1977. Read more
17 May 1938: Pervis Jackson, American R&B bass singer (died 2008) Pervis Jackson was an American R&B singer, noted as the bass singer for The Spinners, and was one of the group's original members as well as their spokesman. Read more
17 May 1937: Hazel R. O'Leary, American lawyer and politician, 7th United States Secretary of Energy Hazel Reid O'Leary is an American lawyer, politician, and university administrator who served as the 7th United States secretary of energy from 1993 to 1997. A member of the Democratic Party, O'Leary was the first woman and first African American to hold that post. She also served as the 14th president of Fisk University from 2004 to 2013, a historically black college and her alma mater. O'Leary's tenure at Fisk came amid financial difficulty for the school, during which time she increased enrollment and contentiously used the school's art collection to raise funds. Read more
17 May 1936: Dennis Hopper, American actor and director (died 2010) Dennis Lee Hopper was an American actor, filmmaker, photographer and visual artist. He is considered one of the key figures of the New Hollywood era. He earned prizes from the Cannes Film Festival and Venice International Film Festival as well as nominations for two Academy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award and two Golden Globe Awards. Read more
17 May 1935: Dennis Potter, English voice actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (died 1994) Dennis Christopher George Potter was an English television dramatist, screenwriter and journalist. He is best known for his BBC television serials Pennies from Heaven (1978) and The Singing Detective (1986) as well as the BBC television plays Blue Remembered Hills (1979) and Brimstone and Treacle (1976). His television dramas, often set or partly set in the Forest of Dean of his childhood, mixed fantasy and reality, the personal and the social, and often used themes and images from popular culture. Potter is widely regarded as one of the most influential and innovative dramatists to have worked in British television. Read more
17 May 1934: Friedrich-Wilhelm Kiel, German educator and politician (died 2022) Friedrich-Wilhelm Kiel was a German politician and member of the FDP. Read more
17 May 1934: Earl Morrall, American football player and coach (died 2014) Earl Edwin Morrall was an American professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) for 21 seasons, both a starter and reserve. He was the last remaining player from the 1950s still active in NFL football. He started for six teams, most notably with the Baltimore Colts and the Miami Dolphins. He became known as one of the greatest backup quarterbacks in NFL history, having served in the capacity for two Hall of Fame quarterbacks in Johnny Unitas and Bob Griese. An injury to Unitas in 1968 saw Morrall step in to become the starter; he guided the Colts to a 13–1 record and won league MVP. He also led them to their first NFL Championship win in nine years before ineffective play in Super Bowl III saw him benched for Unitas. Two years later, in Super Bowl V, Morrall came off the bench for an injured Unitas and kept the Colts in the game before they ultimately won on a last-second field goal. In his first season with Miami in 1972, he came off the bench when Griese became injured early in the year, with Morrall winning all nine starts; Morrall started the first two playoff games, with Griese playing in each game before being named the starter for Super Bowl VII, where the Dolphins completed the only perfect season in NFL history. Read more
17 May 1934: Ronald Wayne, American computer scientist, co-founded Apple Computer Ronald Gerald Wayne is an American retired electronics industry business executive. He co-founded Apple Computer Company—which later became Apple Inc.—as a partnership with Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs on April 1, 1976, providing administrative oversight and documentation for the new venture. He has been often referred to by media as the 'forgotten founder' of Apple. Read more
17 May 1933: Yelena Gorchakova, Russian javelin thrower (died 2002) Yelena Yegorovna Gorchakova was a Russian javelin thrower who won bronze medals at the 1952 and 1964 Olympics. Her 1964 bronze was a disappointment as she set a world record in the qualification that remained unbeaten for eight years. Read more
17 May 1932: Rodric Braithwaite, English soldier and diplomat, British Ambassador to Russia Sir Rodric Quentin Braithwaite, is a British former diplomat and author. Read more
17 May 1932: Peter Burge, Australian cricketer (died 2001) Peter John Parnell Burge was an Australian cricketer who played in 42 Test matches between 1955 and 1966. After retiring as a player he became a highly respected match referee, overseeing 25 Tests and 63 One Day Internationals. Read more
17 May 1932: Ozzie Virgil Sr., Dominican baseball player and coach (died 2024) Osvaldo José Virgil Pichardo was a Dominican professional baseball player and coach. He was the first person from the Dominican Republic to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) post-integration, appearing in 324 MLB games between 1956 and 1969 as a utility player for the New York / San Francisco Giants, Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Athletics, Baltimore Orioles, and the Pittsburgh Pirates. Read more
17 May 1931: Marshall Applewhite, American cult leader, founded Heaven's Gate (died 1997) Marshall Herff Applewhite Jr., also known as Do, among other names, was an American religious leader who founded and led the Heaven's Gate new religious movement, and organized their mass suicide in 1997. The suicide is the largest mass suicide to occur inside the United States. Read more
17 May 1931: Dewey Redman, American saxophonist (died 2006) Walter Dewey Redman was an American saxophonist who performed free jazz as a bandleader, and as a member of bands including those led by Ornette Coleman and Keith Jarrett. Read more
17 May 1929: Branko Zebec, Croatian and Yugoslav football player and coach (died 1988) Branislav "Branko" Zebec was a Croatian footballer and manager who played for Yugoslavia. Read more
17 May 1926: David Ogilvy, 13th Earl of Airlie, English-Scottish soldier and politician (died 2023) David George Coke Patrick Ogilvy, 13th Earl of Airlie, was a Scottish landowner, soldier, banker and peer. Read more
17 May 1926: Dietmar Schönherr, Austrian-Spanish actor, director, and screenwriter (died 2014) Dietmar Otto Schönherr was an Austrian film actor. He appeared in 120 films between 1944 and 2014. He was famous for playing the role of Major Cliff Allister McLane in the German science fiction series Raumpatrouille. He was born in Innsbruck, Austria. He was married to the Danish actress Vivi Bach from 1965 until her death in 2013. In 2011 he was awarded with the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class. Read more
17 May 1926: Franz Sondheimer, German-English chemist and academic (died 1981) Franz Sondheimer FRS was a German-born British professor of chemistry. In 1960, he was awarded the Israel Prize for his contributions to science. Read more
17 May 1924: Roy Bentley, English footballer (died 2018) Roy Thomas Frank Bentley was an English football player and manager. Read more
17 May 1924: Francis Tombs, Baron Tombs, English engineer and politician (died 2020) Francis Leonard Tombs, Baron Tombs was an English industrialist and politician who served as a crossbench member of the House of Lords from 1990 until his retirement in 2015. Read more
17 May 1923: Michael Beetham, English commander and pilot (died 2015) Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Michael James Beetham, was a Second World War bomber pilot and a high-ranking commander in the Royal Air Force from the 1960s to the 1980s. As Chief of the Air Staff during the Falklands War, he was involved in the decision to send the Task Force to the South Atlantic. At the time of his death, Beetham was one of only six people holding his service's most senior rank and, excluding Prince Philip's honorary rank, he had the longest time in that rank, making him the senior Marshal of the Royal Air Force. Read more
17 May 1922: Jean Rédélé, French racing driver, founded Alpine (died 2007) Jean Rédélé, was an automotive pioneer, pilot and founder of the French automotive brand Alpine. Read more
17 May 1921: Dennis Brain, English horn player (died 1957) Dennis Brain was a British horn player. From a musical family – his father and grandfather were horn players – he attended the Royal Academy of Music in London. During the Second World War he served in the Royal Air Force, playing in its band and orchestra. After the war, he was the principal horn of the Philharmonia and Royal Philharmonic orchestras, and played in chamber ensembles. Read more
17 May 1921: Bob Merrill, American composer and screenwriter (died 1998) Henry Robert Merrill Levan was an American songwriter, theatrical composer, lyricist, and screenwriter. Merrill was one of the most successful songwriters of the 1950s on the US and UK single charts. His musicals for the Broadway stage include Carnival! and Funny Girl (lyrics). Read more
17 May 1920: Harry Männil, Estonian-Venezuelan businessman, co-founded ACO Group (died 2010) Harry Männil, also known as Harry Mannil Laul,[a] was an Estonian businessman, art collector, and cultural benefactor in several countries. Read more
17 May 1919: Antonio Aguilar, Mexican singer-songwriter, producer, actor, and screenwriter (died 2007) José Pascual Antonio Aguilar Márquez Barraza, known as Antonio Aguilar, was a Mexican singer and actor. He recorded over 150 albums, which sold 25 million copies, and acted in more than 120 films. He was given the honorific nickname "El Charro de México" because he is credited with popularizing the Mexican equestrian sport la charrería to international audiences. Read more
17 May 1919: Gustav Naan, Russian-Estonian physicist and philosopher (died 1994) Gustav Naan was a Soviet and Estonian physicist and philosopher. According to the Estonian Encyclopedia's definition, he "wrote plenty of irritating publicist articles". Read more
17 May 1918: Joan Benham, English actress (died 1981) Joan Benham was an English actress best known for her portrayal of Lady Prudence Fairfax in the ITV period drama series Upstairs, Downstairs. She was born in London and was the first cousin of Hollywood actress Olive Sturgess. Read more
17 May 1918: Birgit Nilsson, Swedish operatic soprano (died 2005) Märta Birgit Nilsson was a Swedish dramatic soprano. Although she sang a wide repertoire of operatic and vocal works, Nilsson was best known for her performances in the operas of Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss. Her voice was noted for its overwhelming force, bountiful reserves of power, and the gleaming brilliance and clarity in the upper register. Read more
17 May 1914: Robert N. Thompson, American-Canadian chiropractor and politician (died 1997) Robert Norman Thompson was a Canadian politician, chiropractor, and educator. He was born in Duluth, Minnesota, to Canadian parents and moved to Canada in 1918 with his family. Raised in Alberta, he graduated from the Palmer School of Chiropractic in 1939 and worked as a chiropractor and then as a teacher before serving in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II. Read more
17 May 1913: Hans Ruesch, Swiss racing driver and author (died 2007) Hans Ruesch was a Swiss racing driver, a novelist, and an internationally prominent activist against animal experiments and vivisection. Ruesch has been described as a pioneer of the anti-vivisection movement. Read more
17 May 1912: Archibald Cox, American lawyer and politician, 31st United States Solicitor General (died 2004) Archibald Cox Jr. was an American legal scholar who served as U.S. Solicitor General under President John F. Kennedy and as a special prosecutor during the Watergate scandal. During his career, he was a pioneering expert on labor law and was also an authority on constitutional law. The Journal of Legal Studies has identified Cox as one of the most cited legal scholars of the 20th century. Read more
17 May 1912: Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner, American inventor (died 2006) Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner was an African American inventor who created an adjustable sanitary belt. to keep menstrual pads securely in place. She has been granted five patents in between 1956 and 1987, one of the highest totals awarded to an African American female inventor. All of her inventions provided solutions to common household and personal care issues; including improving menstrual hygiene products. Read more
17 May 1911: Lisa Fonssagrives, Swedish-American model (died 1992) Lisa Fonssagrives was a Swedish model, dancer, sculptor, and photographer. She is widely credited with having been the first supermodel. Read more
17 May 1911: Maureen O'Sullivan, Irish-American actress (died 1998) Maureen Paula O'Sullivan was an Irish-American actress who played Jane in the Tarzan series of films during the era of Johnny Weissmuller. She starred in dozens of feature films across a span of more than half a century and performed with such stars as Laurence Olivier, Greta Garbo, Fredric March, William Powell, Myrna Loy, Marie Dressler, Wallace Beery, Lionel Barrymore, the Marx Brothers and Woody Allen. In 2020, she was listed at number eight on The Irish Times list of Ireland's greatest film actors. Read more
17 May 1909: Julius Sumner Miller, American physicist and academic (died 1987) Julius Sumner Miller was an American physicist and television personality. He is best known for his work on children's television programs in North America and Australia. Read more
17 May 1906: Zinka Milanov, Croatian-American soprano and educator (died 1989) Zinka Milanov was a Croatian operatic dramatic soprano who had a major career centered on the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. After finishing her education in Zagreb, Milanov made her debut in 1927 in Ljubljana as Leonora in Giuseppe Verdi's Il Trovatore. From 1928 to 1936, she was the leading soprano of the Croatian National Theatre. In 1937, Milanov performed at the Metropolitan Opera for the first time, where she continued to sing until 1966. She also performed as a concert singer and was a noted vocal coach and teacher. Milanov is the sister of the composer and pianist Božidar Kunc. Read more
17 May 1904: Marie-Anne Desmarest, French author (died 1973) Marie-Anne Desmarest was a French writer. Read more
17 May 1903: Cool Papa Bell, American baseball player and manager (died 1991) James Thomas "Cool Papa" Bell was an American center fielder and pitcher in Negro league baseball and the Mexican League from 1922 to 1946. He is considered to have been one of the fastest men ever to play the game. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974. He ranked 66th on a list of the greatest baseball players published by The Sporting News in 1999. Read more
17 May 1901: Werner Egk, German pianist and composer (died 1983)
Werner Egk, born Werner Joseph Mayer, was a German composer. Read more
17 May 1899: Carmen de Icaza, Spanish writer (died 1979) María Carmen de Icaza y de León, 8th Baroness of Claret was a Spanish journalist and novelist from 1935–60. She enjoyed success with her 1936 novel, Cristina Guzmán, which was subsequently adapted for the stage, television and cinema. By 1945, she was a best-selling writer in Spain. Her father was Mexican writer and diplomat Francisco A. de Icaza. Read more
17 May 1898: A. J. Casson, Canadian painter (died 1992) Alfred Joseph Casson was a member of the Canadian group of artists known as the Group of Seven. He joined the group in 1926 at the invitation of Franklin Carmichael, replacing Frank Johnston. Casson is best known for his depictions in his signature limited palette of southern Ontario, and for being the youngest member of the Group of Seven. Read more
17 May 1897: Odd Hassel, Norwegian chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1981) Odd Hassel was a Norwegian physical chemist and Nobel Laureate. Read more
17 May 1895: Saul Adler, Belarusian-English captain and parasitologist (died 1966) Saul Adler OBE FRS was an Israeli expert on parasitology. Read more
17 May 1895: Reinhold Saulmann, Estonian sprinter and bandy player (died 1936) Reinhold Saulmann was an Estonian track and field sprinter. Read more
17 May 1893: Frederick McKinley Jones, American inventor and entrepreneur (died 1961) Frederick McKinley Jones was an American inventor, entrepreneur, engineer, winner of the National Medal of Technology, and an inductee of the National Inventors Hall of Fame. He innovated mobile refrigeration technology. Jones received 61 patents, including 40 for refrigeration technology, and also revolutionized the cinema industry by creating a superior sound system for projectors at the time. Jones co-founded Thermo King and also served as a sergeant in World War I. Due to his contributions to refrigeration technology, Jones is called the "Father of Refrigerated Transportation", and the "King of Cool". Read more
17 May 1891: Napoleon Zervas, Greek general and politician (died 1957) Napoleon Zervas was a Hellenic Army officer and resistance leader during World War II. He organized and led the National Republican Greek League (EDES), the second most significant, in terms of size and activity, resistance organization against the Axis Occupation of Greece. Read more
17 May 1889: Dorothy Gibson, American actress and singer (died 1946) Dorothy Gibson was an American actress, socialite and artist's model, active in the early 20th century. She survived the sinking of the Titanic and starred in the first motion picture based on the disaster. Read more
17 May 1889: Alfonso Reyes, Mexican author (died 1959) Alfonso Reyes Ochoa was a Mexican writer, philosopher and diplomat. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature five times and has been acclaimed as one of the greatest authors in the Spanish language. He served as ambassador of Mexico to Argentina and Brazil. Read more
17 May 1888: Tich Freeman, English cricketer (died 1965) Alfred Percy "Tich" Freeman was an English first-class cricketer. A leg spin bowler for Kent County Cricket Club and England, he is the only man to take 300 wickets in an English season, and is the second most prolific wicket-taker in first-class cricket history. Read more
17 May 1886: Alfonso XIII of Spain, Spanish monarch (died 1941) Alfonso XIII, also known as El Africano or the African for his Africanist views, was King of Spain from his birth until 14 April 1931, when the Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed. He became a monarch at birth as his father, Alfonso XII, had died the previous year. Alfonso's mother, Maria Christina of Austria, served as regent until he assumed full powers on his sixteenth birthday in 1902. Read more
17 May 1882: Karl Burman, Estonian architect and painter (died 1965) Karl Burman sen. was an Estonian architect and painter. Read more
17 May 1874: George Sheldon, American diver (died 1907) George Herbert Sheldon was an American diver who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics and won the inaugural platform diving competition. Read more
17 May 1873: Henri Barbusse, French author and journalist (died 1935) Henri Barbusse was a French novelist, short story writer, journalist, poet and political activist. He began his literary career in the 1890s as a Symbolist poet and continued as a neo-Naturalist novelist; in 1916, he published Under Fire, a novel about World War I based on his experience which is described as one of the earliest works of the Lost Generation movement or as the work which started it; the novel had a major impact on the later writers of the movement, namely on Ernest Hemingway and Erich Maria Remarque. Barbusse is considered one of the important French writers of 1910–1939 who mingled the war memories with moral and political meditations. Read more
17 May 1873: Dorothy Richardson, English author and journalist (died 1957) Dorothy Miller Richardson was a British author and journalist. Author of Pilgrimage, a sequence of 13 semi-autobiographical novels published between 1915 and 1967—though Richardson saw them as chapters of one work—she was one of the earliest modernist novelists to use stream of consciousness as a narrative technique. Richardson also emphasises in Pilgrimage the importance and distinct nature of female experiences. The title Pilgrimage alludes not only to "the journey of the artist … to self-realisation but, more practically, to the discovery of a unique creative form and expression". Read more
17 May 1870: Newton Moore, Australian politician, 8th Premier of Western Australia (died 1936) Major General Sir Newton James Moore, was an Australian politician, businessman and army officer. He served as the eighth Premier of Western Australia from 1906 to 1910 and, following service in the First World War, was a member of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom from 1918 to 1932. He was the father of Sir Rodney Moore. Read more
17 May 1868: Horace Elgin Dodge, American businessman, co-founded Dodge (died 1920) Horace Elgin Dodge Sr. was an American automobile manufacturing pioneer and co-founder of Dodge Brothers Company. Read more
17 May 1868: Panagis Tsaldaris, Greek politician, Prime Minister of Greece (died 1936) Panagis Tsaldaris was a Greek politician who served as Prime Minister of Greece twice. He was a revered conservative politician and leader for many years (1922–1936) of the conservative People's Party in the period before World War II. He was the husband of Lina Tsaldari, a Greek suffragist, member of Parliament, and the Minister for Social Welfare. Read more
17 May 1866: Erik Satie, French pianist and composer (died 1925) Eric Alfred Leslie Satie, better known as Erik Satie, was a French composer and pianist. The son of a French father and a British mother, he studied at the Paris Conservatoire but was undistinguished and did not obtain a diploma. In the 1880s he worked as a pianist in café-cabarets in Montmartre, Paris, and began composing works, mostly for solo piano, such as his Gymnopédies and Gnossiennes. He also wrote music for a Rosicrucian sect to which he was briefly attached. Read more
17 May 1864: Louis Richardet, Swiss target shooter (died 1923) Louis Marcel Richardet was a Swiss sports shooter who competed in the early 20th century. He participated in Shooting at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris and won two gold medals with the Military pistol and rifle teams for Switzerland. Read more
17 May 1864: Ante Trumbić, Croatian lawyer and politician, 27th Mayor of Split (died 1938) Ante Trumbić was a Yugoslav and Croatian lawyer and politician in the early 20th century. Read more
17 May 1863: Léon Gérin, Canadian lawyer, sociologist, and civil servant (died 1951) Léon Gérin was a Canadian lawyer, civil servant, and sociologist. Read more
17 May 1860: Martin Kukučín, Slovak author and playwright (died 1928) Martin Kukučín was a Slovak prose writer, dramatist and publicist. He was the most notable representative of Slovak literary realism, and is considered one of the founders of modern Slovak prose. Read more
17 May 1860: Charlotte Barnum, American mathematician and social activist (died 1934) Charlotte Cynthia Barnum, mathematician and social activist, was the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in mathematics from Yale University. Read more
17 May 1845: Jacint Verdaguer, Catalan priest and poet (died 1902) Jacint Verdaguer i Santaló was a Spanish writer and priest, regarded as one of the greatest poets of Catalan literature and a prominent literary figure of the Renaixença, a cultural revival movement of the late Romantic era. The bishop Josep Torras i Bages, one of the main figures of Catalan nationalism, called him the "Prince of Catalan poets". He was also known as mossèn (Father) Cinto Verdaguer, because of his career as a priest, and informally also simply "mossèn Cinto". Read more
17 May 1836: Virginie Loveling, Belgian author and poet (died 1923) Virginie (Marie) Loveling was a Flemish author of poetry, novels, essays and children's stories. She also wrote under the pseudonym W. E. C. Walter. She did write sentimentally early in her career but her later novels dealt with difficult subjects directly. Read more
17 May 1835: Thomas McIlwraith, Scottish-Australian politician, 8th Premier of Queensland (died 1900) Sir Thomas McIlwraith was for many years the dominant figure of colonial politics in Queensland. He was Premier of Queensland from 1879 to 1883, again in 1888, and for a third time in 1893. In common with most politicians of his era, McIlwraith was an influential businessman, who combined his parliamentary career with a prosperous involvement in the pastoral industry. Read more
17 May 1821: Sebastian Kneipp, German priest and therapist (died 1897) Sebastian Kneipp was a German Catholic priest and one of the forefathers of the naturopathic movement. He is most commonly associated with the "Kneipp Cure" form of hydrotherapy, the application of water through various methods, temperatures, and pressures, which he claimed to have therapeutic or healing effects, thus building several hospitals in Bad Wörishofen. Read more
17 May 1818: Ezra Otis Kendall, American professor, astronomer and mathematician (died 1899) Ezra Otis Kendall (1818–1899) was an American professor, astronomer and mathematician. He was known for his work in uranography. Read more

🕊️ Important Deaths on 17 May in World History

17 May 2024: Bud Anderson, American World War II flying ace (born 1922) Clarence Emil "Bud" Anderson was an officer in the United States Air Force and a triple ace of World War II. During the war he was the highest scoring flying ace in his P-51 Mustang squadron. Read more
17 May 2024: Sid Going, New Zealand rugby union footballer (born 1943) Sidney Milton Going was a New Zealand rugby union footballer. Dubbed Super Sid by his fans, he played 86 matches, including 29 tests, for the All Blacks between 1967 and 1977. He represented North Auckland domestically. Read more
17 May 2022: Vangelis, Greek musician, composer (born 1943) Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou, mainly known professionally as Vangelis, was a Greek composer, arranger, performer and producer of music. He released material of wide musical genres such as electronic music, progressive rock, ambient, and classical orchestral music. He is primarily known for his film scores, composing the Academy Award-winning score to Chariots of Fire (1981), as well as composing the scores of Blade Runner (1982), Missing (1982), Antarctica (1983), The Bounty (1984), 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992), and Alexander (2004), and the 1980 PBS documentary series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage by Carl Sagan. Read more
17 May 2020: Lucky Peterson, American blues singer, keyboardist and guitarist (born 1964) Judge Kenneth "Lucky" Peterson was an American musician who played contemporary blues, fusing soul, R&B, gospel and rock and roll. He was a vocalist, guitarist and keyboardist. Music journalist Tony Russell, in his book The Blues – From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray has said, "he may be the only blues musician to have had national television exposure in short pants." Read more
17 May 2019: Herman Wouk, American author (born 1915) Herman Wouk was an American author. He published 15 novels, many of them historical fiction such as The Caine Mutiny (1951), for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1952. Other well-known works included The Winds of War and War and Remembrance, the bildungsroman Marjorie Morningstar; and non-fiction such as This Is My God, an explanation of Judaism from a Modern Orthodox perspective, written for Jewish and non-Jewish readers. His books have been translated into 27 languages. Read more
17 May 2017: Todor Veselinović, Serbian football player and manager (born 1930) Todor "Toza" Veselinović was a Yugoslav and Serbian football manager and player. Read more
17 May 2015: Lionel Pickens, American rapper (born 1983) Lionel Du Fon Pickens, professionally known as Chinx, was an American rapper. He was a member of The Rockaway Riot Squad alongside fellow slain rapper Stack Bundles. Chinx later joined French Montana's Coke Boys Records, gaining recognition for his appearances on the Coke Boys mixtapes and the Cocaine Riot mixtape series. He was killed in a drive-by shooting in Jamaica, Queens on May 17, 2015. Two men have since been arrested in the case. Read more
17 May 2014: Gerald Edelman, American biologist and immunologist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1929) Gerald Maurice Edelman was an American biologist who shared the 1972 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for work with Rodney Robert Porter on the immune system. Edelman's Nobel Prize-winning research concerned discovery of the structure of antibody molecules. In interviews, he has said that the way the components of the immune system evolve over the life of the individual is analogous to the way the components of the brain evolve in a lifetime. There is a continuity in this way between his work on the immune system, for which he won the Nobel Prize, and his later work in neuroscience and in philosophy of mind. Read more
17 May 2014: C. P. Krishnan Nair, Indian businessman, founded The Leela Palaces, Hotels and Resorts (born 1922) Captain Chittarath Poovakkatt Krishnan Nair was an Indian businessman who founded The Leela Group. He was a 2010 recipient of the Padma Bhushan, given by Government of India. He was sometimes popularly known as Captain Nair due to his service in the Indian Army. Read more
17 May 2014: Douangchay Phichit, Laotian politician (born 1944) Lieutenant general Douangchay Phichit was a Laotian politician from Attapeu and a Politburo member of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party. He served as the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defense. Read more
17 May 2014: Thongbanh Sengaphone, Laotian politician (born 1953) Thongbanh Sengaphone was a Laotian politician and member of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP). He served as Minister of Public Security and held seats in the LPRP's Central Committee and the Secretariat. Read more
17 May 2013: Philippe Gaumont, French cyclist (born 1973) Philippe Gaumont was a French professional road racing cyclist. He earned a bronze medal in the 1992 Summer Olympics, 100 km team time trial. In 1997, he won the Belgian classic Gent–Wevelgem and he was twice individual pursuit French national champion, in 2000 and 2002. In 2004, Gaumont quit professional cycling and later ran a café in Amiens. Read more
17 May 2013: Peter Schulz, German politician, Mayor of Hamburg (born 1930) Peter Schulz was a German politician, member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and First Mayor of Hamburg. Read more
17 May 2013: Ken Venturi, American golfer and sportscaster (born 1931) Kenneth Paul Venturi was an American professional golfer and golf broadcaster. In a career shortened by injuries, he won 14 events on the PGA Tour including a major, the U.S. Open in 1964. Shortly before his death in 2013, Venturi was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. Read more
17 May 2013: Jorge Rafael Videla, Argentine Commander in Chief and dictator (born 1925) General Jorge Rafael Videla was an Argentine military dictator and the President of Argentina from 1976 to 1981 during the National Reorganization Process. His rule, which was during the time of Operation Condor, was among the most infamous in Latin America during the Cold War due to its high level of human rights abuses including abductions, torture, executions and systematic kidnapping of children from female prisoners, as well as severe economic mismanagement. Read more
17 May 2012: Gideon Ezra, Israeli geographer and politician, Israeli Minister in the Prime Minister's Office (born 1937) Gideon Ezra was an Israeli politician. He served as a member of the Knesset for Likud and Kadima between 1996 and 2012 and also held several ministerial portfolios. Read more
17 May 2012: Patrick Mafisango, Congolese-Rwandan footballer (born 1980) Patrick Mutesa Mafisango was a Rwandan international footballer who played as a midfielder. Read more
17 May 2012: Donna Summer, American singer-songwriter (born 1948) Donna Adrian Gaines, known professionally as Donna Summer, was an American singer and songwriter. She gained prominence during the disco era of the 1970s and became known as the "Queen of Disco", while her music gained a global following. Read more
17 May 2011: Harmon Killebrew, American baseball player and sportscaster (born 1936) Harmon Clayton Killebrew Jr., nicknamed "the Killer" and "Hammerin' Harmon", was an American professional baseball player as a first baseman, third baseman, and left fielder. He spent most of his 22-year career in Major League Baseball (MLB) with the Minnesota Twins. A prolific power hitter, Killebrew had the fifth-most home runs in major league history at the time of his retirement. He was second only to Babe Ruth in American League (AL) home runs, and was the AL career leader in home runs by a right-handed batter. Killebrew was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1984. Read more
17 May 2010: Yvonne Loriod, French pianist, composer, and educator (born 1924) Yvonne Louise Georgette Loriod-Messiaen was a French pianist, teacher, and composer, and the second wife of composer Olivier Messiaen. Her sister was the Ondes Martenot player Jeanne Loriod. Read more
17 May 2010: Walasse Ting, Chinese-American painter and poet (born 1929) Walasse Ting was a Chinese-American visual artist and poet. His colorful paintings have attracted critical admiration and a popular following. Common subjects include nude women and cats, birds and other animals. Read more
17 May 2009: Mario Benedetti, Uruguayan journalist, author, and poet (born 1920) Mario Benedetti Farrugia, was a Uruguayan journalist, novelist, and poet and an integral member of the Generación del 45. Despite publishing more than 80 books and being published in twenty languages, he was not well known in the English-speaking world. In the Spanish-speaking world, he is considered one of Latin America's most important writers of the latter half of the 20th century. Read more
17 May 2009: Jung Seung-hye, South Korean journalist and producer (born 1965) Jung Seung-hye was a South Korean film producer. Read more
17 May 2007: Lloyd Alexander, American soldier and author (born 1924) Lloyd Chudley Alexander was an American author of more than 40 books, primarily fantasy novels for children and young adults. Over his seven-decade career, Alexander wrote 48 books, and his work has been translated into 20 languages. His most famous work is The Chronicles of Prydain, a series of five high fantasy novels whose conclusion, The High King, was awarded the 1969 Newbery Medal for excellence in American children's literature. He won U.S. National Book Awards in 1971 and 1982. Read more
17 May 2007: T. K. Doraiswamy, Indian poet and author (born 1921) T. K. Doraiswamy, also known by his pen name Nakulan, was an Indian poet, professor of English, novelist, translator and short fiction writer, who wrote both in Tamil and English, and is known for his surrealism and experimentation as well as free verse. He served as Professor of English, Mar Ivanios College, Thiruvananthapuram for four decades. Read more
17 May 2006: Cy Feuer, American director, producer, and composer (born 1911) Cyrus "Cy" Feuer was an American theatre producer, director, composer, musician, and half of the celebrated producing duo Feuer and Martin. He won three competitive Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre, and a Lifetime Achievement Tony Award. He was also nominated for Academy Awards as the producer of Storm Over Bengal and Cabaret. Read more
17 May 2005: Frank Gorshin, American actor (born 1934) Frank John Gorshin Jr. was an American actor, comedian and impressionist. He made many guest appearances on television variety and talk shows, including The Ed Sullivan Show, Tonight Starring Steve Allen, The Dean Martin Show and Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Read more
17 May 2004: Jørgen Nash, Danish poet and painter (born 1920) Jørgen Nash was a Danish artist, writer and central proponent of Situationism. Read more
17 May 2004: Tony Randall, American actor (born 1920) Anthony Leonard Randall was an American actor, comedian, director, producer and singer, active in film, television and stage. Read more
17 May 2004: Ezzedine Salim, Iraqi politician (born 1943) Ezzedine Salim, also known as Abdelzahra Othman Mohammed, was an Iraqi politician, author, educator, Islamist theorist and one of the leading members of the Iraqi Dawa Movement between 1980 and 2004. He served as the President of the Governing Council of Iraq in 2004. Read more
17 May 2002: László Kubala, Hungarian-Spanish footballer, coach, and manager (born 1927) László Kubala was a professional footballer. He played as a forward for Ferencváros, Slovan Bratislava, Barcelona, and Espanyol, among other clubs. Regarded as one of the greatest players in history, Kubala is considered a hero of Barcelona. He was born in Hungary but also had Czechoslovak and Spanish citizenship, and played for the national teams of all three countries. Read more
17 May 2002: Aşık Mahzuni Şerif, Turkish poet and composer (born 1940) Şerif Cırık, popularly known as Aşık Mahsuni Şerif, was a Turkish ashik, folk musician, composer, poet, and author. Aşık is a title used to indicate his position as a respected musician and his relationship with Alevism. Read more
17 May 2001: Jacques-Louis Lions, French mathematician (born 1928) Jacques-Louis Lions was a French mathematician who made contributions to the theory of partial differential equations and to stochastic control, among other areas. He received the SIAM's John von Neumann Lecture prize in 1986 and numerous other distinctions. Lions is listed as an ISI highly cited researcher. Read more
17 May 2001: Frank G. Slaughter, American physician and author (born 1908) Frank Gill Slaughter, pen-name Frank G. Slaughter, pseudonym C. V. Terry, was an American novelist and physician whose books sold more than 60 million copies. His novels drew on his own experience as a doctor and his interest in history and the Bible. Through his novels, he often introduced readers to new findings in medical research and new medical technologies. Read more
17 May 2000: Donald Coggan, English archbishop (born 1909) Frederick Donald Coggan, Baron Coggan, was the 101st Archbishop of Canterbury from 1974 to 1980. As Archbishop of Canterbury, he "revived morale within the Church of England, opened a dialogue with Rome and supported women's ordination". He had previously been successively the Bishop of Bradford and the Archbishop of York. Read more
17 May 1999: Bruce Fairbairn, Canadian trumpet player and producer (born 1949) Bruce Earl Fairbairn was a Canadian musician and record producer. Read more
17 May 1999: Lembit Oll, Estonian chess Grandmaster (born 1966) Lembit Oll was an Estonian chess grandmaster. Read more
17 May 1996: Kevin Gilbert, American singer-songwriter and producer (born 1966) Kevin Matthew Gilbert was an American singer, songwriter, musician, composer, and producer. He was best known for his solo progressive rock projects, Toy Matinee and his contributions to Tuesday Night Music Club (1993), the debut studio album of Sheryl Crow. Kevin Gilbert was found dead at his Los Angeles-area home on May 18, 1996, at the age of 29. Read more
17 May 1995: Toe Blake, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (born 1912) Joseph Hector "Toe" Blake was a Canadian ice hockey player and coach in the National Hockey League (NHL). Blake played in the NHL from 1935 to 1948 with the Montreal Maroons and Montreal Canadiens. He led the NHL in scoring in 1939, while also winning the Hart Trophy for most valuable player, and served as captain of the Canadiens from 1940 to his retirement. He won the Stanley Cup three times as a player: in 1935 with the Maroons, and in 1944 and 1946 with the Canadiens. While with the Canadiens, Blake played on a line with Elmer Lach and Maurice Richard which was dubbed the Punch line, as all three were highly-skilled players. In 2017, Blake was named one of the '100 Greatest NHL Players' in history. He was also known as "The Old Lamplighter" due to his skill for putting the puck in the net. Read more
17 May 1992: Lawrence Welk, American accordion player and bandleader (born 1903) Lawrence Welk was an American accordionist, bandleader, and television impresario, who hosted The Lawrence Welk Show from 1951 to 1982. The program was known for its light and family-friendly style, and the easy listening music featured became known as "champagne music" to his radio, television, and live-performance audiences. Read more
17 May 1987: Gunnar Myrdal, Swedish economist, sociologist, and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1898) Karl Gunnar Myrdal was a Swedish economist and sociologist. In 1974, he received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences along with Friedrich Hayek for "their pioneering work in the theory of money and economic fluctuations and for their penetrating analysis of the interdependence of economic, social and institutional phenomena." When his wife, Alva Myrdal, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1982, they became the fourth ever married couple to have won Nobel Prizes, and the first and only to win independent of each other. Read more
17 May 1985: Abe Burrows, American director, composer, and author (born 1910) Abe Burrows was an American writer, composer, humorist, director for radio and the stage, and librettist for Broadway musicals. His versatile career in radio, Broadway, and television spanned many decades. He is best known for co-writing the book to the award-winning musicals Guys and Dolls and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Read more
17 May 1980: Gündüz Kılıç, Turkish football player and coach (born 1918) "Baba" Gündüz Kılıç was a Turkish football player and coach. He was Ali Kılıç's son and Altemur Kılıç's brother. Read more
17 May 1977: Charles E. Rosendahl, American admiral and pilot (born 1892) Charles Emery Rosendahl was a highly decorated vice admiral in the United States Navy, and an advocate of lighter-than-air flight. Read more
17 May 1974: Ernest Nash, German-American photographer and scholar (born 1898) Ernest Nash was a student of Roman architecture and pioneer of archaeological photography. Nash was born as Ernst Nathan in Potsdam, Germany, but later changed his name to Nash when he was living in the United States between 1939 and 1952. Read more
17 May 1964: Nandor Fodor, Hungarian-American psychologist and parapsychologist (born 1895) Nandor Fodor was a British and American parapsychologist, psychoanalyst, author and journalist of Hungarian origin. Read more
17 May 1963: John Wilce, American football player, coach, and physician (born 1888) John Woodworth Wilce was an American college football player and coach, physician, and university professor. He served as the head football coach at Ohio State University from 1913 to 1928, compiling a record of 78–33–9. Wilce coached Chic Harley and led Ohio State to their first win over rival Michigan, in 1919. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1954. Read more
17 May 1960: Jules Supervielle, Uruguayan-French poet and author (born 1884) Jules Supervielle was a Franco-Uruguayan poet and writer born in Montevideo. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature three times. Read more
17 May 1951: William Birdwood, Anglo-Indian field marshal (born 1865) Field Marshal William Riddell Birdwood, 1st Baron Birdwood was a senior and highly decorated and distinguished British Indian Army officer. He saw active service in the Second Boer War on the staff of Lord Kitchener. Birdwood saw action again in the First World War, initially as commander of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps during the Gallipoli campaign in 1915, leading the landings on the peninsula and then the evacuation later in the year, before becoming commander of the Australian Corps and the Fifth Army on the Western Front during the closing stages of the war. He then went on to be general officer commanding the Northern Army in India in 1920 and Commander-in-Chief, India, in 1925, and retired as a field marshal. Read more
17 May 1947: George Forbes, New Zealand farmer and politician, 22nd Prime Minister of New Zealand (born 1869) George William Forbes was a New Zealand politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of New Zealand from 28 May 1930 to 6 December 1935. He was the last leader of the remnant of the Liberal Party having entered the House of Representatives in 1908 as a Radical in that Party. Forbes was a co-founder of the United Party in 1927. Later he was a founder of the New Zealand National Party in 1936 and the Party's first parliamentary leader. Read more
17 May 1943: Johanna Elberskirchen, German author and activist (born 1864) Johanna Elberskirchen was a feminist writer and activist for the rights of women, gays and lesbians as well as blue-collar workers. She published books on women's sexuality and health among other topics. Her last known public appearance was in 1930 in Vienna, where she gave a talk at a conference organised by the World League for Sexual Reform. She was open about her own homosexuality which made her a somewhat exceptional figure in the feminist movement of her time. Her career as an activist was ended in 1933, when the Nazi Party rose to power. There is no public record of a funeral but witnesses report that Elberskirchen's urn was secretly put into the grave of Hildegard Moniac, who had been her life partner. Read more
17 May 1938: Jakob Ehrlich, Czech-Austrian academic and politician (born 1877) Jakob Ehrlich was an early Zionist and leader of the Jewish Community in Vienna, Austria. Ehrlich represented the city's 180,000 Jewish citizens in the city government before World War II, and was among those deported in the "Prominententransport" to the Nazi concentration camp at Dachau, soon after the German army entered Vienna in March 1938. He died in Dachau a few weeks later, from beatings. His wife, Irma Hutter Ehrlich emigrated to England, then the USA with their son where she was active in the rescue of Jewish children from Europe, working with WIZO and Hadassah. Read more
17 May 1936: Panagis Tsaldaris, Greek lawyer and politician, 124th Prime Minister of Greece (born 1868) Panagis Tsaldaris was a Greek politician who served as Prime Minister of Greece twice. He was a revered conservative politician and leader for many years (1922–1936) of the conservative People's Party in the period before World War II. He was the husband of Lina Tsaldari, a Greek suffragist, member of Parliament, and the Minister for Social Welfare. Read more
17 May 1935: Paul Dukas, French composer, critic, and educator (born 1865) Paul Abraham Dukas was a French composer, critic, scholar and teacher. A studious man of retiring personality, he was intensely self-critical and abandoned and destroyed many of his compositions. His best-known work is the orchestral piece The Sorcerer's Apprentice, the fame of which has eclipsed that of his other surviving works, largely due to its usage in the 1940 Disney film Fantasia. Among these are the opera Ariane et Barbe-bleue, his Symphony in C and Piano Sonata in E-flat minor, the Variations, Interlude and Finale on a Theme by Rameau, and a ballet, La Péri. Read more
17 May 1934: Cass Gilbert, American architect (born 1859) Cass Gilbert was an American architect. An early proponent of skyscrapers, his works include the Woolworth Building, the United States Supreme Court building, the state capitols of Minnesota, Arkansas, and West Virginia, the Detroit Public Library, the Saint Louis Art Museum and Public Library. His public buildings in the Beaux Arts style reflect the optimistic American sense that the nation was heir to Greek democracy, Roman law and Renaissance humanism. Gilbert's achievements were recognized in his lifetime; he served as president of the American Institute of Architects in 1908–09. Read more
17 May 1927: Harold Geiger, American pilot and lieutenant (born 1884) Major Harold Geiger was an American military officer and pioneer U.S. Army aviator, who was killed in an airplane crash in 1927. He was U.S. military aviator number 6. He was also a balloonist. Spokane International Airport is designated with the International Air Transport Association airport code GEG in his memory. Read more
17 May 1922: Dorothy Levitt, English racing driver and journalist (born 1882) Dorothy Elizabeth Levitt was a British racing driver and journalist. She was the first British woman racing driver, holder of the world's first water speed record, the women's world land speed record holder, and an author. She was a pioneer of female independence and female motoring and taught Queen Alexandra and the Royal Princesses how to drive. In 1905, she established the record for the longest drive achieved by a lady driver by driving a De Dion-Bouton from London to Liverpool and back over two days, receiving the soubriquets in the press of the Fastest Girl on Earth, and the Champion Lady Motorist of the World. Read more
17 May 1921: Karl Mantzius, Danish actor and director (born 1860) Karl Mantzius was a Danish actor, stage and film director, theatre scholar, and operatic baritone. Read more
17 May 1919: Guido von List, Austrian-German journalist, author, and poet (born 1848) Guido Karl Anton List, better known as Guido von List, was an Austrian occultist, journalist, playwright, and novelist. He expounded a modern Pagan new religious movement known as Wotanism, which he claimed was the revival of the religion of the ancient German race, and which included an inner set of Ariosophical teachings that he termed Armanism. Read more
17 May 1917: Clara Ayres, American nurse (born 1880) Clara Ayres was an American nurse who joined the United States Army during the First World War. Ayres and Helen Burnett Wood were the first two women to be killed while serving in the United States military, following an explosion on USS Mongolia on May 17, 1917. Read more
17 May 1917: Charles Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak (born 1829) Sir Charles Anthoni Johnson Brooke was the head of state of Sarawak from 3 August 1868 until his death. He succeeded his uncle, James Brooke, who was the first of the so-called "White Rajahs" of Sarawak. Read more
17 May 1916: Boris Borisovich Golitsyn, Russian physicist and seismologist (born 1862) Prince Boris Borisovich Golitsyn was a prominent Russian Empire physicist who invented the first electromagnetic seismograph in 1906. He was one of the founders of modern seismology. In 1911 he was chosen to be the president of the International Seismology Association. Read more
17 May 1911: Frederick August Otto Schwarz, German-American businessman, founded FAO Schwarz (born 1836) Frederick August Otto Schwarz was a German-born American toy retailer known for founding FAO Schwarz. Read more
17 May 1888: Giacomo Zanella, Italian priest and poet (born 1820) Giacomo Zanella was an Italian poet. Read more
17 May 1886: John Deere, American blacksmith and businessman, founded the Deere & Company (born 1804) John Deere was an American blacksmith, businessman, inventor and politician. He founded Deere & Company, one of the largest and leading agricultural and construction-equipment manufacturers in the world. Born in Rutland, Vermont, Deere moved to Illinois and invented the first commercially successful steel plow in 1837. Read more
17 May 1880: Ziya Pasha, Greek author and translator (born 1826) Ziya Pasha, the pseudonym of Abdul Hamid Ziyaeddin, was an Ottoman writer, translator and administrator. He was one of the most important authors during the Tanzimat period of the Ottoman Empire, along with İbrahim Şinasi and Namık Kemal. Read more
17 May 1879: Asa Packer, American businessman, founded Lehigh University (born 1805) Asa Packer was an American businessman who pioneered railroad construction, was active in Pennsylvania politics, and founded Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He was a conservative and religious man who reflected the image of the typical Connecticut Yankee. He served two terms in the United States House of Representatives from 1853 to 1857. Read more
17 May 1875: John C. Breckinridge, American lawyer and politician, 14th Vice President of the United States, Confederate States general (born 1821) John Cabell Breckinridge was an American politician who served as the 14th vice president of the United States, with President James Buchanan, from 1857 to 1861, and as a general in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. Assuming office at the age of 36, Breckinridge is the youngest vice president in U.S. history. He was also the Southern Democratic candidate in the 1860 presidential election, losing to antislavery Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln. Read more
17 May 1868: Kondō Isami, Japanese commander (born 1834) Kondō Isami was a Japanese swordsman and samurai of the late Edo period. He was the fourth generation master of Tennen Rishin-ryū and was famed for his role as commander of the Shinsengumi. Read more
17 May 1839: Archibald Alison, Scottish priest and author (born 1757) Archibald Alison was a Scottish Anglican priest and essayist. Read more
17 May 1838: René Caillié, French explorer and author (born 1799) Auguste René Caillié was a French explorer and the first European to return alive from the town of Timbuktu. Caillié had been preceded at Timbuktu by a British officer, Major Gordon Laing, who was murdered in September 1826 on leaving the city. Caillié was therefore the first to return alive. Read more
17 May 1838: Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, French politician, Prime Minister of France (born 1754) Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, 1st Prince of Benevento, then Prince of Talleyrand, was a French secularized clergyman, statesman, and leading diplomat. After studying theology, he became Agent-General of the Clergy in 1780. In 1789, just before the French Revolution, he became Bishop of Autun. He worked at the highest levels of successive French governments, most commonly as foreign minister or in some other diplomatic capacity. He served as the French representative to the Congress of Vienna. His career spanned the regimes of Louis XVI, the years of the French Revolution, Napoleon, Louis XVIII, Charles X, and Louis Philippe I. Those Talleyrand served often distrusted him but found him extremely useful. The name "Talleyrand" has become a byword for crafty and cynical diplomacy. Read more
17 May 1829: John Jay, American politician and diplomat, 1st Chief Justice of the United States (born 1745) John Jay was an American statesman, diplomat, signatory of the Treaty of Paris, and a Founding Father of the United States. He served from 1789 to 1795 as the first chief justice of the United States and from 1795 to 1801 as the second governor of New York. Jay directed U.S. foreign policy for much of the 1780s and was an important leader of the Federalist Party after the ratification of the United States Constitution in 1788. Read more
17 May 1822: Armand-Emmanuel de Vignerot du Plessis, Duc de Richelieu, French general and politician, 2nd Prime Minister of France (born 1766) Armand Emmanuel Sophie Septimanie de Vignerot du Plessis, 5th Duke of Richelieu and Fronsac, was a French statesman during the Bourbon Restoration. He was known by the courtesy title of Count of Chinon until 1788, then Duke of Fronsac until 1791, when he succeeded his father as Duke of Richelieu. Read more
17 May 1809: Leopold Auenbrugger, Austrian physician (born 1722) Josef Leopold Auenbrugger or Avenbrugger, also known as Leopold von Auenbrugger, was an Austrian physician who invented percussion as a diagnostic technique. On the strength of this discovery, he is considered one of the founders of modern medicine. Read more
17 May 1807: John Gunby, American general (born 1745) John Gunby was an American planter and soldier from Somerset County, Maryland, who is considered by many to be "one of the most gallant officers of the Maryland Line under Gen. Smallwood". He entered service volunteering as a minuteman in 1775 and fought for the American cause until the end earning praise as probably the most brilliant soldier whom Maryland contributed to the War of Independence. Gunby was also the grandfather of Senator Ephraim King Wilson II. Read more
17 May 1801: William Heberden, English physician and scholar (born 1710) William Heberden FRS was an English physician. Read more

Why is 17 May Important in World History?

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

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

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