History of Today 17 September: Important Events, Births and Deaths

Welcome to History of Today 17 September. On this page, you can read important historical events, famous births, notable deaths and general knowledge facts related to 17 September. This information is useful for UPSC, SSC, Banking, Railway, State PSC and other competitive exams.

Last updated on 17 September 2026, 01:00 AM

Important Events on 17 September in History

17 Sep 2025: Saudi Arabia and Pakistan sign the Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement. Read more
17 Sep 2018: A Russian reconnaissance aircraft carrying 15 people on board is brought down by a Syrian surface-to-air missile over the Mediterranean Sea. Read more
17 Sep 2016: Two bombs explode in Seaside Park, New Jersey, and Manhattan. Thirty-one people are injured in the Manhattan bombing. Read more
17 Sep 2013: Grand Theft Auto V earns more than half a billion dollars on its first day of release. Read more
17 Sep 2011: Occupy Wall Street movement begins in Zuccotti Park, New York City. Read more
17 Sep 2006: Fourpeaked Mountain in Alaska erupts, marking the first eruption for the volcano in at least 10,000 years. Read more
17 Sep 2006: An audio tape of a private speech by Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány is leaked to the public, in which he confessed that his Hungarian Socialist Party had lied to win the 2006 election, sparking widespread protests across the country. Read more
17 Sep 2001: The New York Stock Exchange reopens for trading after the September 11 attacks, the longest closure since the Great Depression. Read more
17 Sep 2001: George W. Bush, president of the United States, delivers remarks at the Islamic Center of Washington praising Muslim Americans and condemning Islamophobia in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. Read more
17 Sep 1992: An Iranian Kurdish leader and his two joiners are assassinated by political militants in Berlin. Read more
17 Sep 1991: Estonia, North Korea, South Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, the Marshall Islands and Micronesia join the United Nations. Read more
17 Sep 1991: The first version of the Linux kernel (0.01) is released to the Internet. Read more
17 Sep 1983: Vanessa Williams becomes the first black Miss America. Read more
17 Sep 1980: After weeks of strikes at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, Poland, the nationwide independent trade union Solidarity is established. Read more
17 Sep 1980: Former Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza Debayle is killed in Asunción, Paraguay. Read more
17 Sep 1978: The Camp David Accords are signed by Israel and Egypt. Read more
17 Sep 1976: The Space Shuttle Enterprise is unveiled by NASA. Read more
17 Sep 1974: Bangladesh, Grenada and Guinea-Bissau join the United Nations. Read more
17 Sep 1965: The Battle of Chawinda is fought between Pakistan and India. Read more
17 Sep 1961: The world's first retractable roof stadium, the Civic Arena, opens in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Read more
17 Sep 1961: Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 706 crashes during takeoff from O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois, killing all 37 people on board. Read more
17 Sep 1950: The People's Liberation Army Air Force Airborne Corps (Then known as the PLAAF 1st Ground Forces Brigade) is founded. Read more
17 Sep 1950: The Republic of India formally recognised the State of Israel. Read more
17 Sep 1949: The Canadian steamship SS Noronic burns in Toronto Harbour with the loss of over 118 lives. Read more
17 Sep 1948: The Lehi (also known as the Stern gang) assassinates Count Folke Bernadotte, who was appointed by the United Nations to mediate between the Arab nations and Israel. Read more
17 Sep 1948: The Nizam of Hyderabad surrenders his sovereignty over the Hyderabad State and joins the Indian Union. Read more
17 Sep 1944: World War II: Allied airborne troops parachute into the Netherlands as the "Market" half of Operation Market Garden and British XXX Corps advances into the Netherlands as the "Garden" half of the Operation. Read more
17 Sep 1944: World War II: Soviet troops launch the Tallinn Offensive against Germany and pro-independence Estonian units. Read more
17 Sep 1944: World War II: German forces are attacked by the Allies in the Battle of San Marino. Read more
17 Sep 1941: World War II: A decree of the Soviet State Committee of Defense restores compulsory military training. Read more
17 Sep 1941: World War II: Soviet forces enter Tehran during the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran. Read more
17 Sep 1940: World War II: Due to setbacks in the Battle of Britain and approaching autumn weather, Hitler postpones Operation Sea Lion. Read more
17 Sep 1939: World War II: The Soviet invasion of Poland begins. Read more
17 Sep 1939: World War II: German submarine U-29 sinks the British aircraft carrier HMS Courageous. Read more
17 Sep 1935: The Niagara Gorge Railroad ceases operations after a rockslide. Read more
17 Sep 1932: A speech by Laureano Gómez leads to the escalation of the Leticia Incident. Read more
17 Sep 1930: The Kurdish Ararat rebellion is suppressed by the Turks. Read more
17 Sep 1928: The Okeechobee hurricane strikes southeastern Florida, killing more than 2,500 people. Read more
17 Sep 1924: The Border Protection Corps is established in the Second Polish Republic for the defence of the eastern border against armed Soviet raids and local bandits. Read more
17 Sep 1920: The National Football League is organized as the American Professional Football Association in Canton, Ohio. Read more
17 Sep 1916: World War I: Manfred von Richthofen ("The Red Baron"), a flying ace of the German Luftstreitkräfte, wins his first aerial combat near Cambrai, France. Read more
17 Sep 1914: Andrew Fisher becomes Prime Minister of Australia for the third time. Read more
17 Sep 1914: World War I: The Race to the Sea begins. Read more
17 Sep 1908: The Wright Flyer flown by Orville Wright, with Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge as passenger, crashes, killing Selfridge, who becomes the first airplane fatality. Read more
17 Sep 1901: Second Boer War: A Boer column defeats a British force at the Battle of Blood River Poort. Read more
17 Sep 1901: Second Boer War: Boers capture a squadron of the 17th Lancers at the Battle of Elands River. Read more
17 Sep 1900: Philippine–American War: Filipinos under Juan Cailles defeat Americans under Colonel Benjamin F. Cheatham Jr. at Mabitac. Read more
17 Sep 1894: Battle of the Yalu River, the largest naval engagement of the First Sino-Japanese War. Read more
17 Sep 1862: American Civil War: George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac halts the first invasion of the North by Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia in the single-day Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest day in American military history. Read more
17 Sep 1862: American Civil War: The Allegheny Arsenal explosion in Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania results in the single largest civilian disaster during the war. Read more
17 Sep 1861: Argentine Civil Wars: The State of Buenos Aires defeats the Argentine Confederation at the Battle of Pavón. Read more
17 Sep 1859: Joshua A. Norton declares himself "Norton I, Emperor of the United States". Read more
17 Sep 1849: American abolitionist Harriet Tubman makes her first attempt to escape from slavery. Read more
17 Sep 1809: Peace between Sweden and Russia in the Finnish War; the territory that will become Finland is ceded to Russia by the Treaty of Fredrikshamn. Read more

Famous Births on 17 September

17 Sep 2002: Elina Avanesyan, Russian-Armenian tennis player Elina Ararati Avanesyan is a Russian-born Armenian tennis player. She has a career-high WTA singles ranking of No. 36, achieved on 17 March 2025 and a best doubles ranking of No. 163, achieved on 12 August 2024. Read more
17 Sep 1999: Jaimee Fourlis, Australian tennis player Jaimee Fourlis is an Australian inactive tennis player of Greek descent. She has a career-high singles ranking of world No. 147, achieved on 18 July 2022, and a highest doubles ranking of No. 138, reached on 2 March 2020. Read more
17 Sep 1999: Daniel Huttlestone, English actor Daniel Richard Huttlestone is a British actor and singer. He is best known for his role as Gavroche in Tom Hooper's Les Misérables (2012) and Jack in the musical film Into the Woods (2014), which both earned him a 2013 and 2015 Young Artist Award nomination as Best Young Supporting Actor in a Feature Film. Read more
17 Sep 1998: Kim Dong-hyun, South Korean singer Kim Dong-hyun, known mononymously as Donghyun, is a South Korean singer-songwriter and actor. He is known for his participation in the reality competition show Produce 101 Season 2. He later debuted as a part of the musical duo, MXM. He is a member of South Korean boy group AB6IX. Read more
17 Sep 1997: Auston Matthews, American ice hockey player Auston Taylour Matthews is an American professional ice hockey player who is a center and captain for the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League (NHL). He is widely considered as one of the best players in the world with his all-around game and shot threat. His goal-scoring rate has drawn comparisons to players such as Alexander Ovechkin. Read more
17 Sep 1996: Duje Ćaleta-Car, Croatian footballer Duje Ćaleta-Car is a Croatian professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Serie A club Sassuolo and the Croatia national team. Read more
17 Sep 1996: Esteban Ocon, French Formula One racing driver Esteban José Jean-Pierre Ocon-Khelfane is a French racing driver who competes in Formula One for Haas. Ocon won the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix with Alpine. Read more
17 Sep 1996: Slayyyter, American singer and songwriter Catherine Grace Garner, known professionally as Slayyyter, is an American singer and songwriter. Known for her brash and sex-positive lyricism and electropop production, she started her career independently releasing songs through SoundCloud. Her debut mixtape, Slayyyter, was independently released in 2019. Her debut album, Troubled Paradise, was released in June 2021, and her second album, Starfucker, in September 2023. Her third album, Worst Girl in America, was released in March 2026 on Columbia Records and achieved breakout success. In addition to four solo tours, Slayyyter has toured in support of Charli XCX, Kesha, and Tove Lo. Read more
17 Sep 1996: Choi Young-jae, South Korean singer and actor Choi Young-jae, professionally known by the mononym Youngjae, is a South Korean singer-songwriter and actor. He is a member of the South Korean boy band Got7. Read more
17 Sep 1995: Michael Bunting, Canadian ice hockey player Michael Bunting is a Canadian professional ice hockey player who is a left winger who is currently an unrestricted free agent. He most recently played for the Dallas Stars of the National Hockey League (NHL). Bunting was selected by the Arizona Coyotes, 117th overall, in the 2014 NHL entry draft. He has also played for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Carolina Hurricanes, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Nashville Predators. Read more
17 Sep 1995: Patrick Mahomes, American football player Patrick Lavon Mahomes II is an American professional football quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League (NFL). After becoming the Chiefs' starting quarterback in 2018, he led the team to seven consecutive AFC Championship Game appearances and five Super Bowl appearances, winning three. He is one of only five quarterbacks in NFL history to win three or more Super Bowls as a starter. Mahomes is widely regarded as one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. He is often considered the best quarterback of his generation, with many outlets ranking him as the league's top player at the position. Read more
17 Sep 1995: Yoo Si-ah, South Korean singer Yoo Si-ah, known professionally as YooA (유아), is a South Korean singer and actress. She is a member of the girl group Oh My Girl under RINGCOMS and DSP Media. She made her debut as a solo artist, with her first EP Bon Voyage, on September 7, 2020. Read more
17 Sep 1994: Na In-woo, South Korean actor Na Jong-chan, better known by his stage name Na In-woo (나인우), is a South Korean actor. He is best known for his roles in Mr. Queen (2020–2021), River Where the Moon Rises (2021), Marry My Husband (2024), and Motel California (2025). He has been a cast member of the variety show 2 Days & 1 Night since 2022. Read more
17 Sep 1994: Denyse Tontz, Salvadoran-American actress and singer Denyse Tontz is an American actress, singer and songwriter. Tontz is known for her roles as Cortney Strathmore on Freeform's The Fosters, Miranda Montgomery on All My Children, Nikki Ortiz on Dog with a Blog, Elena on the 2017 Syfy series Incorporated, and heroine Alicia Mendoza in the 2019 ABC summer series Grand Hotel. She is known in the music world for her single, "United States of Anxiety", debuted in 2016 by People.com. Read more
17 Sep 1993: Sofiane Boufal, Moroccan footballer Sofiane Boufal is a professional footballer who plays as a winger or attacking midfielder. Born in France, he played for the Morocco national team. Read more
17 Sep 1993: Sophie Howard, Scottish footballer Sophie Louise Howard is a footballer who plays as a defender for Serie A club Como. Born in Germany, she has been a member of the Scotland national team since 2017. Read more
17 Sep 1992: Alfonzo McKinnie, American basketball player Alfonzo McKinnie is an American professional basketball player who last played for Busan KCC Egis of the Basketball Champions League Asia. He played college basketball for Eastern Illinois University and University of Wisconsin–Green Bay. Read more
17 Sep 1992: Danny Ramirez, American actor Daniel Ramirez is an American actor. He gained recognition for his role as Joaquin Torres / Falcon in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film Captain America: Brave New World (2025) and the Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021). He has also had roles in the film Top Gun: Maverick (2022), and the HBO television series The Last of Us (2025). Read more
17 Sep 1992: José Ramírez, Dominican baseball player José Enrique Ramírez Mateo is a Dominican professional baseball third baseman for the Cleveland Guardians of Major League Baseball (MLB). He signed with the Cleveland Indians as an international free agent in 2009, and made his MLB debut in 2013. Read more
17 Sep 1991: Ryo Ishikawa, Japanese golfer Ryo Ishikawa , also known by the nickname Hanikami Ōji , is a Japanese professional golfer. Read more
17 Sep 1991: Mena Massoud, Egyptian-Canadian actor Mena Mansour Massoud is a Canadian actor. He made his film debut in the 2017 Canadian dramatic thriller Ordinary Days. His breakthrough came with playing the title character in the Disney fantasy film Aladdin (2019), which earned him nominations for a Teen Choice Award and two National Film & TV Awards. Read more
17 Sep 1991: Egor Yakovlev, Russian ice hockey player Egor Konstantinovich Yakovlev is a Russian professional ice hockey defenceman for Metallurg Magnitogorsk of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). He previously played in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the New Jersey Devils. Read more
17 Sep 1990: Pixie Geldof, English model and singer Little Pixie Geldof is an English-born model and singer. She is the third daughter of Irish musician Bob Geldof and Paula Yates. Read more
17 Sep 1990: Sean Scannell, English footballer Sean Scannell is a professional footballer who plays as a winger for Isthmian League South East Division club Cray Valley Paper Mills. Read more
17 Sep 1990: Marcus Semien, American baseball player Marcus Andrew Semien is an American professional baseball second baseman and shortstop for the New York Mets of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Chicago White Sox, Oakland Athletics, Toronto Blue Jays, and Texas Rangers. Read more
17 Sep 1989: Danielle Brooks, American actress Danielle Brooks is an American actress. After studying drama at the Juilliard School she earned her breakthrough in television before expanding to theater and film. She has received a Grammy Award as well as nominations for an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, two Emmy Awards, and a Tony Award. Read more
17 Sep 1989: Kate Deines, American soccer player Kathleen Ann Deines is an American soccer midfielder–defender. She most recently played for Turbine Potsdam in the German Bundesliga and Seattle Reign FC of the National Women's Soccer League. Deines was a fourth round pick of the Atlanta Beat of Women's Professional Soccer in the 2012 WPS Draft of college seniors on January 13, 2012. The WPS Board of Governors voted to suspend the 2012 season on January 30 citing pending legal issues. Subsequently, she was free to sign with other teams and rejoined the Seattle Sounders Women, the organization she had previously played for from 2007 to 2009. After the formation of the National Women's Soccer League in late 2012, Deines played for the Seattle Reign during the league's first two seasons. She was traded to FC Kansas City in late 2014 but announced her retirement from professional soccer on March 31, 2015, before the 2015 season began. Read more
17 Sep 1987: Paul Huntington, English footballer Paul David Huntington is an English former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. Read more
17 Sep 1986: Ravichandran Ashwin, Indian cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin is an Indian cricketer. He is a right-arm off spin bowler and a lower order batter. Widely regarded as one of the most prolific spinners of all time, he represented the Indian cricket team and was part of the Indian team that won the 2011 Cricket World Cup and the 2013 Champions Trophy. He represented Tamil Nadu and South Zone in domestic cricket. Read more
17 Sep 1986: Paolo De Ceglie, Italian footballer Paolo De Ceglie is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a left-back or left midfielder. Read more
17 Sep 1986: Sophie, English music producer, disc jockey and singer (died 2021) Sophie Xeon, known mononymously as SOPHIE, was a British music producer, songwriter, and DJ. Her distinctive musical style incorporated experimental sound design, "sugary" synthesised textures, and underground dance elements. She helped pioneer the 2010s hyperpop microgenre. Read more
17 Sep 1985: Tomáš Berdych, Czech tennis player Tomáš Berdych is a Czech former professional tennis player. He was ranked world No. 4 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) in May 2015. Berdych won 13 ATP Tour singles titles, including a Masters event at the 2005 Paris Masters. His most notable achievement was reaching the final of the 2010 Wimbledon Championships, achieved by consecutively upsetting top seed and six-time champion Roger Federer in the quarterfinals, and world No. 3 Novak Djokovic in the semifinals. Berdych reached the semifinals of all four majors during his career. Read more
17 Sep 1985: Brendan Clarke, Irish footballer Brendan Clarke is an Irish football player who plays for and captains League of Ireland First Division club Athlone Town. Read more
17 Sep 1985: José Gonçalves, Portuguese footballer José Júlio Gomes Gonçalves is a retired Portuguese professional footballer who played as a left back or central defender. Read more
17 Sep 1985: Alexander Ovechkin, Russian ice hockey player Alexander Mikhailovich Ovechkin is a Russian professional ice hockey left winger and captain for the Washington Capitals of the National Hockey League (NHL). Nicknamed "the Great 8" and "Ovi", as well as "Alexander the Great" by Russian media, Ovechkin has scored the most career goals in NHL regular season history, and is the only player in NHL history to have scored 900 regular season goals. Read more
17 Sep 1985: Mason Raymond, Canadian ice hockey player Mason Evan Raymond is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. He played as a winger in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Vancouver Canucks, Toronto Maple Leafs, Calgary Flames and the Anaheim Ducks. Internationally, he represented Canada, and has won a bronze medal with them in the 2018 Winter Olympics. Read more
17 Sep 1984: Mary DeScenza, American swimmer Mary Elizabeth Mohler is an American former competition swimmer and former world record-holder in the Women's 200-meter butterfly. Read more
17 Sep 1984: John Kucera, Canadian skier John Kucera is a retired World Cup alpine ski racer from Canada. Read more
17 Sep 1984: Patrick van Luijk, Dutch sprinter Patrick Jermaine Herschel van Luijk is a Dutch sprinter. Read more
17 Sep 1983: Ice Seguerra, Filipino singer, actor, director, and former chairman of the National Youth Commission of the Philippines (2016–18) Ice Seguerra, formerly known professionally as Aiza Seguerra, is a Filipino actor, singer-songwriter, director and guitarist. Read more
17 Sep 1982: Garth Murray, Canadian ice hockey player Garth Robert Murray is a Canadian former professional ice hockey forward who played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the New York Rangers, Montreal Canadiens, Florida Panthers and the Phoenix Coyotes. Read more
17 Sep 1981: Bakari Koné, Ivorian footballer Bakari Koné is an Ivorian former professional footballer who played as a winger. Read more
17 Sep 1979: Steffen Algreen, Danish footballer Steffen R. Algreen is a Danish former professional footballer who played as a defender. Read more
17 Sep 1979: Chuck Comeau, Canadian musician Charles-André "Chuck" Comeau is a Canadian musician best known for being the drummer of the rock band Simple Plan. He also founded the apparel company Role Model Clothing along with his bandmate Pierre Bouvier and the band's best friend, Patrick Langlois. He is also former drummer for the punk rock band Reset from 1993 to 1999, which he quit to form Simple Plan with his bandmate who also left Reset, Pierre Bouvier. Read more
17 Sep 1979: Billy Miller, American actor(died 2023) William John Miller II was an American actor. He was recognized for his work on American soap operas, including his award-winning work as Billy Abbott on The Young and the Restless and his dual portrayals of Jason Morgan and Drew Cain on General Hospital. Read more
17 Sep 1979: Chris Minns, Australian politician, 47th Premier of New South Wales Christopher John Minns is an Australian politician who has served as the 47th premier of New South Wales since 2023 and the leader of the New South Wales Labor Party since 2021. He has been the member of parliament (MP) for Kogarah since 2015. Read more
17 Sep 1978: Nick Cordero, Canadian actor and singer (died 2020) Nicholas Eduardo Alberto Cordero was a Canadian actor and singer. He was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his role as Cheech in the 2014 Broadway musical Bullets Over Broadway and was twice nominated for Drama Desk Awards. His career also included television and film roles. Read more
17 Sep 1978: Shawn Horcoff, Canadian ice hockey player Shawn Paul Horcoff is a Canadian former professional ice hockey centre. He was selected in the fourth round of the 1998 NHL entry draft, 99th overall, by the Edmonton Oilers, with whom he played 12 seasons and served as team captain for three seasons. In his later career as a player, he also had brief tenures with the Dallas Stars and Anaheim Ducks. Read more
17 Sep 1978: Arne Slot, Dutch football manager Arend Martijn "Arne" Slot is a Dutch professional football manager and former player who was most recently the head coach of Premier League club Liverpool. Read more
17 Sep 1977: Sam Esmail, American screenwriter Sam Esmail is an American film and television producer, director, and screenwriter who runs the production company Esmail Corp. He is best known as the creator, writer, and director of the award-winning USA Network television series Mr. Robot (2015–2019), starring Rami Malek. He wrote and directed the feature films Comet (2014) and Leave the World Behind (2023). He produced and directed the first season of the acclaimed Amazon Prime Video psychological thriller Homecoming (2018–2020), starring Julia Roberts and Janelle Monáe, and produced USA's Briarpatch (2020), Starz's Gaslit (2022), and Peacock's Angelyne (2022) and The Resort (2022). Esmail's work often centers on the themes of alienation, technology, and American society. Read more
17 Sep 1977: Simone Perrotta, Italian footballer Simone Perrotta is a former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Born in England, he represented the Italy national team. Throughout his career, he stood out for his work rate, energy, and box-to-box play as a ball-winner in the midfield area. After initially playing for Italian sides Reggina, Juventus, Bari, and Chievo, Perrotta went on to spend most of his career with Serie A club Roma, until his retirement on 29 June 2013; he won consecutive Coppa Italia titles with the club in 2007 and 2008, as well as the 2007 Supercoppa Italiana. Read more
17 Sep 1975: Wilko de Vogt, Dutch footballer Wilko de Vogt is a former Dutch football goalkeeper. Read more
17 Sep 1975: Jimmie Johnson, American race car driver Jimmie Kenneth Johnson is an American professional stock car racing driver and team owner. He competes part-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 84 Toyota Camry XSE for Legacy Motor Club, and part-time in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, driving the No. 1 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro for Tricon Garage. Johnson has won seven Cup championships, including five consecutive titles, tying him with Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt for the most all-time. He is widely considered one of the greatest drivers in NASCAR history. Read more
17 Sep 1975: Pumpkinhead, American rapper (died 2015) Robert Alan Diaz known by his stage name Pumpkinhead or P.H., was an American rapper and hip hop artist. He grew up in the Park Slope area of Brooklyn, New York with his mother and younger sister. Read more
17 Sep 1974: Nona Gaye, American singer, model, and actress Nona Marvisa Gaye is an American singer-songwriter, former fashion model, and retired actress. The daughter of singer Marvin Gaye and maternal granddaughter of jazz musician Slim Gaillard, Gaye began her career as a vocalist in the early 1990s. In film, she portrayed Zee in The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. Read more
17 Sep 1974: Tormod Granheim, Norwegian skier and explorer Tormod Granheim is a Norwegian adventurer and motivational speaker involved in expeditions and extreme skiing. On May 16, 2006, he made the first ski descent of Mount Everest's North Face by the Norton Couloir. Read more
17 Sep 1974: Craig Spence, Australian golfer Craig A. Spence is an Australian professional golfer. Read more
17 Sep 1974: Rasheed Wallace, American basketball player and coach Rasheed Abdul Wallace is an American basketball coach and former professional player. He played college basketball for the North Carolina Tar Heels and played for six teams during his 16-year career in the National Basketball Association (NBA). A four-time NBA All-Star, Wallace won an NBA championship as a member of the Detroit Pistons in 2004. Read more
17 Sep 1973: Diego Albanese, Argentine rugby player Diego Luis Albanese is an Argentine retired rugby union player who played as a winger. He played for the San Isidro Club in Argentina, French side Grenoble, Gloucester and Leeds Tykes. Albanese made 17 appearances for Gloucester scoring three tries. Read more
17 Sep 1973: Demis Nikolaidis, Greek footballer Demis Nikolaidis is a Greek former professional footballer who played as a striker. He was the forty second president of AEK Athens and is considered one of the greatest Greek forwards of his generation. In his early childhood and teenage years he lived in the city of Alexandroupoli, in the northeast part of Greece. In a sterling career with Ethnikos Alexandroupoli, Apollon Smyrnis, AEK Athens and Atlético Madrid, Nikolaidis earned his reputation as a "born goalscorer", scoring prolifically for club and country. His power, pace and skill on the ball have been widely praised. Read more
17 Sep 1971: Nate Berkus, American interior designer and television host Nathan Jay Berkus is an American interior designer, author, and television personality. He runs the Chicago interior design firm Nate Berkus Associates and was a regularly featured guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show, offering design advice to viewers as well as coordinating surprise make-overs for people's homes. He has released numerous lines of products and authored several books. Read more
17 Sep 1971: Mike Catt, South African-English rugby player and coach Michael John Catt OBE is a South African-born former rugby union player who played for the England national rugby union team. He played professionally for the clubs London Irish and Bath. He earned 75 international caps for England and played in two World Cup Finals, in 2003 and 2007. With his appearance in the October 2007 final, at age 36 years 1 month, he became the oldest ever player to play in a Rugby World Cup final. Since 2008, Catt has coached various rugby teams, and from 2019 to 2024 was assistant coach for the Ireland national rugby team. He is currently Attack Coach for the NSW Waratahs. Read more
17 Sep 1971: Andy Edwards, English footballer Andrew David Edwards is an English former professional footballer and manager, currently working as an assistant coach at Notts County. Read more
17 Sep 1971: Bobby Lee, American actor and comedian Robert Young Lee Jr. is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and podcaster. Lee co-hosts the podcasts Bad Friends with Andrew Santino and TigerBelly with Khalyla Kuhn. Read more
17 Sep 1971: Mauro Milanese, Italian footballer and manager Mauro Milanese is an Italian former professional football player and manager, who played as a defender. In 2014, he was manager of Leyton Orient. Read more
17 Sep 1969: Adam Devlin, English guitarist and songwriter Adam Patrick Devlin is an English musician and songwriter. He is the guitarist of the indie rock band the Bluetones, and has been described as one of the most skilled guitarists from the Britpop era. Read more
17 Sep 1969: Ken Doherty, Irish snooker player Kenneth Joseph Doherty is an Irish retired professional snooker player who also works as a commentator and pundit on televised snooker broadcasts. From Ranelagh in Dublin, he is the sport's only world champion from the Republic of Ireland, having won the title in 1997, and one of only seven players from outside the United Kingdom to have won the title in the modern era. He is the only player to have been world under-21, world amateur and world professional champion. Read more
17 Sep 1969: Keith Flint, English singer-songwriter (died 2019) Keith Charles Flint was an English dancer, and vocalist of the electronic dance act The Prodigy. Starting out as a dancer for the group, he became the vocalist and performed on the group's two UK number-one singles, "Firestarter" and "Breathe", both released in 1996. He was also the singer of his own band, Flint. Read more
17 Sep 1969: Matthew Settle, American actor Jeffrey Matthew Settle is an American actor. He is known for playing Will Benson in I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, Captain Ronald Speirs on the 2001 HBO miniseries Band of Brothers and Rufus Humphrey on the CW teen drama series Gossip Girl. Read more
17 Sep 1969: Paul Varelans, American MMA fighter and wrestler Paul Varelans was an American professional mixed martial artist. He competed in the Ultimate Fighting Championship from 1995 to 1996, and had a worked match in Extreme Championship Wrestling in 1996. Read more
17 Sep 1968: Anastacia, American singer-songwriter Anastacia Lyn Newkirk, known mononymously as Anastacia, is an American singer-songwriter who has released nine albums and sold over 50 million records worldwide, and collecting a total of 227 gold and platinum certifications. Thanks to her distinctive tone she has been described as "the little lady with the big voice." Anastacia defines her musical style as "sprock", meaning a fusion of soul, pop, and rock. Read more
17 Sep 1968: Cheryl Strayed, American author Cheryl Strayed is an American writer and podcast host. She has written four books: the novel Torch (2006) and the nonfiction books Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail (2012), Tiny Beautiful Things (2012) and Brave Enough (2015). Wild, the story of Strayed's 1995 hike up the Pacific Crest Trail, is an international bestseller and was adapted into the 2014 Academy Award-nominated film Wild. Read more
17 Sep 1968: Tito Vilanova, Spanish footballer and manager (died 2014) Francesc "Tito" Vilanova Bayó was a Spanish professional football central midfielder and manager. Read more
17 Sep 1968: Valeri Zelepukin, Russian ice hockey player and coach Valeri Mikhailovich Zelepukin is a Russian former professional ice hockey player who played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the New Jersey Devils, Edmonton Oilers, Philadelphia Flyers and the Chicago Blackhawks between 1991 and 2001. Born in Voskresensk in the former Soviet Union, he was drafted 221st overall in the 11th round by the Devils in the 1990 NHL entry draft and went on to play 595 regular season games, scoring 117 goals and 177 assists for 294 points. He also picked up 527 penalty minutes. Read more
17 Sep 1967: Michael Carbajal, American boxer Michael Carbajal is an American six-time world champion boxer of Mexican descent. His nickname was "Little Hands of Stone" after his favorite boxer, "Hands of Stone" Roberto Durán. Read more
17 Sep 1967: Malik Yoba, American actor Abdul-Malik Kashie Yoba is an American actor. He is known for his starring role as NYPD Detective J. C. Williams on the Fox police drama New York Undercover and as Yul Brenner in the film Cool Runnings. He appeared as former FBI agent Bill Harken on the Syfy drama series Alphas, as Jim Hudson in Revolution, and as Vernon Turner in Empire. He also starred in the role of FBI Deputy Director Jason Atwood in the ABC political drama Designated Survivor. In 2018, he joined the Netflix drama Seven Seconds as a member of a support group for parents who had lost their children. He also appeared in Jordan Peele’s TBS comedy The Last OG with Tracy Morgan. Read more
17 Sep 1966: Doug E. Fresh, American rapper and producer Douglas Davis, known professionally as Doug E. Fresh, is a Barbadian-born American rapper, record producer, and beatboxer, also known as the "Human Beat Box". The pioneer of 20th-century American beatboxing, Fresh is able to accurately imitate drum machines and various special effects using only his mouth, lips, gums, throat, tongue and a microphone. Read more
17 Sep 1965: Kyle Chandler, American actor Kyle Martin Chandler is an American actor. He received critical acclaim for his performance as Eric Taylor in the NBC series Friday Night Lights (2006–2011), winning the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 2011. Read more
17 Sep 1965: Yuji Naka, Japanese video game designer, created Sonic the Hedgehog Yuji Naka , sometimes credited as YU2, is a Japanese former video game designer and programmer. He is the co-creator of the Sonic the Hedgehog series and was the president of Sonic Team at Sega until his departure in 2006. Read more
17 Sep 1965: Guy Picciotto, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer Guy Picciotto is an American songwriter, musician, and record producer from Washington, D.C. He is best known as the guitarist and co-lead vocalist in Fugazi and as lead vocalist of Rites of Spring. Read more
17 Sep 1965: Bryan Singer, American director, producer, and screenwriter Bryan Jay Singer is an American filmmaker. He is the founder of Bad Hat Harry Productions and has produced almost all of the films he has directed, as well as multiple television series. Read more
17 Sep 1963: Masahiro Chono, American-Japanese wrestler and manager Masahiro Chono is an American-born Japanese retired professional wrestler and actor best known for his 26-year stint with New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). As the leader of nWo Japan, Team 2000 and Black New Japan, he was the promotion's top heel for much of his career, beginning in 1994 when he adopted a yakuza inspired gimmick. Read more
17 Sep 1963: James Urbaniak, American actor, producer, and screenwriter James Christian Urbaniak is an American actor. As a character actor, is best known for his roles as Simon Grim in three Hal Hartley films: Henry Fool (1997), Fay Grim (2006) and Ned Rifle (2014), Robert Crumb in American Splendor (2003), Grant Grunderschmidt on Review (2014–2017), and Arthur Tack on Difficult People (2015–2017). Urbaniak also voiced Dr. Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture on Cartoon Network/Adult Swim's animated series The Venture Bros. (2003–2023). Read more
17 Sep 1962: Paul Feig, American director, producer, and screenwriter Paul Feig is an American filmmaker and actor. He is best known for directing films such as Bridesmaids (2011), The Heat (2013), Spy (2015), Ghostbusters: Answer the Call (2016), A Simple Favor (2018), Last Christmas (2019), and The Housemaid (2025). He often collaborates with actress Melissa McCarthy. Read more
17 Sep 1962: Baz Luhrmann, Australian director, producer, and screenwriter Bazmark Anthony "Baz" Luhrmann is an Australian film director, producer, writer and actor whose various projects extend from film and television into opera, theatre, music and the recording industries. He is regarded by some as a contemporary example of an auteur for his style and deep involvement in the writing, directing, design and musical components of all his work. In Australia, he is the most commercially successful native director, and four of his films are in the top ten highest worldwide grossing Australian films ever. Read more
17 Sep 1962: Dustin Nguyen, Vietnamese-American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter Dustin Nguyen is a Vietnamese-American actor and martial artist. He is best known for his roles as Harry Truman Aioki on 21 Jump Street and as Johnny Loh on V.I.P. He starred as Zing in the Cinemax/Max martial arts crime drama series Warrior. In film, he is known for starring in Little Fish, The Doom Generation and The Rebel. Read more
17 Sep 1962: Hesham Qandil, Egyptian engineer and politician, 51st Prime Minister of Egypt Hesham Mohamed Qandil is an Egyptian engineer and civil servant who served as the 51st prime minister of Egypt from 2012 to 2013. Qandil was appointed as prime minister by President Mohamed Morsi on 24 July 2012 and sworn in on 2 August 2012. Qandil previously served as Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation from 2011 to 2012. Read more
17 Sep 1962: Wayne Riley, Australian golfer Wayne Riley is an Australian professional golfer. Read more
17 Sep 1962: BeBe Winans, American singer-songwriter and producer Benjamin "BeBe" Winans is an American gospel and R&B singer from Detroit, Michigan. He is a member of the noted Winans family, most members of which are also gospel artists. Winans has released nine solo albums, seven with his sister CeCe as BeBe & CeCe Winans, and one with three Winans brothers. Read more
17 Sep 1961: Jim Cornette, American wrestling manager and sportscaster James Mark Cornette is an American author, sports historian, and podcaster who previously worked in the professional wrestling industry as an agent, booker, color commentator, manager, photographer, promoter, trainer, and occasional professional wrestler. Cornette is widely considered to be one of the greatest managers in wrestling history by fans and publications, as well as industry personnel. Cornette currently hosts two podcasts along with co-host and producer Brian Last—The Jim Cornette Experience and Jim Cornette's Drive-Thru— with the latter being the most-played wrestling podcast as of July 2026 and both being among the most popular wrestling podcasts of all time. Read more
17 Sep 1961: Giorgos Koumoutsakos, Greek politician Giorgos Koumoutsakos is a Greek politician with the liberal New Democracy party, and a member of the European Parliament. Read more
17 Sep 1961: Ty Tabor, American rock singer-songwriter and guitarist Ty Tabor is an American musician. He is the lead guitarist, songwriter, and co-lead vocalist for the hard rock band King's X. Tabor has a wide-ranging guitar style, from big guitar riffs to middling melodic passages. His use of volume swells and ambient passages add an elemental texture to his compositions. He names his main influences as the Beatles, Allan Holdsworth, Johnny Winter, Ace Frehley, Mel Galley, Brian May, Joe Perry, Mick Box, Buck Dharma, Steve Marriott, Dave Davies, Pete Townshend, Mark Farner, John Fogerty, Alex Lifeson, Phil Keaggy, and the original Alice Cooper band. In 2008, Tabor was added to the guitar show "Chop Shop's" list of "Top 100 Most Complete Guitar Players of All Time" at number 84. Read more
17 Sep 1960: John Bottomley, Canadian singer-songwriter (died 2011) John Bottomley was a Canadian singer-songwriter. Read more
17 Sep 1960: Kevin Clash, American puppeteer Kevin Jeffrey Clash is an American puppeteer, director and producer best known for puppeteering Elmo on Sesame Street from 1985 to 2012. He also performed puppets for Labyrinth, Dinosaurs, Oobi, and various Muppet productions. Read more
17 Sep 1960: John Franco, American baseball player John Anthony Franco is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a left-handed relief pitcher between 1984 and 2005. Franco established himself as an All-Star player with the Cincinnati Reds before spending the majority of his career with the New York Mets. He ended his 21-year career with one final season with the Houston Astros. Read more
17 Sep 1960: Damon Hill, English racing driver and guitarist Damon Graham Devereux Hill is a British former racing driver and broadcaster, who competed in Formula One from 1992 to 1999. Hill won the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in 1996 with Williams, and won 22 Grands Prix across eight seasons. Read more
17 Sep 1960: Alan Krueger, American economist and academic (died 2019) Alan Bennett Krueger was an American economist who was the James Madison Professor of Political Economy at Princeton University and Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy, nominated by President Barack Obama, from May 2009 to October 2010, after which he returned to Princeton. In 2011 he was nominated by Obama to chair the White House Council of Economic Advisers, a role he served in from November 2011 to August 2013. Read more
17 Sep 1958: Janez Janša, Slovenian politician, 5th Prime Minister of Slovenia Ivan Janša, better known as Janez Janša, is a Slovenian politician who has served as Prime Minister of Slovenia since 2026, a position he previously held from 2004 to 2008, from 2012 to 2013 and from 2020 to 2022. Since 1993, Janša has led the Slovenian Democratic Party, which has emerged as the pre-eminent Slovenian right-wing party. Read more
17 Sep 1958: Tom Waddell, Scottish-American baseball player (died 2019) Thomas David Waddell was a Scottish Major League Baseball pitcher. One of only eight Scotland natives to ever be a major league ballplayer, he pitched for the Cleveland Indians from 1984 to 1985, and again in 1987. Read more
17 Sep 1957: David Bintley, English ballet dancer and director Sir David Julian Bintley is an English former ballet dancer, the artistic director of the Birmingham Royal Ballet, and co-artistic director of the New National Theatre Tokyo ballet company. Read more
17 Sep 1957: Steve Bryles, American businessman and politician (died 2012) Steven Mark Bryles was an American politician and businessman. He was a member of the Arkansas Senate from 2001 to 2011, and a member of the Democratic Party. Read more
17 Sep 1957: Nurten Yılmaz, Austrian politician Nurten Yılmaz is an Austrian politician and former member of the National Council. A member of the Social Democratic Party, she represented Vienna North West from October 2013 to December 2022. She was a member of the Municipal Council and Landtag of Vienna from April 2001 to October 2013. Read more
17 Sep 1956: Almazbek Atambayev, Kyrgyz politician, 4th President of Kyrgyzstan Almazbek Sharshenovich Atambayev is a Kyrgyzstani politician who served as the fourth president of Kyrgyzstan from 2011 to 2017. He previously served as the 11th prime minister of Kyrgyzstan from 2010 to 2011, and from 2007 to 2007 and Chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan (SDPK) from 1999 to 2011. Read more
17 Sep 1956: Thad Bosley, American baseball player and coach Thaddis Bosley Jr. is an American former professional baseball outfielder and coach. Read more
17 Sep 1956: Mandawuy Yunupingu, Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2013) Mandawuy Djarrtjuntjun Yunupingu, formerly Tom Djambayang Bakamana Yunupingu, and also known as Dr Yunupingu, was a teacher and musician, and frontman of the Aboriginal rock group Yothu Yindi from 1986. He was an Aboriginal Australian man of the Yolŋu people, with a skin name of Gudjuk. Read more
17 Sep 1955: Scott Simpson, American golfer Scott William Simpson is an American professional golfer. Read more
17 Sep 1955: Charles Martinet, American actor Charles Andre Martinet is an American actor. From 1991 to 2023, Martinet was the voice of Mario in the Mario franchise. He also voiced other characters in the series such as Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, and the baby equivalents of Mario and Luigi, prior to retiring as voice actor to become an official brand ambassador for the series. Read more
17 Sep 1955: Mike Parson, American politician, 57th Governor of Missouri Michael Lynn Parson is an American politician and former law enforcement officer who served as the 57th governor of Missouri, from 2018 to 2025. A member of the Republican Party, Parson assumed the governorship upon the resignation of Eric Greitens, under whom he served as lieutenant governor from 2017 to 2018. Parson served the remainder of Greitens's term and was elected governor in his own right in 2020. Read more
17 Sep 1954: Joël-François Durand, French pianist and composer Joël-François Durand is a French composer. Read more
17 Sep 1954: Bill Irwin, American wrestler Barney William Irwin is an American retired professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, "Wild" Bill Irwin. Irwin is also known for his appearances with the World Wrestling Federation as The Goon in 1996 to 1997. He is the brother of the late Scott Irwin. Read more
17 Sep 1953: Luís Amado, Portuguese politician, former Minister of Foreign Affairs Luís Filipe Marques Amado is a Portuguese politician who served as Minister of Defence, from 2005 to 2006, and Minister of Foreign Affairs, from 2006 to 2011, in the XVII and XVIII Constitutional Governments of Portugal, led by the Socialist Party. On 30 June 2007, he succeeded to the EU Council Presidency on behalf of Portugal. Read more
17 Sep 1953: Junior Bridgeman, American basketball player and businessman (died 2025) Ulysses Lee "Junior" Bridgeman Jr. was an American professional basketball player and businessman. Bridgeman played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Clippers from 1975 until 1987. Following his career, Bridgeman owned hundreds of fast-food restaurants, became a Coca-Cola bottler and distributor, and acquired Ebony and Jet magazines. Despite never making more than $350,000 a season during his NBA career, Bridgeman had a net worth of over $1.4 billion, making him one of the wealthiest former athletes in the world. Read more
17 Sep 1953: Tamasin Day-Lewis, English chef and author Lydia Tamasin Day-Lewis is a British television chef and food critic, who has also published a dozen books about food, restaurants, recipes and places. She writes regularly for The Daily Telegraph, Vanity Fair, and Vogue. Read more
17 Sep 1953: Altaf Hussain, Pakistani-English soldier and politician Altaf Hussain is a British Pakistani politician who is known as the founder of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement. He fled Pakistan in 1992 after the Operation Clean-up crackdown against his party was launched, moving to live in exile in the United Kingdom. Since 2015, he has been a fugitive from the Anti Terrorism Court of Pakistan on the charges of 'murder, targeted killing, treason, inciting violence and hate speech'. He went on trial in the UK in January 2022 for 'promoting terrorism and unrest through hate speech in Pakistan', and was acquitted the next month. Read more
17 Sep 1953: Rita Rudner, American actress, comedian, and screenwriter Rita Rudner is an American stand-up comedian and actress. Beginning her career as a Broadway actress, Rudner noticed the lack of female comedians in New York City and turned to stand-up comedy, where she has performed for over three decades. Her performance on a variety of HBO specials and numerous appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson helped establish Rudner as one of the notable comics to emerge from the comedy boom of the 1980s. Read more
17 Sep 1952: Harold Solomon, American tennis player and coach Harold Solomon is an American former professional tennis player who played during the 1970s and 1980s. He achieved a career-high world ranking of No. 5 in singles in 1980, and of No. 4 in doubles in 1976. Over the course of his career, he won 22 singles titles. Read more
17 Sep 1951: Russell Brown, Scottish politician Russell Leslie Brown is a Scottish Labour Party politician. He is a former Member of Parliament (MP) for Dumfriesshire (1997–2005) and Dumfries and Galloway (2005–2015). He lost his seat at the 2015 general election to Richard Arkless of the Scottish National Party. Read more
17 Sep 1951: Cassandra Peterson, American actress, television host, and producer Cassandra Gay Peterson is an American actress best known for her portrayal of the horror hostess character Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. Peterson gained fame on Los Angeles television station KHJ-TV in her stage persona as Elvira, hosting Elvira's Movie Macabre, a weekly B movie presentation. A member of the Los Angeles-based improvisational and sketch comedy troupe The Groundlings, Peterson based her Elvira persona in part on a "Valley girl"-type character she created while a member of the troupe. Read more
17 Sep 1951: Kermit Washington, American basketball player Kermit Alan Washington is an American former professional basketball player. Washington is best remembered for punching opposing player Rudy Tomjanovich during an on-court fight in 1977.
Washington was not a highly coveted player coming out of high school. He averaged four points per game during his senior season at Coolidge Senior High School. He improved rapidly once at American University, and became one of only seven players in NCAA history to average 20 points and 20 rebounds throughout the course of his career. Read more
17 Sep 1950: Narendra Modi, Indian politician; Chief Minister of Gujarat and 14th Prime Minister of India Narendra Damodardas Modi is an Indian politician who has served as the prime minister of India since 26 May 2014. Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Varanasi. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right-wing Hindutva paramilitary volunteer organisation. He is India's third-longest-serving prime minister, and the longest-serving prime minister outside the Indian National Congress. Read more
17 Sep 1950: Fee Waybill, American singer-songwriter and producer John Waldo "Fee" Waybill is an American singer, guitarist, songwriter and record producer. He is the lead singer and songwriter of San Francisco rock band The Tubes. Waybill has also worked with other acts, including Toto, Richard Marx, and Billy Sherwood. Read more
17 Sep 1949: Ron Stevens, Canadian lawyer and politician (died 2014) Ronald Gordon "Ron" Stevens was a Canadian politician. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta representing the constituency of Calgary-Glenmore as a Progressive Conservative until his resignation on May 15, 2009. He was subsequently appointed a Judge of the Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta on May 20, 2009, by the government of Canada. Read more
17 Sep 1948: Kemal Monteno, Bosnian singer-songwriter (died 2015) Kemal Monteno was a Bosnian recording artist and singer-songwriter whose career stretched from the 1960s to the 2010s. He is widely considered one of the greatest songwriters of the former Yugoslavia. Read more
17 Sep 1948: John Ritter, American actor and producer (died 2003) John Ritter was an American actor and comedian. He was a son of the singing cowboy star Tex Ritter and the father of actors Jason and Tyler Ritter. He played Jack Tripper on the ABC sitcom Three's Company (1977–1984), and received a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award for the role in 1984. Ritter briefly reprised the role on the spin-off Three's a Crowd, which aired for one season, producing 22 episodes before its cancellation in 1985. Read more
17 Sep 1947: Tessa Jowell, English social worker and politician, Minister for the Cabinet Office (died 2018) Tessa Jane Helen Douglas Jowell, Baroness Jowell, was a British Labour Party politician and life peer who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Dulwich, from 1992 to 1997, followed by Dulwich and West Norwood, from 1997 to 2015. Read more
17 Sep 1947: Enrique Krauze, Mexican historian, critic, and publisher Enrique Krauze Kleinbort is a Mexican historian, essayist, editor, and entrepreneur. He has written more than twenty books, some of which are: Mexico: Biography of Power, Redeemers, and El pueblo soy yo. He has also produced more than 500 television programs and documentaries about Mexico's history. His biographical, historical works, and his political and literary essays, which have reached a broad audience, have made him famous. Read more
17 Sep 1947: Gail Carson Levine, American author Gail Carson Levine is an American author of young adult books. Her first novel, Ella Enchanted, received a Newbery Honor in 1998. Read more
17 Sep 1947: Jeff MacNelly, American cartoonist (died 2000) Jeffrey Kenneth MacNelly was an American editorial cartoonist and the creator of the comic strip Shoe. After Shoe had been established in papers, MacNelly created the single-panel strip Pluggers. The Wall Street Journal wrote: "MacNelly's superb draftsmanship as well as his heightened sense of the ridiculous is in the vanguard of a new generation of American cartoonists." Read more
17 Sep 1946: Billy Bonds, English footballer and manager (died 2025) William Arthur Bonds was an English professional footballer and manager, who was most often associated with West Ham United with whom he spent 27 years as player and manager. He played 799 first-team games for West Ham in a career spanning 21 seasons, winning two FA Cups with them. He died peacefully on 30 November 2025 whilst sleeping. Read more
17 Sep 1946: Heimar Lenk, Estonian journalist and politician Heimar Lenk is an Estonian journalist and politician. He has supported the Estonian Centre Party since 1994. Read more
17 Sep 1945: David Emerson, Canadian economist and politician, 8th Minister of Foreign Affairs for Canada David Lee Emerson is a Canadian politician and economist who was the member of Parliament (MP) for Vancouver Kingsway from 2004 to 2008. First elected as a Liberal, Emerson served as minister of industry from 2004 to 2006 under Prime Minister Paul Martin. After the Conservatives formed government in the 2006 general election, Emerson crossed the floor and went on to serve as the minister of international trade from 2006 to 2008 and minister of foreign affairs in 2008 under Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Read more
17 Sep 1945: Phil Jackson, American basketball player and coach Philip Douglas Jackson is an American former professional basketball player, coach, and executive in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Jackson is a 13-time NBA champion, having won two as a player and eleven as a head coach. His eleven championships as a head coach are the most in NBA history. In 2007, Jackson was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, and was named one of the ten greatest coaches in league history in 1996. He holds numerous other records as a coach, including the most postseason wins (229), and most conference titles (13). Read more
17 Sep 1945: Bhakti Charu Swami, Indian religious leader (died 2020) Bhakti Charu Swami was an Indian spiritual leader of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). He was also a disciple of ISKCON's founder A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Read more
17 Sep 1944: Les Emmerson, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2021) Robert Leslie Emmerson was a Canadian musician and singer. He was the lead vocalist and guitarist for the Five Man Electrical Band, and their predecessor The Staccatos. He also recorded as a solo artist, charting three top 40 hits in Canada, including the #5 hit "Control Of Me". Read more
17 Sep 1944: Reinhold Messner, Italian mountaineer and explorer Reinhold Andreas Messner is an Italian climber, explorer, and author from the German-speaking province of South Tyrol. He made the first solo ascent of Mount Everest and, along with Peter Habeler, the first ascent of Everest without supplementary oxygen. He was the first person to climb all 14 eight-thousanders, doing so without supplementary oxygen. Messner was the first to cross Antarctica and Greenland with neither snowmobiles nor dog sleds and also crossed the Gobi Desert alone. He is widely considered to be the greatest high-altitude mountaineer of all time. Read more
17 Sep 1944: Jean Taylor, American mathematician and academic Jean Ellen Taylor is an American mathematician who is a professor emerita at Rutgers University and visiting faculty at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences of New York University. Read more
17 Sep 1942: Robert Graysmith, American author and illustrator Robert Graysmith is an American true crime author and former cartoonist, known for authoring the 1986 book Zodiac, based on his work on the Zodiac Killer case. Read more
17 Sep 1942: Des Lynam, Irish-English journalist and author Desmond Michael Lynam is an Irish-born British television and radio presenter. In a broadcasting career spanning more than forty years, he has hosted television coverage of many of the world's major sporting events, presenting Grandstand, Match of the Day, Wimbledon, the Grand National, Sportsnight, the World Cup and Olympic Games, as well as presenting non-sporting programmes such as Holiday, How Do They Do That? and Countdown. Read more
17 Sep 1942: Lupe Ontiveros, American actress (died 2012) Guadalupe Ontiveros was an American actress best known for portraying Rosalita in The Goonies, and Yolanda Saldívar in the film Selena. She acted in numerous films and television shows. Ontiveros was nominated for an Emmy Award for her work on Desperate Housewives and received critical acclaim for her role in Chuck & Buck, for which Ontiveros won the National Board of Review award for Best Supporting Actress, and was also nominated for an Independent Spirit Award. Read more
17 Sep 1941: Bob Matsui, American lawyer and politician (died 2005) Robert Takeo Matsui was an American politician from the state of California. Matsui was a member of the Democratic Party and served in the U.S. House of Representatives as the congressman for California's 5th congressional district from 1979 until his death at the end of his 13th term, where he was succeeded by his wife, Doris Matsui. Read more
17 Sep 1940: Jan Eliasson, Swedish politician and diplomat, 4th Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations Jan Kenneth Eliasson is a Swedish diplomat who was Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations from July 2012 to December 2016. A member of the Swedish Social Democratic Party, Eliasson served as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 24 April to 6 October 2006. Eliasson was appointed as Governing Board Chair of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute in April 2017 and assumed his role as of 1 June 2017. Read more
17 Sep 1940: Peter Lever, English cricketer (died 2025) Peter Lever was an English cricketer, who played in seventeen Tests and ten ODIs for England from 1970 to 1975. A fast-medium opening bowler, he took 41 wickets and was a handy lower-order batsman with a top score of 88 not out. Towards the end of his career, during a Test match against New Zealand, he almost killed the New Zealand Test debutant Ewen Chatfield with a bouncer. Read more
17 Sep 1940: Gilberto Parlotti, Italian motorcycle racer (died 1972) Gilberto Parlotti was an Italian professional motorcycle racer competing in the FIM World Championship between 1969 and 1972. He competed for the Benelli, Derbi, Morbidelli and Tomos factories. Read more
17 Sep 1939: Carl Dennis, American poet and educator Carl Dennis is an American poet and educator. His book Practical Gods won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for poetry. Read more
17 Sep 1939: Shelby Flint, American singer-songwriter and voice actress Shelby Flint is an American singer-songwriter who had two top-100 hits, "Angel on My Shoulder" in 1961 and "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" in 1966. Read more
17 Sep 1939: David Souter, American lawyer and jurist (died 2025) David Hackett Souter was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1990 to 2009. Appointed by President George H. W. Bush to fill the seat that had been vacated by William J. Brennan Jr., Souter was a member of both the Rehnquist and Roberts courts. Read more
17 Sep 1938: Paul Benedict, American actor (died 2008) Paul Bernard Benedict was an American actor who made numerous appearances in television and films, beginning in 1965. He was known for his roles as The Number Painter on the PBS children's show Sesame Street and as the English neighbor Harry Bentley on the CBS sitcom The Jeffersons. Read more
17 Sep 1938: Perry Robinson, American clarinet player and composer (died 2018) Perry Morris Robinson was an American jazz clarinetist and composer. He was the son of composer Earl Robinson. Read more
17 Sep 1938: Bobby Wine, American baseball player and coach Robert Paul Wine Sr. is an American former shortstop, coach and manager in Major League Baseball (MLB). An excellent fielder who struggled as a hitter, Wine spent 12 seasons in the National League with the Philadelphia Phillies and the Montreal Expos (1969–72). He won the NL Gold Glove Award in 1963. Read more
17 Sep 1937: Nigel Boocock, English-Australian motorcycle racer (died 2015) Nigel Boocock was a motorcycle speedway rider from England. who appeared in eight Speedway World Championship finals. He holds the record number of caps for Great Britain (64) and the record for total number of caps, when including England (154). Read more
17 Sep 1937: Orlando Cepeda, Puerto Rican baseball player (died 2024) Orlando Manuel Cepeda Pennes, nicknamed "the Baby Bull" and "Peruchin", was a Puerto Rican professional baseball player, coach and scout. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a first baseman from 1958 to 1974, most prominently as a member of the San Francisco Giants where he established himself as one of the most consistent power hitters in the National League (NL) during the 1960s. An 11-time All-Star player, Cepeda was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999. Read more
17 Sep 1937: Sitakant Mahapatra, Indian poet and literary critic Sitakant Mahapatra is an Indian poet and literary critic in Odia as well as English. He served in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) from 1961 until he retired in 1995, and has since held ex officio posts such as Banking Ombudsman of Odisha and Chairman of National Book Trust, New Delhi etc. Read more
17 Sep 1936: Gerald Guralnik, American physicist and academic (died 2014) Gerald Stanford "Gerry" Guralnik was the Chancellor’s Professor of Physics at Brown University. In 1964, he co-discovered the Higgs mechanism and Higgs boson with C. R. Hagen and Tom Kibble (GHK). As part of Physical Review Letters' 50th anniversary celebration, the journal recognized this discovery as one of the milestone papers in PRL history. While widely considered to have authored the most complete of the early papers on the Higgs theory, GHK were controversially not included in the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics. Read more
17 Sep 1936: Michael Hennagin, American composer and educator (died 1993) Michael Hennagin was an American composer and university professor. Read more
17 Sep 1935: Ken Kesey, American novelist, essayist, and poet (died 2001) Kenneth Elton Kesey was an American novelist, essayist, and countercultural figure. He considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s. Read more
17 Sep 1934: Maureen Connolly, American tennis player (died 1969) Maureen Catherine Connolly-Brinker, known as "Little Mo", was an American tennis player, the winner of nine major singles titles in the early 1950s. In 1953, she became the first woman to win a Grand Slam. She is also the only player in history to win a title without losing a set at all four major championships. The following year, in July 1954, a horseback riding accident seriously injured her right leg and ended her competitive tennis career at age 19. She died of ovarian cancer at the age of 34. Read more
17 Sep 1933: Bulldog Brower, American wrestler (died 1997) Richard T. Gland, better known by his ring name Dick "Bulldog" Brower, was an American professional wrestler. Read more
17 Sep 1933: Chuck Grassley, American lawyer and politician Charles Ernest Grassley is an American politician serving as the senior U.S. senator from Iowa, a seat he has held since 1981. Since 2025, he has been the president pro tempore of the United States Senate, a position he also held from 2019 to 2021. He is a member of the Republican Party. Read more
17 Sep 1933: Claude Provost, Canadian-American ice hockey player (died 1984) Claude Joseph Antoine Provost was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. Read more
17 Sep 1932: Robert B. Parker, American author and academic (died 2010) Robert Brown Parker was an American writer, primarily of fiction within the mystery/detective genre. His most famous works include the 40 novels written about the fictional private detective Spenser. In the mid-1980s, based on the character of detective Spenser, ABC television network developed the television series Spenser: For Hire. A series of TV movies was also produced based on the same character. His works incorporate encyclopedic knowledge of the Boston metropolitan area. The Spenser novels have been cited as reviving and changing the detective genre by critics and bestselling authors, including Robert Crais, Harlan Coben, and Dennis Lehane. Read more
17 Sep 1932: Indarjit Singh, Indian-English journalist Indarjit Singh, Baron Singh of Wimbledon,, sometimes transliterated Inderjit Singh, is a British journalist and broadcaster, a prominent British Indian active in Sikh and interfaith activities, and a member of the House of Lords. Read more
17 Sep 1932: Samuel Ogbemudia, Nigerian army officer and politician (died 2017) Samuel Osaigbovo Ogbemudia was a Nigerian army officer and politician. He was military Governor (1967–1975) of the Mid-West State, later renamed Bendel State, part of which in turn later became Edo State. After the return to democracy in 1999, he became a powerbroker in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). In September 2009, Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo state and others attended his 77th birthday celebration in Benin. He is noted as one of the founding fathers of the very prestigious University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) Read more
17 Sep 1931: Anne Bancroft, American actress (died 2005) Anne Bancroft was an American actress. Respected for her acting prowess and versatility, Bancroft received an Academy Award, three BAFTA Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, two Tony Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Cannes Film Festival Award. She is one of 24 thespians to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting. Read more
17 Sep 1931: Jean-Claude Carrière, French actor and screenwriter (died 2021) Jean-Claude Carrière was a French novelist, screenwriter and actor. He received an Academy Award for best short film for co-writing Heureux Anniversaire (1963), and was later given an Honorary Oscar in 2014. He was nominated for the Academy Award three other times for his work in The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972), That Obscure Object of Desire (1977), and The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988). He also won a César Award for Best Original Screenplay in The Return of Martin Guerre (1983). Read more
17 Sep 1930: David Huddleston, American actor (died 2016) David William Huddleston was an American actor. He had a prolific career as a character actor between 1960 and 2014, appearing in over 140 film and television productions, as well as playing the title character in both Santa Claus: The Movie (1985) and The Big Lebowski (1998). He was a Primetime Emmy Award nominee, and was also nominated for a Drama Desk Award for the Broadway play Death of a Salesman. Read more
17 Sep 1930: Lalgudi Jayaraman, Indian violinist and composer (died 2013) Lalgudi Gopal Jayaraman was an Indian Carnatic violinist, vocalist and composer. He is commonly grouped with M.S. Gopalakrishnan and T.N.Krishnan as part of the violin trinity of Carnatic music. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India in 2001. Read more
17 Sep 1930: Theo Loevendie, Dutch clarinet player and composer Johan Theodorus Loevendie is a Dutch composer and clarinet player. Read more
17 Sep 1930: Edgar Mitchell, American captain, pilot, and astronaut (died 2016) Edgar Dean Mitchell was a United States Navy officer and aviator, test pilot, aeronautical engineer, ufologist, and NASA astronaut. As the Lunar Module Pilot of Apollo 14 in 1971 he spent nine hours working on the lunar surface in the Fra Mauro Highlands region, and was the sixth person to walk on the Moon. Read more
17 Sep 1930: Jim Rohn, American philosopher and author (died 2009) Emanuel James Rohn was an American entrepreneur, author, and motivational speaker. He wrote numerous books including How to obtain wealth and happiness. Read more
17 Sep 1930: Thomas P. Stafford, American general, pilot, and astronaut (died 2024) Thomas Patten Stafford was an American Air Force officer, test pilot, and NASA astronaut, and one of 24 Apollo astronauts who flew to the Moon. He also served as chief of the Astronaut Office from 1969 to 1971. Read more
17 Sep 1929: Sil Austin, American saxophonist (died 2001) Sylvester Austin was an American jazz saxophonist. He achieved his biggest success in an overtly commercial rather than jazz vein, but he regarded Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, and Sonny Stitt as his major influences. Read more
17 Sep 1929: David Craig, Baron Craig of Radley, Northern Irish air marshal and politician Marshal of the Royal Air Force David Brownrigg Craig, Baron Craig of Radley, is a retired Royal Air Force officer and member of the House of Lords. He was a fast jet pilot in the 1950s, a squadron commander in the 1960s and a station commander in the 1970s. He served as Chief of the Air Staff during the late 1980s, when the Boeing Airborne early warning and control system was ordered and the European Fighter programme was being developed. He then served as Chief of the Defence Staff during the Gulf War. He was granted a life peerage as Baron Craig of Radley after his retirement from active service in 1991, sitting as a crossbencher. As of 2026, he is the oldest serving British parliamentarian and the last living officer in the British Armed Forces to have held a five-star rank whilst on active service. Read more
17 Sep 1929: Stirling Moss, English racing driver and sportscaster (died 2020) Sir Stirling Craufurd Moss was a British racing driver and broadcaster, who competed in Formula One from 1951 to 1961. Widely regarded as one of the greatest drivers to never win the Formula One World Drivers' Championship, Moss won a record 212 official races across several motorsport disciplines, including 16 Formula One Grands Prix. In endurance racing, Moss won the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1954, as well as the Mille Miglia in 1955 with Mercedes. Read more
17 Sep 1928: Park Honan, American author and academic (died 2014) Leonard Hobart Park Honan was an American academic and author who spent most of his career in the UK. He wrote widely on the lives of authors and poets and published important biographies of such writers as Robert Browning, Matthew Arnold, Jane Austen, William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe. Read more
17 Sep 1928: Roddy McDowall, English-American actor (died 1998) Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude McDowall was a British-born American actor, whose career spanned over 270 screen and stage roles across more than 60 years. Read more
17 Sep 1927: George Blanda, American football player (died 2010) George Frederick Blanda was an American professional football player who was a quarterback and placekicker in the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NFL). Blanda played 26 seasons of professional football, the most in the sport's history, and had scored more points than anyone in history at the time of his retirement. Read more
17 Sep 1927: Kevin Schubert, Australian rugby league player (died 2007) Kevin Schubert (1927-2007) was an Australian professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1940s and 1950s. An international and interstate representative hooker, he played his club football in the Illawarra Rugby League before moving to Sydney's NSWRL Premiership to play for Manly-Warringah, which he also captained. Read more
17 Sep 1926: Bill Black, American bass player and bandleader (died 1965) William Patton Black Jr. was an American musician and bandleader who is noted as one of the pioneers of rock and roll. He played in Elvis Presley's early trio, the Blue Moon Boys. Black later formed Bill Black's Combo. Read more
17 Sep 1926: Curtis Harrington, American actor, director, and screenwriter (died 2007) Gene Curtis Harrington was an American film and television director, screenwriter, producer, and occasional actor. He emerged in the experimental film scene of the 1940s and ‘50s, notably as a collaborator of Kenneth Anger, before becoming a director of mainstream horror films and television series. Read more
17 Sep 1926: Hovie Lister, American minister and pianist (died 2001) Hovie Franklin Lister was an American gospel musician, Baptist Minister, and politician. Lister was best known for his time as the front man of the Statesmen Quartet, perhaps the most well known and renowned Southern Gospel quartet in the decades of the 1950s and 1960s, as well as one of the most respected groups of all time. Read more
17 Sep 1926: Jean-Marie Lustiger, French cardinal (died 2007) Jean-Marie Aron Lustiger was a French cardinal of the Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Paris from 1981 until his resignation in 2005. He was made a cardinal in 1983 by Pope John Paul II. His life is depicted in the 2013 film Le métis de Dieu. Read more
17 Sep 1926: Jack McDuff, American singer and organist (died 2001) Eugene McDuffy, known professionally as "Brother" Jack McDuff or "Captain" Jack McDuff, was an American jazz organist and organ trio bandleader. He was most prominent during the hard bop and soul jazz era of the 1960s, often performing with an organ trio. He is also credited with giving guitarist George Benson his first break. Read more
17 Sep 1925: Dorothy Loudon, American actress and singer (died 2003) Dorothy Loudon was an American actress and singer. She won the Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in a Musical in 1977 for her performance as Miss Hannigan in Annie. Loudon was also nominated for Tony Awards for her lead performances in the musicals The Fig Leaves Are Falling and Ballroom, as well as a Golden Globe award for her appearances on The Garry Moore Show. Read more
17 Sep 1925: John List, American murderer (died 2008) John Emil List was an American mass murderer and long-time fugitive. On November 9, 1971, he killed his wife, mother, and three children in their Westfield, New Jersey home, then disappeared. He had planned the murders meticulously; nearly a month passed before his family's bodies were discovered. Read more
17 Sep 1923: Ralph Sharon, English-American pianist, composer, and conductor (died 2015) Ralph Simon Sharon was a British-American jazz pianist and arranger. He is best known for working with Tony Bennett as his pianist on numerous recordings and live performances. Read more
17 Sep 1923: Hank Williams, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 1953) Hiram "Hank" Williams was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. An early pioneer of country music, he is regarded as one of the most significant and influential musicians of the 20th century. Williams recorded 55 singles that reached the top 10 of the Billboard Country & Western Best Sellers chart, 5 of which were released posthumously, and 12 of which reached No.1. Read more
17 Sep 1922: Agostinho Neto, Angolan poet and politician, 1st President of Angola (died 1979) António Agostinho Neto Kilamba was an Angolan communist revolutionary, politician and poet. He served as the first president of Angola from 1975 to 1979, after leading the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) during the war for independence. He led the MPLA during the beginning of the Angolan Civil War, which began in 1975 and lasted until 2002. An author of several books, he is considered Angola's preeminent poet. His birthday is celebrated as National Heroes' Day, a public holiday in Angola. Read more
17 Sep 1920: Dinah Sheridan, English actress (died 2012) Dinah Sheridan was an English actress with a career spanning seven decades. She was best known for the films Genevieve (1953) and The Railway Children (1970), the long-running BBC comedy series Don't Wait Up (1983–1990), and for her distinguished theatre career in London's West End. Read more
17 Sep 1920: Hans Otto Jung, German viticulturist, jazz musician and patron of music (died 2009) Hans Otto Jung was a German viticulturist, jazz musician and patron of music. In the 1940s, he played as a pianist in the Hotclub Combo, which he cofounded with Emil Mangelsdorff and others. In 1987, he was a cofounder of the Rheingau Musik Festival. With his wife Ursula Jung, he sponsored cultural initiatives in the Rhein-Main region. Read more
17 Sep 1918: Lea Gottlieb, Hungarian-Israeli fashion designer, founded the Gottex Company (died 2012) Lea Gottlieb was an Israeli fashion designer and businesswoman. She immigrated to Israel from Hungary after World War II, and founded the Gottex company. Read more
17 Sep 1918: Chaim Herzog, Irish-born Israeli general and politician, 6th President of Israel (died 1997) Chaim Herzog was an Irish-Israeli politician, military officer, lawyer and author who served as President of Israel from 1983 to 1993. Born in Belfast and raised primarily in Dublin, the son of Ireland's Chief Rabbi Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog, he immigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1935. He served in the Haganah Jewish paramilitary group during the 1936–1939 Arab revolt and in the British Army during World War II. Following the end of the British Mandate and Israel's Declaration of Independence in 1948, he served in the Israel Defense Forces and fought in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. He remained in the Israeli military as an officer following the war until retiring in 1962 with the rank of major-general. Read more
17 Sep 1917: Ib Melchior, Danish-American author and screenwriter (died 2015) Ib Jørgen Melchior was a Danish-American novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and film director of low-budget American science fiction movies, most of them released by American International Pictures. Read more
17 Sep 1917: Isang Yun, South Korean-German composer and educator (died 1995) Isang Yun, or Yun I-sang, was a Korean-born composer who made his later career in West Germany. Read more
17 Sep 1916: Mary Stewart, British author and poet (died 2014) Mary, Lady Stewart was a British novelist who developed the romantic mystery genre, featuring smart, adventurous heroines who could hold their own in dangerous situations. She also wrote children's books and poetry, but may be best known for her Merlin series, which straddles the boundary between the historical novel and fantasy. Read more
17 Sep 1915: M. F. Husain, Indian painter and director (died 2011) Maqbool Fida Husain was an Indian painter and film director who painted narrative paintings in a modified Cubist style. One of the founding members of Bombay Progressive Artists' Group, Husain is associated with Indian modernism in the 1940s. His early association with the Bombay Progressive Artists' Group used modern technique, and was inspired by the "new" India after the partition of 1947. His narrative paintings, executed in a modified Cubist style, can be caustic and funny as well as serious and sombre. His themes—sometimes treated in series—included topics as diverse as Gandhi, Mother Teresa, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the British Raj, and motifs of Indian urban and rural life. In September 2020, his painting titled Voices, auctioned for a record $2.5 million. Read more
17 Sep 1914: Thomas J. Bata, Czech-Canadian businessman (died 2008) Tomáš Jan Baťa,, also known as Thomas Bata Jr. and Tomáš Baťa ml., was a Czech and Canadian businessman and philanthropist. He ran the Bata Shoe Company from the 1940s until the 80s. Read more
17 Sep 1914: William Grut, Swedish pentathlete (died 2012) William Oscar Guernsey Grut was a Swedish modern pentathlete. He competed at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, where he won the gold medal in modern pentathlon. Grut was a multiple Swedish swimming champion and received the Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal in 1948. Read more
17 Sep 1914: Shin Kanemaru, Japanese politician, Deputy Prime Minister of Japan (died 1996) Shin Kanemaru was a Japanese politician who was a significant figure in the political arena of Japan from the 1970s to the early 1990s. He was also Director General of the Japan Defense Agency from 1977 to 1978. Read more
17 Sep 1912: Irena Kwiatkowska, Polish actress (died 2011) Irena Kwiatkowska was a popular Polish actress, known in Poland for her many cabaret roles and monologues, as well as appearances in movies and television shows. Read more
17 Sep 1912: Maksim Tank, Belarusian poet, journalist, and translator (died 1995) Maksim Tank was a Belarusian Soviet poet, journalist and translator. Read more
17 Sep 1909: Elizabeth Enright, American author and illustrator (died 1968) Elizabeth Wright Enright Gillham was an American writer of children's books, an illustrator, writer of short stories for adults, literary critic and teacher of creative writing. Perhaps best known as the Newbery Medal-winning author of Thimble Summer (1938) and the Newbery runner-up Gone-Away Lake (1957), she also wrote the popular Melendy quartet. A Newbery Medal laureate and a multiple winner of the O. Henry Award, her short stories and articles for adults appeared in many popular magazines and have been reprinted in anthologies and textbooks. Read more
17 Sep 1908: John Creasey, English author and politician (died 1973) John Creasey was an English author known mostly for detective and crime novels but who also wrote science fiction, romance and westerns. He wrote more than six hundred novels using twenty-eight different pseudonyms. Read more
17 Sep 1908: Rafael Israelyan, Armenian architect and educator, designed the Sardarapat Memorial and St. Vartan Cathedral (died 1973) Rafayel "Rafo" Israyelian was a Soviet Armenian architect. Read more
17 Sep 1907: Warren E. Burger, American lawyer and judge, 15th Chief Justice of the United States (died 1995) Warren Earl Burger was an American attorney who served as the 15th chief justice of the United States from 1969 to 1986. Read more
17 Sep 1906: J. R. Jayewardene, Sri Lankan lawyer and politician, 2nd President of Sri Lanka (died 1996) Junius Richard Jayewardene, also known by his initials JR, was a Sri Lankan lawyer, who served as prime minister of Sri Lanka from 1977 to 1978 and as president of Sri Lanka from 1978 to 1989. He was a leader of the nationalist movement in Ceylon and served in a variety of cabinet positions in the decades following independence. A longtime member of the United National Party, he led the party to a landslide victory in the 1977 parliamentary elections and served as prime minister for half a year before becoming the country's first executive president under an amended constitution. Read more
17 Sep 1906: Edgar Wayburn, American physician and environmentalist (died 2010) Edgar Arthur Wayburn was an American environmentalist who served as the president of the Sierra Club five times in the 1960s. He has been recognized as one of the least-known yet most successful defenders of America's natural heritage. Wayburn played a crucial role in the establishment of significant achievements, including the creation of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, the creation and subsequent expansion of Redwood National Park and Point Reyes National Seashore, and the expansion of Mount Tamalpais State Park. Read more
17 Sep 1905: Tshekedi Khama, regent of the Bamangwato tribe (died 1959) Tshekedi Khama was the regent-king of the Bamangwato tribe in 1926 after the death of Sekgoma II. Read more
17 Sep 1903: Karel Miljon, Dutch boxer (died 1984) Karel Leendert Miljon was a Dutch boxer, who won the bronze medal in the light heavyweight division at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam. Read more
17 Sep 1903: Frank O'Connor, Irish short story writer, novelist, and poet (died 1966) Frank O'Connor was an Irish author and translator. He wrote poetry, dramatic works, memoirs, journalistic columns and features on aspects of Irish culture and history, criticism, long and short fiction, biography, and travel books. He is most widely known for his more than 150 short stories and for his memoirs. The Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award was named in his honour, as is the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Fellowship. Read more
17 Sep 1903: Minanogawa Tōzō, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 34th Yokozuna (died 1971) Minanogawa Tōzō , also known as Asashio Kyojiro , was a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Tsukuba, Ibaraki. He was the sport's 34th yokozuna. Read more
17 Sep 1902: Bea Miles, Australian author (died 1973) Beatrice Miles was an Australian eccentric and bohemian rebel. Described as Sydney's "iconic eccentric", she was known for her contentious relationships with the city's taxi drivers and for her ability to quote any passage from Shakespeare for money. Read more
17 Sep 1901: Francis Chichester, English pilot and sailor (died 1972) Sir Francis Charles Chichester KBE was a British businessman, pioneering aviator and solo sailor. Read more
17 Sep 1900: Hughie Critz, American baseball player (died 1980) Hugh Melville Critz was an American second baseman in Major League Baseball for the Cincinnati Reds in the 1920s and the New York Giants in the 1930s. Read more
17 Sep 1900: Lena Frances Edwards, African-American physician, awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom (died 1986) Lena Frances Edwards was a New Jersey physician who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964. Read more
17 Sep 1900: J. Willard Marriott, American businessman, founded the Marriott Corporation (died 1985) John Willard Marriott Sr. was an American entrepreneur and businessman. He was the founder of the Marriott Corporation, the parent company of the world's largest hospitality, hotel chains, and food services companies. The Marriott company rose from a small root beer stand in Washington, D.C., in 1927 to a chain of family restaurants by 1932, to its first motel in 1957. By the time he died in 1985, the Marriott company operated 1,400 restaurants and 143 hotels and resorts worldwide, including two theme parks, earned US$4.5 billion in revenue annually with 154,600 employees. The company's interests also extended to a line of cruise ships. Read more
17 Sep 1900: Martha Ostenso, Canadian screenwriter and novelist (died 1963) Martha Ostenso was a Norwegian American novelist and screenwriter who is also an important figure in Canadian literary history. Read more
17 Sep 1900: Hedwig Ross, New Zealand-born educator and political activist, founding member of the Communist Party of New Zealand (died 1971) Hedwig "Hettie" Ross was a New Zealand-born Australian educator and political activist. She was a founding member of the Communist Party of New Zealand and a leader of the Australian Militant Woman's Group, a department of the Communist Party of Australia, and edited several Australian political publications including the Young Communist. Throughout her career, she was an advocate for the children of the poor, and argued for the centrality of education in raising their position in society. Read more
17 Sep 1897: Earl Webb, American baseball player and coach (died 1965) William Earl Webb was an American professional baseball outfielder and first baseman in Major League Baseball, playing from 1925 to 1933. He played for five teams, including the Boston Red Sox for three years. He batted left-handed and threw right-handed. He was born in White County, Tennessee. Read more
17 Sep 1886: Anton Irv, Estonian captain (died 1919) Anton Irv VR I/2, VR II/2, VR II/3 was a highly decorated Estonian combat soldier and military officer during World War I and in the Estonian War of Independence. Read more
17 Sep 1884: Charles Griffes, American pianist and composer (died 1920) Charles Tomlinson Griffes was an American composer for piano, chamber ensembles and voice. His initial works are influenced by German Romanticism, but after he relinquished the German style, his later works make him the most famous American representative of musical Impressionism, along with Charles Martin Loeffler. He was fascinated by the exotic, mysterious sound of the French Impressionists, and was compositionally much influenced by them while he was in Europe. He also studied the work of contemporary Russian composers such as Scriabin, whose influence is also apparent in his use of synthetic scales. Read more
17 Sep 1883: William Carlos Williams, American poet, short story writer, and essayist (died 1963) William Carlos Williams was an American poet and physician closely associated with modernism and imagism. His Spring and All (1923) was written in the wake of T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land (1922). In his five-volume poem Paterson (1946–1958), he took Paterson, New Jersey as "my 'case' to work up. It called for a poetry such as I did not know, it was my duty to discover or make such a context on the 'thought.'" Some of his best-known poems, "This Is Just to Say" and "The Red Wheelbarrow", are reflections on the everyday. Other poems reflect the influence of the visual arts. He, in turn, influenced the visual arts; his poem "The Great Figure" inspired the painting I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold by Charles Demuth. Williams was awarded a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for Pictures from Brueghel and Other Poems (1962). Read more
17 Sep 1881: Alfred Carpenter, English admiral, Victoria Cross recipient (died 1955) Vice-Admiral Alfred Francis Blakeney Carpenter, VC was a Royal Navy officer who was selected by his fellow officers and men to receive the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. Read more
17 Sep 1879: Rube Foster, American baseball player and manager (died 1930) Andrew "Rube" Foster was an American professional baseball co-founder, player, manager, and executive in the Negro leagues. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1981. Read more
17 Sep 1879: Periyar, Indian social activist and politician (died 1973) Erode Venkatappa Ramasamy, commonly known as Periyar, was an Indian social activist and politician. He was the organiser of the Self-Respect Movement and Dravidar Kazhagam and is considered the architect of Dravidian politics, as well as a leading figure of left-wing politics in India. Read more
17 Sep 1878: Vincenzo Tommasini, Italian composer (died 1950) Vincenzo Tommasini was an Italian composer. Read more
17 Sep 1874: Walter Murdoch, Australian author and academic (died 1970) Sir Walter Logie Forbes Murdoch, was a prominent Australian academic and essayist famous for his intelligence and wit. He was a founding professor of English and former Chancellor of the University of Western Australia (UWA) in Perth, Western Australia. Read more
17 Sep 1871: Eivind Astrup, Norwegian explorer (died 1895) Eivind Astrup was a Norwegian explorer and writer. Astrup participated in Robert Peary's expedition to Greenland in 1891–92 and mapped northern Greenland. In the follow-up Greenland expedition by Peary during 1893–94 he explored and mapped Melville Bay on the north-west coast of Greenland. Among his works is Blandt Nordpolens Naboer from 1895. He was awarded the Knight of the Order of St. Olav in 1892. Read more
17 Sep 1869: Christian Lous Lange, Norwegian political scientist, historian, and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1938) Christian Lous Lange was a Norwegian historian, teacher, and political scientist. He was one of the world's foremost exponents of the theory and practice of internationalism. Read more
17 Sep 1868: James Alexander Calder, Canadian educator and politician, Canadian Minister of Militia and Defence (died 1956) James Alexander Calder was a Canadian politician. Read more
17 Sep 1867: Vera Yevstafievna Popova, Russian chemist (died 1896) Vera Yevstafievna Popova was a Russian chemist. She was one of the first female chemists in Russia, and the first Russian female author of a chemistry textbook.
She "probably became the first woman to die in the cause of chemistry" as a result of an explosion in her laboratory. Read more
17 Sep 1865: William Murray McPherson, Australian politician, 31st Premier of Victoria (died 1932) Sir William Murray McPherson, KBE was an Australian philanthropist and politician. He was the 31st Premier of Victoria. Read more
17 Sep 1864: Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky, Ukrainian writer (died 1913) Mykhailo Mykhailovych Kotsiubynsky was a Ukrainian author whose writings described typical Ukrainian life at the start of the 20th century. Kotsiubynsky's early stories were described as examples of an ethnographic realism; in the years to come, with his style of writing becoming more and more sophisticated, he evolved into one of the most talented Ukrainian impressionist and modernist writers. The popularity of his novels later led to some of them being made into Soviet movies. Read more
17 Sep 1864: James Tancred, English admiral (died 1943) Vice-Admiral James Charles Tancred, born James Charles Cleghorn, was a British officer of the Royal Navy. He saw service in the First World War, and rose to the rank of vice-admiral. Read more
17 Sep 1860: Mihkel Martna, Estonian journalist and politician (died 1934) Mihkel Martna was an Estonian politician and journalist. Read more
17 Sep 1859: Frank Dawson Adams, Canadian geologist and academic (died 1942) Frank Dawson Adams was a Canadian geologist. Read more
17 Sep 1859: Billy the Kid, American gunman (died 1881) Henry McCarty, alias William H. Bonney, better known as Billy the Kid, was an American outlaw and gunfighter of the Old West who was linked to nine murders. He was solely responsible for four of them, and he may have played a role in five, alongside other men. He is also noted for his involvement in New Mexico's Lincoln County War. Read more
17 Sep 1859: I. L. Patterson, American politician, 18th Governor of Oregon (died 1929) Isaac Lee Patterson was the 18th governor of Oregon from 1927 to 1929. An Oregon native, he served in the Oregon Legislative Assembly from 1918 to 1922, and was a farmer in the Willamette Valley. He was the first governor of Oregon born in the state after it was admitted to the Union. Read more
17 Sep 1857: Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Russian scientist and engineer (died 1935) Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky was a Russian rocket scientist who pioneered astronautics. Along with Hermann Oberth and Robert H. Goddard, he is one of the pioneers of space flight and the founding father of modern rocketry and astronautics. Read more
17 Sep 1854: David Dunbar Buick, Scottish-American businessman, founded Buick Motor Company (died 1929) David Dunbar Buick was a Scottish-born American inventor, widely known for founding the Buick Motor Company. He headed this company and its predecessor from 1899–1906, thereby helping to create one of the most successful nameplates in United States motor vehicle history. Read more
17 Sep 1853: Frederick Corbett, British officer and Victoria Cross recipient (died 1912) Frederick Corbett was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. Corbett was born on 17 September 1853 in Maldon, Essex, and died there in 1912. His name at birth was David Embleton. He served in first the King's Royal Rifle Corps (1873–83) and second, the Royal Artillery (1884–91). Read more
17 Sep 1850: Guerra Junqueiro, Portuguese journalist, lawyer, and politician (died 1923) Abílio Manuel Guerra Junqueiro was a Portuguese top civil servant, member of the Portuguese House of Representatives, journalist, author, and poet. His work helped inspire the creation of the Portuguese First Republic. Junqueiro wrote highly satirical poems criticizing conservatism, romanticism, and the Church leading up to the Portuguese Revolution of 1910. He was one of Europe's greatest poets. Junqueiro studied law at the University of Coimbra. Read more
17 Sep 1826: Bernhard Riemann, German-Italian mathematician and academic (died 1866) Georg Friedrich Bernhard Riemann was a German mathematician who made profound contributions to analysis, number theory, and differential geometry. In the field of real analysis, he is mostly known for the first rigorous formulation of the integral, the Riemann integral, and his work on Fourier series. His contributions to complex analysis include most notably the introduction of Riemann surfaces, breaking new ground in a natural, geometric treatment of complex analysis. His 1859 paper on the prime-counting function, containing the original statement of the Riemann hypothesis, is regarded as a foundational paper of analytic number theory. Through his pioneering contributions to differential geometry, Riemann laid the foundations of the mathematics of general relativity. He is considered by many to be one of the greatest mathematicians of all time. Read more
17 Sep 1825: Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar II, American jurist and politician, 16th United States Secretary of the Interior (died 1893) Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar II was an American politician, diplomat, and jurist and former Confederate soldier and official. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented Mississippi in both houses of Congress, served as the U.S. Secretary of the Interior under President Grover Cleveland, and was an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Read more
17 Sep 1821: Arthur Saint-Léon, French choreographer (died 1870) Arthur Saint-Léon was the Maître de Ballet of St. Petersburg Imperial Ballet from 1859 until 1869 and is famous for creating the choreography of the ballet Coppélia. Read more
17 Sep 1820: Émile Augier, French playwright (died 1889) Guillaume Victor Émile Augier was a French dramatist. He was the thirteenth member to occupy seat 1 of the Académie française on 31 March 1857. Read more
17 Sep 1820: Earl Van Dorn, Confederate general (died 1863) Earl Van Dorn was an American Major General who started his military career as a United States Army officer and became famous for successfully leading two defenses of a Native American settlement from the Comanche. He joined Confederate forces in 1861 after the Civil War broke out and was a major general when he was killed in a private conflict. Read more
17 Sep 1819: Marthinus Wessel Pretorius, South African general and politician, 1st President of the South African Republic (died 1901) Marthinus Wessel Pretorius was a South African political leader. An Afrikaner, he helped establish the South African Republic, was the first president of the ZAR, and also compiled its constitution. Read more
17 Sep 1817: Herman Adolfovich Trautscohold, German geologist and paleontologist (died 1902) Gustav Heinrich Ludwig Hermann Trautschold was a German-Russian geologist and paleontologist and also pharmacist. From 1869 to 1888 he was a professor at the Petrovsky Agricultural and Forestry Academy. Trautschold was known as a specialist in the paleontology and stratigraphy of Carboniferous, Jurassic and Cretaceous deposits of the European part of Russia. He was brother of painter Wilhelm Trautschold. Read more

Notable Deaths on 17 September

17 Sep 2025: Roger Climpson, English-Australian journalist and television host (born 1932) Roger Climpson was a British-born Australian media personality who served a lengthy career in both radio and television, as a journalist and reporter, announcer, newsreader, weather presenter and host. He started his career as an actor in radio, but also appeared in theatre and television productions; post his mainstream media career, he went into Christian broadcasting. Read more
17 Sep 2024: Nelson DeMille, American lieutenant and author (born 1943) Nelson Richard DeMille was an American author of action adventure and suspense novels. His novels include Plum Island, The Charm School, and The General's Daughter. DeMille also wrote under the pen names Jack Cannon, Kurt Ladner, Ellen Kay, and Brad Matthews. Read more
17 Sep 2024: Neil King Jr., American journalist and author (born 1959) Neil Caldwell King Jr. was an American journalist and author. He shared in the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting in 2002. His first book, American Ramble: A Walk of Memory and Renewal, was published by HarperCollins in 2023. Read more
17 Sep 2024: JD Souther, American singer, songwriter, and actor (born 1945) John David Souther was an American singer, songwriter, and actor. He was "a principal architect of the Southern California sound and a major influence on a generation of songwriters". Souther wrote and co-wrote songs recorded by Linda Ronstadt and some of the Eagles' biggest hits, including "Best of My Love", "Victim of Love", "Heartache Tonight" and "New Kid in Town". "How Long", which appeared on the Eagles' Long Road Out of Eden, came from Souther's first solo album. He recorded two hit songs in his solo career: "You're Only Lonely" (1979) and "Her Town Too" (1981), a duet with James Taylor. He had a brief acting career and appeared on TV and in movies. He played with the Eagles on their 2008 farewell tour. Read more
17 Sep 2022: Maarten Schmidt, Dutch astronomer (born 1929) Maarten Schmidt was a Dutch-born American astronomer who first measured the distances of quasars. He was the first astronomer to identify a quasar, and so was pictured on the March cover of Time magazine in 1966. Read more
17 Sep 2021: Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Algerian politician, President of Algeria (born 1937) Abdelaziz Bouteflika was an Algerian politician and diplomat who served as the seventh president of Algeria from 1999 until his resignation in 2019, following mass protests. Read more
17 Sep 2020: Robert W. Gore, American engineer and businessman, co-inventor of Gore-Tex (born 1937) Robert W. Gore was an American engineer and scientist, inventor and businessman. Gore led his family's company, W. L. Gore & Associates, which was founded by his father Bill Gore, in developing applications of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) ranging from computer cables to medical equipment to the outer layer of space suits. His most significant breakthrough was likely the invention of Gore-Tex, a waterproof and breathable fabric popularly known for its use in sporting and outdoor gear. Read more
17 Sep 2019: Cokie Roberts, American journalist and bestselling author (born 1943) Mary Martha Corinne Morrison Claiborne "Cokie" Roberts was an American journalist and author. Her career included decades as a political reporter and analyst for National Public Radio, PBS, and ABC News, with prominent positions on Morning Edition, The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, World News Tonight, and This Week. She was considered one of NPR's "Founding Mothers" along with the late Susan Stamberg, Linda Wertheimer and Nina Totenberg. Read more
17 Sep 2017: Bobby Heenan, American professional wrestling manager (born 1944) Raymond Louis Heenan was an American professional wrestling manager, color commentator, and wrestler. He performed with the American Wrestling Association (AWA), the World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling (WCW) under the ring name Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. Read more
17 Sep 2016: Bahman Golbarnezhad, Iranian racing cyclist (born 1968) Bahman Golbarnezhad was an Iranian Paralympic racing cyclist competing in C4 classification events and an earlier powerlifter. During his powerlifting career, he won twelve gold medals and one silver medal in international competitions. Golbarnezhad had represented Iran in two Summer Paralympic Games, first in 2012 in London and later in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro. He was the only Iranian cyclist at the 2016 Paralympics. He was a veteran of the Iran–Iraq war. Read more
17 Sep 2016: Sigge Parling, Swedish footballer (born 1936) Sigvard Emanuel "Sigge" Parling was a Swedish footballer. He also played ice hockey and bandy. Read more
17 Sep 2015: Ingrīda Andriņa, Latvian actress (born 1944) Ingrīda Andriņa was a Latvian stage and film actress. Read more
17 Sep 2015: Dettmar Cramer, German footballer and manager (born 1925) Dettmar Cramer was a German football manager who led Bayern Munich to the 1975 and 1976 European Cups. He was born in Dortmund. Cramer is commonly considered to be the father of modern football in Japan and was a member of the Order of the Sacred Treasure, 3rd Class. He coached the Egypt national football team and also briefly coached the United States national team. Read more
17 Sep 2015: Vadim Kuzmin, Russian physicist and academic (born 1937) Vadim Alekseyevich Kuzmin was a Russian theoretical physicist. Read more
17 Sep 2015: David Willcocks, English organist, composer, and conductor (born 1919) Sir David Valentine Willcocks was a British choral conductor, organist, composer and music administrator. He was particularly well known for his association with the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, which he directed from 1957 to 1974, making frequent broadcasts and recordings. Several of the descants and carol arrangements he wrote for the annual service of Nine Lessons and Carols were published in the series of books Carols for Choirs which he edited along with Reginald Jacques and John Rutter. He was also director of the Royal College of Music in London. Read more
17 Sep 2014: George Hamilton IV, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1937) George Hege Hamilton IV was an American country musician. He began performing in the late 1950s as a teen idol, switching to country music in the early 1960s. Read more
17 Sep 2014: Andriy Husin, Ukrainian footballer and manager (born 1972) Andriy Leonidovych Husin was a Ukrainian professional football player and coach. He played in the Ukraine national team, and was one of Ukraine's most capped players. He was a member of their squad at the 2006 World Cup. Read more
17 Sep 2014: Wakachichibu Komei, Japanese sumo wrestler (born 1939) Wakachichibu Komei was a sumo wrestler from Chichibu, Saitama, Japan. He made his professional debut in May 1954 and reached the top division in September 1958. His highest rank was sekiwake. Upon retirement from active competition he became an elder in the Japan Sumo Association, under the name Tokiwayama. He reached the Sumo Association's mandatory retirement age in March 2004. Read more
17 Sep 2014: Charles Read, Australian air marshal (born 1918) Air Marshal Sir Charles Frederick Read, KBE, CB, DFC, AFC was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). He served as Chief of the Air Staff (CAS) from 1972 to 1975. Born in Sydney, Read joined the RAAF in 1937, and began his career flying biplane fighters. As a Beaufighter pilot, he led No. 31 Squadron and No. 77 Wing in the South West Pacific during World War II. His achievements earned him the Distinguished Flying Cross and a mention in despatches, and he finished the war an acting group captain. Read more
17 Sep 2014: Peter von Bagh, Finnish historian, director, and screenwriter (born 1943) Kari Peter Conrad von Bagh was a Finnish film historian and director. Von Bagh worked as the head of the Finnish Film Archive, editor-in-chief of Filmihullu magazine and co-founder and director of the Midnight Sun Film Festival. From 2001, he was the artistic director of the film festival Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna. Von Bagh was a member of the jury in the competition category of 2004 Cannes Film Festival. Read more
17 Sep 2014: China Zorrilla, Uruguayan actress (born 1922) China Zorrilla was a Uruguayan theater, film, and television actress, also director, producer and writer. An immensely popular star in the Rioplatense area, she is often regarded as a "Grande Dame" of the South American theater stage. Read more
17 Sep 2013: Kristian Gidlund, Swedish drummer and journalist (born 1983) Kristian Olof Erik Gidlund was a Swedish musician and author. He played drums in the rock band Sugarplum Fairy. He hosted Sommar i P1 on Swedish radio and released one book. In 2011, Gidlund was diagnosed with stomach cancer, and died from the disease in 2013 four days short of his 30th birthday. Read more
17 Sep 2013: Larry Lake, American-Canadian trumpet player and composer (born 1943) Larry Ellsworth Lake was an American-born Canadian composer, trumpeter, freelance writer on music, radio broadcaster, and record producer. As a composer, he was primarily known for his electronic music. His musical compositions are characterized by their integration of acoustic instruments with electronic ones in live performance. From 1985 until his death he served as artistic director of the Canadian Electronic Ensemble, a group of which he was a founding member. For nearly 30 years he hosted and served as music consultant for the CBC Radio program Two New Hours. An associate of the Canadian Music Centre (CMC), he was the chair of the CMC's Ontario Region Council and was an executive member of the CMC's national board. He was a member of both the Canadian Electroacoustic Community and the Canadian League of Composers. His compositions received multiple awards from the CMC and from the Major Armstrong Foundation. He received three Juno Award nominations for his work as a record producer. Read more
17 Sep 2013: Bernie McGann, Australian saxophonist and composer (born 1937) Bernard Francis McGann was an Australian jazz alto saxophone player. He began his career in the late 1950s and remained active as a performer, composer and recording artist until near the end of his life. McGann won four ARIA Music Awards between 1993 and 2001. Read more
17 Sep 2013: Alex Naumik, Lithuanian-Norwegian singer-songwriter and producer (born 1949) Alexandra Naumik, better known by her stage name Alex, was a Lithuanian-born, Polish-Norwegian rock and pop artist who rose to fame in the late 1970s. Read more
17 Sep 2013: Michael J. Noonan, Irish farmer and politician, 25th Irish Minister of Defence (born 1935) Michael Joseph Noonan was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician. He served as Minister for Defence from 1987 until 1989. Read more
17 Sep 2013: Marvin Rainwater, American singer-songwriter (born 1925) Marvin Karlton Rainwater was an American country and rockabilly singer and songwriter who had several hits during the late 1950s, including the self-penned "Gonna Find Me a Bluebird" and "Whole Lotta Woman," which hit No. 1 on the UK singles chart. He was known for wearing Native American fashion-themed outfits on stage and claimed to have quarter-blood Cherokee ancestry. Read more
17 Sep 2013: Eiji Toyoda, Japanese businessman (born 1913) Eiji Toyoda was a Japanese engineer and industrialist. He was largely responsible for bringing Toyota Motor Corporation to profitability and worldwide prominence during his tenure as president and later, as chairman. He was succeeded as the president of Toyota by Shoichiro Toyoda. Read more
17 Sep 2012: Melvin Charney, Canadian sculptor and architect (born 1935) Melvin Charney C.Q. was a Canadian artist and architect. Read more
17 Sep 2011: Colin Madigan, Australian architect and author, designed the National Gallery of Australia (born 1921) Colin Frederick Madigan was an Australian architect. He is best known for designing the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra. Read more
17 Sep 2005: Jacques Lacarrière, French journalist and critic (born 1925) Jacques Lacarrière was a French writer, born in Limoges. He studied moral philosophy, classical literature, and Hindu philosophy and literature. Professionally, he was known as a prominent critic, journalist, and essayist. Read more
17 Sep 2005: Alfred Reed, American composer and educator (born 1921) Alfred Reed was an American neoclassical composer, with more than two hundred published works for concert band, orchestra, chorus, and chamber ensemble to his name. He also traveled extensively as a guest conductor and served as a professor at the University of Miami School of Music. Read more
17 Sep 2003: Erich Hallhuber, German actor (born 1951) Erich Hallhuber was a Bavarian actor. He was born in Munich and worked in theatre, opera, television and film. Read more
17 Sep 2000: Georgiy Gongadze, Georgian-Ukrainian journalist and director (born 1969) Georgiy Ruslanovych Gongadze was a Ukrainian journalist. He founded the online newspaper Ukrainska Pravda along with Olena Prytula in 2000. The same year, he was kidnapped and murdered near Kyiv. Gongadze was born to a Ukrainian mother and a Georgian father in Tbilisi, Georgia SSR, Soviet Union. Read more
17 Sep 1999: Frankie Vaughan, English singer and actor (born 1928) Frankie Vaughan was an English singer and actor who became popular in the 1950s and 60s, recording more than 80 easy listening and traditional pop singles in his lifetime. He was known as "Mr. Moonlight" after his signature song "Give Me the Moonlight, Give Me the Girl". Two of Vaughan's singles topped the UK Singles Chart: "The Garden of Eden" (1957) and "Tower of Strength" (1961). He starred in several films, including a role opposite Marilyn Monroe in Let's Make Love (1960). Read more
17 Sep 1997: Red Skelton, American actor and comedian (born 1913) Richard Bernard Skelton was an American entertainer best known for his national radio and television shows between 1937 and 1971, especially as host of the television program The Red Skelton Show. He has stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in radio and television, and he also appeared in burlesque, vaudeville, films, nightclubs, and casinos, all while he pursued an entirely separate career as an artist. Read more
17 Sep 1996: Spiro Agnew, American soldier and politician, 39th Vice President of the United States (born 1918) Spiro Theodore Agnew was the 39th vice president of the United States, serving from 1969 until his resignation in 1973 under President Richard Nixon. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 3rd executive of Baltimore County from 1962 to 1966 and the 55th governor of Maryland from 1967 to 1969. He is the second of two vice presidents to resign, the first being John C. Calhoun in 1832. Read more
17 Sep 1995: Isadore Epstein, Estonian-American astronomer and academic (born 1919) Isadore Epstein was an astronomer. Epstein taught astronomy at Columbia University for 37 years. He completed his Ph.D. at Princeton University, following which he was appointed as an instructor at Columbia in 1950, assistant professor in 1953, associate professor in 1957, and professor in 1971. He was named professor emeritus in 1987. He served as acting departmental chairman in 1959. Read more
17 Sep 1995: Lucien Victor, Belgian cyclist (born 1931) Lucien Victor was a road racing cyclist from Belgium. He won the gold medal in the men's team road race, alongside André Noyelle and Robert Grondelaers at the 1952 Summer Olympics. He was a professional rider from 1953 to 1956. Read more
17 Sep 1994: John Delafose, American accordion player (born 1939) John Irvin Delafose was an American French-speaking Creole Zydeco accordionist from Louisiana. Read more
17 Sep 1994: Vitas Gerulaitis, American tennis player and coach (born 1954) Vytautas "Vitas" Kevin Gerulaitis was an American professional tennis player. He was ranked world No. 3 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) in 1978. Gerulaitis won the men's singles title at the December 1977 Australian Open, and the men's doubles title at the 1975 Wimbledon Championships, partnering with Sandy Mayer. Gerulaitis also won two Italian Opens in 1977 and 1979, and the 1978 WCT Finals. Read more
17 Sep 1994: Karl Popper, Austrian-English philosopher and academic (born 1902) Sir Karl Raimund Popper was an Austrian–British philosopher, academic and social commentator. One of the 20th century's most influential philosophers of science, Popper is known for his rejection of the classical inductivist views on the scientific method in favour of empirical falsification made possible by his falsifiability criterion, and for founding the Department of Philosophy at the London School of Economics and Political Science. According to Popper, a theory in the empirical sciences can never be proven, but it can be falsified, meaning that it can be scrutinised with decisive experiments. Popper was opposed to the classical justificationist account of knowledge, which he replaced with "the first non-justificational philosophy of criticism in the history of philosophy", namely critical rationalism. Read more
17 Sep 1993: Willie Mosconi, American pool player and actor (born 1913) William Joseph Mosconi was an American professional pool player from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Mosconi is widely considered one of the greatest pool players of all time. Between the years of 1941 and 1957, he won the World Straight Pool Championship nineteen times. For most of the 20th century, his name was essentially synonymous with pool in North America – he was nicknamed "Mr. Pocket Billiards" – and he was among the first Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame inductees. Mosconi pioneered and regularly employed numerous trick shots, set many records, and helped to popularize pool as a national recreation activity. Read more
17 Sep 1993: Christian Nyby, American director and producer (born 1913) Christian Nyby was an American television and film director and editor. As an editor, he had seventeen feature film credits from 1943 to 1952, including The Big Sleep (1946) and Red River (1948). From 1953 to 1975 he was a prolific director of episodes in many television series, including Gunsmoke and Wagon Train. As a feature film director, he is likely best known for The Thing from Another World (1951). Read more
17 Sep 1992: Roger Wagner, American conductor and educator (born 1914) Roger Wagner, was an American choral musician, administrator and educator. In 1946 he founded the Roger Wagner Chorale, which became one of America's premier vocal ensembles. He also founded the Los Angeles Master Chorale, one of the three original resident companies of the Los Angeles Music Center, in 1964. Read more
17 Sep 1991: Zino Francescatti, French violinist and composer (born 1902) René-Charles "Zino" Francescatti was a French virtuoso violinist, renowned for his lyrical playing style. Read more
17 Sep 1985: Laura Ashley, Welsh fashion designer, founded Laura Ashley plc (born 1925) Laura Ashley was a Welsh fashion designer and businesswoman, who founded the eponymous fashion retailer. She originally made furnishing materials in the 1950s, expanding the business into clothing design and manufacture in the 1960s. The Laura Ashley style is characterised by Romantic designs – often with a 19th-century rural feel – and the use of natural fabrics. Read more
17 Sep 1984: Richard Basehart, American actor and director (born 1914) John Richard Basehart was an American actor. Known for his "deep, resonant baritone voice and craggy good looks," he was active in film, theatre and television from 1947 until 1983. He won two National Board of Review Awards, for his performances in Fourteen Hours (1951) and Moby Dick (1956), and was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Time Limit (1957). Read more
17 Sep 1983: Humberto Sousa Medeiros, Portuguese-American cardinal (born 1915) Humberto Sousa Medeiros was a Portuguese-born American Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Boston from 1970 until his death in 1983, and was created a cardinal in 1973. Medeiros previously serve as Bishop of Brownsville from 1966 to 1970. Read more
17 Sep 1982: Manos Loïzos, Egyptian-Greek composer (born 1937) Manos Loïzos was one of the most important Greek Cypriot music composers of the 20th century. Read more
17 Sep 1980: Anastasio Somoza Debayle, Nicaraguan commander and politician, 73rd President of Nicaragua (born 1925) Anastasio "Tachito" Somoza Debayle was a Nicaraguan politician, military officer, hydraulic engineer, and dictator who served as the 53rd President of Nicaragua from 1967 to 1972 and again from 1974 until his fall in 1979. As head of the National Guard, he was de facto ruler of the country between 1967 and 1979, even during the period when he was not the de jure ruler. Read more
17 Sep 1975: Nicola Moscona, Greek-American operatic bass (born 1907) Nicola Moscona was a Greek-born operatic bass. Born in Athens, he made his stage debut in Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Greek National Opera in 1931, and went on to sing leading basso cantante roles both in Europe and the United States. Read more
17 Sep 1973: Hugo Winterhalter, American bandleader and composer (born 1909) Hugo Winterhalter was an American easy listening arranger and composer, best known for his many arrangements and recordings for RCA Victor. Read more
17 Sep 1972: Akim Tamiroff, American actor (born 1899) Akim Mikhailovich Tamiroff was an Armenian-American actor. One of the premier character actors of Hollywood's Golden Age, Tamiroff developed a prolific career despite his thick accent, appearing in at least 80 motion pictures over a span of 37 years. Read more
17 Sep 1971: Carlos Lamarca, Brazilian captain (born 1937) Carlos Lamarca was a Brazilian Army Captain who deserted to join the armed struggle against the Brazilian military dictatorship. He was part of the Popular Revolutionary Vanguard and became, along with Carlos Marighella, one of the leaders of the armed struggle. Such groups were armed chiefly for self-protection from the right-wing dictatorship that unleashed state terrorism against any who opposed their regime, including students, the clergy, and the children of those who called for democracy. The kidnappings by a few armed groups were conducted to free comrades suffering extremely brutal torture in Brazil's prisons. Read more
17 Sep 1966: Fritz Wunderlich, German tenor and actor (born 1930) Friedrich "Fritz" Karl Otto Wunderlich was a German lyric tenor, famed for his singing of the Mozart repertoire and various Lieder. Read more
17 Sep 1965: Alejandro Casona, Spanish poet and playwright (born 1903) Alejandro Rodríguez Álvarez, known as Alejandro Casona was a Spanish poet and playwright born in Besullo, Spain, a member of the Generation of '27. Casona received his bachelor's degree in Gijon and later studied at the University of Murcia. After Franco's rise in 1936, he was forced, like many Spanish intellectuals, to leave Spain. He lived in Buenos Aires, Argentina until April 1962, when he definitively returned to Spain. Read more
17 Sep 1961: Adnan Menderes, Turkish lawyer and politician, 9th Prime Minister of Turkey (born 1899) Ali Adnan Ertekin Menderes was a Turkish politician who served as Prime Minister of Turkey between 1950 and 1960, and one of the founders of the Democrat Party (DP). Read more
17 Sep 1953: David Munson, American runner (born 1884) David Curtiss Munson was an American athlete who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics. Read more
17 Sep 1953: Hans Feige, German general (Wehrmacht) (born 1880) Hans Feige was a German career military officer who served in the Imperial German Army, the Reichswehr and the Wehrmacht. He participated in both world wars and rose to the rank of General of the Infantry during World War II. He served as a corps commander in the Battle of France and in Finland during the invasion of the Soviet Union. After the failure of Operation Arctic Fox, he was removed from command in November 1941. Read more
17 Sep 1951: Jimmy Yancey, American pianist and composer (born 1898) James Edward Yancey was an American boogie-woogie pianist, composer, and lyricist. One reviewer described him as "one of the pioneers of this raucous, rapid-fire, eight-to-the-bar piano style". Read more
17 Sep 1948: Ruth Benedict, American anthropologist and academic (born 1887) Ruth Fulton Benedict was an American anthropologist and folklorist. Read more
17 Sep 1948: Folke Bernadotte, Swedish soldier and diplomat (born 1895) Folke Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg was a Swedish nobleman and diplomat. In World War II, he negotiated the release of about 450 Danish Jews and 30,550 non-Jewish prisoners of many nations from the Nazi German Theresienstadt Ghetto. They were released on 14 April 1945. In 1945 he received a German surrender offer from Heinrich Himmler, though the offer was ultimately rejected by the allies. Read more
17 Sep 1943: Friedrich Zickwolff, German general (born 1893) Friedrich Zickwolff was a German general during World War II. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross of Nazi Germany. Read more
17 Sep 1938: Bruno Jasieński, Polish poet and author (born 1901) Bruno Jasieński was a Polish poet, novelist, playwright, Catastrophist, and leader of the Polish Futurist movement in the interwar period. Jasieński was also a communist activist in Poland, France and the Soviet Union, where he was executed during the Great Purge. He is acclaimed by members of the various modernist art groups as their patron. An annual literary festival Brunonalia is held in Klimontów, Poland, his birthplace, where one of the streets is also named after him. Read more
17 Sep 1937: Walter Dubislav, German logician and philosopher of science, Vienna circle member (born 1895) Walter Dubislav was a German logician and philosopher of science (Wissenschaftstheoretiker). Read more
17 Sep 1936: Ettie Annie Rout, New Zealand author and activist (born 1877) Ettie Annie Rout was a Tasmanian-born New Zealander whose work among servicemen in Paris and the Somme during World War I made her a war hero among the French, yet through the same events she became persona non grata in New Zealand. She married Frederick Hornibrook on 3 May 1920, after which she was Ettie Hornibrook. They had no children and later separated. She died in 1936, apparently by suicide, and was buried in the Cook Islands. Read more
17 Sep 1933: Joseph De Piro, Maltese priest and missionary (born 1877) Giuseppe De Piro or Joseph De Piro, was a Roman Catholic priest and missionary. He founded the Missionary Society of St Paul (MSSP) in June 1910 with a charism to form missionaries following the example of St Paul. A Servant of God, he is a candidate for beatification. Read more
17 Sep 1923: Stefanos Dragoumis, Greek judge and politician, 92nd Prime Minister of Greece (born 1842) Stefanos Dragoumis was a judge, writer and the Prime Minister of Greece from January to October 1910. He was the father of Ion Dragoumis. Read more
17 Sep 1909: Thomas Bent, Australian businessman and politician, 22nd Premier of Victoria (born 1838) Sir Thomas Bent was an Australian politician and the 22nd premier of Victoria. Read more
17 Sep 1908: Henri Julien, Canadian cartoonist (born 1852) Henri Julien was a Canadian artist and cartoonist noted for his work for the Canadian Illustrated News and for his political cartoons in the Montreal Daily Star. His pseudonyms include Octavo and Crincrin. He was the first full-time newspaper editorial cartoonist in Canada. Read more
17 Sep 1908: Thomas Selfridge, American lieutenant and pilot (born 1882) Thomas Etholen Selfridge was an American first lieutenant in the U.S. Army and the first person to die in an airplane crash. He was also the first active-duty member of the U.S. military to die in a crash while on duty. He was killed while seated as a passenger in a Wright Flyer, on a demonstration flight piloted by Orville Wright. Read more
17 Sep 1907: Ignaz Brüll, Czech-Austrian pianist and composer (born 1846) Ignaz Brüll was a pianist and composer from Austria-Hungary. Born in Moravia, he lived and worked in Vienna. Read more
17 Sep 1907: Edmonia Lewis, American sculptor (born 1844) Mary Edmonia Lewis, also known as "Wildfire", was an American sculptor. Born in Upstate New York of mixed African-American and Native American heritage, she moved to Rome, Italy in 1866, where she spent most of her career. Read more
17 Sep 1899: Charles Alfred Pillsbury, American businessman, co-founded the Pillsbury Company (born 1842) Charles Alfred Pillsbury was an American businessman, flour industrialist, and politician. He was a co-founder of the Pillsbury Company. Read more
17 Sep 1894: Deng Shichang, Chinese captain (born 1849) Deng Shichang, courtesy name Zhengqing, posthumous name Zhuangjie, was an Imperial Chinese Navy officer who lived in the late Qing dynasty. He is best known for his service in the Beiyang Fleet during the First Sino-Japanese War as the captain of the protected cruiser Zhiyuan. He participated in the Battle of the Yalu River on 17 September 1894 against the Imperial Japanese Navy. After Zhiyuan was sunk in battle, he refused to be rescued and eventually went down with his ship. He was posthumously awarded the position of taizi shaobao by the Qing government and honoured as a hero in the Shrine of Loyalty in Beijing. Read more
17 Sep 1892: Rudolf von Jhering, German jurist (born 1818) Caspar Rudolph von Jhering was a German jurist. He is best known for his 1872 book Der Kampf ums Recht, as a legal scholar, and as the founder of a modern sociological and historical school of law. His ideas were important to the subsequent development of the "jurisprudence of interests" in Germany. Read more
17 Sep 1879: Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, French architect and theorist (born 1814) Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc was a French architect and writer, famous for his restoration of the most prominent medieval landmarks in France. His major restoration projects included Notre-Dame de Paris, the Basilica of Saint Denis, Mont Saint-Michel, Sainte-Chapelle, the medieval walls of the city of Carcassonne, and Château de Roquetaillade in the Bordeaux region. Read more
17 Sep 1878: Orélie-Antoine de Tounens, French lawyer and adventurer (born 1825) Orélie-Antoine de Tounens was a French avoué and adventurer who proclaimed by two decrees on 17 and 20 November 1860 that Araucanía and Patagonia did not depend of any other states and that he himself was King of Araucanía and Patagonia. On 5 January 1862, he was arrested by the Chilean army and imprisoned. He was declared insane by the court of Santiago on 2 September 1862, and expelled to France on 28 October 1862. He tried three further times to go back to Araucanía to regain his "kingdom", but without success, and he died in poverty on 17 September 1878, in Tourtoirac, France. Read more
17 Sep 1877: Henry Fox Talbot, English photographer, developed the Calotype Process (born 1800) William Henry Fox Talbot was an English scientist, inventor, and photography pioneer who invented the salted paper and calotype processes, precursors to photographic processes of the later 19th and 20th centuries. His work in the 1840s on photomechanical reproduction led to the creation of the photoglyphic engraving process, the precursor to photogravure. He was the holder of a controversial patent that affected the early development of commercial photography in Britain. He was also a noted photographer who contributed to the development of photography as an artistic medium. He published The Pencil of Nature (1844–1846), which was illustrated with original salted paper prints from his calotype negatives and made some important early photographs of Oxford, Paris, Reading, and York. Read more
17 Sep 1868: Roman Nose, Native American warrior (born circa 1823) Roman Nose, also known as Hook Nose, was a Native American of the Northern Cheyenne. He is considered to be one of, if not the greatest and most influential warriors during the Plains Indian War of the 1860s. Born during the prosperous days of the fur trade in the 1820s, he was called Môséškanetsénoonáhe ("Bat") as a youth. He later took the warrior name Wokini, which the Euro-Americans rendered as Roman Nose. Considered invincible in combat, this fierce warrior distinguished himself in battle to such a degree that the U.S. military mistook him for the Chief of the entire Cheyenne nation. Read more
17 Sep 1864: Walter Savage Landor, English author and poet (born 1775) Walter Savage Landor was an English writer, poet, and activist. His best known works were the prose Imaginary Conversations, and the poem "Rose Aylmer," but the critical acclaim he received from contemporary poets and reviewers was not matched by public popularity. As remarkable as his work was, it was equalled by his rumbustious character and lively temperament. Both his writing and political activism, such as his support for Lajos Kossuth and Giuseppe Garibaldi, were imbued with his passion for liberal and republican causes. He befriended and influenced the next generation of literary reformers such as Charles Dickens and Robert Browning. Read more
17 Sep 1863: Charles Robert Cockerell, English archaeologist and architect (born 1788) Charles Robert Cockerell was an English architect, archaeologist and writer. He studied architecture under Robert Smirke and embarked on an extended Grand Tour lasting seven years, mainly in Greece. After returning to London he established a successful architectural practice. Appointed Professor of Architecture at the Royal Academy of Arts, he served between 1839 and 1859. Cockerell wrote widely on archaeology and architecture, and in 1848 became the first recipient of the Royal Gold Medal. Read more
17 Sep 1863: Alfred de Vigny, French author, poet, and playwright (born 1797) Alfred Victor, Comte de Vigny was a French poet and an early French Romanticist. He also produced novels, plays, and translations of Shakespeare. Read more
17 Sep 1862: Lawrence O'Bryan Branch, American politician and Confederate general (born 1820) Lawrence O'Bryan Branch was an American politician who served as a representative for North Carolina in the U.S. Congress and a Confederate brigadier general in the American Civil War. He was killed in action at the Battle of Antietam. Read more
17 Sep 1862: William E. Starke, Confederate general (born 1814) William Edwin Starke was a wealthy Gulf Coast businessman and a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He was killed in action at the Battle of Antietam while commanding the famed "Stonewall Division," a unit first made famous under Stonewall Jackson. Read more
17 Sep 1858: Dred Scott, American slave, plaintiff in the Dred Scott Decision (born 1795) Dred Scott was an enslaved African-American man who, along with his wife, Harriet Robinson Scott, unsuccessfully sued for the freedom of themselves and their two daughters, Eliza and Lizzie, in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case of 1857, popularly known as the "Dred Scott decision". The Scotts claimed they should be granted freedom because Dred had lived in Illinois and the Wisconsin Territory for four years, where slavery was illegal, and laws in those jurisdictions said that slaveholders gave up their rights to slaves if they stayed for an extended period. Read more
17 Sep 1852: Francisco Javier Echeverría, Mexican businessman and politician. President (1841) (born 1797) Francisco Javier Echeverría was a Mexican businessman and finance minister who served as interim president of Mexico for about two weeks in late September 1841, during the fall of Anastasio Bustamante's administration. Read more
17 Sep 1836: Antoine Laurent de Jussieu, French botanist and author (born 1748) Antoine Laurent de Jussieu was a French botanist, notable as the first to publish a natural classification of flowering plants; much of his system remains in use today. His classification was based on an extended unpublished work by his uncle, the botanist Bernard de Jussieu. Read more
17 Sep 1817: Jacques Bernard d'Anselme, French general (born 1740) Jacques Bernard Modeste d'Anselme was a French general of the French Revolutionary Army, notable as the first commander of the Army of the Var which soon became the Army of Italy. He fell under suspicion, was removed from command and placed under arrest, but he survived the Reign of Terror. ANSELME is one of the names inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe, on Column 23. Read more
17 Sep 1808: Benjamin Bourne, American judge and politician (born 1755) Benjamin Bourne was a United States representative from Rhode Island, a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island and a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Circuit Court for the First Circuit. Read more
17 Sep 1803: Franz Xaver Süssmayr, Austrian composer and director (born 1766) Franz Xaver Süssmayr or Süßmayr, also anglicized as Suessmayr, was an Austrian composer and conductor. Popular in his day, he is now known primarily as the composer who completed Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's unfinished Requiem. Read more

Why is 17 September Important in History?

17 September is important because many political, cultural, scientific, educational and social events took place on this date. These facts are useful for students, exam aspirants and readers interested in daily history and general knowledge.

History of Today 17 September for Competitive Exams

Questions based on today in history, famous personalities, historical events and important dates are often asked in UPSC, SSC, Banking, Railway, Defence and State PSC examinations.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What happened on 17 September in history?

On 17 September, many important historical events, famous births and notable deaths occurred across the world.

Why is History of Today important for exams?

History of Today helps students remember important dates, events and personalities for competitive exams like UPSC, SSC, Banking, Railway and PSC.

Where can I read daily history facts?

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