1579 Sir Francis Drake and his men claimed an area near where San Francisco is now for England on June 17, 1579. The natives thought they were gods and offered them their entire country. Drake accepted and claimed the land in the name of Queen Elizabeth calling it New Albion and staking to a post an engraved metal plate. A National Park at San Francisco marks the approximate spot where he anchored the Golden Hind in 1579.
1631 Mumtaz Mahal, the chief consort of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, died on June 17, 1631
after giving birth to her fourteenth child. In the immediate aftermath of his bereavement, Shah Jahan was inconsolable and he went into secluded mourning for a year. He then commissioned the construction of a suitable mausoleum and funerary garden in Agra to be built in the memory of his wife. The Taj Mahal was completed in 1643 and the surrounding buildings and garden a decade later.
1775 The Battle of Bunker Hill was one of the first engagements between the Colonists and British during the American War of Independence. The battle was fought on June 17, 1775 outside of Boston. The Colonists inflicted heavy casualties on British forces before running out of gunpowder and being forced to retreat. Thousands of Bostonians sat on rooftops, in trees, on church steeples, and in the rigging of ships in the harbor to watch the American revolutionaries battle the British.
1805 The German musical instrument maker Christian Friedrich Ludwig Buschmann was born on June 17, 1805. There is a persistent legend that Buschmann invented the harmonica (and maybe the accordion) but this cannot be substantiated. Buschmann stated in a letter of 1828 that he had just invented a new instrument, but the manufacture of harmonicas had begun some years previously in Vienna.
1831 On June 17, 1831, the Best Friend of Charleston became the first locomotive in the US to suffer a boiler explosion, seriously injuring the engine's crew. The blast is said to have been caused by the fireman tying down the steam pressure release valve; he had tired of listening to it whistle, so to stop the noise he closed the valve permanently.
1861 The Battle of Vienna in Virginia was a minor engagement between Union and Confederate forces on June 17, 1861, during the early days of the American Civil War. It involved one of the earliest military movements of troops by train in the world.
1882 The composer Igor Stravinsky was born on June 17, 1882, in Oranienbaum, near St. Petersburg, Russia, the son of Fyodor Stravinsky a singer at the Russian Imperial Opera. Although he was taught piano and composition as a boy, Igor's family determined that he would have a career in law, and he graduated from St. Petersburg University in 1905. However, Stravinsky was far more interested in music; between 1903-06 he studied composition privately under Nikolai Rimsky-Korsokov.
1882 The father of modern plastic surgery is generally considered to have been Sir Harold Gillies who was born on June 17, 1882. A New Zealand otolaryngologist working in London, Gillies developed many of the techniques of modern facial surgery in caring for soldiers suffering from disfiguring facial injuries usually from gunshot wounds during the First World War.
1903 The creator of the chocolate chip cookie, Ruth Wakefield, was born on June 17, 1903. She created the chocolate chip cookie for her guests at the Toll House Inn, near Whitman, Massachusetts.in 1937. Ruth Wakefield sold her chocolate chip cookie recipe to Nestle for $1 and a lifetime supply of chocolate.
1925 The chemist Alexander Shulgin was born on June 17, 1925. "The godfather of psychedelics", he had a license from the DEA to produce any schedule 1 substance. He is noted for the discovery, synthesis and personal bioassay of over 230 psychoactive compounds before the license was revoked.
MDMA ("ecstasy", "mandy" or "molly") first appeared sporadically as a street drug in the early 1970s It began to be used therapeutically in the late-1970s after Shulgin tried it himself.
1939 The last public guillotining in France was of Eugen Weidmann, who was convicted of six murders. He was beheaded on June 17, 1939 in Versailles outside the Saint-Pierre prison. The "hysterical behaviour" by spectators was so scandalous that French president Albert Lebrun immediately banned all future public executions. Executions by guillotine continued in private until Hamida Djandoubi's execution on September 10, 1977.
1950 The first human kidney transplant surgery was performed by Dr. Richard Lawler in Illinois on June 17, 1950. The patient was Ruth Tucker, a 44-year-old woman with polycystic kidney disease, Although the donated kidney was rejected ten months later, the intervening time gave Tucker's remaining kidney time to recover and she lived another five years.
1985 The first Muslim person in space was Royal Saudi Air Force pilot Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. He flew from June 17 through June 24, 1985, as a payload specialist on aboard the United States shuttle Discovery. He was also the first member of a royal family to be an astronaut.
1988 Garth Brooks signed with Capitol Records on June 17, 1988 launching one of the most successful music careers of all time. Garth's second album, No Fences, was released in 1990. It enjoyed 23 weeks at #1 on the Billboard Country music chart and eventually became his highest-selling LP. His third, Ropin' the Wind, was the first country album to ever debut at #1 on the Billboard 200. In January 2012, Brooks was crowned the top-selling artist of the last two decades.
1994 Nicole Brown Simpson and her waiter friend Ron Goldman were found stabbed to death outside Nicole's Los Angeles condominium. Nicole's ex husband O.J. Simpson was a person of interest in their murders and five days later on June 17, 1994 he became the object of a low-speed pursuit in a white Ford Bronco SUV; TV stations interrupted coverage of the 1994 NBA Finals to broadcast the incident live. Following the low-speed highway chase, O. J. Simpson was arrested.
2007 Barry Bonds broke baseball great Hank Aaron’s record by hitting his 756th career home run on Father's Day, June 17, 2007. Bonds is the lone member of the 500–500 club, which means he hit during his career at least 500 home runs (762) and stolen 500 bases (514).
June 17th is Icelandic National Day, celebrating the independence of Iceland from Denmark. The Kingdom of Iceland becomes a sovereign state in 1918, yet remained a part of the Danish kingdom until 1944 when it declared its independence and became a republic. June 17th was chosen as Independence Day as it was the birthday of Jon Sigurosson, the 19th century leader of the Iceland Independence Movement.
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| Francis Drake in California, 1579 |
1631 Mumtaz Mahal, the chief consort of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, died on June 17, 1631
after giving birth to her fourteenth child. In the immediate aftermath of his bereavement, Shah Jahan was inconsolable and he went into secluded mourning for a year. He then commissioned the construction of a suitable mausoleum and funerary garden in Agra to be built in the memory of his wife. The Taj Mahal was completed in 1643 and the surrounding buildings and garden a decade later.
1775 The Battle of Bunker Hill was one of the first engagements between the Colonists and British during the American War of Independence. The battle was fought on June 17, 1775 outside of Boston. The Colonists inflicted heavy casualties on British forces before running out of gunpowder and being forced to retreat. Thousands of Bostonians sat on rooftops, in trees, on church steeples, and in the rigging of ships in the harbor to watch the American revolutionaries battle the British.
 |
| The Battle of Bunker Hill, by Howard Pyle, 1897 |
1805 The German musical instrument maker Christian Friedrich Ludwig Buschmann was born on June 17, 1805. There is a persistent legend that Buschmann invented the harmonica (and maybe the accordion) but this cannot be substantiated. Buschmann stated in a letter of 1828 that he had just invented a new instrument, but the manufacture of harmonicas had begun some years previously in Vienna.
1831 On June 17, 1831, the Best Friend of Charleston became the first locomotive in the US to suffer a boiler explosion, seriously injuring the engine's crew. The blast is said to have been caused by the fireman tying down the steam pressure release valve; he had tired of listening to it whistle, so to stop the noise he closed the valve permanently.
 |
| Line drawing of the Best Friend of Charleston |
1861 The Battle of Vienna in Virginia was a minor engagement between Union and Confederate forces on June 17, 1861, during the early days of the American Civil War. It involved one of the earliest military movements of troops by train in the world.
1882 The composer Igor Stravinsky was born on June 17, 1882, in Oranienbaum, near St. Petersburg, Russia, the son of Fyodor Stravinsky a singer at the Russian Imperial Opera. Although he was taught piano and composition as a boy, Igor's family determined that he would have a career in law, and he graduated from St. Petersburg University in 1905. However, Stravinsky was far more interested in music; between 1903-06 he studied composition privately under Nikolai Rimsky-Korsokov.
1882 The father of modern plastic surgery is generally considered to have been Sir Harold Gillies who was born on June 17, 1882. A New Zealand otolaryngologist working in London, Gillies developed many of the techniques of modern facial surgery in caring for soldiers suffering from disfiguring facial injuries usually from gunshot wounds during the First World War.
1903 The creator of the chocolate chip cookie, Ruth Wakefield, was born on June 17, 1903. She created the chocolate chip cookie for her guests at the Toll House Inn, near Whitman, Massachusetts.in 1937. Ruth Wakefield sold her chocolate chip cookie recipe to Nestle for $1 and a lifetime supply of chocolate.
1925 The chemist Alexander Shulgin was born on June 17, 1925. "The godfather of psychedelics", he had a license from the DEA to produce any schedule 1 substance. He is noted for the discovery, synthesis and personal bioassay of over 230 psychoactive compounds before the license was revoked.
MDMA ("ecstasy", "mandy" or "molly") first appeared sporadically as a street drug in the early 1970s It began to be used therapeutically in the late-1970s after Shulgin tried it himself.
1939 The last public guillotining in France was of Eugen Weidmann, who was convicted of six murders. He was beheaded on June 17, 1939 in Versailles outside the Saint-Pierre prison. The "hysterical behaviour" by spectators was so scandalous that French president Albert Lebrun immediately banned all future public executions. Executions by guillotine continued in private until Hamida Djandoubi's execution on September 10, 1977.
1950 The first human kidney transplant surgery was performed by Dr. Richard Lawler in Illinois on June 17, 1950. The patient was Ruth Tucker, a 44-year-old woman with polycystic kidney disease, Although the donated kidney was rejected ten months later, the intervening time gave Tucker's remaining kidney time to recover and she lived another five years.
 |
| Dr Richard H Lawler |
1977 Joe Biden and Jill Jacobs were married on June 17, 1977, at the Chapel at the United Nations in New York City. They were introduced on a blind date, and Joe had to propose five times before Jill finally said yes. Jill is an English teacher who has been a professor of English at Northern Virginia Community College since 2009. She is the first wife of a US president to hold a paying job outside the White House.
1994 Nicole Brown Simpson and her waiter friend Ron Goldman were found stabbed to death outside Nicole's Los Angeles condominium. Nicole's ex husband O.J. Simpson was a person of interest in their murders and five days later on June 17, 1994 he became the object of a low-speed pursuit in a white Ford Bronco SUV; TV stations interrupted coverage of the 1994 NBA Finals to broadcast the incident live. Following the low-speed highway chase, O. J. Simpson was arrested.
2007 Barry Bonds broke baseball great Hank Aaron’s record by hitting his 756th career home run on Father's Day, June 17, 2007. Bonds is the lone member of the 500–500 club, which means he hit during his career at least 500 home runs (762) and stolen 500 bases (514).
June 17th is Icelandic National Day, celebrating the independence of Iceland from Denmark. The Kingdom of Iceland becomes a sovereign state in 1918, yet remained a part of the Danish kingdom until 1944 when it declared its independence and became a republic. June 17th was chosen as Independence Day as it was the birthday of Jon Sigurosson, the 19th century leader of the Iceland Independence Movement.
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