About October 17

October 17, 2023 is the 290th day of the year 2023 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 75 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Tuesday.

You can browse the full year calendar in case you need it.

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Libra is the sun sign of a person born on this day. Opal is the modern birthstone for this month. Jasper is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years.

According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 116 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year.

What Happened On October 17

  • 539 BC
    Cyrus the Great marches into the city of Babylon, releasing the Jews from almost 70 years of exile. Cyrus allows the Jews to return to Yehud Medinata and rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem.
  • 1091
    London Tornado of 1091: A tornado thought to be of strength T8/F4 strikes the heart of London.
  • 1604
    Kepler’s Star: German astronomer Johannes Kepler observes a supernova in the constellation Ophiuchus.
  • 1660
    Nine Regicides, the men who signed the death warrant of Charles I, are hanged, drawn and quartered.
  • 1662
    Charles II of England sells Dunkirk to France for 40,000 pounds.
  • 1771
    Premiere in Milan of the opera Ascanio in Alba, composed by Wolfgang Mozart, age 15.
  • 1800
    Britain takes control of the Dutch colony of Curaçao.
  • 1888
    Thomas Edison files a patent for the Optical Phonograph (the first movie).
  • 1907
    Guglielmo Marconi’s company begins the first commercial transatlantic wireless service between Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada and Clifden, Ireland.
  • 1912
    Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia declare war on the Ottoman Empire, joining Montenegro in the First Balkan War.
  • 1941
    For the first time in World War II, a German submarine attacks an American ship.
  • 1941
    German troops execute the male population of the villages Kerdyllia in Serres, Greece.
  • 1943
    Burma Railway (Burma-Thailand Railway) is completed.
  • 1945
    A massive number of people, headed by CGT and Evita, gather in the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina to demand Juan Peron’s release. It calls “el día de la lealtad peronista” (peronista loyalty day)
  • 1945
    Archbishop Damaskinos of Athens becomes Prime Minister of Greece between the pull-out of the German occupation force in 1944 and the return of King Georgios II to Greece.
  • 1966
    A fire at a building in New York, New York kills 12 firefighters, the New York City Fire Department’s deadliest day until the September 11, 2001 attacks.
  • 1979
    Mother Teresa awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
  • 1979
    The Department of Education Organization Act is signed into law creating the US Department of Education and US Department of Health and Human Services.
  • 1989
    1989 Loma Prieta earthquake (7.1 on the Richter scale) hits the San Francisco Bay Area and causes 57 deaths directly (and 6 indirectly).
  • 2010
    Mary MacKillop is canonized (in Rome) and becomes the first saint of Australia.

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