Today In History - October 17

532 Boniface II ends his reign as Catholic Pope
1492 Columbus sights the isle of San Salvador
1691 New royal charter for Massachusetts
1777 British General John Burgoyne surrenders at Saratoga
1781 Cornwallis is defeated at Yorktown
1787 Boston blacks petition the legislature for equal school facilities
1855 The Bessemer steelmaking process is patented
1860 The first pro golf tournament is held
1868 The Constitution of Grand Duchy of Luxembourg comes into effect
1871 President Grant suspends writ of habeas corpus
1894 The Ohio National Guard kills 3 vigilantes while rescuing a black man from hanging
1899 The Sutro railroad is sold to Robert F. Morrow for $215,000
1904 The Bank of Italy (Bank of America) opens its doors to the public
1918 Yugoslavia proclaims itself a republic
1919 Radio Corporation of America (RCA) is created
1931 Al Capone is convicted of tax evasion and sentenced to 11 years in prison
1933 Albert Einstein arrives in the US as a refugee from Nazi Germany
1934 "The Aldrich Family" premieres on radio
1941 The first US destroyer the "Kearney" is torpedoed in WW II
1955 Lee Meriwether joins the Today Show panel
1956 England's first large scale nuclear power station opens
1957 Britain's Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip visit the White House
1957 French author Albert Camus is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature
1959 Queen Elizabeth is fined $140 for withdrawing her race horse
1961 New York Museum of Modern Art hung Henri Matisse's "Le Bateau" upside-down: it was corrected two months later
1964 The Yankees fire Manager Yogi Berra
1967 Memorial service for Brian Epstein at New London Synagogue
1967 The play "Hair" is first performed
1973 A 5 month long oil embargo by the Arab states against the US and the Netherlands begins
1977 Canada begins regular live TV coverage of Parliament
1977 West German commandos storm a hijacked Lufthansa flight in Mogadishu, Somalia freeing all 86 hostages and killing 3 of the 4 hijackers
1978 President Carter signs a bill restoring Jefferson Davis' citizenship
1979 Mother Teresa of India is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
1986 The US Senate approved an immigration bill prohibiting the hiring of illegal aliens and offering amnesty to illegal immigrants who entered the US prior to 1982 – it is not enforced
1987 First Lady Nancy Reagan undergoes a modified radical mastectomy
1987 The first World Series game in a covered stadium: Minnesota Metrodome
1988 31 people are reported dead as a Ugandan jetliner crashes in a fog near Rome
1988 Lyndon LaRouche pleads innocent to fraud and conspiracy indictment
1988 Phillip Morris announces $11 Billion tender offer for Kraft
1989 A 6.9 earthquake in San Francisco kills 67 people and cancels the 3rd game of the World Series
1991 News anchor Bree Walker Lampley files an FCC complaint that KFI-AM personally attacked her by discussing her having a deformed baby
1991 Tennessee Ernie Ford dies at age 72

Today In History - October 17

On This Date in History

Famous Persons Born on This Date in History