September 17:: Historical Events

Events

• 1176 - The Battle of Myriokephalon is fought.


• 1462 - The Battle of Świecino (or Battle of Żarnowiec) is fought during Thirteen Years' War.


• 1577 - Peace of Bergerac signed between Henry III of France and the Huguenots.


• 1630 - The city of Boston, Massachusetts, is founded.


• 1631 - Sweden wins a major victory at the Battle of Breitenfeld against the Holy Roman Empire during the Thirty Years War.


• 1776 - The Presidio of San Francisco is founded in New Spain.


• 1778 - Treaty of Fort Pitt signed, the first formal treaty between the United States and a Native American tribe (the Lenape or Delaware).


• 1787 - The United States Constitution is signed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.


• 1809 - Peace between Sweden and Russia in the Finnish War. The territory to become Finland is ceded to Russia by the Treaty of Fredrikshamn.


• 1814 - Francis Scott Key finishes his The Star-Spangled Banner poem.


• 1859 - Joshua A. Norton declares himself Emperor Norton I of the United States.


• 1862 - American Civil War: George B. McClellan halts the northward drive of Robert E. Lee's Confederate army in the single-day Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest day in American history.


• 1862 - American Civil War: The Allegheny Arsenal explosion resulted in the single largest civilian disaster during the war


• 1894 - Battle of Yalu River, the largest naval engagement of the First Sino-Japanese War.


• 1900 - Philippine-American War: Filipinos under Juan Cailles defeat Americans under Colonel Benjamin F. Cheatham at Mabitac.


• 1908 - The Wright Flyer flown by Orville Wright, with Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge as passenger, crashes; killing Selfridge. He becomes the first airplane fatality.


• 1914 - Andrew Fisher becomes Prime Minister of Australia for the third time.


• 1916 - World War I: Manfred von Richthofen ("The Red Baron"), a flying ace of the German Luftstreitkräfte, won his first aerial combat near Cambrai, France.


• 1920 - National Football League is organized in Canton, Ohio, United States.


• 1924 - The Border Defence Corps was established in the Second Polish Republic for the defence of the eastern border against armed Soviet raids and local bandits.


• 1928 - The Okeechobee Hurricane strikes southeastern Florida, killing upwards of 2,500 people. It is the third deadliest natural disaster in US history, behind the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.