Historical Events on 17 Jun

Historical Events on 17 Jun

1462 - Vlad III the Impaler attempts to assassinate Mehmed II (The Night Attack) forcing him to retreat from Wallachia.
1497 - Battle of Deptford Bridge - forces under King Henry VII soundly defeat troops led by Michael An Gof.
1565 - Matsunaga Hisahide assassinates the 13th Ashikaga shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiteru.
1579 - Sir Francis Drake claims a land he calls Nova Albion (modern California) for England.
1631 - Mumtaz Mahal dies during childbirth. Her husband, Mughal emperor Shah Jahan I, then spends more than 20 years building her tomb, the Taj Mahal.
1773 - Cúcuta, Colombia is founded by Juana Rangel de Cuéllar
1775 - American Revolutionary War: Battle of Bunker Hill
1789 - In France, the Third Estate declares itself the national assembly.
1839 - In the Kingdom of Hawaii, Kamehameha III issues the Edict of toleration which gives Roman Catholics the freedom to worship in the Hawaiian Islands. The Hawaii Catholic Church and the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace is later established as a result.
1863 - Battle of Aldie in the Gettysburg Campaign of the American Civil War.
1876 - Indian Wars: Battle of the Rosebud - 1,500 Sioux and Cheyenne led by Crazy Horse beat back General George Crook's forces at Rosebud Creek in Montana Territory.
1877 - Indian Wars: Battle of White Bird Canyon - the Nez Perce defeat the US Cavalry at White Bird Canyon in the Idaho Territory.
1885 - The Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbor.
1898 - The United States Navy Hospital Corps is established.
1901 - The College Board introduces its first standardized test, the forerunner to the SAT.
1930 - U.S. President Herbert Hoover signs the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act into law.
1932 - Bonus Army: around a thousand World War I veterans amass at the United States Capitol as the U.S. Senate considers a bill that would give them certain benefits.
1933 - Union Station Massacre: in Kansas City, Missouri, four FBI agents and captured fugitive Frank Nash were gunned down by gangsters attempting to free Nash.
1939 - Last public guillotining in France. Eugen Weidmann, a convicted murderer, is guillotined in Versailles outside the prison Saint-Pierre.
1940 - World War II: Operation Ariel begins - Allied troops start to evacuate France, following Germany's takeover of Paris and most of the nation.
1940 - World War II: sinking of the RMS Lancastria by the Luftwaffe near Saint-Nazaire, France.
1940 - World War II: the British Army's 11th Hussars assault and take Fort Capuzzo in Libya, Africa from Italian forces.
1940 - The three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania fall under the occupation of the Soviet Union.
1944 - Iceland declares independence from Denmark and becomes a republic
1948 - A Douglas DC-6 carrying United Airlines Flight 624 crashes near Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania, killing all 43 people on board.
1953 - Workers Uprising: in East Germany, the Soviet Union orders a division of troops into East Berlin to quell a rebellion.
1958 - The Wooden Roller Coaster at Playland, which is in the Pacific National Exhibition, Vancouver, Canada opened, and is still open to this day
1958 - The Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Crossing being built connecting Vancouver and North Vancouver, Canada, collapses into the Burrard Inlet, killing many of the ironworkers and injuring others.
1961 - The New Democratic Party of Canada is founded with the merger of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and the Canadian Labour Congress.
1963 - The United States Supreme Court rules 8 to 1 in Abington School District v. Schempp against allowing the reciting of Bible verses and the Lord's Prayer in public schools.
1972 - Watergate scandal: five White House operatives are arrested for burglarizing the offices of the Democratic National Committee, in an attempt by some members of the Republican party to illegally wiretap the opposition.
1987 - With the death of the last individual, the Dusky Seaside Sparrow becomes extinct.
1991 - Apartheid: the South African Parliament repeals the Population Registration Act, which had required all racial classification of all South Africans at birth.
1992 - A 'Joint Understanding' agreement on arms reduction is signed by U.S. President George H. W. Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin (this would be later codified in START II).
1994 - Following a televised low-speed highway chase and a failed attempt at suicide, O.J. Simpson is arrested for the murders of his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman.
2008 - First day of legal same-sex marriage in California