February 17 in History

Significant events that happened on this day.

Historical Events

2008

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia, becoming Europe's youngest country

This declaration came nine years after the Kosovo War and NATO intervention. Serbia refused to recognize the independence, creating a diplomatic stand...

2006

A massive mudslide buried the Philippine village of Guinsaugon, killing over 1,000 people

After ten days of heavy rain, an entire mountainside collapsed onto the farming village. Only 57 people survived out of a population of 1,857. Rescue...

1996

Chess champion Garry Kasparov defeated IBM's Deep Blue supercomputer in their first match

Kasparov won the six-game match 4-2, proving human intuition could still beat machine calculation. However, Deep Blue would get its revenge in a 1997...

1979

China invaded Vietnam in the brief Sino-Vietnamese War

This conflict between two communist nations shocked the world. China launched the invasion to punish Vietnam for its invasion of Cambodia and to test...

1972

Volkswagen's Beetle officially became the world's best-selling car, surpassing the Ford Model T

The 15,007,034th Beetle rolled off the production line, breaking Ford's 47-year record. The 'people's car' originally designed under Hitler's regime h...

1963

Basketball legend Michael Jordan was born in Brooklyn, New York

Major

The man who would become 'His Airness' and win six NBA championships almost didn't make his high school varsity team. He would go on to become arguabl...

1959

The United States launched Vanguard 2, the first weather satellite

This satellite was designed to measure cloud cover distribution over the Earth. Although its mission was only partially successful due to technical is...

1933

Newsweek magazine published its first issue

Originally called 'News-Week,' it was founded as a competitor to Time magazine. The first issue cost 10 cents and had just 7 pages of ads. It would go...

1924

The tomb of King Tutankhamun was officially opened in Egypt

Major

Howard Carter opened the sealed doorway to the burial chamber, revealing the pharaoh's sarcophagus. This became one of archaeology's greatest discover...

1864

The Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley became the first submarine to sink an enemy ship in combat

Major

The hand-cranked submarine sank the USS Housatonic in Charleston Harbor during the Civil War. Tragically, the Hunley and its entire crew were lost imm...

1801

The House of Representatives broke a tie and elected Thomas Jefferson as the third U.S. President

Major

After 36 ballots in the Electoral College tie between Jefferson and Aaron Burr, the House finally chose Jefferson. This constitutional crisis led to t...

1600

Philosopher Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake in Rome for heresy

Major

Bruno was executed for his support of Copernican heliocentrism and his belief in an infinite universe with countless worlds. The Catholic Church consi...