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On this day in History Archives
 
At PaulsQuiz.com we aim to provide you with as much information as we possibly can. That's why we have built our On This Day in History section, to do just that. Our database is forever growing, we're adding more and more events from history to help you write your quiz questions.

Simply enter a date using the drop-down boxes below and click the 'Go' button to display events from the past that ocurred on that day.
 

 
17 December, 2005
Anti-WTO protesters riot in Wan Chai, Hong Kong
17 December, 2003
SpaceShipOne flight 11P, piloted by Brian Binnie, makes the first privately-funded manned supersonic flight.
17 December, 2002
Second Congo War: The Congolese parties of the Inter Congolese Dialogue sign a peace accord which makes provision for transitional governance and legislative and presidential elections within two years.
17 December, 1999
The United Nations General Assembly passes resolution 54/134 designating November 25 as the annual International Day to Eliminate Violence Against Women.
17 December, 1989
Romanian Revolution: Protests continue in Timisoara with rioters breaking into the Romanian Communist Partys District Committee building and attempting to set it on fire.
17 December, 1989
First free elections in Brazil in 25 years.
17 December, 1989
Premiere of hit animated television series The Simpsons.
17 December, 1987
Mega Man makes his debut on the NES in the video game Mega Man.
17 December, 1983
The IRA bomb Harrods Department Store in London, killing seven people (see Harrods bombing).
17 December, 1981
Brigadier General James L. Dozier is abducted by the Red Brigade in Verona, Italy.
17 December, 1981
Founding of the Senegambia Confederation.
17 December, 1978
The Workers Party of Jamaica is founded by Trevor Munroe.
17 December, 1973
32 are killed in an attempt at the Rome Fiumicino Airport.
17 December, 1970
Polish 1970 protests: In Gdynia, soldiers fire at workers emerging from trains, killing dozens.
17 December, 1969
The SALT I talks begin.
17 December, 1969
Project Blue Book: The USAF closes its study of UFOs, stating that sightings were generated as a result of "A mild form of mass hysteria, Individuals who fabricate such reports to perpetrate a hoax or seek publicity, psychopathological persons, and misidentification of various conventional objects."
17 December, 1967
Prime Minister of Australia Harold Holt disappears while swimming near Portsea, Victoria and was presumed drowned.
17 December, 1961
History of Goa: Operation Vijay - India seizes Goa from Portugal.
17 December, 1944
World War II: Battle of the Bulge - Malmedy massacre - American 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion POWs are shot by Waffen-SS Kampfgruppe Peiper.
17 December, 1941
World War II: Beginning of the Siege of Sebastopol.
17 December, 1941
World War II: Japanese forces land in Northern Borneo.
17 December, 1939
World War II: Battle of the River Plate - The Admiral Graf Spee is scuttled by Captain Hans Langsdorff outside Montevideo.
17 December, 1935
First flight of the Douglas DC-3 airplane.
17 December, 1919
Uruguay becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
17 December, 1903
The Wright Brothers made their first powered and heavier-than-air flight in the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
17 December, 1862
American Civil War: General Ulysses S. Grant issues General Order No. 11, expelling Jews from Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky.
17 December, 1834
The Dublin and Kingstown Railway opened in Ireland, the first public railway on the island of Ireland.
17 December, 1819
Simón Bolívar declares the independence of the Republic of Gran Colombia in Angostura (now Ciudad Bolívar in Venezuela).
17 December, 1807
France issues the Milan Decree, which confirms the Continental System.
17 December, 1770
Ludwig van Beethoven is baptized at Bonn.
17 December, 1718
Great Britain declares war on Spain.
17 December, 1637
Shimabara Rebellion: Japanese peasants led by Amakusa Shiro rise against daimyo Matsukura Shigeharu.
17 December, 1600
Marriage of Henry IV of France and Marie de Medici.
17 December, 1586
Emperor Go-Yozei becomes Emperor of Japan.
17 December, 1577
Francis Drake set sail from Plymouth, England, on a secret mission to explore the Pacific Coast of the Americas for British Queen Elizabeth I.
17 December, 1538
Pope Paul III excommunicates Henry VIII of England.
17 December, 1531
Pope Clement VII established a parallel to the Inquisition in Lisbon, Portugal.
17 December, 1398
Sultan Mehmuds armies in Delhi defeated by Timur.
17 December, 942
Assassination of William I of Normandy.
17 December, 920
Romanos I is crowned co-emperor of the underage Emperor Constantine VII.
17 December, 546
Gothic War (535–552): The Ostrogoths of King Totila conquer Rome bribing the Byzantine garrison.

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