Browse events, births, deaths and holidays on April 17 throughout history.
On 9 April 2021, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, the husband of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms, and the longest-serving royal consort…
The funeral of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, takes place at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government responsible for the United States' civil space program and for research i…
NASA's Kepler space telescope confirms the discovery of the first Earth-size planet in the habitable zone of another sta
On April 17, 2013, an ammonium nitrate explosion occurred at the West Fertilizer Company storage and distribution facility in West, Texas, United States, while emergency services …
An explosion at a fertilizer plant in the city of West, Texas, kills 15 people and injures 160 others
Palestinians are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. They represent a highly homogeneous community who share a cultural and ethnic identity, s…
A Palestinian suicide bomber detonates an explosive device in a Tel Aviv restaurant, killing 11 people and injuring 70
Anneli Tuulikki Jäätteenmäki is a Finnish politician who was the first female and 39th prime minister of Finland from 17 April 2003 to 24 June 2003. From 2004 until 2019, she serv…
Anneli Jäätteenmäki takes office as the first female prime minister of Finland
Space Shuttle Columbia (OV-102) was a Space Shuttle orbiter manufactured by Rockwell International and operated by NASA. Named after the first American ship to circumnavigate the …
Space Shuttle Columbia is launched on STS-90, the final Spacelab mission
Katina P was a Greek oil tanker carrying 72,000 tonnes of oil which sank off the Mozambique coast on 26 April 1992.
The Katina P is deliberately run aground off Maputo, Mozambique, and 60,000 tons of crude oil spill into the ocean
The Three Hundred and Thirty Five Years' War was an alleged state of war between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly. It is said to have been extended by the lack of a peace t…
An alleged state of war lasting 335 years between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly declared peace bringing an end
The Constitution Act, 1982 is a part of the Constitution of Canada. The Act was introduced as part of Canada's process of patriating the constitution, introducing several amendmen…
Constitution Act, 1982 Patriation of the Canadian constitution in Ottawa by Proclamation of Elizabeth II, Queen of Canad
Mir Akbar Khyber was an Afghan left-wing intellectual and a leader of the Parcham faction of People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA). His assassination by an unidentified …
Mir Akbar Khyber is assassinated, provoking the Saur Revolution in Afghanistan
The Cambodian Civil War was a civil war in Cambodia fought between the Khmer Rouge, supported by North Vietnam and China, against the government of the Kingdom of Cambodia and, af…
The Cambodian Civil War ends and the Cambodian Genocide begins
The Provisional Government of Bangladesh, popularly known as the Mujibnagar Government and also known as the Bangladeshi government-in-exile, was the first and founding government…
The Provisional Government of Bangladesh is formed
The Apollo program, also known as Project Apollo, was the United States human spaceflight program led by NASA, which landed the first humans on the Moon in 1969. Apollo was concei…
Apollo program: The damaged Apollo 13 spacecraft returns to Earth safely
Sirhan Bishara Sirhan is a Palestinian-Jordanian man who assassinated U.S. senator Robert F. Kennedy, the younger brother of U.S. president John F. Kennedy and a candidate for the…
Sirhan Sirhan is convicted of assassinating Robert F
The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia was a communist and Marxist–Leninist political party in Czechoslovakia that existed between 1921 and 1992. It was a member of the Comintern. …
Communist Party of Czechoslovakia chairman Alexander Dubček is deposed
Geraldine "Jerrie" Fredritz Mock was an American pilot and the first woman to fly solo around the world. She flew a single engine Cessna 180 christened the Spirit of Columbus and …
Jerrie Mock completes the first around-the-world airplane flight by a woman
The Bay of Pigs Invasion was a failed military landing operation on the southwestern coast of Cuba in April 1961 by the United States and the Cuban Democratic Revolutionary Front …
Bay of Pigs Invasion: A group of Cuban exiles financed and trained by the CIA lands at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba with the
The Peak District is an upland area in central-northern England, at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire, it extends into Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffords…
The Peak District becomes the United Kingdom's first National Park
Independence Day is Syria's National Day commemorating the evacuation of the last French soldier at the end of the French mandate of Syria on 17 April 1946 after Syria's proclamat…
The last French troops are withdrawn from Syria
Montese is a town in the province of Modena, Emilia-Romagna, Italy.
World War II: Montese, Italy, is liberated from Nazi forces