Discover what happened on February 17 in history, including major historical events, notable celebrity birthdays, and fun Days of the Year celebrations.
TODAY IN HISTORY:
1801 – The U.S. House of Representatives broke an electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr. Jefferson was elected President and Burr became Vice President.
1817 – In Baltimore, MD, gas-lit streetlights were used for the first time.
1864 – Dmitri Mendeleev sorted elements by weights and properties and developed the first Periodic Table.
1876 – Julius Wolff became the first person to can sardines.
1878 – In San Francisco, CA, the first large city telephone exchange opened. It had only 18 phones.
1897 – The National Congress of Mothers was organized in Washington, DC, by Alice McLellan Birney and Phoebe Apperson Hearst. It was the forerunner of the National PTA.
1933 – The magazine “Newsweek” was published for the first time.
1933 – The Blaine Act ended Prohibition in the United States.
1933 – Blondie Boopadoop married Dagwood Bumstead three years after the debut of Chic Young’s popular comic strip “Blondie”.
1934 – The first high school automobile driver’s education course was introduced in State College, PA.
1959 – The first weather satellite, Vanguard 2, was launched to measure cloud-cover distribution.
1964 – In Wesberry vs. Sanders, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that congressional districts within each state had to be approximately equal in population.
1965 – The Ranger 8 probe launched on its mission to take photos of the Mare Tranquillitatis region of the Moon in preparation for the crewed Apollo missions.
1965 – Comedienne Joan Rivers made her first guest appearance on television’s “The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson” on NBC.
1974 – A disgruntled U.S. Army private, Robert K. Preston, buzzed the White House in a stolen helicopter.
1985 – U.S. Postage stamp prices went from 20 cents to 22 cents for first class mail.
1992 – In Milwaukee, WI, serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was sentenced to life in prison. In November of 1994, he was beaten to death in prison.
1996 – NASA’s Discovery Program began as the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft lifted off on the first mission ever to orbit and land on an asteroid (433 Eros).
1996 – World chess champion Garry Kasparov beat the IBM supercomputer “Deep Blue” in a chess match in Philadelphia, PA.
2002 – “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” passed “Star Wars: Episode One” to become the second highest-grossing movie of all time, earning $926 million at the box office. “Titanic”, with ticket sales of $1.8 billion remained the leader.
2004 – The Michigan Senate passed a bill forbidding mothers from breastfeeding their children in the front seat of a car.
2005 – President George W. Bush named John Negroponte as the first National Intelligence Director.
2007 – Britney Spears checked into — then out of — rehab, and had her head shaved at a California salon.
2014 – Jimmy Fallon made his debut as host of television’s “The Tonight Show” on NBC.
BIRTHDAYS:
Christina Pickles – 91 years old (1935) – English-American actress
Shahrnush Parsipur – 80 years old (1946) – Iranian-American author and academic
Becky Ann Baker – 73 years old (1953) – Actress
Lou Ann Barton – 72 years old (1954) – Singer-songwriter
Rene Russo – 72 years old (1954) – Actress
Richard Karn – 70 years old (1956) – Actor and game show host
Rowdy Gaines – 67 years old (1959) – Swimmer and sportscaster
Lou Diamond Phillips – 64 years old (1962) – Actor and director
Larry the Cable Guy – 63 years old (1963) – Comedian and voice actor
Jen-Hsun Huang – 63 years old (1963) – Taiwanese-American businessman, co-founded Nvidia
Michael Jordan – 63 years old (1963) – Basketball player, executive, and businessman
Michael Bay – 61 years old (1965) – Director and producer
Denise Richards – 55 years old (1971) – Model and actress
Billie Joe Armstrong – 54 years old (1972) – Singer-songwriter, guitarist, actor, and producer
Drew Barry – 53 years old (1973) – Basketball player
Jerry O'Connell – 52 years old (1974) – Actor, director, and producer
Kelly Carlson – 50 years old (1976) – Actress and model
Conrad Ricamora – 47 years old (1979) – Actor
Josh Willingham – 47 years old (1979) – Baseball player
Al Harrington – 46 years old (1980) – Basketball player
Jason Ritter – 46 years old (1980) – Actor
Joseph Gordon-Levitt – 45 years old (1981) – Actor, director, and producer
Paris Hilton – 45 years old (1981) – Model, media personality, actress, singer, DJ, author and businesswoman
Brian Bruney – 44 years old (1982) – Baseball player
Brett Kern – 40 years old (1986) – Football player
Case Keenum – 38 years old (1988) – Football player
Chord Overstreet – 37 years old (1989) – Actor and singer
Phil Pressey – 35 years old (1991) – Basketball player and coach
Jeremy Allen White – 35 years old (1991) – Actor
Meaghan Martin – 34 years old (1992) – Actress and singer
Mason Jobst – 32 years old (1994) – Ice hockey player
Madison Keys – 31 years old (1995) – Tennis player
Sasha Pieterse – 30 years old (1996) – South African-American actress and singer-songwriter
Devin White – 28 years old (1998) – Football player
TODAY IS:
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For additional information check out websites like: www.on-this-day.com, www.born-today.com, www.famousbirthdays.com, www.daysoftheyear.com, and www.nationaldaycalendar.com.
