1917

Years: 1914 1915 1916 - 1917 - 1918 1919 1920
Decades: 1880s 1890s 1900s - 1910s - 1920s 1930s 1940s
Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century 1917 in aviation 1917 in film 1917 in literature 1917 in music 1917 in science 1917 in sports 1917 state leaders 1917 in Canada

Table of contents

1 Events

1.1 Ongoing events

2 Year in topic
3 Births
4 Deaths
5 Nobel Prizes
6 Heads of State

Events

January 2 - The Royal Bank of Canada takes over Quebec Bank.
January 17 - The United States pays Denmark $25 million for the Virgin Islands
January 22 - World War I: President Woodrow Wilson calls for "peace without victory" in Europe.
January 25 - The Danish West Indies is sold to the United States for $25 million
January 28 - The United States ends search for Pancho Villa
January 31 - World War I: Germany announces its U-boats will engage in unrestricted submarine warfare.
February 3 - World War I: The United States breaks off diplomatic relations with Germany
February 5 - The constitution of Mexico is adopted.
February 23 - The Russian Revolution begins with the overthrow of the Tsar system.
February 24 - World War I: United States ambassador to the United Kingdom Walter H. Page is given the Zimmermann Telegram, in which Germany offers to give the American Southwest back to Mexico if Mexico will declare war on the United States.
March 2 - The enactment of the Jones Act grants Puerto Ricans United States citizenship.
March 4 - Jeannette Rankin of Montana becomes the first woman member of the United States House of Representatives.
March 8 - The United States Senate adopts the cloture rule in order to limit filibusterss.
March 15 - Tsar Nicholas II of Russia abdicates and the Russian Revolution begins.
March 21 - The Danish West Indies become the Virgin Islands when Denmark transfers control over the islands to the United States after the purchase of the islands on January 25.
March 26 - World War I: Battle of Gaza - British cavalry troops retreat after 17,000 Turks block their advance.
March 31 - The United States takes possession of the Virgin Islands after paying $25 million to Denmark.
April 2 - World War I: US President Woodrow Wilson asks Congress for a declaration of war on Germany.
April 6 - World War I: United States declares war on Germany. [1]
April 9 - 12 - World War I: Canada wins the Battle of Vimy Ridge.
April 11 - World War I: Brazil severed relations with Germany
May 13 - Three peasant children claim to see the Virgin Mary above a holm oak tree in Cova da Iria near Fatima, Portugal.
May 18 - World War I: The Selective Service Act passes the United States Congress giving the President the power to draft soldiers.
June 5 - World War I: Conscription begins in the United States as "Army registration day."
June 15 - The United States enacts the Espionage Act, which, when combined with the later Sedition Act, suspends constitutional freedom of speech.
June 24 - Freemasonry founded in London.
July 6 - Arabian troops led by T.E. Lawrence capture Aqaba from the Turks.
July 7 - Aleksandr Kerensky forms the Provisional Government in Russia after the deposing of the tsar.
July 17 - King George V of the United Kingdom issues a Proclamation stating that the male line descendants of the British royal family will bear the surname Windsor.
July 20 - Corfu Declaration that enabled post-war Kingdom of Yugoslavia was signed by the Yugoslav Committee and Kingdom of Serbia
July 25 - Sir Thomas Whyte introduces the first income tax in Canada as a "temporary" measure (lowest bracket is 4% and highest is 25%).
October 15 - World War I: At Vincennes outside of Paris, Dutch dancer Mata Hari is executed by firing squad for spying for Germany.
October 19 - Love Field in Dallas, Texas is opened.
October 26 - World War I: Brazil declared in state of war with Germany.
November 2 - Zionism: The Balfour Declaration proclaims British support for Jewish settlement in Palestine.
November 6 - World War I: Third Battle of Ypres ends: After three months of fierce fighting, Canadian forces take Ypres in Belgium.
November 7 - Russian Revolution begins: In Russia, Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin leads his leftist revolutionaries in a nearly bloodless coup d'ÃÂ©tat against the ineffective Kerensky Provisional Government (Russia was still using the Julian Calendar at the time, so period references show a October 25 date).
November 7 - World War I: Battle of Gaza ends - United Kingdom forces capture Gaza from the Ottoman Empire.
November 15 - Finland takes a step towards full sovereignty recognizing the personal union with Russia finished after the Tsar being dethroned
November 20 - World War I: Battle of Cambrai begins - British forces make early progress in an attack on German positions but are soon beat back.
November 20 - Ukraine is declared a republic.
December 3 - After nearly 20 years of planning and construction, the Quebec Bridge opens to traffic (the bridge partially collapsed on August 29, 1907 and September 11, 1916).
December 6 - Finland's declaration of independence.
December 6 - Halifax explosion: A ship collision in the harbour at Halifax, Nova Scotia causes a huge explosion that kills more than 1900 people and destroys part of the city. Until Hiroshima, this was the biggest manmade explosion.
December 25 - Why Marry, first dramatic play to win a Pulitzer Prize, opens at the Astor Theatre in New York City.
Lions Clubs International was formed.
First commercially issued recordings of jazz music, by Original Dixieland Jazz Band.
Conscription crisis in Canada.

Ongoing events

Year in topic

1917 in aviation
1917 in film
- Technicolor is introduced
1917 in literature
1917 in music
1917 in science
1917 in sports
- March 25 - Seattle Metropolitans become first U. S. team to win Stanley Cup
- November 22 - In Montreal, Canada, the National Hockey Association breaks up (on November 26 it was replaced with the National Hockey League).

Births

January 10 - Hilde Krahl, actress (d. 1999)
January 10 - Jerry Wexler, record producer
January 24 - Ernest Borgnine, actor
January 25 - Ilya Prigogine, winner, Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1977 (d. 2003)
January 29 - John Raitt, actor, singer
February 4 - Yahya Khan, President of Pakistan, (d. 1980)
February 6 - Zsa Zsa Gabor, actress
February 11 - Richard Jock Kinneir, graphic designer.
February 11 - Sidney Sheldon, author.
February 14 - Herbert A. Hauptman, biophysicist, winner Nobel Prize in Chemistry
February 19 - Carson McCullers, author (d. 1967)
February 25 - Anthony Burgess, author of Clockwork Orange (d. 1993)
February 27 - John Connally, Governor of Texas (d. 1993)
March 1 - Robert Lowell, poet (d. 1977)
March 2 - Desi Arnaz, actor, bandleader, musician (d. 1986)
March 19 - Dinu Lipatti, pianist (d. 1950)
March 20 - Dame Vera Lynn, actress, singer
March 27 - Cyrus Vance, United States politician (d. 2002)
April 17 - Bill Clements, governor of Texas
April 25 - Ella Fitzgerald, jazz singer (d. 1996)
May 14 - Lou Harrison, composer (d. 2003)
May 21 - Raymond Burr, actor (d. 1993)
May 22 - Georg Tintner, conductor (d. 1999)
May 28 - Papa John Creech (d. 1994)
May 29 - John Kennedy, United States President (d. 1963)
July 4 - Manolete (Manuel RodrÃÂguez SÃÂ¡nchez), bullfighter (d. 1947)
August 15 - Jack Lynch, Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland (d. 1999)
August 22 - John Lee Hooker, blues musician (d. 2001)
August 28 - Jack Kirby (comic book artist) (d. 1994)
August 29 - Isabel Sanford, actress (All in the Family, The Jeffersons) (d. 2004)
September 11 - Ferdinand Edralin Marcos, Philippine President and strongman
September 13 - Robert Ward, composer (d. 1994)
September 25 - Johnny Sain, baseball pitcher
October 15 - Jan Miner, American actress (d. 2004)
October 21 - Dizzy Gillespie, American jazz musician (d. 1993)
October 30 - Maurice Trintignant, F1 race car driver
November 11 - Madeleine Damerment, WW II heroine, executed by the Nazis (d. 1944)
December 6 - Eliane Plewman, WW II heroine, executed by the Nazis (d. 1944)
December 6 - Kamal Jumblatt, leader of the Lebanese Druze (d. 1977)
December 22 - Gene Rayburn, television host (d. 1999)
December 30 - Seymour Melman, industrial engineer
Sultan Yahya Petra ibni Almarhum Sultan Ibrahim Petra, later Sultan of Kelantan and 6th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.

Deaths

January 10 - William F. Cody, frontiersman
January 16 - George Dewey, Admiral
March 17 - Franz Brentano, German philosopher and psychologist
March 31 - Emil Adolf von Behring, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1901
April 1 - Scott Joplin, musician, composer
April 14 - L. L. Zamenhof, creator of Esperanto, homaranismo, and the daisy-wheel typewriting mechanism
May 17 - Charles Anthoni Johnson Brooke, ruler of Sarawak
May 20 - Philipp von Ferrary, stamp collector
June 30 - Antonio de La Gandara, painter
September 27 - Edgar Degas, painter
October 13 - Florence La Badie, pioneer actress
October 15 - Mata Hari, Dutch dancer and spy (executed)
October 28 - Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, husband of Princess Helena of the United Kingdom, aunt of King George V.
November 17 - Auguste Rodin, sculptor
John William Waterhouse, Artist

Nobel Prizes

Physics - Charles Glover Barkla
Chemistry - not awarded
Medicine - not awarded
Literature - Karl Adolph Gjellerup, Henrik Pontoppidan
Peace - International Red Cross, Geneva.

Heads of State

China -
1. Li YÃÂ¼an-hung, Warlord (1916-1917)
2. Feng Kuo-chang, Warlord (1917-1918)
Denmark - Christian X, King of Denmark (1912-1947)
Germany - Wilhelm II, German Kaiser (1888-1918)
Holy See - Pope Benedict XV, Bishop of Rome (1914-1922)
Japan - Yoshihito, Taisho Emperor (1912-1926)
Norway - Haakon VII, King of Norway (1905-1957)
Ottoman Empire - Mehmed V, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1909-1918)
Russia -
1. Nicholas II, Tsar of Russia (1894-1917)
2. Prince Georgy Lvov, Prime Minister of the Provisional Government (1917)
3. Alexander Kerensky, Prime Minister of the Provisional Government (1917)
- With the fall of the Kerensky government, Russia (and its territories) became the Soviet Union
Soviet Union - Vladimir Lenin, Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars (1917-1924)
Spain - Alfonso XIII of Spain, King of Spain (1886-1931)
United States - Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States (1913-1921)