- Today in History April 17: 1524 Giovanni Verrazano, a Florentine navigator, discovers New York Bay.,
- 1534 Sir Thomas More confined in the Tower of London,
- 1555 Siena surrenders to Spanish troops.
- 1596 Archduke Albrecht of Austria occupies Calais
- 1704 1st successful US newspaper; published in Boston by John Campbell
- 1747 French troops occupy Zeeuws-Flanders, Netherlands
- 1758 Francis Williams, 1st US black college graduate, publishes poems
- 1774 First Unitarianism church service in England held by Theophilus Lindsey at the Essex Street Capel in London
Today in History April 17: What Happened on This Date?
- 1797 Sir Ralph Abercromby attacks San Juan, Puerto Rico, one of the largest invasions of Spanish territories in America
- 1824 Russia abandons all North American claims south of 54° 40’N
- 1839 Guatemala forms republic
- 1853 Johan Rudolf Thorbecke’s government in the Netherlands resigns
- 1853 US Marine Hospital at Presidio, San Francisco forms
- 1861 Indianola TX – “Star of West” taken by Confederacy
- 1861 Virginia secedes from the Union (US Civil War)
- 1863 Grierson’s raid begins as Colonel Grierson and 1700 horse troopers set off from La Grange, Tennessee
- 1864 Battle of Plymouth, North Carolina
- 1864 Bread revolt in Savannah, Georgia
- 1864 Grant suspends prisoner-of-war exchanges
- 1865 Mary Surratt is arrested as a conspirator in Lincoln’s assassination
- 1869 1st pro baseball games-Cincinnati Reds 24, Cin amateurs 15
- 1875 Modern Snooker invented by Sir Neville Chamberlain, a bored British officer in Jabalpur, India
- 1892 1st Sunday NL baseball game, Reds beat Cards 5-1
- 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki is signed ending the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-95)
- 1899 3rd Boston Marathon won by Lawrence Brignolia in 2:54:38
- 1900 7 high chiefs of American Samoa sign Instrument of Cession
- 1905 US Supreme Court judges maximum work day unconstitutional in Lochner v. New York by declaring the “right to free contract” implicit in the due process clause of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution
- 1905 9th Boston Marathon won by Fred Lorz in 2:38:25.4
- 1912 1st unofficial gold record (Al Jolson’s “Ragging The Baby To Sleep”)
- 1916 20th Boston Marathon won by Arthur Roth in 2:27:16.4
- 1922 26th Boston Marathon won by Clarence DeMar in race record 2:18:10; his 2nd race victory; first of 3 consecutive wins
- 1923 Longest NL opening game, Phillies & Dodgers tie 5-5 in 14
- 1924 Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures & Louis B Mayer Co merged to form Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM)
- 1925 Paul Painlevé succeeds Edouard Herriot as French premier
- 1927 Japan’s Wakarsoeki government falls, Baron Tanaka becomes premier
- 1930 Abkhazian ASSR forms in Georgian SSR
- 1930 DuPont scientist Elmer K. Bolton invents neoprene using Julius Nieuwland’s divinyl acetylene
- 1933 Chicago Bears win their 1st NFL Game beating NY Giants 23-21
- 1933 37th Boston Marathon won by Leslie Pawson in 2:31:01.6
- 1934 New Fenway Park opens, Washington Senators beat Red Sox 6-5
- 1935 Provincial-National elections (Musserts NSB achieves 7.9%, 44 chairs)
- 1939 SN Behrman’s “No Time for Comedy” premieres in NYC
- 1939 43rd Boston Marathon won by Ellison Brown in 2:28:51.8; his second victory in the event
- 1941 British troop land in Iraq
- 1941 US Office of Price Administration forms (handled rationing)
- 1941 World War II: The Kingdom of Yugoslavia surrenders to Germany.
- 1942 12 Lancasters bomb MAN factory in Augsburg
- 1942 Operations begin to destroy Sobibor Concentration Camp
- 1943 SS General Jürgen Stroop arrives in Warsaw
- 1944 48th Boston Marathon won by Gerard Cote of Canada in 2:31:50.4; second straight victory; 3rd of 4 titles
- 1945 8th Air Force bombs Dresden
- 1945 German occupiers flood Wieringermeer, Netherlands
- 1953 Mickey Mantle hits a 565′ (172 m) HR in Washington, D.C.’s Griffith Stadium
- 1956 Bulgaria premier Tchervenkov resigns
- 1956 Premium Savings Bonds introduced in Great Britain
- 1956 USSR’s Cominform (Parliament) dissolves
- 1956 Willie Mosconi sinks 150 consecutive balls in a billiard tournament
- 1958 Brussels World Fair opens in Belgium
- 1960 American Samoa sets up a constitutional government
- 1960 Cleveland Indians trade Rocky Colavito to Tigers for Harvey Kuenn
