February 17

Events197 - Battle of Lugdunum - Roman Emperor Septimius Severus defeats and kills his rival Clodius Albinus, securing full control over the Empire.763 - Shi Chaoyi's head is delivered to Chang'an, ending the An Shi Rebellion.1500 - Battle of Hemmingstedt.1600 - Philosopher Giordano Bruno was burnt alive at Campo de' Fiori in Rome, charged of heresy.1621 - Myles Standish is appointed as first commander of Plymouth colony.1753 - February 17 is followed by March 1 as Sweden moves to the Gregorian from the Julian calendar.1801 - An electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr is resolved when Jefferson is elected President of the United States and Burr Vice President by the United States House of Representatives.1814 - Battle of Mormans.1819 - The United States House of Representatives passes the Missouri Compromise.1854 - The British recognizes the independence of the Orange Free State.1864 - American Civil War:  H. L. Hunley becomes the first submarine to engage and sink a warship, the USS Housatonic.1865 - American Civil War: Columbia, South Carolina burned as Confederate forces flee from advancing Union forces.1867 - The first ship passes through the Suez Canal.1871 - The victorious Prussian Army parades though Paris after the end of the Siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War.1913 - The Armory Show opens in New York City, displaying works of artists who are to become some of the most influential painters of the early 20th century.1924 - In Miami, Florida,  Johnny Weissmuller sets a new world record in the 100-yard freestyle swimming competition with a time of 52-2/5 seconds.1925 -  Harold Ross and Jane Grant found The New Yorker magazine; the debut issue is dated February 21, 1925.1933 - The magazine Newsweek is published for the first time.1933 - The Blaine Act ends Prohibition in the United States.1936 - The world's first superhero, The Phantom, makes his first appearance in comics.1944 - World War II: Battle of Eniwetok Atoll begins. The battle ends in an American victory on February 22.1944 - World War II: Operation Hailstone begins. U.S. naval air, surface, and submarine attack against Truk (Chuuk), Japan's main base in the central Pacific, in support of the Eniwetok invasion.1947 - The Voice of America begins to transmit radio broadcasts into the Soviet Union.1957 - A fire at a home for the elderly in Warrenton, Missouri kills 72 people.1958 - Pope Pius XII declares Saint Clare of Assisi (1193~1253) the patron saint of television.1959 - Project Vanguard: Vanguard 2 - The first weather satellite launched to measure cloud-cover distribution.1962 - A storm kills more than 300 people in Hamburg, West Germany.1964 - In Wesberry v. Sanders the Supreme Court of the United States rules that congressional districts have to be approximately equal in population.1968 - In Springfield, Massachusetts the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame opens.1972 - Sales of the Volkswagen Beetle model exceed those of Ford Model-T. 1974 - Robert K. Preston, a disgruntled U.S. Army private, buzzes the White House with a stolen helicopter.1979 - The Sino-Vietnamese War begins.1992 - A court in Milwaukee, Wisconsin sentences serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer to life in prison. 1995 - Colin Ferguson is convicted of six counts of murder for the December 1993 Long Island Rail Road shootings and later receives a 200+ year sentence. 1995 - The Cenepa War between Peru and Ecuador ends on a cease-fire brokered by the UN.1996 - In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, world champion Garry Kasparov beats the Deep Blue supercomputer in a chess match.2000 - Microsoft releases Windows 20002003 - The London Congestion Charge scheme begins.2006 - Over 1,000 people perished and buried alive in the town of St. Bernard in Southern Leyte, Philippines mudslide.2009 -  Analog television broadcasts are scheduled to end in the United States, as the Federal Communications Commission will require all stations to send their signals digitally.
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