1917

Decades: 1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s - 1910s - 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s

Years: 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 - 1917 - 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922

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 a day after Germany announced a new policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.
• 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 filibusters.
• 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.
• May 13 - Three peasant children claim to see the Virgin Mary above a holmoak tree in Cova da Irianear 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 15 - The United States enacts the Espionage Act that suspends constitutional freedoms.
• 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 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.
• 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'état 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 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 declares its independence.
• December 6 - Belgian Ship Imo collided with French ship Mont Blanc at Halifax. Mont Blanc was loaded with ammunition and caught fire; eventually exploding at 9:06am, taking most of Halifax with it. Until Hiroshima, this incident was the biggest manmade explosion ever.
• December 25 - Why Marry?, first dramatic play to win a Pulitzer Prize, opens at the Astor Theatre in New York City.

• Halifax explosion kills more than 1900 people, destroys part of the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia.
• Lions Clubs International was formed.
• First commercially issued recordings of jazz music, by Original Dixieland Jass Band.
• Conscription crisis in Canada.

Ongoing events

• World War I (1914-1918)
• Armenian Genocide (1915-1918)
• Hellenic Holocaust (1914-1922)

Year in topic

• 1917 in film
  • Technicolor is introduced
• 1917 in literature
• 1917 in music
• 1917 in science
• 1917 in sports
  • March 25 - Seattle Metropolitains 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)
• 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)
• 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 Rodríguez Sánchez), 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)
• September 13 - Robert Ward, composer (d. 1994)
• 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

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
• 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.

Referenced By