On This Day
What Happened on December 17 in History
8 events that happened on December 17, oldest first. Every entry is written in our own words and links to its source.
The Young Republic and the Civil War Era
1862
General Ulysses S. Grant issued General Orders No. 11, expelling Jewish people from his military district.
Grant blamed Jewish traders for the illegal cotton trade that followed his army through Tennessee, Mississippi and Kentucky. Expelled families protested to Congress, and President Lincoln soon ordered Grant to rescind the order.
Source: history.com
1892
Vogue magazine published its first issue.
Founder Arthur Baldwin Turnure aimed the new magazine at Gilded Age high society and its social life, and the first cover showed a debutante. Publisher Conde Nast later bought Vogue, which became a leading voice in fashion and culture.
Source: history.com
The Early 1900s and the World Wars
1903
The Wright brothers made the first successful powered airplane flight near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
Orville Wright piloted the gasoline-powered Wright Flyer for about 12 seconds and 120 feet on the first flight. The brothers, bicycle makers from Dayton, Ohio, flew three more times that day, and Wilbur's last flight covered 852 feet in 59 seconds.
Source: history.com; nps.gov
1944
Waffen SS troops murdered captured American soldiers at Baugnez crossroads in the Malmedy massacre.
On the second day of the Battle of the Bulge, Kampfgruppe Peiper overran a convoy of Battery B, 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion, near Malmedy, Belgium. The Americans who surrendered were lined up in a field and fired upon, and at least 84 U.S. soldiers were killed.
Source: encyclopedia.ushmm.org
The Cold War
1961
A fire swept through a packed circus tent in Niteroi, Brazil, killing more than 300 people.
About 2,500 people, many of them children on summer vacation, were watching the Gran Circo Norte Americano across the bay from Rio de Janeiro when the tent roof caught fire. Many victims were trampled in the rush to escape, and hundreds more were badly injured.
Source: history.com
1963
President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Clean Air Act into law.
The act let federal and state agencies research and regulate air pollution, building on a more limited 1955 law. Johnson had been in office for less than a month, and later amendments made the act one of the most far-reaching air quality laws in the world.
Source: history.com
1969
The U.S. Air Force announced the end of Project Blue Book, its investigation of UFO reports.
From 1947 to 1969 the project logged 12,618 reported sightings, and 701 were never identified. The Air Force said it had found no evidence that the unexplained sightings were extraterrestrial vehicles.
Source: archives.gov; af.mil
The Modern Era
2010
Street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in Tunisia, sparking protests that grew into the Arab Spring.
The 26-year-old fruit seller in Sidi Bouzid acted after an inspector confiscated his goods and officials refused to return them. His protest set off demonstrations across Tunisia and then a wave of uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East.
Source: history.com