Feb 28th, 2005, 05:41 PM
April 17th
Events
1861 - American Civil War: Virginia secedes from the Union.
1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Plymouth, North Carolina begins - Confederate forces attack Plymouth, North Carolina.
1865 - Mary Surratt is arrested as a conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
1895 - The Treaty of Maguan (also as "Treaty of Shimonoseki") was signed between China and Japan.
1941 - World War II: Kingdom of Yugoslavia surrenders to Germany.
1942 - POW French General Henri Giraud escapes from his castle prison in Festung Königstein.
1945 - In Strassfurt, Germany, U.S. Lieutenant Colonel Boris T. Pash seizes half a ton of uranium, in an attempt to foil Soviet Union plans to build an atomic bomb.
1961 - Bay of Pigs Invasion begins: A group of CIA-financed and -trained Cuban refugees lands at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba with the aim of ousting Fidel Castro.
1964 - Jerrie Mock becomes the first woman to circumnavigate the world by air.
1969 - Sirhan Sirhan is convicted of assassinating Robert F. Kennedy.
1970 - Apollo program: The ill-fated Apollo 13 spacecraft returns to Earth safely.
1975 - Cambodian Civil War ends: The Khmer Rouge captures the capital Phnom Penh and Cambodian government forces surrender.
1984 - WPC Yvonne Fletcher is killed by automatic gunfire fire from Libyan People's Bureau in central London. She had been policing a small demonstration outside the embassy. Ten other people are wounded. The events lead to an 11 day siege of the building.
1991 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 3,000 for the first time ever (3,004.46).
2002 - Four Canadian infantrymen are killed in Afghanistan by friendly fire from two U.S. F-16s.
Births
1598 - Giovanni Riccioli, Italian astronomer (d. 1671)
1863 - Augustus Edward Hough Love, mathematician (d. 1940)
1882 - Artur Schnabel, Polish pianist (d. 1951)
1885 - Isak Dinesen, Danish author (d. 1962)
1894 - Nikita Khrushchev, Soviet politician and Premier 1958-1964 (d. 1971)
1903 - Gregor Piatigorsky, Russian cellist (d. 1976)
1915 - Joe Foss, soldier, politician (d. 2003)
1917 - Bill Clements, governor of Texas
1918 - William Holden, actor (d. 1981)
1923 - Lindsay Anderson, director (d. 1994)
1923 - Harry Reasoner, journalist (d. 1991)
1948 - Jan Hammer, composer
1964 - Maynard James Keenan, Frontman of the band Tool
Deaths
487 - Proclus, Neoplatonic philosopher (b. 412)
1790 - Benjamin Franklin, politician, inventor, diplomat, printer (b. 1706)
1799 - Richard Jupp, English architect (b. 1728)
1843 - Samuel Morey, American inventor (b. 1762)
1942 - Jean Perrin physicist (b. 1870)
1975 - Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, philosopher (b. 1888)
2003 - Dr. Robert Atkins, developed the Atkins Nutritional Approach
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