June 17
0362 - Emperor Julian issued an edict banning Christians from teaching in Syria.
1579 - Sir Francis Drake claimed San Francisco Bay for England. (California)
1775 - The British took Bunker Hill outside of Boston.
1789 - The Third Estate in France declared itself a national assembly, and began to frame a constitution.
1799 - Napoleon Bonaparte incorporated Italy into his empire.
1837 - Charles Goodyear received his first patent. The patent was for a process that made rubber easier to work with.
1848 - Austrian General Alfred Windischgratz crushed a Czech uprising in Prague.
1854 - The Red Turban revolt broke out in Guangdong, China.
1856 - The Republican Party opened its first national convention in Philadelphia.
1861 - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln witnessed Dr. Thaddeus Lowe demonstrate the use of a hydrogen balloon.
1872 - George M. Hoover began selling whiskey in Dodge City, Kansas. The town had been dry up until this point.
1876 - General George Crook’s command was attacked and defeated on the Rosebud River by 1,500 Sioux and Cheyenne under the leadership of Crazy Horse.
1879 - Thomas Edison received an honorary degree of Doctor of Philosophy from the trustees of Rutgers College in New Brunswick, NJ.
1885 - The Statue of Liberty arrived in New York City aboard the French ship Isere.
1912 - The German Zeppelin SZ 111 burned in its hanger in Friedrichshafen.
1913 - U.S. Marines set sail from San Diego to protect American interests in Mexico.
1917 - The Russian Duma met in a secret session in Petrograd and voted for an immediate Russian offensive against the German Army. (World War I)
1924 - The Fascist militia marched into Rome.
1926 - Spain threatened to quit the League of Nations if Germany was allowed to join.
1928 - Amelia Earhart began the flight that made her the first woman to successfully fly across the Atlantic Ocean.
1930 - The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Bill became law. It placed the highest tariff on imports to the U.S.
1931 - British authorities in China arrested Indochinese Communist leader Ho Chi Minh.
1932 - The U.S. Senate defeated the bonus bill as 10,000 veterans massed around the Capitol.
1940 - The Soviet Union occupied Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.
1940 - France asked Germany for terms of surrender in World War II.
1941 - WNBT-TV in New York City, NY, was granted the first construction permit to operate a commercial TV station in the U.S.
1942 - Yank, a weekly magazine for the U.S. armed services, began publication. The term "G.I. Joe" was first used in a comic strip by Dave Breger.
1942 - "Suspense" debuted on CBS Radio.
1944 - French troops landed on the island of Elba in the Mediterranean.
1944 - The republic of Iceland was established.
1950 - Dr. Richard H. Lawler performed the first kidney transplant in a 45-minute operation in Chicago, IL.
1953 - Soviet tanks fought thousands of Berlin workers that were rioting against the East German government.
1963 - The U.S. Supreme Court banned the required reading of the Lord's prayer and Bible in public schools.
1965 - Twenty-seven B-52’s hit Viet Cong outposts but lost two planes in South Vietnam.
1969 - Boris Spasky became chess champion of the world after checkmating former champion Tigran Petrosian in Moscow.
1970 - North Vietnamese troops cut the last operating rail line in Cambodia.
1982 - Former U.S. President Richard M. Nixon was interviewed by Diane Sawyer on "The CBS Morning News."
1985 - Judy Norton-Taylor was photographed for "Playboy" magazine.
1991 - The Parliament of South Africa repealed the Population Registration Act. The act had required that all South Africans for classified by race at birth.
