April 17
Benedict III
858: Benedict III ends his rule as Catholic Pope.
Christopher Columbus
1492: Christopher Columbus signs an agreement with Spain to locate a western route to the Indies.
1524: Present-day New York Harbor is found by Giovanni da Verrazzano.
Antonio Mendoza
1535: Antonio Mendoza is delegated first emissary of New Spain.
1758: Frances Williams, the first African-American to graduate from a university in the western side of the equator,
distributes an accumulation of Latin lyrics.
Napoleon Bonaparte
1808: Bayonne Decree by Napoleon Bonaparte of France requests seizure of U.S. ships.
1824: Russia surrenders all North American claims south of 54' 40'.
1861: Virginia turns into the eighth state to withdraw from the Union.
General Ulysses Grant
1864: General Ulysses Grant bans the exchanging of prisoners.
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Mary Surratt
1865: Mary Surratt is captured as a plotter in Lincoln's death.
1875: The game "snooker" is created by Sir Neville Chamberlain.
1895: China and Japan sign a peace arrangement of Shimonoseki.
1929: Baseball player Babe Ruth and Claire Hodgson, a previous member from the Ziegfeld Follies, get married.
1946: The last French troops leave Syria.
Jackie Robinson
1947: Jackie Robinson hits for his first major league hit.
1961: Some 1,400 Cuban outcasts assault the Bay of Pigs trying to oust Fidel Castro.
Jerrie Mock
1964: Jerrie Mock turns becomes the first lady to fly solo around the world.
Sirhan Sirhan
1969: Sirhan Sirhan is indicted for killing Senator Robert F. Kennedy.
Apollo 13
1970: Apollo 13- - initially planned to arrive on the moon- - arrives back securely on Earth after a mishap.
1975: Khmer Rouge forces capture the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh.
1983: In Warsaw, police defeat 1,000 Solidarity supporters.
Born on April 17
1622: Henry Vaughan, writer
1676: Frederick I, ruler of Sweden
1741: Samuel Chase, signer of the Declaration of Independence
1820: Alexander Cartwright, sportsman, created baseball.
1866: Ernest Henry Starling, British physiologist.
1885: Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen), Danish author (Out of Africa).
1894: Nikita S. Khrushchev, Soviet chief (1958-64).
1897: Thornton Wilder, author and writer (Our Town).
1923: Harry Reasoner, American broadcast columnist.
1928: Cynthia Ozick, author (The Cannibal Galaxy, The Messiah of Stockholm).
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