October 17: What Happened on This Day in History (High_school Level)?

(Page last edited 10/12/2017)

1. 1091 - London Tornado of 1091: A tornado thought to be of strength T8/F4 strikes the heart of London.
2. 1604 - Kepler's Star: German astronomer Johannes Kepler observes a supernova in the constellation Ophiuchus.
3. 1771 - Premiere in Milan of the opera Ascanio in Alba, composed by Wolfgang Mozart, age 15.
4. 1860 - First The Open Championship (referred to in North America as the British Open).
5. 1907 - Guglielmo Marconi's company begins the first commercial transatlantic wireless service between Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada and Clifden, Ireland.
6. 1956 - Donald Byrne Vs. Bobby Fischer play a famous chess game called The Game of the Century. Fischer beat Byrne and wins a Brilliancy prize.
7. 1965 - The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair closes after a two year run. More than 51 million people had attended the two-year event.
8. 1979 - Mother Teresa awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
9. 1989 - 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake (7.1 on the Richter scale) hits the San Francisco Bay Area and causes 57 deaths directly (and 6 indirectly).
10. 2003 - The pinnacle is fitted on the roof of Taipei 101, a 101-floor skyscraper in Taipei, allowing it to surpass the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur by 56 metres (184 ft) and become theWorld's tallest highrise.
11. Famous Birthdays: Pope John Paul I, Jerry Siegel (American cartoonist), Robert Atkins (American nutritionist), Evel Knievel (American motorcycle daredevil), Herbert Howells (English composer)

For famous birthdays and other daily events in history, visit our Daily Dose Activities.

Click Here for Yesterday in History: October 16

Click Here for Tomorrow in History: October 18

For more history resources on Internet 4 Classrooms, visit our Social Studies and History index. For Pre K-8th Grade Level History and Social Studies Resources, visit our Grade Level Index.