17 December on the globe: what happened in the world on this day, and who was born

The first Saturnalia festival is celebrated in ancient Rome.

Siege of Rome: The Ostrogoths under king Totila plunder the city, by bribing the Eastern Roman garrison.

Romanos I Lekapenos is crowned co-emperor of the underage Constantine VII.

Assassination of William Longsword, Count of Normandy.

King Kyawswa of Pagan is overthrown by the three Myinsaing brothers, marking the de facto end of the Pagan Kingdom.

Margaret II, Countess of Hainaut and Holy Roman Empress and her son William I, Duke of Bavaria, sign a peace treaty ending the Hook and Cod wars.

Sultan Nasir-u Din Mehmud's armies in Delhi are defeated by Timur.

Pope Paul III excommunicates Henry VIII of England.

Cologne War: Forces under Ernest of Bavaria defeat troops under Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg at the Siege of Godesberg.

Go-Yōzei becomes Emperor of Japan.

The first account of a blood transfusion is published, in the form of a letter from physician Richard Lower to chemist Robert Boyle, in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society

War of the Quadruple Alliance: Great Britain declares war on Spain.

American Revolution: France formally recognizes the United States.

The Aztec calendar stone is discovered at El Zócalo, Mexico City.

Napoleonic Wars: France issues the Milan Decree, which confirms the Continental System.

War of 1812: U.S. forces attack a Lenape village in the Battle of the Mississinewa.

Simón Bolívar declares the independence of Gran Colombia in Angostura (now Ciudad Bolívar in Venezuela).

The second Great Fire of New York destroys 53,000 square metres (13 acres) of New York City's Financial District.

A fire in the Winter Palace of Saint Petersburg kills 30 guards.

American Civil War: General Ulysses S. Grant issues General Order No. 11, expelling Jews from parts of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky.

First performance of the Unfinished Symphony by Franz Schubert.

First issue of Vogue is published.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's Schenley Park Casino, which was the first multi-purpose arena with the technology to create an artificial ice surface in North America, is destroyed in a fire.

The Wright brothers make the first controlled powered, heavier-than-air flight in the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

Ugyen Wangchuck is crowned first King of Bhutan.

Darwin Rebellion: Up to 1,000 demonstrators march on Government House in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia.

Antanas Smetona assumes power in Lithuania as the 1926 coup d'état is successful.

Indian revolutionary Rajendra Lahiri is hanged in Gonda jail, Uttar Pradesh, India, two days before the scheduled date.

Indian revolutionaries Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev Thapar and Shivaram Rajguru assassinate British police officer James Saunders in Lahore, Punjab, to avenge the death of Lala Lajpat Rai at the hands of the police. The three were executed in 1931.

The first NFL Championship Game is played at Wrigley Field in Chicago between the New York Giants and Chicago Bears. The Bears win 23–21.

Douglas DC-3: The twin-engine airliner makes its maiden flight from Santa Monica.

Otto Hahn discovers the nuclear fission of the heavy element uranium, the scientific and technological basis of nuclear energy.

World War II: Battle of the River Plate: The Admiral Graf Spee is scuttled by Captain Hans Langsdorff outside Montevideo.

All Chinese are again permitted to become citizens of the United States upon the repeal of the Act of 1882 and the introduction of the Magnuson Act.

World War II: Battle of the Bulge: Malmedy massacre: American 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion POWs are shot by Waffen-SS Kampfgruppe Joachim Peiper.

Kurdistan flag day, the flag of Kurdistan is raised for the first time in Mahabad in eastern Kurdistan.

First flight of the Boeing B-47 Stratojet strategic bomber.

The Finnish Security Police is established to remove communist leadership from its predecessor, the State Police.

The F-86 Sabre's first mission over Korea.

The American Civil Rights Congress delivers "We Charge Genocide" to the United Nations.

The United States successfully launches the first Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Munich C-131 crash: Twenty passengers and crew on board as well as 32 people on the ground are killed.

Troops loyal to Emperor Haile Selassie in Ethiopia crush the coup that began December 13, returning power to their leader upon his return from Brazil. Haile Selassie absolves his son of any guilt.

Niterói circus fire: Fire breaks out during a performance by the Gran Circus Norte-Americano in the city of Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, killing more than 500.

Harold Holt, Prime Minister of Australia, disappears while swimming near Portsea, Victoria, and is presumed drowned.

Project Blue Book: The United States Air Force closes its study of UFOs.

Polish protests: In Gdynia, soldiers fire at workers emerging from trains, killing dozens.

Thirty passengers are killed in an attack by Palestinian terrorists on Rome's Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport.

American Brigadier General James L. Dozier is abducted by the Red Brigades in Verona, Italy.

Provisional IRA members detonate a car bomb at Harrods Department Store in London. Three police officers and three civilians are killed.

Fernando Collor de Mello defeats Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the second round of the Brazilian presidential election, becoming the first democratically elected President in almost 30 years.

Romanian Revolution: Protests continue in Timișoara, Romania, with rioters breaking into the Romanian Communist Party's District Committee building and attempting to set it on fire.

The Simpsons premieres on television with the episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire".

American gay rights activist William E. Woods brought three same-sex couples to fill out marriage licenses in Honolulu.

Aerosvit Flight 241: A Yakovlev Yak-42 crashes into the Pierian Mountains near Thessaloniki Airport in Thessaloniki, Greece, killing all 70 people on board.

Peruvian internal conflict: Fourteen members of the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement provoke a hostage crisis by taking over the Japanese embassy in Lima.

Second Congo War: The Congolese parties of the Inter Congolese Dialogue sign a peace accord which makes provision for transitional governance and legislative and presidential elections within two years.

Sex work rights activists establish December 17 (or "D17") as International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers to memorialize victims of a serial killer who targeted prostitutes, and highlight State violence against sex workers by police and others.

SpaceShipOne, piloted by Brian Binnie, makes its first powered and first supersonic flight.

The Soham murder trial ends at the Old Bailey in London, with Ian Huntley found guilty of two counts of murder. His girlfriend, Maxine Carr, is found guilty of perverting the course of justice.

Anti-World Trade Organization protesters riot in Wan Chai, Hong Kong.

Jigme Singye Wangchuck abdicates the throne as King of Bhutan.

MV Danny F II sinks off the coast of Lebanon, resulting in the deaths of 44 people and over 28,000 animals.

Mohamed Bouazizi sets himself on fire. This act became the catalyst for the Tunisian Revolution and the wider Arab Spring.

The United States and Cuba re-establish diplomatic relations after severing them in 1961.

The first victims of a mass methanol poisoning which eventually killed over 70 inhabitants of Irkutsk, Russia, began arriving at hospitals.

Pope Francis, Argentinian Pope of the Catholic Church (died 2025)

Humphry Davy, English chemist and physicist (died 1829)

Milla Jovovich, Ukrainian-American actress

Muhammadu Buhari, Nigerian general and politician, 7th & 15th President of Nigeria (died 2025)

Manny Pacquiao, Filipino boxer and politician

Willard Libby, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1980)

Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, Turkish economist and politician

Chelsea Manning, American soldier and intelligence analyst

Joseph Henry, American physicist and engineer (died 1878)

Giovanni Ribisi, American actor

Martin Ødegaard, Norwegian footballer

Émilie du Châtelet, French mathematician and physicist (died 1749)

Simo Häyhä, Finnish soldier and sniper (died 2002)

André Ayew, Ghanaian footballer

Maria I of Portugal (died 1816)

Laurie Holden, American actress and model

Sarah Paulson, American actress

Yann Sommer, Swiss footballer

Sophus Lie, Norwegian mathematician and academic (died 1899)

Bill Pullman, American actor

William Lyon Mackenzie King, Canadian economist and politician, tenth Prime Minister of Canada (died 1950)

Armin Mueller-Stahl, German actor and painter

Domenico Cimarosa, Italian composer and educator (died 1801)

Erskine Caldwell, American novelist and short story writer (died 1987)

Bernard Hill, English actor (died 2024)

John Abraham, Indian actor and producer

Claire Forlani, English actress

Tim Wiese, German footballer

Katheryn Winnick, Canadian actress

David Rudisha, Kenyan runner

Wes Studi, American actor and producer

Rian Johnson, American director, producer, and screenwriter

Mohammad Hidayatullah, 11th Chief Justice of India, and politician, sixth Vice President of India (died 1992)

John Kennedy Toole, American novelist (died 1969)

John Greenleaf Whittier, American poet and activist (died 1892)

Penelope Fitzgerald, English author and poet (died 2000)

Riteish Deshmukh, Indian film actor, producer and architect

Jules de Goncourt, French author and critic (died 1870)

Ford Madox Ford, English novelist, poet, and critic (died 1939)

Mary Cartwright, English mathematician and academic, one of the first people to analyze a dynamical system with chaos (died 1998)

Kazys Grinius, Lithuanian physician and politician, third President of Lithuania (died 1950)

Ernie Hudson, American actor

Jacqueline Wilson, English author and academic

Wesley Fofana, French footballer

Peter Snell, New Zealand runner (died 2019)

Eugene Levy, Canadian actor, director, and screenwriter

Paul Rodgers, English singer-songwriter and producer

Paula Radcliffe, English runner

Prince Rupert of the Rhine (died 1682)

Claudio Suárez, Mexican footballer

Émile Faguet, French author and critic (died 1916)

Erwin Piscator, German director and producer (died 1966)

Sébastien Ogier, French race car driver

Kenneth E. Iverson, Canadian computer scientist, developed the APL programming language (died 2004)

Gigi D'Agostino, Italian musician, singer and DJ.

Pierre Paul Émile Roux, French physician and immunologist, co-founded the Pasteur Institute (died 1933)

Josef Lada, Czech painter and illustrator (died 1957)

Alexander Emanuel Agassiz, Swiss-American ichthyologist and engineer (died 1910)

Patrick Müller, Swiss footballer

Arnaud Clément, French tennis player