December 17

December 17

Events

• 546 – Siege of Rome: The Ostrogoths under king Totila plunder the city, by bribing the Byzantine garrison.
• 920 – Romanos I Lekapenos is crowned co-emperor of the underage Constantine VII.

• 1398 – Sultan Nasir-u Din Mehmud's armies in Delhi are defeated by Timur.

• 1946 – Kurdistan flag day, the flag of Kurdistan was raised for the first time in Mahabad in eastern Kurdistan (Iran).

• 1973 – Thirty passengers are killed in an attack by Palestinian terrorists on Rome's Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport.

• 2009 – MV Danny F II sinks off the coast of Lebanon, resulting in the deaths of 44 people and over 28,000 animals.
• 2010 – Mohamed Bouazizi sets himself on fire. This act became the catalyst for the Tunisian Revolution and the wider Arab Spring.

Births

• 1556 – Abdul Rahim Khan-I-Khana, Pakistani-Indian poet (d. 1627)

• 1905 – Mohammad Hidayatullah, 11th Chief Justice of India, and politician, 6th Vice President of India (d. 1992)

• 1914 – Mushtaq Ali, Indian cricketer (d. 2005)

• 1942 – Muhammadu Buhari, Nigerian general and politician, 7th Head of State of the Federal Republic of Nigeria

• 1948 – Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, Turkish economist and politician

• 1961 – Mansoor al-Jamri, Bahraini journalist and author

• 1973 – Hasan Vural, German-Turkish footballer

• 1982 – Onur Özsu, Turkish singer-songwriter

Deaths

• 908 – al-Abbas ibn al-Hasan al-Jarjara'i, Abbasid vizier
•  908 – Abdallah ibn al-Mu'tazz, Abbasid prince and poet, anti-caliph for one day

• 1273 – Rumi, Persian jurist, theologian, and poet (b. 1207)

Holidays and Observances