This Day In History : June 17

1631 India

The Taj Mahal

Mumtaz Mahal dies during childbirth. Her husband, Mughal emperor Shah Jahan I, then spends more than 20 years building her tomb, the Taj Mahal

Also on This Day in History June 17

Discover what happened on June 17 with HISTORY's summaries of major events, anniversaries,
famous births and notable deaths.

Births on This Day, June 17
  • 1919 William K. Estes

    William Kaye Estes was an American psychologist who was a leader in bringing mathematical methods into psychological research.

  • 1800 William Parsons

    William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse was an Irish astronomer who built the largest reflecting telescope of the 19th century.

  • 1821 E. G. Squier

    Ephraim George Squier was an American newspaper editor, diplomat and archaeologist was a newspaper editor, diplomat, and archaeologist who, with the physician and archaeologist Edwin H.

  • 1832 William Crookes

    English physicist and chemist who discovered the element thallium and showed that cathode-rays were fast-moving, negatively-charged particles.

  • 1876 Edward Anthony Spitzka

    American anatomist and brain morphologist who assisted at the autopsy (29 Oct 1901) of the brain of Leon Franz Czolgosz, the assassin of U.S. president William McKinley.

Deaths on This Day, June 17
  • 1996 Thomas S. Kuhn

    Thomas Samuel Kuhn was an American science historian and science philosopher was a MIT professor, noted for his highly influential The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962).

  • 1881 James Starley

    British inventor and manufacturer, known as the father of the bicycle industry. 

  • 1930 Louis Bolk

    He was a Dutch anatomist who created the fetalization theory about the human body.

  • 2001 Donald J. Cram

    Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his creation of molecules that mimic the chemical behaviour of molecules found in living systems.

  • 1940 Arthur Harden

    English biochemist who shared (with Hans von Euler-Chelpin) the 1929 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for work on the fermentation of sugar and the enzyme action involved.

1497

Battle of Deptford Bridge

1497 Battle of Deptford Bridge - forces under King Henry VII soundly defeat Cornish rebels led by Michael An Gof
1877

Battle of White Bird Canyon

1877 Indian Wars: Battle of White Bird Canyon - the Nez Perce defeat the US Cavalry at White Bird Canyon in the Idaho Territory
1915

The League to Enforce Peace

1915 The League to Enforce Peace is organised at Independence Hall in Philadelphia with William Howard Taft as president; its program anticipates the League of Nations.
1898

The United States Navy Hospital Corps is established

The United States Navy Hospital Corps was formally established as a unit in the Medical Department of the Navy on June 17, 1898. From its earliest days, the U.S. Navy planned for the care of the injured and sick, but it wasn’t until that date that the Hospital Corps became an official part of the Navy.
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