September 17
1176 – The Battle of Myriokephalon is the last attempt by the Byzantine Empire to recover central Anatolia (modern Turkey) from the Seljuk Turks.
1620 – The Ottoman Empire defeats the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth during the Battle of Cecora during the Polish–Ottoman War
1630 – The city of Boston, Massachusetts is founded.
1683 – Antonie van Leeuwenhoek writes a letter to the Royal Society in London describing “animalcules” – bacteria he observed through a microscope he had constructed.
1775 – U.S. forces invade Canada during the American Revolution by besieging Fort St. Jean, Quebec
1776 – The Presidio of San Francisco is founded in New Spain, modern day California
1778 – The first formal treaty between the U.S. and an American Indian tribe, the Lenape, is signed at Fort Pitt in Pennsylvania.
1787 – At the Federal Convention in Philadelphia, the delegates sign the United States Constitution and prepare to transmit it to the states for ratification.
1849 – Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery in Maryland.
1858 – Dred Scott, a year after being manumitted, dies of Tuberculosis in St Louis.
1862 – Across Antietam Creek near Sharpsburg, Maryland, General Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia and General McClellan’s Army of the Potomac
engage in the bloodiest single day of combat in American military history with over 22,700 total casualties, effectively ending Lee’s Maryland Campaign.
1868 – Tracking a raiding party of Sioux and Cheyenne warriors from Kansas into Colorado, U.S. mounted scouts, encamped on Beecher island in the Arikaree River, south of present day Wray, Colorado, foil an ambush but are still surrounded, suffering heavy casualties until relieved.
1900 – In the Philippine–American War, Filipinos under Juan Cailles defeat Americans under Colonel Benjamin F. Cheatham Jr. at Mabitac on Luzon.
1908 – The first airplane fatality occurs when the Wright Flyer, flown by Orville Wright, crashes, killing U.S. Army Lt. Thomas Selfridge aboard as a passenger.
1916 – Baron Manfred von Richthofen wins his first aerial combat near Cambrai, France during World War I.
1928 – The Okeechobee hurricane at category, 5 strength, strikes southeastern Florida hitting land near West Palm Beach, Florida, killing more than 2,500 people as it traverses the state.
1932 – After discovering an incursion and occupation of the towns of Leticia and Tarapacá by Peruvian military forces that had occurred on the 1st of the month, the Colombian Senate minority leader and future President Laureano Gómez calls for war to be declared against Peru.
1940 – Due to setbacks in the aerial Battle of Britain, Hitler postpones Operation Sea Lion, the invasion of Britain.
1944 – Allied airborne troops parachute into the Netherlands as the “Market” half of Operation Market Garden begins.
1961 – Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 706, a Lockheed L-188 Electra, crashes during takeoff from O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois, killing all 37 passengers and crew aboard
1976 – The Space Shuttle Enterprise is unveiled by NASA.
1978 – The Camp David Accords are signed by Israel and Egypt.
1996 – Former Vice President Spiro Agnew dies of acute leukemia at Atlantic General Hospital in Ocean City, Maryland.
2001 – The New York Stock Exchange reopens for trading after the September 11 attacks
2016 – A pipe bomb and a pressure cooker bomb set by a moslem terrorist explode in Seaside Park, New Jersey, and Manhattan. 3 police officers and the terrorist are injured in the New Jersey bombing and 31 people are injured in Manhattan. The terrorist is later sentenced to life without parole.