October 17

1448 – Starting a crusade revolt against the moslem Ottoman rule in the Balkans, John Hunyadi of Hungary joins with forces with some leaders in Albania, Serbia and Bosnia and engage the army of Sultan Murad II in central Kosovo but suffer a devastating defeat leading to the Ottomans ruing over all states in the Balkans for many centuries.

1771 – At age 15, Wolfgang Mozart premiers his 2nd opera, Ascanio in Alba, in Milan.

1777 – British General John Burgoyne surrenders his army at Saratoga, New York.

1781 – British General Charles, Earl Cornwallis surrenders his army at the Siege of Yorktown, the last major land battle of the Revolutionary War in  North America.

1811 – Silver is discovered in the Atacama region of Chile becoming the financial backing for the Chilean War of Independence.

1850 – moslems begin a series of riots in Aleppo, Syria lasting until early November, killing over 5000 Christians.

1907 – The Marconi Company begins the first commercial transatlantic wireless service.

1912 – Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia declare war on the Ottoman Empire, joining Montenegro in the First Balkan War.

1931 – Alphonse Capone is convicted of income tax evasion.

1933 – Albert Einstein flees Nazi Germany and moves to the United States.

1941 – While still technically a neutral power, the destroyer USS Kearny becomes the first U.S. Navy vessel attacked during World War II, suffering heavy damage from a torpedo fired from a German U-Boat being depth charged by the vessel off Iceland.

1965 – The New York World’s Fair closes after 2 years and more than 51 million attendees.

1966 – The 23rd Street Fire in in the Flatiron District neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City kills 12 firefighters, the department’s highest loss until 9/11.

1973 – OPEC imposes an oil embargo against countries they deem to have helped Israel in the Yom Kippur War.

1979 – The Department of Education Organization Act creates the U.S. Department of Education.

1989 – A 6.9 magnitude earthquake of the San Andreas Fault, near Mount Loma Prieta, strikes the San Francisco Bay Area and the Central Coast, killing 63 people and causing over $6 billion in damage.

2003 – Taipei 101, a 101-floor skyscraper in Taipei, becomes the world’s tallest high-rise.

2019 – Heavily armed gangsters of the Sinaloa Drug Cartel force the Mexican government in Culiacán province to release the son of former cartel boss ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán after his arrest.