February 17

1621 – Myles Standish is appointed as first military commander of the English Plymouth Colony in North America.

1801 – An electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr is resolved when Jefferson is elected President of the United States and Burr, Vice President by the House of Representatives.

1819 – The House of Representatives passes the Missouri Compromise admitting Missouri as a slave state, Maine as a free state and declaring a policy of prohibiting slavery in the remaining Louisiana Purchase lands north of the 36°30′ parallel.

1863 – A group of citizens of Geneva found an International Committee for Relief to the Wounded, which later becomes known as the International Committee of the Red Cross using the reverse of the colors of the Swiss flag in honor of that nation.

1864 – The CSS H. L. Hunley becomes the first submarine to engage and sink a warship, the USS Housatonic in Charleston harbor.

1867 – The first ship passes through the Suez Canal.

1909 – Goyaałé of the Bedonkohe Chiricahua Apache, known as Geronimo and still held as a Prisoner of War, dies at the Fort Sill Hospital, age 79.

1919 – The Ukrainian People’s Republic asks the Triple Entente and the US for help fighting the Bolsheviks.

1944 – U.S. forces invade Eniwetak atoll in the Marshall islands supported by attacks against Truk Lagoon, 700 miles to the southwest, Japan’s main base in the central Pacific.

1964 – In the case of Wesberry v. Sanders the Supreme Court rules that congressional districts have to be approximately equal in population.

1965 – The Ranger 8 probe is launched on its mission to photograph the Mare Tranquillitatis region of the Moon in preparation for the manned Apollo missions

1968 – In Springfield, Massachusetts, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame opens.

1974 – Robert K. Preston, a disgruntled U.S. Army private buzzing the White House in a stolen helicopter, is shot and wounded by Secret Service agents and arrested on landing.

1991 – Ryan International Airlines Flight 590, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9 cargo jet, crashes during takeoff from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, killing both pilots, the aircraft’s only occupants.

1996 – In Philadelphia, world champion Garry Kasparov beats the IBM Deep Blue supercomputer in a chess match.