Anniversaries 17 October

Birth

Ferdinand Magellan1

Portuguese explorer 1480–1521

John Wilkes1

English journalist and politician 1725–1797

William Scott, 1st Baron Stowell4

British politician 1745–1836

Henri de Saint-Simon9

French early socialist theorist 1760–1825

John Bowring3

4th Governor of Hong Kong 1792–1872

William Smith O'Brien3

Irish nationalist politician (1803-1864) 1803–1864

Georg Büchner43

German dramatist and writer of poetry and prose 1813–1837

Syed Ahmed Khan16

Indian educator and politician 1820–1898

Elinor Glyn9

British novelist and scriptwriter 1864–1943

Győző Zemplén1

Hungarian physicist 1879–1916

Hereward Carrington6

Jersey parapsychologist 1880–1958

A.S. Neill8

Scottish educator and theorist 1883–1973

Paul Bernays4

Swiss mathematician 1888–1977

Richard Connell3

American author and journalist 1893–1949

Yvor Winters12

American poet and literary critic 1900–1968

Nathanael West5

American writer 1903–1940

Dmitriy Ustinov4

Soviet military commander and politician 1908–1984

Pope John Paul I10

263rd Pope of the Catholic Church 1912–1978

Jerry Siegel7

American co-creator of Superman 1914–1996

Arthur Miller147

playwright from the United States 1915–2005

Rita Hayworth10

American actress, dancer and director 1918–1987

Zhao Ziyang1

former General Secretary of the Communist Party of China 1919–2005

Julie Adams2

American actress 1926–2019

Jimmy Breslin2

American journalist and author 1928–2017

Rosemary Tonks2

British poet 1928–2014

James W. Sire1

American writer 1933–2018

Milkha Singh12

Indian track and field athlete 1935

Phillip Abbott Luce20

1935–1998

Gary Zukav12

American writer and revivalist 1942

Honesto Ongtioco1

Filipino bishop 1948

Robert Jordan305

American writer 1948–2007

David Adams Richards1

Canadian writer and politician 1950

Wally Lamb38

american novelist 1950

Prabowo Subianto2

Indonesian general and politician 1951

David W. Oxtoby13

President of Pomona college 1951

Thomas H. Davenport11

American academic 1954

Mae Jemison3

American doctor and NASA astronaut 1956

Toby Young6

British journalist 1963

Glen Duncan20

British writer 1965

Mark Gatiss2

British actor, screenwriter and novelist 1966

Dmitry Peskov11

Russian politician 1967

Ziggy Marley1

Jamaican musician 1968

Anil Kumble22

Former Indian cricketer 1970

Eminem140

American rapper and actor 1972

Tarkan24

Turkish singer 1972

Zbigniew Stonoga2

Polish businessman, video blogger, social and political act… 1974

Milagros Cabral3

female volleyball player from the Dominican Republic 1978

Death

Philip Sidney26

English diplomat 1554–1586

Ninon de L'Enclos2

French author, courtesan, freethinker, and patron of the ar… 1620–1705

George Colman the Younger11

English dramatist and writer 1762–1836

Frédéric Chopin30

Polish composer 1810–1849

Julia Ward Howe40

American abolitionist, social activist, and poet 1819–1910

Gustav Kirchhoff2

German physicist 1824–1887

George William Foote4

British secularist and journal editor 1850–1915

Arthur Schuster1

Anglo-German physicist 1851–1934

Santiago Ramón y Cajal6

Spanish neuroscientist 1852–1934

Karl Kautsky9

Czech-Austrian philosopher, journalist, and Marxist theoret… 1854–1938

William Vaughn Moody5

United States dramatist and poet 1869–1910

Florence Scovel Shinn5

American writer 1871–1940

Albert Cohen13

Swiss writer 1895–1981

Michael Balcon2

English Film producer 1896–1977

S.J. Perelman15

American humorist, author, and screenwriter 1904–1979

Ba Jin36

Chinese novelist 1904–2005

Raymond Aron1

French philosopher, sociologist, journalist, and political … 1905–1983

Helmut Gollwitzer3

German theologian and author 1908–1993

Jean Améry2

Austrian essayist 1912–1978

Nicholas Metropolis1

Greek American physicist 1915–1999

Vic Mizzy4

American composer 1916–2009

Brian Campbell Vickery84

British information theorist 1918–2009

Ingeborg Bachmann2

Austrian poet and author 1926–1973

Piri Thomas1

Puerto Rican poet 1928–2011

Elena Efimovna Kuzmina3

Russian archaeologist 1931–2013

Norma Fox Mazer1

American children's writer 1931–2009

Julian May3

American science fiction, fantasy, horror, science and chil… 1931–2017

Masaru Emoto4

Japanese writer 1943–2014

Elijah Cummings2

U.S. Representative from Maryland 1951–2019