What are the important events that happened on May 17? Here are historical events, facts, and some myths about this day.

May 17: Facts & Myths About This Day

May 17 is the 137^th day of the year 2025 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 228 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Saturday.

Under the Julian calendar, this day is May 4, 2025 – a Saturday. Both day of the week are the same but did you notice the difference with the Gregorian calendar?

When this day started, 29,124,000 minutes has elapsed since midnight of January 1, 1970 – the Unix epoch.

Strange as it may, if we name this day after a polygon then it will be called ‘hectatriacontaheptagon’ day.

Taurus is the zodiac sign of a person born on this day. Emerald is the modern birthstone for this month. Sapphire is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years.

According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 276 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year.

The ancient Maya civilization believes that the end of the world will happen on December 21, 2012. There are now 4,530 days since this fabled cataclysmic event.

May 17 Historical Events

• 1536 –
  George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford and four other men are executed for treason.
• 1863 –
  Rosalía de Castro publishes Cantares Gallegos, the first book in the Galician language.
• 1875 –
  Aristides wins the first Kentucky Derby.
• 1902 –
  Greek archaeologist Valerios Stais discovers the Antikythera mechanism, an ancient mechanical analog computer.
• 1940 –
  World War II: Germany occupies Brussels, Belgium.
• 1987 –
  An Iraqi Dassault Mirage F1 fighter jet fires two missiles into the U.S. Navy warship USS Stark, killing 37 and injuring 21 of her crew.
• 1990 –
  The General Assembly of the World Health Organization (WHO) eliminates homosexuality from the list of psychiatric diseases.
• 1992 –
  Three days of popular protests against the government of Prime Minister of Thailand Suchinda Kraprayoon begin in Bangkok, leading to a military crackdown that results in 52 officially confirmed deaths, many disappearances, hundreds of injuries, and over 3,500 arrests.
• 1997 –
  Troops of Laurent Kabila march into Kinshasa. Zaire is officially renamed Democratic Republic of the Congo.
• 2004 –
  Massachusetts becomes the first U.S. state to legalize same-sex marriage.

Who were born on May 17?

• 1706 –
  Andreas Felix von Oefele, German historian and librarian (d. 1780)
• 1821 –
  Sebastian Kneipp, German naturopathist (d. 1897)
• 1844 –
  Julius Wellhausen, German biblical scholar (d. 1918)
• 1912 –
  Ace Parker, American baseball and football player
• 1947 –
  Andrew Latimer, English musician (Camel (band))
• 1964 –
  Menno Oosting, Dutch tennis player (d. 1999)
• 1971 –
  Shaun Hart, Australian footballer
• 1976 –
  Leehom Wang, American-born Taiwanese musician and composer
• 1980 –
  Davor Džalto, Serbian/Croatian art historian
• 1983 –
  Chris Henry, American football player (d. 2009)

Who died on May 17?

• 1536 –
  Francis Weston, English courtier and Gentleman of the Privy Chamber (executed) (b. 1511)
• 1536 –
  Henry Norris, English courtier and Groom of the Stool (executed) (b. c. 1482)
• 1643 –
  Giovanni Picchi, Italian composer
• 1765 –
  Alexis Claude de Clairaut, French mathematician (b. 1713)
• 1838 –
  René Caillé, French explorer (b. 1799)
• 1917 –
  Charles Anthoni Johnson Brooke, ruler of Sarawak (b. 1829)
• 1935 –
  Paul Dukas, French composer (b. 1865)
• 1985 –
  Abe Burrows, American songwriter, composer, and writer (b. 1910)
• 2005 –
  Frank Gorshin, American actor (b. 1934)
• 2007 –
  Lloyd Alexander, American author (b. 1924)