12 History Lessons + 7 Births & 7 Deaths for October 17, 2025
Today’s History:
- 1777 – British General John Burgoyne surrenders at Saratoga, a turning point of the American Revolution.
- 1781 – At Yorktown, General Cornwallis requests a ceasefire to begin surrender talks with Washington.
- 1814 – London Beer Flood: a vat bursts at the Horse Shoe Brewery, sending a deadly wave through St. Giles.
- 1907 – Marconi opens the first commercial transatlantic wireless service (Ireland ↔ Canada).
- 1919 – Radio Corporation of America (RCA) is founded, shaping U.S. broadcasting and electronics.
- 1931 – Al Capone is convicted of tax evasion in Chicago.
- 1933 – Albert Einstein arrives in the United States as a refugee from Nazi Germany.
- 1941 – USS Kearny is torpedoed by a German U-boat, killing 11—weeks before U.S. entry into WWII.
- 1956 – Calder Hall (UK) becomes the world’s first commercial nuclear power station to supply the grid.
- 1961 – Paris police massacre Algerian protesters; dozens to hundreds are killed.
- 1973 – OAPEC announces an oil embargo and production cuts, triggering the 1973 energy crisis.
- 1989 – Loma Prieta earthquake (M6.9) strikes the San Francisco Bay Area, killing 63 and disrupting the World Series.
Today’s Birthdays:
- 1956 – Mae Jemison, astronaut/physician; first Black woman in space (69)
- 1958 – Alan Jackson, country singer-songwriter (“Chattahoochee”) (67)
- 1968 – Ziggy Marley, reggae singer-songwriter; son of Bob Marley (57)
- 1969 – Wyclef Jean, rapper/producer (The Fugees) (56)
- 1972 – Eminem (Marshall Mathers), rapper/producer (53)
- 1979 – Kimi Räikkönen, Formula 1 World Champion (46)
- 1983 – Felicity Jones, actor (“The Theory of Everything”) (42)
Today’s Deaths:
- 1849 – Frédéric Chopin, Polish composer and piano virtuoso (39)
- 1934 – Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Spanish neuroscientist, Nobel laureate (82)
- 1937 – J. Bruce Ismay, White Star Line chairman (RMS Titanic) (74)
- 1967 – Puyi, last Emperor of China (61)
- 1991 – Tennessee Ernie Ford, singer/TV host (“Sixteen Tons”) (72)
- 2005 – Ba Jin, influential Chinese novelist (100)
- 2017 – Gord Downie, singer-songwriter (The Tragically Hip) (53)
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