http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
Feb 17, 1904: Madame Butterfly premieres
On this day in 1904, Giacomo Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly premieres at the La Scala theatre in Milan, Italy.
The young Puccini decided to dedicate his life to opera after seeing a performance of Giuseppe Verdi's Aida in 1876. In his later life, he would write some of the best-loved operas of all time: La Boheme (1896), Tosca (1900), Madame Butterfly (1904) and Turandot (left unfinished when he died in 1906). Not one of these, however, was an immediate success when it opened. La Boheme, the now-classic story of a group of poor artists living in a Paris garret, earned mixed reviews, while Tosca was downright panned by critics.
While supervising a production of Tosca in London, Puccini saw the play Madame Butterfly, written by David Belasco and based on a story by John Luther Long. Taken with the strong female character at its center, he began working on an operatic version of the play, with an Italian libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica. Written over the course of two years--including an eight-month break when Puccini was badly injured in a car accident--the opera made its debut in Milan in February 1904.
Set in Nagasaki, Japan, Madame Butterfly told the story of an American sailor, B.F. Pinkerton, who marries and abandons a young Japanese geisha, Cio-Cio-San, or Madame Butterfly. In addition to the rich, colorful orchestration and powerful arias that Puccini was known for, the opera reflected his common theme of living and dying for love. This theme often played out in the lives of his heroines--women like Cio-Cio-San, who live for the sake of their lovers and are eventually destroyed by the pain inflicted by that love. Perhaps because of the opera's foreign setting or perhaps because it was too similar to Puccini's earlier works, the audience at the premiere reacted badly to Madame Butterfly, hissing and yelling at the stage. Puccini withdrew it after one performance. He worked quickly to revise the work, splitting the 90-minute-long second act into two parts and changing other minor aspects. Four months later, the revamped Madame Butterfly went onstage at the Teatro Grande in Brescia. This time, the public greeted the opera with tumultuous applause and repeated encores, and Puccini was called before the curtain 10 times. Madame Butterfly went on to huge international success, moving to New York's Metropolitan Opera in 1907.
Feb 17, 1782: French and British battle in the Indian Ocean
The worldwide implications of the American War for Independence are made clear on this day in history as the American-allied French navy begins a 14-month-long series of five battles with the British navy in the Indian Ocean.
Between February 17, 1782, and September 3, 1782, French Admiral Pierre Andre de Suffren de Saint-Tropez, otherwise known as Bailli de Suffren, and British Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Hughes, commander in chief in the East Indies, engaged in four major battles in the Indian Ocean region: the Battle of Sadras on February 17, the Battle of Providien on April 12, the Battle of Negapatam on July 6 and the Battle of Trincomalee on September 3. The French attacked British possessions on the Indian coast and in Ceylon as part of the world war spawned by the American Revolution. Although Suffren failed to take any of Hughes' ships, he managed to prevent Hughes from taking any of his own fleet. This alone was a significant improvement in French performance when pitted against the legendary British navy. The fifth and final encounter of the two fleets—the Battle of Cuddalore on April 20, 1783—forced Hughes to leave for Madras, just before Suffren learned of the Treaty of Paris and returned to France.
En route home at the Cape of Good Hope, Suffren received compliments on his strategy from the English captains he had opposed in East India. Napoleon, too, had a high opinion of Suffren, commenting that he would have become France's Lord Nelson, had he survived. Instead, he died suddenly in France on December 8, 1788, of either a stroke or wounds from a duel.
Hughes also profited from the East India campaign. He returned to Britain extremely wealthy from the various prizes and perquisites he won in the Indies and had his portrait painted in full naval splendor by the renowned Sir Joshua Reynolds.
Feb 17, 1972: Beetle overtakes Model T as world's best-selling car
On this day in 1972, the 15,007,034th Volkswagen Beetle comes off the assembly line, breaking a world car production record held for more than four decades by the Ford Motor Company's iconic Model T, which was in production from 1908 and 1927.
The history of the VW Beetle dates back to 1930s Germany. In 1933, Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany and announced he wanted to build new roads and affordable cars for the German people. At that time, Austrian-born engineer Ferdinand Porsche (1875-1951) was already working on creating a small car for the masses. Hitler and Porsche later met and the engineer was charged with designing the inexpensive, mass-produced Volkswagen, or "people's car." Hitler's plan was that people could buy the cars by making regular payments into a savings stamp program. In 1938, work began on the Volkswagen factory, located in present-day Wolfsburg, Germany; however, full-scale vehicle production didn't begin until after World War II.
In the 1950s, the Volkswagen arrived in the U.S., where the initial reception was tepid, due in part to the car's historic Nazi connection as well as its small size and unusual rounded shape (which later led to it being dubbed the "Beetle"). In 1959, the advertising agency Doyle Dane Bernbach launched a groundbreaking campaign that promoted the car's diminutive size as a distinct advantage to consumers, and over the next several years, VW became the top-selling auto import in the U.S. In 1998, Volkswagen began selling the highly touted "New Beetle" while still continuing production of its predecessor. After more than 60 years and over 21 million vehicles produced, the last original Beetle rolled off the line in Puebla, Mexico, on July 30, 2003.
The world's original best-selling car, Henry Ford's Model T, first went into production at a Detroit, Michigan, plant in 1908. Referred to as the car that "put the world on wheels," the Model T revolutionized the automotive industry--and American society in general--by providing affordable, reliable transportation for the average person. In 1913, Ford Motor Company began employing the moving assembly line at its plant in Highland Park, Michigan, which reduced the assembly speed of a chassis from 12 hours and eight minutes to one hour and 33 minutes. The following year, Ford produced 308,162 vehicles, more than the output of all other carmakers combined. By 1924, the 10 millionth Model T came off the assembly line. When production finally ended, after 19 years, in May 1927, over 15 million Model Ts had been built.
Feb 17, 1996: Kasparov defeats chess-playing computer
In the final game of a six-game match, world chess champion Garry Kasparov triumphs over Deep Blue, IBM’s chess-playing computer, and wins the match, 4-2. However, Deep Blue goes on to defeat Kasparov in a heavily publicized rematch the following year.
Garry Kasparov, considered one of the greatest players in the history of chess, was born April 13, 1963, in the Russian republic of Azerbaijan. In 1985, at 22, Kasparov became the youngest world champion in history when he defeated Anatoly Karpov.
Deep Blue’s origins trace back to 1985, when Carnegie Mellon University doctoral student Feng Hsiung Hsu began developing a chess-playing computer called “ChipTest.” The computer later became known as “Deep Thought,” after a machine in the science-fiction novel The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. Hsu and his collaborators, Murray Campbell and Thomas Anantharaman, were later hired by IBM, where they continued to work on the chess-playing computer. In 1989, Gary Kasparov easily trounced Deep Thought when they met for a 2-game match. The IBM team continued to refine their supercomputer, which in 1993 was renamed “Deep Blue,” a combination of Deep Thought and Big Blue, IBM’s nickname.
The six-game match between Kasparov and Deep Blue began on February 10, 1996, at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia. Although Deep Blue was capable of evaluating 100 million different chess positions per second, the IBM team wasn’t sure how the computer would perform in competition and Kasparov was favored to win. Instead, much to his frustration, the world chess champ lost the first game to Deep Blue. However, the tenacious, brilliant Kasparov quickly staged a comeback and won the second game. The third and fourth games ended in a draw, while Kasparov won the fifth game. On February 17, the human chess master triumphed over Deep Blue in the sixth game and took the match, with a final score of 4-2.
A heavily publicized 6-game rematch between man and machine began on May 3, 1997. The IBM team had been working to upgrade Deep Blue since its 1996 defeat to Kasparov and the improved version of the computer was able to examine 200 million different chess positions per second. Kasparov took the first game while Deep Blue won the second. The third, fourth and fifth games ended in a draw. On May 11, Deep Blue won the sixth as well as the match, 3.5 to 2.5. The victory was a huge publicity boost for IBM. A disgruntled Kasparov suggested Deep Blue had been aided by some sort of human assistance during the games, charges that IBM denied. Kasparov demanded a rematch, but instead, IBM retired Deep Blue.
Kasparov retained his world chess champion title until 2000. In March 2005, he announced his retirement from professional chess. In 2007, he became a candidate for the Russian presidency.
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
1370 - Battle at Rudau: Germany beats Lithuania
1500 - Battle of Hemmingstedt.
1568 - Holy Roman Emperor agrees to pay tribute to the
Sultan for peace
1598 - Boris Godunov chosen tsar of Russia
1600 - Philosopher Giordano Bruno is burned alive at Campo
de' Fiori in Rome, charged of heresy.
1621 - Miles Standish appointed 1st commander of Plymouth
colony
1634 - William Prynne tried in Star Chamber for publishing
"Histrio-masti
1670 - France & Bavaria sign military assistance treaty
1691 - Thomas Neale granted British patent for American
postal service
1714 - Parliament of Paris accepts Pope Clemens XI's
"Unigenitus" degree
1772 - 1st partition of Poland-Russia & Prussia, joined
later by Austria
1776 - 1st volume of Gibbon's "Decline & Fall of
Roman Empire" published
1791 - Messier catalogs M83 (spiral galaxy in Hydra)
1795 - Thomas Seddal harvests 8.3-kg potato from his garden
Chester, England
1801 - House breaks electoral college tie, chooses Jefferson
pres over Burr
1814 - Battle of Mormans.
1817 - 1st US city lit by gas (Baltimore)
1818 - Baron Karl von Drais de Sauerbrun patents
"draisine" (early bicycle)
1836 - HMS Beagle/Charles Darwin leaves Tasmania
Naturalist Charles DarwinNaturalist Charles Darwin 1848 -
Toscane gets liberal Constitution
1854 - British recognize independence of Orange Free State
(South Africa)
1859 - Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Un Ballo in
maschera" premieres in Napoli
1864 - Confederate sub "HL Hunley" sinks Union
ship "Housatonic"
1865 - -18] Battle of Charleston SC
1865 - Columbia SC burns down during Civil War
1867 - 1st ship passes through Suez Canal
1867 - Gyula Andressy becomes premier of Hungary
1870 - Esther Morris appointed 1st female judge
1870 - Mississippi becomes 9th state readmitted to US after
Civil War
1876 - Sardines 1st canned (Julius Wolff-Eastport, Maine)
1878 - 1st telephone exchange in SF opens with 18 phones
1880 - Tsar Alexander II of Russia survives an assassination
attempt
1882 - 1st Test Cricket match played at Sydney Cricket
Ground
1883 - A Ashwell patents free-toilet in London
Politician Otto Von BismarckPolitician Otto Von Bismarck
1885 - Bismarck gives Carl Peters' firm management of East-Africa
1896 - London Country Councils' Muzzling Order becomes
effective
1897 - National Organization of Mothers forms (Parent
Teacher Association)
1904 - Giacomo Puccini's opera "Madama Butterfly,"
premieres in Milan
1905 - Frances Willard becomes 1st women honored in National
Statuary Hall
1911 - 1st hydroplane flight to & from a ship (Glenn
Curtiss, San Diego)
1913 - 1st minimum wage law in US takes effect (Oregon)
1913 - NY Armory Show introduces Picasso, Matisse, Duchamp
to US public
1915 - Edward Stone, 1st US combatant to die in WW I, is
mortally wounded
1916 - Romberg/Hanley/Atteridge/Smith' musical premieres in
NYC
1921 - Arthur Honegger's "Pastorale D'ete,"
premieres
1923 - Ottawa Senator Cy Denneny becomes NHL's all time
scorer (143 goals)
1924 - Johnny Weissmuller sets 100-yard freestyle record
(52.4 seconds)
1926 - Avalanche buries 75 in Sap Gulch Bingham Utah, 40 die
1930 - French government of Tardieu, falls
Artist Pablo PicassoArtist Pablo Picasso 1931 - 1st telecast
of a sporting event in Japan (baseball)
1931 - Hockey's Hershey Bears (now with AHL) 1st game
1932 - Irving Berlin's musical "Face the Music,"
premieres in NYC
1933 - 1st issue of "Newsweek" magazine published
1933 - Marinus van der Lubbe arrives in Glindow, at Potsdam
1933 - US Senate accept Blaine Act: ending prohibition
1934 - 1st high school auto driving course offered (State
College, Penn)
1936 - "Phantom" cartoon strip by Lee Falk debuts
1936 - -58°F (-50°C), McIntosh, South Dakota (state record)
1936 - SN Behrmann's "End of Summer," premieres in
NYC
1936 - The world's first superhero, The Phantom, makes his
first appearance in comics.
1938 - 1st public experimental demonstration of Baird color
TV (London)
1939 - Katwijk soccer team forms
1940 - Bradman scores 135 in a non-Shield match for SA v
West Australia
1940 - British destroyers board German Altmark off Norway
Composer and Lyricist Irving BerlinComposer and Lyricist
Irving Berlin 1941 - Joe Louis KOs Gus Dorazio in 2 for heavyweight boxing
title
1943 - -19] Hitler visits fieldmarshal von Mansteins hq in
Zaporozje
1943 - Dutch churches protest at Seyss-Inquart against
persecution of Jews
1943 - Gen-major Bradley flies to Wash DC
1943 - NY Yankee Joe DiMaggio, enlists into the US army
1944 - Battle of Eniwetok Atoll begins; US victory on Feb 22
1944 - US begins night bombing of Truk
1946 - Humanistic Covenant forms in Amsterdam
1947 - Dutch RC bishops publish manifest against
"godless communism"
1947 - Voice of America begins broadcasting to USSR
1949 - Chaim Weitzman elected 1st president of Israel
1949 - Ice Pairs Championship at Paris won by Andrea
Kekesy/Ede Kiraly of HUN
1949 - Ladies Figure Skating Champions in Paris won by Alena
Vrzanova of CZE
1949 - Men's Figure Skating Championship in Paris won by
Richard Button USA
1949 - Richard Button retains world figure skating
championship in Paris
Dictator of Nazi Germany Adolf HitlerDictator of Nazi
Germany Adolf Hitler 1950 - 31 die in a train crash in Rockville Center NY
1953 - DSB soccer team forms in Eindhoven
1954 - WAST (now WNYT) TV channel 13 in Albany-Troy, NY
(NBC) 1st broadcast
1955 - Ice Dance Championship at Vienna Austria won by J
Westwood/Demmy GRB
1955 - Ice Pairs Championship at Vienna won by Frances Dafoe
& Bowden of CAN
1955 - KTVF TV channel 11 in Fairbanks, AK (CBS/ABC) begins
broadcasting
1955 - Ladies Figure Skating Championship in Vienna won by
Tenley Albright US
1955 - Mike Souchak sets PGA 72-hole record of 257
1956 - Ice Dance Championship at Garmisch won by Pamela
Weight/P Thomas GRB
1956 - Ice Pairs Championship at Garmisch won by Schwarz
& Oppelt of AUT
1956 - Ladies Figure Skating Championship in Garmisch won by
Carol Heiss USA
1956 - Men's Figure Skating Championship in Garmisch won by
H A Jenkins USA
1957 - Fire in Warreton Mo, kills 72
1957 - Mary Lena Faulk wins LPGA St Petersburg Golf Open
1957 - Suez Canal reopens
1957 - A fire at a home for the elderly in Warrenton,
Missouri kills 72 people.
1958 - Comic strip "BC" 1st appears
1958 - WETV (now WPBA) TV channel 30 in Atlanta, GA (PBS)
begins broadcasting
1959 - 1st weather satellite launched, Vanguard 2, 9.8 kg
1962 - Beach Boys introduced a new musical style with their
hit "Surfin"
1962 - Storm in Hamburg, kills 265
1962 - Wilt Chamberlain of NBA Phila Warriors scores 67
points vs St Louis
1963 - Toru Terasawa runs world record marathon (2:15:15.8
1964 - 101st member elected to baseball's hall of fame (Luke
Appling)
1964 - US House of Reps accept Law on the civil rights
1964 - US Supreme court rules - 1 man 1 vote (Westberry v
Sanders)
1964 - WMEM TV channel 10 in Presque Isle, ME (PBS) begins
broadcasting
1965 - US Ranger 8 launched, will transmit 7,137 lunar
pictures
1965 - US-Japan baseball relations suspended over Masanori
Murakami dispute
1966 - French satellite Diapason D-1A launch into Earth
orbit
1967 - Beatles release "Penny Lane" &
"Strawberry Fields"
1967 - Kosmos 140 (Soyuz Test) launches into Earth orbit
1968 - Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame,
Springfield Mass, opens
Singer-Songwriter Bob DylanSinger-Songwriter Bob Dylan 1969
- Bob Dylan & Johnny Cash record an album (never released)
1969 - Golda Meir sworn in as Israel's 1st female prime
minister
1970 - Jeffrey McDonald slices up his wife & daughter
1970 - Joni Mitchell's final concert (Royal Albert Hall)
1970 - Robert Marasco's "Child's Play," premieres
in NYC
1971 - England regains cricket Ashes with a 2-0 series win
1972 - British Parliament votes to join European Common
Market
1972 - President Nixon leaves Washington DC for China
1972 - Sales of the Volkswagen Beetle model exceed those of
Ford Model-T.
1973 - Rodney Redmond scores 107 on debut v Pakistan, his
only Test Cricket
1974 - 49 die in stampede for seats at soccer match, Cairo,
Egypt
1974 - Carol Mann wins LPGA Naples Lely Golf Classic
1974 - Robert K. Preston, a disgruntled U.S. Army private,
buzzes the White House with a stolen helicopter.
1976 - "Rockabye Hamlet" opens at Minskoff Theater
NYC for 7 performances
1976 - Macau adopts constitution (Organic Law of Macau)
1976 - NZ scores their 1st innings win in Test Cricket, v
India
1976 - Richard Hadlee takes 7-23 v India, his 1st
match-winning spell
1979 - China invades Vietnam
1979 - Eric Heiden equals skating world record 1000m
(1:14.99)
1979 - The Sino-Vietnamese War begins.
1980 - Buddy Baker wins Daytona 500 (177.6 MPH/285.8 kph)
1980 - Dot Germain wins LPGA S&H Golf Classic
1981 - Chrysler Corp reports largest corporate losses in US
history
1982 - Commencement of Sri Lanka's 1st Test Cricket match, v
England
1983 - Bob Bourne fails on 8th Islander penalty shot
1983 - Netherlands adopts constitution
1983 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1985 - 1st class postage rises from 20 cents to 22 cents
1985 - 1st day/night game at the MCG, Australia v England
1985 - 3rd person to receive an artificial heart (Murray
Haydon)
1985 - Hein Vergeer becomes world champion skater
1985 - Laffit Pincay Jr is third to ride 6,000th winners at
Santa Anita
1986 - 1st Francophone Summit convenes at Versailles
1986 - Howard Stern radio show returns to NYC morning radio
(WXRK 92.3 FM)
1986 - Johnson & Johnson announces it no longer sell
capsule drugs
1986 - Libyan bombers attack N'djamena Airport in Chad
1987 - Don Mattingly wins highest salary arbitration
($1,975,000 per year)
1987 - Michelle Renee Royer, 21, (Texas), crowned 36th Miss
USA
1988 - Lebanese terrorists kidnap UN truce observer Lt Col
William Higgins
1988 - US Lt Col Wm Higgins kidnapped by Lebanese terrorists
& later killed
1989 - 6-week study of Arctic atmosphere shows no ozone
"hole"
Baseball Player and Manager Leo DurocherBaseball Player and
Manager Leo Durocher 1989 - Former baseball player/manager Leo Durocher injured
in a car crash
1989 - Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia & Libya
form common market
1989 - Orel Hershiser, Dodger pitcher signs record $7.9M-3
year contract
1989 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern
Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
1991 - US male Figure Skating championship won by Todd
Eldredge
1993 - Haitian ferry boat capsize in storm, 800-2,000 die
1993 - Mark Foster swims world record 50m free style (21.60
sec)
1995 - 11th Soap Opera Digest Awards
1995 - Colin Fergusson found guilty of killing 6 people on
the LIRR in NY
1995 - Tiger Manager Sparky Anderson takes unpaid leave due
to baseball strike
1995 - Federal judge allows lawsuit claiming US tobacco
makers knew nicotine was addictive & manipulated its levels to keep
customers hooked
1996 - 1st full ODI for the Netherlands, v NZ, cricket World
Cup Nolan Clarke makes ODI debut for Netherlands at age 47
1996 - Garry Kasparov defeats Deep Blue 4-2 in chess
1997 - Carl Sagan Public Memorial at Pasadena Calif
1997 - Weekly Standard shows evidence Larry Flint sex abused
his daughter
1998 - Diane Zamora, 20, Naval Academy cadet convicted of
capital murder
1998 - Larry Wayne Harris & Bill Levitt arrested for
possession of anthrax
1998 - USA Women's Ice Hockey Team beats Canada and wins the
first Olympic Gold medal
2002 - Westlife go to No.1 on the UK singles chart with
'World Of Our Own.' The Irish boy band's 10th UK No.1 single.
Rapper Ja RuleRapper Ja Rule 2002 - 'Always On Time' by
R&B artist Ja Rule featuring Ashanti starts a two-week run at No.1 on the
US singles chart.
2003 - The London Congestion Charge scheme begins.
2006 - A massive mudslide occurs in Southern Leyte,
Philippines; the official death toll is set at 1,126.
2008 - Kosovo declares independence from Serbia.
2012 - The President of Germany, Christian Wulff, resigns
over a corruption scandal
2012 - Approximately 70 ancient Olympic artifacts are stolen
from the Archaeological Museum of Greece
2013 - 37 people are killed and 130 are injured in a series
of Baghdad car bombings
2013 - 5 people are killed and 11 are injured after a gas
explosion destroyed an apartment complex in Frenštát pod Radhoštěm, Czech
Republic
2013 - President Rafael Correa wins the Ecuadorian general
election in a landslide victory
2013 - Australia defeat the West Indies to win the women's
2013 Cricket World Cup
1801 - The U.S. House of Representatives broke an electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr. Jefferson was elected president and Burr became vice president. 1817 - The first gaslit streetlights appeared on the streets of Baltimore, MD. 1865 - Columbia, SC, burned. The Confederates were evacuating and the Union Forces were moving in. 1876 - Julius Wolff was credited with being the first to can sardines. 1878 - In San Francisco, CA, the first large city telephone exchange opened. It had only 18 phones. 1897 - The National Congress of Mothers was organized in Washington, DC, by Alice McLellan Birney and Phoebe Apperson Hearst. It was the forerunner of the National PTA. 1913 - The Armory Show opened at the 69th Regiment Armory in New York City. The full-scale exhibition was of contemporary paintings and was organized by the Association of Painters and Sculptors. 1924 - Swimmer Johnny Weissmuller set a world record in the 100-yard freestyle. He did it with a time of 57-2/5 seconds in Miami, FL. 1933 - "Newsweek" was first published. 1933 - Blondie Boopadoop married Dagwood Bumstead three years after Chic Young’s popular strip first debuted. 1934 - The first high school automobile driver’s education course was introduced in State College, PA. 1944 - During World War II, the Battle of Eniwetok Atoll began. U.S. forces won the battle on February 22, 1944. 1947 - The Voice of America began broadcasting to the Soviet Union. 1964 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that congressional districts within each state had to be approximately equal in population. (Westberry v. Sanders) 1965 - Comedienne Joan Rivers made her first guest appearances on " The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson" on NBC-TV. 1968 - The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame opened in Springfield, MA. 1985 - U.S. Postage stamp prices were raised from 20 cents to 22 cents for first class mail. 1992 - In Milwaukee, serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was sentenced to life in prison. In November of 1994, he was beaten to death in prison. 1995 - Colin Ferguson was convicted of six counts of murder in the December 1993 Long Island Rail Road shootings. He was later sentenced to a minimum of 200 years in prison. 1996 - World chess champion Garry Kasparov beat the IBM supercomputer "Deep Blue" in Philadelphia, PA. 1997 - Pepperdine University announced that Kenneth Starr was leaving the Whitewater probe to take a full-time job at the school. Starr reversed the announcement four days later. 2005 - U.S. President George W. Bush named John Negroponte as the first national intelligence director.
1600 Italian philospher, alchemist, and Copernican theory advocate Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake for heresy by the Inquisition. 1801 The electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr was broken by the House of Representatives who elected Jefferson president. 1817 Baltimore became the first U.S. city lit by gas. 1864 The Confederate submarine Hunley, equipped with an explosive at the end of a protruding spar, rammed and sank the Union's ship Housatonic off the coast of Charleston, S.C. 1904 Puccini's opera Madama Butterfly premiered in Milan. 1972 President Richard Nixon left on his trip to China. 1996 Chess champion Garry Kasparov beat the IBM computer, Deep Blue, winning the six-game match. 2008 Kosovo declared independence from Serbia.
http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php
http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/feb17.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
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