William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, becomes the Duke at the age of 8 after the death of his father, Robert I.
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What Happened Today in History on April 17
Explore the historical events that shaped our world on April 17th. From major milestones to cultural achievements, see what happened on this day in history. Dates for earlier events may be approximate.
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Geoffrey Chaucer first read from The Canterbury Tales at the court of King Richard II. This event was a major turning point for English literature, as it was one of the first times a major work of this stature was presented in English, the common vernacular, rather than the traditional Norman French or Latin used at court.
Christopher Columbus receives funding for his expedition from Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain.
English poet William Wordsworth first publishes "Poems in Two Volumes."
American engineer and inventor William R. Johnson patents the bicycle.
The Bay of Pigs (Bahía de Cochinos) Invasion on the southwestern coast of Cuba begins. The CIA trained forces consisting of about 1,500 Cuban exiles assembled and launched from Guatemala and Nicaragua by boat with the objective to ignite an uprising that would overthrow the government of Fidel Castro. The Cuban military crushed the incursion by the third day. The invasion was a U.S. foreign policy failure. The Cuban government's victory solidified Castro's role as a national hero and pushed Cuba closer to the Soviet Union, setting the stage for the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. More
“Houston, we’ve had a problem…” Apollo 13 returns safely to Earth after an oxygen tank ruptured two days into the mission. The spacecraft carried astronauts James A. Lovell, John L. Swigert and Fred W. Haise. Apollo 13 mission was to be the third manned lunar landing. More
The Khmer Rouge troops capture Phnom Penh and the government forces surrender five days after the last helicopter taking American citizens and X Cambodia XYZ left the country.
The Khmer Rouge led Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 during which The regime tried to purify the nation of suspected corruption and counter-revolutionary tendencies in order to bring about its utopian communist vision for Cambodia. But their extreme ideology and tactics targeted most segments of Cambodian society for destruction. It is estimated that the regime was responsible for the deaths of two million of the country’s seven million people. More