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Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbor

Born on This Day

Kendrick Lamar

1987 -

Pulitzer Prize-winning rapper known for "How Much a Dollar Cost," "Not Like Us" and his record-breaking Super Bowl halftime show.

Barry Manilow

1943 -

Pop singer-songwriter who sold 85 million records thanks to hits like "Mandy," "Looks Like We Made It" and "Copacabana."

Igor Stravinsky

1882 - 1971

Russian composer whose "The Firebird" and "The Rite of Spring" became key works of the early 20th century modernist movement.

Kendrick LamarGetty Images for The Recording A

Barry ManilowGetty Images

Igor StravinskyCorbis via Getty Images

1631

JUN17

Mumtaz Mahal, beloved wife of Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, dies during childbirth. Her passing inspired the creation of the Taj Mahal, a breathtaking monument of eternal love that still awes the world centuries later.

Timeline

Also on This Day in History

Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on June 17th

Battle of Bunker Hill begins

British General Thomas Gage lands his troops on the Charlestown Peninsula overlooking Boston, Massachusetts, and leads them against Breed’s Hill, a fortified American position just below Bunker Hill, on June 17, 1775. As the British advanced in columns against the Americans, American Colonel William Prescott reportedly told his men, “Don’t one of you fire until […]

Native Americans score victory at the Battle of the Rosebud

Sioux and Cheyenne Native Americans score a tactical victory over General Crook’s forces at the Battle of the Rosebud, foreshadowing the disaster of the Battle of the Little Big Horn eight days later. General George Crook was in command of one of three columns of soldiers converging on the Big Horn country of southern Montana […]

Future President Hoover caught in Boxer Rebellion

For nearly a month beginning June 17, 1900, future President Herbert Hoover and his wife Lou are caught in the middle of the Boxer Rebellion in China, when the community of foreigners they lived in, in the city of Tianjin, is besieged and under attack. After marrying in Monterey, California, on February 10, 1899, Herbert […]

France signals intention to surrender to the Nazis

With Paris fallen and the German conquest of France reaching its conclusion, Marshal Henri Petain replaces Paul Reynaud as prime minister and announces his intention to sign an armistice with the Nazis. The next day, French General Charles de Gaulle, not very well known even to the French, made a broadcast to France from England, […]

FDR’s secretary of war stifles Truman’s inquiry into suspicious defense plant

On June 17, 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s secretary of war, Henry Stimson, phones then-Missouri Senator Harry S. Truman and politely asks him not to make inquiries about a defense plant in Pasco, Washington. World War II was in full swing in 1943 and Truman was chairing a Senate committee on possible war profiteering committed […]

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Soviets crush antigovernment riots in East Berlin

The Soviet assault set a precedent for later interventions into Hungary and Czechoslovakia.

Watergate burglars arrested

Five men are arrested for breaking into the Democratic National C

Watergate burglars arrested

In the early morning of June 17, 1972, five men are arrested for breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate, an office-hotel-apartment complex in Washington, D.C. In their possession were burglary tools, cameras and film, and three pen-size tear gas guns. At the scene of the crime, and in rooms the men […]

NBA merges with ABA

On June 17, 1976, the National Basketball Association (NBA) announces a merger with its rival, the American Basketball Association (ABA), and takes on the ABA’s four most successful franchises: the Denver Nuggets, the Indiana Pacers, the New York (later Brooklyn) Nets and the San Antonio Spurs. Founded in 1967 to fill the basketball void in […]

O.J. Simpson leads L.A. police on a low-speed chase

Viewers across the nation are glued to their television screens on June 17, 1994, watching as a fleet of black-and-white police cars pursues a white Ford Bronco along Interstate 405 in Los Angeles, California. Inside the Bronco is Orenthal James “O.J.” Simpson, a former professional football player, actor and sports commentator whom police suspected of […]

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Charleston church shooting

On the evening of June 17, 2015, a mass shooter took the lives of nine African American people at a Bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. The massacre at a historic Black church deeply shook a nation already jaded by frequent gun violence and heralded a new chapter of […]

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