1917: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

Events

• January 2 - The Royal Bank of Canada takes over Quebec Bank.
• January 22 - World War I: President Woodrow Wilson calls for "peace without victory" in Europe.
• January 25 - The Danish West Indies is sold to the United States for $25 million
• January 28 - The United States ends search for Pancho Villa
• January 31 - World War I: Germany announces its U-boats will engage in unrestricted submarine warfare.
• February 3 - World War I: The United States breaks off diplomatic relations with Germany
• February 5 - The constitution of Mexico is adopted.
• February 23 - The Russian Revolution begins with the overthrow of the Tsar system.
• February 24 - World War I: United States ambassador to the United Kingdom Walter H. Page is given the Zimmermann Telegram, in which Germany offers to give the American Southwest back to Mexico if Mexico will declare war on the United States.
• March 1 - U.S. government releases the plaintext of the Zimmermann Telegram to the public
• March 1 - Japanese city Omuta, Fukuoka is founded
• March 2 - The enactment of the Jones Act grants Puerto Ricans United States citizenship.
• March 4 - Jeannette Rankin of Montana becomes the first woman member of the United States House of Representatives.
• March 8 - The United States Senate adopts the cloture rule in order to limit filibusters.
• March 15 - Tsar Nicholas II of Russia abdicates and the Russian Revolution begins.
• March 21 - The Danish West Indies become the Virgin Islands when Denmark transfers control over the islands to the United States after the purchase of the islands on January 25.
• March 26 - World War I: Battle of Gaza - British cavalry troops retreat after 17,000 Turks block their advance.
• March 31 - The United States takes possession of the Virgin Islands after paying $25 million to Denmark.
• April 2 - World War I: US President Woodrow Wilson asks Congress for a declaration of war on Germany.
• April 6 - World War I: United States declares war on Germany. [1]
• April 9 - 12 - World War I: Canadians win the Battle of Vimy Ridge.
• April 11 - World War I: Brazil severs relations with Germany
• April 16 – Lenin arrives to Petrograd
• May 13 - Three peasant children claim to see the Virgin Mary above a holm oak tree in Cova da Iria near Fatima, Portugal.
• May 18 - World War I: The Selective Service Act passes the United States Congress giving the President the power to draft soldiers.
• June 5 - World War I: Conscription begins in the United States as "Army registration day."
• June 15 - The United States enacts the Espionage Act, which, when combined with the later Sedition Act, suspends constitutional freedom of speech.
• July 6 - Arabian troops led by T.E. Lawrence capture Aqaba from the Turks.
• July 7 - Aleksandr Kerensky forms the Provisional Government in Russia after the deposing of the tsar.
• July 17 - King George V of the United Kingdom issues a Proclamation stating that the male line descendants of the British royal family will bear the surname Windsor.
• July 20 - Corfu Declaration that enabled post-war Kingdom of Yugoslavia was signed by the Yugoslav Committee and Kingdom of Serbia
• July 25 - Sir Thomas Whyte introduces the first income tax in Canada as a "temporary" measure (lowest bracket is 4% and highest is 25%).
• October 15 - World War I: At Vincennes outside of Paris, Dutch dancer Mata Hari is executed by firing squad for spying for Germany.
• October 19 - Love Field in Dallas, Texas is opened.
• October 26 - World War I: Brazil declared in state of war with Germany.
• November 2 - Zionism: The Balfour Declaration proclaims British support for Jewish settlement in Palestine.
• November 6 - World War I: Third Battle of Ypres ends: After three months of fierce fighting, Canadian forces take Ypres in Belgium.
• November 7 - Russian Revolution begins: In Russia, Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin leads his leftist revolutionaries in a nearly bloodless coup d'état against the ineffective Kerensky Provisional Government (Russia was still using the Julian Calendar at the time, so period references show a October 25 date).
• November 7 - World War I: Battle of Gaza ends - United Kingdom forces capture Gaza from the Ottoman Empire.
• November 15 - Finland takes a step towards full sovereignty recognizing the personal union with Russia finished after the Tsar being dethroned
• November 20 - World War I: Battle of Cambrai begins - British forces make early progress in an attack on German positions but are soon beat back.
• November 20 - Ukraine is declared a republic.
• December 3 - After nearly 20 years of planning and construction, the Quebec Bridge opens to traffic (the bridge partially collapsed on August 29, 1907 and September 11, 1916).
• December 6 - Finland's declaration of independence.
• December 6 - Halifax explosion: Freighters Imro and Mont Blanc collide in 8.30 in the harbour at Halifax, Nova Scotia and cause a huge explosion that officially kills at least 1963 people, injures 9000 and destroys part of the city. Until Hiroshima, this was the biggest manmade explosion.
• December 25 - Why Marry?, first dramatic play to win a Pulitzer Prize, opens at the Astor Theatre in New York City.

• Lions Clubs International was formed.
• First commercially issued recordings of jazz music, by Original Dixieland Jazz Band.
• Conscription crisis in Canada.
• Jones Act – people of Puerto Rico become US citizens
• Female suffrage in the Netherlands

Ongoing events

• World War I (1914-1918)
• Armenian Genocide (1915-1918)
• Hellenic Holocaust (1914-1922)

• January 10 - Hilde Krahl, actress († 1999)
• January 10 - Jerry Wexler, record producer
• January 24 - Ernest Borgnine, actor
• January 25 - Ilya Prigogine, winner, Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1977 († 2003)
• January 29 - John Raitt, actor, singer
• February 4 - Yahya Khan, President of Pakistan, († 1980)
• February 6 - Zsa Zsa Gabor, actress
• February 11 - Richard Jock Kinneir, graphic designer.
• February 11 - Sidney Sheldon, author.
• February 14 - Herbert A. Hauptman, biophysicist, winner Nobel Prize in Chemistry
• February 19 - Carson McCullers, author († 1967)
• February 25 - Anthony Burgess, author of Clockwork Orange († 1993)
• February 27 - John Connally, Governor of Texas († 1993)
• February 28 - Fidel Sánchez Hernández, former president of El Salvador (1967-1972) († 2003)
• March 1 - Robert Lowell, poet († 1977)
• March 1 - Harry Caray, TV and radio broadcaster for three Major League Baseball teams († 1998)
• March 2 - Desi Arnaz, actor, bandleader, musician († 1986)
• March 19 - Dinu Lipatti, pianist († 1950)
• March 20 - Dame Vera Lynn, actress, singer
• March 27 - Cyrus Vance, United States politician († 2002)
• April 17 - Bill Clements, governor of Texas
• April 25 - Ella Fitzgerald, jazz singer († 1996)
• May 14 - Lou Harrison, composer († 2003)
• May 21 - Raymond Burr, actor († 1993)
• May 22 - Georg Tintner, conductor († 1999)
• May 28 - Papa John Creech († 1994)
• May 29 - John Kennedy, United States President († 1963)
• June 17 - Atle Selberg, Norwegian mathematician
• July 4 - Manolete (Manuel Rodríguez Sánchez), bullfighter († 1947)
• August 15 - Jack Lynch, Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland († 1999)
• August 22 - John Lee Hooker, blues musician († 2001)
• August 28 - Jack Kirby (comic book artist) († 1994)
• August 29 - Isabel Sanford, actress (All in the Family, The Jeffersons) († 2004)
• September 11 - Ferdinand Edralin Marcos, Philippine President and strongman
• September 13 - Robert Ward, composer († 1994)
• September 25 - Johnny Sain, baseball pitcher
• October 15 - Jan Miner, American actress († 2004)
• October 21 - Dizzy Gillespie, American jazz musician († 1993)
• October 30 - Maurice Trintignant, F1 race car driver
• November 11 - Madeleine Damerment, WW II heroine, executed by the Nazis († 1944)
• December 6 - Eliane Plewman, WW II heroine, executed by the Nazis († 1944)
• December 6 - Kamal Jumblatt, leader of the Lebanese Druze († 1977)
• December 22 - Gene Rayburn, television host († 1999)
• December 30 - Seymour Melman, industrial engineer
• Sultan Yahya Petra ibni Almarhum Sultan Ibrahim Petra, later Sultan of Kelantan and 6th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.

• January 10 - William F. Cody, frontiersman
• January 16 - George Dewey, Admiral (b. 1837)
• March 8 - Ferdinand von Zeppelin (b. 1838)
• March 17 - Franz Brentano, German philosopher and psychologist1
• March 31 - Emil Adolf von Behring, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1901
• April 1 - Scott Joplin, musician, composer
• April 14 - L. L. Zamenhof, creator of Esperanto, homaranismo, and the daisy-wheel typewriting mechanism
• May 17 - Charles Anthoni Johnson Brooke, ruler of Sarawak
• May 20 - Philipp von Ferrary, stamp collector
• June 30 - Antonio de La Gandara, painter
• July 27 - Emil Kocher, medical researcher (b. 1841)
• September 27 - Edgar Degas, painter
• October 13 - Florence La Badie, pioneer actress
• October 15 - Mata Hari, Dutch dancer and spy (executed)
• October 28 - Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, husband of Princess Helena of the United Kingdom, aunt of King George V.
• November 17 - Auguste Rodin, sculptor
• John William Waterhouse, Artist

• Physics - Charles Glover Barkla
• Chemistry - not awarded
• Medicine - not awarded
• Literature - Karl Adolph Gjellerup, Henrik Pontoppidan
• Peace - International Red Cross, Geneva.