This Day in History on 17 December

The historical events hold a lot of value for aspirants who are sitting for UPSC competitive exams including the IAS Exam.

On this page, we will list all historical events that occurred on 17 December. The students can refer to them while preparing for all competitive exams and banking exams.

Important Days

Important Events

1715: Banda Bahadur Bairagi, the chief of the Sikhs, surrendered to the Mughals at Gurdaspur.

1907: Ugyen Wangchuk became the first hereditary king of Bhutan.

1925: The then Soviet Union and Turkey signed an agreement not to attack each other.

1927: Great Australian batsman Sir Don Bradman scored 118 runs in his first match in first-class cricket.

1927: Rajendra Nath Lahiri, a revolutionary of the Hindustan Republican Association, was hanged in Gonda Jail by the British Government two days before the scheduled date.

1928: Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, Rajguru assassinated British police officer James Saunders at Lahore.

1933: India’s legendary cricketer Lala Amarnath played an outstanding inning of 118 runs in his debut Test match.

1940: Mahatma Gandhi suspended individual Satyagraha movement.

1970: Jayantilal Chotalal Shah became the 13th Chief Justice of India.

1971: End of Indo-Pak war.

1996: National Football League launched.

2016: Sharad Pawar resigned as MCA (Mumbai Cricket Association) president.

2016: Vijender Singh defeated Francis Cheka to clinch the WBO Asia Pacific Super Middleweight title.

2020: India’s communication satellite CMS-01 was successfully launched by PSLV–C50 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota.

1927 – Indian revolutionary Rajendra Lahiri is hanged in Gonda jail, Uttar Pradesh, India, two days before the scheduled date.


1928 – Indian revolutionaries Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev Thapar and Shivaram Rajguru assassinate British police officer James Saunders in Lahore, Punjab, to avenge the death of Lala Lajpat Rai at the hands of the police. The three were executed in 1931.

1929: Bhagat Singh and Rajguru killed Sanders, Asst. Suprintendent of Police.

1933: Lala Amarnath scores a century (118) in his Test Cricket debut.

1961: Provocative action against our nationals in the vicinity of Anjadip Island and Portugal’s belligerent attitude to the problems of its colonial possessions in this country, resulted in the Government of India’s decision to liberate Goa, Daman and Diu. Operations were launched at night.

1970: Judge Jayantilal Chhotalal Shah became the Chief Justice of India. He helded this office till 21/01/1971.

1971: Ceasefire between India & Pakistan in Kashmir and end of Indo-Pak war.

1972: New line of control agreed to in Kashmir between India & Pakistan.

1987: Bhopal court orders the Union Carbide to pay Rs. 350 crore as interim relief to 1984 gas victims.

1990: N. Janardhan Reddy sworn in as CM of Andhra Pradesh.

1991: Narasimhan committee on Monetary Reforms recommends that there should not be any further nationalisation of banks. Loan-melas assailed.

1998: Jyotirmoyee bags her second gold at the Asian Games, winning the women’s 800m. Rosakutty finishes second. Bantamweight pugilist Dingko Singh clinches a gold while Indian pair of Sethi-Shandilya strikes top prize in billiards doubles category.

1998: P. M. Sayeed of the Congress(I) was unanimously elected Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha.

1999: Pramod Mahajan, Parliamentary Affairs Minister, announces that Women’s Bill will be introduced in the Lok Sabha.

2000: The 13-day nationwide postal strike called off.

Birth/Birth Anniversary

1770: Ludwig van Beethoven, a German composer, and pianist.

1778: Sir Humphry Davy, a Cornish chemist, and inventor.

Eknath Easwaran

1849: Lalmohan Ghosh, the sixteenth President of the Indian National Congress.

1861: Arthur Edwin Kennelly, an Irish-American electrical engineer.

1900: Dame Mary Lucy Cartwright, a British mathematician.

1905: Mohammad Hidayatullah, the 11th Chief Justice of India.

Mushtaq Ali

1910: Eknath Easwaran, an Indian-born spiritual teacher, and author.

1910: Keki Khursedji Tarapore, cricketer (0-72 in his only Test for India), was born in Bombay.

1914: Syed Mushtaq Ali, an Indian cricketer.

1935: Umayalpuram Kasiviswanatha Sivaraman, an Indian-Carnatic mridanga vidwan.

1936: Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State.

Riteish Deshmukh

1556: Abdul Rahim Khan-I-Khana, Pakistani-Indian poet (d. 1627)

1972: John Abraham, an Indian film actor, film producer, and former model.

1975: Vaibhavi Merchant, an Indian dance choreographer.

1978: Riteish Deshmukh, an Indian film actor, architect, producer, and entrepreneur.

Death/ Death Anniversary

1273: Rumi, a Persian poet.

1645: Nur Jahan, the twentieth wife of the Mughal emperor Jahangir.

1740: Chimaji Appa, Peshwa warrior, died.

1830: Simon Bolivar, great dynamic leader and social reformer, died.

1877: Feroz Shah died at Makka, Saudi.

1907: Lord Kelvin, a British mathematical physicist, and engineer.

1909: Leopold II, the second King of the Belgians.

Rajendra Lahiri

1927: Rajendra Lahiri, an Indian revolutionary.

1933: Thubten Gyatso, the 13th Dalai Lama of Tibet.

1934: Khandesh Gandhi Mir Sukrulla, great patriot and freedom fighter, died.

1938: Charuchandra Bandopadhyay, famous Bengali story writer and novelist, died.

1959: Bhogaraju Pattabhi Sitaramayya, an Indian independence activist, and political.

1964: Victor Franz Hess, an Austrian-American physicist.

1974: Ustad Gulam Sabir, famous Sarangi player, died at Kanpur.

1978: Dhirendranath Ganguly, father of Bengali film industry, died.

1996: Virendrakumar Jain, famous writer, died in Mumbai.

2019: Shriram Lagoo, an Indian film, and theatre actor.

Further Reading

Month-wise This Day in History