February 17

Events

1801 - An electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr is resolved when Jefferson is elected President of the United States and Burr Vice President by the United States House of Representatives.
1819 - The United States House of Representatives passes the Missouri Compromise.
1854 - The British recognizes the independence of the Orange Free State.
1865 - American Civil War: Columbia, South Carolina is burned as Confederate forces flee from advancing Union forces.
1867 - The first ship passes through the Suez Canal.
1871 - The victorious Prussian Army parades though Paris, France after the end of the Siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War.
1925 - Harold Ross and Jane Grant found The New Yorker magazine; the debut issue is dated February 21, 1925.
1933 - The magazine Newsweek is published for the first time.
1933 - The Blaine Act ends Prohibition in the United States.
1947 - The Voice of America begins to transmit radio broadcasts into the Soviet Union.
1962 - A storm kills more than 300 people in Hamburg, West Germany.
1979 - The Sino-Vietnamese War begins.
2008 - Kosovo declares independence from Serbia.