What happened on October 17 ?

532 - Pope Boniface II

1174 - Queen Petronila of Aragon (b. 1135)

1586 - Philip Sidney, English courtier, soldier, and writer (killed in battle) (b. 1554)

1660 - Adrian Scrope, English regicide (b. 1601)

1673 - Thomas Clifford, 1st Baron Clifford of Chudleigh, English statesman (b. 1630)

1757 - René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur, French scientist (b. 1683)

1776 - Pierre François le Courayer, French theologian (b. 1681)

1780 - William Cookworthy, English chemist (b. 1705)

1786 - Johann Ludwig Aberli, Swiss artist (b. 1723)

1806 - Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Haitian independence leader (b. 1758)

1836 - Orest Kiprensky, Russian painter (b. 1782)

1849 - Frédéric Chopin, Polish-French musician and composer (b. 1810)

1887 - Gustav Kirchhoff, German physicist (b. 1824)

1889 - Nikolai Chernyshevsky, Russian philosopher (b. 1828)

1910 - Julia Ward Howe, American composer and abolitionist (b. 1819)

1931 - Alfons Maria Jakob, German neurologist (b. 1884)

1934 - Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Spanish histologist and neuroscientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine ( b. 1852)

1958 - Charlie Townsend, English cricketer (b. 1876)

1962 - Natalia Goncharova, Russian painter (b. 1882)

1967 - Henry Pu Yi, last Emperor of China (b. 1906)

1970 - Pierre Laporte, Vice-Premier of Quebec (assassinated) (b. 1921)

1973 - Ingeborg Bachmann, Austrian writer (b. 1926)

1979 - S. J. Perelman, American writer (b. 1904)

1984 - Henri Michaux, French painter and poet (b. 1899)

1991 - Tennessee Ernie Ford, American singer and television performer (b. 1919)

1992 - Herman Johannes, Indonesian professor, scientist and politician (b. 1912)

2001 - Rehavam Zeevi, Israeli politician (b. 1926)

2002 - Derek Bell, Irish harpist (The Chieftans) (b. 1935)

2004 - Uzi Hitman, Israeli singer (b. 1952)

2005 - Ba Jin, Chinese writer (b. 1904)