What happened on February 17 ?

1490 - Charles III, Duke of Bourbon, Constable of France (d. 1527)

1519 - Francis, Duke of Guise, French soldier and politician (d. 1563)

1524 - Charles of Guise, French cardinal (d. 1574)

1581 - Fausto Poli, Italian Catholic priest (d. 1653)

1646 - Pierre Le Pesant, sieur de Boisguilbert, French economist (d. 1714)

1653 - Arcangelo Corelli, Italian composer (d. 1713)

1718 - Matthew Tilghman, American Continental Congressman (d. 1790)

1723 - Tobias Mayer, German astronomer (d. 1762)

1752 - Friedrich Maximilian Klinger, German writer (d. 1831)

1754 - Nicolas Baudin, French explorer (d. 1803)

1766 - Thomas Malthus, English demographer and political economist (d. 1834)

1781 - René Laënnec, French physician (d. 1826)

1792 - Karl Ernst von Baer, German biologist (d. 1876)

1796 - Philipp Franz von Siebold, German physician (d. 1866)

1817 - King William III of the Netherlands (d, 1890)

1820 - Henri Vieuxtemps, Belgian composer (d. 1881)

1821 - Lola Montez, Mexican dancer, actress, friend of monarchs (d. 1861)

1836 - Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, Spanish poet (b. 1870)

1844 - Aaron Montgomery Ward, American department store founder (d. 1913)

1848 - Louisa Lawson, Australian feminist, suffragist, and writer (d. 1920)

1854 - Friedrich Alfred Krupp, German industrialist (d. 1902)

1864 - Banjo Paterson, Australian poet (d. 1941)

1874 - Thomas J. Watson, American computer manufacturer (d. 1956)

1877 - Isabelle Eberhardt, explorer and writer who spent a lot of time in North Africa (d. 1904)

1877 - André Maginot, French politician (d. 1932)

1888 - Otto Stern, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1969)

1887 - Leevi Madetoja, Finnish composer (d. 1947)

1908 - Red Barber, baseball announcer (d. 1992)

1910 - Marc Lawrence, American actor (d. 2005)

1911 - Oskar Seidlin, Silesian-born Jewish-American literary scholar (d. 1984)

1912 - Andre Norton, American author (d. 2005)

1914 - Arthur Kennedy, American actor (d. 1990)

1919 - Kathleen Freeman, American actress (d. 2001)

1920 - Ivo Caprino, Norwegian animated film director

1922 - Marshall Teague, American race car driver (d. 1959)

1924 - Margaret Truman, American novelist

1925 - Ron Goodwin, English composer and conductor (d. 2003)

1925 - Hal Holbrook, American actor

1929 - Chaim Potok, American author (d. 2002)

1929 - Patricia Routledge, English actress

1930 - Ruth Rendell, English writer

1932 - Buck Trent, American banjo player

1934 - Alan Bates, English actor (d. 2003)

1934 - Barry Humphries, Australian actor and comedian

1935 - Christina Pickles, British actress

1936 - Jim Brown, American football player

1939 - Mary Ann Mobley, American actress and beauty queen

1941 - Gene Pitney, American singer (d. 2006)

1942 - Huey P. Newton, American politicial activist (d. 1989)

1944 - Karl Jenkins, Welsh composer

1945 - Zina Bethune, American actress

1945 - Brenda Fricker, Irish actress

1949 - Fred Frith, British musician

1952 - Karin Janz, East German gymnast

1953 - Janice Dickinson, American model

1953 - Norman Pace, British actor and comic

1954 - Rene Russo, American actress

1956 - Richard Karn, American actor

1957 - Loreena McKennitt, Canadian musician, singer, and songwriter

1958 - Agim Coma, Albanian-Macedonian-American Actor

1959 - Aryeh Deri, Israeli rabbi and politician

1962 - Alison Hargreaves, British mountaineer (d. 1995)

1962 - Lou Diamond Phillips, American actor

1963 - Michael Jordan, American basketball player

1963 - Larry the Cable Guy, American Comedian

1966 - Luc Robitaille, Canadian ice hockey player

1966 - Quorthon, Swedish musician (Bathory) (d. 2004)

1967 - Chanté Moore, American singer

1969 - Tuesday Knight, American actress

1970 - Dominic Purcell, English Born Actor

1970 - Tim Mahoney, American musician (311)

1971 - Martyn Bennett, Canadian musician and composer (d. 2005)

1971 - Denise Richards, American actress

1972 - Billie Joe Armstrong, American singer and musician (Green Day)

1972 - Philippe Candeloro, French figure skater

1974 - Jerry O'Connell, American actor

1974 - Bryan White, American singer

1975 - Wish Bone, American rapper

1975 - Vaclav Prospal, Czech hockey player

1978 - Jacob Wetterling, American kidnapping victim

1980 - Jason Ritter, American actor

1981 - Joseph Gordon-Levitt, American actor

1981 - Paris Hilton, American actress and heiress

1982 - Adriano Leite Ribeiro, Brazilian footballer

1991 - Bonnie Wright, British child actress

1996 - Sasha Pieterse, South African child actress