October 17

690 – Empress Wu Zetian establishes the Zhou Dynasty of China. 1091 – London tornado of 1091: A tornado thought to be of strength T8/F4 strikes the heart of London. 1346 – The English capture King David II of Scotland at Neville's Cross and imprison him for eleven years. 1448 – An Ottoman army defeats a Hungarian army at the Second Battle of Kosovo. 1456 – The University of Greifswald is established as the second oldest university in northern Europe. 1534 – Anti-Catholic posters appear in Paris and other cities supporting Huldrych Zwingli's position on the Mass. 1558 – Poczta Polska, the Polish postal service, is founded. 1604 – Kepler's Supernova is observed in the constellation of Ophiuchus. 1610 – French king Louis XIII is crowned in Reims Cathedral. 1660 – The nine regicides who signed the death warrant of Charles I of England are hanged, drawn and quartered. 1662 – Charles II of England sells Dunkirk to Louis XIV of France for 40,000 pounds. 1713 – Great Northern War: Russia defeated Sweden in the Battle of Kostianvirta in Pälkäne. 1771 – Premiere in Milan of the opera Ascanio in Alba, composed by Mozart at age 15. 1777 – American Revolutionary War: British General John Burgoyne surrenders his army at Saratoga, New York. 1781 – American Revolutionary War: British General Charles, Earl Cornwallis surrenders at the Siege of Yorktown. 1800 – War of the Second Coalition: Britain takes control of the Dutch colony of Curaçao. 1806 – Former leader of the Haitian Revolution, Emperor Jacques I, is assassinated after an oppressive rule. 1811 – The silver deposits of Agua Amarga are discovered in Chile becoming in the following years instrumental for the Patriots to finance the Chilean War of Independence. 1814 – Eight people die in the London Beer Flood. 1850 – Riots start, which lead to a massacre in Aleppo. 1860 – First The Open Championship (referred to in North America as the British Open). 1861 – Aboriginal Australians kill nineteen Europeans in the Cullin-la-ringo massacre. 1907 – Marconi begins the first commercial transatlantic wireless service.