December 17

497 BC – The first Saturnalia festival was celebrated in ancient Rome. 546 – Siege of Rome: The Ostrogoths under king Totila plunder the city, by bribing the Byzantine garrison. 920 – Romanos I Lekapenos is crowned co-emperor of the underage Constantine VII. 942 – Assassination of William I of Normandy. 1297 – King Kyawswa of Pagan is overthrown by the three Myinsaing brothers, marking the de facto end of the Pagan Kingdom. 1398 – Sultan Nasir-u Din Mehmud's armies in Delhi are defeated by Timur. 1538 – Pope Paul III excommunicates Henry VIII of England. 1583 – Cologne War: Forces under Ernest of Bavaria defeat troops under Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg at the Siege of Godesberg. 1586 – Go-Yōzei becomes Emperor of Japan. 1718 – War of the Quadruple Alliance: Great Britain declares war on Spain. 1777 – American Revolution: France formally recognizes the United States. 1790 – The Aztec calendar stone is discovered at El Zócalo, Mexico City. 1807 – Napoleonic Wars: France issues the Milan Decree, which confirms the Continental System. 1812 – War of 1812: U.S. forces attack a Lenape village in the Battle of the Mississinewa. 1819 – Simón Bolívar declares the independence of Gran Colombia in Angostura (now Ciudad Bolívar in Venezuela). 1835 – The second Great Fire of New York destroys of New York City's Financial District. 1837 – A fire in the Winter Palace of Saint Petersburg kills 30 guards. 1862 – American Civil War: General Ulysses S. Grant issues General Order No. 11, expelling Jews from parts of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky. 1865 – First performance of the Unfinished Symphony by Franz Schubert. 1892 – First issue of Vogue is published. 1896 – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's Schenley Park Casino, which was the first multi-purpose arena with the technology to create an artificial ice surface in North America, is destroyed in a fire. 1903 – The Wright brothers make the first controlled powered, heavier-than-air flight in the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. 1907 – Ugyen Wangchuck is crowned first King of Bhutan.