1917

As the First World War raged, 1917 saw some important developments. Most notably, this was the year that the United States entered the Great War.

1917

Having remained officially neutral to this point, the United States took issue with the resumption of the German U-boat campaign in the Atlantic. Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare on February 1st, and it was on February 24th that the infamous “Zimmerman Telegram” was shown to the US ambassador to the United Kingdom. The contents of the telegram were disclosed to the American public days later, adding fuel to the cause of Americans who wished to intervene on the side of the Allies. With the telegram and several other factors at play, the United States would ultimately declare war on Germany on April 6th.

In another major political development, Czar Nicholas II abdicated his throne, officially bringing the Russian Empire and the Romanov Dynasty to an end. 1917 was also the year of the October Revolution in Russia and the beginning of the Russian Civil War, which would lead to the establishment of the communist regime of the Soviet Union.

Another interesting note revolves around the British Royal Family. In July of 1917, King George V proclaimed that his family and descendants would use the surname of Windsor, changing the name from the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

Despite headlines this year revolving around the war, there were some notable cultural developments as well. In an important literary development, this was the year that J.R.R. Tolkien began writing The Book of Lost Tales, which was the first version of his famous Silmarillion. Tolkien worked while on medical leave from the British Army after becoming ill from the brutal conditions of trench warfare.

In film, Buster Keaton made his debut in “The Butcher Boy,” a short film that was the first in a series of films involving Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle. In another development, the world’s first feature-length animated film, El Apostol, was made in Argentina.

Discover how the world looked like in 1917

Looking for 1917 Calendar ? Here it is: January 1917, February 1917, March 1917, April 1917, May 1917, June 1917, July 1917, August 1917, September 1917, October 1917, November 1917, December 1917

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1917 Chinese Zodiac and Horoscope

According to the Chinese Zodiac and Astrology 1917 is the year of the Snake

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Nobel Prize

Nobel Prizes

All Nobel Prize winners of 1917


Peace Prize

  • International Committee of the Red Cross

Literature

  • Karl Adolph Gjellerup
  • Henrik Pontoppidan

Physics

  • Charles Glover Barkla
vinyl songs

Music charts

Which were the top hits of 1917?


Top #1 songs in the USA

  • - My Own Iona
  • - Over There
  • - The Star-Spangled Banner
  • - Good-Bye Broadway, Hello France
  • - Hawaiian Butterfly
  • - Keep the Home Fires Burning
  • - When Irish Eyes Are Smiling
  • - The Stars and Stripes Forever March
  • - How's Every Little Thing in Dixie?
  • - When the Sun Goes Down in Dixie (And the Moon Begins to Rise)

Movies

Which were the most popular Movies released in those months?
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A Trip to the Moon

A Trip to the Moon

Release year: 1917

Directed by: Georges Méliès

Starring: Georges Méliès, Victor André, Bleuette Bernon, Brunnet

On Dangerous Ground

On Dangerous Ground

Release year: 1917

Directed by: Robert Thornby

Starring: Carlyle Blackwell, Gail Kane, William Bailey, Stanhope Wheatcroft

The Adventurer

The Adventurer

Release year: 1917

Directed by: Charles Chaplin

Starring: Charles Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Eric Campbell, Henry Bergman

A Man There Was

A Man There Was

Release year: 1917

Directed by: Victor Sjöström

Starring: Victor Sjöström, August Falck, Edith Erastoff, Bergliot Husberg

Country: United States of America

The Man from Painted Post

The Man from Painted Post

Release year: 1917

Directed by: Joseph Henabery

Starring: Douglas Fairbanks, Eileen Percy, Frank Campeau, Frank Clark

Popular names

Which were the top popular names given to babies born in 1917 in the USA ?

history

Historical Events

Which were the important events of 1917?


Events

  • 01 Jan 1917 The University of Oregon defeats The University of Pennsylvania 14–0 in college football's 3rd Annual Rose Bowl.
  • 08 Jan 1917 Austria-Hungarian troops conquer Forlani Italy.
  • 09 Jan 1917 World War I: the Battle of Rafa occurs near the Egyptian border with Palestine.
  • 11 Jan 1917 The Kingsland munitions factory explosion occurs as a result of sabotage.
  • 17 Jan 1917 The United States pays Denmark $25 million for the Virgin Islands.
  • 19 Jan 1917 Silvertown explosion: 73 are killed and 400 injured in an explosion in a munitions plant in London.
  • 22 Jan 1917 World War I: President Woodrow Wilson of the still-neutral United States calls for ''peace without victory'' in Europe.
  • 26 Jan 1917 The sea defences at the English village of Hallsands are breached, leading to all but one of the houses becoming uninhabitable.
  • 27 Jan 1917 Coen de Koning wins second official 11 cities race (9 53) (record).
  • 28 Jan 1917 Municipally owned streetcars take to the streets of San Francisco, California.
  • 29 Jan 1917 English submarine K13 leaves Gaire Loch.
  • 30 Jan 1917 Pershing's troops in Mexico begin withdrawing back to the United States. They reach Columbus, New Mexico February 5.
  • 31 Jan 1917 Germany notifies US that U-boats will attack neutral merchant ship.
  • 01 Feb 1917 Admiral Tirpitz announces unlimited submarine war.
  • 03 Feb 1917 US liner Housatonic sunk by German sub and diplomatic relations severed
  • 04 Feb 1917 Belgium Council of Flanders established.
  • 05 Feb 1917 Morosco Theater opens at 217 W 45th Steet New York City (demolished 1982).
  • 10 Feb 1917 End of Punitive Expedition of General Pershing into Mexico.
  • 13 Feb 1917 Mata Hari is arrested for spying.
  • 15 Feb 1917 San Francisco Public Library (Main Branch at Civic center) dedicated.
  • 20 Feb 1917 Ammunitions ship explodes in Archangelsk harbor, about 1,500 die.
  • 21 Feb 1917 Train near Chirurcha Romania catches fire and explodes; 100s die.
  • 22 Feb 1917 German Navy torpedoes 7 Dutch ships.
  • 23 Feb 1917 February revolution begins in Russia.
  • 24 Feb 1917 Russian revolution breaks out
  • 26 Feb 1917 The Original Dixieland Jass Band records the first ever jazz record for the Victor Talking Machine Company in New York.
  • 28 Feb 1917 Russian Duma sets up Provisional Committee; workers set up Soviets.
  • 01 Mar 1917 The U.S. government releases the unencrypted text of the Zimmermann Telegram to the public.
  • 02 Mar 1917 Jones Act: Puerto Rico territory created, US citizenship granted.
  • 03 Mar 1917 Nicholas II, last Russian tsar, abdicates
  • 04 Mar 1917 Jeannette Rankin of Montana becomes the first female member of the United States House of Representatives.
  • 08 Mar 1917 The United States Senate votes to limit filibusters by adopting the cloture rule.
  • 10 Mar 1917 Batangas is formally founded as one of the Philippines's earliest encomiendas.
  • 11 Mar 1917 British troops occupy Baghdad.
  • 12 Mar 1917 Stalin, Kamenev and Muranov arrive in Saint Petersburg.
  • 15 Mar 1917 Nicholas II, last Russian tsar, says he will abdicate [3 / 3 OS]
  • 17 Mar 1917 N.S.) (March 4, O.S.) ampndash Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia refuses the throne, and power passes to the newly formed Provisional Government under Prince Georgy Lvov.
  • 19 Mar 1917 US Supreme Court upheld 8-hour work day for railroad employees (Adamson Act).
  • 23 Mar 1917 Tornadoes kills 211 over 4 days in Midwest US
  • 25 Mar 1917 The Georgian Orthodox Church restores its autocephaly abolished by Imperial Russia in 1811.
  • 26 Mar 1917 Stanley Cup: Seattle Metropolitans (PCHA) beat Montreal Canadiens (NHL), 3 games to 1; Seattle is first US team to win Stanley Cup.
  • 28 Mar 1917 Jews are expelled from Tel Aviv and Jaffa by Turkish authorities.
  • 30 Mar 1917 The independence of Poland is recognized.
  • 31 Mar 1917 US purchases Danish West Indies for $25M and renames them Virgin Islands
  • 02 Apr 1917 Jeannette Rankin becomes 1st women member of US House of Reps
  • 03 Apr 1917 Lenin leaves Switzerland for Petrograd.
  • 06 Apr 1917 World War I: The United States declares war on Germany (see President Woodrow Wilson's address to Congress).
  • 09 Apr 1917 Vimy Ridge France stormed by Canadian troops.
  • 10 Apr 1917 Munition factory explosion at Eddystone Pennsylvania, kills 133 workers.
  • 11 Apr 1917 Babe Ruth beats New York Yankees, pitching 3-hit 10-3 win for Boston Red Sox.
  • 12 Apr 1917 Domenico Scarlatti and Jean Cocteau's ballet premieres in Rome.
  • 14 Apr 1917 Chicago White Sox Ed Cicotte no-hits Saint Louis Browns, 11-0.
  • 16 Apr 1917 Lenin returns to Russia to start Bolshevik Revolution.
  • 19 Apr 1917 21st Boston Marathon won by Bill Kennedy of New York in 2:28:37.2.
  • 20 Apr 1917 Pravda (Lenin names Russia "Free land of world").
  • 24 Apr 1917 Congress passes the First Liberty Bond Act.
  • 04 May 1917 Arabs sack Tel Aviv.
  • 09 May 1917 WWI: The Nivelle Offensive is abandoned.
  • 10 May 1917 Atlantic ships get destroyer escorts to stop German attacks.
  • 11 May 1917 Britain grants Royal Letters Patent to New Zealand.
  • 12 May 1917 42nd Preakness: E Haynes aboard Kalitan wins in 1:54.4
  • 13 May 1917 Three children report the first apparition of Our Lady of Fatima in Fatima, Portugal.
  • 18 May 1917 US passes Selective Service act.
  • 20 May 1917 Turkish Government authorizes Jews to return to Tel Aviv and Jaffa.
  • 21 May 1917 Leo Pinckney, first American drafted during WWI.
  • 22 May 1917 Commissioned Officer Corps of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey.
  • 23 May 1917 A month of civil violence in Milan, Italy ends after the Italian army forcefully takes over the city from anarchists and anti-war revolutionaries. Fifty people are killed and 800 people are arrested.Seton-Watson, Christopher. 1967. Italy from Liberalism to Fascism: 1870 to 1925. London: Methuen amp Co. Ltd. Pp. 468–9
  • 26 May 1917 Walt Cruise hit first homerun out of Braves Field.
  • 27 May 1917 Race riot in East Saint Louis Illinois, one black killed.
  • 30 May 1917 Alexander I becomes king of Greece.
  • 01 Jun 1917 Hank Gowdy is 1st baseball player to enlist during WWI
  • 04 Jun 1917 American men begin registering for the draft
  • 05 Jun 1917 World War I: Conscription begins in the United States as ''Army registration day''.
  • 07 Jun 1917 World War I: Battle of Messines : Allied ammonal mines underneath German trenches at Messines Ridge are detonated, killing 10,000 German troops.
  • 08 Jun 1917 Walt Disney graduates from Benton High School.
  • 10 Jun 1917 60,000 people of Petrograd welcome Prince Kropotkin
  • 11 Jun 1917 King Alexander assumes the throne of Greece after his father Constantine I abdicates under pressure by allied armies occupying Athens.
  • 12 Jun 1917 Secret Service extends protection of president to his family.
  • 13 Jun 1917 Germany bombs London
  • 14 Jun 1917 1e German air attack on England, 100+ killed in East-London
  • 15 Jun 1917 The United States enacts the Espionage Act.
  • 16 Jun 1917 49th Belmont: James Butwell aboard Hourless wins in 2:17.8
  • 17 Jun 1917 British King George V takes the name Windsor
  • 19 Jun 1917 After WWI King George V ordered members of British royal family to dispense with German titles and surnames, they take the name Windsor
  • 21 Jun 1917 Hawaiian Red Cross founded.
  • 23 Jun 1917 31st US Womens Tennis: Molla Mallory beat Marion Vanderhoef
  • 24 Jun 1917 Russian Black Sea fleet mutiny at Sebastopol
  • 26 Jun 1917 The first U.S. troops arrive in France to fight alongside Britain, France, Italy, and Russia against Germany, and Austria-Hungary in World War I.
  • 28 Jun 1917 Potato entrepreneurs begins in Amsterdam
  • 01 Jul 1917 257cm-mirror for Mount Wilson Observatory mounted
  • 02 Jul 1917 Riots in East St. Louis, Missouri
  • 03 Jul 1917 Spontaneous demonstration at Tauride-palace Petrograd
  • 06 Jul 1917 World War I: Arabian troops led by T. E. Lawrence (''Lawrence of Arabia'') and Auda ibu Tayi capture Aqaba from the Ottoman Empire during the Arab Revolt.
  • 09 Jul 1917 British warship "Vanguard" explodes at Scapa Flow killing 800.
  • 10 Jul 1917 Emma Goldman imprisoned for obstructing the draft.
  • 12 Jul 1917 The Bisbee Deportation occurs as vigilantes kidnap and deport nearly 1,300 striking miners and others from Bisbee, Arizona.
  • 16 Jul 1917 July 17 ampndash Russian troops mutiny, abandon the Austrian front, and retreat to the Ukraine hundreds are shot by their commanding officers during the retreat.
  • 17 Jul 1917 British Royal family changes its name from Hanover to Windsor.
  • 20 Jul 1917 Pact of Corfu signed: Serbs, Croats and Slovenes form Yugoslavia
  • 22 Jul 1917 British bomb German lines at Ypres, 4,250,000 grenades
  • 23 Jul 1917 Cleveland Metropolitan Park District establishes
  • 25 Jul 1917 Sir William Thomas White introduces the first income tax in Canada as a quottemporaryquot measure (lowest bracket is 4% and highest is 25%).
  • 26 Jul 1917 J Edgar Hoover gets job on ministry of Justice
  • 27 Jul 1917 The Allies reach the Yser Canal at the Battle of Passchendaele.
  • 28 Jul 1917 Silent Parade in NYC to protest murders of blacks in race riots
  • 30 Jul 1917 Board of Commissioners of Cleveland Metroparks has its 1st meeting
  • 31 Jul 1917 3rd battle of Ypres begins
  • 02 Aug 1917 Squadron Commander E.H. Dunning lands his aircraft on the ship in Scapa Flow, Orkney. He is killed 5 days later during another landing on the ship.
  • 03 Aug 1917 The New York Guard is founded.
  • 04 Aug 1917 Pravda calls for killing all capitalists, priests and officers
  • 05 Aug 1917 British troops attack canal of Ypres in Boesinghe Belgium
  • 06 Aug 1917 World War I: Battle of Marasesti between the Romanian and German armies begins.
  • 10 Aug 1917 A general strike begins in Spain it is smashed after 3 days with 70 left dead, hundreds of wounded and 2,000 arrests.
  • 14 Aug 1917 Leeuwen soccer team forms
  • 17 Aug 1917 Italy declares war on Germany and Turkey
  • 18 Aug 1917 Dutch Naval Air Force forms
  • 22 Aug 1917 Pittsburgh Pirates play fourth straight extra inning game, Carson Bigbee sets record of 11 at-bats, they lose in 22 innings to Brooklyn Dodgers.
  • 23 Aug 1917 Race riot in Houston Texas (two blacks and 11 whites killed).
  • 25 Aug 1917 37th US Mens Tennis: R Lindley Murray beats N W Niles
  • 27 Aug 1917 Indians set club record by stealing eight bases in a game
  • 28 Aug 1917 10 suffragists arrested as they picket White House
  • 29 Aug 1917 WWI: The Military Service Act is passed in the Canadian House of Commons, giving the Government of Canada the right to conscript men into the army.
  • 01 Sep 1917 The US government prohibits gold exports.
  • 02 Sep 1917 Deutsche Vaterlands Party forms
  • 03 Sep 1917 1st night bombing of London by German fighter planes
  • 06 Sep 1917 French pilot Georges Guynemer shoots down 54th German aircraft
  • 14 Sep 1917 Kerenski regime declares Russian Republic
  • 15 Sep 1917 Russia proclaimed a republic by Alexander Kerensky.
  • 20 Sep 1917 British assault on Polygon-forest, France
  • 26 Sep 1917 British assault on Menin-street, France
  • 27 Sep 1917 Broadhurst Theater opens at 235 W 44th St, New York City
  • 04 Oct 1917 British assault on Broodseinde, France
  • 06 Oct 1917 The US Trading with the Enemy Act becomes law, giving the US President authority to ban holding of gold and silver coins and other objects.
  • 08 Oct 1917 Trotski named Chairman of Petrograd Soviet
  • 10 Oct 1917 Giants Rube Benton is 1st lefty to pitch a World Series no hitter
  • 12 Oct 1917 World War I: The First Battle of Passchendaele takes place resulting in the largest single day loss of life in New Zealand history.
  • 13 Oct 1917 Soviet accept establishment of Petrograd Military
  • 15 Oct 1917 Chicago White Sox beat New York Giants, four games to two in 14th World Series.
  • 17 Oct 1917 1st British bombing of Germany
  • 19 Oct 1917 The Love Field in Dallas, Texas is opened.
  • 21 Oct 1917 Petrograds garrison accepts Revolutionary Military Committee
  • 23 Oct 1917 1st Infantry division Big Red One shoots 1st US shot in WWI
  • 24 Oct 1917 Battle of Caporetto; Italy suffers a catastrophic defeat by the forces of Austria-Hungary and Germany on the Austro-Italian front of World War I (lasts until 19 November - also called Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo).
  • 25 Oct 1917 In Russia, Bolsheviks led by Vladimir Lenin seizes power
  • 26 Oct 1917 Petrograd Soviet accepts establishment of Military
  • 30 Oct 1917 British government gives final approval to Balfour Declaration
  • 31 Oct 1917 World War I: Battle of Beersheba : ''last successful cavalry charge in history''.
  • 01 Nov 1917 In WWI, the 1st US soldiers are killed in combat
  • 02 Nov 1917 The Balfour Declaration proclaims British support for the ''establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people'' with the clear understanding ''that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities''.
  • 03 Nov 1917 1st class mail now costs 3 cents per ounce
  • 05 Nov 1917 October Revolution: In Tallinn, Estonia, Communist leader Jaan Anvelt leads revolutionaries in overthrowing the Provisional Government (As Estonia and Russia are still using the Julian Calendar, subsequent period references show an October 23 date).
  • 06 Nov 1917 New York allows women to vote
  • 07 Nov 1917 British capture Gaza Palestine from the Turks.
  • 08 Nov 1917 Telephone Co runs 1st ad for Army operators, gets 7,000 applicants
  • 09 Nov 1917 Joseph Stalin enters the provisional government of Bolshevik Russia.
  • 10 Nov 1917 New soviet government suspends freedom of press
  • 16 Nov 1917 British occupy Tel Aviv and Jaffa
  • 17 Nov 1917 Lenin defended temporary removal of freedom of the press
  • 20 Nov 1917 1st tank battle
  • 21 Nov 1917 M Gorki calls Lenin a blind fanatic / unthinking adventurer
  • 23 Nov 1917 The Bolsheviks release the full text of the previously secret Sykes-Picot Agreement in ''Izvestia'' and ''Pravda'' it is subsequently printed in the ''Manchester Guardian'' on November 26.
  • 24 Nov 1917 In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 9 members of the Milwaukee Police Department are killed by a bomb, the most deaths in a single event in U.S. police history until the September 11 attacks in 2001.
  • 25 Nov 1917 German forces defeat Portuguese army of about 1200 at Negomano on the border of modern-day Mozambique and Tanzania.
  • 26 Nov 1917 The National Hockey League is formed, with the Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers, Ottawa Senators, Quebec Bulldogs, and Toronto Arenas as its first teams.
  • 28 Nov 1917 Sigmund Rombergs revue Over the Top, premieres in New York City
  • 29 Nov 1917 Don Cossacks declare the Don Republic, which lasts two weeks.
  • 01 Dec 1917 Boys Town founded by Father Edward Flanagan, west of Omaha Nebraska.
  • 02 Dec 1917 Han Yong-woon, found Zen awakening at Osean Monastery Korea.
  • 03 Dec 1917 After nearly 20 years of planning and construction, including two collapses causing 89 deaths, the Quebec Bridge opens to traffic.
  • 06 Dec 1917 French munition ship Mont Blanc explodes in Halifax, kills 1,700
  • 07 Dec 1917 US becomes 13th country to declare war on Austria during World War I.
  • 09 Dec 1917 British forces under General Allenby capture Jerusalem.
  • 11 Dec 1917 German-occupied Lithuania proclaims independence from Russia.
  • 12 Dec 1917 French troop train derails in French Alps killing 543
  • 15 Dec 1917 Moldavian Republic declares independence from Russia.
  • 18 Dec 1917 Soviet regiment (Stalin / Lenin) declares Finland Independent
  • 20 Dec 1917 Russian secret police in Czechoslovakia forms under Felix Dzerzjinski.
  • 26 Dec 1917 United States president Woodrow Wilson uses the Federal Possession and Control Act to place most U.S. railroads under the United States Railroad Administration, hoping to more efficiently transport troops and materials for the war effort.
  • 30 Dec 1917 -37 degrees F (-38 degrees C) in Lewisburg West Virginia (state record).
  • 31 Dec 1917 Dutch Social-democratic trade union NVV counts 159,450 members.