What Happened in 1917 — Events, Births & Deaths

World War I: The Battle of Rafa is fought near the Egyptian border with Palestine.

Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition: Seven survivors of the Ross Sea party are rescued after being stranded for several months.

The Kingsland munitions factory explosion occurs, possibly as a result of German sabotage.

The United States pays Denmark $25 million for the Virgin Islands.

Silvertown explosion: A blast at a munitions factory in London kills 73 and injures over 400. The resulting fire causes over £2,000,000 worth of damage.

American entry into World War I: President Woodrow Wilson of the still-neutral United States calls for "peace without victory" in Europe.

World War I: Kaiser Wilhelm II orders the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare.

World War I: The American entry into World War I begins when diplomatic relations with Germany are severed due to its unrestricted submarine warfare.

The current constitution of Mexico is adopted, establishing a federal republic with powers separated into independent executive, legislative, and judicial branches.

The Congress of the United States passes the Immigration Act of 1917 over President Woodrow Wilson's veto.

World War I: The U.S. ambassador Walter Hines Page to the United Kingdom is given the Zimmermann Telegram, in which Germany pledges to ensure the return of New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona to Mexico if Mexico declares war on the United States.

The Zimmermann Telegram is reprinted in newspapers across the United States after the U.S. government releases its unencrypted text.

The enactment of the Jones–Shafroth Act grants Puerto Ricans United States citizenship.

Jeannette Rankin of Montana becomes the first female member of the United States House of Representatives.

International Women's Day protests in Petrograd mark the beginning of the February Revolution (February 23 in the Julian calendar).

The United States Senate votes to limit filibusters by adopting the cloture rule.

World War I: Mesopotamian campaign: Baghdad falls to Anglo-Indian forces commanded by General Frederick Stanley Maude.

Tsar Nicholas II of Russia abdicates the Russian throne, ending the 304-year Romanov dynasty.

The Georgian Orthodox Church restores its autocephaly abolished by Imperial Russia in 1811.

World War I: First Battle of Gaza: British troops are halted after 17,000 Turks block their advance.

According to the terms of the Treaty of the Danish West Indies, the islands become American possessions.

American entry into World War I: President Wilson asks the U.S. Congress for a declaration of war on Germany.

World War I: The United States declares war on Germany.

World War I: Canadian forces successfully complete the taking of Vimy Ridge from the Germans.

Russian Revolution: Vladimir Lenin returns to Petrograd, Russia, from exile in Switzerland.

Three children report the first apparition of Our Lady of Fátima in Fátima, Portugal.

World War I: The Selective Service Act of 1917 is passed, giving the President of the United States the power of conscription.

The Norwegian football club Rosenborg BK is founded.

Pope Benedict XV promulgates the 1917 Code of Canon Law, the first comprehensive codification of Catholic canon law in the legal history of the Catholic Church.

The first Pulitzer Prizes are awarded: Laura E. Richards, Maude H. Elliott, and Florence Hall receive the first Pulitzer for biography (for Julia Ward Howe). Jean Jules Jusserand receives the first Pulitzer for history for his work With Americans of Past and Present Days. Herbert B. Swope receives the first Pulitzer for journalism for his work for the New York World.

World War I: Battle of Messines: Allied soldiers detonate a series of mines underneath German trenches at Messines Ridge, killing 10,000 German troops.

King Alexander assumes the throne of Greece after his father, Constantine I, is deemed to have abdicated under pressure from allied armies occupying Athens.

World War I: The deadliest German air raid on London of the war is carried out by Gotha G.IV bombers and results in 162 deaths, including 46 children, and 432 injuries.

World War I: Greece joins the Allied powers.

In the leadup to the Battle of Aqaba, T. E. Lawrence and his Arab forces defeat a battalion of Ottomans at Abu al-Lissan.

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.

The Bisbee Deportation occurs as vigilantes kidnap and deport nearly 1,300 striking miners and others from Bisbee, Arizona.

Sir Robert Borden introduces the first income tax in Canada as a "temporary" measure (lowest bracket is 4% and highest is 25%).

World War I: The Allies reach the Yser Canal at the Battle of Passchendaele.

Anti-lynching movement: The Silent Parade takes place in New York City, in protest against murders, lynchings, and other violence directed towards African Americans.

World War I: The Battle of Passchendaele begins near Ypres in West Flanders, Belgium.

World War I: Battle of Mărășești between the Romanian and German armies begins.

World War I: The Republic of China, which had heretofore been shipping labourers to Europe to assist in the war effort, officially declares war on the Central Powers, although it will continue to send to Europe labourers instead of combatants for the remaining duration of the war.

A Great Fire in Thessaloniki, Greece, destroys 32% of the city leaving 70,000 individuals homeless.

Ten suffragists, members of the Silent Sentinels, are arrested while picketing the White House in favor of women's suffrage in the United States.

Vietnamese prison guards led by Trịnh Văn Cấn mutiny at the Thái Nguyên penitentiary against local French authority.

The Russian Empire is formally replaced by the Russian Republic.

World War I: The Battle of Polygon Wood begins.

World War I: The Battle of Broodseinde is fought between the British and German armies in Flanders.

The "Miracle of the Sun" is witnessed by an estimated 70,000 people in the Cova da Iria in Portugal.

World War I: Italy suffers a disastrous defeat at the Battle of Caporetto on the Austro-Italian front.

Old Style date of the October Revolution in Russia.

World War I: Brazil declares war on the Central Powers.

World War I: Battle of Beersheba: The "last successful cavalry charge in history".

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".

The Military Revolutionary Committee of the Petrograd Soviet, in charge of preparation and carrying out the Russian Revolution, holds its first meeting.

Tikhon is elected the Patriarch of Moscow and of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The Balfour Declaration is published in The Times newspaper.

World War I: beginning of the First Battle of Monte Grappa (in Italy known as the "First Battle of the Piave"). The Austro-Hungarian Armed Forces, despite help from the German Alpenkorps and numerical superiority, will fail their offensive against the Italian Army now led by its new chief of staff Armando Diaz.

World War I: Battle of Cambrai begins: British forces make early progress in an attack on German positions but are later pushed back.

In Milwaukee, nine 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.

World War I: German forces defeat Portuguese army of about 1,200 at Negomano on the border of modern-day Mozambique and Tanzania.

The Manchester Guardian publishes the 1916 secret Sykes-Picot Agreement between the United Kingdom and France.

P. E. Svinhufvud becomes the chairman of his first senate, technically the first Prime Minister of Finland.

The Estonian Provincial Assembly declares itself the sovereign power of Estonia.

World War I: Russia and the Central Powers sign an armistice at Brest-Litovsk, and peace talks leading to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk begin.

Finland declares independence from the Russian Empire.

Halifax Explosion: A munitions explosion near Halifax, Nova Scotia kills more than 1,900 people in the largest artificial explosion up to that time.

World War I: USS Jacob Jones is the first American destroyer to be sunk by enemy action when it is torpedoed by German submarine SM U-53.

World War I: The United States declares war on Austria-Hungary.

World War I: Field Marshal Allenby captures Jerusalem from the Ottoman Empire.

World War I: The Kingdom of Romania signs the Armistice of Focșani with the Central Powers.

Father Edward J. Flanagan founds Boys Town as a farm village for wayward boys.

World War I: An armistice between Russia and the Central Powers is signed.

The resolution containing the language of the Eighteenth Amendment to enact Prohibition is passed by the United States Congress.

Cheka, the first Soviet secret police force, is founded.