1917
Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century
Decades: 1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s - 1910s - 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s
Years: 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 - 1917 - 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922
Events:
- January 2 - The Royal Bank of Canada takes over Quebec Bank.
- January 17 - The United States pays Denmark $25 million for the Virgin Islands
- January 22 - World War I: President Woodrow Wilson calls for "peace without victory" in Europe.
- January 25 - The Danish West Indies is sold to the United States for $25 million
- Passchendale, the Third Battle of Ypres.
- January 28 - The United States ends search for Pancho Villa
- January 31 - World War I: Germany announces its U-boats will engage in unrestricted submarine warfare.
- February 3 - World War I: The United States. brakes off diplomatic relations with Germany a day after Germany announced a new policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.
- February 5 - The constitution of Mexico is adopted.
- December 25 - Why Marry?, first dramatic play to win a Pulitzer Prize, opens at the Astor Theatre in New York City.
- United States enters World War I.
- Russian Revolution overthrows the czars. Beginning of Russian civil war.
- Finland declared its independence.
- Halifax explosion kills more than 1900 people, destroys part of the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia.
- Lions Clubs International was formed.
- First commercially issued recordings of jazz music, by Original Dixieland Jass Band.
Art, Culture & Fashion
- 1917 in film
- Technicolor is introduced
- 1917 in literature
- On Growth and Form by D'Arcy Thompson
- Prufrock and Other Observations by T. S. Eliot
- 1917 in sports
- March 25 - Seattle Metropolitains become first U. S. team to win Stanley Cup
Births:
- January 10 -
- Hilde Krahl, actress (+ 1999)
- Jerry Wexler, record producer
- January 24 - Ernest Borgnine, actor
- January 29 - John Raitt, actor, singer
- February 11 - Richard Jock Kinneir, graphic designer.
- February 11 - Sidney Sheldon, author.
- May 14 - Lou Harrison, composer
- May 29 - John Kennedy, United States President (+ 1963)
- August 28 - Jack Kirby (comic book artist)
- October 21 - Dizzy Gillespie, American jazz musician
- December 22 - Gene Rayburn, television host.
Deaths:
- January 10 - William F. Cody, frontiersman
- January 16 - George Dewey, Admiral
- March 31 - Emil Adolf von Behring, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1901
- June 30 - Antonio de La Gandara, painter
- September 27 - Edgar Degas, painter
- October 15 - Mata Hari, Dutch dancer and spy (executed)
- November 17 - Auguste Rodin, sculptor
- Physics Charles Glover Barkla
- Chemistry - not awarded
- Medicine - not awarded
- Literature - Karl Adolph Gjellerup, Henrik Pontoppidan
- Peace - International Red Cross, Geneva.