December 17 birthdays, facts & history
Everything about being born on December 17, from your sign and birth stone to who shares your birthday.
Zodiac sign
♐︎ Sagittarius
Nov 22 – Dec 21
Birth stone
Turquoise
Birth flower
Narcissus
How common
#82 of 366
by US birth counts
Famous December 17 birthdays
John Greenleaf Whittier · American Quaker poet and advocate of the abolition of slavery1807
Erskine Caldwell · American novelist, short story writer, travel writer, essayist1903
Simo Häyhä · Finnish military sniper1905
Willard Libby · American physical chemist1908
Robert Dahl · American political scientist1915
Pope Francis · 266th pope of the Catholic Church from 2013 to 20251936
John Kennedy Toole · American novelist1937
Muhammadu Buhari · Former President of Nigeria from 1983 to 1985 and 2015 to 20251942
Wes Studi · American actor1947
Mykola Azarov · Ukrainian politician1947
Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu · Turkish politician1948
Bill Pullman · American actor1953
Laurie Holden · American-Canadian actress1969
Rian Johnson · American filmmaker1973
Giovanni Ribisi · American actor1974
Sarah Paulson · American actress1974
Milla Jovovich · American actress1975
Manny Pacquiao · Filipino boxer1978
Chelsea Manning · American activist and whistleblower1987
Martin Ødegaard · Norwegian footballer1998
On this day in history
1862American Civil War: Union General Ulysses S. Grant issued General Order No. 11, expelling Jews from Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky.
1926A coup d'état by the Lithuanian military replaced the democratically elected President Kazys Grinius with Antanas Smetona.
1990American gay rights activist William E. Woods brought three same-sex couples to fill out marriage licenses in Honolulu.
2014The United States and Cuba re-establish diplomatic relations after severing them in 1961.
1969Project Blue Book: The United States Air Force closes its study of UFOs.
1970Polish soldiers fired at workers (memorial pictured) emerging from trains in Gdynia, beginning the government's crackdown on mass anti-communist protests across the country.
1989Fernando Collor de Mello defeats Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the second round of the Brazilian presidential election, becoming the first democratically elected President in almost 30 years.
2010Arab Spring: Mohamed Bouazizi, a street vendor in Sidi Bouzid, set himself on fire in protest against police harassment, triggering the Tunisian revolution.
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