On This Day for April 17 - Canada Act proclaimed, Nikita Khrushchev is featured, and more

Created: 2020-04-17 10:02 Updated: 2020-04-17 10:02 Notebook: On this Day in History

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April 17

FEATURED BIOGRAPHY

Nikita Khrushchev

FEATURED EVENT

1982

Canada Act proclaimed

MORE EVENTS ON THIS DAY

2018: American first lady Barbara Bush—wife of George H.W. Bush, 41st president of the United States, and mother of George W. Bush, 43rd president of the United States—died at age 92. [Test your knowledge of the first ladies of the United States.]

2014: Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez—winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature and widely considered one of the greatest writers of the 20th century—died in Mexico City. [Take our Nobel laureates in literature quiz.]

2003: Anneli Jäätteenmäki was sworn in as prime minister of Finland, which thereby became the second country (after New Zealand) to install a woman as head of both state and government. [ Discover some famous firsts for women.]

1975: Cambodia's ruling Lon Nol government collapsed, and the communist forces of the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, entered Phnom Penh and forcibly dispersed its citizenry into rural areas.

1970: The Apollo 13 command module—carrying James A. Lovell, Jr., Fred W. Haise, Jr., and John L. Swigert, Jr.—entered Earth 's atmosphere and splashed down, ending one of the most tense chapters in space history; four days earlier an oxygen tank had exploded, threatening the lives of the three astronauts. [Test your knowledge of astronauts and space exploration.]

1961: Cuban leader Fidel Castro's forces repelled the Bay of Pigs invasion , which was led by recent Cuban exiles and financed by the U.S. government during the Cold War. [Discover six interesting facts about Fidel Castro.]

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ALSO BORN ON THIS DAY

1975

Victoria Beckham
English singer and designer

1894

Nikita Khrushchev
premier of Soviet Union

1837

J.P. Morgan
American financier

1918

William Holden
American actor

1957

Nick Hornby
British writer