1917 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar).

Events

January-February

President Woodrow Wilson of the United States announces to Congress the breaking of diplomatic relations with Germany

• January 2 - The Royal Bank of Canada takes over Quebec Bank .
• 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
• January 25 - Anti-prostitution drive in San Francisco attracted huge crowds to public meetings. At one meeting attended by 7000 people, 20000 were kept out for lack of room. In a conference with Rev. Paul Smith, an outspoken foe of prostitution, 300 prostitutes made a plea for toleration explaining they had been forced into the practice by poverty. When Smith asked if they would take other work at $8 to $10 a week, the ladies laughed derisively, which lost them public sympathy. The police closed about 200 houses of prostitution shortly thereafter [1]
• 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 breaks off diplomatic relations with Germany
• February 5 - The constitution of Mexico is adopted.
• February 23 - The Russian Revolution begins with the overthrow of the Tsar system.
• February 24 - World War I: United States ambassador to the United Kingdom Walter H. Page is given the Zimmermann Telegram, in which Germany offers to give the American Southwest back to Mexico if Mexico will declare war on the United States.

March-April

• March 1 - U.S. government releases the plaintext of the Zimmermann Telegram to the public
• March 1 - Japanese city Omuta, Fukuoka is founded
• March 2 - The enactment of the Jones Act grants Puerto Ricans United States citizenship.
• March 4 - Jeannette Rankin of Montana becomes the first woman member of the United States House of Representatives.
• March 8 - The United States Senate adopts the cloture rule in order to limit filibusters.
• March 15 - Tsar Nicholas II of Russia abdicates and the Russian Revolution begins.
• March 21 - The Danish West Indies become the Virgin Islands when Denmark transfers control over the islands to the United States after the purchase of the islands on January 25.
• March 26 - World War I: First Battle of Gaza - British cavalry troops retreat after 17,000 Turks block their advance.
• March 31 - The United States takes possession of the Virgin Islands after paying $25 million to Denmark.
• April 2 - World War I: US President Woodrow Wilson asks U.S. Congress for a declaration of war on Germany.
• April 6 - World War I: United States declares war on Germany. text
• April 9 - 12 - World War I: Canadians win the Battle of Vimy Ridge.
• April 11 - World War I: Brazil severs relations with Germany
• April 16 - Lenin arrives in Petrograd

May-October

• May 13 - Three peasant children claim to see the Virgin Mary above a holm oak tree in Cova da Iria near Fatima, Portugal.
• May 18 - World War I: The Selective Service Act passes the U.S. Congress giving the President the power of conscription.
• June 5 - World War I: Conscription begins in the United States as "Army registration day."
• June 15 - The United States enacts the Espionage Act.
• July 6 - Arabian troops led by T.E. Lawrence capture Aqaba from the Turks.
• July 7 - Aleksandr Kerensky forms the Provisional Government in Russia after the deposing of the tsar.
• July 17 - King George V of the United Kingdom issues a Proclamation stating that the male line descendants of the British royal family will bear the surname Windsor.
• July 20 - Corfu Declaration that enabled post-war Kingdom of Yugoslavia was signed by the Yugoslav Committee and Kingdom of Serbia
• July 25 - Sir Thomas Whyte introduces the first income tax in Canada as a "temporary" measure (lowest bracket is 4% and highest is 25%).
• August 29 - World War I: The Military Service Act is passed in the Canadian House of Commons giving the Canadian government the right to conscript men into the army.
• October 15 - World War I: At Vincennes outside of Paris, Dutch dancer Mata Hari is executed by firing squad for spying for Germany.
• October 19 - Love Field in Dallas, Texas is opened.
• October 26 - World War I: Brazil declared in state of war with Germany.

November

• November 2 - Zionism: The Balfour Declaration proclaims British support for Jewish settlement in Palestine.
• November 6 - World War I: Third Battle of Ypres ends: After three months of fierce fighting, Canadian forces take Ypres in Belgium.
• November 7 - Russian Revolution begins: In Russia, Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin leads his leftist revolutionaries in a nearly bloodless coup d'état against the ineffective Kerensky Provisional Government (Russia was still using the Julian Calendar at the time, so period references show a October 25 date).
• November 7 - World War I: Third Battle of Gaza ends - United Kingdom forces capture Gaza from the Ottoman Empire.
• November 15 - Finland takes a step towards full sovereignty recognizing the personal union with Russia finished after the Tsar being dethroned
• November 20 - World War I: Battle of Cambrai begins - British forces make early progress in an attack on German positions but are soon beat back.
• November 20 - Ukraine is declared a republic.

December

• December 3 - After nearly 20 years of planning and construction, the Quebec Bridge opens to traffic (the bridge partially collapsed on August 29 1907 and September 11 1916).
• December 6 - Finland's declaration of independence.
• December 6 - Halifax explosion: Two freighters collide in the harbour at Halifax, Nova Scotia and cause a huge explosion that kills at least 1963 people, injures 9000 and destroys part of the city. Until Hiroshima, this was the biggest manmade explosion.
• December 25 - Why Marry? , first dramatic play to win a Pulitzer Prize, opens at the Astor Theatre in New York City.
• December 26 - United States president Woodrow Wilson uses the Federal Possession and Control Act to take control of nearly all American railroads under the United States Railroad Administration so they can be more efficiently used to transport troops and materials for the war effort.

Unknown dates

• Lions Clubs International was formed.
• First commercially issued recordings of jazz music, by Original Dixieland Jazz Band.
• Tolkien starts writing the original Book of Lost Tales (the first version of the Silmarillion), thus Middle-earth is first written this year (After the war, Tolkien tries to publish the stories, but he is neglected, as writers call his work a "fairy tale"; unsuitable for adult readership).
• Conscription crisis in Canada.
• Female suffrage in the Netherlands

Ongoing events

• World War I (1914-1918)
• Armenian Genocide (1915-1918)
• Hellenic Holocaust (1914-1922)

Births

January-March

• January 10 - Hilde Krahl , actress (d. 1999)
• January 10 - Jerry Wexler, record producer
• January 19 - John Raitt, actor, singer (d. 2005)
• January 24 - Ernest Borgnine, actor
• January 25 - Ilya Prigogine, winner, Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1977 (d. 2003)
• February 4 - Yahya Khan, President of Pakistan (d. 1980)
• February 6 - Zsa Zsa Gabor, actress
• February 11 - Richard Jock Kinneir , graphic designer
• February 11 - Sidney Sheldon, author
• February 14 - Herbert A. Hauptman, biophysicist, winner Nobel Prize in Chemistry
• February 19 - Carson McCullers, author (d. 1967)
• February 25 - Anthony Burgess, author of Clockwork Orange (d. 1993)
• February 27 - John Connally, Governor of Texas (d. 1993)
• February 28 - Fidel Sánchez Hernández, former president of El Salvador (1967-1972) (d. 2003)
• March 1 - Harry Caray, TV and radio broadcaster for three Major League Baseball teams (d. 1998)
• March 1 - Robert Lowell, poet (d. 1977)
• March 2 - Desi Arnaz, actor, bandleader, musician (d. 1986)
• March 19 - Dinu Lipatti, pianist (d. 1950)
• March 20 - Dame Vera Lynn, actress, singer
• March 26 - Rufus Thomas, R&B/soul singer (d. 2001)
• March 27 - Cyrus Vance, United States politician (d. 2002)

April-October

• April 17 - Bill Clements, governor of Texas
• April 25 - Ella Fitzgerald, jazz singer (d. 1996)
• May 14 - Lou Harrison, composer (d. 2003)
• May 21 - Raymond Burr, actor (d. 1993)
• May 22 - Georg Tintner, conductor (d. 1999)
• May 28 - Papa John Creech (d. 1994)
• May 29 - John F. Kennedy, United States President (d. 1963)
• June 15 - Lash La Rue, cowboy actor (d. 1996)
• June 17 - Atle Selberg, Norwegian mathematician
• July 4 - Manolete (Manuel Rodríguez Sánchez), bullfighter (d. 1947)
• July 19 - William Scranton, U.S. politician
• August 15 - Jack Lynch, Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland (d. 1999)
• August 18 - Caspar Weinberger, former United States Secretary of Defence
• August 22 - John Lee Hooker, blues musician (d. 2001)
• August 28 - Jack Kirby (comic book artist) (d. 1994)
• August 29 - Isabel Sanford, actress (All in the Family, The Jeffersons) (d. 2004)
• September 10 - Miguel Serrano, Chilean fascist ideologist
• September 11 - Ferdinand Edralin Marcos, Philippine President and strongman (d. 1989)
• September 13 - Robert Ward, composer (d. 1994)
• September 25 - Johnny Sain, baseball pitcher
• October 8 - Danny Murtaugh, Major League Baseball player and manager (d. 1976)
• October 15 - Jan Miner, American actress (d. 2004)
• October 21 - Dizzy Gillespie, American jazz musician (d. 1993)
• October 30 - Maurice Trintignant, race car driver (d. 2005)

November-December

• November 11 - Madeleine Damerment, World War II heroine (executed) (d. 1944)
• November 19 - Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India (d. 1984)
• December 6 - Kamal Jumblatt, leader of the Lebanese Druze (d. 1977)
• December 6 - Eliane Plewman , World War II heroine (executed) (d. 1944)
• December 10 - Sultan Yahya Petra, Sultan of Kelantan and 6th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia (d. 1979)
• December 21 - Heinrich Böll, German writer (d. 1985)
• December 22 - Gene Rayburn, television host (d. 1999)
• December 30 - Seymour Melman, industrial engineer (d. 2004)

Deaths

• January 10 - William F. Cody (Buffalo Bill), frontiersman (b. 1846)
• January 16 - George Dewey, Admiral (b. 1837)
• February 10 - John William Waterhouse, artist (b. 1849)
• March 8 - Ferdinand von Zeppelin (b. 1838)
• March 17 - Franz Brentano, German philosopher and psychologist (b. 1838)
• March 31 - Emil Adolf von Behring, the first winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1854)
• April 1 - Scott Joplin, musician, composer (b. ca. 1867)
• April 14 - L. L. Zamenhof, creator of Esperanto (b. 1859)
• May 17 - Charles Anthoni Johnson Brooke, ruler of Sarawak (b. 1829)
• May 20 - Philipp von Ferrary, stamp collector (b. 1850)
• June 30 - Antonio de La Gandara, painter (b. 1861)
• July 27 - Emil Kocher, medical researcher (b. 1841)
• September 27 - Edgar Degas, painter (b. 1834)
• October 13 - Florence La Badie, pioneer actress (b. 1888)
• October 15 - Mata Hari, Dutch dancer and spy (executed) (b. 1876)
• October 23 - Eugène Grasset, Swiss/French artist (b. 1845)
• October 28 - Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein (b. 1831)
• November 8 - Colin Blythe, Kent and England left arm spinner (b. 1879)
• November 11 - Liliuokalani of Hawai'i, queen of Hawaii (b. 1838)
• November 17 - Auguste Rodin, sculptor (b. 1840)
• December 8 - Mendele Moykher Sforim, writer (b. 1836)

Nobel Prizes

• Physics - Charles Glover Barkla
• Chemistry - not awarded
• Medicine - not awarded
• Literature - Karl Adolph Gjellerup, Henrik Pontoppidan
• Peace - International Committee of the Red Cross, Geneva.