May 17

• May 17, 1630
  Italian Jesuit Niccolo Zucchi, becomes the first who see two belts on Jupiter surface
• May 17, 1642
  Paul de Chomedey, a French military officer, founds the Canadian city of Montreal
• May 17, 1673
  Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette, a French explores, begin exploring Mississippi
• May 17, 1733
  England passes Molasses Act, putting high tariffs on rum and molasses imported to the colonies from a country other than British possessions
• May 17, 1742
  The Prussian victory in the Battle of Chotusitz ends the First Silesian War
• May 17, 1756
  After a year and a half of undeclared war in North America Britain declares war on France with purpose to conquer Canada, beginning the Seven Years' War in which France, Russia, Austria, Saxony, Sweden and Spain stand against Britain, Prussia and Hanover
• May 17, 1792
  24 merchants form New York Stock Exchange at Wall Street where they fix rates on commissions on stocks and bonds
• May 17, 1805
  Mohammed Ali, an Ottoman Albanian commander in the Ottoman army, becomes the new ruler of Egypt starting modernization of the country
• May 17, 1809
  The Papal States are annexed by France, Pope Pius VII responds by excommunicating Napoleon
• May 17, 1814
  Norwegian constitution is signed by constituent assembly at Eidsvoll, providing for a limited monarchy
• May 17, 1845
  The rubber band is patented by British inventor Stephen Perry
• May 17, 1846
  Saxophone is patents by Belgian musical instrument designer and musician Adolphe Sax
• May 17, 1865
  International Telecommunication Union established
• May 17, 1920
  First flight by Dutch airlines Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij, or simply KLM, the oldest airline in the world still operating, takes place
• May 17, 1983
  Lebanon, Israel, and the United States sign an agreement on Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon ending 1982 Lebanon War begun after repeated actions between the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Israel Defense Forces
• May 17, 1987
  37 crewmen are killed when Iraqi Exocet missile hits American Destroyer USS Stark during the Iran–Iraq War
• May 17, 1990
  The World Health Organization removes homosexuality from its list of diseases which marks the beginning of a slow change towards public acceptance of homosexuality
• May 17, 2007
  The Russian Orthodox Church Abroad and the Moscow Patriarchate re-unite after eighty years of schism