April 17 in Pop Culture History
1397 – Geoffrey Chaucer told The Canterbury Tales for the first time at the court of Richard II.
1815 (Volcano) Tambora volcano in Indonesia killed almost 100,000 people.
1861 – The first oil well fire occurred at the Little and Merrick well at Oil Creek, near Rouseville, Pennsylvania, killing 19 people.
1897 – A UFO supposedly crashed into a farm owned by J.S. Proctor in Aurora, Texas.
1906 – San Francisco was hit by a disastrous earthquake, with an estimated magnitude of 7.8.
1907 – The Ellis Island immigration center in New York processed 11,747 people, more than on any other day.
1937 – Daffy Duck’s first appearance was in Porky’s Duck Hunt.
1960 – Singer Eddie Cochran died, and Gene Vincent was injured in a UK car accident.
1961 – The unsuccessful Bay of Pigs invasion began.
1964 – Geraldine ‘Jerrie’ Mock landed in Columbus, Ohio, becoming the first woman to complete a solo airplane flight around the world.
1964 – The Ford Mustang as introduced to the North American market.
1966 – Policemen Dale Spaur and Wilbur Neff reported chasing a UFO at 5:00 AM in Portage County, Ohio.
1971 – #1 Hit April 17, 1971 – May 28, 1971: Three Dog Night – Joy to the World
1973 (Tornado) Balurchar, Bangladesh
1979 – The worst attended MLB game occurred in Oakland on 4/17/1979 – Only 250 people showed up.
1987 – Project X was released in theaters.
2011 – Game of Thrones premiered on HBO
2014 – NASA’s Kepler confirmed the discovery of the first Earth-size planet in the habitable zone of another star.
2015 – Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 and Unfriended debuted in theaters.
