Famous Birthdays on December 17

248 people 1239 – 2002

December 17 has seen 248 notable people enter the world across recorded history — from 1239 – 2002. Below are the most significant names born on this date.

By · Wikipedia

Ken Hitchcock

1951 — Ken Hitchcock

Canadian ice hockey player and coach

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Hitchcock became a major league coach in January of 1996 when the Dallas Stars named him coach with 43 games remaining in the season

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The following season was the start of five elite years for the team, where they won five consecutive division championships to go along with reaching the Conference Finals in 1998, 1999, and 2000

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The Stars advanced to the Stanley Cup in 1999, which they won in six games over the Buffalo Sabres

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He was quickly hired by the Columbus Blue Jackets that year and coached four seasons, where he helped them reach their first Stanley Cup playoffs in 2009; he was fired the following season

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Louis Blues in 2011, and in his first season he led them to their first division title in twelve years


Japanese shōgun (died 1256)
Kujō Yoritsugu , also known as Fujiwara no Yoritsugu , was the fifth shōgun of the Kamakura shogunate of Japan. His father was the 4th Kamakura shōgun, Kujō Yoritsune.
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1239
Emperor Go-Uda of Japan (died 1324)
Emperor Go-Uda was the 91st emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. His reign spanned the years from 1274 through 1287.
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1267
Ernest of Bavaria
Roman Catholic bishop (died 1612)
Wittelsbach-Hapsburg aristocrat Ernest of Bavaria was Prince-Elector-Archbishop of the Archbishopric of Cologne and, as such, Archchancellor of the Holy Roman Empire and Duke of Westphalia, from 1583 to 1612 as…
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1554
Abdul Rahim Khan-I-Khana
poet in Mughal Empire (died 1627)
Khanzada Mirza Khan Abdul Rahim, popularly known as simply Rahim and titled Khan-i-Khanan, was a poet who lived in India during the rule of Mughal emperor Akbar, who was Rahim's mentor. He was one of the nine important…
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1556
Pedro Téllez-Girón
3rd Duke of Osuna, Spanish nobleman and politician (died 1624)
Pedro Téllez-Girón, 3rd Duke of Osuna was a Spanish nobleman and politician. He was the 2nd Marquis of Peñafiel, 7th Count of Ureña, Spanish Viceroy of Sicily (1611–1616), Viceroy of Naples (1616–1620), a Knight of the…
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1574
Roger L'Estrange
English pamphleteer and author (died 1704)
Sir Roger L'Estrange was an English pamphleteer, author, courtier and press censor. Throughout his life L'Estrange was frequently mired in controversy and acted as a staunch ideological defender of King Charles II's…
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1616
Prince Rupert of the Rhine (died 1682)
Prince Rupert of the Rhine, Duke of Cumberland, was an English–German army officer, admiral, scientist, and colonial governor. He first rose to prominence as a Royalist cavalry commander during the English Civil War.…
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1619
Anthony Wood
English historian and author (died 1695)
Anthony Wood, who styled himself Anthony à Wood in his later writings, was an English antiquary. He was responsible for a celebrated Hist. and Antiq. of the Universitie of Oxon.
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1632
Thomas Tickell
English poet (died 1740)
Thomas Tickell was a minor English poet and man of letters.
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1685
French composer and educator (died 1775)
Charles-Louis Mion was a French composer of the Baroque era. He was the grand-nephew of Michel Richard Delalande who also taught him music. Between 1710 and 1718 he was a choirboy at the Sainte-Chapelle du Palais. Later…
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1699
Émilie du Châtelet
French mathematician and physicist (died 1749)
Gabrielle Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, Marquise du Châtelet was a French mathematician and physicist.
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1706
Maria I of Portugal (died 1816)
Dona Maria I, also known as Maria the Pious in Portugal and Maria the Mad in Brazil, was Queen of Portugal from 24 February 1777 until her death in 1816. Maria was the first undisputed queen regnant of Portugal and the…
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1734
Domenico Cimarosa
Italian composer and educator (died 1801)
Domenico Cimarosa was an Italian composer of the Neapolitan School and of the Classical period. He wrote more than eighty operas, the best known of which is Il matrimonio segreto (1792); most of his operas are comedies.…
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1749
Humphry Davy
English chemist and physicist (died 1829)
Sir Humphry Davy, 1st Baronet was a British chemist and inventor who invented the Davy lamp and a very early form of arc lamp. He is also remembered for isolating, by using electricity, several elements for the first…
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1778
Thomas Chandler Haliburton
Canadian judge and politician (died 1865)
Thomas Chandler Haliburton was a Nova Scotian politician, judge, and author who was the first international best-selling fiction author from what is now Canada, and who served as a Conservative Member of Parliament in…
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1796
Joseph Henry
American physicist and engineer (died 1878)
Joseph Henry was an American physicist and inventor who served as the first secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. He was the secretary for the National Institute for the Promotion of Science, a precursor of the…
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1797
Wilhelmine von Wrochem
German flutist, singer and actress (died 1839)
Wilhelmine von Wrochem was a German flutist, soprano opera singer and stage actress.
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1798
John Greenleaf Whittier
American poet and activist (died 1892)
John Greenleaf Whittier was an American Quaker poet and advocate of the abolition of slavery in the United States. Frequently listed as one of the fireside poets, he was influenced by the Scottish poet Robert Burns.…
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1807
Vilhelm Petersen
Danish painter (died 1880)
Vilhelm Peter Carl Petersen was a Danish landscape painter. He was one of the first Danish landscape painters to work on Bornholm and in the moorlands of Jutland. Small fishing villages were especially attractive to…
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1812
Alexander Wassilko von Serecki
Austrian lawyer and politician (died 1893)
Freiherr Alexander Wassilko von Serecki was an Austro-Hungarian ethnic Romanian statesman, Landeshauptmann of the Duchy of Bukovina and member of the Herrenhaus, the Upper House of the Imperial Council of Austria.
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1827
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Famous birthdays

Who was born on December 17?

Ken Hitchcock — Canadian ice hockey coach

Birth year1951
Known forHitchcock is a Canadian former professional ice hockey coach
Birthdays on this date248 (1239 – 2002)

Explore December 17

Jump between the main pages for this date to compare events, people, and the daily quiz.

Also on December 17 in History

2014
The United States and Cuba re-establish diplomatic relations after severing them in 1961. Wikipedia →
2010
Mohamed Bouazizi sets himself on fire. This act became the catalyst for the Tunisian Revolution and the wider Arab Spring. Wikipedia →
2009
MV Danny F II sinks off the coast of Lebanon, resulting in the deaths of 44 people and over 28,000 animals. Wikipedia →
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