May 17

Today in History
• 1521 - Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, is executed for treason
• 1536 - Anne Boleyn's 4 "lovers" executed shortly before her own beheading
• 1544 - Scot Earl Matthew Lennox signs secret treaty with Henry VIII
• 1590 - Anne of Denmark is crowned Queen of Scotland
• 1620 - 1st merry-go-round seen at a fair in Philippapolis, Turkey
• 1672 - Frontenac becomes Governor of New France (Canada)
• 1683 - Pirates sack Velacruz, New Spain, taking 4,000 prisoners for ransom
• 1775 - American Revolutionary War: the Continental Congress bans trade with Canada


Holidays - Traditional and Obscure
• International Child Helpline Day
• National Bike To School Day
• National Idaho Day
• National Mushroom Hunting Day
• National Numeracy Day UK
• National Walnut Day
• Pack Rat Day
• World Hypertension Day

Birthdays
• 1443 - Edmund, Earl of Rutland, brother of Kings Edward IV of England
• 1490 - Albrecht von Hohenzollern, 1st duke of Prussia
• 1628 - Ferdinand Charles, Archduke of Austria and Regent of the Tyrol
• 1682 - Bartholomew Roberts, pirate (raided ships off the Americas and West Africa)
• 1718 - Robert Darcy, 4th Earl of Holderness, English diplomat and politician
• 1749 - Edward Jenner, England, physician, discovered vaccination
• 1836 - Sir Norman Lockyer, English physicist, co-founder of helium gas
• 1886 - Alfonso XIII, Borbon King of Spain, 1902-31