October 17 in History

In 539 BC, King Cyrus the Great of Persia marched into Babylon, liberating the Jewish people from nearly 70 years of exile and issuing what is often regarded as the first Human Rights Declaration. This event is significant not only for its immediate impact on the Jewish community but also for establishing principles of tolerance and governance that would resonate through history.

Cyrus the Great entered Babylon without a battle. The city's priests had turned against their own king. Cyrus issued a decree allowing exiled peoples to return home and rebuild their temples. The Jews had been in Babylon for 70 years. He gave them funds to reconstruct the Temple in Jerusalem. The cylinder recording his decree still exists, written in Akkadian cuneiform.

Ricimer defeated the Roman emperor Avitus near Piacenza with help from Majorian. Avitus had ruled for just 14 months. He fled to a church, was made a bishop against his will, then died weeks later—possibly murdered. Ricimer didn't take the throne himself. He was half-barbarian and couldn't legally become emperor. He spent the next 16 years making and unmaking emperors instead.

King David II of Scotland invaded northern England while Edward III was fighting in France. Bad timing. English forces intercepted him at Neville's Cross near Durham. David was wounded by two arrows and captured. He spent eleven years in the Tower of London. Scotland paid 100,000 marks for his release, a sum so large it took ransoming him in installments. He died childless. His nephew inherited the throne and immediately made peace with England.

Sultan Murad II's Ottoman army destroyed a Hungarian-led Christian coalition commanded by John Hunyadi on the same Kosovo field where the Ottomans had triumphed sixty years earlier. The defeat extinguished the last major European offensive against Ottoman expansion in the Balkans and secured Turkish dominance over southeastern Europe for centuries.

The University of Greifswald received its founding charter, making it the second-oldest university in northern Europe. It was established to train clergy for the Duchy of Pomerania. For 200 years it was part of Sweden after the Thirty Years' War. Then it became Prussian. Then German. Then East German. Then German again. It's been closed twice, bombed once, and survived. It still operates in the same town, 565 years later.

In 1604, German astronomer Johannes Kepler observed a supernova in the constellation Ophiuchus, an event that would later be known as Kepler's Supernova. This observation was important for the field of astronomy, as it contributed to the understanding of stellar life cycles and the nature of the universe.

Johannes Kepler spotted a brilliant new star in Ophiuchus, brighter than Jupiter, visible in daylight. He tracked it for a year as it faded. He didn't know what it was. It was a supernova, a star exploding 20,000 light-years away. It's the last supernova observed in the Milky Way. We're overdue for another. Kepler published his observations in a book. The star is still called Kepler's Supernova. He died broke.

Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who'd declared himself Emperor Jacques I after leading Haiti's revolution, was ambushed and killed by his own generals near Port-au-Prince. They shot him, stabbed him, and left his body in the street. He'd ruled for two years with increasing brutality, ordered the massacre of remaining French colonists, and tried to reimpose forced labor. Haiti split into two countries within weeks. His body was dismembered by the crowd before burial.

Chilean miners unearthed silver at Agua Amarga, a discovery that immediately fueled the Patriot cause. This newfound wealth financed weapons and supplies, directly enabling the independence forces to sustain their war effort against Spanish rule. Without these funds, the revolution likely would have collapsed under financial strain before achieving victory.