February 17, 1621 - Miles Standish is appointed the first commander of the Plymouth colony in Massachusetts.

February 17, 1801 - Thomas Jefferson is elected our third president. The electoral college came to a tie so the winner was decided by a vote in the House of Representatives.

February 17, 1864 - A Confederate submarine becomes the first submersible to sink an enemy ship, the Union sloop Housatonic. This event occurred in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina.

February 17, 1897 - Alice McLellan Birney and Phoebe Apperson Hearst found the National Congress of Mothers, later known as the PTA (Parent-Teacher Association).
 

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February 17, 1911 - The first automobile with a self-starting engine is introduced by Cadillac.

February 17, 1934 - A driver's education course held in the high school was begun in State College, PA.

February 17, 1947 - The United States begins its propaganda campaign during the Cold War by beaming the Voice of America into the Soviet Union.

February 17, 1972 - President Richard M. Nixon leaves Washington, D.C. to fly to China, the first U.S. president to visit the country.


 

"The cement of this union is the heart-blood of every American." - Thomas Jefferson