Template:Selected anniversaries/December 17

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  Astronomer Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi invents new form of scrying engine.

497 BC – The first Saturnalia festival was celebrated in ancient Rome.

1790 – Discovery of the Aztec calendar stone.

1903 – The Wright brothers make the first controlled powered, heavier-than-air flight in the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

1938 – Otto Hahn discovers the nuclear fission of the heavy element uranium, the scientific and technological basis of nuclear energy.

1961 – Niterói circus fire: Fire breaks out during a performance by the Gran Circus Norte-Americano in the city of Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, killing more than 500.

1969 – Project Blue Book: The United States Air Force closes its study of UFOs.

1778 – Humphry Davy, English chemist and physicist (d. 1829)

1797 – Joseph Henry, American physicist and engineer (d. 1878)

1900 – Mary Cartwright, English mathematician and academic (d. 1998)