Today in History: Fatih Sultan Mehmet Conquered the Istanbul Islands

April 17 is the 107nd (108rd in leap years) day of the year according to the Gregorian calendar. The number of days left until the end of the year is 258.

Railways

• 17 April 1869 A contract was signed with Baron Maurice de Hirsch, who was originally a Hungarian Jew, Brussels Bankers for the construction of the Rumeli Railways. A separate contract was signed with Pavlin Talabat, acting on behalf of the Austrian Southern Railways Company (porthole), owned by the famous banker Rothdchild, to operate the line when the construction was finished. On the same date, a contract was made between Baron Hirsh and Talabot.
• 17 April 1925 Ankara-Yahşihan Line (86 km) was put into operation. In 1914, the construction of the Ministry of Defense started. The unfinished line started again on December 10, 1923 with the groundbreaking of President M. Kemal Pasha and completed the Contractor Şevki Niyazi Dağdelence.

Events

• 1453 - Mehmet the Conqueror conquered the islands of Istanbul.
• 1897 – The war between the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Greece, also called the "Thirty Days War", began.
• 1924 – Benito Mussolini's fascist party wins the general elections in Italy.
• 1925 – Ankara – Yahşihan Railway line was put into operation.
• 1928 – Ankara Palas Hotel was put into service. The building, which started to be built in 1926 with the design of Architect Vedat Bey (Tek), was completed with the design of Architect Kemalettin Bey due to disagreements.
• 1940 – The Village Institutes Law was accepted.
• 1946 – Syria declared its independence while it was a French Mandate. Independence day was declared a national public holiday, called Eid-ul Jalaa (Iyd-ul Jala).
• 1954 – The foundation of Çanakkale Monument was laid.
• 1961 – Cubans in exile, supported by the United States, land in Cuba to overthrow Fidel Castro. The landing, known as Operation Bay of Pigs, resulted in Fidel Castro's victory.
• 1969 - Czechoslovakian Prime Minister Alexander Dubcek resigns after Soviet military intervention. He was replaced by Gustav Husak.
• 1972 – In the USA, the illegal wiretapping activities of the Nixon administration in the 1972 elections were exposed. Three consultants and a prosecutor, who were involved in the incident known as Watergate, resigned.
• 1974 – Madaralı Novel Award “Blacksmith's Bazaar MurderHe received Yaşar Kemal for his work ”.
• 1982 - The Canadian Constitution was adopted.
• 1982 – President General Kenan Evren spoke in Balıkesir: “… 'The only way is revolution!' Of course, we could not allow those who made Marxist-Leninist propaganda again. Because this is not the revolution that Atatürk put in place, the 'revolutionism' as it is now called.”
• 1993 – Turkey's 8th President Turgut Özal died due to heart failure. A five-day mourning was declared across the country for the death of Turgut Özal, the second President after Atatürk, who died in the line of duty. Flags were lowered at half-mast in the dormitory and representative offices, matches were canceled and the program streams of radio and television were changed.
• 1999 – The official opening of the Baku - Supsa Pipeline was made.
• 2005 – Bülent Dikmener News Award was given to Uğur Dündar and Sadi Özdemir.
• 2005 – Mehmet Ali Talat won the Presidential elections held in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC).

Births

• 1598 – Giovanni Riccioli, Italian astronomer (d. 1671)
• 1868 – Mark Lambert Bristol, American soldier (d. 1939)
• 1890 – Cevat Şakir Kabaağaçlı, Turkish novelist and short story writer (d. 1973)
• 1894 – Nikita Khrushchev, Soviet statesman and First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (d. 1971)
• 1903 – Ayşe Saffet Alpar, Turkish chemist and Turkey's first female rector (d. 1981)
• 1916 – Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Sri Lankan politician and the world's first female prime minister (d. 2000)
• 1918 – William Holden, American actor (d. 1981)
• 1924 – İsmet Giritli, Turkish law professor and writer (one of the scientists who prepared the 1961 Constitution) (d. 2007)
• 1929 – James Last, German composer (d. 2015)
• 1929 – Odete Lara, Brazilian actress (d. 2015)
• 1937 – Tugay Toksöz, Turkish film actor (d. 1988)
• 1942 – David Bradley, English actor
• 1959 - Sean Bean, English actor
• 1963 – Özer Kızıltan, Turkish director
• 1964 – Maynard James Keenan, American musician (member of Tool, A Perfect Circle and Puscifer)
• 1965 – William Mapother, American actor
• 1970 – Erkan Sarıyıldız, Turkish writer and doctor
• 1972 – Jennifer Garner, American actress
• 1974 – Mikael Åkerfeldt, Swedish guitarist and lead singer of Opeth
• 1974 – Victoria Beckham, British socioelite, fashion designer, model and singer
• 1977 – Frederik Magle, Danish composer and pianist
• 1980 – Caner Cindoruk, Turkish theater, cinema and TV series actor
• 1981 – Umut Kurt, Turkish actor
• 1985 – Rooney Mara, American actress
• 1993 – Adil Adilzade, Azerbaijani soldier (d. 2016)

Deaths

• 485 – Proclus, Greek philosopher (b. 412)
• 744 - II. Walid or Walid bin Yazid is the eleventh Umayyad caliph (b. 740)
• 858 – III. Benedict was Bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal State from September 29, 855 until his death
• 1696 – Madame de Sévigné, French aristocrat (b. 1626)
• 1711 – Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1678)
• 1764 – Johann Mattheson, German composer (b. 1681)
• 1764 – Pompadour, French marquise (b. 1721)
• 1790 – Benjamin Franklin, American scientist and politician (b. 1706)
• 1825 – Johann Heinrich Füssli, Swiss painter (b. 1741)
• 1919 – J. Cleveland Cady, American architect (b. 1837)
• 1936 – Charles Ruijs de Beerenbrouck, Dutch nobleman (b. 1873)
• 1941 – Al Bowlly, Mozambican-born English singer, jazz guitarist and composer (b. 1898)
• 1946 – Juan Bautista Sacasa, Nicaraguan medical doctor and politician (President of Nicaragua 1932-36) (b. 1874)
• 1949 – Marius Berliet, French automobile manufacturer (b. 1866)
• 1960 – Eddie Cochran, American rock and roll musician (b. 1938)
• 1967 – Ali Fuat Başgil, Turkish academic (b. 1893)
• 1976 – Henrik Dam, Danish scientist (b. 1895)
• 1978 – Hamit Fendoğlu, Turkish politician and Mayor of Malatya (b. 1919)
• 1981 – Şekip Ayhan Özışık, Turkish composer (b. 1932)
• 1990 – Ralph Abernathy, American priest and leader of the American civil rights movement (b. 1926)
• 1993 – Turgut Özal, Turkish bureaucrat, politician and 8th President of the Republic of Turkey (b. 1927)
• 1994 – Roger Wolcott Sperry, American neuropsychologist and Nobel Prize laureate in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1913)
• 1996 – François-Régis Bastide, French politician, literary scholar and diplomat (b. 1926)
• 1997 – Chaim Herzog, 6th President of Israel (b. 1918)
• 2003 – Paul Getty, US-born British businessman and art collector (b. 1932)
• 2004 – Fana Koçovska, Macedonian resistance fighter, Yugoslav Partisan and National Hero of the Order of the People's Hero (b. 1927)
• 2007 – Eralp Özgen, Turkish lawyer and former President of the Union of Turkish Bar Associations (b. 1936)
• 2009 – Şirin Cemgil, Turkish lawyer and one of the pioneers of the youth movement of the 1968 generation (b. 1945)
• 2010 – Ali Elverdi, Turkish soldier and politician (b. 1924)
• 2010 – Alexandru “Sandu” Neagu, Romanian former international football player (b. 1948)
• 2011 – Osamu Dezaki, Japanese director and screenwriter (b. 1943)
• 2011 – Michael Sarrazin, Canadian (Québec) film and television actor (b. 1940)
• 2011 – Nikos Papazoğlu, Greek singer, songwriter, musician and record producer (b. 1948)
• 2013 – Deanna Durbin, Canadian actress (b. 1921)
• 2014 – Gabriel García Márquez, Colombian journalist, author, and Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1927)
• 2016 – Doris Roberts, American actress (b. 1925)
• 2017 – Matthew Tapunuu “Matt” Anoaʻi, Samoan-American professional wrestler (b. 1970)
• 2018 – Barbara Bush, 41st President of the United States, spouse of George HW Bush (b. 1925)
• 2018 – Amoroso Katamsi, Indonesian singer, actress and artist (b. 1938)
• 2018 – Cemal Safi, Turkish poet (b. 1938)
• 2019 – Peter Cartwright, New Zealand lawyer (b. 1940)
• 2019 – Kazuo Koike, Japanese comics writer, novelist, and educator (b. 1936)
• 2019 – Alan Gabriel Ludwig García Pérez, former Peruvian president (b. 1949)
• 2020 – Bennie G. Adkins, Former United States Army soldier (b. 1934)
• 2020 – Jean-François Bazin, French politician, journalist and writer (b. 1942)
• 2020 – Norman Hunter, English former international footballer (b. 1943)
• 2020 – Orhan Koloğlu, Turkish historian and writer (b. 1929)
• 2020 – Abba Kyari, Nigerian businessman, lawyer, and government official (b. 1952)
• 2020 – Giuseppi Logan, American jazz musician (b. 1935)
• 2020 – Iris Cornelia Love, American classical archaeologist (b. 1933)
• 2020 – Lukman Niode, Indonesian swimmer (b. 1963)
• 2020 – Arlene Saunders, American spinto soprano opera singer (b. 1930)
• 2020 – Matthew Seligman, English bass guitarist (b. 1955)
• 2020 – Gene Shay, American radio host (b. 1935)
• 2020 – Jesús Vaquero Crespo, Spanish neurosurgeon, professor (b. 1950)
• 2021 – Hisham Bastawisy, Egyptian judge and politician (b. 1951)
• 2021 – Fereydoun Ghanbari, Iranian professional wrestler (b. 1977)
• 2021 – Kabori Sarwar, Bangladeshi actress, politician, and social worker (b. 1950)

Holidays and special occasions

• World Hemophilia Day
• Village Institutes Day