October 17

Events

• 322 BC: Demosthenes commits suicide before he could be handed over to the Macedonians.
• 1687: Patriarch Dionysius IV of Constantinople is removed from office.
• 1863: Prince George of Denmark arrives in Piraeus. He will reign on the throne of Greece for the next 50 years.
• 1909: A movement in the Greek Navy against the Military Association is violently put down.
• 1914: A powerful earthquake (6.0 on the Richter scale) strikes Thebes, Boeotia and the surrounding area.
• 1931: Metropolitan of Kition, Nikodimos Milonas, calls for protests throughout Cyprus against British policies on the island.
• 1941: 250 inhabitants of Kerdylia, Serres are executed by the Germans in retaliation for the killing of a single German soldier.
• 1949: "Radio Free Greece" announces the cessation of all hostilities on the part of the communist Democratic Army of Greece. The Greek Civil War is officially over.
• 2005: A powerful earthquake (6.0 on the Richter scale) strikes Samos and the surrounding area.

Sports

• 1967: Christos Papanikolaou breaks the Greek record in the pole vault with 5.30m.
• 2007: Greece qualify for Euro 2008 by defeating Turkey 1-0 in Istanbul.

Births

• 1860: Dionysios Lavrangas, composer
• 1913: George Polk, US correspondent murdered in Greece
• 1955: Georgios Alogoskoufis, economist, politician

Deaths

• 322 BC: Demosthenes, Athenian orator.
• 1952: Philippos Kourantis, footballer
• 1955: Dimitrios Maximos, banker, PM of Greece
• 1981: Lina Tsaldari, first Greek woman to cabinet Minister.
• 1992: Orestes Laskos, poet and theatrical writer.
• 1999: Mema Stathopoulou, actress