February 17

Events

1914: The Greeks of Northern Epirus declare their independence in Argyrokastro.
1957: EOKA fighter Stylianos Lenas is wounded in a battle with British soldiers. He will die from his injuries on March 28.
1982: Civil wedding ceremonies are given equal status to religious ones in Greece.
2008: Ioannis Kasoulidis wins the first round of the Cyprus presidential elections with 33.51%. AKEL chairman, Dimitris Christofias places second with 33.29%. Incumbent President, Tasos Papadopoulos is surprisingly eliminated from the runoff as he places third with 31.79%.
2012: Armed robbers steal more than 60 artefacts from a museum in Olympia.
2013: In the Cyprus presidential elections, Nikos Anastasiades, the head of conservative DISY, receives 45.46% of the vote and advances to the runoff against AKEL candidate Stavros Malas who ends up with 26.91% barely edging out Giorgos Lillikas of EDEK.

1999: Nikos Polychronopoulos wins the gold medal at the European Juniors Billiard Championship in Murcia, Spain.
2007: Greek-Australian Michael Katsidis wins the World Boxing Organisation interim lightweight title by defeating Graham Earl.
2010: Michalis Stamatoyiannis breaks the Greek shot put indoor record with 20.36 in Athens. The old record stood for 24 years.