| 118711 | October 17 | Event | 1662 – Charles II of England sells Dunkirk to France for 40,000 pounds. |
| 118712 | October 17 | Event | 1771 – Premiere in Milan of the opera Ascanio in Alba, composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, age 15. |
| 118713 | October 17 | Event | 1777 – American Revolutionary War: British General John Burgoyne surrenders his army at Saratoga, New York. |
| 118714 | October 17 | Event | 1781 – American Revolutionary War: British General Charles, Earl Cornwallis surrenders at the Siege of Yorktown. |
| 118715 | October 17 | Event | 1800 – Britain takes control of the Dutch colony of Curaçao. |
| 118716 | October 17 | Event | 1806 – Former leader of the Haitian Revolution, Emperor Jacques I of Haiti is assassinated after an oppressive rule. |
| 118717 | October 17 | Event | 1814 – Eight people die in the London Beer Flood. |
| 118718 | October 17 | Event | 1860 – First The Open Championship (referred to in North America as the British Open). |
| 118719 | October 17 | Event | 1861 – Nineteen people are killed in the Cullin-la-ringo massacre, the deadliest massacre of Europeans by aborigines in Australian history. |
| 118720 | October 17 | Event | 1888 – Thomas Edison files a patent for the Optical Phonograph (the first movie). |
| 118721 | October 17 | Event | 1905 – The October Manifesto issued by Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. |
| 118722 | October 17 | Event | 1907 – Guglielmo Marconi's company begins the first commercial transatlantic wireless service between Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada and Clifden, Ireland. |
| 118723 | October 17 | Event | 1912 – Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia declare war on the Ottoman Empire, joining Montenegro in the First Balkan War. |
| 118724 | October 17 | Event | 1917 – First British bombing of Germany in World War I. |
| 118725 | October 17 | Event | 1918 – Haitian rebels attack the barracks of the Gendarmerie of Haiti, igniting the Second Caco War |
| 118726 | October 17 | Event | 1919 – RCA is incorporated as the Radio Corporation of America. |
| 118727 | October 17 | Event | 1931 – Al Capone is convicted of income tax evasion. |
| 118728 | October 17 | Event | 1933 – Albert Einstein flees Nazi Germany and moves to the United States. |
| 118729 | October 17 | Event | 1940 – The body of Communist propagandist Willi Münzenberg found in South France, starting a never-resolved mystery. |
| 118730 | October 17 | Event | 1941 – World War II: a German submarine attacks an American ship for the first time in the war. |
| 118731 | October 17 | Event | 1941 – German troops execute the male population of the villages Kerdyllia in Serres, Greece. |
| 118732 | October 17 | Event | 1943 – The Burma Railway (Burma–Thailand Railway) is completed. |
| 118733 | October 17 | Event | 1943 – The Holocaust: Sobibór extermination camp is closed. |
| 118734 | October 17 | Event | 1945 – A massive number of people, headed by CGT, gather in the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires, Argentina to demand Juan Perón's release. It calls "el día de la lealtad peronista" (peronista loyalty day) |
| 118735 | October 17 | Event | 1945 – Archbishop Damaskinos of Athens becomes Prime Minister of Greece between the pull-out of the German occupation force in 1944 and the return of King Georgios II to Greece. |
| 118736 | October 17 | Event | 1956 – The first commercial nuclear power station is officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II in Sellafield,in Cumbria, England. |
| 118737 | October 17 | Event | 1956 – Donald Byrne and Bobby Fischer play a famous chess game called The Game of the Century. Fischer beat Byrne and wins a Brilliancy prize. |
| 118738 | October 17 | Event | 1961 – Scores of Algerian protesters (some claim up to 400) are massacred by the Paris police at the instigation of former Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon, then chief of the Prefecture of Police. |
| 118739 | October 17 | Event | 1964 – Prime Minister of Australia Robert Menzies opens the artificial Lake Burley Griffin in the middle of the capital Canberra. |
| 118740 | October 17 | Event | 1965 – The 1964–65 New York World's Fair closes after a two-year run. More than 51 million people had attended the event. |