| 141931 | December 17 | Event | 1812 – War of 1812: U.S. forces attack a Lenape village in the Battle of the Mississinewa. |
| 141932 | December 17 | Event | 1813 – The Sûreté Nationale, the national police force of France, is founded, headed by Eugène François Vidocq. |
| 141933 | December 17 | Event | 1819 – Simón Bolívar declares the independence of Gran Colombia in Angostura (now Ciudad Bolívar in Venezuela). |
| 141934 | December 17 | Event | 1835 – Great Fire of New York: Fire levels lower Manhattan. |
| 141935 | December 17 | Event | 1837 – A fire in the Winter Palace of Saint Petersburg kills 30 guards. |
| 141936 | December 17 | Event | 1862 – American Civil War: General Ulysses S. Grant issues General Order No. 11, expelling Jews from parts of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky. |
| 141937 | December 17 | Event | 1865 – First performance of the Unfinished Symphony by Franz Schubert. |
| 141938 | December 17 | Event | 1892 – First issue of Vogue is published |
| 141939 | December 17 | Event | 1896 – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's Schenley Park Casino, which was the first multi-purpose arena with the technology to create an artificial ice surface in North America, is destroyed in a fire. |
| 141940 | December 17 | Event | 1903 – The Wright brothers make the first controlled powered, heavier-than-air flight in the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. |
| 141941 | December 17 | Event | 1907 – Ugyen Wangchuck is crowned first King of Bhutan |
| 141942 | December 17 | Event | 1918 – Darwin Rebellion: Up to 1,000 demonstrators march on Government House in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. |
| 141943 | December 17 | Event | 1919 – Uruguay becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty. |
| 141944 | December 17 | Event | 1926 – Antanas Smetona assumes power in Lithuania as the 1926 coup d'état is successful. |
| 141945 | December 17 | Event | 1927 – Indian revolutionary Rajendra Lahiri is hanged in Gonda jail, Uttar Pradesh, India, two days before the scheduled date. |
| 141946 | December 17 | Event | 1928 – Indian revolutionaries Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev Thapar and Shivaram Rajguru assassinate British police officer James Saunders in Lahore, Punjab, to avenge the death of Lala Lajpat Rai at the hands of the police. The three were executed in 1931. |
| 141947 | December 17 | Event | 1935 – First flight of the Douglas DC-3. |
| 141948 | December 17 | Event | 1938 – Otto Hahn discovers the nuclear fission of the heavy element uranium, the scientific and technological basis of nuclear energy. |
| 141949 | December 17 | Event | 1939 – World War II: Battle of the River Plate – The Admiral Graf Spee is scuttled by Captain Hans Langsdorff outside Montevideo. |
| 141950 | December 17 | Event | 1941 – World War II: Japanese forces land in Northern Borneo. |
| 141951 | December 17 | Event | 1943 – All Chinese are again permitted to become citizens of the United States with the repealing of the Act of 1882 and the introduction of the Magnuson Act. |
| 141952 | December 17 | Event | 1944 – World War II: Battle of the Bulge – Malmedy massacre – American 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion POWs are shot by Waffen-SS Kampfgruppe Peiper. |
| 141953 | December 17 | Event | 1947 – First flight of the Boeing B-47 Stratojet strategic bomber. |
| 141954 | December 17 | Event | 1950 – The F-86 Sabre's first mission over Korea. |
| 141955 | December 17 | Event | 1951 – The American Civil Rights Congress delivers "We Charge Genocide" to the United Nations. |
| 141956 | December 17 | Event | 1957 – The United States successfully launches the first Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile at Cape Canaveral, Florida. |
| 141957 | December 17 | Event | 1960 – Troops loyal to Emperor Haile Selassie in Ethiopia crush the coup that began December 13, returning power to their leader upon his return from Brazil. Haile Selassie absolves his son of any guilt. |
| 141958 | December 17 | Event | 1960 – 1960 Munich C-131 crash: Twenty passengers and crew on board as well as 32 people on the ground are killed. |
| 141959 | December 17 | Event | 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. |
| 141960 | December 17 | Event | 1967 – Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt disappears while swimming near Portsea, Victoria, and is presumed drowned. |