| 18601 | February 17 | Birth | 1820 – Henri Vieuxtemps, Belgian violinist and composer (d. 1881) |
| 18602 | February 17 | Birth | 1821 – Lola Montez, Irish-American actress and dancer (d. 1861) |
| 18603 | February 17 | Birth | 1836 – Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, Spanish author, poet, and playwright (d. 1870) |
| 18604 | February 17 | Birth | 1844 – Aaron Montgomery Ward, American businessman, founded Montgomery Ward (d. 1913) |
| 18605 | February 17 | Birth | 1848 – Albert Gustaf Dahlman, Swedish executioner (d. 1920) |
| 18606 | February 17 | Birth | 1848 – Louisa Lawson, Australian poet and publisher (d. 1920) |
| 18607 | February 17 | Birth | 1854 – Friedrich Alfred Krupp, German businessman (d. 1902) |
| 18608 | February 17 | Birth | 1861 – Princess Helena of Waldeck and Pyrmont (d. 1922) |
| 18609 | February 17 | Birth | 1862 – Eduard Bornhöhe, Estonian author (d. 1923) |
| 18610 | February 17 | Birth | 1862 – Mori Ōgai, Japanese author and poet (d. 1922) |
| 18611 | February 17 | Birth | 1863 – Fyodor Sologub, Russian author and poet (d. 1927) |
| 18612 | February 17 | Birth | 1864 – Jozef Murgaš, Slovak priest, botanist, and painter (d. 1929) |
| 18613 | February 17 | Birth | 1864 – Banjo Paterson, Australian journalist, author, and poet (d. 1941) |
| 18614 | February 17 | Birth | 1874 – Thomas J. Watson, American businessman (d. 1956) |
| 18615 | February 17 | Birth | 1877 – Isabelle Eberhardt, Swiss explorer and author (d. 1904) |
| 18616 | February 17 | Birth | 1877 – André Maginot, French sergeant and politician (d. 1932) |
| 18617 | February 17 | Birth | 1877 – Isidora Sekulić, Serbian author and critic (d. 1958) |
| 18618 | February 17 | Birth | 1887 – Joseph Bech, Luxembourgian lawyer and politician, 15th Prime Minister of Luxembourg (d. 1975) |
| 18619 | February 17 | Birth | 1887 – Leevi Madetoja, Finnish composer and critic (d. 1947) |
| 18620 | February 17 | Birth | 1888 – Otto Stern, German-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1969) |
| 18621 | February 17 | Birth | 1890 – Ronald Fisher, English statistician, biologist, and geneticist (d. 1962) |
| 18622 | February 17 | Birth | 1891 – Abraham Fraenkel, German-Israeli mathematician and academic (d. 1965) |
| 18623 | February 17 | Birth | 1893 – Wally Pipp, American baseball player and journalist (d. 1965) |
| 18624 | February 17 | Birth | 1896 – Webu Sayadaw, Theravada Buddhist monk, and vipassanā master (d. 1977) |
| 18625 | February 17 | Birth | 1899 – Jibanananda Das, Bangladeshi-Indian poet and author (d. 1954) |
| 18626 | February 17 | Birth | 1900 – Ruth Clifford, American actress (d. 1998) |
| 18627 | February 17 | Birth | 1903 – Sadegh Hedayat, Iranian-French author and translator (d. 1951) |
| 18628 | February 17 | Birth | 1904 – Hans Morgenthau, German-American political scientist, philosopher, and academic (d. 1980) |
| 18629 | February 17 | Birth | 1905 – Osvald Käpp, Estonian wrestler (d. 1995) |
| 18630 | February 17 | Birth | 1906 – Mary Brian, American actress (d. 2002) |