April 17^th in history

Encyclopædia Britannica presents people and events from this day in history:

Nikita Khrushchev: Biography of the Day

Nikita Khrushchev

"There were those who loved him, there were those who hated him, but there were few who would pass him by without looking in his direction."

Sergey Khrushchev, eulogizing his father, Nikita, at his funeral, 1971

Soviet Premier Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev, born this day in 1894, guided the U.S.S.R. (and the communist movement) out from under the shadow of former premier Joseph Stalin and into closer orbit with the capitalist West.

 

Canada Act proclaimed: 17 April 1982 - This Day in History

The Canada Act, also known as the Constitution Act, took effect on this day in 1982, establishing certain individual rights, preserving parliamentary supremacy, and making Canada a wholly independent, fully sovereign state.

More Events on this day:

1961: Cuban leader Fidel Castro's forces repelled the Bay of Pigs invasion, which was led by recent Cuban exiles and financed by the U.S. government during the Cold War.

1956: Cominform, the international Communist Information Bureau founded in 1947, was disbanded as part of a Soviet program of reconciliation with Yugoslavia.

1895: The Treaty of Shimonoseki concluded the first Sino-Japanese War, which ended in China's defeat.

1521: Martin Luther appeared before the Diet of Worms to defend his ideas on church reform.

1194: Richard I (the Lion-Heart) was crowned king of England for the second time, after earlier surrendering his kingdom to the Holy Roman emperor Henry VI.