In History, Today on December 17

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized the emergency use of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, the second vaccine to receive such approval in the U.S. during the COVID-19 pandemic.

U.S. President Barack Obama announced the beginning of the process to normalize relations with Cuba, ending a 54-year stretch of hostility between the two nations.

The United States formally ended its military mission in Iraq with a ceremony in Baghdad, marking the withdrawal of the last U.S. troops from the country.

Mohamed Bouazizi, a Tunisian street vendor, set himself on fire in protest of police corruption and ill treatment. This act became a catalyst for the Tunisian Revolution and the wider Arab Spring.

Yvo de Boer, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Executive Secretary, convened a high-level segment during the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP15, in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The United States government announced the capture of Saddam Hussein, the former President of Iraq, who had been hiding in a hole near his hometown of Tikrit.

The United States and 34 other nations signed the Kyoto Protocol to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The first episode of The Simpsons, "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire," aired on Fox, marking the beginning of the longest-running American sitcom.

32 members of the Italian Fascist organization Ordine Nuovo are arrested after a car bomb is intercepted in Trieste.

The United States Air Force closed its Project Blue Book, concluding that there was no evidence of extraterrestrial life behind UFO sightings.

The United States successfully launches its first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the Atlas missile, from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The Malmedy massacre occurred during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II, where German troops killed American prisoners of war.

World War II: The German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee was scuttled by its crew off Montevideo, Uruguay.

The Locarno Treaties take effect, marking an effort to normalize relations in Europe and guarantee post-World War I western borders after a period of disillusionment and opposition.

The Wright brothers made the first controlled, sustained flight of a powered, heavier-than-air aircraft at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

U.S. President William McKinley signed the Gold Standard Act officially placing the United States on the gold standard, meaning currency was backed by a fixed quantity of gold.

Charles Dickens' novella 'A Christmas Carol' was first published in London. It quickly became a classic story during the Christmas season.

The Aztec Calendar Stone, also known as the Sun Stone, is discovered in the main plaza of Mexico City. The stone is a crucial piece of Aztec culture, providing insight into their calendar system and cosmology, and it becomes an iconic symbol of pre-Columbian civilization in the Americas.

France formally recognized the United States of America as an independent nation.

Go-Yōzei became the Emperor of Japan.

Pope Paul III excommunicated King Henry VIII of England.

Timur, also known as Tamerlane, captured and sacked Delhi, leading to significant destruction and loss of life in the city.

The first Saturnalia festival was celebrated, a popular Roman festival dedicated to the Roman god Saturn, characterized by festivities and role reversals between slaves and masters.