Under Thursday, February 17, the book of history records, among other things:
1897: Britain rejects Austro-Russian proposal for blockade of Greek port of Piraeus.
1922: The play “Indipohdi” by Gerhart Hauptmann is premiered in the Dresden theater.
1932: The Austrian Karl Schäfer becomes world champion in figure skating in Montreal.
1947: The trial against 15 high-ranking German lawyers, led by Ernst Janning, begins before a US court in Nuremberg.
1947: The station “Voice of America” records programs in Russian from Munich.
1952: The lyrical drama “Boulevard Solitude” by Hans Werner Henze has its world premiere in Hanover.
1962: A devastating storm surge on the German North Sea coast claims the lives of almost 350 people and makes 80,000 homeless.
1972: With the final assembly of the “Beetle” No. 15,007,034, the German Volkswagen (VW) surpasses the most-produced car in the world to date, the Ford Model T (“Tin Lizzy”) with 15,007,033 units.
1972: London’s House of Commons narrowly approves UK Accession Bill.
1997: Following the electoral defeat of Benazir Bhutto and her Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), President Farooq Leghari swears in the leader of the conservative Muslim League, Nawaz Sharif, as the new prime minister.
2012: A member of the Dutch royal family is buried in an avalanche in Lech am Arlberg. Prince Johan Friso is flown to Innsbruck University Hospital. But the lack of oxygen has terrible consequences: Queen Beatrix’s son is in a coma until he dies in August 2013.
2012: The German Federal President Christian Wulff is resigning from his office after almost 20 months after the public prosecutor’s office requested that his immunity be lifted on suspicion of taking advantage. The CDU politician is said to have accepted gifts and travel invitations as Prime Minister of Lower Saxony.
2017: Wolfgang Ambros marries his partner Uta Schäfauer (51) in Waidring in Tyrol (Kitzbühel district). The 64-year-old Austropop legend doesn’t make a big fuss about the wedding, to which only the closest family and friends are invited.
birthdays: Friedrich Maximilian von Klinger, German dramatist (1752-1831); Georg Weerth, German writer (1822-1856); Willy Bardas, Austria pianist and music teacher (1887-1924); Rita Süssmuth, German politician (1937); Lou Diamond Phillips, US actor, director, screenwriter and film producer (1962); Billie Joe Armstrong, US singer and guitarist (Green Day) (1972); Philippe Candeloro, French ex-figure skater (1972).
days of death: Gregorio Allegri, Italian composer (1582-1652); Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, Swiss educator (1746-1827); Leopold von Pebal, Austria chemist (1826-1887); Alois Graf Lexa von Aehrenthal, Austro-Hungarian. politician and lawyer; 1906-1912 Secretary of State (1854-1912); Bruno Walter (actually Schlesinger), German conductor (1876-1962); Hugo Meisl, Austria soccer official, soccer player and referee; 1907-1937 ÖFB General Secretary (1881-1937); Thelonius Monk, US jazz musician and composer, co-founder of “bebop” (1917-1982); Blinky Palermo, German painter (1943-1977); Nikola “Niki” Stajković, East. Divers (1959-2017).
name days: Konstantina, Alexius, Mazelin, Evermod, Silvinus, Volrad, Bonosus.