December 17 has no owner yet

On December 17, 1903, brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first four powered and controlled flights in history at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in the Flyer I. The longest flight lasted 59 seconds and covered 260 metres. In just 66 years, humanity would go from that humble first flight to the Apollo 11 Moon landing.

On December 17, 2014, Presidents Barack Obama and Raúl Castro simultaneously announced the restoration of diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba, suspended since 1961. The agreement, mediated by Pope Francis and Canada, marked the greatest thaw in relations between the two countries in more than fifty years, though economic sanctions continued.

On December 17, 1830, liberator Simón Bolívar died in Santa Marta, Colombia — the Venezuelan military and political leader who had led the independence of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia from Spanish rule. Dying in poverty and internal exile, Bolívar was posthumously acclaimed as the "Liberator" and the greatest hero of Spanish-speaking America.