Template:On this day - April 17

Joan I of Navarre

• 796 – In Al-Andalus (present-day Spain), Al-Hakam I comes to power as independent emir.
• 856 – In the Emirate of Córdoba (present-day Spain), a group of Mozarabic Christians known as the Martyrs of Córdoba are executed.
• 1271 – Birth of Joan I of Navarre, Queen of Navarre (d. 1305).
• 1492 – The Capitulations of Santa Fe are signed between the Catholic Monarchs and Christopher Columbus, the agreement that preceded the discovery of the New World.
• 1523 – The Amerindian chief Diriangén, at the head of Diriá and Nagrandan warriors, confronts the Spanish conquistadors under the command of Gil González Dávila at the Battle of Diriangén, during the conquest of the so-called Province of Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
• 1535 – The Spanish conquistador Antonio de Mendoza is appointed first Viceroy of New Spain.
• 1695 – Death of Juana Inés de la Cruz, Mexican nun, poet and writer.
• 1711 – In Spain, the Corps of Military Engineers is formed by Royal Decree of Philip V.
• 1723 – Death of Tomás Vicente Tosca, Spanish mathematician, cartographer and theologian (b. 1651).
• 1797 – In Puerto Rico, British troops begin the attack on the Spanish colony of San Juan.
• 1812 – The Cortes of Cádiz (Spain) create the Supreme Court of Justice.
• 1826 – Santa Fe de Antioquia ceases to be the capital of Antioquia (Colombia), a title transferred to Medellín.
• 1861 – In Matanzas (Cuba), the Chinese slave Justo Wong accidentally discovers the Bellamar Caves.
• 1869 – In Mexico, President Benito Juárez creates the state of Morelos.
• 1892 – At an event in New York, José Martí proclaims the creation of the Cuban Revolutionary Party.
• 1902 – Birth of Jaime Torres Bodet, Mexican diplomat, essayist and poet, director of UNESCO between 1948 and 1952 (d. 1974).
• 1902 – Death of Francisco de Asís de Borbón, aristocrat and king consort of Spain (b. 1822).
• 1959 – In Cuba, the Government of Fidel Castro decrees free public use of all beaches.
• 1961 – 1,400 Cuban anti-Castro mercenaries armed and trained by the CIA carry out a failed military landing operation in Cuba (Bay of Pigs Invasion).
• 1972 – In Montevideo (Uruguay), the Joint Forces (Armed Forces and Police) murder eight unarmed communist workers at the premises of Section 20 of the PCU (later declared a National Historic Monument for this reason).
• 2014 – Death of Gabriel García Márquez, Colombian writer, novelist and journalist, awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982 (b. 1927).
• 2019 – Death of Manuel Alcántara, poet and columnist, who published at least one daily article in various national newspapers for more than sixty years without interruption, becoming the longest-serving and most widely read columnist in Spain (b. 1928).
• 2019 – Death of Alan García Pérez, twice president of Peru, who shoots himself in the head when the Police were about to arrest him in the Odebrecht case (b. 1949).