Template:On this day - September 17

Philip Wayne Powell

• 1111 – Alfonso Raimúndez becomes King of Galicia in present-day Spain. He would later be King Alfonso VII.
• 1497 – Pedro de Estopiñán takes Melilla in the name of the Dukes of Medina Sidonia for the Crown of Castile.
• 1584 – Birth of Francisco Correa de Arauxo, Spanish composer (d. 1654).
• 1665 – Death of Philip IV, King of Spain (b. 1605).
• 1679 – Death of Juan José de Austria, Spanish politician and military commander (b. 1629).
• 1791 – Death of Tomás de Iriarte, Spanish poet (b. 1750).
• 1838 – Birth of Valeriano Weyler, Spanish military officer and politician (d. 1930).
• 1843 – In Santiago de Chile, the University of Chile is founded, successor to the Royal University of San Felipe.
• 1853 – Death of Laureano Pineda, Nicaraguan politician, twice Supreme Director (b. 1802).
• 1861 – During the Argentine civil war, the forces of the province of Buenos Aires under Mitre defeat the national forces of Urquiza at the Battle of Pavón.
• 1863 – Death of Carlos de Chacón y Michelena, Spanish navy captain and first Governor of Fernando Poo in Spanish Guinea (b. 1816).
• 1964 – In Mexico, the National Museum of Anthropology is inaugurated.
• 1980 – In Asunción (Paraguay), a commando made up of Argentine fighters kills the former Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle, who had found asylum under the government of the Paraguayan dictator Alfredo Stroessner.
• 1987 – Death of Philip Wayne Powell, American university professor, historian and writer specializing in the history of the Spanish Empire and of the Southwestern United States (b. 1913).
• 2012 – The Teatro Imperio de Valparaíso, a heritage building from the early 20th century, catches fire and loses its entire structure except for its façade.