Portal:Biography/Selected anniversaries/April 17

Births

 * 1837 – J.P. Morgan, American financier and philanthropist (d. 1913)
 * 1885 – Isak Dinesen, Danish author (d. 1962)
 * 1894 – Nikita Khrushchev, Premier of the Soviet Union (d. 1971)
 * 1897 – Thornton Wilder, American dramatist (d. 1975)(pictured)
 * 1918 – William Holden, American actor (d. 1981)
 * 1972 – Jennifer Garner, American actress
 * 1974 – Victoria Beckham, English singer

Deaths

 * 1790 – Benjamin Franklin, American inventor, diplomat, and printer (b. 1706)
 * 1892 – Alexander Mackenzie, 2nd Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1822)
 * 1990 – Ralph Abernathy, American civil rights activist (b. 1936)
 * 1994 – Roger Wolcott Sperry, American neurobiologist, Nobel laureate (b. 1913)