Portal:University of Oxford/On this day/December 17

Births
 * 1662 – Samuel Wesley (Exeter), poet
 * 1685 – Thomas Tickell (Queen's), poet
 * 1826 – Francis Trevelyan Buckland (Christ Church), surgeon and natural historian
 * 1893 – George Algernon West (Lincoln), Lord Bishop of Rangoon 1935–1954
 * 1900 – Mary Cartwright (St Hugh's), mathematician
 * 1906 – Bede Griffiths (Magdalen), Benedictine monk and missionary
 * 1915 – Sir Philip Adams (Christ Church), diplomat
 * 1916 – Penelope Fitzgerald (Somerville), novelist
 * 1927 – Robert Robinson (Exeter), radio and television presenter
 * 1931 – James Anderson, cricketer
 * 1942 – Gareth Stedman Jones (Lincoln and Nuffield), historian
 * 1956 – Nancy-Ann DeParle (Balliol), director of the White House Office of Health Reform
 * 1956 – Dominic Lawson (Christ Church), journalist
 * 1979 – Thum Ping Tjin (Hertford), Singaporean swimmer

Deaths
 * 1758 – Charles Butler, 1st Earl of Arran, Chancellor of the University 1715–1758
 * 1773 – Andrew Stone (Christ Church), politician
 * 1808 – Charles Jenkinson, 1st Earl of Liverpool (University), President of the Board of Trade 1786–1804
 * 1854 – Henry Parry (Jesus), clergyman and antiquarian
 * 1915 – John Rhys (Jesus and Merton), Celtic scholar and Principal of Jesus College
 * 1928 – Eglantyne Jebb (Lady Margaret Hall), social reformer
 * 1947 – Bernard Spilsbury (Magdalen), forensic pathologist
 * 1957 – Dorothy L. Sayers (Somerville), novelist
 * 1977 – Lawrence Turner (Exeter), MP for Oxford 1950–1959
 * 1997 – Reginald Victor Jones (Wadham and Balliol), scientific military intelligence expert

Other events
 * 2008 – Abhisit Vejjajiva (St John's) becomes Prime Minister of Thailand.