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

Births
 * 1555 – Richard Carew (Christ Church), translator and antiquary
 * 1909 – Arthur Geoffrey Walker (Balliol and Merton), mathematician
 * 1910 – James Coyne, Governor of the Bank of Canada 1955–61
 * 1917 – G. B. Caird (Mansfield and Queen's), Principal of Mansfield 1970–77 and Dean Ireland's Professor of the Exegesis of Holy Scripture 1977–84
 * 1924 – John Dodson, 3rd Baron Monk Bretton (New College), agriculturist
 * 1942 – Peter Sissons (University), television news journalist
 * 1943 – Shlomo Ben-Ami, Israeli politician and diplomat
 * 1951 – Andrew Robathan (Oriel), Conservative politician
 * 1958 – Nick Newman, cartoonist and comedy sketchwriter
 * 1971 – Josh Frydenberg (University), Australian banker and politician

Deaths
 * 1304 – Edmund Mortimer, 2nd Baron Mortimer, English baron
 * 1685 – John Robartes, 1st Earl of Radnor (Exeter), Lord President of the Council 1679–84
 * 1790 – Adam Smith (Balliol), Scottish political economist
 * 1907 – William Gunion Rutherford (Balliol and University), classical scholar and headmaster
 * 1933 – Charles Carmichael Lacaita (Balliol), botanist and politician
 * 1965 – Walter Evans-Wentz (Jesus), American anthropologist
 * 1979 – Edward Akufo-Addo (St Peter's), President of Ghana 1970–72
 * 2005 – Gavin Lambert (Magdalen), novelist and screenwriter
 * 2009 – Leszek Kołakowski (All Souls), Polish philosopher and historian of ideas