On This Day

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Important events of history that took place in India and elsewhere on today’s date.

17 May

🇮🇳 In India

1540 The Mughal Emperor Humayun was defeated by the Afghan ruler Sher Shah Suri (also known as Sher Khan) in the battle of Kanauj. Humayun was forced to go out of India and live in exile

1769 The East India Company imposed a variety of restrictions on weavers to ruin Bengal's textile industry.

1782 Treaty of Salbai was signed by representatives of the Maratha Empire and the British East India Company after long negotiations to settle the outcome of the First Anglo-Maratha War.

1951 Pankaj Udhas, ghazal and playback singer, was born.

2004 India's stock market took the biggest one-day plunge in its 129-year history as investors panicked over the prospects of a Left-supported government.

🌎 Elsewhere

1749 Edward Jenner, British physician and scientist who pioneered the concept of vaccines including creating the smallpox vaccine, the world's first ever vaccine, was born in Berkeley, United Kingdom.

1900 The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was first published by L Frank Baum with illustrations by William Wallace Denslow in Chicago.

1978 The coffin containing the body of Charlie Chaplin—missing since his grave was pillaged nearly two months ago—was found.

⭐ Significance

World Telecommunication and Information Society Day is an international day proclaimed in November 2006 by the International Telecommunication Union Plenipotentiary Conference in Antalya, Turkey, to be celebrated annually on 17 May. Its main goal is to highlight the importance of communication and how information travels across the world. It also aims to increase awareness of how crucial communication is in our lives, and stimulate the development of technologies in the field.

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