What happened on 17 December?

11 events from the Ever-When timeline, ranked by how much they mattered.

1. 2010 Arab Spring Pro-democracy uprisings sweep the Arab world; outcomes vary from democracy to civil war.
2. 1770 Born: Ludwig van Beethoven German composer whose nine symphonies bridge the Classical and Romantic eras.
3. 2010 Arab Spring begins Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi sets himself on fire; sparks wave of protests across the Arab world.
4. 1903 Wright Brothers' first powered flight Orville Wright makes a 12-second, 36-metre flight at Kill Devil Hills, near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina; the first sustained, controlled, powered flight of a heavier-than-air aircra
5. 1938 Hahn and Meitner discover nuclear fission Otto Hahn detects barium after bombarding uranium with neutrons; Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch interpret the result as fission, opening the nuclear age.
6. 2010 Tunisian Revolution The self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi sparks a revolution that topples Ben Ali and ignites the Arab Spring.
7. 1830 Death of Bolívar Aged 47, tubercular, stripped of office and en route to exile, the Liberator dies on a borrowed estate near the Caribbean coast — months after his Gran Colombia dissolved and his h
8. 1538 The Pope excommunicates Henry VIII After the desecration of Becket's shrine at Canterbury, Paul III finally puts into force the excommunication drafted five years earlier, absolving Henry's subjects of loyalty and i
9. 1857 Reform War Conservatives rebel against the liberal constitution of 1857; Juárez governs from Veracruz and wins after three years, separating church and state.
10. 1928 Bhagat Singh kills John Saunders Seeking to avenge Lala Lajpat Rai, beaten in a police charge, Bhagat Singh and Rajguru shoot a young British police officer in Lahore, mistaking him for his superior.
11. 2014 Cuban thaw announced In simultaneous broadcasts Obama and Raúl Castro announce the restoration of diplomatic relations after more than half a century of hostility.