| 17/5/2020 | Katerina Stefanidi wins the pole vault garden clash. With the temperature hovering around 39 degrees Celsius in Athens, Stefanidi cleared a height of 4 meters (13 feet, 1 ½ inches) a total of 34 times over a 30-minute span in a rare track and field competition held during the coronavirus pandemic. Two-time U.S. indoor winner Katie Nageotte cleared the bar 30 times from her training facility in Marietta, Georgia. Commonwealth Games champion Alysha Newman of Canada had 21 clearances in Bolton, Ontario, during their head-to-head-to-head showdown. |
| 17/5/2018 | Founder and soul of Aegean airlines Theodore Vassilakis dies at age of 78. In 1994 he purchased the small airline company Aegean Aviation and turned it to Business Aviation with Learjet aircrafts. AEGEAN in 1999 acquired AIR GREECE and merged with CRONUS in 2001. In 2013 AEGEAN acquired Olympic Air, creating the largest Greek airline. Theodoros Vassilakis was the main instigator of the Aegean Airlines Pro-Am International Golf Tournament, which aims to highlight the touristic product of our country and place Greece on the international map for golf lovers. |
| 17/5/2016 | AEK beats Olympiakos 2-1 in the final of the Greek Cup in Olympic Stadium behind closed doors due to incidents that had occurred in the semifinal match PAOK-Olympiakos causing the interruption of the competition. AEK, who climbed back from the third tier of Greek football all the way to the Greek Superleague in just two seasons, wins the 15th Cup in history. |
| 17/5/2014 | 30-year-old Greek gymnast Anna Pollatou, who won a bronze medal in the rhythmic team event at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, is killed in a car crash on the road from Patra to Pyrgos in the Western Peloponnese. At the World Championships in Osaka (1999) she won the gold medal in the apparatus finals (two hoops, three ribbons) and in 10 clubs, while she won the silver medal in team combo. |
| 17/5/2002 | Lazlo Kubala, the Hungarian footballer and manager of Slovak, dies at the age of 75 in Barcelona. He played for three different national teams, Chechoslovakia, Hungary and Spain and was a leading player of Barcelona, where he scored 74 goals in 345 appearances. Luckily, although he had agreed in 1949 to play for Torino against Benfica, he pulled out because his son was ill and saved his life as the plane crashed into the Superga hills. |
| 17/5/2000 | Susie O' Neill smashes Mary Meagher's 19 year-old 200m butterfly world record (2:05.96 on August 13, 1981) with 2:05.81 at the pre-olympic tournament in Sydney |
| 17/5/1998 | ?ne of the best Greek defenders Stelios Manolas plays his farewell match (AEK - Xanthi 2-0 in Philadelphia). The AEK Athens captain made his debut in a match against Kastoria (1-1) on February 3, 1980. He played 436 games in the Greek league. He was capped 65 times (6 goals) |
| 17/5/1997 | Former World chess champion Anatoly Karpov plays against Greek chess champion Vassilis Kotronias and wins by 2.5-1.5 |
| 17/5/1997 | Dutch Ruud Gullit becomes the first non-british coach to win the FA Cup as Chelsea defeat Middlesbrough 2-0 at Wembley |
| 17/5/1994 | Al Unser, winner of 4 Indianapolis 500 and 3 Indy Cars championships, retires. He was the first driver who raced against his son (Indy 500, 1983) |
| 17/5/1992 | Juventus win the 32th UEFA Cup by defeating Fiorentina 3-1 and 0-0 |
| 17/5/1991 | With their victory over Crystal Palace (1-0, Lee Martin) Manchester United become the third club after Tottenham and Aston Villa to win 7 English FA Cup finals |
| 17/5/1978 | Panathinaikos' largest home defeat (3-6 by Ethnikos) |
| 17/5/1964 | Athlitiki Enosi (Athletic Union) of Larissa is founded out of the merger from four local teams: Larissaikos, Iraklis, Aris and Toxotis, after a series of meetings and discussions between many teams and people of the area. Five days after, on May 22, the color of the cherry (purple) is selected as the color of the team |
| 17/5/1963 | Stjepan Bobek, the 40year old former striker of Partizan Belgrade (1945-1958, 468 games, 403 goals) and Yugoslav national team (63 games 38 goals), becomes Panathinaikos coach, for two years, succeeding Harry Game, who won two championships with the team |
| 17/5/1960 | Professor Ioannis Georgiadis dies in Athens aged 86. He won olympic gold medal in fencing at the Athens 1896 Olympics |
| 17/5/1875 | First Kentucky Derby (America's most prestigious horse race) held at Churchill Downs in Louisville. Oliver Lewis' ''Aristides'' wins |
| 17/5/1605 | The world's first newspaper begins publication at Antwerp under the direction of local printer Abraham Verkoeven. The first newspaper in the USA will be published on 25/6/1960, but it will circulate for only two days |
