1631
Jun 17, Mumtax Mahal, wife of Shah Jahan of India, her tomb (Taj Mahal), died. Arjumand Shah Begum (aka Mumtaz Mahal -Jewel of the Palace), was the 2nd wife of Shah Jahan. She had bore him 14 children and died in childbirth. He build the Taj Mahal (1654) in her memory. The project took 22 years and cost $18 million.

1999
Jun 17, Latvia's parliament elected Vaira Vike-Freiberga (61), Canadian émigré and retired university professor, as its first female president.

2004
Jun 17, A jury in Brussels, Belgium, convicted Marc Dutroux (47), an ex-convict, of abducting 6 girls in 1995-96. It also found him guilty of murdering 2 of the girls and an accomplice.

2008
Jun 17, Cyd Charisse (b.1922), film actress and dancer, died in Los Angeles. Her films included “Singin’ in the Rain" (1952), in which she partnered with Gene Kelly. She was born as Tula Ellice Finklea in Amarillo, Texas. She was married to singer-actor Tony Martin.

2008
Jun 17, Nigerian police stormed the hideout of the kidnappers of Eunice Gideon, the wife of a senior Bayelsa state official and freed her. She was abducted two weeks ago and was freed in neighboring Rivers state after a gunbattle with the kidnappers.

2011
Jun 17, Several Saudi women boldly got behind the wheel, including one who managed a 45-minute trip through the nation's capital, seeking to ignite a road rebellion against the male-only driving rules in the ultraconservative kingdom.

2014
Jun 17, Austrian police said a Romanian woman (40) was imprisoned, raped and repeatedly beaten in a house in Styria for more than a month before escaping when her attacker got drunk. Police arrested a Romanian man (49) in connection with the imprisonment and attacks.

2014
Jun 17, In England Nahid Almanea (31), a Saudi student, died after she was stabbed 16 times while walking on a public path in Colchester, northeast of London. She was wearing a full-length Muslim robe and a headscarf and had been studying English as part of an advanced degree program.