F-YEAH HISTORY

A photostatic copy of a page from Ilustração Portuguesa, October 29, 1917, showing the crowd looking at the miracle of the sun during the Fátima apparitions (attributed to the Blessed Virgin Mary) The Miracle of the Sun (Portuguese: O Milagre do Sol) was an event on Saturday the 13th of October 1917 which was attended by 30,000 to 100,000 people, who were gathered near Fátima, Portugal. Several newspaper reporters were in attendance and they took testimony from many people who claimed to have witnessed extraordinary solar activity. This recorded testimony was later added to by an Italian Catholic priest and researcher in the 1940s. According to these reports, the event lasted approximately ten minutes. The three children also reported seeing a panorama of visions, including those of Jesus, Our Lady of Sorrows, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, and of Saint Joseph blessing the people.

The event was officially accepted as a miracle by the Roman Catholic Church on 13 October 1930. On 13 October 1951, the papal legate, Cardinal Tedeschini, told the million people gathered at Fátima that on 30 October, 31 October, 1 November, and 8 November 1950, Pope Pius XII himself witnessed the miracle of the sun from the Vatican gardens.

“Travel? Adventure? Join the Marines”, 1917

ON THIS DAY: 1917 – World War I: Battle of Mărăşeşti between the Romanian and German armies begins

Wounded men at the side of a road after the Battle of Menin Road Ridge The Battle of the Menin Road Ridge, sometimes called "Battle of the Menin Road", was the third British general attack of the Third Battle of Ypres in the First World War. The battle took place 20–25 September 1917, in the Ypres Salient in Flanders on the Western Front.

Suffragettes at Washington, District of Columbia. Bonfire in front of the White House, c. 1917 - 1918

Revolutionary Russian sailors of Russian Imperial Navy battleship Petropavlovsk in Helsinki during summer 1917. Flag carries text "Death to the petty bourgeoise" Revolutionary Russian sailors of Russian Imperial Navy battleship Petropavlovsk in Helsinki during summer 1917. Flag carries text "Death to the petty bourgeoise"

The Russian battleship Petropavlovsk (Russian: Петропавловск) was the third of the four Gangut-class dreadnoughts, the first Russian class of dreadnoughts, built before World War I. She was named after the Russian victory over the British and the French in the Siege of Petropavlovsk in 1854. The ship was completed during the winter of 1914–15, but was not ready for combat until mid-1915. Her role was to defend the mouth of the Gulf of Finland against the Germans, who never tried to enter, so she spent her time training and providing cover for minelaying operations. Her crew joined the general mutiny of the Baltic Fleet after the February Revolution of 1917 and she was the only dreadnought available to the Bolsheviks for several years after the October Revolution of 1917. She bombarded the mutinous garrison of Fort Krasnaya Gorka and supported Bolshevik light forces operating against British ships supporting the White Russians in the Gulf of Finland in 1918–19. Later, her crew joined the Kronstadt Rebellion of 1921 and she was renamed Marat after the rebellion was crushed.

A 1917 Autochrome color photograph of a French Army lookout at his observation post during World War I

Battleship Division Nine arriving at Scapa Flow, 7 December 1917 United States Battleship Division Nine was a division of four, later five, dreadnought battleships of the United States Navy's Atlantic Fleet that constituted the American contribution to the British Grand Fleet during World War I. Although the U.S. entered the war on 6 April 1917, hesitation among senior officers of the U.S. Navy as to the wisdom of dividing the American battle fleet prevented the immediate dispatch of any capital ships for service in the war zone. Following a direct request from the British Admiralty and a series of high level staff meetings, American opinion changed, and Battleship Division Nine joined the Grand Fleet on 7 December 1917. Within that organization, the Division served as the Sixth Battle Squadron.

Railroad section gang — including common workers sometimes called gandy dancers — responsible for maintenance of a particular section of railway. One man is holding a bar, while others are using rail tongs to position a rail, 1917 Gandy dancer is a slang term used for early railroad workers who laid and maintained railroad tracks in the years before the work was done by machines. The British equivalent of the term gandy dancer is "navvy" from "navigator", originally builders of canals or "inland navigations". In the U.S. Southwest and Mexico, Mexican and Mexican-American track workers were colloquially "traqueros".

The Petrograd Soviet Assembly meeting, 1917 The Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies was a city council of Petrograd (Saint Petersburg), the capital of the Russian Empire. For brevity it is usually called the Petrograd Soviet. During the revolutionary days the council tried to extend its jurisdiction nationwide as a rival power center to the Provisional Government creating what in the Soviet historiography is known as the Dvoevlastie (Dual power). Its committees became key components during the Russian Revolution leading up to the armed revolt of October Revolution.

Armed workers and soldiers escorting captured policemen during the February Revolution, Petrograd, 1917

German film crew recording the action, 1917

1917 Socialist Revolutionaries election poster The Socialist Revolutionaries were an agrarian socialist political party that attempted to create a democratic government in Russia in 1917 but were overthrown shortly afterwards by Russia's Bolshevik Communists.

Walter Yeo, a British sailor, is often cited as the first known person to have benefited from plastic surgery. The photograph shows him before the procedure (left) and after (right) receiving a skin flap performed by Sir Harold Gillies in 1917.

2nd Canadian Division soldiers advance behind a tank, Battle of Vimy Ridge, 1917

A Canadian 3 cent stamp from 1917 based on Robert Harris's 1884 painting "Fathers of Confederation" The Fathers of Confederation are the people who attended the Charlottetown and Quebec Conferences in 1864 and the London Conference of 1866 in England, preceding Canadian Confederation. The following lists the participants in the Charlottetown, Quebec, and London Conferences and their attendance at each stage.

A pack horse with a gas mask being loaded up with wiring staples and other equipment near Pilckem, Battle of Pilckem Ridge 31 July - 2 August, 1917