Hope this doesn't send you over the edge
17 in the History
The cave of Lascaux, painted 17,000 years ago, was discovered by Marcel David, 17 years old.
One of the earliest mentioning of the number 17 was by the Egyptians. The Rhind papyrus from 1700BC contained the following 2/17 = 1/2 + 1/51 + 1/68 (which is FALSE! This is the only error in list of expansions of fractions of the form 2/n into sums of unit or Egyptian fractions.)
The mummy of King Tutankhamen was wrapped in 17 sheets.
The Parthenon is 17 columns long.
The Chinese had a bureaucratic constitution with 17 articles.
The Alhambra, a beautiful Moorish palace which inspired Escher, is composed of 17 kinds of mosaics (in fact, all of the possible ones).
Henri IV celebrated his wedding a second time on December 17, 1600, in Cathedral Saint-Jean in Lyon. His wife Marie de Médicis arrived with about 5000 Italians in 17 galleys.
Queen Anne of Great Britain had 17 children who died before their second birthday. Her only son to survive infancy died at the age of 11.
Nostradamus's quatrain 5,92:
Après le siège tenu dix-sept ans,
Cinq changeront en tel révolu terme:
Puis sera l'un esleu de mesme temps,
Qui des Romains ne sera trop conforme.
(cf http://www.infobahnos.com/~ledash/johnpaul.html#).
Shakespeare wrote 17 comedies (in the 17th century). Hamlet reigned for 17 years.
Beethoven wrote 17 string quartets. The first of Händel's Water Music took place on July 17, 1717 (the yellow pigs day!). Domenico Zipoli sailed for South-America in 1717 and landed in July 1717. Gossec wrote a symphony in 17 parts. Titchenko wrote a concerto for cello and 17 wind instruments. Senfl wrote a mass in 17 parts (given on October 2, 1994 at the Festival d'Ambronay). Mendelssohn's op. 54: 17 variations for piano. Bach had an orchester with 17 musicians during the Weimar period, when he wrote the concerto for 2 violins BWV 1043 (France-Musique, Bach et l'Europe, December 10, 1995). In 1895, St-Saens had 17 volumes of Rameau's work published (Radio Classique, December 13, 1995, 15:30). With one of his fiancées, Alessandro Scarlatti had 17 children including Domenico (France-Musique, January 26, 1996); Marin Marais had 17 children (France-Musique, L'éveil des muses, February 3, 1996). In 1575, Byrd and Tallis published the Cantiones Sacrae, dedicated to the Queen: 17 motets by Byrd and 17 by Tallis (from an article in rec.music.early, September 5, 1996). Telemann wrote 17 operas.
Fermat had been working as an agent for 17 years. Then he became a councillor at the Parliament of Toulouse, where he had been working for 17 years.
Gauss (born in 1777) constructed the famous 17-gon at the age of 18, having probably thought about it from the age of 17.
There is a famous passage in Plato's Theaetetus in which it is stated that Theodorus (Plato's teacher) proved the irrationality of sqrt(3), sqrt(5), …, taking all the separate cases up to the root of 17 square feet, at which point, for some reason, he stopped'. But we don't know the exact meaning of the Greek word (mu)(epsilon)(chi)(rho)(iota), translated asup to' by Heath: either up to but not including' orup to and including'. (An Introduction to the Theory of Numbers, Hardy/Wright, section 4.5, pp 42-44)
Marconi used 17 patents of Tesla's (cf ST Magazine 75, p 54).
The French revolution took place in 1789 (8+9 = 17).
In Chatou (78400, France), a street is called rue des dix-sept (i.e. street of the seventeens). The extension of rue de Sahüne was given this name in December 1880. In 1878, the town council considered that property Fauchat was suitable to be a future town hall. But the heirs refused to sell the house separately, and the town council didn't want to (or couldn't) buy the whole domain. Mayor Bousson engaged its fellow citizens to form a civil company to buy all of it. This company was constituted by 17 people. It gave the town the house and some land while it sold the surplus by lots, making a profit given to the town. The names and the photos of these 17 are displayed on a board in the town hall. These are Mr. Albin, Barbier, Bardon, Baudry, Blin, Bousson, Coulon, Déjardin, Dijon, Ducellier, Huser, Lambert, Laubeuf, Marais, Sandel, Sarazin and Yvon. Source: tourist bureau of Chatou.