The 48th day of the year
Born on 17 February
Every 17 February birthday from 1920 to 2026 was Aquarius in UTC, and in most of the world. In 2 of those years the sun changed sign within hours of the date, and by the clocks somewhere far enough east or west of Greenwich it was 17 February when it happened; see below.
- Star sign
- AquariusAir, fixed, ruled by Saturn.
- Birthstone
- AmethystThe same as on the 1912 list.
- Birth flower
- Violet, PrimroseUsually taken today to mean faithfulness and young love.
- Most common weekdays
- Tuesday and Friday16 times each between 1920 and 2026.
The Fire Horse's first day
The year of the Fire Horse began on 17 February 2026. The new year had fallen on this date before in 1931, the Metal Goat, 1950, the Metal Tiger, 1969, the Earth Rooster, and 1988, the Earth Dragon: five times in 107 years, four of them nineteen years apart.
Only eight years from 1920 to 2026 left a 17 February birthday before the new year: 1920, 1939, 1958, 1977, 1985, 1996, 2007 and 2015. So 17 February 2015 belongs to the Wood Horse of 2014, because the Goat did not begin until 19 February, while 17 February 2026 is the Fire Horse's first day.
The sign is nearly always settled. In UTC every 17 February from 1920 to 2026 was Aquarius, but in 2021 and 2025 the sun entered Pisces at 10:44 UTC and 10:07 UTC on 18 February, when it was still 17 February far enough west. In Pago Pago, eleven hours behind Greenwich, the crossings came at 23:44 in 2021 and 23:07 in 2025, so a birth there late on 17 February in either year was Pisces.
Your year
Without JavaScript, the pages for each birth year give the generation and Chinese animal for a birth on 17 February in any year.
Crossings within hours of 17 February
A date begins earlier east of Greenwich and later to the west, so in these years the sun changed sign on the day before or after in UTC, at a moment when clocks somewhere on earth already, or still, showed 17 February — worked out from the time zones in use at that moment, as the IANA time zone database records them. A birth there on 17 February that year could be either sign, and the calculator above works it out for your own time zone.
- 2021: the sun entered Pisces on 18 February, 10:44 UTC
- 2025: the sun entered Pisces on 18 February, 10:07 UTC
Which Chinese animal, by year
From 1920 to 2026 the lunar new year, reckoned in Beijing, came after 17 February in 8 of the 107 years, and in those years a birthday on it belonged to the animal of the year before; in the other 99 the new year had already begun. It was the first day of the new year itself in 1931, 1950, 1969, 1988 and 2026.
Shaded: 17 February came before that year's new year. Hatched: the new year began on 17 February. How the new year is found →
Which weekday 17 February falls on
Across the 107 years from 1920 to 2026, 17 February falls on every day of the week: Tuesday 16, Friday 16, Thursday 15, Saturday 15, Sunday 15, Wednesday 15, Monday 15.
Showing 17 February in the 36 most recent years. Every weekday →
How common a birthday 17 February is
In England and Wales, from 1995 to 2014, an average of 1,778 babies were born on 17 February in each year of the twenty, making it the 291st most common of the 366 dates, where 26 September came first with 1,974 and 26 December last with 1,359.
Office for National Statistics, How popular is your birthday? Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. What a ranking like this can and cannot say →
Born on 17 February
| Name | Years | Known for |
|---|---|---|
| Michael Jordan | 1963– | American basketball player and businessman |
| Paris Hilton | 1981– | American media personality |
| Mo Yan | 1955– | Chinese novelist and screenwriter |
| Ed Sheeran | 1991– | English singer-songwriter |
| Hal Holbrook | 1925–2021 | American actor |
| Otto Stern | 1888–1969 | German-American physicist |
| Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer | 1836–1870 | Spanish poet |
| Wu Zetian | 624–705 | Chinese empress who ruled as sovereign of the Zhou dynasty from 690 to 705 |
| Billie Joe Armstrong | 1972– | American rock musician |
| Joseph Gordon-Levitt | 1981– | American actor and filmmaker |
| Arcangelo Corelli | 1653–1713 | Italian violinist and composer |
| Ronald Fisher | 1890–1962 | British statistician, evolutionary biologist and geneticist |
| Michael Bay | 1965– | American film director and producer |
| Bonnie Wright | 1991– | British actress and filmmaker |
| Alejandro Jodorowsky | 1929– | Chilean-French filmmaker and comics writer |
| Denise Richards | 1971– | American actress |
| Larry the Cable Guy | 1963– | American stand-up comedian |
| Adriano | 1982– | Brazilian footballer |
Died on 17 February
| Name | Years | Known for |
|---|---|---|
| Molière | 1622–1673 | French playwright and actor |
| Heinrich Heine | 1797–1856 | German poet, writer and literary critic |
| Giordano Bruno | 1548–1600 | Italian Dominican friar, philosopher and mathematician |
| Jiddu Krishnamurti | 1895–1986 | Indian spiritual philosopher, mystic, speaker and writer |
| Shmuel Yosef Agnon | 1887–1970 | Austro-Hungarian-born Israeli writer, Nobel laureate in Literature |
| Geronimo | 1829–1909 | leader of the Bedonkohe Apache |
| Albert I of Belgium | 1875–1934 | King of the Belgians from 1909 to 1934 |
| Ernst Jünger | 1895–1998 | German writer |
| Mesrop Mashtots | 362–440 | Armenian theologian and linguist |
| Jesse Jackson | 1941–2026 | American civil rights activist, Baptist minister and politician |
| al-Tabari | 839–923 | Iranian scholar, historian and commentator on the Qur'an |
| Jovian | 331–364 | Roman emperor from 363 to 364 |
Names are the titles of the English Wikipedia articles; years and the short descriptions are from Wikidata, which publishes under CC0, checked and corrected by hand where they needed it, and nothing is said about anybody beyond that. Ask for a removal.