About the day » Thursday December 17, 1953Calender converter

• Carol Irene Bierma, Grand Rapids (Kent County) (Michigan) († 2008)
• Ludo Delsaer, Sint-Truiden, België († 2013)
• Debbie Sue Gross, Columbus, Franklin Co.Ohio († 1954)
• Maria Louise Elisabeth Gemma Peek, 's-Gravenhage den Haag Zuid-Holland Nederland († 2011)
• Smit, Zwartsluis, Overijssel, Nederland
• Sylvie Anne DECROOS, Tournai, 7500, Hainaut, Wallonie, Belgique († 2018)
• Ian Waldemar Sorel († 2020)
• Stephen James Hale, Youngstown, Ohio († 1994)
• Cor Verhülsdonk, Ven-Zelderheide,, Limburg, Nederland († 1999)
• Theodora Wilhelmina Daamen, Dordrecht († 2014)

• Adriaan Goukesz Geus (76), Den Helder, Nederland
• Abraham de Nagel (80), Rochester, Monroe, New York, United States
• * Petrus Jacobus de Beij (69), Haarlem
• Aart Henri Johan Abraham van Kuijk (76), Rotterdam
• * Trijntje Seip (64), Schiedam
• Cecilia Liket (73), Zussen, Riemst, België
• Barend Schipper (83), Harderwijk, Gelderland, Nederland
• Adriana Cornelia Slappendel (91), Zwijndrecht, Zuid-Holland, Nederland
• Auke Lingsma (81), Langezwaag, Opsterland, Friesland, Netherlands
• Adelaide Reed Bumbaugh (85), Rural Guilford, Franklin, Pennsylvania, Verenigde Staten

• 1950 » Laurence F. Johnson, American educator and author
• 1950 » Maurice Peoples, American sprinter and coach
• 1951 » Ken Hitchcock, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
• 1951 » Pat Hill, American football player and coach
• 1951 » Tatyana Kazankina, Russian runner
• 1953 » Bill Pullman, American actor
• 1954 » Sergėjus Jovaiša, Lithuanian basketball player
• 1955 » Brad Davis, American basketball player, coach, and sportscaster
• 1956 » Dominic Lawson, English journalist and author
• 1956 » Peter Farrelly, American director, producer, and screenwriter

• 1935 » Lizette Woodworth Reese, American poet (b. 1856)
• 1940 » Alicia Boole Stott, Anglo-Irish mathematician and academic (b. 1860)
• 1942 » Allen Bathurst, Lord Apsley, English lieutenant and politician (b. 1895)
• 1947 » Christos Tsigiridis, Greek engineer (b. 1877)
• 1956 » Eddie Acuff, American actor (b. 1903)
• 1957 » Dorothy L. Sayers, English author, poet, and playwright (b. 1893)
• 1962 » Thomas Mitchell, American actor (b. 1892)
• 1964 » Victor Francis Hess, Austrian-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1883)
• 1967 » Harold Holt, Australian lawyer and politician, 17th Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1908)
• 1970 » Oliver Waterman Larkin, American historian, author, and educator (b. 1896)

• Koningin Juliana (Huis van Oranje-Nassau) was from September 4, 1948 till April 30, 1980 sovereign of the Netherlands (also known as Koninkrijk der Nederlanden)
• In The Netherlands , there was from September 2, 1952 to October 13, 1956 the cabinet Drees II, with Dr. W. Drees (PvdA) as prime minister.
• The Netherlands had about 10.4 million citizens.
• January 3 » Frances P. Bolton and her son, Oliver from Ohio, become the first mother and son to serve simultaneously in the U.S. Congress.
• June 8 » The United States Supreme Court rules in District of Columbia v. John R. Thompson Co. that restaurants in Washington, D.C., cannot refuse to serve black patrons.
• August 12 » The first testing of a real thermonuclear weapon (not test devices): The Soviet atomic bomb project continues with the detonation of "RDS-6s" (Joe 4), the first Soviet thermonuclear bomb.
• August 22 » The penal colony on Devil's Island is permanently closed.
• November 21 » The Natural History Museum, London announces that the "Piltdown Man" skull, initially believed to be one of the most important fossilized hominid skulls ever found, is a hoax.
• December 24 » Tangiwai disaster: In New Zealand's North Island, at Tangiwai, a railway bridge is damaged by a lahar and collapses beneath a passenger train, killing 151 people.

The temperature on December 17, 1953 was between 3.4 °C and 6.4 °C and averaged 4.7 °C. There was 0.1 mm of rain during 1.0 hours. The almost completely overcast was. The average windspeed was 2 Bft (weak wind) and was prevailing from the east-northeast.