On May 17, 1620, the first merry-go-round was seen at a fair in Philippapolis, Turkey.

Some other important events that happened on May 17 over the years are:
• 1395 – Battle of Rovine, Wallachians defeat an invading Ottoman army.
• 1590 – Anne of Denmark is crowned Queen of Scotland.
• 1673 – Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette begin exploring the Mississippi River.
• 1805 – Muhammad Ali becomes Wāli of Egypt
• 1865 – The International Telegraph Union (later the International Telecommunication Union) is established in Paris.
• 1899 – Victoria and Albert Museum foundation laid in England.
• 1902 – Greek archaeologist Valerios Stais discovers the Antikythera mechanism, an ancient mechanical analog computer.
• 1968 – European Space Research Organisation launches the 1st satellite.
• 1993 – Intel’s new Pentium processor is unveiled.
• 2004 – The first legal same-sex marriages in the U.S. are performed in the state of Massachusetts.
• 2010 – Iceland’s volcano causes Britain’s two busiest airports to close in addition to Dublin Airport and Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.
• 2014 – Google, Inc. and Apple, Inc. have agreed to drop certain patent lawsuits against each other; the lawsuits revolve around Google’s Motorola Mobility technology.