Timeline December 1917

Events in December 1917 7

• 1917 Battle of Cambrai First massed use of tanks in warfare British forces launched a surprise offensive near Cambrai using hundreds of tanks en masse for the first time, achieving rapid early gains before a German counterattack recovered most of the lost ground. The battle proved the tactical potential of armored warfare and influenced military doctrine for decades.
• 1917 Cambrai Cambrai, France Nearly 400 tanks attacked together over firm ground without a preliminary bombardment, and broke through. Church bells rang in Britain. A German counter-attack took most of the ground back.
• 1917 Finland declares independence Independence from Russia Finland declared independence from the Russian Empire during the Russian Revolution.
• 1917 Halifax Explosion Ship collision devastates a Canadian port city The French cargo ship Mont-Blanc, loaded with wartime explosives, collided with another vessel in Halifax Harbour and detonated, flattening much of the city's north end. Roughly 2,000 people were killed and thousands more injured, in what was the largest human-made explosion before the atomic bomb.
• 1917 Jerusalem falls Jerusalem, Ottoman Empire Allenby entered the city on foot out of respect, after four centuries of Ottoman rule. Lloyd George called it a Christmas present for the British people.
• 1917 – 2005 Ossie Davis (1917-2005) Died 4 February 2005, aged 87 Ossie Davis, an actor, director and civil rights activist, died on 4 February 2005. He appeared in numerous films and plays over a six-decade career, often alongside his wife Ruby Dee, and was a close associate of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Davis delivered the eulogy at Malcolm X's funeral in 1965.
• 1917 – 1985 Heinrich Boll (1917-1985) Died 16 July 1985, aged 67 Boll was a German novelist awarded the 1972 Nobel Prize in Literature for work exploring German guilt and recovery after the Second World War. His novels include The Clown and Group Portrait with Lady. He died near Bonn, West Germany, on 16 July 1985.