February 17

1959 - Vanguard 2, the first weather satellite, is launched to measure cloud-cover distribution.
1965 - The Ranger 8 probe launches on its mission to photograph the "Sea of Tranquility" region of the Moon in preparation for the manned Apollo missions.
2021 - Scientists report the first sequencing of DNA from animal remains more than a million years old – in this case of a mammoth.
2402 - The USS Dauntless, BC-1553 is launched from the San Francisco Shipyards, with Matthew Thrawn as commanding officer.