February 17 is the birthday of Italian Baroque composer ARCANGELO CORELLI (1653-1713).

Corelli's "influence was not confined to his own country: his works were key in the development of the music of an entire generation of composers, including Antonio Vivaldi, Georg Friedrich Handel, Johann Sebastian Bach and François Couperin, as well as many others. Bach studied the works of Corelli and based an organ fugue (BWV 579) on Corelli's Opus 3 of 1689. Handel's Opus 6 Concerti Grossi take Corelli's own older Opus 6 Concerti as models, rather than the later three-movement Venetian concerto of Antonio Vivaldi favoured by Bach." (Wikipedia)

February 17 is the birthday of Irish actress and dancer LOLA MONTEZ (1821-1861).

"I never claimed to be famous. Notorious I have always been."

"Eliza Rosanna Gilbert, Countess of Landsfeld, better known by the stage name Lola Montez, was an Irish dancer and actress who became famous as a Spanish dancer, courtesan, and mistress of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, who made her Gräfin von Landsfeld (Countess of Landsfeld). At the start of the Revolutions of 1848 in the German states, she was forced to flee. She proceeded to the United States via Austria, Switzerland, France and London, to return to her work as an entertainer and lecturer." (Wikipedia)

February 17 is the birthday of Chilean-French visionary filmmaker and occultist ALEJANDRO JODOROWSKY (b. 1929)

"If God gives you chocolate, you open your mouth, no?"

In 1974, Jodorowsky was planning to make the first film adaptation of "Dune", starring Salvador Dali and Orson Welles with art direction by H.R. Giger. There's a documentary about the failed project, and it looks like Jodorowski's "Dune" would have been AMAZING. Check out the trailer below.

On February 17. 1600, on his way to be burned at the stake for heresy, at Campo de' Fiori in Rome, the philosopher Giordano Bruno had a wooden vise put on his tongue to prevent him continuing to speak.

On February 17, 1895, Tchaikovsky's ballet SWAN LAKE had its premiere in St. Petersburg, Russia.