On This Day: October 17th

An explosion at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza kills hundreds of Palestinians during the Gaza war.

Drug dealers in Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico force the government to back down on an arrest.

The 17 October Revolution starts in Lebanon.

The recreational use of cannabis is legalized in Canada.

A mass shooting and bombing at Kerch Polytechnic College in Crimea kills 21 people including the attacker and injures 70 others.

Syrian civil war: The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) capture the last foothold of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Raqqa, marking the end of the Battle of Raqqa.

A fire that lasted over 15 hours destroyed almost one third of the East Tower of the Parque Central Urban Complex in Caracas, Venezuela.

Israeli tourism minister Rehavam Ze'evi is assassinated by Hamdi Quran, a member of the PFLP, thus becoming the highest-ranking Israeli to be killed by a Palestinian.

The Hatfield rail crash leads to the collapse of Railtrack.

Russian journalist Dmitry Kholodov is assassinated while investigating corruption in the armed forces.