Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic era. He wrote some of the most popular concert and theatrical music in the current classical repertoire, including the ballets Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker, the 1812 Overture, his First Piano Concerto, seven symphonies, and the opera Eugene Onegin. Against the wishes of his family he chose to pursue a musical career, and in 1862 entered the St Petersburg Conservatory, graduating in 1865. This formal, Western-oriented training set him apart, musically, from the contemporary nationalistic movement embodied by the group of young Russian composers known as "The Five", with whom Tchaikovsky sustained a mixed professional relationship throughout his career. As his style developed, Tchaikovsky wrote music across a range of genres, including symphony, opera, ballet, instrumental, chamber and song. Amid private turmoil Tchaikovsky's public reputation grew; he was honored by the Tsar, awarded a lifetime pension and lauded in the concert halls of the world. His sudden death at the age of 53 is generally ascribed to cholera, but some attribute it to suicide. Although enduringly popular with concert audiences across the world, Tchaikovsky has at times been judged harshly by critics, musicians and composers. However, his reputation as a significant composer is now generally regarded as secure. (more...)

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October 17: Diwali (Hinduism, Sikhism and Jainism, 2009); International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

• 1346 – King David II of Scotland was captured in the Battle of Neville's Cross.
• 1448 – Ottoman wars in Europe: The Hungarian army led by John Hunyadi engaged an Ottoman army led by Sultan Murad II.
• 1604 – Kepler's Star: German astronomer Johannes Kepler (pictured) observed an exceptionally bright star which had suddenly appeared in the constellation Ophiuchus.
• 1860 – The Open Championship, the oldest of the four major championships in men's golf, was first played at Prestwick Golf Club in Prestwick, South Ayrshire, Scotland.
• 1961 – In Paris, the French police under the Prefect of Police Maurice Papon attacked a peaceful but illegal demonstration of some 30,000 who were protesting the Algerian War, killing anywhere between 40 and 200 people.
• 1989 – A 6.9 M_w earthquake struck California's San Francisco Bay Area, killing 63 people, injuring 3,757, leaving at least 8,000 homeless, and forcing the postponement of Game 3 of Major League Baseball's World Series.

More anniversaries: October 16 – October 17 – October 18