On this day in History - February 17

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

1863 – A group of citizens of Geneva found an International Committee for Relief to the Wounded, which later became known as the International Committee of the Red Cross.

1919 – The Ukrainian People's Republic asks the Entente and the United States for help fighting the Bolsheviks.

1972 – Cumulative sales of the Volkswagen Beetle exceed those of the Ford Model T.