December 17 in diaries
Bringing you a daily dose of history as it happened
In focus: The sinking of the S.S. Corregidor
This is an image of a model of the S.S. Corregidor from the Corregidor Proboards Group.
On December 16-17, 1941 (around midnight, hence the event straddling two dates), the S.S. Corregidor, an inter-island steamship of the Compañia Maritima, hit a mine off Corregidor Island and sank, resulting in a tremendous loss of life.
This special page in The Philippine Diary Project features diary accounts related to the sinking of the ship, as well as other information and images, including an extract from the memoirs of one of the survivors, then-Assemblyman Jose Romero.
See also: December 1941, the entire month with a timeline, documents, picture, and daily diary entries.
Diary entries for today:
1521: Antonio Pigafetta, chronicler of the Magellan expedition.
1848: Benjamin Lincoln Ball, dentist, businessman, traveler.
1898: John E.T. Milsaps, Salvation Army missionary; Alfred Burton Welch, soldier with the Washington Volunteers.
1899: Karl White, soldier with the Iowa Volunteers.
1907: Warren Dupré Smith, Chief of the Division of Mines, Bureau of Science.
1941: Filipino and Spanish civilians: Teodoro M. Locsin, journalist; Filipino soldiers: Ramon Alcaraz, Q-Boat captain, Eriberto Misa, Ateneo ROTC cadet, Fr. Juan Labrador, O.P., Rector of Colegio de San Juan de Letran; American military: Gen. Lewis Beebe, USAFFE chief of staff, David L. Olbert, pilot, John P. Burns, pilot, Edward Wernitznig, military doctor, John P. Horan IV, USAFFE commander in Baguio, U.S.S. Canopus (Manila Bay); American civilians: Tressa Cates, Herman K. Beaber, Lucy Hardee Olsen (Manila and environs), Elizabeth Vaughan (Negros).
1944: Filipino civilians: Felipe Buencamino III, former USAFFE officer; Louise Fillmore Blancaflor, American married to a Filipino in Negros; American civilian detainees: Albert Holland (UST); American P.O.W.s: Warren Wilson; American servicemen: Steacy Hicks.
1972: Ferdinand E. Marcos, President of the Philippines.