UK, 
US, 
Australia & 
IrelandAt A Glance
17 May 2012 at a glance
- Day of the week
- 17 May 2012 was a Thursday.
- Billboard Hot 100 No. 1
- The Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 was “Somebody That I Used to Know” by Gotye featuring Kimbra.
- Top Film of 2012
- The highest-grossing film worldwide released in 2012 was The Avengers.
- Bestselling Novel of 2012
- “Fifty Shades of Grey” by E. L. James was No. 1 on Publishers Weekly's US fiction list for 2012.
- Top-Rated TV Show
- “NCIS” (CBS) was No. 1 in the Nielsen ratings for the 2012–13 season.
- Star sign
- The star sign for 17 May is Taurus.
- Chinese zodiac
- In the Chinese zodiac, 17 May 2012 fell in the Year of the Dragon.
- Birthstone
- The birthstone for May is Emerald.
- Moon phase
- The moon phase on 17 May 2012 was Waning Crescent.
On this day: 17 May
- 1995 Shawn Nelson steals an M60 tank from the California Army National Guard Armory in San Diego and proceeds to go on a rampage.
- 1997 Troops of Laurent-Désiré Kabila march into Kinshasa. Zaire is officially renamed Democratic Republic of the Congo.
- 2004 The first legal same-sex marriages in the U.S. are performed in the state of Massachusetts.
- 2006 The aircraft carrier USS Oriskany is sunk in the Gulf of Mexico as an artificial reef.
- 2007 Trains from North and South Korea cross the 38th Parallel in a test-run agreed by both governments. This is the first time that trains have crossed the Demilitarized Zone since 1953.
Famous people born on May 17
- Josh Homme, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (born 1973)
- Bill Paxton, American actor and director (1955–2017)
- Dennis Hopper, American actor and director (1936–2010)
- Bob Saget, American comedian, actor, and television host (1956–2022)
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Choose your country: the charts, news and leaders change to match.
Events of 2012 in the United States
A selection from Wikipedia's '2012 in the United States'. Not a complete list.
- March 2 – Dr. Seuss' The Lorax is released in theaters.
- March 20 – John Carter records one of the biggest losses in cinema history, forcing Disney to take a $200 million writedown and chairman Rich Ross to resign.
- May 4 – The Avengers, directed by Joss Whedon, is released by Marvel Studios as the sixth film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and the final film in its "Phase One" slate.
Life in the US in 2012
President
Barack Obama
Gas (per gallon)
$3.68
Loaf of Bread
$1.84
Average House
$256,900
Weekly Wage
$757
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