What happened on your birthday?

What’s Your Vietnam War Draft Lottery Number?

The Vietnam War draft lottery ran from 1969 to 1972. If you were born on September 17, would your number have been called?

  • Vietnam War 1969 Lottery
    Not CalledNot drafted
    255
  • Vietnam War 1970 Lottery
    Not CalledNot drafted
    200
  • Vietnam War 1971 Lottery
    Not CalledNot drafted
    178
  • Vietnam War 1972 Lottery
    Not CalledNot drafted
    189

Read on to learn more about the Vietnam war draft lottery.





more events on September 17

  • 2011

    Occupy Wall Street movement calling for greater social and economic equality begins in New York City’s Zuccotti Park, coining the phrase “We are the 99%.”

  • 2006

    Alaska’s Fourpeaked Mountain erupts for the first time in at least 10,000 years.

  • 2001

    The New York Stock Exchange reopens for the first time since the September 11 terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers; longest period of closure since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

  • 1983

    Vanessa Williams becomes the first black Miss America; relinquished crown early after scandal over nude photos.

  • 1980

    Nationwide independent trade union Solidarity established in Poland.

  • 1978

    Egypt and Israel sign the Camp David Accords.

  • 1976

    The Space Shuttle is unveiled to the public.

  • 1968

    Marie-Chantal, Crown Princess of Greece.

  • 1962

    The first federal suit to end public school segregation is filed by the U.S. Justice Department.

  • 1959

    The X-15 rocket plane makes its first flight.

  • 1957

    The Thai army seizes power in Bangkok.

  • 1953

    Altaf Hussain, founder and leader of Pakistan’s Muttahida Qaumi Movement.

  • Steve Williams, drummer and songwriter with influential Welch heavy metal group Budgie.

  • 1948

    John Ritter, actor, comedian (Three’s Company TV series).

  • 1947

    Jeff MacNelly, political cartoonist, creator of the comic strip Shoe.

  • James Forestall is sworn in as first the U.S. Secretary of Defense.

  • 1944

    British airborne troops parachute into Holland to capture the Arnhem bridge as part of Operation Market-Garden. The plan called for the airborne troops to be relieved by British troops, but they were left stranded and eventually surrendered to the Germans.

  • 1942

    British Prime Minister Winston Churchill meets with Soviet Premier Josef Stalin in Moscow as the German Army rams into Stalingrad.

  • 1939

    With the German army already attacking western Poland, the Soviet Union launches an invasion of eastern Poland.

  • 1935

    Ken Kesey, author (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Sometimes a Great Notion).

  • 1923

    Hank Williams, Sr., influential Country singer, songwriter and guitarist (“Lonesome Blues,” “Your Cheatin’ Heart”.)

  • 1917

    The German Army recaptures the Russian Port of Riga from Russian forces.

  • 1916

    Germany’s “Red Baron,” Manfred von Richthofen, wins his first aerial combat.

  • 1907

    Warren E. Burger, chief justice of the Supreme Court.

  • 1903

    Turks destroy the town of Kastoria in Bulgaria, killing 10,000 civilians.

  • 1902

    U.S. troops are sent to Panama to keep train lines open over the isthmus as Panamanian nationals struggle for independence from Colombia.

  • 1883

    William Carlos Williams, poet, playwright, essayist and writer who won a Pulitzer prize for Pictures from Brueghel and Other Poems.

  • 1879

    Andrew “Rube” Foster, father of the Negro baseball leagues.

  • 1868

    The Battle of Beecher’s Island begins, in which Major George “Sandy” Forsyth and 50 volunteers hold off 500 Sioux and Cheyenne in eastern Colorado.

  • 1862

    The Battle of Antietam in Maryland, the bloodiest day in U.S. history, commences. Fighting in the corn field, Bloody Lane and Burnside’s Bridge rages all day as the Union and Confederate armies suffer a combined 26,293 casualties.

  • 1796

    President George Washington delivers his “Farewell Address” to Congress before concluding his second term in office.

  • 1787

    The Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia approves the constitution for the United States of America.

  • 1743

    Marquis Marie Jean de Condorcet, French mathematician and philosopher, a leading thinker in the Enlightenment.