January 17

Events

• 1562 - Huguenots were recognized under the Edict of St. Germain.
• 1773 - Captain James Cook becomes the first explorer to cross the Antarctic Circle.
• 1781 - Continental troops under Brigadier General Daniel Morgan defeat British forces under Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton at the Battle of Cowpens in South Carolina.
• 1819 - Simon Bolivar proclaims the Republic of Colombia.
• 1852 - United Kingdom recognizes independence of the Transvaal.
• 1873 - First Battle of the Stronghold in the US Modoc War
• 1893 - American sugar planters overthrow the government of Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii.
• 1899 - United States takes possession of Wake Island.
• 1912 - Robert Falcon Scott reaches the South Pole, one month after Roald Amundsen.
• 1916 - The Professional Golfers Association (PGA) is formed.
• 1917 - The United States pays Denmark $25 million for the Virgin Islands.
• 1945 - Soviets occupy Warsaw.
• 1945 - Auschwitz concentration camp begins evacuation.
• 1945 - Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg disappears in Hungary while in Soviet custody.
• 1946 - The UN Security Council holds its first session.
• 1949 - The Goldbergs, the first sitcom on American television, airs.
• 1950 - The Great Brinks Robbery - 11 thieves steal more than $2 million from a armored car in Boston, Massachusetts.
• 1966 - Simon and Garfunkel release their second album, Sounds of Silence, on Columbia Records.
• 1966 - A B-52 bomber collides with a KC-135 jet tanker over Spain, dropping three 70-kiloton hydrogen bombs near the town of Palomares and one into the sea.
• 1973 - Ferdinand Marcos becomes President for Life of the Philippines.
• 1985 - British Telecom annouces they are going to abolish the famous red telephone boxes.
• 1991 - Gulf War: Iraq fires 8 Scud missiles into Israel.
• 1992 - Punk rock band Green Day releases their second full-length album, Kerplunk.
• 1995 - A magnitude 7.2 earthquake occurred near Kobe, Japan, causing great property damage and killing over 5,000.
• 1998 - Paula Jones accuses President Bill Clinton of sexual harassment.
• 2002 - Eruption of Mount Nyiragongo in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, displacing an estimated 400,000 people.
• 2002 - A Petroproduccion Fairchild FH-227E crashes into the mountains in southern Colombia killing 26

Births

• 1463 - Friedrich III, Saxon elector, (d. 1525)
• 1706 - Benjamin Franklin American writer, inventor, publisher, and ambassador, (d. 1790)
• 1763 - John Jacob Astor, entrepreneur, (d. 1848)
• 1820 - Anne Brontë, British author, (d. 1849)
• 1832 - Henry Martyn Baird, American historian and educationalist, (d. 1906)
• 1860 - Anton Chekhov, playwright, (d. 1904)
• 1863 - David Lloyd George, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, (d. 1945)
• 1867 - Carl Laemmle, film executive, (d. 1939)
• 1871 - David Earl Betty British admiral, (d. 1936)
• 1880 - Mack Sennett, director, producer, (d. 1960)
• 1899 - Al Capone, gangster, nicknamed "Scarface", (d. 1947)
• 1899 - Nevil Shute, author, (d. 1960)
• 1914 - William Stafford, poet and essayist, (d. 1993)
• 1922 - Betty White, actress
• 1922 - Nicholas Katzenbach, politician
• 1926 - Moira Shearer, actress, dancer
• 1927 - Eartha Kitt, actress, singer
• 1928 - Jean Barraqué, composer, (d. 1973)
• 1928 - Vidal Sassoon, cosmetologist
• 1929 - Jacques Plante, ice hockey star, (d. 1986)
• 1931 - James Earl Jones, actor
• 1931 - Douglas Wilder, first elected African American governor of a U.S. state
• 1933 - Dalida, French singer, (d. 1987)
• 1933 - Shari Lewis, puppeteer, (d. 1998)
• 1937 - Troy Donahue, actor
• 1939 - Maury Povich, talk show host
• 1942 - Muhammad Ali, boxer
• 1942 - Ulf Hoelscher, violinist
• 1948 - Davíð Oddsson, Prime Minister of Iceland
• 1949 - Andy Kaufman, comedian, (d. 1984)
• 1955 - Steve Earle, musician
• 1956 - Paul Young, English musician
• 1962 - Jim Carrey, actor, comedian
• 1966 - Shabba Ranks, singer
• 1971 - Kid Rock, singer
• 1974 - Ladan and Laleh Bijani, Iranian conjoined twin sisters, (d. 2003)

Deaths

• 1751 - Tomaso Albinoni, aged 69, Italian composer, (b. 1671)
• 1799 - Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Italian mathematician, (b. 1718)
• 1861 - Lola Montez, adventurer, (b. 1821)
• 1886 - Amilcare Ponchielli, Italian composer, (b. 1834)
• 1893 - Rutherford B. Hayes, 19th President of the United States, (b. 1822)
• 1961 - Patrice Lumumba, Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, (b. 1925)
• 1964 - T.H. White, author, (b. 1906)
• 1977 - Gary Gilmore, murderer (executed by firing squad), (b. 1940)
• 1991 - King Olav V of Norway, (b. 1903)
• 1994 - Helen Stephens, American sprinter
• 1996 - Barbara Jordan, politician, (b. 1936)
• 1997 - Clyde Tombaugh, astronomer, (b. 1906)
• 2001 - Laurent-Desire Kabila, president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, (b. 1939)
• 2002 - Camilo Jose Cela, Spanish author, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature 1989, (b. 1916)

Holidays and observances

• Ancient Latvia - Zirgu Diena observed
• Catholicism - Feast day of St. Anthony.

January 16 - January 18 - December 17 - February 17 -- listing of all days

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

Referenced By