January 17
January 17 is the 17th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar . There are 348 days remaining (349 in leap years )
Events
1562 - France recognized the Huguenots under the Edict of St. Germain .
1648 - England 's Long Parliament passes the Vote of No Address , breaking off negotiations with King Charles I and thereby setting the scene for the second phase of the English Civil War .
1746 - Charles Edward Stuart , "Bonnie Prince Charlie", defeats a Hanoverian army at Falkirk in his ultimately unsuccessful campaign to recover the throne for the Jacobite dynasty.
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 - Simón Bolívar proclaims the Republic of Colombia .
1852 - United Kingdom recognizes the independence of the Boer colonies of the Transvaal .
1873 - First Battle of the Stronghold in the US Modoc War .
1885 - A British force defeats a large Dervish army at the Battle of Abu Klea in the Sudan .
1893 - American sugar planters led by the Citizen's Committee of Public Safety overthrow the government of Queen Liliuokalani of the Kingdom of Hawaii .
1899 - The United States takes possession of Wake Island in the Pacific Ocean .
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 .
1929 - Popeye the Sailor Man , a cartoon character created by Elzie Crisler Segar , first appeared in a newspaper comic strip .
1945 - Soviet forces capture the almost completely destroyed Polish city of Warsaw .
1945 - The Nazis begin the evacuation of the Auschwitz concentration camp as Soviet forces close in.
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 an armored car in Boston, Massachusetts .
1966 - Simon and Garfunkel release their second album, Sounds of Silence 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 another one into the sea.
1966 - Carl Brashear , the first African American United States Navy diver, is involved in an accident on a routine mission which amputates his leg.
1973 - Ferdinand Marcos becomes "President for Life" of the Philippines .
1975 - Bob Dylan releases Blood on the Tracks , 1977 - Convicted murderer Gary Gilmore is executed by a firing squad in Utah , ending a ten-year moratorium on the death penalty in the United States .
1982 - "Cold Sunday" in the United States sees temperatures fall to their lowest levels in over 100 years in numerous cities.
1985 - British Telecom announces the retirement of Britain 's famous red telephone boxes .
1991 - Gulf War : Operation Desert Storm Iraq fires 8 Scud missiles into Israel in an unsuccessful bid to provoke Israeli retaliation.
1991 - Harald V becomes King of Norway on the death of his father, Olav V .
1992 - Punk rock band Green Day releases their second full-length album, Kerplunk .
1994 - A magnitude 6.7 earthquake occurs in Northridge, California see 1994_Northridge_Earthquake
1995 - A magnitude 7.3 earthquake called "the Great Hanshin earthquake " occurrs near Kobe , Japan , causing extensive property damage and killing 6,433 people.
1996 - The Czech Republic applies for membership of the European Union .
1998 - Paula Jones accuses President Bill Clinton of sexual harassment .
2002 - Mount Nyiragongo erupts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo , displacing an estimated 400,000 people.
Births
1463 - Friedrich III , Saxon elector (d. 1525 )
1504 - Pope Pius V (d. 1572 )
1560 - Gaspard Bauhin , Swiss botanist (d. 1624 )
1706 - Benjamin Franklin American writer, inventor, publisher, and ambassador (d. 1790 )
1761 - James Hall , Scottish geologist
1763 - John Jacob Astor , American entrepreneur (d. 1848 )
1820 - Anne Brontë , British author (d. 1849 )
1832 - Henry Martyn Baird , American historian and educationalist (d. 1906 )
1860 - Douglas Hyde , President of Ireland
1863 - David Lloyd George , Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1945 )
1867 - Carl Laemmle , film executive (d. 1939 )
1871 - David Earl Beatty British admiral (d. 1936 )
1880 - Mack Sennett , director, producer (d. 1960 )
1899 - Al Capone , American gangster (d. 1947 )
1899 - Nevil Shute , author (d. 1960 )
1914 - William Stafford , poet and essayist (d. 1993 )
1921 - Antonio Prohias , cartoonist (d. 1998 )
1922 - Nicholas Katzenbach , American politician
1922 - Betty White , actress
1922 - Luis Echeverría Álvarez , President of Mexico
1925 - Robert Cormier , American author (d. 2000 )
1926 - Moira Shearer, actress, dancer
1926 - Newton N. Minow , journalist
1927 - Eartha Kitt , actress, singer
1928 - Jean Barraqué , French composer (d. 1973 )
1928 - Vidal Sassoon , cosmetologist
1929 - Jacques Plante , ice hockey star (d. 1986 )
1931 - James Earl Jones , actor
1931 - Douglas Wilder , Governor of Virginia
1931 - Don Zimmer , baseball coach
1933 - Dalida , French singer (d. 1987 )
1933 - Shari Lewis , puppeteer (d. 1998 )
1933 - Sheree North , American actress
1933 - Ray Dolby , inventor
1937 - Troy Donahue , American actor
1939 - Maury Povich , talk show host
1940 - Kipchoge Keino , Kenyan runner
1942 - Muhammad Ali , American boxer
1942 - Ulf Hoelscher , violinist
1942 - Cus D'Amato , boxing manager (d. 1985 )
1942 - Nancy Parsons , Amnerican actress (d. 2001 )
1943 - René Préval , former President of Haiti
1944 - Françoise Hardy , French singer
1948 - Davíð Oddsson , Prime Minister of Iceland
1948 - Mick Taylor , British musician (The Rolling Stones )
1949 - Andy Kaufman , comedian (d. 1984 )
1952 - Darrell Porter , basketball player (d. 2002 )
1952 - Larry Fortensky , husband of Elizabeth Taylor
1955 - Steve Earle , musician
1956 - Paul Young , English musician
1957 - Suzanne Danielle , English actress
1959 - Susanna Hoffs , American musician (The Bangles )
1962 - Jim Carrey , American actor, comedian
1966 - Shabba Ranks , singer
1968 - Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer , Dutch writer
1969 - Lukas Moodysson , film director
1970 - Jeremy Roenick , American NHL star
1970 - James Wattana , Thai snooker player
1971 - Kid Rock , singer
1972 - Ken Hirai ,Japanese singer-songwriter
1974 - Ladan and Laleh Bijani , Iranian conjoined twin sisters (d. 2003 )
1980 - Zooey Deschanel , American actress
1982 - Dwyane Wade , NBA basketball player
1982 - Amanda Wilkinson , Canadian country music singer
Deaths
395 - Theodosius I , Roman Emperor
1229 - Albert of Buxhoeveden (b. 1165 )
1468 - Skanderbeg , Albanian leader against the Ottoman Empire
1617 - Faust Vrancic , Croatian inventor Parachute (b. 1551 )
1751 - Tomaso Albinoni , Italian composer (b. 1671 )
1826 - Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga , composer
1861 - Lola Montez , adventurer (b. 1821 )
1874 - Chang and Eng Bunker , Siamese twins (b. 1811 )
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 )
1967 - Evelyn Nesbit , actress, also known as "The Girl In The Red Velvet Swing" (b. 1884 )
1970 - Billy Stewart , American singer
1972 - Betty Smith , American writer, singer
1977 - Gary Gilmore , murderer (executed by firing squad ) (b. 1940 )
1983 - Doodles Weaver , American actor
1991 - King Olav V of Norway (b. 1903 )
1991 - Amber Hagerman , murder victim
1993 - Albert Hourani , historian (b. 1915 )
1994 - Helen Stephens , American sprinter
1996 - Amber Hagerman , kidnapping, murder victim (b. 1986 )
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 )
2001 - Gregory Corso , American poet
2002 - Camilo Jose Cela , Spanish author, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature 1989 (b. 1916 )
2003 - Richard Crenna , American actor (b. 1927 )
2004 - Czeslaw Niemen , Polish musician (b. 1939 )
2004 - Rafael Churumba Cordero , mayor of Ponce, Puerto Rico (b. 1942 )
2004 - Ray Stark , publicist, actor's agent, produced Funny Girl 1915 )
2005 - Charlie Bell , former CEO of McDonald's (b. 1960 )
2005 - Virginia Mayo , United States actress, notably in the 1940s and 1950s (b. 1920 )
2005 - Albert Schatz , microbiologist , discoverer of streptomycin (b. 1920 )
2005 - Zhao Ziyang , reformist Premier of the People's Republic of China and General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (b. 1917 )
Holidays and observances
External links
January 16 - January 18 - December 17 - February 17 -- listing of all days
Top Encyclopedia Articles
