Wikipedia: January 17

January 17
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

January 17 is the 17th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 348 days remaining (349 in leap years)

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.

See Also:

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

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