17 January - Definition and Overview

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, 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 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, often considered one of his best albums.
• 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: 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 great 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, botanist (d. 1624)
• 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 - 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, gangster, nicknamed "Scarface" (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, politician
• 1922 - Betty White, actress
• 1922 - Luis Echeverría Álvarez, former 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, 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 (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, actor
• 1939 - Maury Povich, talk show host
• 1940 - Kipchoge Keino, Kenyan runner
• 1942 - Muhammad Ali, 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, former husband on Elizabeth Taylor
• 1955 - Steve Earle, musician
• 1956 - Paul Young, English musician
• 1957 - Suzanne Danielle, English actress
• 1959 - Susanna Hoffs, American musician
• 1962 - Jim Carrey, actor, comedian
• 1966 - Shabba Ranks, singer
• 1968 - Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer, Dutch writer of science-fiction novellas and pornographic literature
• 1969 - Lukas Moodysson, film director
• 1970 - Jeremy Roenick, American NHL star
• 1970 - James Wattana, Thai snooker player
• 1971 - Kid Rock, singer
• 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
• 2004 - Noble Willingham, American actor
• 2005 - Zhao Ziyang, reformist Premier of the People's Republic of China and General Secretary of the Communist Party of China
• 2005 - Virginia Mayo, actress

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