Title: January 17 Content: ==Events== === Up to 1900 === * 395 - Roman Emperor Theodosius I dies in Milan. The Roman Empire is re-divided into West and East. * 1287 - King Alfonso III of Aragon invades the island of Menorca. * 1377 - Pope Gregory XI moves the Pope's residence (place where he lives) back to Rome from Avignon. * 1524 - Giovanni da Verrazzano sets sail westward from Madeira to find a sea route to the Pacific Ocean. * 1562 – France accepted the Huguenots under the Edict of St. Germain. * 1566 - On his 62nd birthday, Pope Pius V officially becomes Pope. * 1595 - Henry IV of France invades Spain. * 1648 – England's Long Parliament agrees with the Vote of No Address, stopping dealing with King Charles I which then started the second part of the English Civil War. * 1746 – Charles Edward Stuart, "Bonnie Prince Charlie", makes a Hanoverian army lose at Falkirk in his failing campaign to get back the throne for the Jacobite dynasty. * 1773 – Captain James Cook becomes the first person to cross the Antarctic Circle. * 1781 – Continental troops of Brigadier General Daniel Morgan makes British forces under Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton lose at the Battle of Cowpens in South Carolina. * 1799 - Maltese patriot Dun Mikiel Xerri, along with some other patriots, is executed. * 1811 - Mexican War of Independence: Battle of Calderon Bridge - A heavily outnumbered Spanish force of 6,000 troops defeats 100,000 Mexican revolutionaries. * 1813 - Humphrey Davy creates the electric arc. * 1819 – Simón Bolívar creates the Republic of Colombia. * 1852 – United Kingdom accepts the freedom of the Boer places of the Transvaal. * 1873 – First Battle of the Stronghold in the United States Modoc War. * 1885 – A British force makes a large Dervish army lose at the Battle of Abu Klea in the Sudan. * 1893 – American sugar planters led by the Citizen's Committee of Public Safety remove the government of Queen Liliuokalani of the Kingdom of Hawaii. * 1899 – The United States gets Wake Island in the Pacific Ocean. === 1901 1950 === * 1904 - Anton Chekhov's play The Cherry Orchard is performed for the first time, at Moscow Art Theatre. * 1912 – Robert Falcon Scott reaches the South Pole, one month after Roald Amundsen. The return journey will lead to the deaths of all members of Scott's expedition, including Scott himself. * 1913 - Raymond Poincaré becomes President of France. * 1916 – The Professional Golfers Association of America (PGA) starts. * 1917 – The United States pays Denmark $25 million for the Virgin Islands. * 1918 - Finnish Civil War: The first serious battles take place between the Red Guards and White Guards. * 1929 - Inayatullah Khan, King of Afghanistan, abdicates (resigns) the throne after only three days. * 1929 – Popeye the Sailor Man, a cartoon character made by Elzie Crisler Segar, first seen in a newspaper comic strip. * 1944 - World War II: Allied forces launch the first of four assaults on Monte Cassino, Italy, in an effort to reach Rome. It would take four months and would cost 105,000 Allied lives. * 1945 – Soviet forces get the almost completely destroyed Polish city of Warsaw. * 1945 – The Nazis begin the process of people leaving the Auschwitz concentration camp as Soviet forces surround it. * 1945 – Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg disappears in Hungary while the Soviets were in charge of him. * 1946 – The United Nations Security Council has its first meeting. * 1949 – The Goldbergs, the first sitcom on American television, is seen. * 1950 – The Great Brinks Robbery – 11 people steal more than $2 million from an secure car in Boston, Massachusetts. === 1951 2000 === * 1955 - Nuclear submarine Nautilus starts its first mission. * 1961 - Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba is murdered, with the governments of both Belgium and the United States suspected of being involved. * 1966 – Simon and Garfunkel release their second album, Sounds of Silence, on Columbia Records. * 1966 – A B-52 bomber slams into 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, gets hurt in a way so his leg has to be chopped off. * 1972 - Bangladesh receives its current Flag. * 1973 – Ferdinand Marcos is declared "President for Life" of the Philippines. * 1975 – Bob Dylan puts out Blood on the Tracks, often said to be one of his best albums. * 1977 – Gary Gilmore is put to death by a firing squad in Utah, ending a ten-year delay on being put to death as punishment in the United States. * 1982 –" Cold Sunday" in the United States sees temperatures fall to their lowest levels in over 100 years in many cities. * 1985 – British Telecom says that Britain's famous red telephone boxes will no longer exist. * 1989 - Cleveland school massacre in Stockton, California: Patrick Purdy kills 5 elementary school children with an assault rifle, as well as one teacher, before killing himself. * 1991 – Gulf War: Operation Desert Storm begins early in the morning. Iraq shoots 8 Scud bombs into Israel in a failed attempt to provoke Israel to fight back. * 1991 – Harald V becomes King of Norway because his father, Olav V, died. * 1992 – Punk rock band Green Day sends out their second full-length album, Kerplunk. * 1994 – A magnitude 6.7 earthquake happens in Northridge, California. * 1995 – A magnitude 7.3 earthquake called the "Great Hanshin earthquake" happens near Kobe, Japan, causing property to be damaged and killing 6,433 people. * 1996 – The Czech Republic asks the European Union if they can be a member. * 1998 – Paula Jones says she was sexually harassed by President Bill Clinton. === From 2001 === * 2002 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, making about 400,000 people homeless. * 2007 - The Doomsday Clock is set to five minutes before midnight in response to North Korea's nuclear testing. * 2008 - British Airways Flight 38 crash-lands at London Heathrow Airport. All people on board survive. * 2010 - Religious riots between Muslims and Christians erupt in Jos, Nigeria, killing more than 200 people. * 2018 - A car bomb attack in Bogota, Colombia, kills 21 people. ==Births== === Up to 1850 === * 1463 – Frederick III of Saxony, Elector of Saxony (d. 1525) * 1501 - Leonhart Fuchs, German scientist (d. 1566) * 1504 – Pope Pius V (d. 1572) * 1574 - Robert Fludd, English physician, astrologer and mathematician (d. 1637) * 1600 – Pedro Calderon de la Barca, Spanish playwright (d. 1681) * 1640 - Jonathan Singletary Dunham, American settler and ancestor of Barack Obama (d. 1724) * 1659 - Antonio Veracini, Italian composer and violinist (d. 1745) * 1706 – Benjamin Franklin, American writer, inventor and statesman (d. 1790) * 1712 - John Stanley, English composer (d. 1786) * 1732 – Stanislaw II August Poniatowski of Poland (d. 1798) * 1734 - François-Joseph Gossec, Belgian composer (d. 1829) * 1738 - James Anderson, Scottish botanist (d. 1809) * 1746 - Paul Brigham, Governor of Vermont (d. 1824) * 1749 – Vittorio Alfieri, Italian poet and dramatist (d. 1803) * 1761 - Sir James Hall, 4th Baronet, Scottish geologist and geophysicist (d. 1832) * 1789 – August Neander, German theologian (d. 1850) * 1798 – Auguste Comte, French philosopher (d. 1857) * 1800 - Caleb Cushing, American diplomat (d. 1879) * 1811 – Emperor Norton, self-declared Emperor of the United States (d. 1880) * 1820 – Anne Brontë, English writer (d. 1849) * 1828 - Lewis A. Grant, American Civil War general (d. 1918) * 1829 - Catherine Booth, English wife of William Booth (d. 1890) * 1831 – Archduchess Elisabeth Franziska of Austria (d. 1903) * 1845 - Manuel Barillas, President of Guatemala (d. 1907) * 1847 - Nikolay Yegorovich Zhukovsky, Russian mathematician and aviator (d. 1921) * 1850 - Aleksandr Yaneyev, Russian composer (d. 1918) === 1851 1900 === * 1856 - Jens Bratlie, Prime Minister of Norway (d. 1939) * 1860 – Douglas Hyde, 1st President of Ireland (d. 1949) * 1863 – David Lloyd George, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1945) * 1863 - Constantin Stanislavski, Russian theatre practitioner (d. 1938) * 1865 - Charles Fergusson, Governor-General of New Zealand (d. 1951) * 1867 - Carl Laemmle, German-born American movie pioneer (d. 1939) * 1870 - Princess Marie Louise of Bourbon-Parma (d. 1899) * 1871 - Nicolae Iorga, 34th Prime Minister of Romania (d. 1940) * 1878 - Oscar Apfel, American actor, director, screenwriter, producer (d. 1938) * 1879 - Burt McKinnie, American golfer (d. 1946) * 1881 - Antoni Lamnicki, Polish mathematician (d. 1941) * 1882 - Noah Beery, Jr., American actor (d. 1946) * 1883 – Compton Mackenzie, Scottish novelist (d. 1972) * 1886 - Glenn L. Martin, American aviation pioneer (d. 1955) * 1887 – Ola Raknes, Norwegian psychoanalyst and philologist (d. 1975) * 1889 - Ralph Howard Fowler, British astronomer and physicist (d. 1944) * 1895 - John Duff, Canadian racing driver (d. 1958) * 1897 - Marcel Petiot, French physician and serial killer (d. 1946) * 1899 – Al Capone, American gangster (d. 1947) * 1899 – Nevil Shute, English writer (d. 1960) === 1901 1925 === * 1901 - Aron Gurwitsch, Lithuanian-born American philosopher (d. 1973) * 1902 - Nazim Hikmet, Turkish poet (d. 1963) * 1905 – Guillermo Stabile, Argentine footballer (d. 1966) * 1908 - Cus D'Amato, American boxing coach (d. 1985) * 1911 – George Stigler, American economist (d. 1991) * 1911 - John S. McCain, Jr., father of John McCain (d. 1981) * 1914 - Taizo Kawamoto, Japanese footballer (d. 1985) * 1914 - Fang Zhaoling, Chinese artist (d. 2006) * 1917 – M. G. Ramachandran, Indian politician and actor (d. 1987) * 1918 – George M. Leader, former Governor of Pennsylvania (d. 2013) * 1918 - Keith Joseph, British politician (d. 1994) * 1921 – Antonio Prohias, Cuban-born cartoonist (d. 1998) * 1921 - Asghar Khan, Pakistani politician and military officer (d. 2018) * 1922 – Luis Echeverria Alvarez, former President of Mexico (d. 2022) * 1922 – Betty White, American actress (d. 2021) * 1922 - Nicholas Katzenbach, 55th United States Attorney General (d. 2012) * 1925 – Robert Cormier, American writer (d. 2000) * 1925 - Edgar Ray Killen, American criminal (d. 2018) === 1926 1950 === * 1926 – Moira Shearer, Scottish actress (d. 2006) * 1926 - Nélida Romero, Argentine actress (d. 2015) * 1927 – Eartha Kitt, American singer (d. 2008) * 1927 - Harlan Mathews, United States Senator from Tennessee (d. 2014) * 1928 – Vidal Sassoon, British hairdresser (d. 2012) * 1928 - Chu Shijian, Chinese businessman (d. 2019) * 1929 – Jacques Plante, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1986) * 1931 – James Earl Jones, American actor * 1931 – L. Douglas Wilder, American politician, former Governor of Virginia * 1931 - Don Zimmer, American baseball coach (d. 2014) * 1933 – Dalida, French singer (d. 1987) * 1934 - Cedar Walton, American pianist and composer (d. 2013) * 1935 – Ruth Ann Minner, American politician, former Governor of Delaware (d. 2021) * 1938 - Toini Gustafsson, Finnish-Swedish cross-country skier * 1939 – Christodoulos, Archbishop of Athens (d. 2008) * 1940 - Mircea Snegur, former President of Moldova * 1940 - Nerses Bedros XIX Tarmouni, Egyptian church leader (d. 2015) * 1940 – Kipchoge Keino, Kenyan runner * 1940 – Tabaré Vazquez, President of Uruguay * 1942 – Muhammad Ali, American boxer (d. 2016) * 1942 - Forges, Spanish cartoonist (d. 2018) * 1943 – René Préval, former President of Haiti (d. 2017) * 1944 - Françoise Hardy, French singer * 1944 - Jan Guillou, Swedish writer and journalist * 1945 - Javed Akhtar, Indian composer, poet and scriptwriter * 1948 - Eddie Gray, Scottish footballer * 1948 – David Oddson, former Prime Minister of Iceland * 1949 – Andy Kaufman, American comedian (d. 1984) * 1949 – Mick Taylor, British musician * 1949 - Gyude Bryant, Liberian politician (d. 2014) * 1949 - Dick Nanninga, Dutch footballer (d. 2015) * 1949 - Anita Borg, American computer scientist and activist (d. 2003) * 1949 - Heini Hemmi, Swiss skier * 1950 - Richard L. Anderson, American sound editor === 1951 1975 === * 1954 – Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., American lawyer and activist * 1956 – Paul Young, English musician * 1956 - Damian Green, British politician * 1957 - Keith Chegwin, British television presenter (d. 2017) * 1957 - Steve Harvey, American comedian and actor * 1959 - Susanna Hoffs, American musician * 1959 - Momoe Yamaguchi, Japanese singer and actress * 1960 - John Crawford, American musician * 1960 - Chili Davis, Jamaican baseball player * 1961 - Maia Chiburdanidze, Georgian chess player * 1961 - Brian Helgeland, American screenwriter, director and movie producer * 1962 – Jim Carrey, Canadian actor and comedian * 1963 - Kai Hansen, German singer and guitarist * 1963 - Cyrus Chestnut, American jazz musician * 1964 – Michelle Obama, former First Lady of the United States * 1964 – Andy Rourke, English guitarist * 1965 - Sylvain Turgeon, Canadian ice hockey player * 1966 - Nobuyuki Kojima, Japanese footballer * 1966 - Joshua Malina, American actor * 1967 – Filippo Raciti, Italian police officer (d. 2007) * 1968 - Svetlana Masterkova, Russian athlete * 1969 - Lukas Moodysson, Swedish writer and director * 1971 - Leslie Benzies, Scottish video game producer * 1971 - Leonardo Ciampi, Italian-American singer and musician * 1971 - Kid Rock, American singer * 1971 – Richard Burns, English rally driver (d. 2005) * 1971 - Sylvie Testud, French actress * 1972 - Ken Hirai, Japanese singer- songwriter, producer and actor * 1973 - Chris Bowen, Australian politician * 1973 – Cuauhtémoc Blanco, Mexican footballer * 1974 - Danny Bhoy, Scottish comedian * 1974 - Ladan and Laleh Bijani, Iranian conjoined twins (d. 2003) * 1975 - Freddy Rodriguez, American actor === From 1976 === * 1976 - Tonique Williams-Darling, Bahamian athlete * 1978 – Ricky Wilson, English singer (Kaiser Chiefs) * 1979 – Ricardo Cabanas, Swiss footballer * 1980 – Zooey Deschanel, American actress * 1981 - Daniel Diges, Spanish singer * 1981 - Warren Feeney, Northern Irish footballer * 1981 - Ray J, American singer and actor * 1981 - Stefan Petzner, Austrian politician * 1982 - Hwanhee, South Korean actor and singer * 1982 - Dwyane Wade, American basketball player * 1983 - Alvaro Arbeloa, Spanish footballer * 1983 – Yelle, French singer and songwriter * 1984 – Calvin Harris, Scottish singer and musician * 1985 - Riyu Kosaka, Japanese singer * 1985 – Simone Simons, Dutch singer * 1985 – Pablo Barrientos, Argentine footballer * 1986 - Viktor Stalberg, Swedish ice hockey player * 1986 - Max Adler, American actor * 1988 - Earl Clark, American basketball player * 1988 - Héctor Moreno, Mexican footballer * 1989 - Björn Dreyer, German footballer * 1989 - Taylor Jordan, American baseball player * 1991 - Lee Kiseop, South Korean actor and singer * 1992 - Nate Hartley, American actor * 1992 - Frankie Cocozza, English singer ==Deaths== === Up to 1900 === * 395 – Theodosius I, Roman Emperor (a kind of leader) * 1229 – Albert of Buxhoeveden (b. 1165) * 1369 – Peter I of Cyprus (b. 1328) * 1468 – Skanderbeg, Albanian leader against the Ottoman Empire (b. 1405) * 1598 – Fyodor I of Russia (b. 1557) * 1617 – Faust Vrancic, Croatian inventor of the Parachute (b. 1551) * 1705 - John Ray, English naturalist (b. 1627) * 1738 - Jean-François Dandrieu, French organist and composer (b. 1682) * 1751 – Tomaso Albinoni, Italian song maker (b. 1671) * 1799 - Dun Mikiel Xerri, Maltese patriot (b. 1739) * 1834 - Giovanni Aldini, Italian physicist (b. 1762) * 1861 – Lola Montez, adventurer (b. 1821) * 1863 - Horace Vernet, French painter (b. 1789) * 1874 – Chang and Eng Bunker, Siamese twins (b. 1811) * 1884 - Hermann Schlegel, German ornithologist (b. 1804) * 1886 – Amilcare Ponchielli, Italian composer (b. 1834) * 1887 - William Giblin, Premier of Tasmania (b. 1840) * 1893 – Rutherford B. Hayes, 19th President of the United States (b. 1822) === 1901 2000 === * 1908 – Ferdinand IV of Tuscany (b. 1835) * 1909 - Francis Smith, Premier of Tasmania (b. 1819) * 1911 – Francis Galton, English polymath, anthropologist (b. 1822) * 1927 - Juliette Gordon Low, founder of the Girl Scouts of the USA (b. 1860) * 1931 - Grand Duke Peter Nikolaevich of Russia (b. 1864) * 1933 – Louis Comfort Tiffany, American artist and designer (b. 1848) * 1947 - Pyotr Krasnov, Russian general (b. 1869) * 1947 - Jean- Marie-Rodrigue Villeneuve, Canadian cardinal (b. 1883) * 1951 - Jyoti Prasad Agarwala, Assamese poet, playwright and movie maker (b. 1903) * 1956 - Blind Alfred Reed, American musician (b. 1880) * 1961 – Patrice Lumumba, Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (b. 1925) * 1963 - Henri Masson, French fencer (b. 1872) * 1964 – T.H. White, writer (b. 1906) * 1967 – Evelyn Nesbit, actress, also known as "The Girl In The Red Velvet Swing" (b. 1884) * 1972 - Betty Smith, American writer and singer (b. 1896) * 1975 - Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, President of Colombia (b. 1900) * 1977 - Dougal Haston, Scottish mountaineer (b. 1940) * 1977 – Gary Gilmore, American murderer (executed by firing squad) (b. 1940) * 1991 – King Olav V of Norway (b. 1903) * 1993 – Albert Hourani, historian (b. 1915) * 1994 - Yevgeni Ivanov, Soviet spy (b. 1926) * 1996 – Amber Hagerman, American murder victim (b. 1986) * 1996 – Barbara Jordan, American politician (b. 1936) * 1997 – Clyde Tombaugh, American astronomer (b. 1906) === From 2001 === * 2001 – Laurent-Désiré Kabila, President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (b. 1939) * 2002 – Camilo José Cela, Spanish writer, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 1989 (b. 1916) * 2003 – Richard Crenna, American actor (b. 1926) * 2004 – Czeslaw Niemen, Polish musician (b. 1939) * 2004 – Rafael Churumba Cordero, mayor of Ponce, Puerto Rico (b. 1942) * 2004 – Ray Stark, American movie producer, produced Funny Girl in 1968 (b. 1915) * 2005 – Charlie Bell, former chief executive officer of McDonald's (b. 1960) * 2005 – Virginia Mayo, American actress of the 1940s and 1950s (b. 1920) * 2005 – Albert Schatz, microbiologist, discoverer of streptomycin (b. 1920) * 2005 – Zhao Ziyang, Premier of the People's Republic of China and General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (b. 1917) * 2008 – Bobby Fischer, American-born Icelandic chess player (b. 1943) * 2009 - Anders Isaksson, Swedish journalist, writer and historian (b. 1943) * 2010 – Jyoti Basu, Indian politician (b. 1914) * 2010 – Erich Segal, American writer and screenwriter (b. 1937) * 2011 – Don Kirshner, American composer (b. 1934) * 2012 - Johnny Otis, American singer and musician (b. 1921) * 2013 - Jakob Arjouni, German writer (b. 1964) * 2013 - Sophiya Haque, British actress (b. 1971) * 2013 - John Nkomo, Vice President of Zimbabwe (b. 1934) * 2014 - Suchitra Sen, Indian actress (b. 1931) * 2014 - Mohammed Burhanuddin, Indian Islamic leader (b. 1915) * 2014 - Alistair McAlpine, Baron McAlpine of West Green, English politician (b. 1941) * 2015 - Faten Hamama, Egyptian actress (b. 1931) * 2015 - Bill Sykes, English chaplain and writer (b. 1939) * 2015 - Don Harron, Canadian comedian, actor and author (b. 1924) * 2015 - Origa, Russian singer (b. 1970) * 2016 - Blowfly, American musician and producer (b. 1939) * 2016 - Bob Harkey, American racing driver (b. 1930) * 2016 - Gottfried Honegger, Swiss artist and graphic designer (b. 1917) * 2016 - V. Rama Rao, Indian politician, former Governor of Sikkim (b. 1935) * 2017 - M. M. Ruhul Amin, Bangladeshi judge (b. 1942) * 2017 - Brenda C. Barnes, American businesswoman (b. 1953) * 2017 - Philip Bond, British actor (b. 1934) * 2017 - Colo, American-bred Western gorilla (b. 1956) * 2017 - Mario Fasino, Italian politician, President of Sicily (b. 1920) * 2017 - Heng Freylinger, Luxembourgish wrestler (b. 1926) * 2017 - Steven Plaut, American-Israeli economist and academic (b. 1951) * 2017 - Robert Timlin, American judge (b. 1932) * 2017 - Daniel Vischer, Swiss politician (b. 1950) * 2018 - Simon Shelton, English actor (b. 1966) * 2018 - Jessica Falkholt, Australian actress (b. 1988) * 2018 - Augusto Polo Campos, Peruvian composer (b. 1932) * 2019 - Babiker Awadalla, Prime minister of Sudan (b. 1917) * 2019 - Windsor Davies, British actor (b. 1930) * 2019 - Mary Oliver, American poet (b. 1935) * 2019 - Reggie Young, American guitarist (b. 1936) * 2019 - Horst Stern, German science journalist, filmmaker and writer (b. 1922) ==Observances== * Ancient Latvia – Zirgu Diena observed * Catholicism – Feast day of St. Anthony. * Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in the United States when this day falls on a Monday. * National Day of Menorca