January 17

### 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.

### 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

### 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 writer (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

## Other websites

- BBC: On This Day