January 17

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 - Simon Bolivar 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 Poincare 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 - Francois-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 Bronte, 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 - Nelida 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 - Tabare Vazquez, President of Uruguay
1942 - Muhammad Ali, American boxer (d. 2016)
1942 - Forges, Spanish cartoonist (d. 2018)
1943 - Rene Preval, former President of Haiti (d. 2017)
1944 - Francoise 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 - Cuauhtemoc 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 - Hector Moreno, Mexican footballer
1989 - Bjorn 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-Francois 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-Desire Kabila, President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (b. 1939)
2002 - Camilo Jose 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
Other websites
BBC: On This Day
Days of the year