January 17

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

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

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 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

Events

Up to 1900

1901 – 1950

1951 – 2000

From 2001

Births

Up to 1850

1851 – 1900

1901 – 1925

1926 – 1950

1951 – 1975

From 1976

Deaths

Up to 1900

1901 – 2000

From 2001

Observances

Other websites