January 17 January 17 is the 17th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 348 days remaining (349 in leap years) Events upto 19th century 1562 - Huguenots were recognized under the Edict of St. Germain. 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 independence of the Transvaal. 1873 - First Battle of the Stronghold in the US Modoc War. 1893 - American sugar planters overthrow the government of Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii. 1899 - United States takes possession of Wake Island. 20th century 1900s-1950s 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 - Soviets occupy Warsaw. 1945 - Auschwitz concentration camp begins evacuation. 1945 - Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg disappears in Hungary while in Soviet custody. 1946 - The UN Serawwiki_inboundity 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. 1960s-1990s 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 one into the sea. 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 1985 - British Telecom annouces they are going to abolish the famous red telephone boxes. 1991 - Gulf War: Iraq fires 8 Scud missiles into Israel. 1992 - Punk rock band Green Day releases their second full-length album, Kerplunk. 1995 - A magnitude 7.2 earthquake ocrawwiki_inboundred near Kobe, Japan, causing great property damage and killing over 5,000. 1998 - Paula Jones accuses President Bill Clinton of sexual harassment. 21st century 2002 - Eruption of Mount Nyiragongo in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, displacing an estimated 400,000 people. 2002 - A Petroproduccion Fairchild FH-227E crashes into the mountains in southern Colombia killing 26. Births upto 19th century 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 1860 - Anton Chekhov, playwright (d. 1904) 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) 20th century 1900-1949 1914 - William Stafford, poet and essayist (d. 1993) 1922 - Nicholas Katzenbach, politician 1922 - Betty White, actress 1926 - Moira Shearer, actress, dancer 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 of a U.S. state 1933 - Dalida, French singer (d. 1987) 1933 - Shari Lewis, puppeteer (d. 1998) 1937 - Troy Donahue, actor 1939 - Maury Povich, talk show host 1942 - Muhammad Ali, boxer 1942 - Ulf Hoelscher, violinist 1944 - Françoise Hardy, French singer 1948 - Davíð Oddsson, Prime Minister of Iceland 1949 - Andy Kaufman, comedian (d. 1984) 1950-1999 1955 - Steve Earle, musician 1956 - Paul Young, English musician 1957 - Suzanne Danielle, English actress 1962 - Jim Carrey, actor, comedian 1966 - Shabba Ranks, singer 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) 1982 - Dwyane Wade, NBA basketball player Deaths 1229 - Albert of Buxhoeveden (b. 1165) 1617 - Faust Vrancic, Croatian inventor Parachute (b. 1551) 1751 - Tomaso Albinoni, aged 69, Italian composer (b. 1671) 1799 - Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Italian mathematician (b. 1718) 1826 - Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga, composer 1861 - Lola Montez, adventurer (b. 1821) 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 aka "The Girl In The Red Velvet Swing", (b. 1884) 1977 - Gary Gilmore, murderer (executed by firing squad) (b. 1940) 1991 - King Olav V of Norway (b. 1903) 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) 2002 - Camilo Jose Cela, Spanish author, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature 1989 (b. 1916) Holidays and observances Ancient Latvia - Zirgu Diena observed Catholicism - Feast day of St. Anthony. 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