Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index January 17 is the 17th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 348 days remaining (349 in leap years) Table of contents 1 Events 2 Births 3 Deaths 4 Holidays and observances Events 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 - Simon Bolivar 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. 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. 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 Security 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 a armored car in Boston, Massachusetts. 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. 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 occurred near Kobe, Japan, causing great property damage and killing over 5,000. 1998 - Paula Jones accuses President Bill Clinton of sexual harassment. 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 1463 - Friedrich III, Saxon elector († 1525) 1706 - Benjamin Franklin American writer, inventor, publisher, and ambassador († 1790) 1763 - John Jacob Astor, entrepreneur († 1848) 1820 - Anne Brontë, British author († 1849) 1832 - Henry Martyn Baird, American historian and educationalist († 1906) 1860 - Anton Chekhov, playwright († 1904) 1863 - David Lloyd George, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom († 1945) 1867 - Carl Laemmle, film executive († 1939) 1871 - David Earl Betty British admiral († 1936) 1880 - Mack Sennett, director, producer († 1960) 1899 - Al Capone, gangster, nicknamed "Scarface" († 1947) 1899 - Nevil Shute, author († 1960) 1914 - William Stafford, poet and essayist († 1993) 1922 - Betty White, actress 1922 - Nicholas Katzenbach, politician 1926 - Moira Shearer, actress, dancer 1927 - Eartha Kitt, actress, singer 1928 - Jean Barraqué, composer († 1973) 1928 - Vidal Sassoon, cosmetologist 1929 - Jacques Plante, ice hockey star († 1986) 1931 - James Earl Jones, actor 1931 - Douglas Wilder, first elected African American governor of a U.S. state 1933 - Dalida, French singer († 1987) 1933 - Shari Lewis, puppeteer († 1998) 1937 - Troy Donahue, actor 1939 - Maury Povich, talk show host 1942 - Muhammad Ali, boxer 1942 - Ulf Hoelscher, violinist 1948 - Davíð Oddsson, Prime Minister of Iceland 1949 - Andy Kaufman, comedian († 1984) 1955 - Steve Earle, musician 1956 - Paul Young, English musician 1962 - Jim Carrey, actor, comedian 1966 - Shabba Ranks, singer 1971 - Kid Rock, singer 1974 - Ladan and Laleh Bijani, Iranian conjoined twin sisters († 2003) Deaths 1751 - Tomaso Albinoni, aged 69, Italian composer 1799 - Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Italian mathematician 1861 - Lola Montez, adventurer 1886 - Amilcare Ponchielli, Italian composer 1893 - Rutherford B. Hayes, 19th President of the United States 1961 - Patrice Lumumba, Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo 1964 - T.H. White, author 1977 - Gary Gilmore, murderer (executed by firing squad) 1991 - King Olav V of Norway 1996 - Barbara Jordan, politician 1997 - Clyde Tombaugh, astronomer 2001 - Laurent-Desire Kabila, president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo 2002 - Camilo Jose Cela, Spanish author, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature 1989 Holidays and observances Ancient Latvia - Zirgu Diena observed Catholicism - Feast day of St. Anthony. See Also: January 16 - January 18 - December 17 - February 17 -- listing of all days January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.