On this day in History - Jan. 17

• 0395 - Theodosius I dies. Roman Emperor
• 1229 - Albert of Buxhoeveden dies. German soldier
• 1369 - King Peter I of Cyprus dies murdered (b. 1328)
• 1463 - Friedrich III was born (d. 1525). Elector of Saxony.
• 1468 - Skanderbeg dies (b. 1405). Albanian leader.
• 1484 - George Spalatin was born (d. 1545). German reformer
• 1501 - Leonhart Fuchs was born (d. 10 May 1566). German botanist and physician whose botanical work Historia Stirpium (1542) is a landmark in the development of natural history.
• 1504 - Pope Pius V was born (d. 1572).
• 1536 - François Rabelais absolved of apostasy by Pope Paul III & allowed to resume medical practice.
• 1560 - Gaspard Bauhin was born (d. 1624). Swiss botanist.
• 1562 - France recognized the Huguenots under the Edict of St. Germain.
• 1584 - Bohemia adopts the Gregorian calendar .
• 1595 - French king Henri IV declares war on Spain .
• 1600 - Pedro Calderón de la Barca was born. Spanish writer, the last great figure of the Golden Age of Spanish Drama. Wrote La Vida es Sueño.
• 1612 - Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron was born (d. 1671). English Civil War general.
• 1617 - Faust Vrancic dies (b. 1551). Croatian inventor.
• 1620 - Diego Alvarez de Paz dies at about 59. Spanish missionary/writer (Peru)
• 1636 - Jose Silvestre de los Dolores White Lafitte was born.
• 1648 - England's Long Parliament passes the Vote of No Address, breaking off negotiations with King Charles I and thereby setting the scene for the second phase of the English Civil War.
• 1654 - Paulus Potter dies (b. 1625). Dutch painter.
• 1686 - Archibald Bower was born (d. 1766). Scottish historian.
• 1705 - John Ray dies (b. 1627). English naturalist and botanist.
• 1706 - Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston (d. 17 Apr 1790). American Statesman, printer, scientist, and writer. He become widely known in European scientific circles for his reports of electrical experiments and theories.
• 1709 - Lord Lyttelton was born (d. 1773). British statesman and writer.
• 1712 - John Stanley was born (d. 1786). English composer.
• 1718 - Captain Benjamin Church dies. Plymouth Colony settler.
• 1719 - William Vernon was born (d. 1806). American merchant.
• 1719 - Jean-Joseph Vadé was born. French poet.
• 1728 - Johann Gottfried Müthel was born. German composer.
• 1737 - Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann dies (b. 1662). German architect.
• 1746 - Charles Edward Stuart, "Bonnie Prince Charlie", defeats a Hanoverian army at Falkirk in his ultimately unsuccessful campaign to recover the throne for the Jacobite dynasty.
• 1751 - Tomaso Albinoni dies (b. 1671). Italian composer.
• 1761 - James Hall was born (d. 1832). Scottish geologist.
• 1763 - John Jacob Astor was born (d. 1848). Entrepreneur.
• 1771 - Johann Friedrich Struensee and Queen Caroline Matilda are arrested, leading to his execution and her banishment from Denmark
• 1771 - Charles Brockden Brown was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. "Father of the American Novel" [Wieland (1798) ]
• 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.
• 1789 - August Neander was born (d. 1850). German theologian.
• 1793 - A Convenção Francesa decide por um voto de diferença, com 361 a favor e 360 contra, a pena de morte do Rei Luis XVI.
• 1806 - James Madison Randolph, the grandson of Thomas Jefferson, became the first child born in the White House.
• 1811 - Joshua A. Norton was born (d. 1880). "Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico"
• 1819 - Simón Bolívar proclaims the Republic of Colombia.
• 1820 - Anne Brontë (pseudonym, Acton Bell) was born in Thornton, Yorkshire (d. 1849). British author ( Agnes Grey 1847; The Tenant of Wildfell Hall 1848) .
• 1826 - Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga dies (b. 1806). Spanish composer.
• 1832 - Henry Martyn Baird was born (d. 1906). American historian and educationalist.
• 1834 - August Weissman was born [d. 5 Nov 1914]. A German biologist and one of the founders of the science of genetics, who is best known for his opposition to the doctrine of the inheritance of acquired traits and for his "germ plasm" theory, the forerunner of DNA theory.
• 1834 - Giovanni Aldini dies (b. 1762). Italian physicist.
• 1849 - Eugene Carriere was born. French painter.
• 1851 - A. B. Frost was born (d. 1928). American illustrator.
• 1852 - United Kingdom recognizes the independence of the Boer colonies of the Transvaal.
• 1856 - Charles V. Chapin was born, [d.31 Jan 1941]; American physician and epidemiologist who, with Gardner T. Swarts, established the first municipal bacteriological laboratory in the U.S. (1888) in Providence, Rhode Island.
• 1858 - Tomas Carrasquilla, nacimiento de, Colombian author (Frutos de mi Tierra) .
• 1860 - Douglas Hyde was born. President of Ireland .
• 1860 - Anton Chekhov was born in Taganrog, Russia (d. 1904). Playwright
• 1861 - Lola Montez dies (b. 1821). Irish-born adventurer.
• 1863 - David Lloyd George was born (d. 1945). Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
• 1867 - Carl Laemmle was born (d. 1939). German-born film executive.
• 1871 - David Earl Beatty was born (d. 1936). British admiral was born.
• 1871 - Nicolae Iorga was born (d. 1940). Romanian writer.
• 1873 - First Battle of the Stronghold in the US Modoc War.
• 1875 - Florencio Sánchez was born. Uruguayn dramatist.
• 1876 - Frank Hague was born (d. 1956). American mayor of Jersey City (1917-194).
• 1880 - Mack Sennett was born (d. 1960). Canadian film director and producer.
• 1881 - Antoni Łomnicki was born (d. 1941). Polish mathematician.
• 1882 - Noah Beery was born (d. 1946). American actor.
• 1884 - Hermann Schlegel dies (b. 1804)- German ornithologist.
• 1885 - A British force defeats a large Dervish army at the Battle of Abu Klea in the Sudan.
• 1885 - Emmy Hennings was born in Flensburg, Germany. Writer/performer associated with the Dada movement in Zurich.
• 1886 - Glenn L. Martin was born [d. 4 Dec 1955]. American airplane inventor whose bombers and flying boats played important roles in WW II .
• 1886 - Amilcare Ponchielli dies (b. 1834). Italian composer.
• 1886 - Ronald Firbank was born (d. 1926). Novelist.
• 1890 - Peter Henderson dies [b. 17 Jan 1890]. Scottish-American scientist, known as the "Father of American Horticulture".
• 1893 - American sugar planters led by the Citizen's Committee of Public Safety overthrow the government of Queen Liliuokalani of the Kingdom of Hawaii.
• 1893 - Rutherford B. Hayes dies (b. 1822). 19th President of the United States.
• 1893 - Hawaii's Queen Liliuokalani was forced to abdicate by a group of planters and businessmen.
• 1899 - The United States takes possession of Wake Island in the Pacific Ocean.
• 1899 - Al Capone was born (d. 1947). American gangster, nicknamed "Scarface".
• 1899 - Robert Maynard Hutchins was born (d. 1977). Educator.
• 1899 - Nevil Shute was born (d. 1960). British-born Australian novelist, best-known for the novel On the Beach (1957).
• 1901 - Emilio Iribarne was born. Uruguayan pianist and composer.
• 1901 - Vasily Petrovich Chirinsky was born. Russian composer
• 1901 - Catherine Bennett was born. Australian actress.
• 1902 - US: Washington State Federation of Labor formed.
• 1902 - Ñico Saquito was born. Cuban music
• 1903 - Warren Hull was born. American actor.
• 1905 - Guillermo Stábile was born (d. 1966). Argentine footballer.
• 1910 - Joaquim Nabuco dies (b. 1849). Brazilian diplomat, politician, journalist, historian and writer.
• 1911 - Albino Jara Benegas becomes President of Paraguay
• 1911 - George Joseph Stigler was born (d. 1991). American economist, Nobel Prize laureate.
• 1911 - Sir Francis Galton dies [b. 16 Feb 1822]; English scientist, explorer, anthropologist, statistician and eugenicist, known for his pioneering studies of human intelligence.
• 1912 - Robert Falcon Scott reaches the South Pole, one month after Roald Amundsen.
• 1913 - Raymond Poincaré elected President of France.
• 1914 - William Stafford was born (d. 1993). American poet and essayist.
• 1916 - The Professional Golfers Association (PGA) is formed.
• 1917 - The United States pays Denmark $25 million for the Virgin Islands.
• 1920 - Nora Kaye was born. Ballerina.
• 1921 - Antonio Prohias was born (d. 1998). Cuban cartoonist.
• 1922 - Luis Echeverría Álvarez was born. President of Mexico
• 1922 - Nicholas Katzenbach was born. American politician.
• 1922 - Betty White was born. American actress
• 1925 - Robert Cormier was born (d. 2000). American author.
• 1925 - Abdul Kardar was born. Pakistani cricketer
• 1926 - Newton N. Minow was born. American telecommunications lawyer and statesman
• 1926 - Moira Shearer was born. Scottish actress and dancer
• 1927 - Eartha Kitt was born. American actress and singer.
• 1928 - Jean Barraqué was born (d. 1973). French composer.
• 1928 - Vidal Sassoon was born. English cosmetologist
• 1929 - Jacques Plante was born (d. 1986). Canadian hockey player.
• 1929 - Popeye the Sailor Man, a cartoon character created by Elzie Crisler Segar, first appeared in a newspaper comic strip.
• 1931 - James Earl Jones was born. Actor.
• 1931 - Douglas Wilder was born. Governor of Virginia.
• 1931 - Don Zimmer was born. Baseball coach.
• 1933 - O Congresso dos Estados Unidos vota a favor da independência das Filipinas.
• 1933 - Dalida was born (d. 1987). French singer.
• 1933 - Ray Dolby was born. American inventor
• 1933 - Sadruddhin Aga Khan was born (d. 2003). French UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
• 1933 - Shari Lewis was born (d. 1998). American puppeteer.
• 1933 - Sheree North was born. American actress
• 1935 - Ruth Ann Minner was born. Governor of Delaware
• 1937 - Troy Donahue was born. American actor.
• 1939 - Maury Povich was born. American talk show host.
• 1940 - Kipchoge Keino was born. Kenyan runner.
• 1941 - Kuomintang forces under the order of Chiang Kai-Shek opened fire at communist force, Chinese Civil War resumes after WWII.(This event is known as 皖南事变).
• 1941 - José Leite de Vasconcelos dies at 82. Portuguese scholar and writer (Etnografia).
• 1942 - Muhammad Ali was born. Heavyweight champ boxer (1964-7 74-8)
• 1942 - Cus D'Amato was born (d. 1985). Boxing manager.
• 1942 - Ulf Hoelscher was born. German violinist
• 1942 - Nancy Parsons was born (d. 2001). American actress.
• 1943 - René Préval was born. President of Haiti
• 1944 - Françoise Hardy was born. French singer .
• 1944 - Jan Guillou was born in Södertälje. Swedish journalist/writer of popular spy novels.
• 1945 - Soviet forces do the liberation of the almost completely destroyed Polish city of Warsaw (end of Nazi occupation).
• 1945 - The Nazis begin the evacuation of the Auschwitz concentration camp as Soviet forces close in.
• 1945 - Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg credited with saving tens of thousands of Jews from the Nazis disappeared in Hungary while in Soviet custody.
• 1946 - The UN Security Council holds its first session.
• 1947 - Eugène Adam (known as Lanti) dies (b. 1879). Anarchist.
• 1947 - Jane Elliot was born. Internationally known teacher, lecturer, diversity trainer, and recipient of the National Mental Health Association Award for Excellence in Education.
• 1947 - Romulo Gallegos is elected for the Presidency of Venezuela. He will be deposed on 23 Nov 1948
• 1948 - Davíð Oddsson was born. Former Prime Minister of Iceland.
• 1948 - Mick Taylor was born. British musician (The Rolling Stones)
• 1949 - Andy Kaufman was born (d. 1984). American comedian.
• 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.
• 1952 - Ryuichi Sakamoto was born. Japan, rocker (Academy Award 1988, Yellow Magic Orchestra) .
• 1952 - Habib Bourguiba, Tunisian nationalist, is arrested by French authorities.
• 1952 - Darrell Porter was born (d. 2002). American baseball player.
• 1954 - Milovan Djilas, presidente da Assembléia Federal e vice-presidente da República da Iugoslávia, é destituído de seus cargos.
• 1955 - Steve Earle was born. American musician.
• 1956 - Paul Young, was born. English musician (Every Time You Go Away) .
• 1957 - Suzanne Danielle was born. English actress.
• 1959 - Susanna Hoffs was born. American musician (The Bangles)
• 1959 - Momoe Yamaguchi was born. Japanese singer and actress .
• 1960 - Chili Davis was born. Baseball player.
• 1961 - Maia Chiburdanidze Kutaisi was born. USSR women's world chess champ.
• 1961 - Patrice Lumumba dies assassinated (b. 1925). Leader of anti-colonial struggle and former premier of the newly independent Republic of the Congo (Zaire) / Assassinato em Katanga do dirigente do Congo, Patricio Lumumba, um dos principais nomes da Independência do país.
• 1962 - Monserrat Caballé premieres in Gran Teatro de Barcelona
• 1962 - Jim Carrey was born. American actor, comedian.
• 1964 - T.H. White dies (b. 1906). English author.
• 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 another one into the sea.
• 1966 - Carl Brashear, the first African American United States Navy diver, is involved in an accident on a routine mission which amputates his leg.
• 1966 - Shabba Ranks was born. Jamaican singer.
• 1967 - Evelyn Nesbit dies (b. 1884). American actress
• 1968 - Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer was born. Dutch writer.
• 1969 - UCLA Black Student Union members John Huggins and Bunchy Carter, also members of the Black Panther Party, were shot and killed in Campbell Hall.
• 1969 - Lukas Moodysson was born. Swedish film director
• 1970 - Jeremy Roenick was born. American hockey player.
• 1970 - Genndy Tartakovsky was born. Russian-born animator.
• 1970 - James Wattana was born. Thai snooker player.
• 1971 - Kid Rock was born. American singer.
• 1972 - Ken Hirai was born. Japanese singer and songwriter.
• 1972 - Betty Smith dies (b. 1896). American writer and singer.
• 1973 - Ferdinand Marcos becomes "President for Life" of the Philippines.
• 1974 - Antonio Sebastião Ribeiro Spínola é nomeado vice-chefe do Estado-Maior das Forças Armadas
• 1974 - Joni Mitchell releases Court and Spark, arguably her most mainstream album.
• 1975 - Bob Dylan releases Blood on the Tracks, often considered one of his best albuns.
• 1977 - Convicted murderer Gary Gilmore is executed by a firing squad in Utah, ending a ten-year moratorium on the death penalty in the United States.
• 1978 - Irina A Borisova was born. Miss Universe-Ukraine (1996)
• 1980 - Zooey Deschanel was born. American actress.
• 1981 - Scott Mechlowicz was born. American actor
• 1982 - Jodie Sweetin was born. American actress
• 1982 - Alex Varkatzas was born. American singer (Atreyu)
• 1982 - Dwyane Wade was boprn. American basketball player
• 1982 - "Cold Sunday" in the United States sees temperatures fall to their lowest levels in over 100 years in numerous cities.
• 1982 - O desabamento de uma ponte pênsil sobre o salto de Sete Quedas, no Paraná, provoca a morte de 29 pessoas. Cerca de mil turistas ficam isolados e são resgatados por helicópteros.
• 1983 - A Nigéria expulsa dois milhões de imigrantes ilegais vindos de Gana.
• 1983 - Doodles Weaver dies (b. 1911). American actor.
• 1983 - Saul Dias (Júlio Maria dos Reis Pereira) dies in Vila do Conde (b. 1903). Portuguese poet, brother of José Régio.
• 1984 - Abertura, em Estocolmo, da Conferência sobre Desarme na Europa, em que participaram representantes de 35 países.
• 1985 - British Telecom announces the retirement of Britain's famous red telephone boxes.
• 1985 - Japan: Hashimoto Yoshiharu dies at 55 in Tokyo. Japanese anarchist, writer and translator
• 1986 - Se firma en La Haya, el protocolo que establece relaciones diplomáticas entre Israel y España.
• 1986 - Chloe Rose Lattanzi was born. Australian actress and singer
• 1987 - 50 pessoas desaparecem após o naufrágio de um navio, perto da ilha de Bohol, nas Filipinas.
• 1988 - Nikki Reed was born. American actress.
• 1990 - Hank Ballard, The Four Seasons, The Four Tops, The Kinks, Simon & Garfunkel, the Platters & The Who inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
• 1991 - Gulf War: Iraq fires 8 Scud missiles into Israel in an unsuccessful bid to provoke Israeli retaliation.
• 1991 - Harald V becomes King of Norway on the death of his father, Olav V.
• 1991 - Operation Desert Storm was launched against Iraq.
• 1991 - King Olav V of Norway dies (b. 1903)
• 1992 - Punk rock band Green Day releases their second full-length album, Kerplunk.
• 1993 - Albert Hourani dies (b. 1915). English historian.
• 1994 - Helen Stephens dies (b. 1918). American runner.
• 1994 - A magnitude 6.7 earthquake occurs in Northridge, California
• 1995 - A magnitude 7.3 earthquake called "the Great Hanshin earthquake" occurrs near Kobe, Japan, causing great property damage and killing over 6,400 people.
• 1995 - Miguel Torga, morte deste poeta, ficcionista e ensaísta português [n. 1907] .
• 1996 - The Czech Republic applies for membership of the European Union.
• 1996 - O ex-primeiro ministro da Itália, Silvio Berlusconi, vai a julgamento por acusações de corrupção alegadas por seus oponentes políticos.
• 1996 - David Bowie, Tom Donahue, The Jefferson Airplane, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Pink Floyd, Pete Seeger, The Shirelles & the Velvet Underground and Little Willie John are inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
• 1996 - Barbara Jordan dies (b. 1936). American politician.
• 1997 - Um tribunal na Irlanda concede o primeiro divórcio na história do país.
• 1997 - Clyde Tombaugh dies (b. 4 Feb 1906). American astronomer who discovered the planet Pluto in 1930, the only planet discovered in the twentieth century.
• 1997 - NBA suspends Dennis Rodman indefinitely, with $25,000 fine, for kicking a cameraman, in the basketballs.
• 1998 - Paula Jones accuses President Bill Clinton of sexual harassment.
• 1998 -President Clinton became the first sitting U.S. president to testify as a defendant in a criminal or civil suit.
• 1998 - Mexico: Over 2000 indigenous Tzeltals & Tojolbals from the state of Chiapas occupy the military barracks of the 39th Military Zone in protest over Army incursions into their communities.
• 2000 - British pharmaceutical firms Glaxo Wellcome PLC and SmithKline Beecham PLC announce a merger to form the world's largest drug maker .
• 2001 - Gov. Gray Davis declared a state of emergency concerning California's electricity crisis.
• 2001 - Gregory Corso dies (b. 1930). American poet.
• 2002 - Camilo Jose Cela dies (b.1916). Spanish author, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature 1989.
• 2002 - Mount Nyiragongo erupts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, displacing an estimated 400,000 people.
• 2003 - Richard Crenna dies (b. 1926). American actor.
• 2004 - Czeslaw Niemen dies (b. 1939). Polish musician.
• 2004 - Ray Stark dies (b. 1915). Publicist, actor's agent, and producer.
• 2004 - Noble Willingham dies (b. 1931). American actor.
• 2005 - Charlie Bell dies (b. 1960). American fast food executive.
• 2005 - Virginia Mayo dies (b. 1920). American actress.
• 2005 - Albert Schatz dies (b. 1920). American microbiologist.
• 2005 - Zhao Ziyang dies (b. 1919). Premier of the People's Republic of China
• 2005 - Stjepan Mesic is reelected President of Croatia