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

1562 - France recognized the Huguenots under the Edict of St. Germain.

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.

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.

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 the independence of the Boer colonies of the Transvaal.

1873 - First Battle of the Stronghold in the US Modoc War.

1885 - A British force defeats a large Dervish army at the Battle of Abu Klea in the Sudan.

1893 - American sugar planters led by the Citizen's Committee of Public Safety overthrow the government of Queen Liliuokalani of the Kingdom of Hawaii.

1899 - The United States takes possession of Wake Island in the Pacific Ocean.

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 - Soviet forces capture the almost completely destroyed Polish city of Warsaw.

1945 - The Nazis begin the evacuation of the Auschwitz concentration camp as Soviet forces close in.

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 an 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 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.

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.

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.

1982 - "Cold Sunday in the United States sees temperatures fall to their lowest levels in over 100 years in numerous cities.

1985 - British Telecom announces the retirement of Britain's famous red telephone boxes.

1991 - Gulf War: Operation Desert Storm begin early in the morning. 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.

1992 - Punk rock band Green Day releases their second full-length album, Kerplunk.

1994 - A magnitude 6.7 earthquake occurs in Northridge, California see 1994_Northridge_Earthquake

1995 - A magnitude 7.3 earthquake called "the Great Hanshin earthquake" occurrs near Kobe, Japan, causing extensive property damage and killing 6,433 people.

1996 - The Czech Republic applies for membership of the European Union.

1998 - Paula Jones accuses President Bill Clinton of sexual harassment.

2002 - Mount Nyiragongo erupts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, displacing an estimated 400,000 people.