On January 17th...

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St. Anthony's Day

1377 Pope Gregory XI moved the Papacy back to Rome from Avignon.

1504 Pope Pius V was born.

1595 King Henry IV of France declared war on Spain.

1600 Spanish dramatist Pedro Calderón de la Barca was born.

1656 Brandenburg and Sweden signed the Treaty of Königsberg.

1706 Benjamin Franklin, American statesman and inventor, was born.

1718 An avalanche destroyed Leukerbad, Switzerland, and killed 53 persons.
1718 Revolutionary War General Israel Putnam was born.

1757 The German Diet declared war on Prussia.

1771 Author Charles Brockden Brown was born.

1773 An expedition commanded by Captain James Cook became the first to cross the Antarctic Circle.

1775 Nine elderly women were burned as witches for causing bad harvests in Kalisk, Poland.

1820 Author Anne Brontë was born.

1863 David Lloyd George, Prime Minister of Great Britain, was born.

1871 Andrew S. Hallidie patented the cable car.

1873 A group of Modoc warriors defeated the United States Army in the First Battle of the Stronghold.

1874 Armed Democrats seized the government of Texas.

1876 Politician Frank Hague was born.

1880 Film producer Mack Sennett was born.

1882 The first female physician in the Netherlands, Aletta Jacobs, opened her practice.

1886 Aviation pioneer Glenn L. Martin was born.

1893 Queen Liliuokalani was deposed and the Kingdom of Hawaii became a republic.
1893 Rutherford Birchard Hayes, 19th President of the United States, died.

1899 The United States took possession of Wake Island.
1899 Gangster Al Capone was born.
1899 Educator Robert M. Hutchins was born.

1902 King Saud of Saudi Arabia was born.

1912 A party led by Robert Scott reached the South Pole.

1916 The Professional Golfers' Association was formed in New York City, New York.

1920 Prohibition officially began in the United States.

1922 Actress Betty White was born.

1927 Singer Eartha Kitt was born.
1927 Juliette Gordon Low, the founder of the American Girl Scout movement, died.

1928 A fully automatic photographic film developing machine was patented.
1928 Celebrity hair stylist Vidal Sassoon was born.

1929 Popeye made his first appearance, in the comic strip "Thimble Theater."

1931 Actor James Earl Jones was born.

1933 Puppeteer Shari Lewis was born.
1933 Artist Louis Comfort Tiffany died.

1934 The Electric Home and Farm Authority was incorporated.

1939 Talk show host Maury Povich was born.

1942 Boxer Muhammad Ali was born.

1945 The Soviet army entered Warsaw, Poland.

1946 The United Nations Security Council held its first meeting.

1947 Seven persons were killed and 70 injured when a Southern Pacific passenger train struck a broken rail and derailed 12 miles northwest of Bakersfield, California.

1949 Comedian Andy Kaufman was born.

1950 Eleven armed men robbed $1.2 million cash and $1.5 million in securities from the Brink's offices in Boston, Massachusetts.

1956 Actor David Caruso was born.

1962 Actor Jim Carrey was born.

1964 Michelle Obama, wife of President Barack Obama, was born.

1968 The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe's "Super C" freight train made its first run from Chicago, Illinois, to Los Angeles, California.

1971 Musician Robert James Ritchie, aka Kid Rock, was born.

1976 Convicted murderer Gary Gilmore was executed by firing squad.

1977 The last original Route 66 road sign in the country was taken down, in Chicago, Illinois.

1984 The U. S. Supreme Court ruled that home use of VCR's to record television programs does not violate copyright laws.

1989 A gunman opened fire in a California schoolyard, killing 5 students and wounding 30.

1991 Operation Desert Storm began.
1991 King Olav V of Norway died.

1994 A magnitude 6.6 earthquake struck Los Angeles, California, killing 60 persons and causing $30 billion in damage.

1995 The Los Angeles Rams announced that they would be moving to St. Louis.

1996 American politician Barbara Jordan died.

1997 Clyde Tombaugh, the discoverer of Pluto, died.

2005 Zhao Ziyang, Premier and General Secretary of China, died.

2007 Columnist Art Buchwald died.

2010 Taco Bell founder Glen Bell died.
2010 Author Erich Segal died.

2011 Music producer Don Kirshner died.

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This page was last updated on January 18, 2019.