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Today in History ~ January 17
Events1562 - Edict of St Germain recognizes Huguenots in France
1773 - Capt James Cook becomes 1st to cross Antarctic Circle (66d 33' S) [H]
1775 - 9 old women burnt as witches for causing bad harvests, Kalisk, Pol
1871 - 1st cable car patented, by Andrew S Hallidie (begins service in 1873)
1893 - -17F (-27C), Millsboro, Delaware (state record)
1893 - Sugar planters under Sanford Ballard Dole overthrow Hawaiian Queen Liliuokalani. [H]
1899 - US takes possession of Wake Island in Pacific
1911 - Failed assassination attempt on premier Briand in French Assembly
1917 - The United States bought 50 of the Virgin Islands in the West Indies from Denmark for $25 million.
1926 - George Burns marries Gracie Allen
1929 - Popeye makes 1st appearance, in comic strip "Thimble Theater"
1934 - Carl Hubbell, NL MVP winner, gets $18,000 contract by the NY Giants
1939 - Ed Barrow is elected Yankee president succeeding deceased J Ruppert
1943 - Tin Can Drive Day
1945 - Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, credited with saving tens of thousands of Jews, disappeared in Hungary while in Soviet custody.
1945 - Soviet and Polish forces liberated Warsaw during World War II.
1945 - Auschwitz concentration camp begins evacuation
1946 - United Nations Security Council holds its 1st meeting
1950 - 11 men rob Brink's office in Boston of $1.2M cash & $1.5M securities
1951 - China refuses ceases-fire in Korea
1955 - Submarine Nautilus begins 1st nuclear-powered test voyage
1961 - In his farewell address, President Eisenhower warned against the rise of "the military-industrial complex."
1961 - Eisenhower allegedly orders assassination of Congo's Lumumba
1966 - Martin Luther King Jr opens campaign in Chicago
1966 - Spanish coastal village of Palomares suffered a scare when 2 US Air Force jets collided in the skies overhead. [H]
1973 - New Philippine constitution names Marcos president for life
1976 - "I Write the Songs" by Barry Manilow hits #1
1977 - Gary Gilmore, convicted in the double murder of an elderly couple, was shot to death by a firing squad in Utah, becoming the first person to be executed in the US since the death penalty was reinstated (1976).
1983 - Alabama Gov George C Wallace, becomes governor for record 4th time
1984 - Supreme Court rules (5-4) OKs private use of home VCRs to tape TV programs for later viewing does not violate federal copyright laws
1987 - President Reagan signs secret order permitting covert sale of arms to Iran
1989 - Gunman opens fire in Calif schoolyard; 5 students slain, 30 wounded
1990 - A study concluded it is not oat bran itself, but the substitution of oat bran or other foods for high-fat foods, which cuts blood cholesterol.
1991 - Operation Desert Storm begins-US led allies vs Iraq (Jan 16 in the US)
1991 - Operation Desert Storm: 1st US pilot shot down (Jeffrey Zahn)
1991 - Iraq fires 8 Scud missiles on Israel and one against Saudi Arabia in an attempt to bring Israel, and thus the rest of the Arab world, into the conflict. 2nd day of Gulf War.
1991 - The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reported that Florida dentist David Acer had infected three patients with the AIDS virus.
1991 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 114.60, the second highest one-day point-gain ever
1992 - President Bush laid a wreath at the crypt of Martin Luther King Jr. in Atlanta.
1992 - Eight Protestant laborers were killed in an IRA bombing in Northern Ireland.
1993 - U.S. missiles attacked an Iraqi nuclear weapons facility outside Baghdad in an effort to destroy Saddam Hussein's ability to build weapons of mass destruction.
1994 - 6.6 Earthquake hits Los Angeles killing 60, $30B in damage
1995 - 5,372 people were killed when an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.2 devastated the city of Kobe, Japan.
1996 - Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, a blind Islamic cleric and Egyptian, is sentenced to life imprisonment and
16 others were also sentenced to jail after being convicted for plotting to bomb the United Nations, and plotting assassinations meant to end US support for Israel and Egypt.
1996 - David Watkins, who wrote the memo the White House sent to Congress two weeks earlier, testified before Congress that he felt pressure from the first lady but was never actually told to fire travel office staffers.
1997 - Speaker Newt Gingrich agreed to submit to a reprimand by the House and pay a $300,000 penalty as punishment for his ethics violations.
1997 - Israel handed over its military headquarters in Hebron to the Palestinians, ending 30 years of Israeli occupation of the West Bank city.
1997 - A court in Ireland granted the first divorce in the Roman Catholic country's history.
1998 - President Clinton faces sexual harrament charges from Paula Jones, and denied in a sworn deposition that he'd had an affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
2000 - Almost 50,000 people marched in Columbia, S.C., to protest the flying of the Confederate battle flag over the state Capitol.
2001 - Faced with an electricity crisis, California used rolling blackouts to cut off power to hundreds of thousands of people. Gov. Gray Davis signed an emergency order authorizing the state to buy power.
Birthdays Today
1706 - Benjamin Franklin (statesman: oldest signer of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution; printer, author, publisher: Poor Richard's Almanac; scientist, inventor: Franklin stove, bifocals, lightening rods; established University of Pennsylvania) was born in Boston.
1732 - Stanislaw II August Poniatowski, last king of Poland (1764-95)
1806 - James Madison Randolph, (Jefferson's grandson) 1st bany born in White House, his mother was Martha Randolph one of President Thomas Jefferson's two daughters, this was her 8th child.
1857 - Eugene Augustin Lauste, developer (1st sound-on-film recording)
1860 - Anton Chekhov (short story writer: The Party, The Darling; playwright: The Cherry Orchard, The Three Sisters, Uncle Vanya)
1883 - Noah Beery (actor: Mark of Zorro, Vanishing American, The Drifter)
1884 - Mack Sennett (Michael Sinnott) (silent movie director: Tillie's Punctured Romance, Mack Sennett Comedies, Kid's Auto Race, Mabel's Married Life, Cannonball, Dizzy Heights and Daring Hearts)
1891 - Marjorie Gateson (actress: Arizona Mahoney, Goin' to Town)
1891 - Norman "Squab" Read, early US aviator who lived to be 101
1899 - Al Capone (gangster, head of crime empire during Prohibition)
1911 - Luis W Alvarez, US, physicist (sub atomic, Nobel 1968)
1913 - Vido Musso (musician: reed instruments, played with Benny Goodman; bandleader: Stan Kenton was his pianist)
1920 - George Handy (pianist, composer: wrote for the Boyd Raeburn band)
1922 - Luis Echeverrˇa Alvarez, president Mexico
1924 - Betty White (singer, Emmy Award-winning supporting actress in a comedy: The Mary Tyler Moore Show [1974-75], Game Show Host Emmy: Just Men! [1982-83]; The Golden Girls; The Betty White Show)
1924 - Larry Sohn (bandleader)
1926 - Moira Shearer (ballerina)
1927 - Eartha Kitt, singer/actress (Catwoman-Batman)
1928 - Vidal Sassoon, London, hair stylist/CEO (Vidal Sasson)
1929 - Jacques Plante (hockey: Montreal Canadiens goalie: Hall of Famer [1953-63], Vezina Trophy [1956-60, 62], Hart Trophy NHL's MVP [1962]; first goalie to wear mask during games, also played for: NY Rangers, St. Louis Blues, Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins)
1931 - James Earl Jones (actor: Star Wars [Darth Vader], The Hunt for Red October, The Lion King, Sneakers, Roots, The Great White Hope; "This... is CNN")
1933 - Sheree North (Dawn Bethel) (actress: Marilyn: The Untold Story, How to be Very Popular, Defenseless, Portrait of a Stripper)
1934 - Shari Lewis (Hurwitz) (puppeteer: The Shari Lewis Show: Remember Lamb Chop, the puppet?)
1937 - Troy Donahue (actor: Hawaiian Eye, Parrish, A Summer Place)
1938 - Paul Revere, Harvard Nebraska, pianist (Paul Revere & Raiders)
1939 - Maury Povich, TV host (Current Affair, Maury)/Mr Connie Chung
1941 - Ron Marker (triviologist) (never heard of him)
1944 - Chris Montez (singer: She's My Rockin' Baby, Call Me, There Will Never Be Another You, Some Kinda Fun, Let's Dance)
1944 - Denny Doyle (baseball: Detroit Tigers)
1945 - Preston Pearson (football: Baltimore Colts RB: Super Bowl III, Pittsburgh Steelers: Super Bowl IX, Dallas Cowboys: Super Bowls X, XII, XIII)
1948 - Mick Taylor (singer, musician: rhythm guitar: group: The Rolling Stones; worked with Mike Oldfield, Bob Dylan, The Gods)
1949 - Andy Kaufman, NYC, comedian/actor (Latka Gravas-Taxi)
1952 - Pete LaCock (baseball: Chicago Cubs; son of Hollywood Squares host, Peter Marshall)
1956 - Paul Young (singer: Everytime You Go Away)
1962 - Jim Carrey (actor, comedian: $20 million for Cable Man makes him highest paid comedian ever; Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask, Batman Forever, Finders Keepers, The Duck Factory)
Famous deaths
0395 - Theodosius I, the Great, Spanish emperor of Rome, dies at 49
1702 - Thomas Franklin, English smith, uncle of B Franklin, dies
1874 - Chang & Eng Bunker, Chinese/Thai Siamese twins, die at 62
1893 - Rutherford B Hayes, 19th US Pres (1877-81), dies in Fremont Ohio at age 70
1902 - Gideon Scheepers, South Africa Boer leader, executed
1977 - Gary Gilmore, executed in Utah, 1st US execution since 1967
1997 - Clyde William Tombaugh, discoverer (Pluto), dies at 90
1998 - Emil Sitka, actor (3 Stooges shorts), dies of stroke at 82
If you have other Birthdays or events to add for this day please E-mail me
Yesterday Tomorrow
