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Today January 17th 2009 this day in history Read more below to view events, deaths, births, Holidays observances and video clips. Last database updated: Jan 17th, 2009
Events
38 BC – Octavian marries Livia Drusilla.
1287 – King Alfonso III of Aragon invades Minorca.
1377 – Pope Gregory XI moves the Papacy back to Rome from Avignon.
1524 – Beginning of Giovanni da Verrazzano s voyage to find a passage to China.
1562 – France recognizes the Huguenots under the Edict of Saint-Germain.
1595 – Henry IV of France declares war on Spain.
1605 – First publication of Don Quixote.
1648 – England s Long Parliament passes the Vote of No Addresses, breaking off negotiations with King Charles I and thereby setting the scene for the second phase of the English Civil War.
1773 – Captain James Cook and his crew become the first Europeans to sail below the Antarctic Circle.
1781 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Cowpens – Continental troops under Brigadier General Daniel Morgan defeat British forces under Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton at the battle in South Carolina.
1799 – Maltese patriot Dun Mikiel Xerri, along with a number of other patriots, was executed.
1852 – The United Kingdom recognizes the independence of the Boer colonies of the Transvaal.
1873 – A group of Modoc warriors defeat the United States Army in the First Battle of the Stronghold, a part of the Modoc War.
1885 – A British force defeats a large Dervish army at the Battle of Abu Klea in the Sudan.
1893 – The Citizen s Committee of Public Safety, led by Lorrin A. Thurston overthrows the government of Queen Liliuokalani of the Kingdom of Hawaii.
1899 – The United States takes possession of Wake Island in the Pacific Ocean.
1904 – Anton Chekhov s The Cherry Orchard receives its premiere performance at the Moscow Art Theatre.
1912 – Sir Robert Falcon Scott (Scott of the Antarctic) reaches the South Pole, one month after Roald Amundsen.
1913 – Raymond Poincaré is elected President of France.
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 appears in the Thimble Theatre comic strip.
1941 – Kuomintang forces under orders from Chiang Kai-Shek open fire at communist forces, resuming the Chinese Civil War after World War II.
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, first airs.
1950 – The Great Brinks Robbery – 11 thieves steal more than $2 million from an armored car Company s offices in Boston, Massachusetts.
1961 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivers a televised farewell address to the nation three days before leaving office, in which he warns against the accumulation of power by the military-industrial complex.
1966 – A B-52 bomber collides with a KC-135 Stratotanker over Spain, dropping three 70-kiloton nuclear bombs near the town of Palomares and another one into the sea in the Palomares incident.
1973 – Ferdinand Marcos becomes President for Life of the Philippines.
1977 – Convicted murderer Gary Gilmore is executed by a firing squad in Utah, ending a ten-year moratorium on Capital punishment in the United States.
1982 – Cold Sunday in the United States would see temperatures fall to their lowest levels in over 100 years in numerous cities.
1985 – British Telecom announces the retirement of the United Kingdom s red telephone boxes.
1989 – Stockton massacre: Patrick Purdy opens fire with an assault rifle at the Cleveland Elementary School playground, killing five children and wounding 29 others and one teacher before taking his own life.
1991 – Gulf War: Operation Desert Storm begins 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.
1994 – 1994 Northridge Earthquake: A magnitude 6.7 earthquake hits Northridge, California.
1995 – The Great Hanshin earthquake: A magnitude 7.3 earthquake hits near Kobe, Japan, causing extensive property damage and killing 6,434 people.
1996 – The Czech Republic applies for membership of the European Union.
1997 – A Delta 2 carrying a GPS2R satellite explodes 13 seconds after launch, dropping 250 tons of burning rocket remains around the launch pad.
1998 – Paula Jones accuses President Bill Clinton of sexual harassment.
2001 – President Bill Clinton posthumously raises Meriwether Lewis rank from Lieutenant to Captain.
2002 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, displacing an estimated 400,000 people.
2007 – The Doomsday Clock is set to five minutes to midnight in response to North Korea nuclear testing.
Births
1463 – Friedrich III, Elector of Saxony (d. 1525)
1484 – George Spalatin, German reformer (d. 1545)
1501 – Leonhart Fuchs, German physician and botanist (d. 1566)
1504 – Pope Pius V (d. 1572)
1560 – Gaspard Bauhin, Swiss botanist (d. 1624)
1600 – Pedro Calderon de la Barca, Spanish playwright (d. 1681)
1612 – Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron, English Civil War general (d. 1671)
1666 – Antonio Maria Valsalva, Italian anatomist (d. 1723)
1686 – Archibald Bower, Scottish historian (d. 1766)
1706 – Benjamin Franklin American statesman (d. 1790)
1712 – John Stanley, English composer (d. 1786)
1719 – William Vernon, American merchant (d. 1806)
1732 – King Stanislaw II August Poniatowski of Poland (d. 1798)
1734 – François-Joseph Gossec, Belgian composer (d. 1829)
1761 – James Hall, Scottish geologist (d. 1832)
1789 – August Neander, German theologian (d. 1850)
1798 – Auguste Comte, French sociologist (d. 1857)
1814 – Mrs. Henry Wood, English novelist (d. 1887)
1820 – Anne Brontë, British author (d. 1849)
1828 – Eduard Remenyi, Hungarian violinist (d. 1898)
1828 – Lewis A. Grant, American Civil War general (d. 1918)
1831 – Archduchess Elisabeth Franziska of Austria (d. 1903)
1832 – Henry Martyn Baird, American educationalist (d. 1906)
1834 – August Weismann, German biologist (d. 1914)
1850 – Aleksandr Taneyev, Russian composer (d. 1918)
1851 – A. B. Frost, American illustrator (d. 1928)
1853 – Alva Belmont, American socialite (d. 1933)
1857 – Eugene Augustin Lauste, French inventor (d. 1935)
1857 – Wilhelm Kienzl, Austrian composer (d. 1941)
1858 – Tomás Carrasquilla, Colombian writer (d. 1940)
1860 – Douglas Hyde, Irish politician (d. 1949)
1863 – David Lloyd George, British Prime Minister (d. 1945)
1863 – Constantin Stanislavski, Russian theatre practitioner (d. 1938)
1865 – Charles Fergusson, Governor-General of New Zealand (d. 1951)
1867 – Carl Laemmle, German-born film executive (d. 1939)
1871 – David Earl Beatty British admiral (d. 1936)
1871 – Nicolae Iorga, Romanian writer (d. 1940)
1875 – Florencio Sánchez, Uruguayan dramatist (d. 1910)
1876 – Frank Hague, American politician (d. 1956)
1877 – May Gibbs, Australian children s author (d. 1969)
1880 – Mack Sennett, Canadian film director (d. 1960)
1881 – Antoni Lomnicki, Polish mathematician (d. 1941)
1882 – Noah Beery, Sr., American actor (d. 1946)
1883 – Sir Compton Mackenzie, Scottish novelist (d. 1972)
1886 – Ronald Firbank, British novelist (d. 1926)
1886 – Glenn L. Martin, American aviation pioneer (d. 1955)
1887 – Ola Raknes, Norwegian psychoanalyst and philologist (d. 1975)
1897 – Marcel Petiot, French mass murderer (d. 1946)
1899 – Al Capone, American gangster (d. 1947)
1899 – Nevil Shute, English author (d. 1960)
1901 – Aron Gurwitsch, Lithuanian-born philosopher (d. 1973)
1903 – Jyoti Prasad Agarwala, Assamese poet, playwright, film maker (d. 1953)
1905 – Guillermo Stábile, Argentine footballer (d. 1966)
1905 – Peggy Gilbert, American jazz saxophonist and bandleader (d. 2007)
1905 – Ray Cunningham, American baseball player (d. 2005)
1907 – Henk Badings, Dutch composer (d. 1987)
1908 – Cus D Amato, American boxing manager (d. 1985)
1911 – George Joseph Stigler, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1991)
1914 – William Stafford, American poet and essayist (d. 1993)
1914 – Anacleto Angelini, Chilean businessman (d. 2007)
1914 – Irving Brecher, American Screenwriter
1917 – M. G. Ramachandran, Indian politician, actor (d. 1987)
1917 – Ramón Cardemil, Chilean huaso (d. 2007)
1918 – Keith Joseph, British politician (d. 1994)
1921 – Antonio Prohias, Cuban cartoonist (d. 1998)
1922 – Luis Echeverría Álvarez, Mexican politician
1922 – Nicholas Katzenbach, American politician
1922 – Betty White, American actress
1923 – Carol Raye, Australian actress
1925 – Robert Cormier, American author (d. 2000)
1925 – Abdul Kardar, Pakistani cricketer (d. 1996)
1925 – Edgar Ray Killen, American convict
1925 – Patricia Owens, Canadian actress (d. 2000)
1926 – Newton N. Minow, American lawyer and statesman
1926 – Moira Shearer, Scottish actress (d. 2006)
1927 – Tom Dooley, American humanitarian (d. 1961)
1927 – Norman Kaye, Australian actor and musician (d. 2007)
1927 – Eartha Kitt, American actress and singer (d. 2008)
1928 – Jean Barraqué, French composer (d. 1973)
1928 – Vidal Sassoon, English cosmetologist
1929 – Jacques Plante, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1986)
1930 – Eddie LeBaron, American football player
1931 – James Earl Jones, American actor
1931 – L. Douglas Wilder, American politician
1931 – Don Zimmer, American baseball coach
1932 – Sheree North, American actress (d. 2005)
1933 – Dalida, French singer (d. 1987)
1933 – Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, French-born Pakistani diplomat (d. 2003)
1933 – Shari Lewis, American ventriloquist (d. 1998)
1935 – Ruth Ann Minner, Governor of Delaware
1937 – Alain Badiou, French philosopher
1939 – Maury Povich, American talk show host
1940 – Kipchoge Keino, Kenyan runner
1941 – Dame Gillian Weir, New Zealand organist
1942 – Muhammad Ali, American boxer
1942 – Ita Buttrose, Australian journalist and businesswoman
1942 – Ulf Hoelscher, German violinist
1942 – Nancy Parsons, American actress (d. 2001)
1943 – René Préval, President of Haiti
1943 – Geoffrey Deuel, American actor
1943 – Chris Montez, American singer
1944 – Françoise Hardy, French singer
1945 – Javed Akhtar, Indian lyricist, poet and scriptwriter
1946 – Michèle Deslauriers, Quebec actress
1948 – Davíð Oddsson, former Prime Minister of Iceland
1948 – Jim Ladd, American freeform (radio format) Disc Jockey
1948 – Anne Queffélec, French pianist
1949 – Mick Taylor, British musician (The Rolling Stones)
1949 – Andy Kaufman, American comedian (d. 1984)
1950 – Luis López Nieves, Latin American writer
1952 – Darrell Porter, American baseball player (d. 2002)
1952 – Larry Fortensky, American former husband of Elizabeth Taylor
1952 – Ryuichi Sakamoto, Japanese musician
1954 – Susan Kiefel, Australian lawyer and judge
1954 – Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., son of Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Kennedy
1955 – Steve Earle, American musician
1956 – Paul Young, English musician
1957 – Keith Chegwin, English television presenter
1957 – Steve Harvey, American actor, comedian and radio personality
1957 – Ann Nocenti, American comic book writer
1957 – Michel Vaarten, Belgian cyclist
1959 – Susanna Hoffs, American musician
1959 – Momoe Yamaguchi, Japanese singer and actress
1960 – John Crawford, American musician
1960 – Chili Davis, Jamaican-born American baseball player
1960 – Chatchai Plengpanich, Thai actor
1961 – Brian Helgeland, American writer and film director
1961 – Maia Chiburdanidze, Russian women s Chess grandmaster
1962 – Jim Carrey, Canadian actor and comedian
1962 – Sebastian Junger, American journalist and author
1963 – Kai Hansen, German singer and guitarist (Gamma Ray)
1964 – Andy Rourke, English bass guitarist (The Smiths)
1964 – Michelle Obama, wife of Barack Obama
1965 – Sylvain Turgeon, Canadian ice hockey player
1965 – Nikos Nioplias, Greek footballer
1966 – Stephin Merritt, American singer and songwriter (The Magnetic Fields, The 6ths, The Gothic Archies)
1966 – Joshua Malina, American actor
1966 – Shabba Ranks, Jamaican singer
1967 – Richard Hawley, English singer and songwriter (Pulp, The Longpigs)
1967 – Filippo Raciti, Italian police officer (d. 2007)
1967 – Song Kang-ho, South Korean actor
1968 – Craig Strong, American actor & voice actor
1968 – Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer, Dutch writer
1968 – Svetlana Masterkova, Russian athlete
1969 – Lukas Moodysson, Swedish film writer and director
1969 – Naveen Andrews, British actor
1969 – Tijs Verwest, (DJ Tiësto) Dutch DJ
1970 – Jeremy Roenick, American ice hockey player
1970 – Genndy Tartakovsky, Russian-born animator
1970 – James Wattana, Thai snooker player
1971 – Kid Rock, American singer
1971 – Richard Burns, English rally driver (d. 2005)
1971 – Leonardo Ciampa, Italian-American musician
1971 – Youki Kudoh, Japanese actress
1971 – Sylvie Testud, French actress
1971 – Ann Wolfe, female boxer
1972 – Ken Hirai, Japanese singer and songwriter
1972 – Benno Fürmann, German actor
1973 – Cuauhtémoc Blanco, Mexican footballer
1973 – Liz Ellis, Australian netball captain
1973 – Aaron Ward, Canadian ice hockey player
1974 – Yang Chen, Chinese footballer
1974 – Derrick Mason, American football player
1974 – Vesko Kountchev, Bulgarian musician
1975 – Tom Jenkinson, English musician (Squarepusher)
1975 – Freddy Rodriguez, Puerto Rican-American actor
1975 – Rami Yacoub, Swedish songwriter/producer
1977 – Kevin Fertig, American professional wrestler
1977 – Leigh Whannell, Australian screenwriter/actor
1980 – Zooey Deschanel, American actress
1980 – Maksim Chmerkovskiy, Ukrainian ballroom dancer
1980 – Kimberly Spicer, American model
1980 – Gareth McLearnon, Northern Irish flautist
1981 – Warren Feeney, Northern Irish footballer
1981 – Scott Mechlowicz, American actor
1981 – Ray J, American R&B singer
1982 – Dwyane Wade, American basketball player
1982 – Amanda Wilkinson, Canadian singer
1983 – Alvaro Arbeloa, Spanish Footballer
1983 – Johannes Herber, German basketball player
1983 – Andrea Lowell, American model
1983 – Rick Kelly, Australian racing driver
1983 – Julie Budet, French Electronic-Pop Musician
1985 – Simone Simons, Dutch singer (Epica)
1985 – Riyu Kosaka, Japanese singer BeForU
1985 – Kang-In, South Korean singer (Super Junior)
1995 – Connor Cruise, American actor; adopted son of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman
Deaths
395 – Theodosius I, Roman Emperor
1229 – Albert of Buxhoeveden, German soldier
1369 – King Peter I of Cyprus (murdered) (b. 1328)
1468 – Skanderbeg, Albanian leader (b. 1405)
1598 – Fyodor I Tsar of Russia (b. 1557)
1617 – Faust Vrancic, Croatian inventor (b. 1551)
1654 – Paulus Potter, Dutch painter (b. 1625)
1705 – John Ray, English naturalist (b. 1627)
1718 – Captain Benjamin Church, Plymouth Colony settler and military leader
1737 – Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann, German architect (b. 1662)
1738 – Jean-François Dandrieu, French composer (b. 1682)
1751 – Tomaso Albinoni, Italian composer (b. 1671)
1826 – Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga, Spanish composer (b. 1806)
1834 – Giovanni Aldini, Italian physicist (b. 1762)
1861 – Lola Montez, Irish-born adventurer (b. 1821)
1863 – Horace Vernet, French painter (b. 1789)
1869 – Aleksandr Dargomyzhsky, Russian composer (b. 1813)
1874 – Chang and Eng Bunker, Siamese twins (b. 1811)
1884 – Hermann Schlegel, German ornithologist (b. 1804)
1887 – William Giblin, Premier of Tasmania (b. 1840)
1891 – George Bancroft, U.S. historian (b. 1800)
1893 – Rutherford B. Hayes, 19th President of the United States (b. 1822)
1903 – Ignaz Wechselmann, Hungarian architect and philanthropist (b. 1828)
1908 – Ferdinand IV Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1835)
1909 – Sir Francis Smith, Premier of Tasmania (b. 1819)
1911 – Sir Francis Galton, English polymath, anthropologist, eugenicist (b. 1822)
1927 – Juliette Gordon Low, American founder of the Girl Scouts of the USA (b. 1860)
1931 – Grand Duke Peter Nikolaevich of Russia, son of Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich (b. 1864)
1932 – Albert Jacka, VC, Australian soldier (b. 1893)
1933 – Louis Comfort Tiffany, American artist and designer (b. 1848)
1936 – Mateiu Caragiale, Romanian author (b. 1885)
1942 – Walther von Reichenau, German field marshal (b. 1884)
1947 – Pyotr Krasnov, Russian counter-revolutionary (b. 1869)
1947 – Jean-Marie-Rodrigue Villeneuve, French Archbishop of Quebec (b. 1883)
1952 – Walter Briggs, Sr., American entrepreneur and sports team owner (b. 1877)
1961 – Patrice Lumumba, Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (b. 1925)
1964 – T.H. White, English author (b. 1906)
1967 – Evelyn Nesbit, American actress (b. 1884)
1970 – Simon Kovar, Russian-American bassoonist (b. 1890)
1970 – Billy Stewart, American singer (b. 1937)
1972 – Betty Smith, American writer and singer (b. 1896)
1977 – Gary Gilmore, American murderer (b. 1940)
1977 – Dougal Haston, Scottish mountaineer (b. 1940)
1981 – Loukas Panourgias, Greek footballer (b. 1899)
1983 – Doodles Weaver, American actor (b. 1911)
1987 – Hugo Fregonese, Argentine film director (b. 1908)
1991 – King Olav V of Norway (b. 1903)
1992 – Frank Pullen, English businessman and racehorse owner (b. 1915)
1993 – Albert Hourani, English historian (b. 1915)
1994 – Helen Stephens, American runner (b. 1918)
1994 – Yevgeny Ivanov, Soviet spy involved in the Profumo affair (b. 1926)
1996 – Amber Hagerman, American namesake of the Amber Alert system (b. 1986)
1996 – Barbara Jordan, American politician (b. 1936)
1996 – Mostafa Sid Ahmed, Sudanese singer (b. 1953)
1997 – Clyde Tombaugh, American astronomer (b. 1906)
1997 – Bert Kelly, Australian politician (b. 1912)
1998 – Junior Kimbrough, American bluesman (b. 1930)
1999 – Robert Eads, American transsexual (b. 1945)
2000 – Philip Jones, British trumpeter (b. 1928)
2001 – Gregory Corso, American poet (b. 1930)
2002 – Bishop Karas, Sudanese-born American religious leader (b. 1955)
2002 – Camilo Jose Cela, Spanish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1916)
2002 – Queenie Leonard, American actress (b. 1905)
2003 – Richard Crenna, American actor (b. 1926)
2003 – Balint Vazsonyi, Hungarian pianist (b. 1936)
2004 – Harry Brecheen, American baseball player (b. 1914)
2004 – Czeslaw Niemen, Polish musician (b. 1939)
2004 – Ray Stark, American stage and film producer (b. 1915)
2004 – Noble Willingham, American actor (b. 1931)
2005 – Charlie Bell, Australian fast food executive (b. 1960)
2005 – Virginia Mayo, American actress (b. 1920)
2005 – Albert Schatz, American microbiologist (b. 1920)
2005 – Zhao Ziyang, Premier of the People s Republic of China (b. 1919)
2006 – Clarence Ray Allen, American murderer (b. 1930)
2006 – Pierre Grondin, French Canadian cardiac surgeon (b. 1925)
2007 – Art Buchwald, American humorist (b. 1925)
2007 – Yevhen Kushnaryov, Ukrainian politician (b. 1951)
2008 – Bobby Fischer, American chess player (b. 1943)
2008 – Ernie Holmes, American football player (b. 1948)
2008 – Allan Melvin, American actor (b. 1923)
Holidays and observances
Ancient Latvia – Zirgu Diena observed
Catholicism – Feast day of the following saints:
St. Anthony
Bl. Amelbert
Sulpitius the Pious
Mildgytha
Eastern (Byzantine) Catholic Church: Venerable Anthony the Great
January 17 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
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