TODAY HISTORY LESSON: JANUARY 17
1746 Charles Edward Stuart, the young pretender, defeats the government forces at the battle of Falkirk in Scotland.
1773 Captain James Cook becomes the first person to cross the Antarctic Circle.
1775 9 old women burnt as witches for causing bad harvests, Kalisk, Poland
1806 James Madison Randolph, the grandson of Thomas Jefferson, became the first child born in the White House.
1861 Flush toilet (with separate water tank and a pull chain) patented by Mr Thomas Crapper
1873 A group of Modoc warriors defeats the United States Army in the First Battle of the Stronghold, a part of the Modoc War
1874 Armed Democrats seize Texas government ending Radical Reconstruction
1893 Queen Liliuokalani, the Hawaiian monarch, is overthrown by a group of American sugar planters led by Sanford Ballard Dole.
1900 Mormon Brigham Roberts was denied a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives for his practicing of polygamy.
1900 Yaqui Indians in Texas proclaimed their independence from Mexico.
1912 Robert Scott reaches the South Pole only a month after Roald Amundsen.
1929 Popeye makes 1st appearance, in comic strip “Thimble Theatre”
1934 Ferdinand Porsche submitted a design for a people’s car, a “Volkswagen,” to the new German Reich government.
1939 The Reich issues an order forbidding Jews to practice as dentists, veterinarians and chemists.
1945 Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, credited with saving tens of thousands of Jews from the Nazis, arrested by secret police in Hungary
1946 The UN Security Council holds its first session
1961 Patrice Lumumba is murdered with support from western governments
1977 Double murderer Gary Gilmore became the first to be executed in the U.S. in a decade. The firing squad took place at Utah State Prison.
1979 Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi flees Iran
1984 Supreme Court rules (5-4) private use of home VCRs to tape TV programs for later viewing does not violate federal copyright laws
1985 A jury in New Jersey rules that terminally ill patients have the right to starve themselves.
1989 Gunman opens fire in California schoolyard; 5 students slain, 30 wounded
1991 Operation Desert Storm begins, with US-led coalition forces bombing Iraq, during the Gulf War
1997 Israel gave over 80% of Hebron to Palestinian rule, but held the remainder where several hundred Jewish settlers lived among 20,000 Palestinians.
1998 U.S. President Clinton gave his deposition in the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit against him. He was the first U.S. President to testify as a defendant in a criminal or civil lawsuit.
2001 Congo’s President Laurent Kabila was shot and killed during a coup attempt. Congolese officials temporarily placed Kabila’s son in charge of the government.
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
