Wikipedia defines history as the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. It came from the Greek word ‘historia’ – which means ‘inquiry, knowledge acquired by investigation’.
Did you know? There are many who claim Herodotus, a fifth century BC Greek historian, as the “father of history”.
This website utilizes pages from Wikipedia to extract historical events from 3761 BC up to the present. There are 105,060 records in the database that include events, births and deaths of popular individuals. The present day Gregorian calendar was adopted to show dates of interest.
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What are the important events that happened on January 17? Here are historical events, facts, and some myths about this day.
January 17: Facts & Myths About This Day
January 17 is the 17th day of the year 2025 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 348 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Friday.
Under the Julian calendar, this day is January 4, 2025 – a Friday. Both day of the week are the same but did you notice the difference with the Gregorian calendar?
When this day started, 482,520 hours has elapsed since midnight of January 1, 1970 – the Unix epoch.
Strange as it may, if we name this day after a polygon then it will be called ‘heptadecagon’ day.
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Capricorn is the zodiac sign of a person born on this day. Garnet is the modern birthstone for this month. Emerald is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years.
According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 12 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year.
The ancient Maya civilization believes that the end of the world will happen on December 21, 2012. There are now 4,410 days since this fabled cataclysmic event.
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January 17 Historical Events
- 1595 –Henry IV of France declares war on Spain.
- 1917 –The United States pays Denmark $25 million for the Virgin Islands.
- 1944 –World War II: Allied forces launch the first of four battles with the intention of breaking through the Winter Line and seizing Rome, an effort that would ultimately take four months and cost 105,000 Allied casualties.
- 1995 –The Great Hanshin earthquake: A magnitude 7.3 earthquake hits near Kobe, Japan, causing extensive property damage and killing 6,434 people.
- 2002 –Mount Nyiragongo erupts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, displacing an estimated 400,000 people.
Who were born on January 17?
- 1504 –Pope Saint Pius V (d. 1572)
- 1952 –Larry Fortensky, American former husband of Elizabeth Taylor
- 1968 –Craig Strong, American actor & voice actor
- 1971 –Kid Rock, American singer
- 1973 –Aaron Ward, Canadian ice hockey player
Who died on January 17?
- 395 –Theodosius I, Roman Emperor (b. 347)
- 1956 –Blind Alfred Reed, American folk, country, and old-time musician (b. 1880)
- 1997 –Clyde Tombaugh, American astronomer (b. 1906)
- 2005 –Charlie Bell, Australian fast food executive (b. 1960)
- 2011 –Don Kirshner, American composer (b. 1934)
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