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 17^th day of the year 2024 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 349 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Wednesday.

Under the Julian calendar, this day is January 4, 2024 – a Wednesday. Both day of the week are the same but did you notice the difference with the Gregorian calendar?

When this day started, 28,424,160 minutes 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.

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 24 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 4,044 days since this fabled cataclysmic event.

January 17 Historical Events

• 1524 –
  Giovanni da Verrazzano sets sail westward from Madeira to find a sea route to the Pacific Ocean.
• 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.
• 1917 –
  The United States pays Denmark $25 million for the Virgin Islands.
• 1929 –
  Popeye the Sailor Man, a cartoon character created by Elzie Segar, first appears in the Thimble Theatre comic strip.
• 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.
• 1961 –
  U.S. 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”.
• 1969 –
  Black Panther Party members Bunchy Carter and John Huggins are killed during a meeting in Campbell Hall on the campus of UCLA.
• 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.
• 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.
• 1995 –
  The Great Hanshin earthquake: A magnitude 7.3 earthquake hits near Kobe, Japan, causing extensive property damage and killing 6,434 people.

Who were born on January 17?

• 1706 –
  Benjamin Franklin, American statesman and inventor (d. 1790)
• 1897 –
  Marcel Petiot, French mass murderer (d. 1946)
• 1931 –
  Don Zimmer, American baseball coach
• 1933 –
  Dalida, French singer (d. 1987)
• 1933 –
  Shari Lewis, American ventriloquist (d. 1998)
• 1942 –
  Nancy Parsons, American actress (d. 2001)
• 1946 –
  Michèle Deslauriers, Quebec actress
• 1962 –
  Jim Carrey, Canadian actor and comedian
• 1965 –
  Sylvain Turgeon, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1974 –
  Vesko Kountchev, Bulgarian musician

Who died on January 17?

• 1654 –
  Paulus Potter, Dutch painter (b. 1625)
• 1869 –
  Aleksandr Dargomyzhsky, Russian composer (b. 1813)
• 1878 –
  Sir Edward Creasy, English historian (b. 1812)
• 1891 –
  George Bancroft, U.S. historian (b. 1800)
• 1952 –
  Walter Briggs, Sr., American entrepreneur and sports team owner (b. 1877)
• 1956 –
  Blind Alfred Reed, American folk, country, and old-time musician (b. 1880)
• 1996 –
  Amber Hagerman, American namesake of the Amber Alert system (b. 1986)
• 2007 –
  Yevhen Kushnaryov, Ukrainian politician (b. 1951)
• 2008 –
  Bobby Fischer, American chess grandmaster and author (b. 1943)
• 2010 –
  Jyoti Basu, Indian politician (b. 1914)