January 17 is traditionally the “Ditch Your New Year’s Resolutions Day.” It is estimated that 40% of the population makes New Year’s Resolutions and 8% keep them.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a public holiday. It is a day off for the general population, and schools and most businesses are closed.
National Hot Buttered Rum Day
395 – Emperor Theodosius I died in Milan; the Roman Empire was re-divided into an eastern and a western half. The Eastern Roman Empire (which became the Byzantine Empire) was centered in Constantinople (now Istanbul) under Arcadius, 12 year-old son of Theodosius, and the Western Roman Empire in Mediolanum (ancient Milan) under Honorius, his brother (aged 10). Theodosius I was Roman Emperor from 379 to 395, the last emperor to rule over the entire Roman Empire.
1377 – Pope Gregory XI moved the Papacy back to Rome from Avignon. The papacy had been centered in Avignon, France since 1309. Seven popes resided in France. Gregory XI died 27 March 1378. The College of Cardinals was pressured into choosing an Italian pope – Urban VI. Soon after, the cardinals regretted selecting Urban and returned to Avignon (called the Western Schism) and elected a French Pope, the antipope, Clement VII. The church had two popes until 1418.
Birthday of Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706), Founding Father of America. He was a leading printer, statesman, inventor and diplomat. Author of “Poor Richard’s Almanac“. Inventor of the lightning rod, bifocals, the Franklin stove, and a carriage odometer.
Captain James Cook and his crew on the HMS Resolution circumnavigated the globe at an extreme southern latitude, becoming one of the first to cross the Antarctic Circle on this date in 1773.
Birthday of David Lloyd George (January 17, 1863), British Prime Minister 1916-1922. He is the only Prime Minister to have been Welsh and to have spoken English as a second language.
1873 – A group of Modoc warriors defeated the United States Army in the First Battle of the Stronghold (now called Captain Jack’s Stronghold) in Northern California. Part of Lava Beds National Monument today.
Birthday of Mack Sennett (born Mikall Sinnott) (January 17, 1880), movie creator (Keystone Kops), innovator of slapstick comedy in film.
1893 Rutherford B. Hayes, the 19th president of the United States (from 1877 to 1881), died in Fremont, Ohio, at age 70 of complications of a heart attack.
Birthday of Al Capone (January 17, 1899), the American gangster and prohibition era crime leader.
On Jan. 17, 1912, English explorer Robert Falcon Scott led a party of five which reached the South Pole on 17 January 1912, only to find that they had been preceded by Roald Amundsen’s Norwegian expedition. On their return journey, Scott and his four comrades all died from a combination of exhaustion, starvation and extreme cold.
Commander Taussig of the U.S. Navy took possession of Wake Island in the Pacific Ocean for the United States in 1899. It was intended to be used as a telegraph cable station. Today it is the location of the Wake Island Airfield, managed by the United States Air Force, and a missile facility operated by the U. S. Army. It is part of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument
1917 – The United States paid Denmark $25 million for the Virgin Islands.
The 18th Amendment to the Constitution took effect on January 17, 1920 (Prohibition) when the Volstead Act went into effect. It was repealed in 1933 with ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Birthday of Betty White (January 17, 1922), Actress (“The Golden Girls“, “The Mary Tyler Moore Show“, “Hot in Cleveland“)
1929 – Popeye the Sailor Man, a cartoon character created by Elzie Segar, first appeared in the Thimble Theatre comic strip.
I’m Popeye the Sailor Man,
I’m Popeye the Sailor Man.
I’m strong to the finich (sic)
Cause I eats me spinach.
I’m Popeye the Sailor Man.
1949 – The Goldbergs, the first sitcom on American television, first aired. It was a domestic comedy featuring the life of a Jewish family liiving in the Bronx. It was written by, directed by, and starred Gertrude Berg.
1961 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered a televised farewell address to the nation three days before leaving office, in which he warned against the accumulation of power by the “military-industrial complex”.
Birthday of Michelle Obama (January 17, 1964), wife of Barack Obama; First Lady 2009-Jan 20, 2017.
Gulf War: Operation Desert Storm begins early in the morning of January 17, 1991. Iraq fired 8 Scud missiles into Israel in an unsuccessful bid to provoke Israeli retaliation.