Merriam-Webster dictionary defines history as a branch of knowledge that records and explains past events. It’s a chronological record of significant events often including an explanation of their causes. The earliest known use of the word history was in the 14th century.
This website utilizes entries from Wikipedia to extract historical events from 3761 BC up to the present. There are currently 105,060 records in our database. The present day Gregorian calendar was adopted to show dates of interest.
Let us begin with what happened today in history. You may also enter a specific day using the form on the right sidebar. It is optional to input the year. If you do give a complete date with month, day and year then only events that happened on that specific date will be shown.
About January 17
January 17, 2022 is the 17th day of the year 2022 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 348 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Monday.
You can browse the full year calendar in case you need it.
Capricorn is the sun 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 15 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year.
What Happened On January 17
- 1773 –Captain James Cook and his crew become the first Europeans to sail below the Antarctic Circle.
- 1811 –Mexican War of Independence: In the Battle of Calderón Bridge, a heavily outnumbered Spanish force of 6,000 troops defeats nearly 100,000 Mexican revolutionists.
- 1941 –Franco-Thai War: French forces inflict a decisive victory over the Royal Thai Navy.
- 1945 –Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg is taken into Soviet custody while in Hungary; he is never publicly seen again.
- 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.
- 1981 –President of the Philippines Ferdinand Marcos lifts martial law eight years and five months after declaring it.
- 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.
- 2007 –The Doomsday Clock is set to five minutes to midnight in response to North Korea nuclear testing.
- 2008 –British Airways Flight 38 crash lands just short of London Heathrow Airport in England with no fatalities. It is the first complete hull loss of a Boeing 777.
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