January 17
Today in America's Present Past
1706 | Founder Benjamin Franklin was born.
1719 | Entrepreneur William Vernon was born.
1759 | Entrepreneur free African-American Paul Cuffee was born.
1771 | Novelist Charles Brockden Brown was born.
1779 | War of Independence: American forces beat the British troops at the Battle of Cowpens, South Carolina.
1806 | POTUS: James Madison Randolph (President Jefferson’s grandson) was the first child born in the White House.
1829 | Salvation Army co-founder Catherine Booth was born.
1833 | Artist William Rush died.
1845 | POTUS: Democratic President John Tyler signed the Treaty of Wanghia.
1871 | Andrew Smith Hallidie patented the first Cable Car in the U.S.
1873 | Indian Wars: Modoc warriors defeat U.S. Army forces at the First Battle of the Stronghold.
1874 | Civil Rights: Armed Democrats take control of the Texas state government to end Reconstruction.
1878 | Boxer Jack O’Brien was born.
1882 | Mobster Arnold Rothstein was born.
1886 | Entrepreneur Glenn Luther Martin was born.
1891 | Historian George Bancroft died.
1893 | Kingdom of Hawaii Queen Liliuokalani was deposed in a coup, establishing the American-led Hawaii Republic.
1893 | POTUS: President Rutherford B. Hayes died.
1899 | Wake Island became a U.S. possession.
1899 | Mobster Al Capone was born.
1900 | Entrepreneur George Sperti was born.
1916 | Golfer Rodman Wanamaker organized a lunch at the Taplow Club, Martinique Hotel, NYC, to discuss a new association (the PGA).
1917 | The U.S. and Denmark completed the $25 million transaction for the Virgin Islands.
1922 | Actress Betty White was born.
1926 | Comedian George Burns wed Gracie Allen.
1927 | Girl Scout founder Juliette Gordon Low died.
1929 | The comic strip “Popeye” debuted.
1931 | Actor James Earl Jones was born.
1933 | Artist Louis Comfort Tiffany died.
1938 | Joesph P. Kennedy became the U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom.
1942 | Boxer Muhammad Ali was born.
1946 | The U.N. holds its first Security Council meeting.
1946 | Actor John Wayne wed Esperanza Baur.
1949 | Actor Andy Kaufman was born.
1950 | 11 men rob 2.7 million from the armored car company Brinks in Boston, Massachusetts.
1952 | Entrepreneur Walter O Briggs died.
1955 | U.S. Navy’s maiden voyage of the USS Nautilus, the world’s first nuclear submarine.
1961 | POTUS: Republican President Eisenhower delivered his Farewell Address.
1972 | Novelist Betty Smith died.
1984 | SCOTUS rules (5-4) that private home use of VCRs to tape TV is permitted.
1987 | POTUS: Republican President Reagan signs an order permitting the covert sale of arms to Iran.
2007 | Columnist Art Buchwald died.
2008 | Chess master Bobby Fischer died.
2017 | POTUS: Democrat President Obama reduces convicted WikiLeaks disclosers’ prison sentence.