Today, January 17

1706 – Benjamin Franklin is born in Boston, Massachusetts

1781 – Continental troops under Brigadier General Daniel Morgan defeat British forces under Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton at the Battle of Cowpens in South Carolina.

1873 – A small group of less than 50 Modoc warriors led by Captain Jack (Kintpuash), defeat a force of over 400 troops of the U.S. Army, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Frank Wheaton in the First Battle of the Stronghold, along the south shore of Tule Lake in northeastern California, during the Modoc War.

1893 – Newspaper publisher, and former Minister of the Interior, Lorrin A. Thurston, backed by U.S.  interests, leads the Citizens’ Committee of Public Safety to overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii and the government of Queen Liliuokalani, to form the Republic of Hawaii on Oahu.

1899 – The United States takes possession of Wake Island in the Pacific Ocean

1903 – The El Yunque National Forest in Puerto Rico becomes part of the United States National Forest System as the Luquillo Forest Reserve.

1917 – The United States buys the Virgin Islands from Denmark for $25 million

1920 – Under powers of the 18th amendment to the Constitution, the National Prohibition Act, named after Representative Andrew Volstead,  goes into effect, prohibiting the possession of alcoholic beverages except under government regulation.

1944 – During World War II, allied forces launch the first of four assaults on Monte Cassino in Italy with the intention of breaking through the Winter Line and seizing Rome, an effort that would ultimately take four months and cost 55,000 Allied casualties.

1950 – Thieves steal more than $2 million from the Brink’s armored car company’s offices in Boston.

1961 – President 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” as well as the dangers of massive spending, especially deficit spending.

1966 – A B-52 Stratofortress collides with a KC-135 Stratotanker over Spain, killing 7 airmen, and dropping 3 70-kiloton nuclear bombs near the town of Palomares and another one into the sea.

1977 – Gary Gilmore, convicted for multiple murders and sentenced to death, is executed by firing squad at the state prison in Draper, Utah, the first person executed after the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty.

1991 – During the opening of the air campaign of Operation Desert Storm, LCDR Scott Speicher of VFA-81  flying off the USS Saratoga, in a F/A-18C Hornet is shot down by a Mig-25 and killed, the first American casualty of the War.
Later in the day over southwestern Iraq, LCDR Mark Fox and LT Nick Mongilio of VFA-81 each engage and shoot down Iraqi MiG-21 aircraft, the only US Navy air victories of the war.
Iraq fires 8 Scud missiles into Israel.

1994 – An earthquake measuring 6.7 on the Richter scale hits the Northridge area of greater Los Angeles, leaving 57 people dead and more than 8,700 injured.

1998 – The Bill Clinton–Monica Lewinsky affair is made public.

2016 – President Obama announces the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or in other words a new nuclear deal with Iran.