On This Day — 17 January

2026

Indonesia Air Transport ATR 42 crashed near Mount Bulusaraung in South Sulawesi, after losing contact en route to Makassar.

2026 Indonesia Air Transport ATR 42 crash

2023

An avalanche strikes Nyingchi, Tibet, killing 28 people.

2023 Nyingchi avalanche

2017

The search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is announced to be suspended.

Search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

2016

President Barack Obama announces the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, an agreement intended to limit Iran's nuclear program.

Barack Obama

2013

Former cyclist Lance Armstrong confesses to his doping in an airing of Oprah's Next Chapter.

Lance Armstrong

2013

Shahzad Luqman is murdered by members of Golden Dawn in Petralona, Athens, leading the creation of new measures to combat race-based attacks in Greece.

Murder of Shahzad Luqman

2010

Rioting begins between Muslim and Christian groups in Jos, Nigeria, results in at least 200 deaths.

2010 Jos riots

2008

British Airways Flight 38 crashes short of the runway at Heathrow Airport, injuring 47.

British Airways Flight 38

2007

The Doomsday Clock is set to five minutes to midnight in response to North Korea's nuclear testing.

Doomsday Clock

2002

Mount Nyiragongo erupts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, displacing an estimated 400,000 people.

Mount Nyiragongo

1998

Clinton–Lewinsky scandal: Matt Drudge breaks the story of the Bill Clinton–Monica Lewinsky affair on his Drudge Report website.

Clinton–Lewinsky scandal

1997

Cape Canaveral Air Force Station: A Delta II carrying the GPS IIR-1 satellite explodes 13 seconds after launch, dropping 250 tons of burning rocket remains around the launch pad.

Cape Canaveral Space Force Station

1996

The Czech Republic applies for membership in the European Union.

Czech Republic

1995

The 6.9 Mw  Great Hanshin earthquake shakes the southern Hyōgo Prefecture with a maximum Shindo of 7, leaving 5,502–6,434 people dead, and 251,301–310,000 displaced.

1995 Hanshin earthquake

1994

The 6.7 Mw  Northridge earthquake shakes the Greater Los Angeles Area with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), leaving 57 people dead and more than 8,700 injured.

1994 Northridge earthquake

1992

During a visit to South Korea, Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa apologizes for forcing Korean women into sexual slavery during World War II.

Prime Minister of Japan

1991

Gulf War: Operation Desert Storm begins early in the morning as aircraft strike positions across Iraq, it is also the first major combat sortie for the F-117. LCDR Scott Speicher's F/A-18C Hornet from VFA-81 is shot down by a Mig-25 and is the first American casualty of the War. Iraq fires eight Scud missiles into Israel in an unsuccessful bid to provoke Israeli retaliation.

Gulf War

1991

Crown Prince Harald of Norway becomes King Harald V, following the death of his father, King Olav V.

Harald V

1989

Patrick Purdy opens fire at an elementary school in Stockton, California, killing five and wounding 31 others.

Stockton schoolyard shooting

1981

President of the Philippines Ferdinand Marcos lifts martial law eight years and five months after declaring it.

President of the Philippines

1977

Capital punishment in the United States resumes after a ten-year hiatus, as convicted murderer Gary Gilmore is executed by firing squad in Utah.

Capital punishment in the United States

1969

Black Panther Party members Bunchy Carter and John Huggins are killed during a meeting in Campbell Hall on the campus of UCLA.

Black Panther Party

1966

Palomares incident: A B-52 bomber collides with a KC-135 Stratotanker over Spain, killing seven airmen, and dropping three 70-kiloton nuclear bombs near the town of Palomares and another one into the sea.

1966 Palomares accident

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" as well as the dangers of massive spending, especially deficit spending.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

1961

Former Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba is murdered together with former Minister of Youth and Sports of the Republic of the Congo Maurice Mpolo and former Senator from Kasai Province Joseph Okito in circumstances suggesting the support and complicity of the governments of Belgium and the United States.

First Congolese Republic

1950

The Great Brink's Robbery: Eleven thieves steal more than $2 million from an armored car company's offices in Boston.

Great Brink's Robbery

1950

United Nations Security Council Resolution 79 relating to arms control is adopted.

United Nations Security Council Resolution 79

1948

The Renville Agreement between the Netherlands and Indonesia is ratified.

Renville Agreement

1946

The UN Security Council holds its first session.

United Nations Security Council

1945

World War II: The Vistula–Oder Offensive forces German troops out of Warsaw.

Vistula–Oder offensive

1945

The SS-Totenkopfverbände begin the evacuation of the Auschwitz concentration camp as the Red Army closes in.

SS-Totenkopfverbände

1945

Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg is taken into Soviet custody while in Hungary; he is never publicly seen again.

Raoul Wallenberg

1944

World War II: Allied forces launch the first of four assaults on Monte Cassino 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.

Allies of World War II

1943

World War II: Greek submarine Papanikolis captures the 200-ton sailing vessel Agios Stefanos and mans her with part of her crew.

World War II

1941

Franco-Thai War: Vichy French forces inflict a decisive defeat over the Royal Thai Navy.

Franco-Thai War

1920

Alcohol Prohibition begins in the United States as the Volstead Act goes into effect.

Prohibition in the United States

1918

Finnish Civil War: The first serious battles take place between the Red Guards and the White Guard.

Finnish Civil War

1917

The United States pays Denmark $25 million for the Virgin Islands.

United States Virgin Islands

1915

Russia defeats Ottoman Turkey in the Battle of Sarikamish during the Caucasus Campaign of World War I.

Russia

1912

British polar explorer Captain Robert Falcon Scott reaches the South Pole, one month after Roald Amundsen.

Robert Falcon Scott

1904

Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard receives its premiere performance at the Moscow Art Theatre.

Anton Chekhov

1903

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

El Yunque National Forest

1899

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

Wake Island

1893

Lorrin A. Thurston, along with the Citizens' Committee of Public Safety, led the Overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii and the government of Queen Liliʻuokalani.

Lorrin A. Thurston

1885

A British force defeats a large Dervish army at the Battle of Abu Klea in the Sudan.

Dervish

1873

A group of Modoc warriors defeats the United States Army in the First Battle of the Stronghold, part of the Modoc War.

Modoc people

1852

The United Kingdom signs the Sand River Convention with the South African Republic.

Sand River Convention

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 revolutionaries.

Mexican War of Independence

1799

Maltese patriot Dun Mikiel Xerri, along with a number of other patriots, is executed.

Malta

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.

American Revolutionary War

1773

Captain James Cook leads the first expedition to sail south of the Antarctic Circle.

James Cook

1649

The Second Ormonde Peace creates an alliance between the Irish Royalists and Confederates during the War of the Three Kingdoms. The coalition was then decisively defeated during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland.

Second Ormonde Peace

1648

England's Long Parliament passes the "Vote of No Addresses", breaking off negotiations with King Charles I and thereby setting the scene for the second phase of the English Civil War.

Long Parliament

1608

Emperor Susenyos I of Ethiopia surprises an Oromo army at Ebenat; his army reportedly kills 12,000 Oromo at the cost of 400 of his men.

Susenyos I

1595

During the French Wars of Religion, Henry IV of France declares war on Spain.

French Wars of Religion

1562

France grants religious toleration to the Huguenots in the Edict of Saint-Germain.

Huguenots

1524

Giovanni da Verrazzano sets sail westward from Madeira to find a sea route to the Pacific Ocean.

Giovanni da Verrazzano

1377

Pope Gregory XI reaches Rome, after deciding to move the Papacy back to Rome from Avignon.

Pope Gregory XI

1362

Saint Marcellus' flood kills at least 25,000 people on the shores of the North Sea.

Saint Marcellus's flood

-38

Octavian divorces his wife Scribonia and marries Livia Drusilla, ending the fragile peace between the Second Triumvirate and Sextus Pompey.

Augustus