Today is Friday, Jan. 17, the 17th day of 2020 with 349 to follow.
The moon is waning. Morning stars are Jupiter, Mars and Uranus. Evening stars are Neptune, Uranus and Venus.
Those born on this date are under the sign of Capricorn. They include Pope Pius V in 1504; American statesman/scientist/author Benjamin Franklin in 1706; author Anne Bronte in 1820; British statesman David Lloyd George in 1863; U.S. gangster Al Capone in 1899; English novelist Nevil Shute in 1899; actor Betty White in 1922 (age 98); singer Eartha Kitt in 1927; beauty specialist Vidal Sassoon in 1928; actor James Earl Jones in 1931 (age 89); Douglas Wilder, first black governor elected in U.S., in 1931 (age 89); puppeteer Shari Lewis in 1933; talk show host Maury Povich in 1939 (age 81); Olympic gold medal-winning runner Kipchoge Keino in 1940 (age 80); heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali in 1942; comedian Andy Kaufman in 1949; former Rolling Stones member Mick Taylor in 1949 (age 71); musician Steve Earle in 1955 (age 65); comedian Steve Harvey in 1957 (age 63); comic actor Jim Carrey in 1962 (age 58); writer Sebastian Junger in 1962 (age 58); U.S. first lady Michelle Obama in 1964 (age 56); rapper Lil Jon, born Jonathan Smith, in 1971 (age 49); singer Kid Rock, born Robert James Ritchie, in 1971 (age 49); dancer Maksim Chmerkovskiy in 1980 (age 40); actor Zooey Deschanel in 1980 (age 40); rapper Ray J, born William Ray Norwood, in 1981 (age 39); pro basketball star Dwyane Wade in 1982 (age 38); DJ Calvin Harris in 1984 (age 36); actor Lucy Boynton in 1994 (age 26).
On this date in history:
In 1605, Don Quixote was published.
In 1806, the first baby, James Madison Randolph, was born in the White House. He was the grandson of President Thomas Jefferson.
In 1871, Andrew Hallikie received a patent for a cable car system that went into service in San Francisco in 1873.
In 1893, Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii was deposed in a bloodless revolution and a provisional government was established, with annexation by the United States as its aim.
In 1912, one month late to the party, Captain Robert Falcon Scott arrives at the South Pole. Ronald Amundsen got there first.
In 1917, the United States bought 50 of the Virgin Islands in the West Indies from Denmark for $25 million.
In 1920, Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman, having been deported from the United States, announced that they intend to organize a great society in Soviet Russia, its prime objective would be the promotion of “social revolution in the United States.”
In 1929, Popeye, his spinach, and his “guns” debut in the comic strip, Thimble Theatre.
In 1946, the U.N. Security Council met for the first time.
In 1950, an 11-member gang staged a $1.5 million robbery of a Brink’s armored car in Boston.
In 1966, a U.S. B-52 bomber carrying four hydrogen bombs collided with its refueling plane over Palomares, Spain, scattering radioactive plutonium over the area.
In 1977, convicted killer Gary Gilmore was executed by firing squad in Utah. It was the first execution since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty the previous year.
In 1991, Harald V became king of Norway after the death of his father, King Olav V.
In 1994, a pre-dawn earthquake struck the Los Angeles area, claiming 61 lives and causing widespread damage.
In 1995, a powerful earthquake rocked Kobe, Japan, and the surrounding area, killing about 5,500 people.
In 1996, Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman was sentenced to life in prison and 16 others were also sentenced for plotting to bomb the United Nations.
In 1998, U.S. President Bill Clinton denied in a sworn deposition that he had an affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
In 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Oregon’s assisted-suicide law by a 6-3 vote. It allowed doctors to help mentally competent terminally ill patients end their lives.
In 2013, U.S. cyclist Lance Armstrong, in an interview broadcast on OWN (the Oprah Winfrey Network), said he used banned substances and blood transfusions in all of his Tour de France wins.
In 2017, President Barack Obama commuted the sentence of Chelsea Manning, the former Army intelligence whistleblower who leaked classified information to WikiLeaks in 2010.
In 2019, a judge in India sentenced guru Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and his aids to life in prison for killing a journalist who exposed his rape of two followers.
A thought for the day: “Who would be a goody that could be a genius?” — American writer/activist Margaret Fuller
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