January 17

My mouth is filled with your praise,
declaring your splendor all day long.
 

– Psalm 71:8 

January is:

• National Prune the Fat Month - Prune the fat from your diet by using more prune puree in place of butter or oil in baked goods. (Try some prune puree in your next chocolate cake.) This month is also known as National Prune Breakfast Month. Sponsor: Retail Bakers of America.
  
  
• National Soup Month - This month encourage the eating of more soup. Its just the ticket for the cold winter months. Sponsor: Campbell's Soup Company.

Today Is:

• Fire From the Sky Day - This day commemorates the 1966 Palomares hydrogen bomb incident. Four hydrogen bombs fell from an American B-52 bomber during a refueling accident over the skies of Spain. Two of the bombs spilled radioactive plutonium over the Palomares area.
  
  
• Not the Big One Yet Day - On this day in 1994 Southern California experienced a major earthquake. Lots of damage, but still not the "big one."
  
  
• Professional Boxers Day - Celebrated on the birthday of Muhammad Ali, 3-time winner of the heavy-weight title. On this day we honor all boxers.

Born on this Day

• 1463: Frederick III the Wise, elector of Saxony, protector of Luther
  

• 1501: Leonhard Fuchs, Germany, botanist (History of Plants)
  

• 1504: Pius V, Pope 1566-1572.
  

• 1560: Gaspard Bauhin, Swiss botanist, anatomist; named the potato
  

• 1600: Pedro CaldĒron de la Barca, Spanish poet, dramatist
  

• 1706: American statesman, scientist and author Benjamin Franklin
  

• 1771: Charles Brockden Brown, father of the American novel.
  

• 1806: James Madison Randolph (Jefferson's grandson) 1st born in White House
  

• 1860: Short story writer Anton Chekhov (The Party, The Darling)
  

• 1863: David Lloyd George, British Prime Minister 1916-22
  

• 1880: Mack Sennett, created Keystone Kops
  

• 1883: Actor Noah Beery (Mark of Zorro, Vanishing American, The Drifter)
  

• 1884: Silent movie producer (Michael Sinnott) Mack Sennett (Tillie’s Punctured Romance, Kid’s Auto Race, Mabel’s Married Life, Cannonball, Dizzy Heights and Daring Hearts)
  

• 1899: Gangster Al Capone
  

• 19??: Eddie Carswell (Newsong)
  

• 19??: Teron David (GRitS)
  

• 1922: Actress Betty White
  

• 1926: Ballerina-actress Moira Shearer
  

• 1927: American composer Donald Erb
  

• 1927: Singer-actress Eartha Kitt (C’est Si Bon, Santa Baby) Her birth certificate was not found until 1997. Eartha had always celebrated her birthday as January 26, 1928 -- and she still does.
  

• 1929: Hockey Hall of Famer Jacques Plante
  

• 1931: Actor James Earl Jones
  

• 1933: Actress (Dawn Bethel) Sheree North (Marilyn: The Untold Story, How to be Very Popular, Defenseless, Portrait of a Stripper)
  

• 1934: Ventriloquist and puppeteer Shari (Hurwitz) Lewis
  

• 1937: Actor Troy Donahue (Hawaiian Eye, Parrish, A Summer Place)
  

• 1939: Talk show host Maury Povich
  

• 1942: Heavyweight boxing champion (Cassius Clay) Muhammed Ali, who floats like a butterfly, stings like a bee.
  

• 1945: Rhythm-and-blues singer William Hart (The Delfonics)
  

• 1948: Rock musician Mick Taylor .
  

• 1953: Sheila Hutchinson of the Emotions
  

• 1955: Singer Steve Earle
  

• 1956: Actor David Caruso (N.Y.P.D. Blue, An Officer and a Gentleman)
  

• 1956: Singer Paul Young (Everytime You Go Away)
  

• 1957: Singer Susanna Hoffs (The Bangles)
  

• 1962: Actor-comedian Jim Carrey (Cable Man, Dumb and Dumber, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask, Batman Forever, Finders Keepers, The Duck Factory)
  

• 1966: Singer Shabba Ranks
  

• 1981: Singer Ray J
  

• 1982: Country singer Amanda Wilkinson      

Events in History on this day
  

 

• 0356: Death of St. Anthony the Abbot
  

• 0395: Death of Theodosius; division of Roman Empire into East and West (Often called the beginning of the Middle Ages)
  

• 1156: Death of Andre de Montbard, 5th Master of the Templars
  

• 1328: Louis IV crowned Holy Roman Emperor
  

• 1465: Johann Guntenberg granted a civil pension for services to Mainz, Germany
  

• 1549: Arrest of Thomas Seymour
  

• 1562: French Protestants (Hugenots)were recognized under the Edict of St. Germain.
  

• 1595: Henry IV, King of France, declares his intention to war on Spain
  

• 1601: Treaty of Lyons
  

• 1871: 1st Cable Car is patented by Andrew S. Hallidie.
  

• 1806: The first baby was born in the White House, the grandson of President Thomas Jefferson.
  

• 1893: Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii was deposed in a bloodless revolution by a group of businessmen and sugar planters and a provisional government established, with annexation by the United States as its aim.
  

• 1893: The 19th president of the United States, Rutherford B. Hayes, died in Fremont, Ohio, at age 70.
  

• 1900: Yaqui Indians in Texas proclaim their independence from Mexico.
  

• 1902: An earthquake in Mexico City kills 300.
  

• 1910: Thomas Crapper, the supposed inventor and developer of the flush toilet mechanism that most of us use, passed away on this day.
  

• 1911: An assassin attempts to kill Aristide Briand at Palais Bourbon.
  

• 1912: Robert Scott reaches the South Pole only a month after Amundsen.
  

• 1913: Raymond Poincare is elected president of France.
  

• 1916: The Professional Golfers Association (PGA) was formed in New York City.
  

• 1917: The United States bought 50 of the Virgin Islands in the West Indies from Denmark for $25 million.
  

• 1922: U.S. Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes proposes an international board to maintain the open door policy in China.
  

• 1934: The Bach concerto for two violins was performed in New York to raise money to help scientists who had run afoul of Hitler. The second violin part was played by Albert Einstein.
  

• 1935: The League of Nations votes to award Germany the Saar Basin on March 1, 1935.
  

• 1939: Denmark, Estonia, and Latvia sign a non-aggression pact with Germany, while Norway, Sweden and Finland refuse.
  

• 1939: The Reich issues an order forbidding Jews to practice as dentists, veterinarians and chemists.
  

• 1944: Russia rejects a Polish proposal to negotiate a boundary dispute.
  

• 1945: Soviet and Polish forces liberated Warsaw during World War Two.
  

• 1945: Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, credited with saving tens of thousands of Jews, disappeared in Hungary while in Soviet custody.
  

• 1946: The United Nations Security Council held its first meeting.
  

• 1948: Dean Bower weds Bettilu Watson (my parents).
  

• 1950: Nine bandits staged a $1.5 million robbery of a Brink's armored car in Boston.
  

• 1961: In his farewell address, President Eisenhower warned against the rise of "the military-industrial complex."
  

• 1963: Soviet leader Khrushchev visits the Berlin Wall.
  

• 1969: The U.S. accuses IBM of monopolizing the computer market.
  

• 1969: Led Zeppelin released its first album.
  

• 1972: Highway 51 South...also known as Bellvue Street...in Memphis was renamed Elvis Presley Boulevard.
  

• 1973: Public Health Service links smoking to fetal and infant risks.
  

• 1977: Convicted murderer Gary Gilmore, 36, was shot by a firing squad at Utah State Prison in the first US execution in a decade.
  

• 1985: A jury in New Jersey rules that terminally ill patients have the right to starve.
  

• 1985: Leonard Nimoy, of "Star Trek" fame, got his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
  

• 1987: President Reagan signed a secret order permitting the covert sale of arms to Iran.
  

• 1988: Haiti held a presidential election run by the military-led junta that was boycotted by the opposition.
  

• 1988: The Washington Redskins won the NFC championship by defeating the Minnesota Vikings 17-to-10; the Denver Broncos beat the Cleveland Browns 38-to-33 to win the AFC title.
  

• 1989: Five children were shot to death at the Cleveland Elementary School in Stockton, California, by a drifter who then killed himself.
  

• 1990: A study concluded it is not oat bran itself, but substitution of oat bran or other foods for high-fat foods that cuts blood cholesterol.
  

• 1990: A federal judge in Miami set a March 1990 date for ex-Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega's drug trafficking trial to begin. (After initial delays, Noriega was tried and convicted of racketeering and conspiracy to distribute cocaine, and was sentenced to 40 years in prison, later cut to 30 years.)
  

• 1991: The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 114.60, the second highest one-day point gain ever.
  

• 1991: On the first day of Operation Desert Storm, U.S.-led forces hammered Iraqi targets in an effort to drive Iraq out of Kuwait. A defiant Iraqi President Saddam Hussein declared that the "mother of all battles" had begun. Iraq attacked Israel with 10 Scud missiles. 
  

• 1991: The U.S. Patriot defense missile was used in battle for the first time to shoot down a Scud fired at Saudi Arabia. 
  

• 1991: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reported that Florida dentist David Acer had infected three patients with the AIDS virus.
  

• 1993: The United States, accusing Iraq of a series of military provocations, unleashed Tomahawk missiles against a military complex eight miles from downtown Baghdad. President-elect Clinton, arriving in Washington for his inauguration, backed the action.
  

• 1994: A 6.7 magnitude earthquake struck Southern California, killing at least 61 people and causing $20 billion in damage.
  

• 1995: More than 6,000 people were killed when an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.2 devastated the city of Kobe, Japan.
  

• 1996: David Watkins, who wrote the memo the White House sent to Congress two weeks earlier, testified before Congress that he felt pressure from the first lady but was never actually told to fire travel office staffers.
  

• 1996: Russian forces unleashed a scorching barrage of rockets on Chechen rebels in Pervomayskaya. Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman and nine followers were handed long prison sentences for plotting to blow up New York-area landmarks. 
  

• 1996: Former U.S. Rep. Barbara Jordan died in Austin, Texas, at age 59. 
  

• 1996: Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman got life in prison and 16 others were also sentenced to jail for plotting to bomb the United Nations.
  

• 1997: Speaker Newt Gingrich agreed to submit to a reprimand by the House and pay a $300,000 penalty as punishment for his ethics violations.
  

• 1997: Israel handed over its military headquarters in Hebron to the Palestinians, ending 30 years of Israeli occupation of the West Bank city.
  

• 1997: A court in Ireland granted the first divorce in the Roman Catholic country's history.
  

• 1998: President Clinton gave a deposition in Paula Jones' sexual harassment lawsuit against him; during the nearly six hours of sworn testimony, Clinton denied having a sexual relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
  

• 1998: The Citadel announced that it had received 62 applications from women seeking to enroll the following year (1999). A spokesman for the South Carolina military college said they were on track to double the number of women at the school. This was the 3rd year women were allowed to attend the once all-male military school.
  

• 1999: The defending Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos defeated the New York Jets, 23-to-10, to win the American Football Conference title; the Atlanta Falcons upset the Minnesota Vikings, 30-to-27, to win the National Football Conference championship.
  

• 1999: As White House lawyers met to work on slime ball President Clinton's defense, their client spent the day preparing for his State of the Union address.
  

• 2000: Decrying the Confederate flag as a symbol of slavery and racism, nearly 50,000 people marched to South Carolina's Statehouse on Martin Luther King Day to demand the banner be taken down. 
  

• 2000: British pharmaceutical firms Glaxo Wellcome PLC and SmithKline Beecham PLC announced a merger to form the world's largest drug maker. 

 

Soul Food January 17

All the Rest January 17

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