TODAY in HISTORY
Today is Wednesday, January 17, the 16th day of 2018. There are 349 days left in the year.
1524 Giovanni da Verrazzano sets sail westward from Madeira to find a sea route to the Pacific Ocean. 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. 1773 Captain James Cook commands the first expedition to sail south of the Antarctic Circle.
1852 The United Kingdom signs the Sand River Convention with the South African Republic.
1899 The United States takes possession of Wake Island in the Pacific Ocean. 1903 El Yunque National Forest in Puerto Rico becomes part of the United States National Forest System as the Luquillo Forest Reserve.
1904 Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard receives its premiere performance at the Moscow Art Theatre. 1912 Captain Robert Falcon Scott reaches the South Pole, one month after Roald Amundsen. 1917 The United States pays Denmark $ 25 million for the Virgin Islands. 1929 Popeye the Sailor Man, a cartoon character created by E. C. Segar, first appears in the Thimble Theatre comic strip.
1945 The SSTotenkopfv er ban de begin the evacuation of the Auschwitz concentration camp as Soviet forces close in. 1946 The UN Security Council holds its first session.
1950 The Great Brink’s Robbery: Eleven thieves steal more than $ 2 million from an armored car company’s offices in Boston.
1961 US 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’ 1981 President of the Philippines Ferdinand Marcos lifts martial law eight years and five months after declaring it.
1996 The Czech Republic applies for membership of the European Union. 1998 Lewinsky scandal: Matt Drudge breaks the story of the Bill Clinton– Monica Lewinsky affair on his Drudge Report website.
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.
2007 The Doomsday Clock is set to five minutes to midnight in response to North Korea’s nuclear testing.