Important Events From This day in History January 17

 

1991 Operation Desert Storm

1991 : Operation Desert Storm begins when aircraft from British, American, Kuwait, French and Saudi bomb military and strategic targets in Iraq, including an oil refinery and Baghdad airport.

1949 Volkswagen Beetle

1949 : The first Volkswagen Beetle ( The Peoples Car ) in the U.S. arrived from Germany, designed by Ferdinand Porsche at the request of Adolf Hitler.

More about the Creation of Volkswagen

1995 Japan Earthquake

A Powerful Earthquake measuring 7.2 magnitude on the Richter scale hits the Japanese port of Kobe where hundreds of people are feared dead and thousands injured. Whole buildings, apartment blocks and an elevated highway collapse killing at least 200 people and injuring some 13,000. ( The Kobe earthquake was one of the worst to hit Japan which is prone to earthquakes and left 6,433 dead, Nearly 27,000 injured, and more than 45,000 homes destroyed.

1983 England Breakfast TV

The BBC launches a Breakfast Television Program featuring Frank Bough, Nick Ross and former ITN news reader Selina Scott. The BBC has launched this prior to the new TV-AM franchise due to launch a breakfast television program in February. ( Newspaper Critics said there was no need for breakfast Television possibly because they were concerned re newspaper sales ) By 1984 TV-am's "Good Morning Britain" and the BBC's "Breakfast Time" were bringing in 1.5 million viewers per day .

1953 - Women's Fashions

As in the rest of the world around this time, a slight shift is made in the styles of clothing worn. Women in particular still wanted to dress nice during this time, but yet were wearing more practical clothing.

One of the items that were considered to be made more comfortable during this time was shoes. Many women were looking for pairs with lower heels-ones that help them live out their current active lifestyle.

It was during this time in Canadian history as well as in other areas of the world when size did not matter. Women used to want to try to fit their feet into smaller shoes, when really they should be wearing at least a half a size larger.

Therefore, since women were feeling less self-conscious about size in general-including for shoes-the shoes they wore fit much better. The same was for all the other clothing women wore during this time.

1924 Surplus War Material

US surplus war material was being sold to the Mexican government, as approved by President Coolidge. In fact, the first shipment of such had already arrived before this news bit was reported.

Members of both the House and the Senate from both Political parties had opposed this action. In fact, some members advocated that a ruling should be made that would establish the selling of arms and war goods to foreign countries illegal permanently.

1938 Carnegie Hall

The first jazz concert is performed at Carnegie Hall. Benny Goodman and his orchestra performed at this iconic New York City venue and the event included guests like Count Basie and other popular names of the day. It gave the genre credibility as a legitimate musical preference.

1942 US Sinks Japanese Ships

1942 : The U.S. Asiatic fleet had sunk three Japanese enemy ships. This happened as the U.S. headed towards Japanese supply lines in the Pacific.

This victorious operation was performed by the Far Eastern Fleet. In all, this fleet had sunk a total of 29 Japanese ships since the beginning of the war.

1945 Warsaw Freed

The Germans were defeated by the Soviet army in Warsaw, Poland. This capital of Poland was then freed from the German army.

1950 Brinks Robbery

1950 : The Great Brinks Robbery ( Boston ) A team of 11 thieves, steal more than $2 million from the Brinks Armored Car depot in Boston.

1961 Eisenhower

1961 Eisenhower gives his last speech as president of the United States. In his speech he expresses his hopes of the future, as well as his concerns.

He warns against what he called the "military-industrial complex" and strongly urged people to seek peace. He also used the words such as "diplomacy," "compassion," and "restraint" in reference to future dealings with the Soviet Union.

Eisenhower also expressed sadness that at that time there was no peace. He then ended his speech with a closing prayer.

1966 H-Bomb lost

An H-Bomb was lost in the Mediterranean after a B-52 bomber had made impact with a KC-135 jet. Two other bombs were dropped near Palomores, a small town in Spain.

1973 Chrysler

The Chrysler Corporation had announced a recall the day before on certain automobiles. Up to 5,512 vehicles cars with steering system defects were to be returned, as well as 751 vehicles with miss-assembled transmissions.

1974 O.J. Simpson

O.J. Simpson won the Male Athlete of the Year Award for the previous year. This award was given the day before by the Associated Press.

At this time, Simpson was a running back for the Buffalo Bills. He had also won other awards in his career as well, such as the very much-coveted Heisman Trophy.

In 1994, O.J. Simpson had been accused of murdering his wife and another man (Ronald Goldman) who was suspected to be a lover, but there was no real proof of that. More importantly, after a long drawn out trial that took over a year, O.J. Simpson was found not guilty of murdering his wife and Mr. Goldman.

1977 Gary Gilmore

1977 : Gary Gilmore, convicted in the double murder of an elderly couple, is shot to death by a firing squad in Utah, becoming the first person to be executed in the United States since the death penalty was reinstated .

1994 Los Angeles Earthquake

An earthquake which measured 6.6 on the Richter scale shook up the city of Los Angeles on this day. This natural disaster killed 54 people and caused billions of dollars in damage. This was one of the largest earthquakes to have taken place in the United States.

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