January 17 ...

In 1377 the Papal See was transferred from Avignon in France back to Rome. In 1562 French Huguenots were recognized under the Edict of St. Germain. In 1691 English physician and physiologist Richard Lower died -- he made the first direct transfusion of blood from one animal to the veins of another (in dogs, 1665). In 1706 Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston, MA. In 1806 Thomas Jefferson's daughter, Martha, gave birth to James Madison Randolph, the first child born in the White House. In 1860 short story writer and playwright Anton Chekhov was born in Taganrog, Russia. In 1863 British Prime Minister David Loyd George was born in Manchester, England. George, the only Welshman to serve as Prime Minister, led Britain from 1916-1922. In 1893 the 19th president of the United States, Rutherford B. Hayes, died in Fremont, Ohio, at age 70. In 1899 Al Capone was born in Brooklyn, NY. In 1900 Mormon Brigham Roberts was denied a seat in the US House of Representatives for his practicing of polygamy. In 1939 the Nazis issued an order forbidding Jews to practice as dentists, veterinarians, and chemists. In 1942 three-time heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali was born in Louisville, Kentucky. In 1945 Soviet and Polish forces liberated Warsaw, Poland; on the same day the Nazis evacuated Auschwitz, forcing prisoners to began "death marches" toward Germany; also on the same day, Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, credited with saving tens of thousands of Jews, disappeared in Hungary while in Soviet custody. In 1946 the United Nations Security Council held its first meeting. In 1961 in his farewell address, President Dwight Eisenhower warned against the rise of "the military-industrial complex." In 1991 in the first day of Operation Desert Storm, US-led forces hammered Iraqi targets in an effort to drive Iraq out of Kuwait. In 1995 more than 6,000 people were killed when an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.2 devastated the city of Kobe, Japan. In 1996 former Rep. Barbara Jordan (D-TX) died in Austin, TX, at age 59.