Sunday 17th of January 1504

225th Pope Pius V is born as Antonio Michele Ghislieri in Bosco Marengo, Piemonte, Italy.

Sunday 17th of January 1706

Founding Father of the United States Benjamin Franklin aka The First American is born in Milk Street, Boston, Massachusetts, United States.

Benjamin was one of seventeen children born to Josiah Franklin and one of ten born by Josiah's second wife Abiah Folger.

Sunday 17th of January 1751

Composer Tomaso Giovanni Albinoni dies of diabetes mellitus at the age of 80 in Venezia, Veneto, Italy.

Saturday 17th of January 1874

Chang of the Siamese twins Chang and Eng Bunker dies of a stroke due to pneumonia, and three hours later Eng dies of fear at the age of 63 in Mount Airy, North Carolina, United States.

Connected through a 15cm thick navelstring, a doctor was summoned to perform an emergency separation of Chang and Eng Bunker but he was too late. Dying of fear is characterised by an overfull-bladder and a lifted right testicle.

Tuesday 17th of January 1893

19th President of the United States Rutherford Birchard Hayes dies of complications of a heart attack at the age of 71 in Fremont, Ohio, United States.

Sunday 17th of January 1897

Doctor and serial killer Marcel André Henri Félix Petiot aka The Triangular Chamber of Death Murderer is born in 100 Rue de Paris, Auxerre, Yonne, France.

Tuesday 17th of January 1899

Gangster, bootlegger and racketeer Al Alphonse Gabriel Capone aka Scarface is born in New York, Brooklyn, New York, United States.

Tuesday 17th of January 1899

Writer and aeronautical engineer Nevil Shute is born as Nevil Shute Norway in Somerset Road, London, Ealing, West London, United Kingdom.

Friday 17th of January 1919

460 die in Chaonia steamer shipwreck in the Strait of Messina, Italy.

The ship struck a floating mine by moonlight 40 miles off the Messina lighthouse.

Tuesday 17th of January 1928

Hair stylist Vidal Sassoon is born in London, Hammersmith, Greater London, United Kingdom.

Tuesday 17th of January 1933

Singer and actress Dalida is born as Yolanda Cristina Gigliotti in Caïro, Al Qahirah, Egypt.

Saturday 17th of January 1942

Boxer Muhammad Ali is born as Cassius Marcellus Clay in Louisville, Kentucky, United States.

Sunday 17th of January 1943

Member of the Symbionese Liberation Army Wendy Masako Yoshimura is born in Internment Camp for Japanese Americans, Manzanar, California, United States.

Monday 17th of January 1944

Singer-songwriter Françoise Madeleine Hardy is born in Rue d'Aumale, Paris, IXe, Île-de-France, France.

Tuesday 17th of January 1950

11 gangsters rob $1.218.211,29 in cash, and over $1.5-million in checks, money orders and other securities in Brink's Building, 600 Commercial Street, Boston, North End, Massachusetts, United States.

Although all of the gangsters were captured and put on trial only 58.000 Dollars were ever recovered. The rest is fabled to be hidden in the hills north of Grand Rapids, Minnesota.

Tuesday 17th of January 1956

22-year-old Serial killer Juan Vallejo Corona aka The Machete Murderer is committed an asylum, diagnosed with schizophrenia and paranoia in DeWitt State Hospital, Auburn, California, United States.

During his treatment Corona was given 23 electroshocks in three months time.

Thursday 17th of January 1957

Suicide bomber Anthony Quinn Warner is born in Nashville, Tennessee, United States.

Sunday 17th of January 1965

16-year-old Aniuta Kaliniak is found tortured and garotted by serial killer Łucjan Staniak aka The Red Spider of Katowice in Warszawa, Praga, Województwo Mazowieckie, Poland.

Kaliniak was found with a 6 inch metal spike through her genitals.

Monday 17th of January 1966

A B-52G bomber of the United States Air Force's Strategic Air Command collides with a KC-135 tanker during mid-air refueling at 9.450 m, killing three of the seven crew members in Palomares, Andalucía, Spain.

Of the four Mk28-type hydrogen bombs the B-52G carried, three were found on land. The non-nuclear explosives in two of the weapons detonated upon impact with the ground resulting in the contamination of a 2 km2 area by plutonium. The fourth, which fell into the Mediterranean Sea, was recovered intact after a ​2 1⁄2-month-long search.

Saturday 17th of January 1970

Student Régis Tall commits suicide by self-immolation at the age of 17 in Lycée Gaston Berger, Avenue Gaston Berger, Lille, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France.

Friday 17th of January 1975

46-year-old Robert Shannahan is stabbed to death by serial killer Vaughn Greenwood aka The Skid Row Slasher in Los Angeles, California, United States.

Friday 17th of January 1975

40-year-old Serial killer Joseph Kallinger aka The Shoemaker and his 13-year-old son Michael are arrested and charged with rape, robbery and murder in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.

Monday 17th of January 1977

Double murderer Gary Mark Gilmore aka The Executioner’s Song is executed by the firing squad at the age of 37 in Utah State Prison, Draper, Utah, United States.

Gilmore gained international attention for demanding the implementation of his death sentence for two murders. Gilmore's last meal request was for steak, potatoes, milk and coffee but consumed only the milk and coffee. When asked for any last words Gilmore simply replied "Let's do it."

Tuesday 17th of January 1989

School shooter Patrick Edward Purdy aka The Stockton Schoolyard Shooter commits suicide by a shot in the head at the age of 25 in Cleveland Elementary School, 20 East Fulton Street, Stockton, California, United States.

Purdy fired 106 rounds with a Norinco Type 56 AK-47 semi-automatic rifle in three minutes killing five predominantly Southeast Asian refugee schoolchildren and wounding 32 others before turning a Taurus PT92 pistol on himself. The victims were 9-year-old Rathanar Or, 8-year-old Ram Chun, 6-year-old Sokhim An, 8-year-old Oeun Lim and 6-year-old Thuy Tran.

Tuesday 17th of January 1995

Double murderer Mario S. Marquez is executed by lethal injection at the age of 37 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States.

Thursday 17th of January 2002

43-year-old Performance artist Danny Devos aka DDV performs 'Only the Lonely' at the 'Bordello' event in Oudemansstraat 13, Antwerpen, Antwerpen, Belgium.

In an abandoned brothel I lay on the floor in one of the back rooms. The door was slightly ajar and people could only see the performance by sticking their head inside. I made a machine with a cast of my hand that caressed my back until it bled. A cassette player played Roy Orbison’s ‘Only the Lonely’ all the time.

Thursday 17th of January 2002

An abandoned brothel where I performed 'Only the Lonely' in Oudemansstraat 13, Antwerpen, Antwerpen, Belgium.

Tuesday 17th of January 2006

Triple murderer Clarence Ray Allen is executed by lethal injection at the age of 76 in San Quentin State Prison, San Quentin, California, United States.

Allen's last meal consisted of Buffalo steak and frybread as well as a bucket of KFC white-meat-only chicken, sugar-free pecan pie, sugar-free walnut ice cream and whole milk. The ice-cream was left out to thaw for one hour, which he turned into a milkshake by hand.

Wednesday 17th of January 2007

Cop killer Johnathan Bryant Moore is executed by lethal injection at the age of 33 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States.

Moore's last meal request was for Kraft Cheese & Macaroni and beef flavored Rice-A-Roni.

Thursday 17th of January 2008

Chess grandmaster Bobby Robert James Fischer dies of renal failure at the age of 65 in Landspítali Hospital, Reykjavík, Greater Reykjavík, Iceland.

Sunday 17th of January 2010

69-year-old Military commander and chief of the Iraqi Intelligence Service Ali Hassan al-Majid aka Chemical Ali is sentenced to death for the fourth time in Baġdād, Muḥāfaẓät Baġdād, Iraq.

Sunday 17th of January 2010

Writer Erich Wolf Segal known for his bestselling novel Love Story dies of a heart attack at the age of 73 in London, Greater London, United Kingdom.