This Day in History on 17 January
The historical events hold a lot of value for aspirants who are sitting for UPSC competitive exams including that of the IAS Exam.
On this page, we will list all historical events that have occurred on 17 January. The students can refer them while preparing for all competitive exams and banking exams.
Important Days
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Important Events
1601: Mughal Emperor Akbar conquered Asirgarh ford.
1757: Germany declared war against Prussia.
1773: Capt. James Cook crossed the Antarctic.
1912: Robert Falcon Scott reached the South Pole.
1941: Subhashchandra Bose went underground at Calcutta. He appeared in Moscow after sone days.
1946: First meeting of the United Nations Security Council.
1952: The pension work of CDA (Factories), Calcutta and the Defence civilians in ordnance factories was transferred to the office of the CDA (P), Allahabad.
1981: Central Government offers full statehood to Mizoram.
1985: Azharuddin scores second Test century in second Test vs England.
1987: Tata Football Academy opened.
1989: Colonel JK Bajaj became the first Indian to reach the North Pole.
1993: LTTE commander Sadasivan Krishnakumar alias Kittu was killed in a ship blaze off Madras coast.
1995: A 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Japan killed 5,372 people.
1997: Government rules out granting dual citizenship to NRIs.
1997: Supreme Court bans all non-forest activities including running of saw mills and mining in forest areas.
1999: Madhya Pradesh won its maiden Wills Trophy championship, defeating Bengal in the final of the limited overs cricket championship in Calcutta.
Birth/Birth Anniversary
1471: Krishnadevaraya, a emperor of the Vijayanagara Empire.
1706: Benjamin Franklin, an American polymath and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.
1888: Babu Gulabrai, a significant figure in modern Hindi literature.
1889: Shri Baldev Ramji Mirdha, great social worker, leader and politician, was born in village Kuchera, district Nagaur of Rajasthan.
1905: D. R. Kaprekar, an Indian recreational mathematician.
1908: Akkineni Lakshmi Varaprasada Rao Prasad, film producer, was born.
1909: Bejoy Kumar Sinha, journalist and social worker, was born at Kanpur.
1913: Yadvendra Singh, HH LtG. Maharaja of Patial, cricketer (scored 24 & 60 in only Test India vs England), was born in Patiala, Punjab.
1917: M. G. Ramachandran, an Indian politician and film actor.
1922: T. A. Pai, former Central Minister and bank expert, was born.
1923: Rangeya Raghav, Indian author and playwright (d. 1962)
1925: Abdul Hafeez Kardar, cricketer (Pakistan 1st Test captain, previously played for India), was born in Lahore.
1933: Aga Khan, religious leader (Muslims), was born.
1942: Muhammad Ali, an American professional boxer, activist, and philanthropist.
1945: Javed Akhtar, an Indian political activist, poet, lyricist, and screenwriter.
1951: Bindu, an Indian actress.
1962: Jim Carrey, a Canadian-American actor, comedian, writer, producer, author, and artist.
Death/ Death Anniversary
1771: Govind Patwardhan Mirajkar, first Rao of Peshwai, passed away.
1893: Rutherford Hayes, the 19th president of the United States.
1930: Gauhar Jaan, an Indian singer, and dancer from Kolkata.
1833: William Rush, Indian sculptor (Spirit of the Schuylkill), passed away.
1905: Dattaraya Ramchandra Kaprekar was born at Dahanu near Bombay. He discovered the shortest possible routes to solve mathematical problems. In 1927, he won the wrangler R. P. Paranjpe Mathematical Prize for an Original Piece of work in mathematics. He discovered ‘Kaprekar Constant’ in 1946. It is the number “6174”. The constant 6174 is arrived at and this number then generates itself into one set of numbers called “self numbers” that is also known by his name. Kaprekar passed away in 1988.
1951: Jyoti Prasad Agarwala, a noted Indian playwright, songwriter, poet, writer, and filmmaker from Assam.
1961: Patrice Lumumba, a Congolese politician and the first Prime Minister of the independent Democratic Republic of the Congo.
2008: Bobby Fischer, an American chess grandmaster, and the eleventh World Chess Champion.
2010: Jyoti Basu, a former Chief Minister of the West Bengal.
2014: Suchitra Sen, an Indian film actress who worked in Bengali and Hindi cinema.
2014: Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin, Indian spiritual leader, 52nd Da’i al-Mutlaq (b. 1915)
2014: Sunanda Pushkar, Indian-Canadian businesswoman (b. 1962)
2016: V Rama Rao, former Governor of Sikkim.
2019: S. Balakrishnan, an Indian film score composer and music director who worked mainly in Malayalam cinema.