On This Day:
Tuesday January 17, 2012
This is the 17th day of the year, with 349 days remaining
in 2012.
Fact of the Day: Jack and John
Jack comes from the Middle English "Jankin", Jan being a
contracted form of Jehan, or John, and -kin being a
diminutive suffix. Jankin with time became Jackin, and was
later shortened simply to Jack. Additional information: [a
slightly different version] "Jack is actually derived from
the name Johannes, which was shortened to Jehan and
eventually to Jan. The French were fond of tacking the
suffix -kin onto many short names. French nasalization
resulted in the new combination being pronounced Jackin
instead of Jankin. The name Jackin was shortened to Jack."
Holidays
Feast day of St. Sabinus of Piacenza, St. Julian Sabas, St.
Antony the Abbot, St. Geulf or Genou, St. Richimir, St.
Sulpicius II or Sulpice of Bourges, and Saints Speusippus,
Eleusippus, and Meleusippus.
Mexico:
San Antonio Abad / Blessing of the Animals at the Cathedral.
Philippines:
Constitution Day.
Poland:
Liberation Day.
Events
1377
- The Papal
See was transferred from Avignon
in France
back to Rome.
1562
- French Protestants were recognized under the Edict of St.
Germain.
1773
- Captain
Cook's ship Resolution
became the first ship to cross the Antarctic
Circle.
1819
- Simon
Bolivar the "Liberator" proclaims Columbia
a republic.
1871
- San Franciscan Andrew
Smith Hallidie patented the first cable car.
1893
- Hawaii's
monarchy was overthrown by a group of American businessmen
and sugar planters, forcing Queen
Liliuokalani to abdicate. Hawaii
was organized into a formal U.S. territory and in 1959
entered the United
States as the 50th state.
1916
- The Professional
Golfers' Association of America was founded.
1945
- Soviet and Polish forces liberated Warsaw
during World
War II.
1946
- The United
Nations Security Council held its first meeting.
1959
- Senegal
and the French Sudan
joined to form the Federal State of Mali.
1995
- More than 6000 people were killed when an earthquake with
a magnitude of 7.2 devastated the city of Kobe,
Japan.
A year earlier, a 6.7 earthquake hit southern California,
killing 61.
1997
- A court in Ireland
granted the first divorce in the Roman Catholic country's
history.
2000
- British pharmaceutical companies Glaxo
Wellcome PLC and SmithKline
Beecham PLC agreed to a merger that would create the
world's largest drugmaker.
Births
1706
- Benjamin
Franklin, American statesman, signer of the Declaration
of Independence and the Constitution
of the United States of America, printer, author,
publisher, scientist, inventor, founder of the University
of Pennsylvania.
1860
- Anton
Chekhov, Russian playwright, short story writer.
1899
- Al
Capone, American gangster.
1942
- Muhammad
Ali (Cassius
Clay), American boxer, heavyweight champ.
1962
- Jim
Carrey, Canadian-born actor, comedian.
Deaths
1893
- Rutherford
B. Hayes, 19th President of the United
States of America.
2007
- Art
Buchwald, American Pulitzer
Prize-winning columnist.
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