Today in History....January 17

On this day in …

1893, Hawaii's monarchy was overthrown as a group of businessmen and sugar planters forced Queen Liliuokalani to abdicate
1917, the United States paid Denmark $25 million for the Virgin Islands

1945,


Soviet and Polish forces liberated Warsaw during World War II

Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, credited with saving tens of thousands of Jews, disappeared in Hungary while in Soviet custody
1946, The United Nations Security Council held its first meeting

1949, the Goldbergs debuts as television's first situation comedy. The show ran until 1954

1950, a team of 11 thieves, in a precisely timed and choreographed strike, steals more than $2 million from the Brinks Armored Car depot in Boston, Massachusetts. The Great Brinks Robbery, as it quickly became known, was the almost perfect crime. Only days before the statute of limitations was set to expire on the crime, the culprits were finally caught

1961, in his farewell address, President Eisenhower warned against the rise of "the military-industrial complex."

1984, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the private use of home video cassette recorders to tape TV programs did not violate federal copyright laws

1994, 6.7 magnitude earthquake struck Southern California, killing at least 60 people and causing $20 billion in damage

1995, more than 6,000 people were killed when an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.2 devastated the city of Kobe, Japan

1997, a court in Ireland granted the first divorce in the Roman Catholic country's history

1998, President Bill Clinton became the first U.S. president to testify as a defendant in a criminal or civil suit when he answered questions from lawyers for Paula Jones, who had accused Clinton of s exu al harassment

2001, faced with an electricity crisis, California used rolling blackouts to cut off power to hundreds of thousands of people

2006, the Supreme Court protected Oregon's assisted-suicide law, ruling that doctors there who helped terminally ill patients die could not be arrested under federal drug laws