Anniversaries 17 January
Birth
![Robert Fludd photo]()
British mathematician and astrologer
1574–1637
![Pedro Calderón de la Barca photo]()
Spanish dramatist
1600–1681
![Louis Tronson photo]()
French Roman Catholic priest
1622–1700
![Benjamin Franklin photo]()
American author, printer, political theorist, politician, p…
1706–1790
![George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton photo]()
British politician
1709–1773
![Charles Brockden Brown photo]()
American novelist, historian and editor
1771–1810
![Jane Porter photo]()
Scottish historical novelist, dramatist and literary figure
1776–1850
![Emperor Norton photo]()
Self-proclaimed Emperor of the United States
1811–1880
![Anne Brontë photo]()
British novelist and poet
1820–1849
![Cyrus David Foss photo]()
American bishop
1834–1910
![Anton Chekhov photo]()
Russian dramatist, author and physician
1860–1904
![David Lloyd George photo]()
Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
1863–1945
![David Beatty, 1st Earl Beatty photo]()
Royal Navy officer
1871–1936
![Frank Hague photo]()
Mayor of Jersey City
1876–1956
![Compton Mackenzie photo]()
Scottish writer, cultural commentator, raconteur and nation…
1883–1972
![Ronald Firbank photo]()
British novelist
1886–1926
![Leonard D. White photo]()
American historian
1891–1958
![Luther H. Gulick photo]()
American academic
1892–1993
![Al Capone photo]()
American gangster
1899–1947
![Nevil Shute photo]()
British racing driver
1899–1960
![Robert Maynard Hutchins photo]()
philosopher and university president
1899–1977
![George Stigler photo]()
American economist
1911–1991
![Keith Joseph photo]()
British barrister and politician
1918–1994
![Robert Cormier photo]()
American author, columnist and reporter
1925–2000
![Newton N. Minow photo]()
United States attorney and former chairman of the Federal C…
1926
![Thomas Anthony Dooley III photo]()
American physician
1927–1961
![Jacques Plante photo]()
Canadian ice hockey player
1929–1986
![Dalida photo]()
French singer, actress, model and beauty pageant titleholder
1933–1987
![Alain Badiou photo]()
French writer and philosopher
1937
![John Bellairs photo]()
American novelist, primarily speculative fiction for childr…
1938–1991
![Anson Chan photo]()
Hong Kong politician
1940
![Muhammad Ali photo]()
African American boxer, philanthropist and activist
1942–2016
![René Préval photo]()
President of Haiti
1943–2017
![Andy Kaufman photo]()
American stand-up comedian and actor
1949–1984
![Alan Ganoo photo]()
Mauritian politician
1951
![Manasseh Sogavare photo]()
Solomon Islands politician
1955
![Mohammad Shtayyeh photo]()
Palestinian politician
1958
![Jim Carrey photo]()
Canadian-American actor, comedian, and producer
1962
![Sebastian Junger photo]()
American author, journalist and documentarian
1962
![Michelle Obama photo]()
lawyer, writer, wife of Barack Obama and former First Lady …
1964
![Pu Zhiqiang photo]()
A Chinese lawyer and activist known for being a prominent m…
1965
![Shabba Ranks photo]()
Jamaican dancehall musician
1966
![Amy Sherman-Palladino photo]()
American television writer, director, and producer
1966
![Tiësto photo]()
Dutch DJ and record producer
1969
![Zooey Deschanel photo]()
American actress, musician, and singer-songwriter
1980
Death
![Anthony the Great photo]()
Christian saint, monk, and hermit
251–357
![Al-Farabi photo]()
Philosopher in 10th century Central Asia
872–951
![John Ray photo]()
British botanist
1627–1705
![George Horne photo]()
English churchman, writer and university administrator
1730–1792
![Elizabeth Willing Powel photo]()
American socialite and women letter writer
1743–1830
![George Bancroft photo]()
American historian and statesman
1800–1891
![Rutherford B. Hayes photo]()
American politician, 19th President of the United States (i…
1822–1893
![Francis Galton photo]()
British polymath: geographer, statistician, pioneer in euge…
1822–1911
![Frederic William Henry Myers photo]()
English poet and essayist
1843–1901
![Louis Comfort Tiffany photo]()
American stained glass and jewelry designer
1848–1933
![Leonard Eugene Dickson photo]()
American mathematician
1874–1954
![Betty Smith photo]()
writer from the USA
1896–1972
![John V.A. Fine photo]()
American historian
1903–1987
![Lucile Randon photo]()
French supercentenarian; world's second oldest living person
1904–2023
![Zhao Ziyang photo]()
former General Secretary of the Communist Party of China
1919–2005
![Art Buchwald photo]()
journalist, humorist, United States Marine
1925–2007
![Patrice Lumumba photo]()
Congolese Prime Minister, cold war leader, executed
1925–1961
![Alec Panchen photo]()
British paleontologist
1930–2013
![Gregory Corso photo]()
American writer
1930–2001
![Mary Oliver photo]()
American writer
1935–2019
![Barbara Jordan photo]()
American politician
1936–1996
![Stephen Levine photo]()
American poet and author
1937–2016
![Erich Segal photo]()
American writer
1937–2010
![Sam Savage photo]()
American writer
1940–2019
![Gary Gilmore photo]()
American murderer; the first person executed in the United …
1940–1977
![Bobby Fischer photo]()
American chess prodigy, chess player, and chess writer
1943–2008
![John Bura photo]()
Ukrainian Catholic bishop in the United States
1944–2023
