| 17 January 946 | Persia [political events] | Ahmad ibn-Buwayh Adud ad-Dawlah, the Shiite Muslim ruler of western Persia, expels the Turks from Baghdad, the capital of the Abbasid caliphate. His Buwayhid dynasty now rules the Arab caliphate from its capital of Shiraz and has the title of sultan. The Abbasid caliph is reduced to a religious figurehead without political power. |
| 17 January 1356 | Italy [wars] | Pope Innocent VI declares a crusade against Francesco Ordelaffi, lord of the northern Italian towns of Cesena and Forli. |
| 17 January 1468 | Ottoman Empire [administration] | Skanderbeg, the Albanian national hero and bulwark against the Ottoman Turks, dies at the port of Lezhë, Albania and is succeeded by his son John Castriota II. |
| 17 January 1562 | France [political events] | The French chancellor Michel de L'Hôpital promulgates the Edict of St Germain, which permits the existence of the Huguenot (French Protestant) Church. Francis, Duke of Guise, his brother Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine, and Anne, Duke of Montmorency form a militant league to prevent the edict from being enforced. |
| 17 January 1595 | France, Spain [wars] | King Henry IV of France declares war on Spain, King Philip II of Spain having tried to enforce the claims of a Spanish pretender to the French throne. |
| 17 January 1601 | France, Spain, Savoy, Italy [treaties] | King Henry IV of France hurriedly ends the war in the duchy of Savoy, threatened by Spanish intervention; the Treaty of Lyons cedes Bresse, Bugey, and Gex to France, connecting it with Swiss Confederation. Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy, retains Saluzzo and the ‘Spanish Road’ from Italy to Flanders via Franche-Comté is secured by guarantees. |
| 17 January 1656 | Poland, Sweden, Brandenburg, Holy Roman Empire, Germany [treaties] | Sweden's threat to invade East Prussia forces the Great Elector of Brandenburg Frederick William to agree to the Treaty of Königsberg. The Elector accepts King Charles X of Sweden as feudal overlord of East Prussia, thereby removing the area from Polish sovereignty, and agrees to stay neutral in the Northern War. |
| 17 January 1706 | America [births and deaths] | Benjamin Franklin, North American printer, publisher, and inventor who helped to draft the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution, born in Boston, Massachusetts (–1790). |
| 17 January 1800 | France [treaties] | The Treaty of Montluçon ends royalist disaffection in the Vendée, western France, and releases troops for a new French offensive in Europe. |
| 17 January 1852 | Transvaal, UK [political events] | The Sand River Convention is made between the Boers (Dutch settlers) and the British government, allowing the Boers to establish the South African Republic (Transvaal). |
| 17 January 1860 | Russia [births and deaths] | Anton Chekhov, Russian writer and dramatist known for his mastery of the short story, born in Taganrog, Russia (–1904). |
| 17 January 1863 | Wales, England [births and deaths] | David Lloyd George, Welsh Liberal politician, British prime minister 1916–22, born in Manchester, England (–1945). |
| 17 January 1893 | Pacific, USA [administration] | Hawaiian revolutionaries depose Queen Liliuokalani, amid rumours of US government complicity. |
| 17 January 1899 | USA [births and deaths] | Al Capone, US gangster, born in Brooklyn, New York City (–1947). |
| 17 January 1906 | France [elections] | The radical Clément Fallières, the candidate of the Left, is elected president of France. |
| 17 January 1942 | USA [births and deaths] | Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay), US professional boxer, born in Louisville, Kentucky. |
| 17 January 1983 | UK [television] | Selina Scott and Frank Bough present the British Broadcasting Corporation's (BBC's) Breakfast Time, Britain's first national breakfast television programme. |
| 17 January 1984 | USA [media and communication] | Home video-taping is ruled legal by the US Supreme Court. |
