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On January 17, 1706, Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston — one of the founding fathers of the United States, inventor of the lightning rod and bifocals, and pioneer in the study of electricity. Franklin was also a diplomat, publisher, writer and philosopher. His famous kite experiment during a thunderstorm demonstrated the electrical nature of lightning.

On January 17, 1995, a magnitude 7.2 earthquake devastated the Japanese city of Kobe, killing more than 6,400 people and destroying 100,000 buildings. The disaster, which caused losses of $100 billion, highlighted the seismic vulnerability of Japanese cities and transformed earthquake-resistant building codes worldwide.

On January 17, 1961, the Prime Minister of the Congo, Patrice Lumumba, was assassinated with the complicity of the CIA and Belgian intelligence services, just weeks after being deposed in a coup. Lumumba, the country's first democratically elected leader, had become a symbol of Pan-Africanism and anti-colonialism across the continent.