Template:History calendar/01/17

1873

• Indigenous Modoc fighters defeat the US army in the First Battle of the Stronghold.

1899

• The United States of America annexes Wake Island in the Pacific.

1917

• The United States buys the Virgin Islands from Denmark.

1920

• The National Prohibition act is passed in the United States.

1945

• The SS begins evacuating Auschwitz concentration camp as the Red Army closes in.

1961

• Congolese independence leader Patrice Lumumba is executed near Élisabethville at the United States' and Belgium's behest.

1969

• Black Panthers John Huggins and Bunchy Carter are killed on the UCLA campus.

2005

• CPC General Secretary Zhao Ziyang dies aged 85 in Beijing, China.