What happened on 17 January?

13 events from the Ever-When timeline, ranked by how much they mattered.

1. 1920 US Prohibition Nationwide ban on alcohol enacted.
2. 1863 Born: David Lloyd George British PM during WW1; orator and Liberal reformer.
3. 1991 Operation Desert Storm The coalition air and ground campaign that expelled Iraqi forces from Kuwait.
4. 1912 Scott reaches the Pole — second After ten weeks of man-hauling, Scott's five-man party arrives at the Pole to find Amundsen's tent, a Norwegian flag, and a polite letter asking Scott to forward news to the King o
5. 1991 The air war opens live on CNN Two days after the deadline, the sky over Baghdad fills with tracer fire and the world watches it happen live — CNN's reporters narrating from their hotel window as stealth aircraf
6. 395 Empire permanently divided Theodosius dies; empire passed permanently to two sons — Honorius (West) and Arcadius (East). They never reunite.
7. 1944 Battle of Monte Cassino Four costly Allied assaults on the German Gustav Line in central Italy.
8. 1904 Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard Chekhov's final play - the twilight of the Russian gentry.
9. 1562 The Edict of January tolerates the Huguenots Catherine de' Medici's crown, trying to hold a fracturing kingdom together, grants Protestants the legal right to worship outside town walls — the most generous toleration any majo
10. 1995 Great Hanshin earthquake Magnitude 6.9 quake hits Kobe; ~6,400 killed; exposes weaknesses in Japanese disaster response.
11. 1942 Born: Muhammad Ali American boxer and Vietnam-era civil-rights figure; three-time heavyweight champion.
12. 1781 Morgan's victory at Cowpens In the southern backcountry, Daniel Morgan sets a deliberate trap — militia in front with orders to fire twice and run, regulars behind — and destroys Tarleton's feared British Leg
13. 1377 Gregory XI returns the papacy to Rome Urged on by Catherine of Siena's letters, Gregory XI abandons Avignon for Rome; within eighteen months his death triggers the Western Schism anyway.