Today in History - History - January 17th

1970Sporting News names Willie Mays as Player of the Decade for the 1960s

1773Capt James Cook becomes 1st to cross Antarctic Circle (66° 33' S)

1821Mexico permits Moses Austin & 300 US families to settle in Texas, after his death leaves to son Stephen

1966Martin Luther King Jr. opens campaign in Chicago

1933Bradman takes second Test wicket, Hammond, bowled

1954Jacques Cousteau's 1st network telecast airs on "Omnibus" (CBS)

1997NBA suspends Dennis Rodman indefinitely for kicking cameraman

1914Gerhart Hauptmann's "Der Bogen des Odysseus," premieres in Berlin

19161st PGA Championship: Jim Barnes at Siwanoy CC Bronxville NY

1998President Clinton faces sexual harrament charges from Paula Jones

1706Benjamin Franklin, Boston, Mass, kite flyer/statesman/wit/inventor, (d. 1790)

1942Muhammad Ali [Cassius Clay], Louisville Kentucky, heavyweight boxing champion (1964-7 74-8)

1929Jacques Plante, Notre-Dame-du-Mont-Carmel, Canadian Ice Hockey goalie (first to wear a goaltender mask)

1928Vidal Sassoon, London, hair stylist/CEO (Vidal Sasson), (d. 2012)

1980Zooey Deschanel, Los Angeles, California, American actress (Almost Famous)

1882Arnold Rothstein, New York City New York, American gambler and mobster (fixed 1919 World Series)

1871David Beatty, Nantwich, Cheshire, 1st Earl Beatty and British Admiral of the Fleet

1899Al Capone, Brooklyn New York, American gangster (Chicago bootlegging)

1988Publisher Bob Guccione (57) weds actress Katherine Keeton (48)

1955Murderer Charles Manson (20) weds waitress Rosalie Jean Willis (17)

38 BCRoman Republican Leader Octavian, later Augustus 1st Roman Emperor, marries Livia Drusilla.

1946Actor John Wayne (38) weds actress Esperanza Baur in Long Beach, California

2008Bobby Fischer, American chess player (b. 1943)

1891George Bancroft, American historian and father of U.S. History, dies at 90

1964T.H. White, English author of the King Arthur novels, dies of heart failure at 57

1927Juliette Gordon Low, American founder of the Girl Scouts of the USA, dies of breast cancer at 66