Template:Selected anniversaries/January 17
1574: Astrologer, mathematician, cosmologist, Qabalist and Rosicrucian apologist Robert Fludd born.
1822: Statistician, progressive, polymath, sociologist, psychologist, anthropologist, eugenicist, tropical explorer, geographer, inventor, meteorologist, proto-geneticist, and psychometrician Francis Galton dies.
1903: The short film Electrocuting an Elephant is released. It documents the killing of an elephant named Topsy.
1928: Scrimshaw abuse study finds therapeutic potential of Brownian ratchet.
1961: U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivers a televised farewell address to the nation three days before leaving office, in which he warns against the accumulation of power by the "military–industrial complex."
1966: Palomares incident: A B-52 bomber collides with a KC-135 Stratotanker over Spain, killing seven airmen, and dropping three 70-kiloton nuclear bombs near the town of Palomares and another one into the sea.
1969: Saccharomyces cerevisiae spontaneously generates new type of Brownian ratchet.
1997: Astronomer and academic Clyde Tombaugh dies. He discovered Pluto, as well as many asteroids.
2020: Jekyll, the "perfume for sociopaths", announces record profits.