January 17 Birthday
January 17 gave the world Benjamin Franklin, Al Capone, and Muhammad Ali. Franklin was the most practical of the Founding Fathers — he invented the lightning rod, bifocals, the Franklin stove, and the concept of a public library. He was a printer, a diplomat, a scientist, and a satirist. He was the only person to sign all four founding documents of the United States: the Declaration, the Treaty of Alliance with France, the Treaty of Paris, and the Constitution. He was seventy at the signing of the Declaration and eighty-one at the Constitutional Convention. He owned slaves and later became president of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society. Like most of the Founders, his ideals outpaced his actions, but unlike most, he eventually caught up. In 1893, a group of American and European businessmen, backed by US Marines from the USS Boston, overthrew Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii. She had proposed a new constitution that would have restored voting rights to Native Hawaiians and reduced the power of the sugar planters. The planters, led by Sanford Dole — yes, of the Dole pineapple family — established a provisional government and petitioned for annexation. President Cleveland investigated and called the overthrow "an act of war" and "a misuse of the name and power of the United States." He refused to annex Hawaii. His successor, McKinley, did it anyway in 1898. Hawaii did not become a state until 1959. In 1993, Congress issued a formal apology to Native Hawaiians, one hundred years after the fact. Muhammad Ali, born Cassius Clay in 1942, threw his Olympic gold medal into the Ohio River after being refused service at a whites-only restaurant in Louisville. He changed his name, changed his religion, and refused the draft — "I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong" — at the peak of his career. He was stripped of his title, convicted of draft evasion, and spent three and a half years in exile. The Supreme Court overturned his conviction unanimously in 1971. He came back. He won the title twice more. He fought too long and took too many punches. The Parkinson's that silenced the loudest mouth in sports history was likely caused by the blows he took after he should have stopped. Al Capone, born this day in 1899, ran Chicago during Prohibition. He was worth $1.3 billion in today's money at his peak. He was never convicted of murder, bootlegging, or racketeering. The government got him for tax evasion. People born on January 17 fall under the zodiac sign of Capricorn. The birthstone is Garnet and the birth flower is Carnation. Historical events on January 17 include 1706: Benjamin Franklin born in Boston, 1893: American businessmen overthrow Kingdom of Hawaii, deposing Queen Liliuokalani, 1945: Soviet troops capture Warsaw from Nazi occupation. Famous people born on January 17 include Benjamin Franklin (1706), Al Capone (1899), Muhammad Ali (1942).