This month in history ...

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THIS MONTH IN HISTORY -- 100 YEARS AGO (1917):


January 1, 1917 was a Monday. The US president was Woodrow Wilson (Democratic).
The #1 song the first week of 1917 was 1812 Overture, Part 1 - Regimental Band of H.M. Grenadier Guards.
Great Expectations, directed by Robert G. Vignola, was one of the most viewed movies released in 1917.
J. R. R. Tolkien, on medical leave from the British Army, begins writing The Book of Lost Tales (the first version of The Silmarillion), starting with the "Fall of Gondolin"; thus Tolkien's Middle-earth is first chronicled in prose.

January 1, 1917 The University of Oregon defeats the University of Pennsylvania 14 to 0 in the 3rd Annual Rose Bowl Game.
January 2, 1917 The Royal Bank of Canada takes over Quebec Bank.
January 3, 1917 The Ratho rail crash in which Dunedin collided with a light engine at Queensferry Junction, leaving 12 people dead and 46 seriously injured. The cause was found to be inadequate signaling procedures.
January 9, 1917 WWI: The last substantial Ottoman Army garrison on the Sinai Peninsula is captured by the Egyptian Expeditionary Force's Desert Column at the Battle of Rafa.
January 11, 1917 Unknown saboteurs set off the Kingsland Explosion at Kingsland (modern-day Lyndhurst, New Jersey), one of the events leading to United States involvement in WWI.
January 16, 1917 The Danish West Indies is sold to the United States for $25 million.
January 19, 1917 Silvertown explosion: A blast at a munitions factory in London kills 73 and injures over 400. The resulting fire causes over £2,000,000 worth of damage.
January 22, 1917 WWI: President of the United States Woodrow Wilson calls for "peace without victory" in Germany.
January 25, 1917 -
WWI: British armed merchantman SS Laurentic is sunk by mines off Lough Swilly (Ireland) with the loss of 354 of the 475 aboard.
An anti-prostitution drive in San Francisco occurs and police close about 200 prostitution houses.
January 26, 1917 The sea defenses at the English village of Hallsands are breached, leading to all but one of the houses becoming uninhabitable.
January 28, 1917 The United States ends its search for Pancho Villa.
January 30, 1917 Pershing's troops in Mexico begin withdrawing back to the United States. They reach Columbus, New Mexico February 5.

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