Holidays and Observances on January 17

Welcome to January 17, 2027, an exceptionally inspiring day on the calendar marked by youthful ingenuity, legendary pop-culture milestones, and warming winter comforts!

Today's daily page highlights the bright ideas of tomorrow on Kid Inventors' Day, honors the timeless legacy of a spinach-loving cartoon icon for Popeye the Sailor Man Day, and toasts to cozy traditions on National Hot Buttered Rum Day. Browse our complete chronological directory below to explore moving holiday scheduling rules, historic trivia, and unique facts for this specific day of the year! 

 Holidays and Observances
(Alphabetical Order)

2027 Daily Holidays that fall on January 17, include:

• January 17: Benjamin Franklin Day (Observed on his birthday)

• January 17: Cable Car Day

• January 17: Customer Service Day

• January 17: Ditch New Year's Resolutions Day (See our New Year's Resolutions Page)

• January 17: International Mentoring Day

• January 17: International We Are Not Broken Day

• January 17: Judgment Day

• January 17: Kid Inventors' Day

• January 17: National Bootleggers Day

• January 17: National Carolina Day

• January 17: National Charlotte Day

• January 17: National Hot Buttered Rum Day

• January 17: National Hot Heads Chili Day

• January 17: National Lose the Jet Lag Day

• January 17: Popeye Day

• January 17, 2027: World Religion Day (Observed third Sunday in January)

• January 17, 2027: World Snow Day (Observed third Sunday in January)

2027 Weekly Holidays that include January 17, are:

• January 16-17, 2027: Bald Eagle Appreciation Days (Third Weekend in January coinciding with peak winter eagle migrations along the Mississippi River)

• January 11-17: Cuckoo Dancing Week 

• January 12-23: Energy Saving Week (U.K.)

• January 17-18: Hot Heads Chili Days  

• January 17-23, 2027: Hunt for Happiness Week (Third Full Week)

• January 17-23, 2027 - International Printing Week (Third Week of January - the week that includes Benjamin Franklin's birthday of January 17th)

• January 9-17, 2027: International Snowmobile Safety and Awareness Week (Begins on the second Saturday of January)

• January 17-23, 2027: National Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists Week (Third Full Week in January)

• January 17-23, 2027: National Fresh Squeezed Juice Week (Third Full week of January)

• January 17-23, 2027: National Handwriting Analysis Week (Week of John Hancock's birthday on January 23)

• January 17-23, 2027: World Kiwanis Week (Third Full Week of January that includes January 21, which is the Kiwanis International Anniversary date)

2027 Monthly Holidays that include January 17, are:

There are too many monthly holidays to include here, so please check out my January Holidays page to see all of the holidays that are celebrated the entire month of January.

NOTE: If a date is a movable holiday, that is different every year, I'll include the year as well as the date rule above. Otherwise, the holiday falls on the same date each year.

World Festivals and Events
(Date Order)

• December 21, 2026 - February 21, 2027: Harbin Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival: Usually starts annually on January 5, and typically runs for a month or more, in Harbin, China and is the largest ice and snow festival in the world! 2026/2027 dates are a soft opening on December 21, 2026, with the Official Grand Opening on January 5 to the closing of the park on February 21

• January 9-24, 2027: National Western Stock Show and Rodeo (Denver, CO) (Begins on the First Saturday after January 5 and runs for 16 consecutive days)

• January 14-24, 2027: Detroit Auto Show (Detroit, MI)

• January 15 - February 6, 2027: Southwestern Exposition and Livestock Show (Fort Worth, TX) (Also known as the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo)

Astrological Sign

The Astrological Sign for January 17 is a Capricorn.

Birth Flower of the Month

The Birth Flower(s) for the Month for January are:

• Carnation - The Carnation is the Birth Flower for January. The symbolization of the Carnation means love, pride, beauty, purity, distinction, fascination, and loyal.
• Snowdrop is a white flower with three small petals in the middle surrounded by three larger petals on the outside. The symbolization of the snowdrop means love, fascination, and purity.

See our GARDEN HOLIDAYS page for all the special days celebrating things of the garden!

Birthstone

The Birthstone for January is Garnet, which comes in a rainbow of colors. It is considered a great gift to symbolize friendship and trust.

Famous Birthdays

• 1706 – Benjamin Franklin, American statesman and inventor (d. 1790)
• 1899 – Al Capone, American gangster (Chicago bootlegging) (d. 1947)
• 1922 – Betty White, American actress (Mary Tyler Moore Show, Golden Girls)
• 1928 – Vidal Sassoon, English cosmetologist (d. 2012)
• 1933 – Shari Lewis, American ventriloquist, puppeteer (Lamb Chop), comedian and children's television host (d. 1998)
• 1942 - Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay), heavyweight champ boxer
• 1949 – Andy Kaufman, American comedian (Taxi) (d. 1984)
• 1954 – Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., American lawyer and environmental activist, son of Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Kennedy
• 1959 – Susanna Hoffs, American musician - Lead singer of The Bangles
• 1962 – Jim Carrey, Canadian actor and comedian
• 1964 – Michelle Obama, First Lady of the United States, wife of Barack Obama
• 1971 – Kid Rock (Robert James Ritchie), American singer
• 1980 – Maksim Chmerkovskiy, Ukrainian ballroom dancer - Dancing with the Stars
• 1980 – Zooey Deschanel, American actress

Susanna Hoffs, the Lead singer of The Bangles was born in 1959.  I loved this song of their's, Manic Monday. The song was actually written by Prince, and is about waking up on Monday, and wishing it was still Sunday....the fun day. This song was the band's first hit, reaching number two in the United States and the United Kingdom and later certified silver in the UK.

Famous Deaths

• 1893 – Rutherford B. Hayes, 19th President of the United States between 1877-81 (born 1822)
• 1927 – Juliette Gordon Low, American founder of the Girl Scouts of the USA (born 1860)
• 1977 – Convicted murderer Gary Gilmore is executed by a firing squad in Utah, ending a ten-year moratorium on capital punishment in the United States.
• 1994 - Grady "Fats" Jackson, tenor Sax Player, dies at 66
• 2012 - Johnny Otis, R&B musician and talent scout, known as the godfather of rhythm and blues, dies at 90.

Famous Weddings and Divorces

• 1926 - George Burns marries Gracie Allen
  

Quote of the Day

It is better to be a failure at something you LOVE,   than to be a success at something you HATE!

~ George Burns

This is so true!! I spent most of my career working just for a paycheck in the Accounting/Finance field, and now, I'm doing Web Design which I really love.  I'm a very creative, artsy person, and I always joked that Creativity and Accounting didn't go together, or you'd end up in Jail! 

Web Design is perfect for me now, and working at home for myself, without a boss or a certain time of day that I have to be at work (way too early in the morning) is fabulous!  I would so encourage people to do what you love, for a living!  Dream big, and follow your dreams!

I also recently purchased 3.66 acres of raw land, and built a small house. I'm working on an Organic Orchard and Vegetable & Herb Garden. There are so many ways to make money homesteading, so I'll be busy doing things I love!

Healthy Diet Habit Tip of the Day 
or a Recipe of the Day

Holidays and Observances Recipe of the Day for January 17 is Refrigerator Soup by Kerry, of Healthy Diet Habits. January is National Soup Month, and this soup is a great way to clean out the fridge at the end of the week before you go grocery shopping again!

Season

January 17th falls within the Winter Season in the Northern Hemisphere.

Winter is one of the four seasons. It follows the Fall Season, and is before the Spring Season. It is the coldest and darkest season in the Northern Hemisphere. It also starts in one year, and ends in the next, so it straddles two different years. 

Check out our Winter Season page for information about Winter, Winter Dates, Major Winter Holidays and Observances, Major Winter Festivals, Fun Facts About Winter, Winter Food Tips, Winter Gardening, Winter Preparation, Winter Quotes, and Winter Weather Information.

Kerry has put together some great information and tips on winter foods: 

• Winter Foods
• Winter Weight Gain
• Winter Weight Loss Tips

If you live in the Southern Hemisphere, this day falls in the Summer Season. 

• Summer
• Summer Cooking 
• Summer Weight Loss Tips 

This Day in History

• 1595 – Henry IV of France declares war on Spain.
• 1773 – Captain James Cook and his crew become the first Europeans to sail below the Antarctic Circle
• 1912 – Captain Robert Falcon Scott reaches the South Pole, one month after Roald Amundsen.
• 1917 – The United States pays Denmark $25 million for the Virgin Islands.
• 1929 – Popeye the Sailor Man, a cartoon character created by Elzie Segar, first appears in the Thimble Theatre comic strip.
• 1945 – The Nazis begin the evacuation of the Auschwitz concentration camp as Soviet forces close in.
• 1950 – The Great Brinks Robbery – 11 thieves steal more than $2 million from an armored car company's offices in Boston, Massachusetts.
• 1991 – Gulf War: Operation Desert Storm begins early in the morning. Iraq fires 8 Scud missiles into Israel in an unsuccessful bid to provoke Israeli retaliation.
• 1994 – 1994 Northridge earthquake: A magnitude 6.7 earthquake hits Northridge, California. (Note: Kerry was living in L.A. during this time, and lived 5 miles from the epicenter, and her husband worked in Northridge - Read about her experiences and her great tips on how to prepare for Emergencies)
• 1995 – The Great Hanshin earthquake: A magnitude 7.3 earthquake occurs near Kobe, Japan, causing extensive property damage and killing 6,434 people
• 2002 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, displacing an estimated 400,000 people.
• 2023 - In Nyingchi, Tibet, an avalanche kills 28 people

This Day in Music

• 1972 - Highway 51 South in Memphis, TN is renamed "Elvis Presley Blvd."
  
• 1976 - Barry Manilow's, I Write The Songs hits #1, (written by Beach Boy Bruce Johnson)
• 1976 - Earth, Wind and Fire's album Gratitude hits #1
• 1998 - Savage Garden, Truly Madly Deeply, started a two week run at #1 on the US singles chart with Truly Madly Deeply (video below)

This Day in Sports

• 1916 - Professional Golfer Association (PGA) forms in NYC
• 1963 - Wilt Chamberlain of NBA SF Warriors scores 67 points vs LA
• 1970 - Sporting News names Willie Mays as Player of the Decade for the 1960s
• 1971 - Super Bowl V: Baltimore Colts-16, Dallas Cowboys-13

Word of the Day from Wiktionary

Wishing You a Great Day Today!