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On This Day: Kobe, Japan, earthquake kills thousands

On Jan. 17, 1995, a powerful earthquake rocked Kobe, Japan, and the surrounding area, killing about 5,500 people.

By UPI Staff
The Hanshin Expressway is partially collapsed in Kobe, Japan, due to a 6.9-magnitude earthquake on January 17, 1995. File Photo by Kobe/Wikimedia
1 of 7 | The Hanshin Expressway is partially collapsed in Kobe, Japan, due to a 6.9-magnitude earthquake on January 17, 1995. File Photo by Kobe/Wikimedia

Jan. 17 (UPI) -- On this date in history:

In 1871, Andrew Hallidie received a patent for a cable car system that went into service in San Francisco in 1873.

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In 1893, Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii was deposed in a bloodless revolution and a provisional government was established, with annexation by the United States as its aim.

In 1912, one month late to the party, Captain Robert Falcon Scott arrives at the South Pole. Roald Amundsen got there first.

In 1917, the United States bought 50 of the Virgin Islands in the West Indies from Denmark for $25 million.

In 1920, Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman, having been deported from the United States, announced that they intend to organize a great society in Soviet Russia, its prime objective would be the promotion of "social revolution in the United States."

File Photo courtesy of NARA

In 1946, the U.N. Security Council met for the first time.

In 1950, an 11-member gang staged a $1.5 million robbery of a Brink's armored car in Boston.

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In 1966, a U.S. B-52 bomber carrying four hydrogen bombs collided with its refueling plane over Palomares, Spain, scattering radioactive plutonium over the area.

In 1977, convicted killer Gary Gilmore was executed by firing squad in Utah. It was the first execution since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty the previous year.

In 1991, Harald V became king of Norway after the death of his father, King Olav V.

File Photo by Rune Hellestad/ UPI

In 1994, a pre-dawn earthquake struck the Los Angeles area, killing 61 people and causing widespread damage.

In 1995, a powerful earthquake rocked Kobe, Japan, and the surrounding area, killing about 5,500 people.

In 1996, Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman was sentenced to life in prison and 16 others were also sentenced for plotting to bomb the United Nations.

In 1998, U.S. President Bill Clinton denied in a sworn deposition that he had an affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

In 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Oregon's assisted-suicide law by a 6-3 vote. It allowed doctors to help mentally competent terminally ill patients end their lives.

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In 2013, U.S. cyclist Lance Armstrong, in an interview broadcast on OWN (the Oprah Winfrey Network), said he used banned substances and blood transfusions in all of his Tour de France wins.

In 2017, President Barack Obama commuted the sentence of Chelsea Manning, the former Army intelligence whistleblower who leaked classified information to WikiLeaks in 2010.

In 2024, the United States launched its fourth attack in a week against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, striking more than a dozen missiles and launchers that U.S. officials said presented "an imminent threat" to vessels transiting the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

File Photo by MC3 Kaitlin Watt/U.S. Navy

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