From Historynet: Today in History January 17

1601          The Treaty of Lyon ends a short war between France and Savoy.

1746          Charles Edward Stuart , the young pretender, defeats the government forces at the Battle of Falkirk in Scotland.

1773          Captain James Cook  becomes the first person to cross the Antarctic Circle.

1819          Simon Bolivar , the “liberator”, proclaims Columbia a republic.

1893          Queen Liliuokalani , the Hawaiian monarch, is overthrown by a group of American sugar planters led by 
Sanford Ballard Dole .

1852          At the Sand River Convention, the British recognize the independence of the Transvaal Board.

1912          Robert Scott  reaches the South Pole only a month after Roald Amundsen .

1939          The Reich issues an order forbidding Jews to practice as dentists, veterinarians and chemists.

1945          The Red Army occupies Warsaw.

1963          Soviet leader Khrushchev  visits the Berlin Wall.

1985          A jury in New Jersey rules that terminally ill patients have the right to starve themselves.