January 17, US alcohol prohibition begins

Today is Friday, Jan. 17, the 17th day of 2025. There are 348 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Jan. 17, 1920, prohibition of alcohol began in the United States as the Volstead Act went into effect in support of the 18th Amendment.

Also on this date:

In 1950, the Great Brink’s Robbery took place as seven masked men held up the Brink’s Building in Boston, stealing $1.2 million in cash and $1.5 million in checks and money orders.

In 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered his farewell address in which he warned against “the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.”

In 1977, convicted murderer Gary Gilmore, 36, was killed by a firing squad at Utah State Prison in the first U.S. execution in a decade.

In 1990, The Four Seasons, The Four Tops, The Kinks, The Platters, Simon and Garfunkel and The Who were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

In 1994, the Northridge earthquake rattled the Los Angeles area; the magnitude 6.7 quake was responsible for 57 deaths, 9,000 injuries and an estimated $25 billion in damages.

In 1995, more than 6,000 people were killed when an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.2 struck the city of Kobe (koh-bay), Japan.

In 2022, as Russian troops stationed near Ukraine’s border launched drills, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov angrily rejected U.S. allegations that Moscow was preparing a pretext to invade Ukraine.