On 17 January 1773, Captain Cook and HMS Resolution were cold but proud:
we cross’d the Antarctic Circle for at Noon we were by observation four Miles and a half South of it and are undoubtedly the first and only Ship that ever cross’d that line.
Johann Forster, the Banks of the voyage, had little time for Cook but rose to the occasion:
A place where no Navigator ever penetrated, before the British nation, & where few or none will ever penetrate. For it is reserved to the free-Spirited sons of Britannia, to navigate the Ocean wherever it spreads its briny waves.
On 17 January 1912, Captain Scott was cold and disappointed, reaching the South Pole only to find Amundsen had beaten his team. His last diary entry was in late March, and he died in his tent alongside two of his men.
From the freezingly historical to the tropically topical, on 17 January 1998 the Drudge Report announced:
Whatever the other excitement of the story, here is an early example of the blogbuster? Can we conceive that a mere newsprint journal would be held in such awe today? Can a story still be “spiked”? How would there be time to commit such a murder in a 24/7 news cycle? Michael Isikoff has certainly moved on. Today he is Chief Investigative Correspondent at Yahoo! News.