This Day in History for January 17 – Chevy Corvette Debuts and More

Here’s a look at some interesting events that took place on this day in history:

1929 – Popeye the Sailor Man, a cartoon character created by Elzie Segar, first appears in the Thimble Theatre comic strip (More info)

1950 – In what would come to be called the Great Brinks Robbery, thieves steal more than $2 million from an armored car in Boston (More info)

1953 – The Chevrolet Corvette makes its debut at General Motors’ Motorama auto show in New York (More info)

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 (More info)

1994 – A magnitude 6.7 earthquake hits Northridge, California, killling 54 people and causing billions of dollars in damage (More info)