January 17

On January 17, 1524, Italian navigator Giovanni da Verrazzano departs Madeira under a French commission to discover a sea route to Asia. Sponsored by King Francis I, he aims to find the mythical Northwest Passage across the American continent. Verrazzano's voyage will chart much of the Atlantic coast of North America, from Florida to Newfoundland. His logs provide Europe’s first detailed observations of the Mid-Atlantic seaboard and its Indigenous inhabitants. Although he never finds a direct route to the Pacific, his expedition advances European geographic knowledge. Verrazzano’s journey opens a new chapter in the Age of Discovery and French colonial ambitions.

In the early hours of January 17, 1950, a gang of eleven thieves carried out the Great Brink’s Robbery in Boston, Massachusetts. Posing as police officers, they overpowered security guards and cut through the building’s steel door to access the cash vault. The gang escaped with more than $2 million in cash, checks, and securities—an astronomical sum at the time. Despite extensive FBI investigations, few suspects were immediately apprehended, and much of the money was never recovered. The daring theft remained officially unsolved for six years, capturing public fascination and inspiring countless books and films. It remains one of the most infamous unsolved heists in American criminal history.