TODAY IN HISTORY

JANUARY 17

1991:Commanded by Lt. Gen. Chuck Horner, Operation Desert Storm begins as the United States leads coalition forces in an aerial bombing campaign against Iraqi targets at the start of the Gulf War.

1945: Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg is detained by Soviet troops on suspicion of espionage in Budapest, Hungary; he would be reported dead in Moscow's Lubyanka Prison six months later. Wallenberg is credited with saving thousands of Hungarian Jews from the Nazi regime during the Holocaust.

1950: Anthony "Fats" Pino and 10 other thieves perpetrate the Great Brinks Robbery, at the time the largest armed robbery in U.S. history, stealing more than $2.7 million from the Brinks Armored Car depot in Boston. Most of the robbers will be arrested six years later, just days before the statute of limitations for the crime expires. However, only a portion of the stolen money has ever been recovered; the rest is fabled to be hidden in the Minnesota foothills.