January 17, 1920 is a date featured in the series pilot "Boardwalk Empire". Events of the day include:
- Jimmy Darmody is offered a job as a confidant by Prohibition Agents Frederick Elliot and Nelson Van Alden.
- Arnold Rothstein breaks the house at Lolly's by earning $93,000 over the course of the night. Lolly Steinman keeps him from gambling anymore and calls the owner, Nucky Thompson. Nucky tells Rothstein that Lolly's is a small house and can't afford the volume of his gambling; Rothstein replies that he'll write off the $60,000 he owes Nucky for Bill McCoy's liquor shipment and walks out with the restant $33,000.
- Hans Schroeder, who is drunk and also gambling at the place, confronts Nucky, who beats him and has him thrown out of the place.
- Jimmy, Al Capone and Billy Winslow stage the Hammonton hijacking to rob Rothstein's liquor shipment, killing four of his men and injuring the fifth. To keep the "prohis" away Jimmy tells them about Mickey Doyle's distillery in Berns' Funeral Home, which is raided by Van Alden.
- Hans relieves himself by beating Margaret Schroeder so hard that she miscarries.
- The four bodies near Hammonton are discovered. Eli Thompson correctly guesses that Jimmy is responsible.