Wikipedia: July 17

July 17
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

July 17 is the 198th day (199th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 167 days remaining.

Events

180 - Twelve inhabitants of Scillium in North Africa, executed for being Christians. This is the earliest record of Christianity in that part of the world.
1762 - Catherine II becomes tzar of Russia upon the murder of Peter III of Russia.
1771 - Massacre at Bloody Falls: Chipewyan chief Matonabbee traveling as the guide to Samuel Hearne on his arctic overland journey, masacre a group of unsuspecting Inuit.
1815 - Napoleonic Wars: In France, Napoleon surrenders at Rochefort to British forces.
1867 - In Boston, Massachusetts, the Harvard School of Dental Medicine is established as the first dental school in the United States.
1897 - Klondike gold rush begins when first successful prospectors arrive in Seattle.
1898 - Spanish-American War: Battle of Santiago Bay - Troops under United States General William R. Shafter take the city of Santiago de Cuba from the Spanish.
1917 - King George V of the United Kingdom issues a Proclamation stating that the male line descendants of the British royal family will bear the surname Windsor.
1936 - Spanish Civil War: A conservative rebellion against the recently-elected leftist Popular Front government of Spain starts the Spanish civil war.
1944 - Port Chicago disaster: Near the San Francisco Bay, two ships laden with ammunition for the war explode in Port Chicago, California killing 232.
1944 - World War II: The largest convoy of the war embarks from Halifax, Nova Scotia under Royal Canadian Navy protection.
1945 - World War II: Potsdam Conference - At Potsdam, the three main Allied leaders begin their final summit of the war. The meeting will end on August 2.
1955 - Disneyland opens in Anaheim, California.
1962 - Nuclear testing: The "Small Boy" test shot Little Feller I becomes the last atmospheric test detonation at the Nevada Test Site.
1975 - Apollo-Soyuz Test Project: An American Apollo and a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft dock with each other in orbit marking the first such link-up between spacecraft from the two nations.
1979 - Nicaraguan president General Anastasio Somoza Debayle resigns and flees to Miami.
1981 - Hyatt Hotel disaster: Two skywalks filled with people at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri collapse into a crowded atrium lobby killing 114.
1984 - Laurent Fabius becomes Prime Minister of France
1995 - The Nasdaq stock index closes above the 1,000 mark for the first time.
1996 - Off the coast of Long Island, New York, a Paris-bound Boeing 747 carrying TWA flight 800 explodes killing all 230 on board.
1997 - The F.W. Woolworth Company closes after 117 years in business.
1998 - In St. Petersburg, Nicholas II of Russia and his family are buried in St. Catherine Chapel 80 years after he and his family were killed by Bolsheviks.
1998 - A tsunami triggered by an undersea earthquake destroys 10 villages in Papua New Guinea killing an estimated 1,500, leaving 2,000 more unaccounted for and thousands more homeless.
1998 - Biologists report in the journal Science how they sequenced the genome of the bacterium that causes syphilis, Treponema pallidum.

Births

1787 - Friedrich Krupp, industrialist (+ 1826), see Krupp
1899 - Erle Stanley Gardner, author (+ 1970)
1899 - James Cagney, actor (+ 1986)
1912 - Art Linkletter, television host
1917 - Phyllis Diller, comedienne
1917 - Margarete Mitscherlich, physician
1920 - Juan Antonio Samaranch, chairman of the International Olympic Committee
1920 - Kenneth Wolstenholme
1928 - Vince Guaraldi, musician, composer (+ 1976)
1934 - Donald Sutherland, actor
1935 - Diahann Carroll, singer
1938 - Franz Alt, journalist
1939 - Maria Ilva Biolcati, known as Milva, singer
1941 - Spencer Davis
1941 - Jürgen Flimm, theatre director and manager
1942 - Tim Brooke-Taylor, comedian
1952 - David Hasselhoff, actor, musician
1956 - Peter D'Adamo, physician, author
1971 - Cory Doctorow, author, activist

Deaths

1790 - Adam Smith, Scottish economist
1918 - Tsar Nicholas II of Russia
1918 - Grand Duchess Olga of Russia
1918 - Grand Duchess Tatiana of Russia
1918 - Tsarevich Alexei of Russia
1918 - Grand Duchess Maria of Russia
1918 - Tsarina Alexandra of Russia
1918 - Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia
1959 - Billie Holiday, singer
1961 - Ty Cobb, baseball player
1967 - John Coltrane, jazz musician
1975 - Konstantine Gamsakhurdia, Georgian writer and public benefactor
2003 - Hans Abich, German tv producer
2003 - Antje, walrus, long-time mascot of German tv station NDR

Holidays and observances

Iraq - Ba'ath Revolution Day
Puerto Rico - Luis Muñoz Rivera's Birthday
South Korea - Constitution Day

See Also:

July 16 - July 18 - June 16 - August 18 -- listing of all days

January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December