July 17

July 17 is the 198th day of the year (199th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 167 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

• 180 – Twelve inhabitants of Scillium in North Africa are executed for being Christians. This is the earliest record of Christianity in that part of the world.
• 1203 – The Fourth Crusade captures Constantinople by assault. The Byzantine emperor Alexius III Angelus flees from his capital into exile.
• 1402 – Zhu Di, better known by his era name as the Yongle Emperor, assumes the throne over the Ming Dynasty of China.
• 1453 – Battle of Castillon: The last battle of Hundred Years' War, the The French under Jean Bureau defeat the English under the Earl of Shrewsbury, who is killed in the battle in Gascony.
• 1586 – A meeting takes place at Lüneburg between several Protestant powers in order to discuss the formation of an 'evangelical' league of defence, called the 'Confederatio Militiae Evangelicae', against the Catholic League.
• 1717 – King George I of Great Britain sails down the River Thames with a barge of 50 musicians, where George Frideric Handel's Water Music is premiered.
• 1762 – Catherine II becomes tsar of Russia upon the murder of Peter III of Russia.
• 1771 – Bloody Falls Massacre: Chipewyan chief Matonabbee, travelling as the guide to Samuel Hearne on his Arctic overland journey, massacres a group of unsuspecting Inuit.
• 1791 – Members of the French National Guard under the command of General Lafayette open fire on a crowd of radical Jacobins at the Champ de Mars, Paris, during the French Revolution, killing as many as 50 people.
• 1794 – The sixteen Carmelite Martyrs of Compiegne are executed 10 days prior to the end of the French Revolution's Reign of Terror.
• 1856 – The Great Train Wreck of 1856 in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, kills over 60 people.
• 1867 – Harvard School of Dental Medicine was established in Boston. It was the first dental school in the U.S.
• 1899 – NEC Corporation is organized as the first Japanese joint venture with foreign capital.
• 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.
• 1918 – On the orders of the Bolshevik Party carried out by Cheka, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his immediate family and retainers are murdered at the Ipatiev House in Ekaterinburg, Russia.
• 1918 – The RMS Carpathia, the ship that rescued the 705 survivors from the RMS Titanic, is sunk off Ireland by the German SM U-55; 5 lives are lost.
• 1932 – Altona Bloody Sunday.
• 1933 – After successfully crossing the Atlantic Ocean, the Lithuanian research aircraft Lituanica crashes in Europe under mysterious circumstances.
• 1936 – Spanish Civil War: An Armed Forces rebellion against the recently-elected leftist Popular Front government of Spain starts the civil war.
• 1938 – Douglas Corrigan takes off from Brooklyn to fly the "wrong way" to Ireland and becomes known as "Wrong Way" Corrigan.
• 1944 – Port Chicago disaster: Near the San Francisco Bay, two ships laden with ammunition for the war explode in Port Chicago, California, killing 320.
• 1944 – World War II: Napalm incendiary bombs are dropped for the first time by American P-38 pilots on a fuel depot at Coutances, near St. Lô, France.
• 1948 – The South Korean constitution is proclaimed.
• 1955 – Disneyland is dedicated and opened by Walt Disney in Anaheim, California.
• 1962 – Nuclear weapons testing: The "Small Boy" test shot Little Feller I becomes the last atmospheric test detonation at the Nevada Test Site.
• 1968 – A revolution occurs in Iraq when Abdul Rahman Arif is overthrown and the Ba'ath Party is installed as the governing power in Iraq with Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr as the new Iraqi President.
• 1973 – King Mohammed Zahir Shah of Afghanistan is deposed by his cousin Mohammed Daoud Khan while in Italy undergoing eye surgery.
• 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.
• 1976 – History of East Timor: East Timor is annexed, and becomes the 27th province of Indonesia.
• 1976 – The opening of the Summer Olympics in Montreal is marred by 25 African teams boycotting the New Zealand team.
• 1979 – Nicaraguan president General Anastasio Somoza Debayle resigns and flees to Miami, Florida.
• 1981 – The opening of the Humber Bridge by HM The Queen in England.
• 1981 – A structural failure leads to the collapse of a walkway at the Hyatt Regency in Kansas City, Missouri killing 114 people and injuring more than 200.
• 1989 – First flight of the B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber.
• 1996 – TWA Flight 800: Off the coast of Long Island, New York, a Paris-bound TWA Boeing 747 explodes, killing all 230 on board.
• 1998 – Papua New Guinea earthquake: A tsunami triggered by an undersea earthquake destroys 10 villages in Papua New Guinea killing an estimated 3,183, leaving 2,000 more unaccounted for and thousands more homeless.
• 1998 – A diplomatic conference adopts the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, establishing a permanent international court to prosecute individuals for genocide, crime against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression.
• 2007 – TAM Airlines (TAM Linhas Aéreas) Flight 3054 crashes upon landing during rain in São Paulo. This is Brazil's deadliest aviation accident to date with an estimated 199 deaths.
• 2009 – Jakarta double bombings at the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton Hotels killed 9 people including 4 foreigners.

Births

• 1487 – Ismail I, Shah of Persia (d. 1524)
• 1674 – Isaac Watts, English hymnwriter (d. 1748)
• 1698 – Pierre Louis Maupertuis, French mathematician (d. 1759)
• 1744 – Elbridge Gerry, 5th Vice President of the United States (d. 1814)
• 1745 – Petr Alekseevich Pahlen, Russian general (d. 1826)
• 1763 – John Jacob Astor, American businessman (d. 1848)
• 1774 – John Wilbur, American religious leader, Quaker minister (d. 1856)
• 1797 – Hippolyte Delaroche, French painter (d. 1856)
• 1823 – Leander Clark, American businessman, legislator, Indian agent (d. 1910)
• 1831 – Xianfeng, Emperor of China (d. 1861)
• 1839 – Ephraim Shay, American inventor (d. 1916)
• 1853 – Alexius Meinong, Austrian philosopher (d. 1920)
• 1868 – Henri Nathansen, Danish writer and stage director (d. 1944)
• 1870 – Charles Davidson Dunbar, British military piper (d. 1939)
• 1871 – Lyonel Feininger, German-American painter and caricaturist (d. 1956)
• 1888 – Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Israeli writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1970)
• 1888 – Milán Füst, Hungarian writer, (d. 1967)
• 1889 – Erle Stanley Gardner, American lawyer and author (Perry Mason) (d. 1970)
• 1898 – George Robert Vincent, American sound recording pioneer (d. 1985)
• 1898 – Osmond Borradaile, Canadian cinematographer (d. 1999)
• 1898 – Berenice Abbott, American photographer (d. 1991)
• 1899 – James Cagney, American actor (d. 1986)
• 1900 – Marcel Dalio, French actor (d. 1983)
• 1901 – Luigi Chinetti, Italian-American racecar driver and NART team owner (d. 1994)
• 1901 – Bruno Jasieński, Polish poet (d. 1938)
• 1902 – Christina Stead, Australian novelist (d. 1983)
• 1910 – Barbara O'Neil, American actress, d. 1980
• 1911 – Ted Anderson, English footballer (d. 1979)
• 1912 – Art Linkletter, Canadian television host (d. 2010)
• 1912 – Erwin Bauer, German racing driver (d. 1958)
• 1913 – Bertrand Goldberg, American architect (d. 1997)
• 1915 – Fred Ball, American movie studio executive, actor, and the brother of comedienne Lucille Ball (d. 2007)
• 1917 – Phyllis Diller, American comedienne
• 1917 – Red Sovine, American country music singer (d. 1980)
• 1917 – Lou Boudreau, Major League baseball player and manager (d. 2001)
• 1918 – Carlos Manuel Arana Osorio, President of Guatemala (d. 2003)
• 1920 – Juan Antonio Samaranch, Spanish chairman of the International Olympic Committee (d. 2010)
• 1920 – Kenneth Wolstenholme, English sports commentator (d. 2002)
• 1920 – Gordon Gould, inventor of the laser (d. 2005)
• 1921 – Louis Lachenal, French alpinist, one of the first two mountaineers to climb a summit of more than 8,000 meters.(d. 1955)
• 1921 – František Zvarík, Slovakian actor (d. 2008)
• 1923 – John Cooper, English race car designer (d. 2000)
• 1925 – Jimmy Scott, American jazz singer
• 1926 – Édouard Carpentier, French-born professional wrestler (d. 2010)
• 1926 – Charles Champlin, American film critic and writer
• 1928 – Vince Guaraldi, American musician and composer (d. 1976)
• 1929 – Sergei K. Godunov, Russian mathematician
• 1932 – Johnny "Red" Kerr, American basketball player, coach, and longtime Chicago Bulls color commentator (d. 2009)
• 1932 – Hal Riney, American advertising executive (d. 2008)
• 1932 – Quino, Argentine cartoonist and comic strip artist (Mafalda)
• 1933 – Tony Pithey, South African Cricketer (d. 2006)
• 1935 – Diahann Carroll, American actor
• 1935 – Peter Schickele, American author, composer and radio host
• 1935 – Donald Sutherland, Canadian actor
• 1938 – Hermann Huppen, Belgian comic book artist (Bernard Prince, Comanche, Jeremiah)
• 1939 – Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of Iran
• 1939 – Andrée Champagne, French Canadian actress and politician
• 1939 – Spencer Davis, British singer and guitarist (Spencer Davis Group)
• 1940 – Tim Brooke-Taylor, English comedian
• 1941 – Daryle Lamonica, American football player
• 1941 – Achim Warmbold, German rally driver
• 1941 – Bob Taylor, English Cricketer
• 1942 – Gale Garnett, Canadian singer
• 1942 – Connie Hawkins, American basketball player
• 1942 – Don Kessinger, American baseball player
• 1942 – Peter Sissons, British newsreader
• 1944 – Carlos Alberto, Brazilian football player
• 1944 – Catherine Schell, Hungarian born British actress
• 1944 – Mark Burgess, New Zealand Cricketer
• 1945 – Alexander, Crown Prince of Yugoslavia
• 1946 – Alun Armstrong, English actor
• 1947 – Robert Begerau, German footballer
• 1947 – Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall
• 1947 – Wolfgang Flür, German musician (Kraftwerk)
• 1948 – Ron Asheton, American musician and composer (Iggy Pop & The Stooges) (d. 2009)
• 1948 – Luc Bondy, Swiss theatre and opera director
• 1948 – Jan Gangelhoff, American whistleblower (d. 2005)
• 1949 – Terence "Geezer" Butler, British musician and lyricist (Black Sabbath)
• 1949 – Charlie Steiner, American sports broadcaster
• 1950 – Derek de Lint, Dutch actor
• 1950 – Phoebe Snow, American singer/songwriter (d. 2011)
• 1950 – P.J. Soles, German-born American actress
• 1951 – Lucie Arnaz, American actress
• 1952 – David Hasselhoff, American actor and musician
• 1952 – Nicolette Larson, American singer (d. 1997)
• 1954 – Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany
• 1954 – J. Michael Straczynski, American author
• 1955 – Paul Stamets, American mycologist and environmentalist
• 1955 – Christopher Chappell, Canadian Cricketer
• 1956 – Robert Romanus, American actor
• 1956 – Bryan Trottier, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1957 – Fern Britton, British television presenter
• 1958 – Wong Kar-wai, Chinese film director
• 1960 – Kim Barnett, English cricketer
• 1960 – Mark Burnett, English-born television producer
• 1960 – Nancy Giles, American actress
• 1960 – Robin Shou, Hong Kong actor
• 1960 – Dawn Upshaw, American soprano
• 1960 – Jan Wouters, Dutch football player and manager
• 1961 – Jeremy Hardy, British comedian
• 1961 – Keith "Guru" Elam, American rapper
• 1961 – Roy Pienaar, South African cricketer
• 1961 – Jonathan Potts, Canadian actor
• 1962 – Bill Sage, American actor
• 1963 – Regina Belle, Grammy award-winning singer-songwriter
• 1963 – Letsie III, King of Lesotho
• 1963 – Matti Nykänen, Finnish ski jumper
• 1963 – John Ventimiglia, American actor
• 1965 – Craig Morgan, American singer
• 1965 – Santiago Segura, Spanish film director and actor
• 1965 – Alex Winter, English film director
• 1966 – Lou Barlow, American alternative rock singer and musician (Dinosaur Jr, Sebadoh)
• 1966 – Sten Tolgfors, Swedish politician
• 1967 – Susan Ashton, Christian singer
• 1968 – Beth Littleford, American comedian
• 1968 – Andre Royo, American actor
• 1968 – Bitty Schram, American actress
• 1969 – Scott Johnson (cartoonist), American Cartoonist
• 1969 – F. Gary Gray, American music video and film director
• 1970 – Mandy Smith, English model and singer
• 1971 – Calbert Cheaney, American basketball player
• 1971 – Cory Doctorow, Canadian author and activist
• 1971 – Nico Mattan, Belgian cyclist
• 1972 – Donny Marshall, American basketball player
• 1972 – Jason Rullo, American drummer (Symphony X, Redemption)
• 1972 – Jaap Stam, Dutch footballer
• 1972 – Eric Williams, American basketball player
• 1973 – Tony Dovolani, Albanian ballroom dancer
• 1973 – Eric Moulds, American football player
• 1973 – Liam Kyle Sullivan, American comedian and actor
• 1974 – Laura Macdonald, Scottish jazz musician
• 1974 – Andy Whitfield, Welsh actor (d. 2011)
• 1975 – Andre Adams, New Zealand Cricketer
• 1975 – Elena Anaya, Spanish actress
• 1975 – Darude, Finnish trance DJ
• 1975 – Cécile de France, Belgian actress
• 1975 – Paul Hinojos, American guitarist (At the Drive-In, The Mars Volta)
• 1975 – Konnie Huq, English television presenter
• 1975 – Terence Tao, Australian-Chinese mathematician
• 1975 – Harlette, British Fashion Designer lingerie
• 1976 – Luke Bryan, American musician
• 1976 – Gino D'Acampo, Italian celebrity chef
• 1976 – Dagmara Dominczyk, Polish actress
• 1976 – Matt Holmes, Australian actor
• 1976 – Eric Winter, American actor
• 1977 – Leif Hoste, Belgian cyclist
• 1977 – Lehmber Hussainpuri, Famous Indian Singer
• 1977 – Marc Savard, Canadian hockey player
• 1977 – Tiffany Taylor, American model
• 1978 – Ricardo Arona, Brazilian mixed martial artist
• 1978 – Mike Hettinga, American professional wrestler
• 1978 – Noah Lennox, American musician
• 1978 – Émilie Simon, French singer
• 1978 – Katharine Towne, American actress
• 1979 – Mike Vogel, American actor
• 1980 – Javier Camuñas, Spanish footballer
• 1980 – Ryan Miller, American hockey player
• 1981 – Hely Ollarves, Venezuelan track and field athlete
• 1981 – Elpida Romantzi, Greek archer
• 1982 – Natasha Hamilton, British singer (Atomic Kitten)
• 1982 – Omari Banks, West Indian Cricketer
• 1983 – Jessi Cruickshank, Canadian television presenter
• 1983 – Ryan Guettler, Australian BMX rider
• 1983 – Sarah Jones, American actress
• 1983 – Brooke Kinsella, British actress
• 1983 – Adam Lind, American baseball player
• 1984 – Asami Kimura, Japanese singer (Country Musume)
• 1984 – Sotiris Leontiou, Greek footballer
• 1985 – Tom Fletcher, British singer (McFly)
• 1985 – Neil McGregor, Scottish footballer
• 1986 – Dana, Korean singer and actress (TSZX)
• 1986 – Brando Eaton, American actor
• 1986 – DeAngelo Smith, American football player
• 1986 – Lacey Von Erich, American professional wrestler
• 1987 – Darius Boyd, Australian rugby player
• 1987 – Jan Charouz, Czech racing driver
• 1987 – Jeremih Felton, American R&B singer
• 1988 – Summer Bishil, American actress
• 1998 – Felipe Juan Froilán de Marichalar y de Borbón, Spanish royal
• 2000 – Maria Aragon, Canadian singer

Deaths

• 521 – Magnus Felix Ennodius, bishop and Latin poet (b. 474)
• 656 – Uthman ibn Affan, Third Caliph, assassinated.
• 924 – King Edward the Elder of England
• 1070 – Baldwin VI, Count of Flanders (b. 1030)
• 1453 – Dmitry Shemyaka, Grand Prince of Moscow 1445, 1446-1447, poisoned in Veliky Novgorod by Vasily Tyomny's agents
• 1453 – John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury, English military leader
• 1531 – Hosokawa Takakuni, Japanese military commander (b. 1484)
• 1566 – Bartolomé de Las Casas, Spanish priest (b. 1484)
• 1571 – Georg Fabricius, German poet and historian (b. 1516)
• 1588 – Mimar Sinan, Ottoman architect (b. 1489)
• 1645 – Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset, Scottish politician
• 1704 – Pierre-Charles Le Sueur, French fur trader and explorer
• 1709 – Robert Bolling, English settler in Virginia (b. 1646)
• 1790 – Adam Smith, Scottish economist and philosopher (b. 1723)
• 1791 – Martin Dobrizhoffer, Austrian Jesuit missionary (b. 1717)
• 1793 – Charlotte Corday, French aristocrat and murderer (b. 1768)
• 1794 – John Roebuck, British inventor (b. 1718)
• 1845 – Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1764)
• 1878 – Aleardo Aleardi, Italian poet (b. 1812)
• 1879 – Maurycy Gottlieb, Ukrainian painter (b. 1856)
• 1881 – Jim Bridger, American mountain man, Indian fighter, and explorer (b. 1804)
• 1883 – Tu Duc, emperor of the Nguyễn Dynasty of Vietnam
• 1885 – Jean-Charles Chapais, Canadian politician (b. 1811)
• 1887 – Dorothea Dix, American social activist (b. 1802)
• 1893 – Frederick A. Johnson, American politician (b. 1833)
• 1894 – Josef Hyrtl, Austrian anatomist (b. 1810)
• 1894 – Charles-Marie-René Leconte de Lisle, French poet (b. 1818)
• 1907 – Hector Malot, French writer (b. 1830)
• 1912 – Henri Poincaré, French mathematician (b. 1854)
• 1918 – Family of Emperor Nicholas II Alexandrovich (b. 1868)

• Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna (b. 1872)
• Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna (b. 1895)
• Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna (b. 1897)
• Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna (b. 1899)
• Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna (b. 1901)
• Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich (b. 1904)

• 1928 – Giovanni Giolitti, Italian statesman (b. 1842)
• 1935 – George William Russell, Irish nationalist, poet and artist (b. 1867)
• 1944 – William James Sidis, gifted mathematician and child prodigy (b. 1898)
• 1945 – Ernst Busch, German field marshal (b. 1885)
• 1946 – General Dragoljub Mihailović, commandant of the Yugoslav Royal Army in the Fatherland (b. 1893)
• 1950 – Evangeline Booth, the 4th General of The Salvation Army (b. 1865)
• 1959 – Billie Holiday, American singer (b. 1915)
• 1959 – Eugene Meyer, American businessman and newspaper publisher (b. 1875)
• 1961 – Ty Cobb, baseball player (b. 1886)
• 1967 – John Coltrane, American musician (b. 1926)
• 1974 – Dizzy Dean, Major League baseball pitcher (b. 1910)
• 1975 – Konstantine Gamsakhurdia, Georgian writer and public benefactor (b. 1893)
• 1980 – Boris Delaunay, Russian mathematician (b. 1890)
• 1987 – Yujiro Ishihara, Japanese actor (b. 1934)
• 1988 – Frank Goodish, professional wrestler (b. 1946)
• 1989 – Itubwa Amram, Nauruan pastor and politician (b. 1922)
• 1995 – Juan Manuel Fangio, Argentinian race car driver (b. 1911)
• 1996 – Chas Chandler, bass guitarist (The Animals), record producer and manager (b. 1938)
• 2001 – Katharine Graham, American publisher (b. 1917)
• 2003 – David Kelly, Welsh UN weapons inspector (b. 1944)
• 2003 – Rosalyn Tureck, American pianist and harpsichordist (b. 1914)
• 2004 – Pat Roach, British professional wrestler and actor (b. 1937)
• 2005 – Laurel Aitken, Jamaican singer (b. 1927)
• 2005 – Geraldine Fitzgerald, Irish-born actress (b. 1913)
• 2005 – Edward Heath, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1916)
• 2005 – Gavin Lambert, British-born screenwriter (b. 1924)
• 2005 – Joe Vialls, Australian writer (b. 1944)
• 2006 – Sam Myers, American musician and songwriter (b. 1936)
• 2006 – Mickey Spillane, American author (b. 1918)
• 2007 – Júlio Redecker, Brazilian politician (b. 1956)
• 2008 – Larry Haines, American actor (b. 1918)
• 2009 – Walter Cronkite, American broadcast journalist (b. 1916)
• 2009 – Leszek Kołakowski, Polish philosopher (b. 1927)
• 2011 – David Ngoombujarra, Australian actor (b. 1967)

Holidays and observances

• Christian Feast Day:
  • Alexius of Rome (Western Church)
  • Cynehelm
  • Cynllo
  • Jadwiga of Poland
  • Martyrs of Compiègne
  • Magnus Felix Ennodius
  • Marcellina
  • Piatus of Tournai
  • Romanov sainthood (Russian Orthodox Church)
  • Speratus and companions
  • July 17 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
• Constitution Day (South Korea)
• Independence Day (Slovakia)
• King's Birthday (Lesotho)
• World Day for International Justice (International)
• Yellow Pig's Day
• Yama-boko Junkō of the Gion Matsuri (Kyoto, Japan)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: July 17

• BBC: On This Day
• The New York Times: On This Day
• On This Day in Canada