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, massacre a group of unsuspecting Inuit.
• 1791 - Massacre at the Champ de Mars, Paris, during the French Revolution. 1200-1500 people were killed, including women and children.
• 1815 - Napoleonic Wars: In France, Napoleon surrenders at Rochefort, Charente-Maritime to British forces.
• 1867 - In Boston, Massachusetts, USA, 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, Washington, USA.
• 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 Midwestern heat wave in the United States reaches its peak. Chicago and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, among other cities, set all-time high temperature records. The heat claims over 400 lives on this day alone.
• 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

• 1674 - Isaac Watts, English hymnwriter (d. 1748)
• 1698 - Pierre Louis Maupertuis, French mathematician (d. 1759)
• 1787 - Friedrich Krupp , industrialist (d. 1826), see Krupp
• 1877 - Ernst von Dohnanyi, Hungarian conductor (d. 1960)
• 1888 - Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Israeli writer (d. 1970)
• 1899 - James Cagney, actor (d. 1986)
• 1899 - Erle Stanley Gardner, author (d. 1970)
• 1901 - Bruno Jasieński, Polish poet (d. 1938)
• 1912 - Art Linkletter, television host
• 1917 - Phyllis Diller, comedienne
• 1917 - Margarete Mitscherlich , physician
• 1920 - Juan Antonio Samaranch, former chairman of the International Olympic Committee
• 1920 - Kenneth Wolstenholme, sports commentator (d. 2002)
• 1928 - Vince Guaraldi, musician, composer (d. 1976)
• 1935 - Diahann Carroll, singer
• 1935 - Donald Sutherland, actor
• 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
• 1947 - Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall (formerly Parker Bowles), former British royal mistress and now wife of Prince Charles
• 1948 - Luc Bondy , film and theatre director
• 1949 - Charlie Steiner, sports anchor
• 1952 - David Hasselhoff, actor, musician
• 1954 - J. Michael Straczynski, science fiction author
• 1956 - Peter D'Adamo , physician, author
• 1960 - Mark Burnett, reality TV producer
• 1963 - Matti Nykänen, Finnish ski jumper
• 1971 - Cory Doctorow, author, activist
• 1973 - Eric Moulds, American football player
• 1975 - Konnie Huq, television presenter

Deaths

• 1070 - Baldwin VI, Count of Flanders (b. 1030)
• 1790 - Adam Smith, Scottish economist
• 1793 - Charlotte Corday, French aristocrat
• 1887 - Dorothea Dix, American social activist (b. 1802)
• 1918 - Tsar Nicholas II of Russia (Gregorian calendar date)
• 1918 - Grand Duchess Olga of Russia
• 1918 - Grand Duchess Tatiana of Russia
• 1918 - Tsarevich Alexei of Russia
• 1918 - Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia
• 1918 - Tsarina Alexandra of Russia
• 1918 - Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia
• 1959 - Billie Holiday, singer
• 1959 - Eugene Meyer, American businessman and newspaper publisher (The Washington Post) (b. 1875)
• 1961 - Ty Cobb, Baseball Hall of Famer (b. 1886)
• 1967 - John Coltrane, jazz musician
• 1975 - Konstantine Gamsakhurdia, Georgian writer and public benefactor
• 1980 - Boris Delaunay, Soviet/Russian mathematician (b. 1890)
• 1995 - Juan Manuel Fangio, Argentinian race car driver (b. 1911)
• 2001 - Katharine Graham, Washington Post publisher (b. 1917)
• 2003 - Hans Abich , German tv producer
• 2003 - Antje , walrus, long-time mascot of German tv station NDR
• 2003 - Rosalyn Tureck, American pianist and harpsichordist
• 2003 - Dr. David Kelly, UN weapons inspector
• 2004 - Pat Roach, wrestler and actor

Holidays and observances

• Iraq - Ba'ath Revolution Day
• Puerto Rico - Luis Muñoz Rivera's Birthday
• South Korea - Constitution Day
• Various mathematics departments - Yellow Pig's Day

External links

• BBC: On This Day

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