17th July, on this day

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
561 John III begins his reign as Catholic Pope
855 St Leo IV ends his reign as Catholic Pope
1203 Fourth Crusade captures Constantinople by assault; the Byzantine emperor Alexius III Angelus flees from his capital into exile.
1453 End of the One Hundred Years' War with a defeat for the French by the English at the Battle of Castillon.
1549 Jews are expelled from Ghent, Belgium
1686 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.
1761 In Britain, the official opening of the Bridgewater canal
1762 Catherine II becomes tzar of Russia upon the accidental murder of Peter III of Russia.
1771 Bloody Falls Massacre: Chipewyan chief Matonabbee traveling as the guide to Samuel Hearne on his Arctic overland journey, massacre a group of unsuspecting Inuit.
1790 Thomas Saint patents the world's first sewing machine
1794 The sixteen Carmelite Martyrs of Compiegne are executed 10 days prior to the end of the French Revolution's Reign of Terror.
1815 In France, Napoleon surrenders at Rochefort, Charente-Maritime to British forces.
1841 British humor magazine "Punch" 1st published
1850 Harvard Observatory takes 1st photograph of a star (Vega)
1856 The Great Train Wreck of 1856: Sunday school excursion train collides killing 46 children
1861 US Congress authorises paper money
1862 US army authorized to accept blacks as laborers
1863 Battle of Honey Springs, largest battle of war in Indian Territory
1864 CSA President Davis replaces Gen Joe Johnston with John Bell Hood
1867 1st permanent university dental school in US, Harvard
1897 1st ship arrives in Seattle carrying gold from the Yukon
1898 Spanish American War-Spaniads surrender to US at Santiago, Cuba
1899 NEC Corporation is formed as the first Japanese joint venture with foreign capital.
1917 The British Royal Family adopt the name of the House of Windsor in place of their German family name of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.
1918 By order of the Bolshevik Party and carried out by Cheka, Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, his immediate family, and retainers were murdered at the Ipatiev House in Ekaterinburg, Russia.
1918 RMS Carpathia, the ship that rescued the 705 survivors from the RMS Titanic, is sunk off Ireland by the Unterseeboot 55 with 5 lives lost.
1933 After successfully crossing the Atlantic ocean, the Lithuanian research aircraft Lituanica crashes in Europe under mysterious circumstances.
1935 Variety's famous headline "Sticks Nix Hick Pix"
1936 Start of the Spanish Civil War when the army, led by General Franco, revolts against the country's Republican Government.
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 Napalm incendiary bombs were dropped for the first time by American P-38 pilots on a fuel depot at Coutances, near St. Lô, France
1945 World War II: Opening of the Potsdam Conference between world leaders Harry Truman; Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill to plan for future peace once Germany has been defeated.
1946 Resistance leader Mikhailovich executed by Tito regime
1948 Proclamation of the constitution of the Republic of (South) Korea
1954 Construction begins on Disneyland
1955 Disneyland televises its grand opening in Anaheim, California
1955 Arco, Idaho becomes 1st US city lit by nuclear power
1959 American jazz singer Billie Holiday is arrested on her death bed in hospital for possession of narcotics.
1959 2,000 ft long by 1,300 foot wide section of ridge falls into Madis
1959 Dr Leakey discovers oldest human skull (600,000 years old)
1959 Tibet abolishes serfdom
1962 The "Small Boy" test shot Little Feller I becomes the last atmospheric test detonation at the Nevada Test Site.
1964 British speed pioneer Sir Donald Campbell sets a new land speed world record of 429mph in his car, Bluebird.
1966 Pioneer 7 launched
1967 Monkees perform at Forest Hills NY, Jimi Hendrix is opening act
1967 Race riots in Cairo, Illinois
1968 Beatle's animated film "Yellow Submarine" premiers in London
1968 Revolution in Iraq when Abdul Rahman Arif was overthrown and the Ba'ath Party installed as the governing power in Iraq with Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr as the new Iraqi President
1970 30,000 attend Randall Island Rock Festival, NYC
1972 1st 2 women begin training as FBI agents at Quantico
1973 King Mohammed Zahir Shah of Afghanistan is deposed by his cousin Mohammed Daoud Khan while in Italy undergoing eye surgery.
1974 1st quadrophinic studio in UK is open by the Moody Blues
1974 John Lennon is ordered to leave the US in 60 days
1975 An historic handshake in space as Russian and American astronauts meet when the US spacecraft Apollo successfully docks with the Soviet space craft Soyuz.
1976 Queen Elizabeth II opens the Olympic Games in Montreal, Canada
1976 The opening of the Summer Olympics is marred by 25 African teams boycotting the New Zealand team
1976 East Timor was annexed, and became the 27th province of Indonesia
1979 Nicaraguan president General Anastasio Somoza Debayle resigns and flees to Miami.
1979 Sebastian Coe runs world record 3:49 mile in Oslo
1981 Humber Estuary Bridge, UK, world's longest span (1.4 km), opens
1981 Lobby Walkways at KC's Hyatt Regency collapse 114 die, 200 injured
1981 Fulton County (Atlanta) grand jury indicts Wayne Williams 23 year old photographer, for murder of 2 of 28 blacks killed in Atlanta
1984 Soyuz T-12 carries 3 cosmonauts to space station Salyut 7
1987 10 teens die in Guadalupe River flood (Comfort, Tx)
1989 First flight of the B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber.
1990 Sadam Hussein's Revolutionary Day speech claims Kuwait stole oil from Iraq
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, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression.
2007 TAM Airlines (TAM Linhas Aéreas) Flight 3054 crashed upon landing during rain in São Paulo. This is Brazil's deadliest aviation accident to date with an estimated 199 deaths.

17th July 2006

'Ten die' as Israel hits vehicles

Attack on Iraqi market kills 48

Discovery makes Florida landing

17th July 2007

Gunmen kill 29 villagers in Iraq

Bomb at Pakistan lawyers' rally

Poison threat from Ukraine train

17th July 2008

Casualties in a US Afghan operation

Four Madrid bomb convicts cleared

Pope hits out at consumer culture

17th July 2009

Shipping emissions plan 'stalls'

Wikipedia painting row escalates

17th July 2010

Militants kill 16 in Pakistan convoy ambush

Nigerian machete attackers kill 8

Grenoble rioters fire at police

Birthdates which occurred on 17th July :

1487 Esma'il I shah who converted Iran from Sunni to Shi'ah
1674 Isaac Watts England, writer/preacher/hymnist (Horae Lyrican)
1744 Elbridge Gerry (DR) 5th VP (Mass-Gov), invented gerrymandering
1763 John Jacob Astor Germany, richest man in US, banker/fur trader
1859 Luis Mu¤oz Rivera Puerto Rico, journalist (founded Federalist Party)
1875 Sir Donald Francis Tovey Eton England, musicologist
1876 Rosa Jackson Lumpkin Georgia, lived to be 115 (died in 1991)
1888 Shmuel Agnon Israel, novelist (Day Before Yesterday-Nobel 1966)
1889 Erle Stanley Gardner author (created Perry Mason)
1898 Berenice Abbott Springfield Oh, photographer (World of Atget)
19-- Alexandra Wilson actress (Josie Watts-Another World)
19-- Rob Steele rocker (Law & Order-Whiskey Song)
19-- Thomas Carter Naples Italy, actor (Szysznyk, White Shadow)
19-- Tonya Lee Williams actress (Dr Olivia Barber-Young & Restless)
1900 James Cagney actor, A yankee doodle dandy, hold that grapefruit
1902 Christina Stead Australia, novelist (Man Who Loved Children)
1905 William Gargan Bkln NY, actor (Dynamite, Ellery Queen)
1909 Hardy Amies London England, royal dressmaker (Queen Elizabeth II)
1912 Art Linkletter Saskatchwan Canada, TV host (People are Funny)
1912 Pal Kov cs Hungary, sabres (Olympic-gold-1952)
1914 Lucille Benson Scottsboro Ala, actress (Lilly-Bosom Buddies)
1915 Dorothy Poynton-Hill US, platform diver (Olympic-gold-1932)
1916 Eleanor Steber Wheeling WV, soprano (Metropolitan Opera-1940)
1917 Lou Bourdeau baseball player/manager (1948 AP Athlete of Year)
1917 Phyllis Diller Lima Ohio, comedienne (Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number)
1920 Bill Monroe New Orleans La, newscaster (NBC-TV, Congressional Report)
1920 Rudolf Karpati Hungary, sabres (Olympic-gold-1956, 60)
1921 George Barnes Chicago Hgts, guitarist (Skip Farrell Show)
1934 Donald Sutherland Canada, actor (M*A*S*H, Body Snatchers)
1934 Pat McCormick comedian (Don Rickles Show, New Bill Cosby Show)
1935 Diahann Carroll Bronx, actress (Julia, Claudine, Dominique-Dynasty)
1935 P.D.Q. Bach [Peter Schickele], Iowa, composer (5th of Beethoven)
1939 Spencer Davis Wales, vocalist (Gimme Some Lovin)
1940 Phyllis Davis Port Arthur Tx, actress (Love American Style, Vega$)
1941 Daryle Lamonica Oakland Raider QB (AFL leading passer 1967)
1942 Connie Hawkins Harlem Globetrotter/NBA (Phoenix Suns, ABA MVP 1968)
1948 Brian Glascock drummer (Motels-Only the Lonely)
1948 Cathy Ferguson 100m backstroke swimmer (Olympic-gold-1964)
1949 Terry "Geezer" Butler bassist (Black Sabbath)
1951 Lucie Arnaz LA Calif, actress (Kim-Here's Lucy, Jazz Singer)
1952 David Hasselhoff Balt Md, (Revenge of the Cheerleaders, Night Rider)
1952 Phoebe Snow singer (Theme from "It's a Different World")
1956 Bryan Trottier Val Marie Sask, NHL Center (NY Islanders)
1960 Karen Price Pasadena Calif, playmate (January, 1981)
1960 Scott Norwood NFL kicker (Buffalo Bills-Superbowl XXV goat)
1963 Denise Miller Bkln NY, actress (Billie-Archie Bunker's Place)
1964 Heather Langenkamp actress (Marie-Just the 10 of Us)
1970 Mandy Smith England, rocker (I Just Can't Wait) wife of Bill Wyman

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Deaths which occurred on July 17th:
1928 General Alvaro Obreg¢n pres of Mexico, assassinated
1946 Mikhailovich resistance leader, executed by Tito regime
1959 Billie Holiday blues singer, dies of liver failure at 44 in NYC
1961 Ty Cobb Detroit Tiger hall of fame baseball player, dies at 75
1971 Cliff Edwards "Ukulele Ike", singer (54th Street Revue), dies at 76
1975 Modoc the elephant, dies at age 78 (oldest known nonhuman mammal)
1980 Donald Barry actor (Mr Gallo-Mr Novak), dies at 68
1984 J Delos Jewkes singer/actor, dies of a heart attack at 89
1985 Margo actress, dies at 68 of a brain tumor


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