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This day in history

This day in history: 17 July

Events, births and deaths on this date, ordered by how many people look them up.

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Born on this day · Died on this day209 · 102

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Key facts

358 historical events, births and deaths are listed for 17 July.
Entries come from Wikipedia’s day pages and are ordered by page views.
2015: At least 120 people are killed and 130 injured by a suicide bombing in Diyala Governorate, Iraq.

Holidays and observances

Christian feast day: Alexius of Rome (Western Church)

Christian feast day: Andrew Zorard

Christian feast day: Blessed Pavel Peter Gojdič (Greek Catholic Church)

Christian feast day: Cynehelm

Christian feast day: Cynllo

Christian feast day: Inácio de Azevedo

Christian feast day: Jadwiga of Poland

Christian feast day: July 17 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

Christian feast day: Magnus Felix Ennodius

Christian feast day: Marcellina

Christian feast day: Martyrs of Compiègne

Christian feast day: Pope Leo IV

Events

2015At least 120 people are killed and 130 injured by a suicide bombing in Diyala Governorate, Iraq.

2014A French regional train on the Pau-Bayonne line crashes into a high-speed train near the town of Denguin, resulting in at least 25 injuries.

2014Eric Garner is killed by police officer Daniel Pantaleo in New York City, after the latter put him in a prohibited chokehold while arresting him.

2014Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, a Boeing 777, crashes near the border of Ukraine and Russia after being shot down. All 298 people on board are killed.

2007TAM Airlines Flight 3054, an Airbus A320, crashes into a warehouse after landing too fast and missing the end of the São Paulo–Congonhas Airport runway, killing 199 people.

2006The 7.7 Mw Pangandaran tsunami earthquake severely affects the Indonesian island of Java, killing 668 people, and leaving more than 9,000 injured.

2000During approach to Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Airport, Alliance Air Flight 7412 suddenly crashes into a residential neighborhood in Patna, India, killing 60 people.

1998A diplomatic conference adopts the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, establishing the permanent international court in The Hague, to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of a

1998The 7.0 Mw Papua New Guinea earthquake triggers a tsunami that destroys ten villages in Papua New Guinea, killing up to 2,700 people, and leaving several thousand injured.

1997After takeoff from Husein Sastranegara International Airport, Sempati Air Flight 304 crashes into a residential neighborhood in Bandung, killing 28 people.

1996TWA Flight 800: Off the coast of Long Island, New York, a Paris-bound TWA Boeing 747 explodes, killing all 230 on board.

1994Brazil win their fourth World Cup title, defeating Italy 3–2 on penalties.

1981A 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.

1976East Timor is annexed and becomes the 27th province of Indonesia.

1976The opening of the Summer Olympics in Montreal is marred by 25 African teams boycotting the games because of New Zealand's participation. Contrary to rulings by other international sports organizations, the IOC had declined to exclude New Z

1975Apollo–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.

1973King Mohammed Zahir Shah of Afghanistan, while having surgery in Italy, is deposed by his cousin Mohammed Daoud Khan.

1968Abdul 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.

1962Nuclear weapons testing: The "Small Boy" test shot Little Feller I becomes the last atmospheric test detonation at the Nevada National Security Site.

1954First Indochina War: Viet Minh troops successfully ambush the armoured French column 'G.M. 42' in the Battle of Chu Dreh Pass in the Central Highlands. It is the last battle of the war.

1953The largest number of United States midshipman casualties in a single event results from an aircraft crash in Florida, killing 44.

1945World War II: The main three leaders of the Allied nations, Winston Churchill, Harry S. Truman and Joseph Stalin, hold the Potsdam Conference in the German city of Potsdam to decide the future of a defeated Germany.

1944Port Chicago disaster: Near the San Francisco Bay, two ships laden with ammunition for the war explode in Port Chicago, California, killing 320.

1938Douglas Corrigan takes off from Brooklyn to fly the "wrong way" to Ireland and becomes known as "Wrong Way" Corrigan.

1936Spanish Civil War: An Armed Forces rebellion against the recently elected leftist Popular Front government of Spain starts the civil war.

1932Altona Bloody Sunday: A riot between the Nazi Party paramilitary forces, the SS and SA, and the German Communist Party ensues.

1919The form of government in the Republic of Finland is officially confirmed with the enactment of the Constitution of Finland. For this reason, July 17 is known as the Day of Democracy (Kansanvallan päivä) in Finland.

1918The RMS Carpathia is sunk off Ireland by the German SM U-55; five lives are lost.

1918Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his immediate family and retainers are executed by Bolshevik Chekists at the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg, Russia.

1899NEC Corporation is organized as the first Japanese joint venture with foreign capital.

1867Harvard School of Dental Medicine is established in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the first dental school in the U.S. that is affiliated with a university.

1850Vega becomes the first star (other than the Sun) to be photographed.

1821The Kingdom of Spain cedes the territory of Florida to the United States.

1794The 16 Carmelite Martyrs of Compiègne are executed ten days prior to the end of the French Revolution's Reign of Terror.

1791Members 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 scores of people.

1771Bloody Falls massacre: Chipewyan chief Matonabbee, traveling as the guide to Samuel Hearne on his Arctic overland journey, massacres a group of unsuspecting Inuit.

1762Former emperor Peter III of Russia is murdered.

1717King 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.

1489Sikandar Lodi succeeds Bahlul Khan Lodi as Sultan of Delhi.

1453Battle of Castillon: The last battle of the Hundred Years' War, the French under Jean Bureau defeat the English under the Earl of Shrewsbury, who is killed in the battle in Gascony.

Born on this day

2005Connor Bedard, Canadian ice hockey player

2002Jordan Lawlar, American baseball player

1998Rosana Serrano, Cuban rower

1997OG Anunoby, British basketball player

1996Grace Caroline Currey, American actress

1996Wonwoo, South Korean rapper and singer

1994Kali Uchis, American singer-songwriter

1992Billie Lourd, American actress

1992Nick Bjugstad, American ice hockey player

1992Tatu Sinisalo, Finnish actor

1991Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Swedish ice hockey player

1987Darius Boyd, Australian rugby league player

1987Jeremih, American singer, songwriter, and record producer

1986DeAngelo Smith, American football player

1985Loui Eriksson, Swedish ice hockey player

1985Neil McGregor, Scottish footballer

1985Tom Cullen, Welsh actor and director

1983Adam Lind, American baseball player

1982Omari Banks, Anguillan cricketer

1982Stefania Spampinato, Italian actress

1981Hely Ollarves, Venezuelan runner

1980Brett Goldstein, British actor, comedian and writer

1980Javier Camuñas, Spanish footballer

1980Ryan Miller, American ice hockey player

1979Mike Vogel, American actor

1978Jason Jennings, American baseball player

1978Justine Triet, French film director and screenwriter

1978Ricardo Arona, Brazilian mixed martial artist

1977Andrew Downton, Australian cricketer

1977Leif Hoste, Belgian cyclist

1977Marc Savard, Canadian ice hockey player

1976Anders Svensson, Swedish footballer and sportscaster

1976Brian K. Vaughan, American comic book and television writer

1976Dagmara Domińczyk, Polish-American actress

1976Eric Winter, American actor

1976Gino D'Acampo, Italian chef and author

1976Luke Bryan, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

1976Marcos Senna, Brazilian-Spanish footballer

1975Andre Adams, New Zealand cricketer

1975Carey Hart, American freestyle motorcycle racer

Died on this day

2025Alan Bergman, American songwriter (born 1925)

2025Felix Baumgartner, Austrian daredevil (born 1969)

2025Joanna Kołaczkowska, Polish cabaret performer (born 1966)

2024Bernice Johnson Reagon, American singer, songwriter and scholar (born 1942)

2024Cheng Pei-pei, Chinese actress (born 1946)

2024Mary Gibby, British botanist and professor (born 1949)

2024Pat Williams, American basketball player (born 1940)

2020Ekaterina Alexandrovskaya, Russian-Australian pair skater (born 2000)

2020John Lewis, American civil rights activist and politician (born 1940)

2019Marie Sophie Hingst, German historian and blogger who falsely claimed to be descended from Holocaust survivors

2015Jules Bianchi, French racing driver (born 1989)

2015Owen Chadwick, English rugby player, historian, and academic (born 1916)

2014Elaine Stritch, American actress and singer (born 1925)

2014Henry Hartsfield, American colonel, pilot, and astronaut (born 1933)

2014Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 victims:

2014Otto Piene, German sculptor and academic (born 1928)

2013David White, Scottish footballer and manager (born 1933)

2013Henri Alleg, English-French journalist and author (born 1921)

2013Vincenzo Cerami, Italian screenwriter and producer (born 1940)

2012İlhan Mimaroğlu, Turkish-American composer and producer (born 1926)

2012Marsha Singh, Indian-English politician (born 1954)

2011David Ngoombujarra, Australian actor (born 1967)

2011Taiji Sawada, Japanese musician (born 1966)

2009Leszek Kołakowski, Polish historian and philosopher (born 1927)

2009Walter Cronkite, American journalist and actor (born 1916)

2007Júlio Redecker, Brazilian politician (born 1956)

2006Mickey Spillane, American crime novelist (born 1918)

2005Edward Heath, English colonel and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1916)

2005Geraldine Fitzgerald, Irish-American actress (born 1913)

2003David Kelly, Welsh weapons inspector (born 1944)

Quote of the day

“Life is very short and anxious for those who forget the past, neglect the present, and fear the future.”

Seneca

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From Wikipedia’s on-this-day pages for this language, updated once a day and ordered by how often each article is read.

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