Events Pre-1600 180 – Twelve inhabitants of Scillium (near Kasserine, modern-day Tunisia) in North Africa are executed for being Christians. This is the earliest record of Christianity in that part of the world. 561 – Consecration of Pope John III following the death of Pope Pelagius I earlier that year. 1048 – Damasus II is elected pope, and dies 23 days later. 1048 – Four year-old Henry IV is crowned as king of Germany in Aachen. 1203 – The Fourth Crusade assaults Constantinople. The Byzantine emperor Alexios III Angelos 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. 1429 – Hundred Years' War: Charles VII of France is crowned the King of France in the Reims Cathedral after a successful campaign by Joan of Arc. 1453 – Battle 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. 1489 – Sikandar Lodi succeeds Bahlul Khan Lodi as Sultan of Delhi.
1601–1900 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 – Former emperor Peter III of Russia is murdered. 1771 – Bloody Falls massacre: Chipewyan chief Matonabbee, traveling 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 scores of people. 1794 – The 16 Carmelite Martyrs of Compiègne are executed ten days prior to the end of the French Revolution's Reign of Terror. 1821 – The Kingdom of Spain cedes the territory of Florida to the United States. 1850 – Vega becomes the first star (other than the Sun) to be photographed. 1867 – Harvard 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. 1899 – NEC Corporation is organized as the first Japanese joint venture with foreign capital.
1901–present 1918 – Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his immediate family and retainers are executed by Bolshevik Chekists at the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg, Russia. 1918 – The is sunk off Ireland by the German ; five lives are lost. 1919 – The 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.Suomen hallitusmuoto 100 vuotta (Valtioneuvoston kanslia) (in Finnish) 1932 – Altona Bloody Sunday: A riot between the Nazi Party paramilitary forces, the SS and SA, and the German Communist Party ensues. 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. 1945 – World 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. 1953 – The largest number of United States midshipman casualties in a single event results from an aircraft crash in Florida, killing 44. 1954 – First 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. 1962 – Nuclear weapons testing: The "Small Boy" test shot Little Feller I becomes the last atmospheric test detonation at the Nevada National Security Site. 1968 – 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, while having surgery in Italy, is deposed by his cousin Mohammed Daoud Khan. 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 – 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 games because of New Zealand's participation. Contrary to rulings by other international sports organizations, the IOC had declined to exclude New Zealand because of their participation in South African sporting events during apartheid. 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. 1994 – Brazil win their fourth World Cup title, defeating Italy 3–2 on penalties. 1996 – TWA Flight 800: Off the coast of Long Island, New York, a Paris-bound TWA Boeing 747 explodes, killing all 230 on board. 1997 – After takeoff from Husein Sastranegara International Airport, Sempati Air Flight 304 crashes into a residential neighborhood in Bandung, killing 28 people. 1998 – The 7.0 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. 1998 – A 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 aggression. 2000 – During approach to Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Airport, Alliance Air Flight 7412 suddenly crashes into a residential neighborhood in Patna, India, killing 60 people. 2006 – The 7.7 Pangandaran tsunami earthquake severely affects the Indonesian island of Java, killing 668 people, and leaving more than 9,000 injured. 2007 – TAM 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. 2014 – Malaysia 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. 2014 – A 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. 2014 – Eric Garner is killed by police officer Daniel Pantaleo in New York City, after the latter put him in a prohibited chokehold while arresting him. 2015 – At least 120 people are killed and 130 injured by a suicide bombing in Diyala Governorate, Iraq.
Births Pre-1600 1487 – Ismail I of Iran (died 1524) 1499 – Maria Salviati, Italian noblewoman (died 1543) 1531 – Antoine de Créqui Canaples, Roman Catholic cardinal (died 1574)
1601–1900 1674 – Isaac Watts, English hymnwriter and theologian (died 1748) 1695 – Christian Karl Reinhard of Leiningen-Dachsburg-Falkenburg-Heidesheim (died 1766) 1698 – Pierre Louis Maupertuis, French mathematician and philosopher (died 1759) 1708 – Frederick Christian, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth (died 1769) 1714 – Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten, German philosopher and academic (died 1762) 1744 – Elbridge Gerry, American merchant and politician, 5th Vice President of the United States (died 1814) 1763 – John Jacob Astor, German-American businessman and philanthropist (died 1848) 1774 – John Wilbur, American minister and theologian (died 1856) 1797 – Paul Delaroche, French painter and academic (died 1856) 1823 – Leander Clark, American businessman, judge, and politician (died 1910) 1831 – Xianfeng Emperor of China (died 1861) 1831 – Naser al-Din Shah of Qajar Iran (died 1896) 1837 – Joseph-Alfred Mousseau, Canadian lawyer, judge, and politician, 7th Secretary of State for Canada (died 1886) 1839 – Ephraim Shay, American engineer, invented the Shay locomotive (died 1916) 1853 – Alexius Meinong, Ukrainian-Austrian philosopher and academic (died 1920) 1868 – Henri Nathansen, Danish director and playwright (died 1944) 1870 – Charles Davidson Dunbar, Scottish soldier and bagpipe player (died 1939) 1871 – Lyonel Feininger, German-American painter and illustrator (died 1956) 1873 – Many Benner, French painter (died 1965) 1882 – James Somerville, English admiral and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Somerset (died 1949) 1888 – Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Ukrainian-Israeli novelist, short story writer and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1970) 1889 – Erle Stanley Gardner, American lawyer and author (died 1970) 1894 – Georges Lemaître, Belgian priest, astronomer, and cosmologist (died 1966) 1896 – Rupert Atkinson, English RAF officer (died 1919) 1898 – Berenice Abbott, American photographer (died 1991) 1898 – Osmond Borradaile, Canadian soldier and cinematographer (died 1999) 1899 – James Cagney, American actor and dancer (died 1986)
1901–present 1901 – Luigi Chinetti, Italian-American race car driver (died 1994) 1901 – Bruno Jasieński, Polish poet and author (died 1938) 1901 – Patrick Smith, Irish farmer and politician, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (died 1982) 1902 – Christina Stead, Australian author and academic (died 1983) 1905 – William Gargan, American actor (died 1979) 1910 – James Coyne, Canadian lawyer and banker, 2nd Governor of the Bank of Canada (died 2012) 1910 – Frank Olson, American chemist and microbiologist (died 1953) 1911 – Lionel Ferbos, American trumpet player (died 2014) 1911 – Heinz Lehmann, German-Canadian psychiatrist and academic (died 1999) 1912 – Erwin Bauer, German race car driver (died 1958) 1912 – Art Linkletter, Canadian-American radio and television host (died 2010) 1913 – Bertrand Goldberg, American architect, designed the Marina City Building (died 1997) 1914 – Eleanor Steber, American soprano and educator (died 1990) 1915 – Bijon Bhattacharya, Indian actor, singer, and screenwriter (died 1978) 1915 – Arthur Rothstein, American photographer and educator (died 1985) 1916 – Eleanor Hadley, American economist and policymaker (died 2007) 1917 – Lou Boudreau, American baseball player and manager (died 2001) 1917 – Phyllis Diller, American actress, comedian, and voice artist (died 2012) 1917 – Kenan Evren, Turkish general and politician, 7th President of Turkey (died 2015) 1917 – Christiane Rochefort, French author (died 1998) 1918 – Carlos Manuel Arana Osorio, Guatemalan soldier and politician, President of Guatemala (died 2003) 1919 – Albert Stubbins, English footballer (died 2002) 1920 – Gordon Gould, American physicist and academic, invented the laser (died 2005) 1920 – Juan Antonio Samaranch, Spanish businessman, 7th President of the International Olympic Committee (died 2010) 1921 – George Barnes, American guitarist, producer, and songwriter (died 1977) 1921 – Louis Lachenal, French mountaineer (died 1955) 1921 – Mary Osborne, American guitarist (died 1992) 1921 – Toni Stone, American baseball player (died 1996) 1921 – František Zvarík, Slovak actor (died 2008) 1923 – Jeanne Block, American psychologist (died 1981) 1923 – John Cooper, English car designer, co-founded the Cooper Car Company (died 2000) 1924 – Garde Gardom, Canadian lawyer and politician, 26th Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia (died 2013) 1925 – Jimmy Scott, American singer and actor (died 2014) 1925 – Mohammad Hasan Sharq, Afghan politician 1926 – Édouard Carpentier, French-Canadian wrestler (died 2010) 1926 – Willis Carto, American activist and theorist (died 2015) 1928 – Vince Guaraldi, American singer-songwriter and pianist (died 1976) 1928 – Joe Morello, American jazz drummer (Dave Brubeck Quartet - "Blue Rondo à la Turk") (died 2011)