July 17th in History

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

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 premièred.

1762 - Catherine II (Catherine the Great) becomes Tsar of Russia upon the murder of Peter III of Russia. She was the longest-ruling female leader of Russia

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.

1856 - The Great Train Wreck of 1856 in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, kills over 60 people.

1917 - King George V issues a Proclamation stating that the male line descendants of the British Royal Family will bear the surname Windsor.

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

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

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

1955 - Disneyland is dedicated and opened by Walt Disney in Anaheim, California.

1976 - History of East Timor: East Timor is annexed, and becomes the 27th province of Indonesia.

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.

2009 - Jakarta double bombings at the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton Hotels killed 9 people including 4 foreigners.

Famous Birthdays

1698 - Pierre Louis Maupertuis, mathematician

1839 - Ephraim Shay, inventor and engineer, invented the Shay locomotive

1899 - James Cagney, actor

1915 - Fred Ball, actor

1935 - Diahann Carroll, actor

1939 - Ali Khamenei, 2nd Supreme Leader of Iran

1947 - HRH Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, Duchess of Rothesay.

1949 - Geezer Butler, musician and songwriter

1954 - Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany

1957 - Fern Britton, television host

1963 - His Majesty King Letsie III of Lesotho

1968 - Andre Royo, actor

1975 - Konnie Huq, television host

1979 - Mike Vogel, actor

1985 - Tom Fletcher, singer-songwriter and musician

1987 - Darius Boyd, rugby player