This day in history
Every day is full of amazing anniversaries, ancient and modern! As well as today, you can also look at any other day of the year - click the arrows to select the month, then click a number to select the day.
17 July
Events
- 924: King Edward the Elder of England dies; he is succeeded by his capable son, Athelstan.
- 1085: When the Norman duke Robert Guiscard of Apulia is killed at the siege of Cephalonia, Greece, he is succeeded as duke of Apulia by his son, Roger Borsa, who withdraws the Normans from Greece. Robert's brother, Roger, succeeds him as count in Sicily and Calabria.
- 1203: Carrying out their part of the arrangement made the previous November with Alexius IV Angelus, son of the deposed Byzantine emperor Isaac II Angelus, the crusaders force an entry into Constantinople; the Byzantine emperor Alexius III Angelus flees and Isaac is restored.
- 1210: King Sverker II of Sweden is defeated, killed, and succeeded by Eric X Cnutson, the first Swedish king to be anointed at his coronation.
- 1630: Mantua falls to the imperialist army in the War of the Mantuan Succession.
- 1912: The International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF), the world governing body for track and field, is formed in Stockholm, Sweden, with 17 founder members.
- 1973: A bloodless army-backed coup deposes King Mohammed Zahir Shah of Afghanistan and the country is proclaimed a republic.
- 1981: Israeli military aircraft attack Palestinian areas of Beirut. Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization agree a ceasefire on 29 July after two weeks of fighting in southern Lebanon.
- 1996: A TWA jumbo jet, en route from New York City to Paris, France, explodes over the Atlantic soon after takeoff from John F Kennedy airport; 230 people are killed. A terrorist bomb is suspected, although later investigation suggests this is probably not the cause.
- 1998: A 10-m/30-ft tidal wave hits the north coast of Papua New Guinea, inundating several villages and killing an estimated 6,000 people. Of the survivors 70% are adults; a generation of children is wiped out.
- 1998: The last tsar of Russia, Tsar Nicholas II, and his family are buried in St Petersburg, Russia, 80 years after their murder at Yekaterinburg, Russia. Russian president Boris Yeltsin makes a public apology after initially refusing to attend the ceremony.
- 2000: Bashar al Assad is installed as the new president of Syria following a referendum, succeeding his late father.
- 2005: US golfer Tiger Woods wins the 134th British Open tournament at St Andrews, Scotland, to claim the tenth major championship of his career.
- 2006: An offshore earthquake south of Java in Indonesia triggers a tsunami (tidal wave) which devastates coastal settlements and kills more than 500 people.
Births and Deaths
- Adam Smith
1790: Adam Smith, Scottish social philosopher known for his An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations on laissez-faire economics, dies in Edinburgh, Scotland (63). - Billie Holiday
1959: Billie Holiday (real name Eleanora Fagan), US jazz singer, dies in New York City (44).
Data provided by Helicon Publishing
