This Day In History: Disneyland Opens

1955

Disneyland opens

Born on This Day

Phyllis Diller

Phyllis Diller

1917 - 2012

Comedian noted for her self-deprecating humor and groundbreaking work as one of the first female stand-up comics.

Diahann Carroll

Diahann Carroll

1935 - 2019

Actress and singer whose role in 1968's "Julia" made her one of the first African American woman to star in a TV series.

Merkel Records New Year Address As Pandemic Continues

Angela Merkel

1954 -

West German politician who was the first female chancellor of Germany, serving from 2005 to 2021.

Phyllis Diller

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Diahann Carroll

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Angela Merkel

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2024

JUL

17

A 27-foot-long stegosaurus skeleton, dubbed Apex, sells for $44.6 million at Sotheby’s, setting a new record for a fossil. It was discovered by a paleontologist in 2022 at, of all places, Dinosaur, Colorado.

Timeline

Also on This Day in History

Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on July 17th

1763

John Jacob Astor is born

Astor rose from modest roots to amass a fortune in fur trade.

2:36m read

John Jacob Astor

1917

Britain’s King George V changes royal surname

On July 17, 1917, during the third year of World War I, Britain’s King George V orders the British royal family to dispense with the use of German titles and surnames, changing the surname of his own family, the decidedly Germanic Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, to Windsor. The second son of Prince Edward of Wales (later King Edward […]

1:58m read

1920

Three-point seatbelt inventor Nils Bohlin born

Nils Bohlin, the Swedish engineer and inventor responsible for the three-point lap and shoulder seatbelt—considered one of the most important innovations in automobile safety—is born on July 17, 1920 in Härnösand, Sweden. Before 1959, only two-point lap belts were available in automobiles; for the most part, the only people who regularly buckled up were race […]

2:04m read

1936

Spanish Civil War breaks out

On July 17, 1936, the Spanish Civil War begins as a revolt by right-wing Spanish military officers in Spanish Morocco and spreads to mainland Spain. From the Canary Islands, General Francisco Franco broadcasts a message calling for all army officers to join the uprising and overthrow Spain’s leftist Republican government. Within three days, the rebels […]

4:14m read

7 Things You May Not Know About the Spanish Civil War

1938

Douglas “Wrong Way” Corrigan crosses the Atlantic

Douglas Corrigan, the last of the early glory-seeking fliers, takes off from Floyd Bennett field in Brooklyn, New York, on a flight that would finally win him a place in aviation history. Eleven years earlier, American Charles A. Lindbergh had become an international celebrity with his solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic. Corrigan was among […]

1941

Joe DiMaggio ends 56-game hitting streak

On July 17, 1941, New York Yankees center fielder Joe DiMaggio fails to get a hit against the Cleveland Guardians (then known as the Cleveland Indians), ending his historic 56-game hitting streak. The record run had captivated the country for two months. Joseph Paul DiMaggio was born November 25, 1914, in Martinez, California. In 1891, his […]

2:58m read

1944

An ammunition ship explodes in the Port Chicago disaster

An ammunition ship explodes while being loaded in Port Chicago, California, killing 320 people on July 17, 1944. The United States’ World War II military campaign in the Pacific was in full swing at the time. Poor procedures and lack of training led to the disaster. Port Chicago, about 30 miles north of San Francisco, […]

2:46m read

1945

President Harry Truman records his impressions of meeting Stalin

On July 17, 1945, President Harry S. Truman records his first impressions of Stalin in his diary. Truman described his initial meeting with the intimidating Soviet leader as cordial. “Promptly a few minutes before twelve” the president wrote, “I looked up from the desk and there stood Stalin in the doorway. I got to my […]

1:40m read

Joseph Stalin, President Truman, Winston Churchill, Potsdam Conference

1945

Potsdam Conference begins

The final “Big Three” meeting between the United States, the Soviet Union and Great Britain takes place towards the end of World War II, to discuss how geopolitics would shake out after the war. The decisions reached at the Potsdam Conference ostensibly settled many of the pressing issues between the three wartime allies, but the meeting […]

1:58m read

1967

Jimi Hendrix drops out as opening act for The Monkees

On July 17, 1967, one of the oddest musical pairings in history comes to an end when Jimi Hendrix dropped out as the opening act for teenybopper sensations The Monkees. The booking of psychedelic rock god Jimi Hendrix with the made-for-television Monkees was the brainchild of Hendrix’s manager, Mike Jeffery, who was seeking greater public […]

1:58m read

Rock guitar virtuoso Jimi Hendrix (1942-1970) caught mid guitar-break during his performance at the Isle of Wight Festival, August 1970.

1975

Superpowers meet in space

As part of a mission aimed at developing space rescue capability, the U.S. spacecraft Apollo 18 and the Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 19 rendezvous and dock in space. As the hatch was opened between the two vessels, commanders Thomas P. Stafford and Aleksei Leonov shook hands and exchanged gifts in celebration of the first such meeting […]

1:04m read

1984

Jesse Jackson delivers “Rainbow Coalition” speech at DNC

On July 17, 1984, the Reverend Jesse Jackson delivers his famous “Rainbow Coalition” speech in San Francisco at the Democratic National Convention, which presents the upcoming election as a stark choice between a future of justice for all or advantages for some under another term for President Ronald Reagan. He is the first African American […]

2:50m read

1996

TWA Flight 800 explodes midair

Shortly after takeoff from New York’s Kennedy International Airport, a TWA Boeing 747 jetliner bound for Paris explodes over the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 230 people aboard. Flight 800 had just received clearance to initiate a climb to cruise altitude when it exploded without warning. Because the plane was loaded with fuel for the long […]

1:34m read

Flames from burning jet fuel on the waters off of Long Island from the TWA Flight 800 Boeing 747-100 aircraft that exploded on July 17, 1996 near East Moriches, New York.

2014

Eric Garner dies in NYPD chokehold

On July 17, 2014, two New York Police Department officers confront Eric Garner, a 43-year-old African American father of six, for illegally selling cigarettes. Garner dies after losing consciousness as a police officer locks him in an illegal chokehold, and within hours, a video of the incident begins to spark outrage across the country. Garner […]

1:24m read

2014

Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 shot down over Russian-controlled area of Ukraine

On July 17, halfway through a flight from Amsterdam to Malaysia, a passenger plane was shot down in Eastern Ukraine, near the war-torn border with Russia. All 298 people on board, most of whom were citizens of the Netherlands, died in the explosion. It was the second Malaysian Air flight to disappear in 2014, after […]

2:24m read

2020

Congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis dies

On July 17, 2020, in the midst of a pandemic and a time of unparalleled racial tensions in the United States, the nation loses one of the last towering figures of the civil rights movement. John Lewis, former Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, a chief organizer of the 1963 March on Washington for […]

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