Thursday, 17th July 2025 in London

17th July in the Stars – Star Sign Cancer

Today, the zodiac sign Cancer celebrates its birthday.

Personality Profile

Personality People born on 17th July possess remarkable emotional depth combined with transformative power. The Moon grants them strong intuitive abilities, while Pluto adds a fascination with hidden truths. These individuals are intense, perceptive, and emotionally wise beyond their years.

Strengths & Weaknesses Their greatest strengths include emotional intelligence, unwavering loyalty, and genuine understanding of others. They risk becoming emotionally overwhelmed or dwelling in sadness. Their transformative nature requires conscious direction and healthy outlets.

Love In relationships, they are devoted, nurturing, and deeply emotionally present. They seek meaningful, soulful connections rather than superficial intimacy. Their need for emotional security demands partners who honor vulnerability.

Caree & Finance They thrive in professions requiring intuition and human understanding—psychology, healing arts, creative fields. Their work should allow emotional expression and depth. Financial security provides them with psychological comfort and stability.

Health These natives benefit greatly from emotional expression through therapy or journaling. Water-based activities and time at home nourish their well-being. Learning to process emotions healthily rather than internalizing them is essential.

That night, the moon was in its waxing crescent phase.

Chinese year of the Snake (Wood).

Fun Facts About 17th July

Name Days in Your Language: Codey, Codie, Cody, Dakota, Dakotah, Ismael, Kody, Vesta

Someone born on this day would be just 321 days old today — roughly 7,715 hours, 462,926 minutes, or 27,775,590 seconds spent on Earth so far.

It's the 198. day of the year. In 2025, 17th July falls on a Thursday.

There are 167 days still to come.

We’re currently in Week 29 — the year marches on.

Famous Birthdays on 17th July

On this day, 203 notable people were born on 17th July — spanning from 1487 to 2005. From world leaders to artists and scientists, discover who shares this birthday.

17/07/2005

Connor Bedard, Canadian ice hockey player

Connor Bedard is a Canadian professional ice hockey player who is a centre and alternate captain for the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League (NHL). Considered one of the top ice hockey prospects of his generation, he was selected first overall by the Blackhawks in the 2023 NHL entry draft and made his NHL debut that year. Bedard would go on to win the Calder Memorial Trophy as rookie of the year in 2024.

17/07/2002

Jordan Lawlar, American baseball player

Jordan Jeffrey-Joseph Lawlar is an American professional baseball shortstop and outfielder for the Arizona Diamondbacks of Major League Baseball (MLB). He made his MLB debut in 2023.

17/07/1998

Rosana Serrano, Cuban rower

Rosana Serrano is a Cuban rower.

17/07/1997

OG Anunoby, British basketball player

Ogugua "OG" Anunoby Jr. is a British professional basketball player for the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Indiana Hoosiers. He won an NBA championship with the Toronto Raptors in 2019 and led the league in steals while being named to his first NBA All-Defensive Team in 2023. In 2026, he earned NBA All Defensive Team honours for a second time.

17/07/1996

Wonwoo, South Korean rapper and singer

Jeon Won-woo, known mononymously as Wonwoo (원우), is a South Korean rapper and singer. Managed by Pledis Entertainment, he is a member of the South Korean boy band Seventeen, its hip hop team, and its second subunit, JxW.

17/07/1994

Kali Uchis, American singer-songwriter

Karly Marina Loaiza, known professionally as Kali Uchis, is an American and Colombian singer-songwriter. Her accolades include a Grammy Award, an American Music Award, two Billboard Music Awards, and five nominations for a Latin Grammy Award.

17/07/1992

Billie Lourd, American actress

Billie Catherine Lourd is an American actress, best known for starring as Chanel #3 in the Fox horror comedy series Scream Queens (2015–2016) and for her roles in the FX horror anthology series American Horror Story (2017–present). She also appears as Lieutenant Connix in the Star Wars sequel trilogy (2015–2019). Lourd is the only child of actress Carrie Fisher.

Tatu Sinisalo, Finnish actor

Tatu Johannes Sinisalo is a Finnish actor. He is known for his first film role as the singer Toni Wirtanen in the 2016 film Born in Heinola. He also played the young Kari Tapio in the 2019 biographical film King of Hearts.

17/07/1991

Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Swedish ice hockey player

Oliver Oscar Emanuel Ekman-Larsson is a Swedish professional ice hockey player who is a defenceman for the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League (NHL). Known by his initials "OEL", Ekman-Larsson was selected sixth overall by the Phoenix Coyotes in the 2009 NHL entry draft. Previously seen as one of the NHL's top offensive defencemen, Ekman-Larsson led the Coyotes in scoring in both the 2014–15 and 2015–16 seasons. After 11 seasons with Arizona, Ekman-Larsson was traded to the Vancouver Canucks in 2021, where he spent two seasons before signing with the Florida Panthers. In his only season with the Panthers, Ekman-Larsson won the Stanley Cup in 2024.

17/07/1987

Darius Boyd, Australian rugby league player

Darius Boyd is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played as a fullback for the Brisbane Broncos in the National Rugby League (NRL) and has played for Australia at international level and State of Origin for Queensland. Boyd captained the Brisbane Broncos from 2017 to 2019.

Jeremih, American singer, songwriter, and record producer

Jeremy Phillip Felton, known professionally as Jeremih, is an American R&B recording artist. He embarked on a musical career after meeting record producer Mick Schultz in 2008, and signed a recording contract with Def Jam Recordings the following year.

17/07/1986

DeAngelo Smith, American football player

DeAngelo Lamar Smith is an American former professional football player who was a safety in the National Football League (NFL) for the Detroit Lions. He played college football for the Cincinnati Bearcats and was selected by the Dallas Cowboys in the fifth round of the 2009 NFL draft.

17/07/1985

Loui Eriksson, Swedish ice hockey player

Loui William Eriksson is a Swedish former professional ice hockey forward.

Neil McGregor, Scottish footballer

Neil McGregor is a Scottish former football defender who has previously played in the Scottish Premier League for Dundee.

17/07/1983

Adam Lind, American baseball player

Adam Alan Lind is an American former professional baseball first baseman and designated hitter. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Toronto Blue Jays, Milwaukee Brewers, Seattle Mariners, and Washington Nationals. Lind has also appeared in left field. In 2009, Lind won the Silver Slugger Award and the Edgar Martínez Award.

17/07/1982

Omari Banks, Anguillan cricketer

Omari Ahmed Clement Banks is an Anguillan musician and former cricketer, who appeared in 10 Test matches for the West Indies, as well as domestic matches for the Leeward Islands. In 2011, Banks began to pursue his musical career professionally and has been less involved in playing regional cricket, and officially retired from cricket on 31 January 2012.

17/07/1981

Hely Ollarves, Venezuelan runner

Hely Domingo Ollarves Arias is a male track and field athlete from Venezuela. He competed in the men's 4 × 100 metres relay at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, where he was eliminated in the first round alongside José Carabalí, Juan Morillo, and José Peña.

17/07/1980

Javier Camuñas, Spanish footballer

Javier Camuñas Gallego is a Spanish former professional footballer. A versatile midfielder, he could also operate as a second striker.

Brett Goldstein, British actor, comedian and writer

Brett Goldstein is an English actor, comedian, podcaster, producer, and writer. Known for his role as Roy Kent in the Apple TV+ sports comedy-drama series Ted Lasso (2020–present), he received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for each of the first two seasons. He is also the co-creator of the comedy-drama series Shrinking (2023–present).

Ryan Miller, American ice hockey player

Ryan Dean Miller is an American former professional ice hockey player. He played as a goaltender for 18 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Buffalo Sabres, St. Louis Blues, Vancouver Canucks, and Anaheim Ducks. Miller was drafted 138th overall by the Buffalo Sabres in the 1999 NHL entry draft. In 2010, he won the Vezina Trophy as the league's best goaltender. Miller was the winningest American-born goaltender in NHL history from February 2019 until March 2024, when he was passed by Jonathan Quick. In January 2023, Miller was inducted into the Buffalo Sabres Hall Of Fame, and his #30 was retired. In April 2025, Miller was also inducted into the Rochester Americans Hall of Fame.

17/07/1979

Mike Vogel, American actor

Michael James Vogel is an American actor. Vogel began acting in 2001 and has appeared in several films and series, including The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Grind, Poseidon, Blue Valentine, The Help, Bates Motel, Cloverfield, Under the Dome and The Case for Christ. He starred as the lead in the NBC military drama series The Brave for the 2017–18 season.

17/07/1978

Ricardo Arona, Brazilian mixed martial artist

Ricardo Arona is a Brazilian former professional mixed martial artist, submission grappler and 4th degree Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) black belt practitioner.

Jason Jennings, American baseball player

Jason Ryan Jennings is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He pitched in Major League Baseball with the Colorado Rockies (2001-2006), Houston Astros (2007) and Texas Rangers (2008-2009). Jennings won the 2002 National League Rookie of the Year Award.

Justine Triet, French film director and screenwriter

Justine Triet is a French film director, screenwriter, and editor. She has received several awards including an Academy Award, BAFTA Award, a Palme d'Or, three César Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards.

17/07/1977

Andrew Downton, Australian cricketer

Andrew Graham Downton is an Australian cricketer, who played for the Tasmanian Tigers. He plays club cricket for South Hobart/Sandy Bay Cricket Club.

Leif Hoste, Belgian cyclist

Leif Hoste is a retired Belgian professional road racing cyclist, who last rode for UCI Professional Continental Team team Accent.jobs–Willems Veranda's. Born in Kortrijk, Hoste's career highlights included winning two stages and the overall title at the 2006 Three Days of De Panne, the 2001, 2006 and 2007 Belgian national time trial championships, and a second-place finish at the 2004, 2006 and 2007 one-day classic Tour of Flanders.

Marc Savard, Canadian ice hockey player

Marc Savard is a Canadian former professional ice hockey centre, former assistant coach for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Calgary Flames, and St. Louis Blues of the National Hockey League (NHL), and former head coach of the Windsor Spitfires in the Ontario Hockey League. He was drafted by the New York Rangers with the 91st overall in the 1995 NHL entry draft. During his NHL career, Savard played for the Rangers, Calgary Flames, Atlanta Thrashers, and Boston Bruins. He was an assistant coach for the St. Louis Blues during the 2019–20 season.

17/07/1976

Luke Bryan, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

Thomas Luther "Luke" Bryan is an American country music singer, songwriter, and television personality. Bryan is a five-time "Entertainer of the Year", being awarded by both the Academy of Country Music Awards and the Country Music Association. In 2019, Bryan's 2013 album Crash My Party received the first Album of the Decade award from the Academy of Country Music. He is one of the world's best-selling music artists, with over 75 million records sold. Since 2018, Bryan has been a judge on the singing competition television show American Idol.

Gino D'Acampo, Italian chef and author

Gennaro Sheffield "Gino" D'Acampo is an Italian celebrity chef, television personality and writer based in the United Kingdom. He first came to widespread public attention as the winner of the ninth series of the ITV reality show I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! in 2009, and has since been a regular chef on ITV's This Morning and the presenter of several food and travel series, including There's No Taste Like Home and Gino's Italian Escape.

Dagmara Domińczyk, Polish-American actress

Dagmara Domińczyk is a Polish actress. She has appeared in the films Rock Star (2001), The Count of Monte Cristo (2002), Kinsey (2004), Trust the Man (2005), Lonely Hearts (2006), Running with Scissors (2006), Higher Ground (2011), The Letter (2012), The Immigrant (2013), Big Stone Gap (2014), A Woman, a Part (2016), The Assistant (2019), The Lost Daughter (2021), Bottoms (2023), and Priscilla (2023). Domińczyk also had a main role in the HBO comedy-drama television series Succession (2018–2023).

Marcos Senna, Brazilian-Spanish footballer

Marcos Antônio Senna da Silva, known as Marcos Senna, is a former professional footballer who played as a defensive midfielder. He was known for his passing range and long-range shooting and was also a penalty specialist.

Anders Svensson, Swedish footballer and sportscaster

Anders Gunnar Svensson is a Swedish former professional footballer. He was a central midfielder, known for his passing, free kicks, and set piece-taking abilities, who usually operated in a playmaking role. He was capped 148 times for the Sweden national team, many times as a captain, before he retired from international football in 2013. He is the most capped male player for Sweden, beating Thomas Ravelli's previous record of 143 caps.

Brian K. Vaughan, American comic book and television writer

Brian K. Vaughan is an American writer and producer. He is best known for the comic book series Y: The Last Man, Ex Machina, Runaways, Pride of Baghdad, Saga, and Paper Girls.

Eric Winter, American actor

Eric Barrett Winter is an American actor. He has appeared in the television roles as Sergeant Tim Bradford on the ABC show The Rookie (2018–present), Rex Brady on the NBC soap opera Days of Our Lives, FBI Special Agent Craig O'Laughlin on the CBS drama series The Mentalist (2010–2012), Dash Gardiner on the Lifetime fantasy-drama series Witches of East End (2013–2014), and The Good Doctor (2017–2018). His film appearances include Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay (2008), The Ugly Truth (2009), and Sundays at Tiffany's (2010).

17/07/1975

Andre Adams, New Zealand cricketer

Andre Ryan Adams is a New Zealand cricket coach and former cricketer of Caribbean descent. He played international cricket for New Zealand and is noted for playing in New Zealand's first T20I against Australia in 2005 where he was awarded cap number 1.

Elena Anaya, Spanish actress

Elena Anaya Gutiérrez is a Spanish actress. She garnered public recognition in Spain for her performance in Sex and Lucia (2001), which also earned her a nomination to the Goya Award for Best Supporting Actress. She starred in The Skin I Live In (2011), for which she won the Goya Award for Best Actress. She is also known for her roles as one of Dracula's brides in Van Helsing (2004), the Spanish tourist in Room in Rome (2010) and Doctor Poison in Wonder Woman (2017).

Darude, Finnish DJ and producer

Toni-Ville Henrik Virtanen, better known by his stage name Darude, is a Finnish DJ and record producer from Eura, Satakunta. His music is characterised by its progressive/uplifting style. He started making music in 1995 and released the platinum-selling hit single "Sandstorm" in late 1999. His debut studio album, Before the Storm, was released on 18 September 2000, and sold 800,000 copies worldwide, earning Darude three Finnish Grammy Awards. It peaked at number one on Finland's Official List and number 6 on the Billboard Dance/Electronic Albums chart in the United States. Darude's second studio album, Rush, reached number 11 on the Billboard dance chart in 2003 and number 4 on weekly album chart in Finland.

Loretta Harrop, Australian triathlete

Loretta "Loz" Harrop is an Australian triathlete.

Konnie Huq, English television presenter

Konnie Huq is a British television and radio presenter, screenwriter and children's author. She became the longest-serving female presenter of the British children's television programme Blue Peter, presenting it from 1997 to 2008. She has been a presenter and guest of shows including the 2010 series of The Xtra Factor on ITV2.

Terence Tao, Australian-American mathematician

Terence Chi-Shen Tao is an Australian and American mathematician who was awarded the Fields Medal in 2006 for his contributions to partial differential equations, combinatorics, harmonic analysis, and additive number theory. He is a professor of mathematics at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he holds the James and Carol Collins Chair in the College of Letters and Sciences. Among his contributions to mathematics is the Green–Tao theorem on prime numbers, which he proved in 2004 in collaboration with Ben Green.

17/07/1974

Claudio López, Argentine footballer

Claudio Javier López is an Argentine former professional footballer, who played as a forward. Nicknamed Piojo (louse), he is best known for his spells with Valencia in Spain and Lazio in Italy. López also had a notable impact in the Argentina national team, participating in two World Cups.

17/07/1973

Eric Moulds, American football player

Eric Shannon Moulds is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver for 12 seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for Mississippi State University and was selected by the Buffalo Bills 24th overall in the 1996 NFL draft. In 2009, Moulds was one of three receivers named to the Buffalo Bills 50th Anniversary All-Time Team.

17/07/1972

Donny Marshall, American basketball player and sportscaster

Donny Marshall is an American former professional basketball player who played five seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Cleveland Cavaliers and New Jersey Nets. He is currently a college basketball television analyst for Fox Sports 1, NBC Sports, Westwood One National Radio and CBSSN.

Jaap Stam, Dutch footballer and manager

Jakob "Jaap" Stam is a Dutch professional football coach and former player. As a player, he played as a centre-back and is regarded as one of the best defenders of all time. He was part of the Manchester United team that won the Treble of the Premier League, FA Cup and UEFA Champions League in 1999.

Eric Williams, American basketball player

Eric C. Williams is an American former professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1995 to 2007. He played for seven teams during his career, including two stints with the Boston Celtics.

17/07/1971

Calbert Cheaney, American basketball player and coach

Calbert Nathaniel Cheaney is an American basketball coach and former player who served as Director of player development for the Indiana Hoosiers men's basketball of the Big Ten. He starred as a player for the Indiana Hoosiers men's basketball from 1989 to 1993 under coach Bob Knight. Cheaney ended his career as a three-time All-American and remains the Big Ten's all-time leading scorer with 2,613 career points. He led Indiana to a 105–27 record and the NCAA Tournament all four years, including a Final Four appearance in 1992.

Cory Doctorow, Canadian author and activist

Cory Efram Doctorow is a Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author who served as co-editor of the blog Boing Boing. He is an activist in favour of liberalizing copyright laws and a proponent of the Creative Commons organization, using some of its licences for his books. Some common themes of his work include digital rights management, file sharing, and post-scarcity economics.

Nico Mattan, Belgian cyclist

Nico Mattan is a Belgian former road racing cyclist. His greatest achievement in cycling was winning the Gent–Wevelgem classic in 2005.

17/07/1969

Jason Clarke, Australian actor

Jason Clarke is an Australian actor. He has appeared in many TV series, and is known for playing Tommy Caffee on the television series Brotherhood. He has also appeared in many films, often as an antagonist. His film roles include Death Race (2008), Zero Dark Thirty (2012), Lawless (2012), White House Down (2013), Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014), Terminator Genisys (2015), Everest (2015), All I See Is You (2016), Mudbound (2017), The Man with the Iron Heart (2017), Chappaquiddick (2017), First Man (2018), Pet Sematary (2019), The Devil All the Time (2020), and Oppenheimer (2023). In 2022, he starred in the HBO sports drama series Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty as former Los Angeles Lakers player turned coach Jerry West.

Scott Johnson, American cartoonist

Scott Blaine Johnson is an American cartoonist, illustrator, game designer, and podcaster. He lives in South Jordan, Utah, with his wife and three children. In 2008, Johnson launched Frog Pants Studios, LLC, an illustration and audio production company.

Jaan Kirsipuu, Estonian cyclist

Jaan Kirsipuu is an Estonian former road bicycle racer, who currently works as a directeur sportif for UCI Continental team Voltas–Tartu 2024 by CCN.

17/07/1966

Sten Tolgfors, Swedish lawyer and politician, 30th Swedish Minister of Defence

Sten Sture Tolgfors is a Swedish former politician, public affairs executive and government official who is serving as Governor of Västra Götaland County since 1 September 2022, having been appointed to the position on 9 June 2022.

17/07/1964

Heather Langenkamp, American actress and producer

Heather Elizabeth Langenkamp is an American actress, businesswoman, and radio personality. While Langenkamp found mainstream success with work on television sitcoms, she became an influential figure in horror films after her performance as the resourceful heroine Nancy Thompson in the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, a character that has been heavily discussed in film studies and led to Langenkamp being labeled as a "scream queen" by film critics.

17/07/1963

Regina Belle, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress

Regina Belle is an American singer-songwriter who started her career in the mid-1980s. Known for her singles "Baby Come to Me" (1989) and "Make It Like It Was" (1990), Belle is most notable for three hit duets, all with Peabo Bryson: "Without You", the love theme from the comedy film Leonard Part 6, recorded in 1987; "A Whole New World", the main theme of the Disney's animated feature film Aladdin recorded in 1992, with which Belle and Bryson won a Grammy Award; and "I Just Can't Imagine". The theme song "Far Longer than Forever" from the animated movie The Swan Princess, performed with Jeffrey Osborne, was nominated for a Golden Globe in 1995 for Best Original Song.

Letsie III of Lesotho

Letsie III is King of Lesotho. He succeeded his father, Bereng Seeiso Moshoeshoe II, who was forced into exile in 1990. His father was briefly restored in 1995 but died in a car crash in early 1996, so Letsie succeeded him again for a second reign. As a constitutional monarch, most of King Letsie's duties as monarch of Lesotho are ceremonial. In 2000, he declared HIV/AIDS in Lesotho to be a natural disaster, prompting immediate national and international response to the epidemic.

Matti Nykänen, Finnish ski jumper and singer (died 2019)

Matti Ensio Nykänen was a Finnish ski jumper who competed from 1981 to 1991. Known as "The Flying Finn", he is one of the most successful ski jumpers of all time, having won five Winter Olympic medals, nine World Championship medals, and 22 Finnish Championship medals. Most notably, he won three gold medals at the 1988 Winter Olympics, becoming, along with Yvonne van Gennip of the Netherlands, the most medaled athlete that winter.

17/07/1961

António Costa, Portuguese politician, 119th Prime Minister of Portugal

António Luís Santos da Costa is a Portuguese lawyer and politician who has served as president of the European Council since 2024. He previously served as prime minister of Portugal from 2015 to 2024 and secretary-general of the Socialist Party from 2014 to 2024.

Jeremy Hardy, English comedian and actor (died 2019)

Jeremy James Hardy was an English comedian. Born and raised in Hampshire, Hardy studied at the University of Southampton and began his stand-up career in the 1980s, going on to win the Perrier Comedy Award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1988. He is best known for his appearances on radio panel shows such as the News Quiz and I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue.

17/07/1960

Kim Barnett, English cricketer and coach

Kim John Barnett is an English former cricketer. Barnett was a batsman who played internationally for England between 1988 and 1989.

Mark Burnett, English-American screenwriter and producer

James Mark Burnett is a British-American television producer, best known for creating The Apprentice, and producing Survivor, Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?, Shark Tank, and The Voice. He has produced more than 4000 hours worth of television programming, which have appeared on over 15 major television networks and aired in over 70 countries.

Nancy Giles, American journalist and actress

Nancy Giles is an American actress and commentator, perhaps best known for her appearances in the series China Beach and on CBS News Sunday Morning.

Robin Shou, Hong Kong martial artist and actor

Shou Wan-por, known professionally as Robin Shou, is a Hong Kong-American actor, martial artist and stuntman. He is known for roles such as Liu Kang in the Mortal Kombat film series, Gobei in Beverly Hills Ninja (1997), Gen in Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li (2009), and 14K in the Death Race films (2008-2013). Shou was also a Hong Kong action star in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He had appeared in about 40 movies during his Hong Kong career, before he entered Hollywood in 1994. Prior to his acting career, Shou won several championships as a martial artist.

Dawn Upshaw, American soprano

Dawn Upshaw is an American soprano. She is the recipient of several Grammy Awards and has released a number of Edison Award-winning discs; she performs both opera and art song, and her repertoire spans Baroque to contemporary. Many composers, including Henri Dutilleux, Osvaldo Golijov, John Harbison, Esa-Pekka Salonen, David Bruce, John Adams, and Kaija Saariaho, have written for her. In 2007, she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. In 2006, she founded the Graduate Vocal Arts Program at Bard College Conservatory in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, serving as artistic director until 2019. She currently serves as head of the Vocal Arts Program at the Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, Massachusetts.

Jan Wouters, Dutch footballer and manager

Jan Jacobus Wouters is a Dutch professional football coach and former player. He played as a defensive midfielder and was Dutch Footballer of the Year in 1990.

17/07/1959

Pola Uddin, Baroness Uddin, Bangladeshi-English politician

Manzila Pola Uddin, Baroness Uddin is a British non-affiliated life peer and community activist of Bangladeshi descent. In 2009 she was included on The Guardian's Muslim Women Power List for Britain. She previously sat for Labour when, in 2012, Uddin was required to repay £125,349, the largest amount in the United Kingdom parliamentary expenses scandal.

17/07/1958

Wong Kar-wai, Chinese director, producer, and screenwriter

Wong Kar-wai is a Hong Kong filmmaker. His films are characterised by nonlinear narratives, atmospheric music, and vivid cinematography with bold, saturated colours. A pivotal figure of Hong Kong cinema, Wong is considered a contemporary auteur. His films frequently appear on best-of lists domestically and internationally.

Suzanne Moore, English journalist

Suzanne Lynn Moore is an English journalist.

Thérèse Rein, Australian businesswoman, founded Ingeus

Thérèse Virginia Rein is an Australian entrepreneur who is the founder of Ingeus, an international employment and business psychology services company.

Susan Silver, American music manager

Susan Jean Silver is an American music manager and businesswoman, best known for managing Seattle rock bands such as Soundgarden, Alice in Chains and Screaming Trees. Silver also owns the company Susan Silver Management, and co-owns the club The Crocodile in Seattle. Silver was named "the most powerful figure in local rock management" by The Seattle Times in 1991. In 2025, Variety called Silver "one of the most important female managers in music history".

17/07/1957

Bruce Crump, American drummer and songwriter (died 2015)

Bruce Hull Crump, Jr. was an American drummer. He is best known as a member of the rock band Molly Hatchet from 1976 to 1982 and from 1984 to 1991. He also played as a member of the Canadian band Streetheart in the early 1980s, appearing on their Live After Dark recording, and joined several of his former Molly Hatchet bandmates in the band Gator Country in the mid-2000s. At the time of his death, Crump was a member of the bands SMILEK, White Rhino and China Sky.

Wendy Freedman, Canadian-American cosmologist and astronomer

Wendy Laurel Freedman is a Canadian-American astronomer, best known for her measurement of the Hubble constant, and as director of the Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena, California, and Las Campanas, Chile. She is now the John & Marion Sullivan University Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago. Her principal research interests are in observational cosmology, focusing on measuring both the current and past expansion rates of the universe, and on understanding if there is missing physics in the standard cosmological model.

17/07/1956

Julie Bishop, Australian lawyer and politician, 38th Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs

Julie Isabel Bishop is an Australian former politician who served as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2013 to 2018 and deputy leader of the Liberal Party from 2007 to 2018. She was the member of parliament (MP) for Curtin from 1998 to 2019. She Served as the chancellor of the Australian National University from January 2020 to her early resignation in May 2026.

Bryan Trottier, Canadian-American ice hockey player and coach

Bryan John Trottier is a Canadian and American former professional ice hockey centre who played 18 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the New York Islanders and Pittsburgh Penguins.

17/07/1955

Sylvie Léonard, Canadian actress and screenwriter

Sylvie Léonard is a French-Canadian actress. She has acted in theater, film and television for over 40 years. Her most notable roles include Mimi Jarry in Rue des Pignons, Annick Jacquemin in Terre Humaine, Julie Galarneau in L'Héritage, Sylvie in Un gars, une fille and most recently Madeleine in Lâcher prise.

Paul Stamets, American mycologist and author

Paul Edward Stamets is an American mycologist and entrepreneur who sells various mushroom products through his company. He is an author and an advocate of medicinal fungi and mycoremediation.

17/07/1954

Angela Merkel, German chemist and politician, Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021.

Angela Dorothea Merkel is a German stateswoman and retired politician who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. She is the only woman to have held the office and the only from former East Germany. She was Leader of the Opposition from 2002 to 2005 and Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 2000 to 2018.

Edward Natapei, Vanuatuan politician, 6th Prime Minister of Vanuatu (died 2015)

Edward Nipake Natapei Tuta Fanua`araki was a Vanuatuan politician. He was the prime minister of Vanuatu on two occasions, and was previously the minister of Foreign Affairs briefly in 1991, the acting president of Vanuatu from 2 March 1999 to 24 March 1999 and the deputy prime minister. He was the president of the Vanua'aku Pati, a socialist, Anglophone political party.

J. Michael Straczynski, American author, screenwriter, and producer

Joseph Michael Straczynski is an American filmmaker and comic book writer. He is the founder of Synthetic Worlds Ltd. and Studio JMS and is known as the creator of the science fiction television series Babylon 5 (1993–1998) and its spinoff Crusade (1999), as well as the series Jeremiah (2002–2004) and Sense8 (2015–2018). He is the executor of the estate of Harlan Ellison.

17/07/1952

David Hasselhoff, American actor, singer, and producer

David Michael Hasselhoff, nicknamed "The Hoff", is an American actor, singer, and television personality. Hasselhoff first gained recognition on the soap opera The Young and the Restless (1975–1982), playing the role of Dr. Snapper Foster. His career continued with his leading role as Michael Knight on the crime drama series Knight Rider (1982–1986) and as L.A. County Lifeguard Mitch Buchannon in the drama series Baywatch (1989–2000). He also produced Baywatch from the 1990s until 2001 when the series ended with Baywatch Hawaii.

Nicolette Larson, American singer-songwriter (died 1997)

Nicolette Larson was an American singer. She is best known for her work in the late 1970s with Neil Young and her 1978 hit single of Young's "Lotta Love", which hit No. 1 on the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart and No. 8 on the pop singles chart. It was followed by four more adult contemporary hits, two of which were also minor pop hits.

Thé Lau, Dutch singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2015)

Matheus J. "Thé" Lau was a Dutch musician and writer. Besides his solo career, he was the lead singer of the Dutch band The Scene. He was born in Bergen, North Holland.

Robert R. McCammon, American author

Robert Rick McCammon is an American novelist from Birmingham, Alabama. One of the influential names in the late 1970s–early 1990s American horror literature boom, by 1991 McCammon had three New York Times bestsellers and around 5 million books in print. Since 2002, he's written ten books in a historical mystery series featuring an 18th-century magistrate's clerk, Matthew Corbett, as he unravels mysteries in colonial America.

17/07/1951

Lucie Arnaz, American actress and singer

Lucie Désirée Arnaz is an American actress and singer. She is the daughter of actors Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, and the older sister of actor and musician Desi Arnaz, Jr.

Mark Bowden, American journalist and author

Mark Bowden is an American journalist and writer. He is a former national correspondent and longtime contributor to The Atlantic. Bowden is best known for his book Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War (1999) about the 1993 U.S. military raid in Mogadishu, which was later adapted into a motion picture of the same name that received two Academy Awards.

Andrew Robathan, English soldier and politician, Minister of State for the Armed Forces

Andrew Robert George Robathan, Baron Robathan, is a British Conservative Party politician, who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for South Leicestershire in Leicestershire as well as a government minister.

17/07/1950

Sadhan Chandra Majumder, Bangladeshi politician

Sadhan Chandra Majumder is a Bangladeshi politician served as the Minister of Food during 2019–2024 and a former member of Jatiya Sangsad representing the Naogaon-1 constituency during 2009–2024.

Tengku Sulaiman Shah, Malaysian corporate figure

Tengku Sulaiman Shah is a Malaysian corporate figure and member of the Selangor royal family. He is the second son of the 8th Sultan, Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah Al-Haj and the brother of the 9th and current Sultan, Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah Al-Haj. Currently, he is second-in-line to throne of Selangor after his nephew, Tengku Amir Shah.

Phoebe Snow, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2011)

Phoebe Snow was an American roots music singer-songwriter and guitarist, known for her hit 1974 and 1975 songs "Poetry Man" and "Harpo's Blues", and her credited guest vocals on Paul Simon’s "Gone at Last". She was described by The New York Times as a "contralto grounded in a bluesy growl and capable of sweeping over four octaves". Snow also sang numerous commercial jingles for many U.S. products during the 1980s and 1990s, including General Foods International Coffees, Salon Selectives, and Stouffer's. Snow experienced success in Australia in the late 1970s and early 1980s with five top 100 albums in that country. In 1995 she recorded a gospel album with Sisters of Glory.

17/07/1949

Geezer Butler, English bass player and songwriter

Terence Michael Joseph "Geezer" Butler is an English musician, best known as the bassist and primary lyricist of the pioneering heavy metal band Black Sabbath. He has also recorded and performed with Heaven & Hell, GZR, Ozzy Osbourne, and Deadland Ritual.

Charley Steiner, American journalist and sportscaster

Charles Harris Steiner is an American sportscaster and broadcast journalist. He is currently the radio play-by-play announcer for the Los Angeles Dodgers, paired with Rick Monday.

17/07/1948

Ron Asheton, American guitarist and songwriter (died 2009)

Ronald Franklin Asheton was an American musician, best known as the guitarist, bassist, and co-songwriter for the rock band the Stooges. He formed the band along with Iggy Pop and his brother, drummer Scott Asheton, and bassist Dave Alexander in 1967. The band is regarded as the seminal proto-punk band and a major influence on the punk rock genre with the albums The Stooges (1969), Fun House (1970) and Raw Power (1973). Following break-ups in 1971 and 1974, the Stooges reformed in 2003 and Asheton remained with the band until his death from a heart attack on January 6, 2009. Asheton was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010 as a member of the Stooges, and ranked as number 29 and 60 on Rolling Stone's list of 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time in 2010 and 2015 respectively.

Luc Bondy, Swiss director and producer (died 2015)

Luc Bondy was a Swiss theatre and film director.

17/07/1947

Joyce Anelay, Baroness Anelay of St John's, English educator and politician

Joyce Anne Anelay, Baroness Anelay of St Johns,, is a British politician who has sat in the House of Lords since 1996 as a life peer. A member of the Conservative Party, she served as a Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from August 2014 to June 2017, when she was appointed a Minister of State at the Department for Exiting the European Union in the Second May ministry, after the 2017 reshuffle. She stood down from the role in October 2017 citing health reasons.

Robert Begerau, German footballer and manager

Robert Begerau is a former German footballer.

Queen Camilla of the United Kingdom

Camilla is Queen of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms as the second wife of King Charles III.

Wolfgang Flür, German musician (Kraftwerk)

Wolfgang Flür is a German musician, best known for playing percussion in the electronic group Kraftwerk from 1973 to 1987. Flür claims that he invented the electric drums the group used throughout the 1970s. However, patent records dispute this, citing Florian Schneider and Ralf Hütter as the creators.

Mick Tucker, English rock drummer (Sweet) (died 2002)

Michael Thomas Tucker was an English musician, best known as the drummer of the glam rock and hard rock band Sweet.

17/07/1946

Chris Crutcher, American novelist and short story writer

Chris Crutcher is an American novelist and a family therapist. He received the Margaret A. Edwards Award from the American Library Association in 2000 for his lifetime contribution in writing for teens.

Ted Sampley, American POW/MIA activist (died 2009)

Theodore Lane Sampley was an American Vietnam War veteran and activist. He primarily advocated for those servicemen still considered missing in action or prisoners of war (POW-MIA) as of the end of hostilities in 1975. A staunch political conservative, he also ran for local political office several times. He is credited with the research that identified Air Force Lt. Michael Blassie as the Vietnam fatality buried at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and for his role in organizing the annual Rolling Thunder motorcycle event in Washington. In Kinston, North Carolina, where he lived for much of his adult life, he was known for his local civic activism, most notably his effort to build a replica of the Confederate ironclad CSS Neuse, the only full-size replica of a Confederate ironclad, in the city's downtown.

17/07/1945

Alexander, Crown Prince of Yugoslavia

Alexander, Crown Prince of Serbia and Yugoslavia, is the head of the House of Karađorđević, the former royal house of the defunct Kingdom of Yugoslavia and its predecessor the Kingdom of Serbia. Alexander is the only child of King Peter II and Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark. He held the position of crown prince in the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia for the first four-and-a-half months of his life, until the declaration of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia later in November 1945, when the monarchy was abolished. In public he claims the crowned royal title of "Alexander II Karadjordjevic" as a pretender to the throne.

John Patten, Baron Patten, English politician, Secretary of State for Education

John Haggitt Charles Patten, Baron Patten, is a British politician. He was formerly Conservative Member of Parliament for Oxford and subsequently for Oxford West and Abingdon.

17/07/1944

Mark Burgess, New Zealand cricketer and footballer

Mark Gordon Burgess is a former cricketer who played Test cricket for New Zealand from 1968 to 1980, captaining the team from 1978 to 1980. A right-handed batsman, who bowled right-arm off-breaks, Burgess played in New Zealand's first One Day International (ODI) in 1973.

Catherine Schell, Hungarian-English actress

Catherine Schell is a Hungarian-born British actress who came to prominence in British film and television productions from the 1960s. Her notable roles include the Bond girl Nancy in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), Lady Claudine Litton in The Return of the Pink Panther (1975), Countess Scarlioni in the Doctor Who serial City of Death (1979), and a regular role as Maya in Year Two of the television series Space: 1999 (1976–1977).

Carlos Alberto Torres, Brazilian footballer and manager (died 2016)

Carlos Alberto "Capita" Torres, also known as "O Capitão do Tri", was a Brazilian football player and manager who played as an attacking right-sided full-back or wing-back. A technically gifted defender with good ball skills and defensive capabilities, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest defenders of all time. He also stood out for his leadership, and was an excellent penalty taker. Nicknamed O Capitão, he captained the Brazil national team to victory in the 1970 World Cup, scoring the fourth goal in the final, considered one of the greatest goals in the history of the tournament.

17/07/1943

LaVyrle Spencer, American author and educator

LaVyrle Spencer is an American best-selling author of contemporary and historical romance novels. She has successfully published a number of books, with several of them made into movies. Twelve of her books have been New York Times bestsellers, and Spencer was inducted into the Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame in 1988. She retired from writing in 1997.

17/07/1942

Gale Garnett, New Zealand–born Canadian singer

Gale Zoë Garnett is a Canadian singer best known in the United States for her self-penned, Grammy-winning folk hit "We'll Sing in the Sunshine". Garnett has since carved out a career as an author and actress.

Connie Hawkins, American basketball player (died 2017)

Cornelius Lance "Connie" Hawkins was an American professional basketball player. A New York City playground legend, "the Hawk" was to play basketball for the Iowa Hawkeyes but was unjustly implicated in a point-shaving scandal that saw him kicked out of school as a freshman and essentially blackballed from the NBA. Hawkins found refuge with the Pittsburgh Rens of the American Basketball League, where he won the 1961 league MVP before the league folded. He played four years for the famed exhibition team Harlem Globetrotters before getting to play in the American Basketball Association with the Pittsburgh Pipers in 1967. He won the first league MVP award by averaging 26.8 points and led the team to the ABA championship.

Don Kessinger, American baseball player and manager

Donald Eulon Kessinger is an American former professional baseball player and manager. He played in Major League Baseball as a shortstop from 1964 to 1979, most prominently as a member of the Chicago Cubs, where he was a six-time All-Star and two-time Gold Glove Award winner. He ended his career playing for the St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago White Sox.

Zoot Money, English singer-songwriter and keyboard player

George Bruno "Zoot" Money was an English vocalist, keyboardist and bandleader. A Hammond organ player, he was the leader of the Big Roll Band. Inspired by Jerry Lee Lewis and Ray Charles, Money was drawn to rock and roll music and became involved in the music scenes of Bournemouth and Soho during the 1960s. He took his stage name "Zoot" from Zoot Sims after seeing him perform in concert.

17/07/1941

Daryle Lamonica, American football player (died 2022)

Daryle Pasquale Lamonica was an American professional football player who was a quarterback in the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NFL) for 12 seasons. Nicknamed "the Mad Bomber" due to his affinity for throwing the long pass in virtually any situation, he spent the majority of his career with the Oakland Raiders.

Bob Taylor, English cricketer

Robert William Taylor MBE is an English former cricketer who played as wicket-keeper for Derbyshire between 1961 and 1984 and for England between 1971 and 1984. He made 57 Test, and 639 first-class cricket appearances in total, taking 1,473 catches. The 2,069 victims across his entire career is the most of any wicket-keeper in first-class history. He is considered one of the world's most accomplished wicket-keepers. He made his first-class debut for Minor Counties against South Africa in 1960, having made his Staffordshire debut in 1958. He became Derbyshire's first choice wicket-keeper when George Dawkes sustained a career-ending injury. His final First Class appearance was at the Scarborough Festival in 1988. He remained first choice until his retirement except for a short period in 1964 when Laurie Johnson was tried as a batsman-wicketkeeper. He was a part of the English squad which finished as runners-up at the 1979 Cricket World Cup.

Achim Warmbold, German race car driver and manager

Achim Warmbold is a German former rally driver. He won the West German Rally Championship in 1971 and 1980, and scored two outright victories during the inaugural World Rally Championship season in 1973 at the Rally of Poland and Austrian Alpine Rally events.

17/07/1940

Tim Brooke-Taylor, English actor and screenwriter (died 2020)

Timothy Julian Brooke-Taylor was an English actor and comedian. He was best known as a member of The Goodies.

Verne Lundquist, American sportscaster

Merton Laverne Lundquist Jr. is an American former sportscaster known for his long career with CBS Sports.

17/07/1939

Andrée Champagne, Canadian actress and politician (died 2020)

Andrée Champagne was a Canadian actress, pianist and politician.

Spencer Davis, Welsh singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2020)

Spencer Davis was a Welsh musician. He founded the Spencer Davis Group, a band that had several hits in the 1960s including "Keep On Running", "Somebody Help Me", "Gimme Some Lovin'" and "I'm a Man", all sung by Steve Winwood. Davis subsequently enjoyed success as an A&R executive with Island Records.

17/07/1938

Hermann Huppen, Belgian author and illustrator (died 2026)

Hermann Huppen, better known by the pen-name Hermann, was a Belgian comic book creator. He is most famous for his post-apocalyptic comic Jeremiah which was made into a television series.

17/07/1935

Diahann Carroll, American actress and singer (died 2019)

Diahann Carroll was an American actress, singer, model, and activist. Carroll was the recipient of numerous nominations and awards for her stage and screen performances, including a Tony Award in 1962, Golden Globe Award in 1968, an Academy Award nomination in 1974, and five Emmy Award nominations between 1963 and 2008.

Peter Schickele, American composer and educator (died 2024)

Johann Peter Schickele was an American composer, musical educator and parodist, best known for comedy albums featuring his music, which he presented as being composed by the fictional P. D. Q. Bach. He also hosted a long-running weekly radio program called Schickele Mix.

Donald Sutherland, Canadian actor and producer (died 2024)

Donald McNichol Sutherland was a Canadian actor. With a career spanning six decades, he received numerous accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award and two Golden Globe Awards as well as a BAFTA Award nomination. Considered one of the best actors never nominated for an Academy Award, he received an Academy Honorary Award in 2017.

17/07/1934

Lucio Tan, Chinese-Filipino billionaire businessman and educator

Lucio Chua Tan Sr. is a Filipino billionaire businessman and philanthropist. He presides over the Filipino conglomerate company LT Group, Inc., a company with extensive business interests in sports, banking, airline, liquor, tobacco, real estate, beverages, and education. As of November 2024, Forbes estimated his net worth at US$2.8 billion.

17/07/1933

Keiko Awaji, Japanese actress (died 2014)

Keiko Awaji was a Japanese stage and film actress.

Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, Maltese politician, 9th Prime Minister of Malta (died 2022)

Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, was a Maltese politician who served as Prime Minister of Malta from December 1984 to May 1987.

Mimi Hines, Canadian singer and comedian (died 2024)

Mimi Hines was a Canadian actress, singer, and comedian, best known for her appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show, The Tonight Show and her work on Broadway. She succeeded Barbra Streisand in the original production of Funny Girl.

Tony Pithey, Zimbabwean-South African cricketer (died 2006)

Anthony John Pithey was a Rhodesian cricketer who played in seventeen Test matches for South Africa between 1957 and 1965. He also made 65 appearances for Rhodesia, captaining them 34 times.

17/07/1932

Niccolò Castiglioni, Italian composer (died 1996)

Niccolò Castiglioni was an Italian composer, pianist, and writer on music.

Red Kerr, American basketball player and coach (died 2009)

John Graham Kerr, also known as Red Kerr, was an American basketball player, coach, executive and broadcaster who devoted six decades to the sport at all levels. In 2009, he was honored with the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame's John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to basketball.

Wojciech Kilar, Polish pianist and composer (died 2013)

Wojciech Kilar was a Polish classical and film music composer. One of his greatest successes came with his score to Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula in 1992, which received the ASCAP Award and the nomination for the Saturn Award for Best Music. In 2003, he won the César Award for Best Film Music written for The Pianist, for which he also received a BAFTA nomination. In 2012, he became the recipient of Poland's highest distinction, the Order of the White Eagle.

Karla Kuskin, American author and illustrator (died 2009)

Karla Kuskin was a prolific American author, poet, illustrator, and reviewer of children's literature. Kuskin was known for her poetic, alliterative style.

Slick Leonard, American basketball player and coach (died 2021)

William Robert "Slick" Leonard was an American professional basketball player, coach and color commentator. He played college basketball for the Indiana Hoosiers, where he was a two-time All-American and a member of their national championship squad in 1953. After playing professionally in the National Basketball Association (NBA), Leonard coached the Indiana Pacers to three American Basketball Association (ABA) championships. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach in 2014.

Ian Moir, Australian rugby league player (died 1990)

Ian James Moir (1932–1990) was an Australian professional rugby league footballer, a champion wing three-quarter who played in the 1950s and 1960s for South Sydney and Western Suburbs. He made eight Test appearances for the Australian national representative side and represented in four World Cup matches in two World Cups and in 14 Kangaroo tour matches.

Quino, Spanish-Argentinian cartoonist (died 2020)

Joaquín Salvador Lavado Tejón, better known by his pen name Quino, was an Argentine cartoonist. His comic strip Mafalda is popular in many parts of the Americas and Europe and has been praised for its use of social satire as a commentary on real-life issues.

Hal Riney, American businessman, founded Publicis & Hal Riney (died 2008)

Hal Patrick Riney was an American advertising executive.

17/07/1929

Arthur Frommer, American travel writer (died 2024)

Arthur Bernard Frommer was an American travel writer known for founding the Frommer's brand of travel guides.

Sergei K. Godunov, Russian mathematician and academic (died 2023)

Sergei Konstantinovich Godunov was a Soviet and Russian professor at the Sobolev Institute of Mathematics of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Novosibirsk, Russia.

17/07/1928

Vince Guaraldi, American singer-songwriter and pianist (died 1976)

Vincent Anthony Guaraldi was an American jazz pianist best known for composing music for animated television adaptations of the Peanuts comic strip. His compositions for this series included their signature melody "Linus and Lucy" and the holiday standard "Christmas Time Is Here". Guaraldi is also known for his performances on piano as a member of Cal Tjader's 1950s ensembles and for his own solo career. Guaraldi's 1962 composition "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" became a radio hit and won a Grammy Award in 1963 for Best Original Jazz Composition. He died of an abdominal aortic aneurysm on February 6, 1976, at age 47, moments after concluding the first half of a nightclub performance in Menlo Park, California.

17/07/1926

Édouard Carpentier, French-Canadian wrestler (died 2010)

Édouard Ignacz Weiczorkiewicz, better known by his ring name Édouard Carpentier, was a French and Canadian professional wrestler, gymnast, and member of the French Resistance during World War II.

Willis Carto, American activist and theorist (died 2015)

Willis Allison Carto was an American far-right political activist. He described himself as a Jeffersonian and a populist, but was primarily known for his promotion of antisemitic conspiracy theories and Holocaust denial. Throughout his life, Carto established and controlled a variety of right-wing organizations and periodicals, most significantly the Liberty Lobby. An intensely private person despite his influence, he remains little known and had a reputation as a "shadowy" figure even among other right-wing activists. Extremism scholar George Michael, the author of a biography of Carto, argued that despite his public obscurity, Carto was "undoubtedly the central figure in the post-World War II American far right".

17/07/1925

Jimmy Scott, American singer and actor (died 2014)

James Victor Scott, also known as Little Jimmy Scott, was an American jazz vocalist known for his high natural contralto voice and his sensitivity on ballads and love songs.

Mohammad Hasan Sharq, Afghan politician

Mohammad Hasan Sharq is an Afghan former communist politician who was active in the communist government of Afghanistan. Sharq became Chairman of the Council of Ministers – the government of the Soviet-backed Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. He was selected as a compromise candidate after a loya jirga ratified a new constitution in 1987. However, the power of his office was relatively slight compared with the powers held by the presidency.

17/07/1924

Garde Gardom, Canadian lawyer and politician, 26th Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia (died 2013)

Garde Basil Gardom, was a Canadian politician, lawyer, and the 26th Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia.

17/07/1923

Jeanne Block, American psychologist (died 1981)

Jeanne Lavonne Humphrey Block was an American psychologist and expert on child development. She conducted research on sex-role socialization and theories of personality. Block was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and conducted her research with the National Institute of Mental Health and the University of California, Berkeley. She retired in 1981 after being diagnosed with cancer, and died in December of the same year.

John Cooper, English car designer, co-founded the Cooper Car Company (died 2000)

John Newton Cooper was a co-founder, with his father Charles Cooper, of the Cooper Car Company. Born in Surbiton, Surrey, United Kingdom, he became an auto racing legend with his rear-engined chassis design that would eventually change the face of the sport at its highest levels, from Formula One to the Indianapolis 500.

17/07/1921

George Barnes, American guitarist, producer, and songwriter (died 1977)

George Warren Barnes was an American jazz guitarist. He was also a conductor, composer, arranger, producer, author, and educator. He was hired by the NBC Orchestra at the age of 17, making him the youngest musician on staff. At 17, he was considered to be a great player by many musicians, including Tommy Dorsey, and Jimmy McPartland. Barnes was also proficient as a recording engineer. During his career, Barnes recorded with singers Mel Tormé, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Patti Page, Dinah Washington, Lena Horne, Billy Eckstine and Johnny Mathis among many others. He was an inspiration to, and influenced guitarists Chet Atkins, Roy Clark, Herb Ellis and Merle Travis, among many others.

Louis Lachenal, French mountaineer (died 1955)

Louis Lachenal, a French climber born in Annecy, Haute-Savoie, was one of the first two mountaineers to climb a summit of more than 8,000 meters.

Mary Osborne, American guitarist (died 1992)

Mary Osborne was an American jazz guitarist. She began performing at a young age and was featured on a radio program in North Dakota, where she grew up. In New York City during the 1940s, she played with jazz musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie, Billie Holiday, Art Tatum, Coleman Hawkins, and Thelonious Monk. After moving to California in 1968, she and her husband founded the Osborne Guitar Company.

Toni Stone, American baseball player (died 1996)

Toni Stone, born as Marcenia Lyle Stone, was an American female professional baseball player who played in predominantly male leagues. In 1953, she became the first woman to play as a regular on an American major-level professional baseball team when she joined the Indianapolis Clowns in the previously all-male Negro leagues.. A baseball player from her early childhood, she also played for the San Francisco Sea Lions, the New Orleans Creoles, and the Kansas City Monarchs before retiring from baseball in 1954. Stone was taunted at times by teammates, once being told, "Go home and fix your husband some biscuits", but she was undeterred. It was reported that during an exhibition game in 1953, she hit a single off a fastball pitch delivered by legendary player Satchel Paige, although the claim has failed verification.

František Zvarík, Slovak actor (died 2008)

František Zvarík was an accomplished theater actor and movie character actor. He has appeared in about two dozen Czechoslovak and Slovak films since the 1940s. Among his accomplishments is the key supporting role of the town commander Markuš Kolkotský in The Shop on Main Street, a film which won the 1965 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

17/07/1920

Gordon Gould, American physicist and academic, invented the laser (died 2005)

Richard Gordon Gould was an American physicist who is sometimes credited with the invention of the laser and the optical amplifier.. Gould is best known for his thirty-year fight with the United States Patent and Trademark Office to obtain patents for the laser and related technologies. He also fought with laser manufacturers in court battles to enforce the patents he subsequently did obtain.

Juan Antonio Samaranch, Spanish businessman, 7th President of the International Olympic Committee (died 2010)

Juan Antonio Samaranch y Torelló, 1st Marquess of Samaranch was a Spanish sports administrator under the Franco regime (1973–1977) who served as the seventh president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) from 1980 to 2001.

17/07/1919

Albert Stubbins, English footballer (died 2002)

Albert Stubbins was an English footballer who played as a centre forward. Beginning his career at Newcastle United, the onset of World War II limited his playing time.

17/07/1918

Carlos Manuel Arana Osorio, Guatemalan soldier and politician, President of Guatemala (died 2003)

Carlos Manuel Arana Osorio was a military officer and politician who served as the 35th president of Guatemala from 1970 to 1974. A member of the National Liberation Movement, his government enforced torture, disappearances, and killings against political and military adversaries, as well as common criminals.

17/07/1917

Lou Boudreau, American baseball player and manager (died 2001)

Louis Boudreau, nicknamed "Old Shufflefoot", "Handsome Lou", and "the Good Kid", was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for 15 seasons, primarily as a shortstop on the Cleveland Indians, and managed four teams for 15 seasons including 10 seasons as a player-manager. He was also a radio announcer for the Chicago Cubs and in college was a dual-sport athlete in baseball and basketball, earning All-American honors in basketball for the University of Illinois.

Phyllis Diller, American actress, comedian, and voice artist (died 2012)

Phyllis Ada Diller was an American stand-up comedian, actress, author, musician and visual artist, who displayed eccentric stage persona, self-deprecating humor, wild hair and clothes, and exaggerated, cackling laugh.

Kenan Evren, Turkish general and politician, 7th President of Turkey (died 2015)

Ahmet Kenan Evren was a Turkish military officer who served as the 7th president of Turkey from 1982 to 1989. He assumed the post by leading the 1980 military coup.

Christiane Rochefort, French author (died 1998)

Christiane Rochefort was a French feminist writer. She was born into a left-wing working class Parisian family; her father joined the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War. Rochefort worked as a journalist and spent fifteen years as a press attaché to the Cannes Film Festival before publishing her first novel, Le Repos du guerrier, in 1958. Like several of her later novels, Le Repos du guerrier was a bestseller; in 1962 it was adapted into a popular film directed by Roger Vadim and starring Brigitte Bardot. Her novels are divided between social realist satires set in present-day France and utopian or dystopian fantasies. She won the Prix Médicis in 1988. Rochefort's novels also have strong sexual elements.

17/07/1916

Eleanor Hadley, American economist and policymaker (died 2007)

Eleanor Martha Hadley was an American economist and policymaker. Because of her relatively rare research specialization in Japanese economics, during World War II Hadley was recruited first into OSS and then the State Department to support the United States' war effort while she was a doctoral candidate in economics at Radcliffe College. Hadley helped draft the United States' plans for dissolving zaibatsu business conglomerates as part of a planned effort to democratize Japan after the war, and she participated in implementing this economic deconcentration program when the postwar occupation brought her to Japan to work for SCAP as an economist.

17/07/1915

Bijon Bhattacharya, Indian actor, singer, and screenwriter (died 1978)

Bijon Bhattacharya was an Indian actor from West Bengal associated with Bengali theatre and films. He was an eminent playwright and dramatist.

Arthur Rothstein, American photographer and educator (died 1985)

Arthur Rothstein was an American photographer. His career spanned five decades, and he received recognition as one of America's premier photojournalists.

17/07/1914

Eleanor Steber, American soprano and educator (died 1990)

Eleanor Steber was an American operatic soprano. Steber is noted as one of the first major opera stars to have achieved the highest success with training and a career based in the United States.

17/07/1913

Bertrand Goldberg, American architect, designed the Marina City Building (died 1997)

Bertrand Goldberg was an American architect and industrial designer, best known for the Marina City complex in Chicago, Illinois, the tallest reinforced concrete building in the world at the time of completion.

17/07/1912

Erwin Bauer, German race car driver (died 1958)

Erwin Erich Bauer was a German Formula One driver who raced a privately entered Veritas in his one World Championship Grand Prix.

Art Linkletter, Canadian-American radio and television host (died 2010)

Arthur Gordon Linkletter was a Canadian-born American radio and television personality. He was the host of House Party, which ran on CBS radio and television for 25 years, and People Are Funny, which aired on NBC radio and television for 19 years. He became a naturalized United States citizen in 1942.

17/07/1911

Lionel Ferbos, American trumpet player (died 2014)

Lionel Charles Ferbos was an American jazz trumpeter. He was from New Orleans, Louisiana.

Heinz Lehmann, German-Canadian psychiatrist and academic (died 1999)

Heinz Edgar Lehmann was a German-born Canadian psychiatrist best known for his use of chlorpromazine for the treatment of schizophrenia in 1950s and "truly the father of modern psychopharmacology."

17/07/1910

James Coyne, Canadian lawyer and banker, 2nd Governor of the Bank of Canada (died 2012)

James Elliott Coyne was a Canadian economist who served as the second governor of the Bank of Canada, from 1955 to 1961, succeeding Graham Towers. During his time in office, he had a much-publicized debate with Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, a debate often referred to as the "Coyne Affair", which led to his resignation and, eventually, to greater central-bank independence in Canada.

Frank Olson, American chemist and microbiologist (died 1953)

Frank Rudolph Emmanuel Olson was an American bacteriologist, biological warfare scientist, and an employee of the United States Army Biological Warfare Laboratories (USBWL) who worked at Camp Detrick in Maryland. At a meeting in rural Maryland, he was covertly dosed with LSD by his colleague Sidney Gottlieb and, nine days later, plunged to his death from the window of the Hotel Statler in New York. The U.S. government first described his death as a suicide, and then as misadventure, while others allege murder. The Rockefeller Commission report on the CIA in 1975 acknowledged their having conducted covert drug studies on fellow agents. Olson's death is one of the most mysterious outcomes of the CIA mind control project MKUltra.

17/07/1905

William Gargan, American actor (died 1979)

William Dennis Gargan was an American film, television and radio actor. He was the 5th recipient of the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 1967, and in 1941, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Joe in They Knew What They Wanted. He acted in decades of movies including parts in Follow the Leader, Rain, Night Flight, Three Sons, Isle of Destiny and many others. The role he was best known for was that of a private detective Martin Kane in the 1949–1952 radio-television series Martin Kane, Private Eye. In television, he was also in 39 episodes of The New Adventures of Martin Kane.

17/07/1902

Christina Stead, Australian author and academic (died 1983)

Christina Stead was an Australian novelist and short-story writer acclaimed for her satirical wit and penetrating psychological characterisations. Christina Stead was a committed Marxist, although she was never a member of the Communist Party. She spent much of her life outside Australia, although she returned before her death.

17/07/1901

Luigi Chinetti, Italian-American race car driver (died 1994)

Luigi Chinetti was an Italian-born racecar driver, who emigrated to the United States during World War II. He drove in 12 consecutive 24 Hours of Le Mans races, taking three outright wins there and taking two more at the Spa 24 Hours race. Chinetti owned the North American Racing Team, which successfully ran privateer Ferraris in sports car and Formula One races. For many years he was the exclusive American importer of Ferrari automobiles to the United States.

Bruno Jasieński, Polish poet and author (died 1938)

Bruno Jasieński was a Polish poet, novelist, playwright, Catastrophist, and leader of the Polish Futurist movement in the interwar period. Jasieński was also a communist activist in Poland, France and the Soviet Union, where he was executed during the Great Purge. He is acclaimed by members of the various modernist art groups as their patron. An annual literary festival Brunonalia is held in Klimontów, Poland, his birthplace, where one of the streets is also named after him.

Patrick Smith, Irish farmer and politician, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (died 1982)

Patrick Smith was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician, who served as a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1923 until 1977, a tenure of 53 years, and the longest in the state. He held a number of ministerial positions within the governments of Éamon de Valera and Seán Lemass.

17/07/1899

James Cagney, American actor and dancer (died 1986)

James Francis Cagney Jr. was an American actor and dancer. On stage and in film, he was known for his consistently energetic performances, distinctive vocal style, and deadpan comic timing. He won acclaim and major awards for a wide variety of performances.

17/07/1898

Berenice Abbott, American photographer (died 1991)

Berenice Alice Abbott was an American photographer best known for her portraits of cultural figures of the interwar period, New York City photographs of architecture and urban design of the 1930s, and science interpretation of the 1940s to the 1960s.

Osmond Borradaile, Canadian soldier and cinematographer (died 1999)

Osmond Hudson Borradaile was a Canadian cameraman, cinematographer, and veteran of World War I and World War II.

17/07/1896

Rupert Atkinson, English RAF officer (died 1919)

Captain Rupert Norman Gould Atkinson was a British World War I flying ace credited with five aerial victories.

17/07/1894

Georges Lemaître, Belgian priest, astronomer, and cosmologist (died 1966)

Georges Henri Joseph Édouard Lemaître was a Belgian Catholic priest, theoretical physicist, and mathematician who made major contributions to cosmology and astrophysics. He was the first to argue that the recession of galaxies is evidence of an expanding universe and to connect the observational Hubble–Lemaître law with the solution to the Einstein field equations in the general theory of relativity for a homogenous and isotropic universe. That work led Lemaître to propose what he called the "hypothesis of the primeval atom", now regarded as the first formulation of the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe.

17/07/1889

Erle Stanley Gardner, American lawyer and author (died 1970)

Erle Stanley Gardner was an American author and lawyer, best known for the Perry Mason series of legal detective stories. Gardner also wrote numerous other novels and shorter pieces as well as a series of nonfiction books, mostly narrations of his travels through Baja California and other regions in Mexico.

17/07/1888

Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Ukrainian-Israeli novelist, short story writer and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1970)

Shmuel Yosef Agnon was an Austro-Hungarian-born Israeli novelist, poet, and short-story writer. He was one of the central figures of modern Hebrew literature. In Hebrew, he is known by the nom de plume Shai Agnon. In English, his works are published under the name S. Y. Agnon.

17/07/1882

James Somerville, English admiral and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Somerset (died 1949)

Admiral of the Fleet Sir James Fownes Somerville, was a Royal Navy admiral. He served in the First World War as fleet wireless officer for the Mediterranean Fleet where he was involved in providing naval support for the Gallipoli Campaign. He also served in the Second World War as commander of the newly formed Force H: after the French armistice with Germany, Winston Churchill gave Somerville and Force H the task of neutralizing the main element of the French battle fleet, then at Mers El Kébir in Algeria. After he had destroyed the French Battle fleet, Somerville played an important role in the pursuit and sinking of the German battleship Bismarck.

17/07/1879

Jack Laviolette, Canadian ice hockey player, coach, and manager (died 1960)

Jean-Baptiste "Jack" Laviolette was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. Laviolette played nine seasons for the Montreal Canadiens hockey club and was their first captain, coach, and general manager.

17/07/1873

Many Benner, French painter (died 1965)

Emmanuel Michel Benner, known as Many Benner, was a French painter. The son of Jean Benner, Many was the nephew of his father's twin brother, also named Emmanuel Benner. All four Benners were painters.

17/07/1871

Lyonel Feininger, German-American painter and illustrator (died 1956)

Lyonel Charles Adrian Feininger was a German-American painter, and a leading exponent of Expressionism. He also worked as a caricaturist and comic strip artist. He was born and grew up in New York City. In 1887 he traveled to Europe and studied art in Hamburg, Berlin and Paris. He started his career as a cartoonist in 1894 and met with much success in this area. He also worked as a commercial caricaturist for 20 years. At the age of 36, he began to work as a fine artist. His work, characterized above all by prismatically broken, overlapping forms in translucent colors, with many references to architecture and the sea, made him one of the most important artists of classical modernism. Furthermore he produced a large body of photographic works and created several piano compositions and fugues for organ.

17/07/1870

Charles Davidson Dunbar, Scottish soldier and bagpipe player (died 1939)

Charles Davidson Dunbar, DCM was the first pipe major to be commissioned as a pipe officer in Britain and the British Empire. He emigrated from Scotland to Canada, where he came to be called "Canada's greatest military piper".

17/07/1868

Henri Nathansen, Danish director and playwright (died 1944)

Henri Nathansen was a Danish writer and stage director, today best known for the play Indenfor Murene.

17/07/1853

Alexius Meinong, Ukrainian-Austrian philosopher and academic (died 1920)

Alexius Meinong von Handschuchsheim was an Austrian philosopher, a realist known for his unique ontology and theory of objects. He also made contributions to philosophy of mind and theory of value.

17/07/1839

Ephraim Shay, American engineer, invented the Shay locomotive (died 1916)

Ephraim Shay was an American merchant, entrepreneur and self-taught railroad engineer who worked in the state of Michigan. He designed the Shay locomotive and patented the type. He licensed it for manufacture through what became known as Lima Locomotive Works in Ohio; from 1882 to 1892 some 300 locomotives of this type were sold.

17/07/1837

Joseph-Alfred Mousseau, Canadian lawyer, judge, and politician, 7th Secretary of State for Canada (died 1886)

Joseph-Alfred Mousseau, was a Canadian lawyer and politician, who served in the federal Cabinet and also as the sixth premier of Quebec.

17/07/1831

Xianfeng Emperor of China (died 1861)

The Xianfeng Emperor, also known by his temple name Emperor Wenzong of Qing, personal name Yizhu, was the eighth emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the seventh Qing emperor to rule over China proper. During his reign, the Qing dynasty experienced several wars and rebellions including the Taiping Rebellion, the Nian Rebellion, and the Second Opium War. He was the last Chinese emperor to exercise sole power.

Naser al-Din Shah of Qajar Iran (died 1896)

Naser al-Din Shah Qajar was the fourth Shah of Qajar Iran from 5 September 1848 to 1 May 1896 when he was assassinated. Initially seeking to modernise Iran, his style of governance became more dictatorial over the course of his reign. His reign saw the Second Herat War (1856), the subsequent Anglo-Persian War (1857) and internal unrest, Tobacco Protest (1890-1891).

17/07/1823

Leander Clark, American businessman, judge, and politician (died 1910)

Leander Clark was an American businessman, Iowa state legislator, Union Army officer during the Civil War, and Indian agent who was the namesake for Leander Clark College.

17/07/1797

Paul Delaroche, French painter and academic (died 1856)

Hippolyte-Paul Delaroche was a French painter known for his depiction of scenes from English and French history. The emotions emphasised in Delaroche's paintings appeal to Romanticism while the detail of his work along with the deglorified portrayal of historic figures follow the trends of Academicism and Neoclassicism. Delaroche aimed to depict his subjects and history with pragmatic realism. He did not consider popular ideals and norms in his creations, but rather painted all his subjects in the same light whether they were historical figures like Marie-Antoinette, figures of Christianity, or people of his time like Napoleon Bonaparte. Delaroche was a leading pupil of Antoine-Jean Gros and later mentored a number of notable artists such as Thomas Couture, Jean-Léon Gérôme, and Jean-François Millet.

17/07/1774

John Wilbur, American minister and theologian (died 1856)

John Wilbur was a prominent American Quaker minister and religious thinker who was at the forefront of a controversy that led to "the second split" in the Religious Society of Friends in the United States.

17/07/1763

John Jacob Astor, German-American businessman and philanthropist (died 1848)

John Jacob Astor was a German-born American businessman, merchant, real estate mogul, and investor. Astor made his fortune mainly in a fur trade monopoly, by exporting opium into the Chinese Empire, and by investing in real estate in or around New York City during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He was the first prominent member of the Astor family and the first multi-millionaire in the United States.

17/07/1744

Elbridge Gerry, American merchant and politician, 5th Vice President of the United States (died 1814)

Elbridge Thomas Gerry was an American Founding Father, merchant, politician, and diplomat, who as a member of the Second Continental Congress, signed the Declaration of Independence and Articles of Confederation. From 1813 until his death in 1814, he served as the fifth vice president of the United States under President James Madison. The political practice of gerrymandering is named after him.

17/07/1714

Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten, German philosopher and academic (died 1762)

Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten was a German philosopher. He established aesthetics as a philosophical discipline.

17/07/1708

Frederick Christian, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth (died 1769)

Frederick Christian of Brandenburg-Bayreuth, was a member of the House of Hohenzollern and Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth.

17/07/1698

Pierre Louis Maupertuis, French mathematician and philosopher (died 1759)

Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis was a French mathematician, philosopher and man of letters. He became the director of the Académie des Sciences and the first president of the Prussian Academy of Science, at the invitation of Frederick the Great.

17/07/1695

Christian Karl Reinhard of Leiningen-Dachsburg-Falkenburg-Heidesheim (died 1766)

Count Christian Karl Reinhard of Leiningen-Dagsburg-Falkenburg was a German nobleman.

17/07/1674

Isaac Watts, English hymnwriter and theologian (died 1748)

Isaac Watts was an English Congregational minister, hymn writer, theologian, and logician. He was a prolific and popular hymn writer and is credited with some 750 hymns. His works include "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross", "Joy to the World", and "O God, Our Help in Ages Past". He is recognised as the "Godfather of English Hymnody"; many of his hymns remain in use today and have been translated into numerous languages.

17/07/1531

Antoine de Créqui Canaples, Roman Catholic cardinal (died 1574)

Antoine de Créqui Canaples (1531–1574) was a French Roman Catholic bishop and cardinal.

17/07/1499

Maria Salviati, Italian noblewoman (died 1543)

Maria Salviati was a Florentine noblewoman, the daughter of Lucrezia di Lorenzo de' Medici and Jacopo Salviati. She married Giovanni delle Bande Nere and was the mother of Cosimo I de Medici. Her husband died 30 November 1526, leaving her a widow at the age of 27. Salviati never remarried; after her husband's death she adopted the somber garb of a novice, which is how she is remembered today as numerous late portraits show her attired in black and white.

17/07/1487

Ismail I of Iran (died 1524)

Ismail I was the founder and first shah of Safavid Iran, ruling from 1501 until his death in 1524. His reign is one of the most vital in the history of Iran, and the Safavid era is often considered the beginning of modern Iranian history. Under Ismail, Iran was unified under native rule for the first time since the Islamic conquest of the country eight-and-a-half centuries earlier.

Lives Remembered on 17th July

On 17th July, 135 remarkable people passed away — from 521 to 2025. Remember the lives and legacies of those we lost on this day.

17/07/2025

Felix Baumgartner, Austrian daredevil (born 1969)

Felix Baumgartner was an Austrian skydiver, extreme sportsman, and BASE jumper. He was widely known for jumping to Earth from a helium balloon in the stratosphere on 14 October 2012 and landing in New Mexico, United States, as part of the Red Bull Stratos project. By doing so, he set world records for skydiving an estimated 39 km (24 mi), reaching an estimated top speed of 1,357.64 km/h (843.6 mph), or Mach 1.25. He became the first person to break the sound barrier relative to the surface without vehicular power on his descent. He broke skydiving records for exit altitude, vertical freefall distance without a drogue parachute, and vertical speed without a drogue. Although his name is still attached to the last two records, his exit altitude record was broken two years later, when on 24 October 2014, Alan Eustace jumped from 135,890 feet with a drogue.

Alan Bergman, American songwriter (born 1925)

Alan Bergman and Marilyn Keith Bergman were an American songwriting duo. Married from 1958 until Marilyn's death, together they wrote music and lyrics for numerous celebrated television, film, and stage productions. The Bergmans enjoyed a successful career, honored with four Emmys, three Oscars, and two Grammys. They are in the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Joanna Kołaczkowska, Polish cabaret performer (born 1966)

Joanna Dorota Kołaczkowska was a Polish cabaret performer, theatre actress, songwriter and radio presenter. She was widely recognized as one of the most prominent figures in Polish cabaret in the early 21st century, particularly through her long-standing involvement with the Hrabi Cabaret troupe, with which she performed from 2002 until 2025.

17/07/2024

Cheng Pei-pei, Chinese actress (born 1946)

Cheng Pei-pei was a Hong Kong-American actress who was considered cinema's first female action hero. Popularly known as "Queen of Swords" and "Queen of Martial Arts Films", Cheng starred in numerous successful wuxia and martial arts films in Hong Kong, including the Shaw Brothers-produced Come Drink with Me (1966), which launched Cheng into stardom, Golden Swallow (1968), Lady Hermit (1971), Flirting Scholar (1993), and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000). For the latter, she won a Hong Kong Film Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Mary Gibby, British botanist and professor (born 1949)

Professor Mary Gibby was a British botanist, pteridologist and cytologist. She was an expert on ferns, becoming president of the British Pteridological Society and long-time editor of its journal, the Fern Gazette. Gibby particularly studied the cytology of the genera Dryopteris and Pelargonium.

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

Bernice Johnson Reagon was an American song leader, composer, professor of American history, curator at the Smithsonian, and social activist. In the early 1960s, she was a founding member of the Freedom Singers, organized by the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the Albany Movement for civil rights in Georgia. In 1973, she founded the all-black female a cappella ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock, based in Washington, D.C. She was the founder/the 1st member of Sweet Honey in the Rock from 1973 to 2006. Reagon, along with other members of the SNCC Freedom Singers, realized the power of collective singing to unify the disparate groups who began to work together in the 1964 Freedom Summer protests in the South."After a song", Reagon recalled, "the differences between us were not so great. Somehow, making a song required an expression of that which was common to us all.... This music was like an instrument, like holding a tool in your hand."

Pat Williams, American basketball player (born 1940)

Patrick Livingston Murphy Williams was an American sports executive, who served as senior vice president of the Orlando Magic. Williams began his career as a minor league baseball player, and later joined the front office of his team. In the late 1960s he moved into basketball, with his biggest achievements being the 1983 title of the Philadelphia 76ers and being a partner in the creation of the Orlando Magic.

17/07/2020

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

John Robert Lewis was an American civil rights activist and statesman who served in the United States House of Representatives for Georgia's 5th congressional district from 1987 until his death in 2020.

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

Ekaterina Dmitriyevna Alexandrovskaya was a Russian-Australian pair skater. With her skating partner, Harley Windsor, she was the 2017 CS Tallinn Trophy champion, the 2017 CS Nebelhorn Trophy bronze medallist, the 2018 CS U.S. Classic bronze medallist, and a two-time Australian national champion.

17/07/2019

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

Marie Sophie Hingst was a German historian and blogger who falsely claimed to be descended from Holocaust survivors. Born in Wittenberg to a Protestant family, she fabricated a Jewish background and sent documentation for 22 misrepresented or non-existent relatives, who she claimed were Holocaust victims, to the official Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem.

17/07/2015

Bill Arnsparger, American football player and coach (born 1926)

William Stephen Arnsparger was an American college and professional football coach. He was born and raised in Paris, Kentucky, served in the United States Marine Corps during World War II, and graduated from Miami University (Ohio) in 1950. Immediately upon graduation, Arnsparger was hired as an assistant coach with the Miami football program, beginning a long career in the profession.

Jules Bianchi, French race car driver (born 1989)

Jules Lucien André Bianchi was a French racing driver who competed in Formula One from 2013 to 2014.

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

William Owen Chadwick was a British Anglican priest, academic, rugby international, writer and prominent historian of Christianity. As a leading academic, Chadwick became Dixie Professor of Ecclesiastical History in 1958, serving until 1968, and from 1968 to 1983 was Regius Professor of History. Chadwick was elected master of Selwyn College, Cambridge, and served from 1956 to 1983.

Van Miller, American sportscaster (born 1927)

Van Miller was an American radio and television sports announcer from Dunkirk, New York, where he began his career at Dunkirk radio station WFCB calling play-by-play for high school football games. In the 1950s, he moved to Buffalo where he became the chief play-by-play announcer for the Buffalo Bills Radio Network, the official radio broadcasting arm of the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League from the team's inception as an AFL team in 1960 to 1971, and again from 1977 to 2003. At the time of his retirement in 2003, Miller was the longest-tenured commentator with one team in pro football history.

John Taylor, English pianist and educator (born 1942)

John Taylor was a British jazz pianist, born in Manchester, England, who occasionally performed on the organ and the synthesizer. In his obituary, The Guardian described him as "one of the great jazz pianists and composers of his generation" and at a musical level comparable to Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett, McCoy Tyner and Brad Meldhau.

17/07/2014

Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 victims:

Liam Patrick Davison was an Australian novelist and reviewer. He was born in Melbourne, where, until 2007, he taught creative writing at the Chisholm Institute in Frankston.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 victims:

Shubashini "Shuba" Jeyaratnam, also known by stage names Shuba Jay and Shuba Jaya, was a Malaysian entrepreneur, stage performer, and actress who achieved popularity through her roles in several TV shows. Of Indian Tamil descent, she was killed, together with her husband and daughter, in the shootdown of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 victims:

Joseph Marie Albert "Joep" Lange was a Dutch clinical researcher specialising in HIV therapy. He served as the president of the International AIDS Society from 2002 to 2004. He was a passenger on Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which was shot down on 17 July 2014 over Ukraine.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 victims:

Willem Johannes Witteveen was a Dutch legal scholar, politician, and author. He was a law professor at Tilburg University (1990–2014) and a Member of the Senate for the Labour Party. He was also the author of several books about law and politics. Witteveen was killed on 17 July 2014 when the flight he was travelling on, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, was shot down over eastern Ukraine.

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

Henry Warren Hartsfield Jr. was a colonel in the United States Air Force and a NASA astronaut who logged over 480 hours in space. He was inducted into the United States Astronaut Hall of Fame in 2006.

Otto Piene, German sculptor and academic (born 1928)

Otto Piene was a German-American artist specializing in kinetic and technology-based art, often working collaboratively. He lived and worked in Düsseldorf, Germany; Cambridge, Massachusetts; and Groton, Massachusetts.

Elaine Stritch, American actress and singer (born 1925)

Elaine Stritch was an American actress, singer, and comedian, known for her work on Broadway and later, television. She made her professional stage debut in 1944 and appeared in numerous stage plays, musicals, feature films and television series. Stritch was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1995.

17/07/2013

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

Henri Alleg, born as Harry John Salem, was a French-Algerian journalist, director of the Alger républicain newspaper, and a member of the French Communist Party. After Editions de Minuit, a French publishing house, released his memoir La Question in 1958. Alleg gained international recognition for his stance against torture, specifically within the context of the Algerian War (1954–1962).

Peter Appleyard, English-Canadian vibraphone player and composer (born 1928)

Peter Appleyard, was a British–Canadian jazz vibraphonist, percussionist, and composer.

Vincenzo Cerami, Italian screenwriter and producer (born 1940)

Vincenzo Cerami was an Italian screenwriter, novelist and poet.

Don Flye, American tennis player (born 1933)

Donald Guy Flye was an American tennis player.

Ian Gourlay, English general (born 1920)

General Sir Basil Ian Spencer Gourlay, was a Royal Marines officer who served as Commandant General Royal Marines from 1971 to 1975.

David White, Scottish footballer and manager (born 1933)

David White was a Scottish football player and manager. He played as a wing half for Clyde for his whole career, before managing Clyde, Rangers and Dundee.

17/07/2012

Richard Evatt, English boxer (born 1973)

Richard Evatt, also called 'tiger', was a British amateur and professional boxer in the super featherweight division who was unsuccessful in his only opportunity to win a world title. He hailed from Coventry, West Midlands, United Kingdom.

Forrest S. McCartney, American general (born 1931)

Forrest Striplin McCartney was a United States Air Force lieutenant general and former director of NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center.

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

İlhan Kemaleddin Mimaroğlu was a Turkish American musician and electronic music composer.

William Raspberry, American journalist and academic (born 1935)

William Raspberry was an American syndicated public affairs columnist. He was also the Knight Professor of the Practice of Communications and Journalism at the Sanford Institute of Public Policy at Duke University. An African American, he frequently wrote on racial issues.

Marsha Singh, Indian-English politician (born 1954)

Marsha Singh was a British Labour Party politician, and the member of parliament (MP) for Bradford West from 1997 to 2012. Singh stood down due to ill health.

17/07/2011

David Ngoombujarra, Australian actor (born 1967)

David Ngoombujarra was an Indigenous Australian actor of the Yamatji people. Born David Bernard Starr in Meekatharra, Western Australia, his acting career spanned over two decades from the late 1980s to 2010; he won three Australian Film Institute Awards. On 17 July 2011 he was found in a park in Fremantle, and taken to Fremantle Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Taiji Sawada, Japanese musician (born 1966)

Taiji Sawada , also known mononymously as Taiji, was a Japanese musician and songwriter. He is best known as bassist of the rock band X from 1986 to 1992. The band rose to prominence in the late 1980s and early 1990s, credited as founders of the Japanese visual kei movement. After leaving X in January 1992, Taiji went on to work with many other recording acts, including Loudness and D.T.R.

17/07/2010

Larry Keith, American actor (born 1931)

Larry Keith was an American television actor. He was best known for being a cast member on the ABC soap opera All My Children and was the first American to play the role of Henry Higgins in the Broadway production of My Fair Lady.

17/07/2009

Walter Cronkite, American journalist and actor (born 1916)

Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the CBS Evening News from 1962 to 1981. During the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the most trusted man in America" after being so named in an opinion poll. Cronkite received numerous honors including two Peabody Awards, a George Polk Award, an Emmy Award, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Leszek Kołakowski, Polish historian and philosopher (born 1927)

Leszek Kołakowski was a Polish philosopher and historian of ideas. He is best known for his critical analysis of contemporary Marxist thought and theory, as in his three-volume history of Marxist philosophy Main Currents of Marxism (1976). In his later work, Kołakowski increasingly focused on religious questions. In his 1986 Jefferson Lecture, he asserted that "we learn history not in order to know how to behave or how to succeed, but to know who we are".

17/07/2007

Grant Forsberg, American actor and businessman (born 1959)

Grant Forsberg was an American actor, born in Holden, Massachusetts.

Júlio Redecker, Brazilian politician (born 1956)

Júlio César Redecker was a Brazilian politician and a member of the opposition party, Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB). Redecker was the leader of the minority in the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies. Redecker died aboard TAM Airlines Flight 3054, which crashed after landing in São Paulo on July 17, 2007. He was married and had three children.

Paulo Rogério Amoretty Souza, Brazilian lawyer and businessman (born 1945)

TAM Airlines Flight 3054 was a regularly scheduled domestic passenger flight operated by TAM Airlines from Porto Alegre to São Paulo, Brazil. On the evening of 17 July 2007, the Airbus A320-233 serving the flight from Porto Alegre overran runway 35L at São Paulo's Congonhas Airport after touching down during moderate rain and crashed into a nearby TAM Express warehouse adjacent to a gas station. The aircraft exploded on impact, killing all 187 passengers and crew on board, as well as 12 people on the ground. An additional 27 people in the warehouse were injured. The accident remains the deadliest aviation disaster in Brazilian and South American history, and was the deadliest involving the Airbus A320 series until the bombing of Metrojet Flight 9268 in 2015 killing 224 people. It was the last major fatal aviation accident in Brazil until 2024, when Voepass Linhas Aéreas Flight 2283 crashed near São Paulo killing 62 people.

17/07/2006

Sam Myers, American singer-songwriter (born 1936)

Samuel Joseph Myers was an American blues musician and songwriter. He was an accompanist on dozens of recordings by blues artists over five decades. He began his career as a drummer for Elmore James but was most famous as a blues vocalist and blues harp player. For nearly two decades he was the featured vocalist for Anson Funderburgh & the Rockets.

Mickey Spillane, American crime novelist (born 1918)

Frank Morrison Spillane, better known as Mickey Spillane, was an American crime novelist, called the "king of pulp fiction". He was best known for stories featuring his signature detective character, Mike Hammer.

17/07/2005

Geraldine Fitzgerald, Irish-American actress (born 1913)

Geraldine Mary Wilma Fitzgerald was an Irish American actress. She received the Daytime Emmy Award as well as nominations for an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Tony Award. She was a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame and was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2020 she was listed at number 30 on The Irish Times list of Ireland's greatest film actors.

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

Sir Edward Richard George Heath was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1965 to 1975. Heath also served for 51 years as a Member of Parliament from 1950 to 2001. Outside politics, Heath was a yachtsman, a musician, and an author.

Joe Vialls, Australian journalist and theorist (born 1944)

Joe Vialls was an Australian conspiracy theorist and internet journalist based in Perth, Western Australia. His claims that major incidents such as the Port Arthur massacre, terror attacks in Bali and Jakarta and the 2004 Asian tsunami were the work of Israeli and American secret agents gained a measure of notoriety in Australia, America and Indonesia.

17/07/2003

David Kelly, Welsh weapons inspector (born 1944)

David Christopher Kelly was a Welsh scientist and authority on biological warfare (BW). A former head of the Defence Microbiology Division working at Porton Down, Kelly was part of a joint US-UK team that inspected civilian biotechnology facilities in Russia in the early 1990s and concluded they were running a covert and illegal BW programme. He was appointed to the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) in 1991 as one of its chief weapons inspectors in Iraq and led ten of the organisation's missions between May 1991 and December 1998. He also worked with UNSCOM's successor, the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) and led several of their missions into Iraq. During his time with UNMOVIC he was key in uncovering the anthrax production programme at the Salman Pak facility, and a BW programme run at Al Hakum.

Rosalyn Tureck, American pianist and harpsichord player (born 1914)

Rosalyn Tureck was an American pianist and harpsichordist who was particularly associated with the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. However, she had a wide-ranging repertoire that included works by composers Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms and Frédéric Chopin, as well as more modern composers such as David Diamond, Luigi Dallapiccola and William Schuman. Diamond's Piano Sonata No. 1 was inspired by Tureck's playing. She was one of the great pianists of the 20th Century and she is also known as the High Priestess of Bach.

Walter Zapp, Latvian-Swiss inventor, invented the Minox (born 1905)

Walter Zapp was a Baltic German inventor. His best-known creation was the Minox subminiature camera. Over the course of his life, he was granted over 60 patents.

17/07/2002

Joseph Luns, Dutch politician and Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs (born 1911)

Joseph Marie Antoine Hubert Luns was a Dutch politician, diplomat and jurist who served as the fifth secretary general of NATO from 1971 to 1984, being the longest-serving officeholder since the office was established in 1952. Prior to this, he was Minister of Foreign Affairs, starting in 1956. Luns was a member of the now-defunct Catholic People's Party (KVP), later merged into the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA).

17/07/2001

Katharine Graham, American publisher (born 1917)

Katharine Meyer Graham was an American newspaper publisher. She led her family's newspaper, The Washington Post, from 1963 to 1991. Graham presided over the paper as it reported on the Watergate scandal, which eventually led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. She was one of the first 20th-century female publishers of a major American newspaper and the first woman elected to the board of the Associated Press.

17/07/1998

Lillian Hoban, American author and illustrator (born 1925)

Lillian Hoban was an American illustrator and children's writer best known for picture books created with her husband Russell Hoban. According to OCLC, she has published 326 works in 1,401 publications in 11 languages.

17/07/1996

Victims of TWA Flight 800:

Michel Breistroff was a French professional ice hockey defenceman.

Victims of TWA Flight 800:

Marcel Dadi was a Tunisian-born French virtuoso guitarist known for his finger-picking style which faithfully recreated the instrumental styles of American guitarists such as Chet Atkins, Merle Travis and Jerry Reed. He became a friend of country star Chet Atkins.

Victims of TWA Flight 800:

H. David Hogan was an American composer and musical director of CIGAP, a choir composed of openly gay men.

Victims of TWA Flight 800:

Jed Johnson was an American interior designer and film director. He first came to prominence through his close association with Pop artist Andy Warhol before becoming recognized for his influential design work. The New York Times hailed him as "one of the most celebrated interior designers of our time."

Chas Chandler, English bass player and producer (born 1938)

Bryan James "Chas" Chandler was an English musician, record producer, manager and the original bassist in the Animals, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. He also managed the Jimi Hendrix Experience and Slade.

17/07/1995

Juan Manuel Fangio, Argentinian race car driver (born 1911)

Juan Manuel Fangio was an Argentine racing driver, who competed in Formula One from 1950 to 1958. Nicknamed "el Chueco" and "el Maestro", Fangio won five Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles and—at the time of his retirement—held the record for most wins (24), pole positions (29), fastest laps (23), and podium finishes (35), among others.

17/07/1994

Jean Borotra, French tennis player (born 1898)

Jean Laurent Robert Borotra was a French tennis champion. He was one of the "Four Musketeers" from his country who dominated tennis in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Borotra was imprisoned in Itter Castle during the latter years of World War II and subsequently fought in the Battle for Castle Itter.

Paul Tiulana, Iñupiat artist and dancer (born 1921)

Paul Tiulana was an Iñupiaq artist and dancer from Alaska. Originally from King Island, Tiulana was drafted in World War II and injured; his leg was broken and eventually amputated. He relocated to Nome during the 1950s and Anchorage in the 1960s, where he founded a dance group specializing in Iñupiat dancing. During the 1980s, he was made a Citizen of the Year by the Alaska Federation of Natives, given a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts for his work in dance and art, and wrote a book about his life in Alaska.

17/07/1991

John Patrick Spiegel, American psychiatrist and academic (born 1911)

John Patrick Spiegel was an American psychiatrist, and expert on violence and combat stress and the 103rd President of the American Psychiatric Association (APA). As president-elect of the APA in 1973, and a closeted homosexual at the time, he helped to change the definition of homosexuality in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) which had previously described homosexuality as sexual deviance and that homosexuals were pathological.

17/07/1989

Itubwa Amram, Nauruan pastor and politician (born 1922)

The Reverend Alfred Itubwa Amram was a Nauruan pastor and political figure.

17/07/1988

Bruiser Brody, American football player and wrestler (born 1946)

Frank Donald Goodish was an American professional wrestler who earned his greatest fame under the ring name Bruiser Brody. He also worked as King Kong Brody, the Masked Marauder, and Red River Jack. Over the years Brody became synonymous with the hardcore wrestling brawling style that often saw one or more of the participants bleeding by the time the match was over.

17/07/1980

Don "Red" Barry, American actor and screenwriter (born 1912)

Don Barry, also known as Red Barry, was an American film and television actor. He was nicknamed "Red" after appearing as the first Red Ryder in the highly successful 1940 film Adventures of Red Ryder with Noah Beery Sr.; the character was played in later films by "Wild Bill" Elliott and Allan Lane. Barry went on to bigger budget films following Red Ryder, but none reached his previous level of success. He played Red Doyle in the 1964 Perry Mason episode "The Case of the Simple Simon".

Boris Delaunay, Russian mathematician and academic (born 1890)

Boris Nikolayevich Delaunay or Delone was a Soviet and Russian mathematician, mountain climber, and the father of physicist, Nikolai Borisovich Delone. He is best known for the Delaunay triangulation.

17/07/1975

Konstantine Gamsakhurdia, Georgian author (born 1893)

Konstantine Gamsakhurdia was a Georgian writer and public figure. Educated and first published in Germany, he married Western European influences to purely Georgian thematic to produce his best works, such as The Right Hand of the Grand Master and David the Builder. Hostile to the Soviet rule, he was, nevertheless, one of the few leading Georgian writers to have survived the Stalin-era repressions, despite exile to a White Sea island and several arrests. His works are noted for their character portrayals of great psychological insight. Another major feature of Gamsakhurdia's writings is a new subtlety he infused into Georgian diction, imitating an archaic language to create a sense of classicism.

17/07/1974

Dizzy Dean, American baseball player and sportscaster (born 1910)

Jay Hanna "Dizzy" Dean, also known as Jerome Herman Dean, was an American professional baseball pitcher. During his Major League Baseball (MLB) career, he played for the St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs, and St. Louis Browns.

17/07/1967

John Coltrane, American saxophonist and composer (born 1926)

John William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music.

17/07/1961

Ty Cobb, American baseball player and manager (born 1886)

Tyrus Raymond Cobb, nicknamed "the Georgia Peach", was an American professional baseball center fielder. A native of rural Narrows, Georgia, Cobb played 24 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). He spent 22 years with the Detroit Tigers and served as the team's player-manager for the last six, and he finished his career with the Philadelphia Athletics. In 1936, Cobb received the most votes of any player on the inaugural ballot for the National Baseball Hall of Fame, receiving 222 out of a possible 226 votes (98.2%); no other player received a higher percentage of votes until Tom Seaver in 1992. In 1999, the Sporting News ranked Cobb third on its list of "Baseball's 100 Greatest Players."

Emin Halid Onat, Turkish architect and academic (born 1908)

Emin Halid Onat was a Turkish architect and former rector of Istanbul Technical University.

17/07/1960

Maud Menten, Canadian physician and biochemist (born 1879)

Maud Leonora Menten was a Canadian physician and chemist. As a bio-medical and medical researcher, she made significant contributions to enzyme kinetics and histochemistry, and invented a procedure that remains in use. She is primarily known for her work with Leonor Michaelis on enzyme kinetics in 1913. The paper has been translated from its written language of German into English.

17/07/1959

Billie Holiday, American singer (born 1915)

Billie Holiday was an American jazz and swing music singer. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday made significant contributions to jazz music and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly influenced by jazz instrumentalists, inspired a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo. Holiday was known for her vocal delivery and improvisational skills.

Eugene Meyer, American businessman and publisher (born 1875)

Eugene Isaac Meyer was an American banker, businessman, financier, and newspaper publisher. He was the fifth chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1930 to 1933. Meyer purchased The Washington Post in 1933, and was its publisher from 1933 to 1946, with the paper staying in his family throughout the rest of the 20th century. He was the first president of the World Bank Group from June to December 1946.

17/07/1950

Evangeline Booth, English 4th General of The Salvation Army (born 1865)

Evangeline Cory Booth OF was a British evangelist and the fourth General of The Salvation Army from 1934 to 1939. She was the first woman to hold the post.

Antonie Nedošinská, Czech actress (born 1885)

Antonie Nedošinská was a Czech film actress. She appeared in 89 films between 1916 and 1947.

17/07/1946

Florence Fuller, South African-born Australian artist (born 1867)

Florence Ada Fuller was a South African-born Australian artist. Originally from Port Elizabeth, Fuller migrated as a child to Melbourne with her family. There she trained with her uncle Robert Hawker Dowling and teacher Jane Sutherland and took classes at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School, becoming a professional artist in the late 1880s. In 1892 she left Australia, travelling first to South Africa, where she met and painted for Cecil Rhodes, and then on to Europe. She lived and studied there for the subsequent decade, except for a return to South Africa in 1899 to paint a portrait of Rhodes. Between 1895 and 1904 her works were exhibited at the Paris Salon and London's Royal Academy.

Draža Mihailović, Serbian and Yugoslav general (born 1893)

Dragoljub "Draža" Mihailović was a Yugoslav Serb general during World War II. He was the leader of the Chetnik Detachments of the Yugoslav Army (Chetniks), a royalist and nationalist movement and guerrilla force established following the German invasion of Yugoslavia in 1941.

17/07/1945

Ernst Busch, German field marshal (born 1885)

Ernst Bernhard Wilhelm Busch was a German Generalfeldmarschall during World War II who commanded the 16th Army and Army Group Centre.

17/07/1944

William James Sidis, American mathematician and anthropologist (born 1898)

William James Sidis was an American child prodigy whose exceptional abilities in mathematics and languages made him one of the most famous intellectual prodigies of the early 20th century. Born to Boris Sidis, a prominent psychiatrist, and Sarah Mandelbaum Sidis, a physician, Sidis demonstrated extraordinary intellectual capabilities from infancy. Enrolled at Harvard University at age 11, he delivered a widely publicized lecture on four-dimensional geometry at age 12 and graduated cum laude in 1914 at 16.

17/07/1942

Robina Nicol, New Zealand photographer and suffragist (born 1861)

Robina Nicol was a Scottish-born New Zealand photographer and suffragist.

17/07/1935

George William Russell, Irish poet and painter (born 1867)

George William Russell, who wrote with the pseudonym Æ, was an Irish writer, editor, critic, poet, painter and Irish nationalist. He was also a writer on mysticism, and a central figure in the group of devotees of theosophy which met in Dublin for many years.

17/07/1932

Rasmus Rasmussen, Norwegian actor, singer, and director (born 1862)

Rasmus Rasmussen was a Norwegian actor, folk singer and theatre director.

17/07/1928

Giovanni Giolitti, Italian politician, 13th Prime Minister of Italy (born 1842)

Giovanni Giolitti was an Italian statesman who was the prime minister of Italy five times between 1892 and 1921. He is the longest-serving democratically elected prime minister in Italian history, and the second-longest serving overall after Benito Mussolini. A prominent leader of the Historical Left and the Liberals, he is widely considered one of the most wealthy, powerful and important politicians in Italian history; due to his dominant position in Italian politics, Giolitti was accused by critics of being an authoritarian leader and a parliamentary dictator.

Álvaro Obregón, Mexican general and politician, 39th President of Mexico (born 1880)

Álvaro Obregón Salido was a Mexican general, inventor and politician who served as the 46th President of Mexico from 1920 to 1924. Obregón was re-elected to the presidency in 1928 but was assassinated before he could take office.

17/07/1925

Lovis Corinth, German painter (born 1858)

Lovis Corinth was a German artist and writer whose mature work as a painter and printmaker realized a synthesis of impressionism and expressionism.

17/07/1918

Victims of the Shooting of the Romanov family:

Nicholas II was Emperor of Russia from 1 November 1894 until his abdication in 1917. He was the last Russian monarch before the Russian Revolution and oversaw the Russian Empire's participation in World War I. In 1918, the Romanovs were murdered, putting an end to the Romanov dynasty.

Victims of the Shooting of the Romanov family:

Alexandra Feodorovna was the last empress of Russia as the consort of Nicholas II from their marriage on 26 November [O.S. 14 November] 1894 until his forced abdication on 15 March [O.S. 2 March] 1917.

Victims of the Shooting of the Romanov family:

Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia 15 November [O.S. 3 November] 1895 – 17 July 1918) was the eldest child and daughter of the last Russian emperor, Nicholas II, and his wife Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.

Victims of the Shooting of the Romanov family:

Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia 10 June [O.S. 29 May] 1897 – 17 July 1918) was the second daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, the last monarch of Russia, and Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna. She was born at Peterhof Palace, near Saint Petersburg.

Victims of the Shooting of the Romanov family:

Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia 26 June [O.S. 14 June] 1899 – 17 July 1918) was the third daughter of Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna. Her murder following the Russian Revolution of 1917 resulted in her canonization as a passion bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church.

Victims of the Shooting of the Romanov family:

Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia was the youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, the last sovereign of Imperial Russia, and his wife, Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna.

Victims of the Shooting of the Romanov family:

Alexei Nikolaevich Romanov was the last Russian tsesarevich. He was the youngest child and only son of Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna. He was born with haemophilia, which his parents tried treating with the methods of peasant faith healer Grigori Rasputin.

Victims of the Shooting of the Romanov family:

Anna Stepanovna Demidova was a lady's maid in the service of Empress Alexandra of Russia. She stayed with the Romanov family when they were arrested, and was murdered together with Alexandra and the Romanov family on 17 July 1918.

Victims of the Shooting of the Romanov family:

Ivan Mikhailovich Kharitonov was the Head Cook at the court of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.

Victims of the Shooting of the Romanov family:

Aloise "Alexei" Yegorovich Trupp was the Latvian head footman in the household of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.

Victims of the Shooting of the Romanov family:

Yevgeny Sergeyevich Botkin, commonly known as Eugene Botkin, was the court physician since 1908 for Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra. He sometimes treated the Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich of Russia for haemophilia-related complications, like in Spala in 1912.

17/07/1912

Henri Poincaré, French mathematician, physicist, and engineer (born 1854)

Jules Henri Poincaré was a French mathematician, theoretical physicist, engineer, and philosopher of science. He is often described as a polymath, and in mathematics as "The Last Universalist", since he excelled in all fields of the discipline as it existed during his lifetime. He has further been called "the Gauss of modern mathematics". Due to his success in science, along with his influence in philosophy, he has also been called "the philosopher par excellence of modern science".

17/07/1907

Hector Malot, French author and critic (born 1830)

Hector-Henri Malot was a French writer born in La Bouille, Seine-Maritime. He studied law in Rouen and Paris, but eventually literature became his passion. He worked as a dramatic critic for Lloyd Francais and as a literary critic for L'Opinion Nationale.

17/07/1900

Thomas McIlwraith, Scottish-Australian politician, 8th Premier of Queensland (born 1835)

Sir Thomas McIlwraith was for many years the dominant figure of colonial politics in Queensland. He was Premier of Queensland from 1879 to 1883, again in 1888, and for a third time in 1893. In common with most politicians of his era, McIlwraith was an influential businessman, who combined his parliamentary career with a prosperous involvement in the pastoral industry.

17/07/1894

Leconte de Lisle, French poet and translator (born 1818)

Charles Marie René Leconte de Lisle was a French poet of the Parnassian movement. He is traditionally known by his surname only, Leconte de Lisle.

Josef Hyrtl, Austrian anatomist and biologist (born 1810)

Josef Hyrtl was an Austrian anatomist. His work in German, including the publication of Lehrbuch der Anatomie des Menschen in 1846, which was considered the German equivalent of Gray's Anatomy.

17/07/1893

Frederick A. Johnson, American banker and politician (born 1833)

Frederick Avery Johnson was an American politician and banker who served a U.S. Representative from New York from 1883 to 1887. He was a member of the Republican Party and a resident of Glens Falls, New York.

17/07/1885

Jean-Charles Chapais, Canadian farmer and politician, 1st Canadian Minister of Agriculture (born 1811)

Jean-Charles Chapais, was a Canadian Conservative politician, and considered a Father of Canadian Confederation for his participation in the Quebec Conference to determine the form of Canada's government.

17/07/1883

Tự Đức, Vietnamese emperor (born 1829)

Tự Đức was the fourth emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty of Vietnam, and the country's last pre-colonial monarch. Ruling for about 36 years from 1847 to 1883, this made him the longest reigning Nguyễn emperor.

17/07/1881

Jim Bridger, American scout and explorer (born 1804)

James Felix Bridger was an American mountain man, trapper, Army scout, and wilderness guide who explored and trapped in the Western United States in the first half of the 19th century. He was known as Old Gabe in his later years. He was from the Bridger family of Virginia, English settlers who had arrived in North America in the early colonial period.

17/07/1879

Maurycy Gottlieb, Ukrainian-Polish painter (born 1856)

Maurycy Gottlieb (; 21 February 1856 – 17 July 1879) was a Polish-Jewish realist painter of the Romantic period. Considered one of the most talented students of Jan Matejko, Gottlieb died at the age of 23.

17/07/1878

Aleardo Aleardi, Italian poet and politician (born 1812)

Aleardo Aleardi, born Gaetano Maria, was an Italian poet who belonged to the so-called Neo-romanticists.

17/07/1871

Karl Tausig, Polish virtuoso pianist, arranger and composer (born 1841)

Karl Tausig was a Polish virtuoso pianist, arranger, and composer. He is widely regarded as Franz Liszt's greatest pupil and one of the greatest pianists of all time.

17/07/1845

Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1764)

Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey was a British Whig politician who served as prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1830 to 1834. His government enacted the Reform Acts of 1832, which expanded the electorate in the United Kingdom, and the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, which abolished slavery in the British Empire.

17/07/1794

John Roebuck, English chemist and businessman (born 1718)

John Roebuck of Kinneil FRS FRSE was an English industrialist, inventor, mechanical engineer, and physician who played an important role in the Industrial Revolution and who is known for developing the industrial-scale manufacture of sulphuric acid.

17/07/1793

Charlotte Corday, French murderer (born 1768)

Marie-Anne Charlotte de Corday d'Armont, known as Charlotte Corday, was a figure of the French Revolution who assassinated revolutionary and Jacobin leader Jean-Paul Marat on 13 July 1793. Corday was a sympathiser of the Girondins, a moderate faction of French revolutionaries in opposition to the Jacobins. She held Marat responsible for the September Massacres of 1792 and, believing that the Revolution was in jeopardy from the more radical course the Jacobins had taken, she decided to assassinate Marat.

17/07/1791

Martin Dobrizhoffer, Austrian missionary and author (born 1717)

Martin Dobrizhoffer was an Austrian Roman Catholic missionary and writer.

17/07/1790

Adam Smith, Scottish economist and philosopher (born 1723)

Adam Smith was a Scottish economist and philosopher who was a pioneer in the field of political economy and key figure during the Scottish Enlightenment. Seen by many as the "father of economics", or the "father of capitalism", he is primarily known for two classic works: The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776). The latter, often abbreviated as The Wealth of Nations, is regarded as his magnum opus, marking the inception of modern economic scholarship as a comprehensive system and an academic discipline. Smith refuses to explain the distribution of wealth and power in terms of divine will and instead appeals to natural, political, social, economic, legal, environmental and technological factors, as well as the interactions among them. The work is notable for its contribution to economic theory, particularly in its exposition of the concept of absolute advantage.

17/07/1762

Peter III of Russia (born 1728)

Peter III Fyodorovich was Emperor of Russia from 5 January 1762 until 9 July of the same year, when his wife, Catherine II "the Great", overthrew him in a palace coup d'état. He implemented many notable reforms during his reign, though he is criticised for undoing Russian gains in the Seven Years' War by forming an alliance with Prussia.

17/07/1725

Thomas King, English and British soldier, MP for Queenborough, lieutenant-governor of Sheerness (born before 1660?).

Thomas King was an English professional soldier, lieutenant governor of Sheerness, Kent, and Member of Parliament for Queenborough, in Kent.

17/07/1709

Robert Bolling, English planter and merchant (born 1646)

Robert Bolling was an English-born merchant, planter and politician. He was the founder of the Bolling family of Virginia, one of the First Families of Virginia, with at least fifteen descendants serving in the Virginia General Assembly as well as holding local offices, as did he.

17/07/1704

Pierre-Charles Le Sueur, French fur trader and explorer (born 1657)

Pierre-Charles Le Sueur was a French fur trader and explorer in North America, recognized as the first known European to explore the Minnesota River valley.

17/07/1645

Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset, English-Scottish politician, Lord Chamberlain of the United Kingdom (born 1587)

Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset, was a politician, and favourite of King James VI and I.

17/07/1642

William, Count of Nassau-Siegen, German count, field marshal of the Dutch State Army (born 1592)

William, Count of Nassau-Siegen, German: Wilhelm Graf von Nassau-Siegen, official titles: Graf zu Nassau, Katzenelnbogen, Vianden und Diez, Herr zu Beilstein, was Count of Nassau-Siegen, a part of the County of Nassau from 1624 to 1642. A member of the House of Nassau-Siegen, a cadet branch of the Ottonian Line of the House of Nassau, he was a professional soldier who served in the armies of the Hanseatic League and the Republic of Venice, then with the Dutch States Army during the Eighty Years War. Promoted field marshal in 1633, he was successively governor of Emmerich, Heusden and Sluis.

17/07/1603

Mózes Székely, Hungarian noble (born 1553)

Moses Székely was Prince of Transylvania in 1603.

17/07/1588

Mimar Sinan, Ottoman architect and engineer, designed the Sokollu Mehmet Pasha Mosque and Süleymaniye Mosque (born 1489)

Mimar Sinan also known as Koca Mi'mâr Sinân Âğâ, was the chief Ottoman architect, engineer and mathematician for sultans Suleiman the Magnificent, Selim II and Murad III. He was responsible for the construction of more than 300 major structures, including the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne, the Kanuni Sultan Suleiman Bridge in Büyükçekmece, and the Mehmed Paša Sokolović Bridge in Višegrad, as well as other more modest projects such as madrasa's, külliyes, and bridges. His apprentices would later design the Sultan Ahmed Mosque in Istanbul and the Stari Most bridge in Mostar.

17/07/1571

Georg Fabricius, German poet and historian (born 1516)

Georg Fabricius was a Protestant German poet, historian and archaeologist who wrote in Latin during the German Renaissance.

17/07/1531

Hosokawa Takakuni, Japanese commander (born 1484)

Hosokawa Takakuni was the most powerful military commander in the Muromachi period under Ashikaga Yoshiharu, the twelfth shōgun. His father was Hosokawa Masaharu, a member of the branch of the Hosokawa clan. His childhood name was Rokuro (六郎).

17/07/1453

Dmitry Shemyaka, Grand Prince of Moscow

Dmitriy Yurievich Shemyaka was the second son of Yury of Zvenigorod by Anastasia of Smolensk and grandson of Dmitri Donskoi. His hereditary patrimony was the rich northern town Galich-Mersky. When his uncle prince Vasily I of Moscow died in 1425, he and his 10-year-old nephew Vasily started fighting over the right to the throne, causing the Muscovite War of Succession (1425–1453). Intermittently, Shemyaka managed to be recognised twice as Prince of Moscow.

John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury, English commander and politician (born 1387)

John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury, 1st Earl of Waterford, 7th Baron Talbot, KG, known as "Old Talbot" and "Terror of the French" was an English nobleman and a noted military commander during the Hundred Years' War. He was the most renowned in England and most feared in France of the English captains in the last stages of the conflict. Known as a tough, cruel, and quarrelsome man, Talbot distinguished himself militarily in a time of decline for the English. Called "the English Achilles", he is lavishly praised in the plays of Shakespeare. The manner of his death, leading an ill-advised charge against field artillery, has come to symbolize the passing of the age of chivalry. He also held the subsidiary titles of 10th Baron Strange of Blackmere and 6th Baron Furnivall.

17/07/1399

Jadwiga, queen of Poland (born 1374)

Jadwiga, also known as Hedwig, was the first female monarch of the Kingdom of Poland, as well as its last hereditary ruler. She reigned from 16 October 1384 until her death. Born in Buda, she was the youngest daughter of Louis I of Hungary and his wife, Elizabeth of Bosnia. Jadwiga was a member of the Capetian House of Anjou and had forebears among the Polish Piasts.

17/07/1304

Edmund Mortimer, 2nd Baron Mortimer (born 1251)

Edmund Mortimer, 2nd Baron Mortimer of Wigmore was the second son and eventual heir of Roger Mortimer, 1st Baron Mortimer of Wigmore. His mother was Maud de Braose.

17/07/1210

Sverker II, king of Sweden (born 1210)

Sverker the Younger, also known as Sverker II or Sverker Karlsson, was King of Sweden from 1195 or 1196 to 1208 when he was defeated in the Battle of Lena by Erik Knutsson. Sverker died in the 1210 Battle of Gestilren where his forces battled those of King Erik Knutsson.

17/07/1119

Baldwin VII, count of Flanders (born 1093)

Baldwin VII was Count of Flanders from 1111 to 1119.

17/07/1085

Robert Guiscard, Norman adventurer

Robert Guiscard, also referred to as Robert de Hauteville, was a Norman adventurer remembered for his conquest of southern Italy and Sicily in the 11th century.

17/07/1070

Baldwin VI, count of Flanders (born 1030)

Baldwin VI, also known as Baldwin the Good, was the count of Hainaut from 1051 to 1070 and count of Flanders from 1067 to 1070.

17/07/0961

Du, empress dowager of the Song dynasty

Empress Dowager Du was an empress dowager of imperial China's Song dynasty. She was the wife of general Zhao Hongyin and the mother of Emperor Taizu of Song, who founded the Song dynasty.

17/07/0952

Wu Hanyue, Chinese noblewoman (born 913)

Lady Wu Hanyue (吳漢月), formally the Lady Dowager Gongyi of Wuyue (吳越國恭懿太夫人), was the mother of Qian Chu, the fifth and final king of the Chinese state Wuyue of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period.

17/07/0855

Leo IV, pope of the Catholic Church (born 790)

Pope Leo IV was the bishop of Rome and leader of the Papal States from 10 April 847 to his death in 855. He is remembered for repairing Roman churches that had been damaged during the Arab raid against Rome, and for building the Leonine Wall around Vatican Hill to protect the city. Pope Leo organized a league of Italian cities who fought and won the sea Battle of Ostia against the Saracens.

17/07/0521

Magnus Felix Ennodius, Gallo-Roman bishop

Magnus Felix Ennodius was Bishop of Pavia in 514, and a Latin rhetorician and poet.

Celebrations & Special Days Worldwide on 17th July

Christian feast day: Alexius of Rome (Western Church)

Saint Alexius of Rome or Alexius of Edessa, also Alexis, was a fourth-century Greek monk who lived in anonymity and is known for his dedication to Christ. Two versions of his life exist, one in Syriac and the other in Greek.

Christian feast day: Andrew Zorard

Andrew Zorard was a Benedictine monk originating from Poland but active in Hungary, who is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches

Christian feast day: Cynehelm

Saint Kenelm was an Anglo-Saxon saint, venerated throughout medieval England, and mentioned in the Canterbury Tales. William of Malmesbury, writing in the 12th century, recounted that "there was no place in England to which more pilgrims travelled than to Winchcombe [in Gloucestershire] on Kenelm's feast day".

Christian feast day: Cynllo

Cynllo is a British saint, who lived in the late 5th and early 6th centuries, generally described as a brother of Teilo. Cynllo was known for "...the sanctity of his life and the austerity of his manners."

Christian feast day: Inácio de Azevedo

Inácio de Azevedo, SJ (1526–1570) was a Portuguese Jesuit missionary. He is one of the Forty Martyrs of Brazil, beatified by Pope Pius IX in 1854.

Christian feast day: Jadwiga of Poland

Jadwiga, also known as Hedwig, was the first female monarch of the Kingdom of Poland, as well as its last hereditary ruler. She reigned from 16 October 1384 until her death. Born in Buda, she was the youngest daughter of Louis I of Hungary and his wife, Elizabeth of Bosnia. Jadwiga was a member of the Capetian House of Anjou and had forebears among the Polish Piasts.

Christian feast day: Magnus Felix Ennodius

Magnus Felix Ennodius was Bishop of Pavia in 514, and a Latin rhetorician and poet.

Christian feast day: Marcellina

Marcellina was born in Trier, Gaul the daughter of the Praetorian prefect of Gaul, and was the elder sister of Ambrose of Milan and Satyrus of Milan. Marcellina devoted her life as a consecrated virgin to the practice of prayer and asceticism. Her feast is on 17 July.

Christian feast day: Martyrs of Compiègne

The Martyrs of Compiègne were the 16 members of the Carmel of Compiègne, France: 11 Discalced Carmelite nuns, three lay sisters, and two externs. They were executed by the guillotine towards the end of the Reign of Terror, at what is now the Place de la Nation in Paris on 17 July 1794, and are venerated as martyr saints of the Catholic Church. Ten days after their execution, Maximilien Robespierre himself was executed, ending the Reign of Terror. Their story has inspired a novella, a motion picture, a television movie, and an opera, Dialogues of the Carmelites, written by French composer Francis Poulenc.

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

Pavel Peter Gojdič, OSBM, was a Rusyn Basilian monk who served as Eparch of Prešov in the Slovak Greek Catholic Church. Following the 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état, he was arrested by the StB, the secret police of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia, and imprisoned on charges of high treason. Despite promises of immediate release if he would agree to become patriarch of the Orthodox Church in Czechoslovakia, Gojdič died at Leopoldov Prison as a prisoner of conscience in 1960.

Christian feast day: Pope Leo IV

Pope Leo IV was the bishop of Rome and leader of the Papal States from 10 April 847 to his death in 855. He is remembered for repairing Roman churches that had been damaged during the Arab raid against Rome, and for building the Leonine Wall around Vatican Hill to protect the city. Pope Leo organized a league of Italian cities who fought and won the sea Battle of Ostia against the Saracens.

Christian feast day: Romanov sainthood (Russian Orthodox Church)

The canonization of the Romanovs was the elevation to sainthood of the last imperial family of Russia – Tsar Nicholas II, his wife Tsarina Alexandra, and their five children Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and Alexei – by the Russian Orthodox Church.

Christian feast day: Speratus and companions

The Scillitan Martyrs were a group of early Christians of North Africa executed by the Roman Empire in Carthage, modern Tunisia, on 17 July 180 AD. The group takes its name from the nearby town of Scillium. They are venerated as martyrs in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Their executions occurred at the end of a wave of persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire during the reign of Marcus Aurelius in 161–180.

Christian feast day: William White (Episcopal Church)

William White was the first and fourth Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church of the United States, the first bishop of the Diocese of Pennsylvania (1787–1836), and the second United States Senate Chaplain. He also served as the first and fourth President of the House of Deputies for the General Convention of the Episcopal Church.

Christian feast day: July 17 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

July 16 - Eastern Orthodox Church calendar - July 18

Constitution Day (South Korea)

Constitution Day or Jeheonjeol (Korean: 제헌절) in South Korea is observed on 17 July, the day that the first South Korean constitution was proclaimed in 1948. The date was deliberately chosen to match the founding date of 17 July of the Joseon dynasty.

Gion Matsuri (Yasaka Shrine, Kyoto)

The Gion Festival is one of the largest and most famous festivals in Japan, taking place annually during the month of July in Kyoto. Many events take place in central Kyoto and at the Yasaka Shrine, the festival's patron shrine, located in Kyoto's famous Gion district, which gives the festival its name. It is formally a Shinto festival, and its original purposes were purification and pacification of disease-causing entities. There are many ceremonies held during the festival, but it is best known for its two Yamaboko Junkō (山鉾巡行) processions of floats, which take place on July 17 and 24.

Independence Day (Slovakia)

Remembrance Days in Slovakia are working days.

International Firgun Day (International)

Firgun is an informal modern Hebrew term and concept in Israeli culture, which compliments someone or describes genuine, unselfish delight or pride in the accomplishment of another person. Another definition describes firgun as a generosity of spirit, an unselfish, empathetic joy that something good has happened, or might happen, to another person. The concept does not have a one-word equivalent in English. The infinitive form of the word, lefargen, means to make someone feel good without any ulterior motives. This absence of negativity is an integral part of the concept of firgun.

King's Birthday (Lesotho)

This is a list of holidays in Lesotho.January 1: New Year's Day March 11: Moshoeshoe's Day March 29: Good Friday April 1: Easter Monday May 1: Workers' Day May 9: Ascension Day May 25: Africa Day July 17: King's Birthday October 4: Independence Day December 25: Christmas Day December 26: Boxing Day

U Tirot Sing Day (Meghalaya, India)

Tirot Singh, also known as U Tirot Sing Syiem, was one of the chiefs of the Khasi people in the early 19th century. He drew his lineage from the Syiemlieh clan. He was Syiem (king) of Nongkhlaw, part of the Khasi Hills. His surname was Syiemlieh. He was a constitutional head sharing corporate authority with his Council, general representatives of the leading clans within his territory. Tirot Sing declared war and fought against the British for attempts to take over control of the Khasi Hills.

World Day for International Justice (International)

World Day for International Justice, also referred to as Day of International Criminal Justice or International Justice Day, is an international day celebrated throughout the world on July 17 as part of an effort to recognize the emerging system of international criminal justice. July 17 is the date of the adoption of the treaty that created the International Criminal Court. On 1 June 2010, at the Review Conference of the Rome Statute held in Kampala (Uganda), the Assembly of State Parties decided to celebrate 17 July as the Day of International Criminal Justice.

World Emoji Day (International)

World Emoji Day is an annual unofficial holiday occurring on 17 July each year, intended to celebrate emoji; in the years since the earliest observance, it has become a popular date to make product or other announcements and releases relating to emoji.

What Happened on 17th July?

45 significant events took place on Monday, 17th July — stretching from 180 to 2015. Explore the moments that shaped history on this day.

17/07/2015

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

A suicide car bombing occurred on 17 July 2015 in the Iraqi city of Khan Bani Saad, targeting a local marketplace. As of 19 July 2015 approximately 130 people were killed in the bombing, with a similar number of injured. Several people were killed by collapsed buildings. The bomb was hidden under an ice truck in an attempt to attract more people amid the heat. Responsibility for the attack was claimed by the Islamic State (IS).

17/07/2014

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.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was a scheduled passenger flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur that was shot down by Russian-backed forces with a Buk 9M38 surface-to-air missile on 17 July 2014, while flying over eastern Ukraine. All 283 passengers and 15 crew were killed. Contact with the aircraft, a Boeing 777-200ER, was lost when it was about 50 kilometres from the Ukraine–Russia border, and wreckage from the aircraft landed near Hrabove in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, 40 km from the border. The shoot-down occurred during the war in Donbas over territory controlled by Russian separatist forces in Ukraine.

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.

Transport express régional is the brand name used by the SNCF, the French national railway company, to denote rail service run by the regional councils of France, specifically their organised transport authorities. The network serves French regions; Île-de-France (Transilien) and Corsica (CFC) have their own specific transport systems. Every day, over 800,000 passengers are carried on 5,700 TER-branded trains.

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.

On July 17, 2014, Eric Garner, an African American man, was killed in the New York City borough of Staten Island by Daniel Pantaleo, a New York City Police Department (NYPD) officer, after putting him in a prohibited chokehold while arresting him. Video footage of the incident generated widespread national attention and raised questions about the use of force by law enforcement.

17/07/2007

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.

TAM Airlines Flight 3054 was a regularly scheduled domestic passenger flight operated by TAM Airlines from Porto Alegre to São Paulo, Brazil. On the evening of 17 July 2007, the Airbus A320-233 serving the flight from Porto Alegre overran runway 35L at São Paulo's Congonhas Airport after touching down during moderate rain and crashed into a nearby TAM Express warehouse adjacent to a gas station. The aircraft exploded on impact, killing all 187 passengers and crew on board, as well as 12 people on the ground. An additional 27 people in the warehouse were injured. The accident remains the deadliest aviation disaster in Brazilian and South American history, and was the deadliest involving the Airbus A320 series until the bombing of Metrojet Flight 9268 in 2015 killing 224 people. It was the last major fatal aviation accident in Brazil until 2024, when Voepass Linhas Aéreas Flight 2283 crashed near São Paulo killing 62 people.

17/07/2006

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

An earthquake occurred on July 17, 2006, at 15:19:27 local time along a subduction zone off the coast of west and central Java, a large and densely populated island in the Indonesian archipelago. The shock had a moment magnitude of 7.7 and a maximum perceived intensity of IV (Light) in Jakarta, the capital and largest city of Indonesia. There were no direct effects of the earthquake's shaking due to its low intensity, and the large loss of life from the event was due to the resulting tsunami, which inundated a 300 km (190 mi) portion of the Java coast that had been unaffected by the earlier 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami that was off the coast of Sumatra. The July 2006 earthquake was also centered in the Indian Ocean, 180 kilometers (110 mi) from the coast of Java, and had a duration of more than three minutes.

17/07/2000

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

Jay Prakash Narayan Airport is a domestic airport serving Patna, the capital of Bihar, India. Named after the independence activist and political leader Jayprakash Narayan, it is the 20th-busiest airport in India. To cater to burgeoning demand, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) initiated a project to expand and modernise the airport infrastructure, including the construction of a new two-level passenger terminal, which was inaugurated on 29 May 2025.

17/07/1998

The 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.

The 1998 Papua New Guinea earthquake occurred on July 17 with a moment magnitude of 7.0 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). The event occurred on a reverse fault near the north coast region of Papua New Guinea, 25 km (16 mi) from the coast near Aitape and caused a large submarine landslide which caused a tsunami that hit the coast, killing between at least 2,183 and 2,700 people and injuring thousands.

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.

The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court is the treaty that established the International Criminal Court (ICC). It was adopted at a diplomatic conference in Rome, Italy on 17 July 1998 and entered into force on 1 July 2002. As of January 2025, 125 states are party to the statute. Among other things, it establishes court function, jurisdiction and structure.

17/07/1997

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

Husein Sastranegara Airport is a domestic airport serving Bandung, the capital of West Java, Indonesia. It is located within the city, approximately 3.5 km from Bandung’s city center. The airport is named after Husein Sastranegara, an Indonesian Air Force officer who died during the Indonesian National Revolution when his aircraft crashed in Yogyakarta. Prior to the opening of Kertajati International Airport, the airport served as an international gateway and the primary air entry point to Bandung and its surrounding regions. It handled domestic flights to major Indonesian cities such as Denpasar, Surabaya, and Yogyakarta, as well as international routes to Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. However, following the inauguration of Kertajati Airport, most flights were relocated, leading to the suspension of international services and the revocation of its international status. Today, Husein Sastranegara Airport functions as a secondary airport for Bandung, handling only very limited commercial operations, with Susi Air currently serving as its sole airline operator.

17/07/1996

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

TWA Flight 800 was a regularly scheduled international passenger flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, United States, to Fiumicino Airport in Rome, Italy, with a stopover at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, France. On July 17, 1996, at approximately 8:31 p.m. EDT, twelve minutes after takeoff, the Boeing 747 exploded and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near East Moriches, New York.

17/07/1994

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

The Brazil national football team, nicknamed A seleção, represents Brazil in men's international football and is administered by the Brazilian Football Confederation, the governing body of football in Brazil. It has been a member of FIFA since 1923 and was a founding member of CONMEBOL in 1916. It was also a member of PFC, the unified confederation of the Americas, from 1946 to 1961.

17/07/1981

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.

On July 17, 1981, two overhead walkways in the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri, collapsed, killing 114 people and injuring 216. Loaded with partygoers, the concrete and glass platforms crashed onto a tea dance in the lobby. The collapse resulted in billions of dollars of insurance claims, legal investigations, and city government reforms.

17/07/1976

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

Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the coastal exclave of Oecusse in the island's northwest, and the islands of Atauro and Jaco, for a total land area of 15,007 square kilometres (5,794 sq mi). Timor-Leste shares a land border with Indonesia to the west; Australia is the country's southern neighbour, across the Timor Sea. Dili, on the north coast of Timor, is its capital and largest city.

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.

The 1976 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXI Olympiad and officially branded as Montreal 1976, were an international multi-sport event held from July 17 to August 1, 1976, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Montreal was awarded the rights to the 1976 Games at the 69th IOC Session in Amsterdam on May 12, 1970, over the bids of Moscow and Los Angeles. It is the only Summer Olympic Games to be held in Canada. Toronto hosted the 1976 Summer Paralympics the same year as the Montreal Olympics, also the only Summer Paralympics to be held in Canada. Calgary and Vancouver later hosted the Winter Olympic Games in 1988 and 2010, respectively. This was the first of two consecutive Olympic games held in North America, followed by the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid.

17/07/1975

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.

Apollo–Soyuz was the first crewed international space mission, conducted jointly by the United States and the Soviet Union in July 1975. Millions watched on television as an American Apollo spacecraft docked with a Soviet Soyuz capsule. The mission and its symbolic "handshake in space" became an emblem of détente during the Cold War.

17/07/1973

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

Mohammad Zahir Shah was the last king of Afghanistan, reigning from 8 November 1933 until he was deposed on 17 July 1973. Ruling for almost 40 years, Zahir Shah was the longest-serving ruler of Afghanistan since the foundation of the Durrani Empire in the 18th century.

17/07/1968

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.

Abdul Rahman Mohammed ʿArif al-Jumayli, better known as Abdul Rahman Arif, was an Iraqi military officer and politician who served as the third president of Iraq from 16 April 1966 to 17 July 1968. He was the older brother of the second president of Iraq, Abdul Salam Arif, whom he succeeded after his brother died in an airplane crash in 1966.

17/07/1962

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

Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine the performance of nuclear weapons and the effects of their explosion. Over 2,000 nuclear weapons tests have been carried out since 1945. Nuclear testing is a sensitive political issue. Governments have often performed tests to signal strength. Because of their destruction and fallout, testing has seen opposition by civilians as well as governments, with international bans having been agreed on. Thousands of tests have been performed, with most in the second half of the 20th century.

17/07/1954

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.

The First Indochina War, known alternatively internationally as the French Indochina War, was fought in French Indochina between France and the Viet Minh and their respective allies, from 19 December 1946 until 11 August 1954. Most of the engagements of this conflict occurred in Vietnam.

17/07/1953

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

A midshipman is an officer of the lowest rank in the Royal Navy, United States Navy, and many Commonwealth navies. Commonwealth countries which use the rank include Canada, Australia, Bangladesh, Namibia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Kenya.

17/07/1945

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.

The Allies, or Allied powers, formally referred to as the United Nations from 1942, were an international military coalition formed during World War II (1939–1945) to oppose the Axis powers. Its principal members were the "Big Four" — the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, the United States, and China.

17/07/1944

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

The Port Chicago disaster was a deadly munitions explosion of the ship SS E. A. Bryan on July 17, 1944, at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine in Port Chicago, California, United States. Munitions being loaded onto a cargo vessel bound for the Pacific Theater of Operations detonated, killing 320 sailors and civilians and injuring at least 390 others.

17/07/1938

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

Douglas Corrigan was an American aviator, nicknamed "Wrong Way" in 1938. After a transcontinental flight in July from Long Beach, California, to New York City, he then flew from Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn to Ireland, although his flight plan was filed to return to Long Beach.

17/07/1936

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

The Spanish Civil War was fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republicans and the Nationalist rebels. Republicans loyal to the left-leaning Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic included socialists, anarchists, communists, and separatists, supported by the Soviet Union. The opposing Nationalists were an alliance of fascist Falangists, monarchists, conservatives, and traditionalists, supported by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Initially led by a military junta, until General Francisco Franco was appointed supreme leader on 1 October 1936 of what he called the Spanish State. Due to the international political climate at the time, the war was variously viewed as class struggle, religious struggle, or struggle between republican democracy and dictatorship, revolution and counterrevolution, or between fascism and communism. The Nationalists won the war in early 1939, and ruled Spain until Franco's death in November 1975.

17/07/1932

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

Altona Bloody Sunday is the name given to the events of 17 July 1932 when a recruitment march by the Nazi SA led to violent clashes between the police, the SA and supporters of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) in Altona, which at the time belonged to the Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein but is now part of Hamburg. Eighteen people were killed. The national government under Reich Chancellor Franz von Papen and Reich President Paul von Hindenburg used the incident as a rationale to depose the acting government of the Free State of Prussia by means of an emergency decree in what came to be known as the Prussian coup d'état of 20 July 1932.

17/07/1919

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

Finland, or the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, opposite Estonia. Its capital and largest city is Helsinki. Finland has a population of 5.7 million. The official languages are Finnish and Swedish, the mother tongues of 83.5 percent and 5.0 percent of the population, respectively. Finland's climate varies from humid continental in the south to boreal in the north. Its land is predominantly covered by boreal forest, with over 180,000 recorded lakes.

17/07/1918

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

Nicholas II was Emperor of Russia from 1 November 1894 until his abdication in 1917. He was the last Russian monarch before the Russian Revolution and oversaw the Russian Empire's participation in World War I. In 1918, the Romanovs were murdered, putting an end to the Romanov dynasty.

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

RMS Carpathia was a Cunard Line transatlantic passenger steamship built by C. S. Swan & Hunter in their shipyard in Wallsend, England.

17/07/1899

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

NEC Corporation is a Japanese multinational information technology corporation headquartered at the NEC Supertower in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It sells IT and network services, including cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) platform, and telecommunications equipment and software to business enterprises, communications services providers and to government agencies. It is one of the five largest defense contractors in Japan.

17/07/1867

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.

The Harvard School of Dental Medicine (HSDM) is the dental school of Harvard University. It is located in the Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. In addition to the DMD degree, HSDM offers specialty training programs, advanced training programs, and a PhD program through the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. The program considers dentistry a specialty of medicine. Therefore, all students at HSDM experience dual citizenship between Harvard School of Dental Medicine and Harvard Medical School. Today, HSDM is the smallest school at Harvard University with a total student body of 280.

17/07/1850

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

Vega is the brightest star in the northern constellation of Lyra. It has the Bayer designation α Lyrae, which is Latinised to Alpha Lyrae and abbreviated Alpha Lyr or α Lyr. This star is relatively close at only 25 light-years from the Sun, and one of the most luminous stars in the Sun's neighborhood, being intrinsically brighter than any star nearer to the sun. It is the fifth-brightest star in the night sky, and the second-brightest star in the northern celestial hemisphere, after Arcturus.

17/07/1821

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

Spain, officially the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Europe and the fourth-most populous European Union (EU) member state. Spanning the majority of the Iberian Peninsula, its territory also includes the Canary Islands, in the Eastern Atlantic Ocean; the Balearic Islands, in the Western Mediterranean Sea; and the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla, in mainland Africa. Peninsular Spain is bordered to the north by France, Andorra, and the Bay of Biscay; to the east and south by the Mediterranean Sea and Gibraltar and Morocco, through its exclaves in North Africa; and to the west by Portugal and the Atlantic Ocean. Spain's capital and largest city is Madrid; other major urban areas include Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Zaragoza, Málaga, Murcia, and Palma de Mallorca.

17/07/1794

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

The Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, known as the Carmelites or sometimes by synecdoche known simply as Carmel, is a mendicant order in the Catholic Church for both men and women. Historical records about its origin remain uncertain; it was probably founded in the 12th century on Mount Carmel in the Holy Land.

17/07/1791

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.

The National Guard is a French military, gendarmerie, and police reserve force, active in its current form since 2016 but originally founded in 1789 during the French Revolution. In 2016, France announced the reestablishment of the National Guard for the second time, in response to a series of terrorist attacks in the country.

17/07/1771

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

The Bloody Falls massacre was an incident that took place during Hudson's Bay Company employee Samuel Hearne's exploration of the Coppermine River for copper deposits near modern-day Kugluktuk, Nunavut, Canada on 17 July 1771. Hearne's original travelogue is now lost, and the narrative that became famous was published after Hearne's death with substantial editorializing. The narrative states that Chipewyan and "Copper Indian" Dene men led by Hearne's guide and companion Matonabbee attacked a group of Copper Inuit camped by rapids approximately 15 km (9.3 mi) upstream from the mouth of the Coppermine River.

17/07/1762

Former emperor Peter III of Russia is murdered.

Peter III Fyodorovich was Emperor of Russia from 5 January 1762 until 9 July of the same year, when his wife, Catherine II "the Great", overthrew him in a palace coup d'état. He implemented many notable reforms during his reign, though he is criticised for undoing Russian gains in the Seven Years' War by forming an alliance with Prussia.

17/07/1717

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.

George I was King of Great Britain and Ireland from 1 August 1714 and ruler of the Electorate of Hanover within the Holy Roman Empire from 23 January 1698 until his death in 1727. He was the first British monarch of the House of Hanover.

17/07/1489

Sikandar Lodi succeeds Bahlul Khan Lodi as Sultan of Delhi.

Sikandar Khan Lodi, born Nizam Khan also known as Sikandar II, was Sultan of the Delhi Sultanate between 1489 and 1517. He became ruler of the Lodi dynasty after the death of his father Bahlul Khan Lodi in July 1489. The second and most successful ruler of the Lodi dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate, he was also a poet of the Persian language and prepared a diwan of 9000 verses. He made an effort to recover the lost territories which once were a part of the Delhi Sultanate and was able to expand the territory controlled by the Lodi Dynasty.

17/07/1453

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.

The Battle of Castillon was a battle between the forces of England and France which took place on 17 July 1453 in Gascony near the town of Castillon-sur-Dordogne. On the day of the battle, the English commander, John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury, mistakenly believing that the enemy was retreating, led a relatively small advance force of his army in an attack on a strongly fortified French encampment without waiting for reinforcements. Talbot then refused to withdraw even after realising the strength of the French position, allowing the French artillery to destroy his reinforcements piecemeal. Castillon was the first major European battle won through the extensive use of field artillery.

17/07/1429

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.

The Hundred Years' War was a conflict between the kingdoms of England and France and a civil war in France during the late Middle Ages. It emerged from feudal disputes over the Duchy of Aquitaine and was triggered by a claim to the French throne made by Edward III of England. The war grew into a broader military, economic, and political struggle involving factions from across Western Europe, fuelled by emerging nationalism on both sides. The periodisation of the war typically charts it as taking place over 116 years. However, it was an intermittent conflict which was frequently interrupted by external factors, such as the Black Death, and several years of truces.

17/07/1402

Zhu Di, better known by his era name as the Yongle Emperor, assumes the throne over the Ming dynasty of China.

A regnal name, regnant name, or reign name is the name used by monarchs and popes during their reigns and subsequently, historically. Since ancient times, some monarchs have chosen to use a different name from their original name when they accede to the monarchy.

17/07/1203

The Fourth Crusade assaults Constantinople. The Byzantine emperor Alexios III Angelos flees from his capital into exile.

The Fourth Crusade (1202–1204) was a Latin Christian armed expedition called by Pope Innocent III. The stated intent of the expedition was to recapture the Muslim-controlled city of Jerusalem, by first defeating the powerful Egyptian Ayyubid Sultanate. However, a sequence of economic and political events culminated in the Crusader army's 1202 siege of Zara and the 1204 sack of Constantinople, rather than the conquest of Egypt as originally planned. This led to the partition of the Byzantine Empire by the Crusaders and their Venetian allies, leading to a period known as the Frankokratia.

17/07/1048

Damasus II is elected pope, and dies 23 days later.

Pope Damasus II was the Bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from 17 July 1048 to his death on 9 August that same year. He was the second of the German pontiffs nominated by Emperor Henry III. A native of Bavaria, he was the third German to become pope and had one of the shortest papal reigns.

17/07/0180

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.

The Scillitan Martyrs were a group of early Christians of North Africa executed by the Roman Empire in Carthage, modern Tunisia, on 17 July 180 AD. The group takes its name from the nearby town of Scillium. They are venerated as martyrs in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Their executions occurred at the end of a wave of persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire during the reign of Marcus Aurelius in 161–180.

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