Today is Wednesday, July 17th, the 199th day of 2024. There are 167 days left this year.
Today’s History Highlights:
On July 17, 1955, after a year and $17 million in construction, Disneyland opened in Anaheim, California. The park attracted one million visitors in its first 10 weeks.
This day too:
In 1862, during the Civil War, Congress approved the Second Confiscation Act, declaring that all slaves who found refuge behind Union lines would be freed.
In 1902, Willys Carrier created a series of designs that would become the world’s first modern air conditioning system.
In 1918, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his family were executed by the Bolsheviks.
In 1936, right-wing army generals attempted a coup against the Second Spanish Republic, starting the Spanish Civil War.
In 1944, during World War II, two munitions ships exploded at the Port Chicago Naval Ammunition Depot in California, killing 320 men, two-thirds of whom were African-American.
In 1945, after the surrender of Nazi Germany, President Harry S. Truman, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and British Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill met in Potsdam for the final Allied summit of World War II.[1945年、ナチスドイツの降伏後、ハリー・S・トルーマン大統領、ソ連の指導者ヨシフ・スターリン、イギリスの首相ウィンストン・S・チャーチルがポツダムで会談し、第二次世界大戦における最後の連合国首脳会談が始まりました。
In 1975, an Apollo spacecraft docked in orbit with a Soyuz spacecraft, marking the first such interaction between superpowers.
In 1981, a suspension bridge above the lobby of the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City collapsed during a tea dance, killing 114 people.
In 1996, TWA Flight 800, a Boeing 747 bound for Europe, exploded and crashed off the coast of Long Island, New York, shortly after taking off from John F. Kennedy International Airport, killing all 230 passengers and crew.
In 2014, Malaysian Airlines Flight 17, a Boeing 777, was shot down over rebel-held eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 passengers and crew on board, but both the Ukrainian government and pro-Russian separatists denied responsibility.
In 2020, John Lewis, the civil rights icon whose bloody beating by Alabama state police in 1965 galvanized the anti-racism movement and who went on to a long and distinguished career in Congress, died at the age of 80.
In 2022, nearly 400 police officers responded to a mass shooting at a Texas elementary school that left 21 people dead, but reports said “extremely poor decision-making” led to chaos that lasted for more than an hour before the shooter was eventually confronted and killed.
Today’s birthdays: Sportscaster Vern Lundquist is 84. Queen Camilla of the United Kingdom is 77. Rock musician Terry “Geezer” Butler is 75. Actor Lucie Arnaz is 73. Actor David Hasselhoff is 72. Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel is 70. Film director Wong Kar-wai is 66. TV producer Mark Burnett is 64. Singer Regina Belle is 61. Country music artist Craig Morgan is 60. Rock musician Lou Barlow is 58. Actor Bitti Schramm (TV’s “Monk”) is 56. Actor Jason Clarke is 55. Film director F. Gary Gray is 55. Country singer Luke Bryan is 48. Film director/writer Justin Triet is 46. R&B singer Jeremih (Jeamie) is 37. Actor Billie Lourd is 32. NHL center Connor Bedard is 19.
