12 History Lessons + 5 Births & 7 Deaths for July 17, 2025
Today’s History:
- 1453 – The Battle of Castillon ends the Hundred Years’ War between France and England.
- 1717 – King George I of Great Britain sails down the River Thames with a barge of musicians, inspiring Handel’s Water Music.
- 1917 – King George V changes the British royal family name from the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to the House of Windsor.
- 1936 – Spanish Army officers launch a coup, beginning the Spanish Civil War.
- 1944 – Port Chicago disaster: munitions explosion at a California naval base kills 320 and injures hundreds.
- 1945 – Potsdam Conference begins with Churchill, Truman, and Stalin discussing post-WWII Europe.
- 1955 – Disneyland opens in Anaheim, California.
- 1975 – Apollo–Soyuz Test Project: U.S. and Soviet spacecraft dock in orbit, symbolizing Cold War cooperation.
- 1981 – Hyatt Regency walkway collapse in Kansas City kills 114 people.
- 1996 – TWA Flight 800 explodes off Long Island, killing all 230 people on board.
- 1998 – A tsunami hits Papua New Guinea after an undersea earthquake, killing more than 2,000 people.
- 2014 – Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 is shot down over Ukraine, killing all 298 people aboard.
Today’s Birthdays:
- 1944 – Gale Garnett, folk singer (We’ll Sing in the Sunshine) (81)
- 1952 – David Hasselhoff, actor (Knight Rider, Baywatch) (73)
- 1954 – Angela Merkel, former German Chancellor (71)
- 1963 – Regina Belle, R&B and jazz singer (A Whole New World) (62)
- 1976 – Luke Bryan, country music star (49)
Today’s Deaths:
- 1790 – Adam Smith, Scottish economist and philosopher (The Wealth of Nations) (67)
- 1912 – Henri Poincaré, French mathematician and physicist (58)
- 1959 – Billie Holiday, iconic jazz singer (44)
- 1982 – Luz Long, German Olympic long jumper and rival of Jesse Owens (30)
- 1986 – Carolyn Jones, actress (The Addams Family) (53)
- 1995 – Juan Manuel Fangio, Argentine Formula One legend (84)
- 2011 – Alex Steinweiss, inventor of the album cover art format (94)
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