A Brief History
This article presents a chronological list of notable events that happened on July 17th. For each date below, please click on the date to be taken to an article covering that date’s event.
Digging Deeper
On July 17, 1791, hero of the American Revolution, the Marquis de Lafayette, Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier (you can see why he is usually just called “Lafayette”) led the French National Guard against a riotous mob of around 10,000 angry French revolutionaries, gunning down about 50 of the rebels in the action.
On July 17, 1917, King George V of the United Kingdom changed the British royal family’s name from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to the more English-sounding Windsor.
On July 17, 1918, in the latter stage of World War I, the RMS Carpathia, a ship made famous for rescuing 705 of the passengers of the infamous RMS Titanic when she sank in 1912, was torpedoed off the coast of Ireland by German submarine SM U-55 and sunk, losing only five lives in the process, a far different circumstance than the Titanic.
On July 17, 1944, US P-38 fighter bombers dropped napalm bombs on a German Army fuel depot near St. Lo in Normandy, France, one of the earliest uses of napalm.
On July 17, 1955, Anaheim, California watched as Walt Disney dedicated and opened Disneyland, at the time, the premier amusement park in the world.
On July 17, 1998, a conference of international delegates under the auspices of the United Nations adopted The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, a treaty to provide a permanent international venue to prosecute war crimes and related crimes.
On July 17, 2016, national news outlets blared the all too familiar news that policemen had been gunned down while merely doing their jobs.
On July 17, 2017, the entire world celebrated World Day for International Justice, as it does every July 17th since 2010.
Found footage horror film fans of John Carroll University had their chance to be among the first in Cleveland, Ohio to see Unfriended: Dark Web on Tuesday, July 17, 2018 at 7:30 PM at Atlas Eastgate in Mayfield Heights, Ohio!
Question for students (and subscribers): Which event that occurred on today’s date would you like to learn more about? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Andrews, John and Matt Baker. Timeline of World History. Thunder Bay Press, 2020.
You can also watch video versions of this article on YouTube.
