July 17

Birthdays:

1954 ~ Angela Merkel, 8^th Chancellor of Germany.

1950 ~ Phoebe Snow (d. 2011), American singer and songwriter.  She died at age 60 of a cerebral hemorrhage.

1947 ~ Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, second wife of Prince Charles.

1935 ~ Diahann Carroll, American actress.

1935 ~ Donald Sutherland, Canadian actor.

1929 ~ Sergei K. Godunov, Russian mathematician.

1920 ~ Gordon Gould (d. 2005), American physicist and inventor of the Laser.  He died at age 85.

1917 ~ Phyllis Diller (d. 2012), American comedian who paved the way for female stand-up.  She died at age 95.

1913 ~ Bertrand Goldberg (d. 1997), American architect and designer of the Marina City buildings in Chicago.  He died at age 94.

1912 ~ Art Linkletter (d. 2010), Canadian television personality.  He died at age 97.

1899 ~ James Cagney (d. 1986), American actor.  He died at age 86.

1898 ~ Berenice Abbott (d. 1991), American photographer.  She died at age 93.

1889 ~ Earle Stanley Gardner (d. 1970), American lawyer and creator of Perry Mason.  He died at age 80.

1888 ~ Shmuel Yosef Agnon (d. 1970), Israeli writer and recipient of the 1966 Nobel Prize in Literature.  He died at age 81.

1763 ~ John Jacob Astor (né Johann Jakob Astor, b. 1848), American businessman and financier.  He died at age 84.

1744 ~ Elbridge Gerry (d. 1814), 5^th Vice President of the United States.  He served under James Madison, but died at age 70, 18 months into his term.  He is best known for the term “gerrymandering”, a process by which electoral districts are drawn with the intent to assist a particular candidate or party.

1698 ~ Pierre Louis Maupertuis (né Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertius, d. 1759), French mathematician.  He died 10 days after his 61^st birthday

Events that Changed the World:

2014 ~ Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 was shot down over the Ukraine, killing all 298 people aboard.

1996 ~ TWA Flight 800 on its way to Paris, France, exploded shortly after take-off, off the coast of Long Island, New York, killing all 230 people aboard.

1984 ~ The legal drinking age in the United States was raised from 18 to 21.

1955 ~ Disneyland was opened in Anaheim, California.

1945 ~ Winston Churchill, Harry Truman and Joseph Stalin met in Potsdam, Germany to decide the future of a defeated Germany following the close of World War II.

1938 ~ Douglas Corrigan (1907 ~ 1995), an American aviator from Texas, took off from Brooklyn, New York, ostensibly to fly back to Long Beach, California, but instead ended up in Dublin, Ireland.  From hence forth, he was known as “Wrong Way” Corrigan.

1936 ~ The Spanish Civil War began.

1918 ~ The RMS Carpathia, the ship that rescued survivors from the RMS Titanic, sank off the coast of Ireland by a German U-boat during World War I.

1917 ~ King George V of the United Kingdom (1865 ~ 1936) issued a Proclamation stating that the male line descendants of the British Royal family will use Windsor at their surname.

1867 ~ The Harvard School of Dental Medicine was established in Boston, making it the first dental school in the United States affiliated with a university.

1821 ~ Spain officially turned over the Florida territory to the United States.

1762 ~ Catherine II (1729 ~ 1796), also known as Catherine the Great, became the Czar of Russia upon the murder of her husband, Peter III of Russia (1728 ~ 1762).

1429 ~ Charles VII (1403 ~ 1461) was crowned King of France.

Good-byes:

2014 ~ Henry Hartsfield (b. 1933), American shuttle pilot who kept cool under pressure.  He died at age 80.

2014 ~ Elaine Stritch (b. 1925), The American Broadway actress who brought sass to the stage.  She died at age 89.

2009 ~ Walter Cronkite (b. 1916), American broadcast avuncular journalist who was America’s favorite anchorman.  He was 92 years old.

2006 ~ Mickey Spillane (né Frank Morrison Spillane, b. 1918), American author of detective stories.  He died at age 88.

2005 ~ Edward Heath (b. 1916), Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.  He was Prime Minister during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, from June 1970 until March 1974.  He died 2 weeks after his 89^th birthday.

2005 ~ Geraldine Fitzgerald (b. 1913), Irish-American actress.  She died at age 91.

2001 ~ Katharine Graham (b. 1917), American newspaper publisher.  She died at age 84.

1980 ~ Boris Delaunay (b. 1890), Russian mathematician.  He died at age 90.

1967 ~ John Coltrane (b. 1926), American musician.  He died at age 40 of liver cancer.

1961 ~ Ty Cobb (né Tyrus Raymond Cobb, b. 1886), baseball pitcher.  He died at age 74.

1959 ~ Billie Holiday (née Eleanora Fagan, b. 1915), American singer.  She died at age 46.

1944 ~ William James Sidis (b. 1898), American mathematician.  He died of a cerebral hemorrhage at age 46.

1918 ~ The Czar Nicholas II Alexandrovich (b. 1868) and his entire family, including Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna (née Alix of Hesse and by Rhine, b. 1872), Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna (b. 1895), Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna (b. 1897), Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna (b. 1899), Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna (b. 1901), and Tsarevich Alexei Nilklaevich (b. 1904) were murdered by the Bolsheviks.

1912 ~ Henri Poincaré (b. 1854), French mathematician.  He died at age 58.

1903 ~ James Abbott McNeill whistler (b. 1834), American painter, best known for his painting officially entitled Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1, but more commonly known as Whistler’s Mother.  He died 7 days after his 69^th birthday.

1887 ~ Dorothea Dix (b. 1802), American social activist.  She was a strong advocate for mental health issues.  She was born in Hampden, Maine.  She died at age 85.

1845 ~ Charles Grey, 2^nd Earl Grey (b. 1764), Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.  He was Prime Minister from November 1830 until 1834.  He served during the reign of King William IV.  He is also associated with Earl Grey tea.  He died at age 81 eleven years almost to the date of his departure as Prime Minister.

1793 ~ Marie-Anne Charlotte de Corday d’Armont (b. 1768), assassin of Jean-Paul Marat.  She was executed at age 24 by guillotine 4 days after killing Marat.

1790 ~ Adam Smith (b. 1723), Scottish economist and philosopher.  He died at age 67.

1762 ~ Peter III of Russia (b. 1728), husband of Catherine the Great.  He died under mysterious circumstances at age 34 and is believed to have been murdered.

924 ~ King Edward the Elder of England (b. 877).

855 ~ Pope Leo IV (b. 790).  He was Pope from April 847 until his death on this date 8 years later.  He was known as Pope Saint Leo.  The exact date of his birth is unknown, but he is believed to have been about 65 at the time of his death.