TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS MONDAY, JULY 17, the 198th day of 2017. There are 167 days left in the year. TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTS IN HISTORY: On this date in 1967, after seven dates, Jimi Hendrix quit as the opening act for the Monkees following a concert at Forest Hills Stadium in New York. (Although greatly admired by the Monkees, Hendrix had received a less than enthusiastic reception from their fans.) Jazz composer-musician John Coltrane died in Long Island, N.Y., at age 40. In 1717, George Frideric Handel’s “Water Music” was first performed by an orchestra during a boating party on the River Thames, with the musicians on one barge and King George I listening from another. In 1821, Spain ceded Florida to the United States.
In 1917, during World War I, Britain’s King George V issued a proclamation decreeing that the royal family adopt the name “Windsor” while relinquishing “the Use of All German Titles and Dignities.” Comedian and actress Phyllis Diller was born in Lima, Ohio.
In 1918, Russia’s Czar Nicholas II and his family were executed by the Bolsheviks.
In 1936, the Spanish Civil War began as right-wing army generals launched a coup attempt against the Second Spanish Republic.
In 1944, during World War II, 320 men, two-thirds of them African-Americans, were killed when a pair of ammunition ships exploded at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine in California. In 1955, Disneyland had its opening day in Anaheim, Calif.
In 1975, an Apollo spaceship docked with a Soyuz spacecraft in orbit in the first superpower link-up of its kind. In 1981, 114 people were killed when a
pair of suspended walkways above the lobby of the Kansas City Hyatt Regency Hotel collapsed during a tea dance.
In 1996, TWA Flight 800, a Europebound Boeing 747, exploded and crashed off Long Island, N.Y., shortly after departing John F. Kennedy International Airport, killing all 230 people on board.
In 1997, Woolworth Corp. announced it was closing its 400 remaining five-anddime stores across the country, ending 117 years in business.
In 2014, all 298 passengers and crew aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 were killed when the Boeing 777 was shot down over rebel-held eastern Ukraine.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Actor Donald Sutherland is 85. Actress-singer Diahann Carroll is 82. Rock musician Spencer Davis is 78. Sportscaster Verne Lundquist and comedian Tim Brooke-Taylor are 77. Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, is 70. Rock musician Terry “Geezer” Butler is 68. Actress Lucie Arnaz is 66. Actor David Hasselhoff and rock musician Fran Smith Jr. (The Hooters) are 65. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is 63. Television producer Mark Burnett and actress Nancy Giles are 57. Singer Regina Belle and rock musician Kim Shattuck are 54. Country singer Craig Morgan is 53. Rock musician Lou Barlow is 51. Contemporary Christian singer Susan Ashton is 50. Actor Andre Royo and actress Bitty Schram are 49. Actor Jason Clarke and movie director F. Gary Gray are 48. Singer JC (PM Dawn) is 46. Rapper Sole’ is 44. Country singer Luke Bryan and actor Eric Winter are 41. Hockey player Marc Savard is 40. Actor Mike Vogel is 38. Actor Tom Cullen is 32. Actor Brando Eaton is 31. Rhythmand-blues singer Jeremih is 30. Actress Summer Bishil is 29. Actress Billie Lourd is 25. Actor Leo Howard is 20.