Today In History

Today is Wednesday, July 17, the 198th day of 2019. There are 167 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

› 1821: Spain ceded Florida to the United States.

ON THIS DATE

› 1862: During the Civil War, Congress approved the Second Confiscation Act, which declared that all slaves taking refuge behind Union lines were to be set free.

› 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.

› 1945: Following Nazi Germany’s surrender, President Harry S. Truman, Soviet leader Josef Stalin and British Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill began meeting at Potsdam in the final Allied summit of World War II.

› 1954: The two-day inaugural Newport Jazz Festival, billed as “The First American Jazz Festival,” opened in Rhode Island.

› 1955: Disneyland had its opening day in Anaheim, California.

› 1975: An Apollo spaceship docked with a Soyuz spacecraft in orbit in the first superpower link-up of its kind.

› 1997: Woolworth Corp. announced it was closing its 400 remaining five-and-dime stores across the country, ending 117 years in business.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Actor Donald Sutherland is 84. Actress-singer Diahann Carroll is 84. Rock musician Spencer Davis is 80. Sportscaster Verne Lundquist is 79. Comedian Tim Brooke-Taylor is 79. Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, is 72. Rock musician Fran Smith Jr. (The Hooters) is 67. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is 65. Television producer Mark Burnett is

59. Actress Nancy Giles is 59. Singer Regina Belle is 56. Rock musician Kim Shattuck is 56. Country singer Craig Morgan is

55. Rock musician Lou Barlow is 53. Contemporary Christian singer Susan Ashton is 52. Actor Andre Royo is 51. Actress Bitty Schram is 51. Actor Jason Clarke is 50. Movie director F. Gary Gray is

50. Singer JC (PM Dawn) is 48. Rapper Sole’ is 46. Actor Tom Cullen is 34. Actor Brando Eaton is 33. Rhythm and blues singer Jeremih is 32. Actress Summer Bishil is 31. Actress Billie Lourd is 27. Actor Leo Howard is 22.