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 July 17, 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.)
On this date:
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, Britian’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.”
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, California.
In 1975, an Apollo spaceship docked with a Soyuz spacecraft in orbit in the first superpower linkup of its kind.
Ten years ago: Senate Democrats launched an all-night debate on the Iraq war. VA Secretary Jim
Nicholson abruptly resigned in the wake of charges of shoddy health care for veterans
Five years ago: Israel plunged toward a political crisis after the largest party in the government quit, leaving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in charge of a hard-line coalition opposed to most Mideast peace moves.
One year ago: Three Baton Rouge law enforcement officers investigating a report of a man with an assault rifle were killed, less than two weeks after a black man was shot and killed by police in the city in a confrontation that sparked nightly protests that reverberated nationwide.
Today’s Birthdays: Actor Donald Sutherland is 85. Actress-singer Diahann Carroll is 82. Rock musician Spencer Davis is 78. Sportscaster Verne Lundquist is 77. Comedian Tim Brooke-Taylor is 77. Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, is 70. Rock musician Terry “Geezer” Butler is 68. Actress Lucie Arnaz is 66. Actor David Hasselhoff is 65. Rock musician Fran Smith Jr. (The Hooters) is 65. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is 63. Television producer Mark Burnett is 57. Actress Nancy Giles is 57. Country singer Craig Morgan is 53. Rock musician Lou Barlow is 51. Contemporary Christian singer Susan Ashton is 50. Actor Andre Royo is 49. Actress Bitty Schram is 49. Actor Jason Clarke is 48. Movie director F. Gary Gray is 48. Country singer Luke Bryan is 41. Actor Eric Winter is 41. Hockey player Marc Savard is 40.
Thought for Today: “Sometimes it’s worse to win a fight than to lose.”—Billie Holiday, American jazz singer (born 1915, died this date in 1959).