Historical events on July 17
JULY 17, 1992
The Manchester Metrolink, the first modern street-running light-rail system in the United Kingdom, was officially opened.
Manchester Metrolink is a tram/light rail system in Greater Manchester, England. The network has 99 stops along 64 miles (103 km) of standard-gauge
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JULY 17, 1918
RMS Carpathia, which had rescued survivors of the 1912 Titanic sinking, was sunk by a German U-boat with the loss of five crew.
RMS Carpathia was a Cunard Line transatlantic passenger steamship built by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson in their shipyard in Wallsend, England.
JULY 17, 1968
Led by Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party overthrew Iraqi president Abdul Rahman Arif in a bloodless coup.
Field Marshal Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr was an Iraqi politician who served as the fourth president of Iraq, from 17 July 1968 to
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JULY 17, 1771
Dene men, acting as guides to Samuel Hearne on his exploration of the Coppermine River in present-day Nunavut, Canada, massacred a group of about twenty Copper Inuit.
The Dene people are an Indigenous group of First Nations who inhabit the northern boreal, subarctic and Arctic regions of Canada. The
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JULY 17, 1453
The Battle of Castillon, the last engagement of the Hundred Years' War, ended with the English losing all holdings in France except the Pale of Calais.
The Battle of Castillon was a battle between the forces of England and France which took place on 17 July 1453 in
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JULY 17, 2014
Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board.
Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17/MAS17) was a scheduled passenger flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur that was shot down by Russian-backed forces
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JULY 17, 1862
The garrotting and robbery of James Pilkington, a British member of Parliament, led to a moral panic in London.
A garrote or garrote vil is a weapon and a method of capital punishment. It consists of a handheld ligature of chain,
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JULY 17, 1850
William Cranch Bond and John Adams Whipple took a daguerreotype of Vega, the first astrophotograph of a star other than the Sun.
William Cranch Bond was an American astronomer, and the first director of Harvard College Observatory.
JULY 17, 1863
The New Zealand Wars resumed as British forces led by General Duncan Cameron began the invasion of the Waikato.
The New Zealand Wars took place from 1845 to 1872 between the New Zealand colonial government and allied Māori on one side,
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JULY 17, 2007
TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overran the runway at Congonhas Airport in São Paulo, Brazil, killing 199 people.
TAM Airlines Flight 3054 was a regularly scheduled domestic passenger flight operated by TAM Airlines from Porto Alegre to São Paulo, Brazil.
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JULY 17, 1918
Russian Revolution: Tsar Nicholas II and his family (pictured) were murdered by Bolsheviks at Yekaterinburg.
The Russian Revolution was a period of political and social change in Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia abolish its
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JULY 17, 1996
TWA Flight 800 exploded in mid-air and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near East Moriches, New York.
Trans World Airlines Flight 800 (TW800/TWA800) was a scheduled international passenger flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City,
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JULY 17, 1981
A structural failure caused a walkway at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Kansas City, Missouri, U.S., to collapse (damage pictured), killing 114 people and injuring 216 others.
Structural integrity and failure is an aspect of engineering that deals with the ability of a structure to support a designed structural
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JULY 17, 1944
Laden with munitions for World War II, two ships exploded at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine in California, killing 320 people and injuring more than 400 others.
The Port Chicago disaster was a deadly munitions explosion of the ship SS E. A. Bryan on July 17, 1944, at the
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