JULY 17 | Birthdays and Events
Famous Birthdays
People born on July 17
Elbridge Gerry
Died: November 23, 1814
Ephraim Shay
Died: April 19, 1916
Engineer who invented the Shay locomotive, which was a geared steam locomotive.
James Cagney
Died: March 30, 1986
Actor and dancer who won an Academy Award for his role in Yankee Doodle Dandy. He is fondly remembered for his tough-guy roles in films like The Public Enemy and White Heat.
Art Linkletter
Died: March 26, 2010
Radio and television personality who was host of House Party for 25 years. He was also host for People Are Funny, which ran for 19 years.
Arthur Rothstein
Died: November 11, 1985
Considered to be one of the most successful and celebrated photojournalists of all time.
Phyllis Diller
Died: August 20, 2012
Actress, comedian, musician, and visual and voice artist who is fondly remembered for her eccentric stage persona.
Toni Stone
Died: November 2, 1996
Female professional baseball player who played in predominantly male leagues. She became the first woman to play as a regular on an American major-level professional baseball team (Negro League).
Vince Guaraldi
Died: February 6, 1976
Jazz pianist be who composed music for the television adaptations of the Peanuts comic strip, including Linus and Lucy and Christmas Time Is Here.
Historical Events on July 17
Events that occurred on July 17 throughout history
Congress authorizes paper money in the U.S.
Congress authorizes paper money in the U.S. The notes were created to finance the Civil War and were government IOUs payable in coin.
Harvard School of Dental Medicine is established.
Harvard School of Dental Medicine is established in Boston, Massachusetts, becoming the first dental school affiliated with a university in the U.S.
The first ship arrives in Seattle carrying gold from Yukon.
The first ship arrives in Seattle carrying gold from Yukon, creating the Klondike Gold Rush. Within two year, 100,000 people flooded Seattle to secure transportation to Alaska to claim their own gold.
Douglas Corrigan takes off from Brooklyn to fly the "wrong way" to Ireland.
Douglas Corrigan takes off from Brooklyn to fly the "wrong way" to Ireland and becomes known as "Wrong Way" Corrigan.
Three Allied leaders meet to discuss the future of a defeated Germany.
Allied leaders Winston Churchill, Harry S. Truman and Joseph Stalin, hold the Potsdam Conference to decide the future of a defeated Germany. The leaders develop the "4 D's"--demilitarization, denazification, decentralization, and democratization.
Disneyland is dedicated and opened.
Disneyland is dedicated and opened in Anaheim, California. The 160-acre park featured 35 rides and attractions.
Two women are sworn in as the first FBI agents at Quantico.
Joanne Pierce (Misko) and Susan Roley (Malone) are sworn in as the first female FBI agents at Quantico. The two women joined a class of 43 men and graduated in October 1972.
The National Minimum Drinking Age Act is signed into law.
President Ronald Reagan signs the National Minimum Drinking Age Act into law. The Act mandated that states raise their legal drinking and purchasing age to 21, or face a 10% cut in federal highway funding.