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“All animals are equal — but some animals are more equal than others.”
~ Animal Farm by George Orwell
Wikiquote (George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair (June 25, 1903 – January 21 ,1950), known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist and journalist. His work is marked by clarity, intelligence and wit, awareness of social injustice, opposition to totalitarianism, and commitment to democratic socialism.)
July 17th, 180
Scillitan Martyrs: Twelve inhabitants of Scillium in North Africa are executed for being Christians. This is the earliest record of Christianity in that part of the world.
Wikipedia Image: Scillitan Martyrs, source EarlyChristians.org.
July 17th, 1203
Fourth Crusade: Constantinople captured by assault. The Byzantine emperor Alexius III Angelus flees from his capital into exile.
Wikipedia Image: The Siege of Antioch, from a 15th-century miniature; After the successful siege of Jerusalem in 1099, Godfrey of Bouillon, leader of the First Crusade, became the first ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem; Baldwin I of Jerusalem; Medieval image of Peter the Hermit, leading knights, soldiers and women toward Jerusalem during the First Crusade; The Battle of Ager Sanguinis, 1337 miniature; Pope Innocent III excommunicating the Albigensians, Massacre against the Albigensians by the crusaders; The capture of Jerusalem marked the First Crusade's success.
July 17th, 1402
China - Ming Dynasty period:
1402 - Zhu Di, better known by his regnal name as the Yongle Emperor, assumes the throne over the Ming Dynasty of China.
Wikipedia Photo: China from NASA Wordwind Satellite; © Great Wall of China, credit National Geographic; LongJi Terrace, credit National Geographic; Great Bear Rainforest, credit Paul Nicklen, National Geographic; Platoons of clay soldiers were buried with China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huang Di, (required a labor force of 700,000 to build), credit O. Louis Mazzatenta, National Geographic.
July 17th, 1429
Hundred Years' War:
1429 - Charles VII of France is crowned King of France in the Reims Cathedral after a successful campaign by Joan of Arc.
1453 - Battle of Castillon: the French under Jean Bureau defeat the English under the Earl of Shrewsbury who is killed in the battle in Gascony in the last battle of Hundred Years' War.
Wikipedia Painting: "Morning of the Battle of Agincourt, 25th October 1415", painted by Sir John Gilbert; Joan of Arc's Death at the Stake, by Hermann Stilke (1843); King Henry V at the Battle of Agincourt, 1415, by Sir John Gilbert; Joan of Arc enters Orléans (painting by J.J. Sherer, 1887); Joan interrogated in her prison cell by Cardinal Winchester. By Hippolyte Delaroche, 1824, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen, France.
July 17th, 1762
Catherine II (Catherine the Great) becomes tsar of Russia upon the murder of Peter III of Russia.
Wikipedia Painting: Catherine II "the Great"; She revitalized Russia making it one of the most powerful nations in Europe and ushering in the Golden Age of the Russian Empire, credit alexanderpalace.org. ● Marble statue of Catherine II in the guise of Minerva (1789–1790), by Fedot Shubin ● Yekaterina Vorontsova-Dashkova, the closest female friend of Empress Catherine and a major figure of the Russian Enlightenment.
July 17th, 1771
Bloody Falls Massacre: Chipewyan and Matonabbee, travelling as the guide to Samuel Hearne on his Arctic overland journey, massacres a group of unsuspecting Inuit.
Wikipedia Image: Aboriginal peoples in Canada; First Nations ● Inuit ● Métis ● Aurora Borealis.
July 17th, 1791
French Revolution: French National Guard under the command of General Lafayette open fire on a crowd of radical Jacobins at the Champ de Mars, Paris, killing as many as 50 people.
Wikipedia Painting: Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette
July 17th, 1918
On the orders of the Bolshevik Party carried out by Cheka, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his immediate family and retainers are murdered at the Ipatiev House in Ekaterinburg, Russia.
Wikipedia Photo: The Romanovs. From left to right: Olga, Maria, Nicholas II, Alexandra, Anastasia, Alexei, and Tatiana. Livadia, 1913
July 17th, 1936
World War II:
1936 - Spanish Civil War: Armed Forces rebellion rebellion against the recently-elected leftist Popular Front government of Spain start the civil war.
1944 - Port Chicago disaster; Near the San Francisco Bay, two ships laden with ammunition for the war explode in Port Chicago, California, killing 320.
1944 - Napalm incendiary bombs are dropped for the first time by American P-38 pilots on a fuel depot at Coutances, near St._Lô, Vichy France.
1945 - Potsdam Conference; Leaders of the three Allied nations, Winston Churchill, Harry S. Truman and Joseph Stalin meet in the German city of Potsdam to decide the future of a defeated Germany.
Wikipedia Photo: Bombing of Dresden in World War II; August Schreitmüller's sculpture 'Goodness' surveys Dresden after a firestorm started by Allied bombers in 1945.
USS Bunker Hill was hit by kamikazes piloted by Ensign Kiyoshi Ogawa and another airman on 11 May 1945. 389 personnel were killed or missing from a crew of 2,600; Ensign Kiyoshi Ogawa, who flew his aircraft into the USS Bunker Hill during a Kamikaze mission on 11 May 1945; Kamikaze Missions - Lt Yoshinori Yamaguchi's Yokosuka D4Y3 (Type 33 Suisei) "Judy" in a suicide dive against USS Essex. The dive brakes are extended and the non-self-sealing port wing tank is trailing fuel vapor and/or smoke 25 November 1944.
German V1 flying-bomb and V2 Rockets - Preparations for a Salvo Launch of V-2 Rockets in the Heidelager near Blizna (Poland) (1944), credit German History in Documents and Images GHDI.
Eastern Front (World War II); Germans race towards Stalingrad. August 1942; Soviet children during a German air raid in the first days of the war, June 1941, by RIA Novosti archive; Soviet sniper Roza Shanina in 1944. About 400,000 Soviet women served in front-line duty units Caucasus Mountains, winter 1942/43; Finnish ski patrol: the invisible enemy of the Soviet Army with an unlimited supply of skis; Men of the German Engineers Corps cross a river which is swollen after the first autumn rains, to strengthen bridges linking the German positions on the central front in Russia. by Keystone / Getty Images. October 1942; Russian snipers fighting on the Leningrad front during a blizzard. Photo by Hulton Archive / Getty Images, 1943; German soldiers surrendering to the Russians in Stalingrad, the soldier holding the white flag of surrender is dressed in white so that there could be no doubt of his intentions, a Russian soldier is on the right of the photograph. by Keystone / Getty Images, January 1943.
July 17th, 1955
Disneyland is dedicated and opened by Walt Disney in Anaheim, California.
Wikipedia Photo: Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland in Anaheim, California
July 17th, 1962
Nuclear weapons testing: The "Small Boy" test shot Little Feller I becomes the last atmospheric test detonation at the Nevada Test Site.
Wikipedia Photo: LITTLE FELLER Named after American soldier, congressman, and folk hero Davy Crockett, it was one of the smallest nuclear weapon systems ever built. (The "Yankee" shot, 14 May 1954 (GMT), during the Castle series of nuclear weapons test in the South Pacific.)
July 17th, 1975
Apollo-Soyuz Test Project: An American Apollo and a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft dock with each other in orbit marking the first such link-up between spacecraft from the two nations.
Wikipedia Image: Artist's Concept of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project
July 17th, 1989
First flight of the B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber.
Wikipedia Photo: USAF B-2 Spirit in flight
July 17th, 1998
Earthquake:
1998 - Papua New Guinea earthquake; A tsunami triggered by an undersea earthquake destroys 10 villages in Papua New Guinea killing an estimated 3,183, leaving 2,000 more unaccounted for and thousands more homeless.
Wikipedia Image: Preliminary Determination of Epicenters / Aleppo Syria; Anchorage, Alaska - March 28, 1964 Prince William Sound USA earthquake and tsunami; 8.9 Mega Earthquake Strikes Japan; Tsunami Swirls Japan's Ibaraki Prefecture March 12 2011. credit NOAA / NGDC, NOAA National Geophysical Data Center, USGS, National Geographics.
July 17th, 2014
Aviation accidents and incidents:
2014 - Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 a Boeing 777, crashes near the border of Ukraine and Russia after being shot down. All 298 people on board are killed.
2007 - TAM Airlines (TAM Linhas Aéreas) Flight 3054 crashes upon landing during rain in São Paulo. This is Brazil's deadliest aviation accident to date with an estimated 199 deaths.
1996 - TWA Flight 800: Off the coast of Long Island, New York, a Paris-bound TWA Boeing 747 explodes, killing all 230 on board.
Wikipedia Photo: ● Pan AM 747 ● U.S. Airways flight 1549 also known as the "Miracle on the Hudson" navigates an exit ramp near Burlington, New Jersey, June 5, 2011 ● Passengers stand on the wings of a U.S. Airways plane as a ferry pulls up to it after it landed in the Hudson River in New York, Reuters ● US Airways plane crashes into New York Hudson River, Photo: AP ● TWA Flight 800: Crash Plane Picture - Boeing 747
July 17th, 2015
Modern conflicts in the Middle East, social unrest and terrorist attacks:
2015 - Khan Bani Saad bombing; At least 120 people are killed and 130 injured by a suicide bombing in Diyala Province, Iraq.
Wikipedia Photo: Middle East satellite image, NASA. ● Camels are seen early morning on a beach in the Marina area of Dubai October 16, 2008. (Steve Crisp, Reuters) ● A portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad burns during clashes between rebels and Syrian troops in Selehattin, near Aleppo, on July 23, 2012. (Bulent Kilic, AFP / GettyImages) ● Egyptians gather in their thousands in Tahrir Square to mark the one year anniversary of the revolution on Jan. 25, 2012 in Cairo Egypt. Tens of thousands have gathered in the square on the first anniversary of the Arab uprising which toppled President Hosni Mubarak. (Jeff J Mitchell, Getty Images) ● Black smoke rises above the Tehran skyline as supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi burn tires and other material in the streets as they fight running battles with police to protest the declared results of the Iranian presidential election in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, June 13, 2009. (Ben Curtis, AP) ● The Iron Dome defense system fires to interecpt incoming missiles from Gaza in the port town of Ashdod, Thursday, Nov. 15, 2012. (Tsafrir Abayov, AP)