Trevor WholohanThis Day in History July 17th
July 17th 2007 00:37
1862 - National cemeteries were authorized by the U.S. government.
1861 - Congress authorizes paper money
1867 - Harvard School of Dental Medicine was established in Boston, MA. It was the first dental school in the U.S.
1917 - The British royal family adopted the Windsor name.
1941 - The longest hitting streak in baseball history ended when the Cleveland Indians pitchers held New York Yankee Joe DiMaggio hitless for the first time in 57 games
1944 - 232 people were killed when 2 ammunition ships exploded in Port Chicago, CA.
1945 - U.S. President Truman, Soviet leader Josef Stalin and British Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill began meeting at Potsdam in the final Allied summit of WW II. During the meeting Stalin made the comment that "Hitler had escaped
1955 - Disneyland opened in Anaheim, CA.
1960 - Francis Gary Powers pled guilty to spying charges in a Moscow court after his U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union.
1966 - Ho Chi Minh ordered a partial mobilization of North Vietnam forces to defend against American air strikes.
1975 - An Apollo spaceship docked with a Soyuz spacecraft in orbit. It was the first link up between the U.S. and Soviet Union.
1978 - Reggie Jackson refusal to bunt causes mgr Billy Martin to suspend him
1981 - Two skywalks suspended from the ceiling over the atrium lobby at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City, MO, collapsed. 114 people were killed. Five years later two design engineers were convicted for their negligence.
1986 - The largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history took place when LTV Corporation asked for court protection from more than 20,000 creditors. LTV Corp. had debts in excess of $4 billion.
1987 - Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North and rear Admiral John Poindexter begin testifying to Congress at the "Iran-Contra" hearings.
1990 - Hussein's Revolutionary Day speech claims Kuwait stole oil from Iraq
1995 - The Nasdaq composite stock index rose above 1,000 for the first time.
1996 - 230 people were killed when TWA Flight 800 exploded and crashed off Long Island, NY.
1997 - After 117 years, the Woolworth Corp. closed its last 400 stores.
1998 - Nicholas II, the last of Romanov czars, was buried in Russia 80 years after he and his family were executed by the Bolsheviks.
1998 - An entire village was swept away in Papua New Guinea by a 23-foot wave that was triggered by an undersea earthquake. Eight days later the government reported that 1,500 people were dead, 2,000 were missing and thousands were homeless.
Famous Birthdays
1900 - James Cagney actor, A yankee doodle dandy, hold that grapefruit, Died 1986
1912 - Art Linkletter Saskatchwan Canada, TV host (People are Funny)
1917 - Red Sovine Country Singer(Teddy Bear, Phantom 309, Giddy Up Go) Died 1980
1917 - Phyllis Diller Lima Ohio, comedienne (Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number)
1934 - Donald Sutherland Canada, actor (Dirty Dozen, M*A*S*H, Cold Mountain)
1951 - Lucie Arnaz LA Calif, actress (Kim-Here's Lucy, Jazz Singer)
1952 - David Hasselhoff Balt Md, ( Night Rider, Bay Watch)
Famous Death’s
1959 - Billie Holiday blues singer, dies of liver failure at 44 in NYC
1961 Ty Cobb Detroit Tiger hall of fame baseball player, dies at 75, Born 1886
1967 - Johnny Coltrane, American musician (b. 1926)
1975 - Modoc the elephant, dies at age 78 (oldest known nonhuman mammal)
Joke of the Day
Guards Reading Prisoner's Mail
A prisoner in jail receives a letter from his wife: "Dear Husband, I have decided to plant some lettuce in the back garden. When is the best time to plant them?"
The prisoner, knowing that the prison guards read all mail, replied in a letter: "Dear Wife, whatever you do, do not touch the back garden. That is where I hid all the money."
A week or so later, he received another letter from his wife: "Dear Husband, You wouldn't believe what happened, some men came with shovels to the house, and dug up all the back garden."
The prisoner wrote another letter back: "Dear wife, now is the best time to plant the lettuce."
Who's going to stop me?
Six year old Angie, and her four-year old brother, Joel, were sitting together in church. Joel giggled, sang and talked out loud. Finally, his big sister had had enough. "You're not suppose to talk out loud in church."
"Why? Who's going to stop me?" Joel asked.
Angie pointed to the back of the church and said, "See those two men standing by the door? They're hushers."
World Records
Largest photo mosaic
The largest photo mosaic measured 4,477.7 ft² and contained 41,600 individual photographs. It was created by Turkcell in Istanbul, Turkey and was measured on June 26, 2006.
Largest petition signed
The greatest petition on record was signed by 21,202,192 people from 153 countries, but mainly from South Korea, between June 1, 1993 and October 31, 1994.
Largest Vine Yield
A vine that was planted in 1842 at Carpinteria, California, USA, was (by 1900) yielding more than 9.9 tons of grapes in some years, averaging 7.7 tons per year until it died in 1920.
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