📜 This Day in History

July 17

• 1453The 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.
• 1862The garrotting and robbery of James Pilkington, a British member of Parliament, led to a moral panic in London.
• 1918Russian Revolution: Tsar Nicholas II and his family were murdered by Bolsheviks at Yekaterinburg.
• 1948In Olympia, Greece, the Summer Olympics torch relay, nicknamed the "relay of peace", began.
• 1994Brazil won the FIFA World Cup final against Italy 3–2 on penalties, following a 0–0 draw after extra time.
• 2014Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board.

Born on this day

• 1888Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Ukrainian-Israeli novelist, short story writer and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1970)
• 1899James Cagney, American actor and dancer (died 1986)
• 1935Donald Sutherland, Canadian actor and producer (died 2024)
• 1954Angela Merkel, German chemist and politician, Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021.