Born on July 17
July 17 birthdays & history
If you were born on July 17, you share a birthday with Angela Merkel, Shmuel Yosef Agnon and Donald Sutherland. July 17 babies are Cancer, with ruby as their birthstone and the larkspur as their birth flower. July 17 is the 199th day of the year in leap years (198th in other years).
Famous people born on July 17
- 1954Angela Merkel, German chemist and politician, Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021.
- 1888Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Ukrainian-Israeli novelist, short story writer and poet, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1935Donald Sutherland, Canadian actor and producer
- 1899James Cagney, American actor and dancer
- 1894Georges Lemaître, Belgian priest, astronomer, and cosmologist
- 1917Phyllis Diller, American actress, comedian, and voice artist
- 1952David Hasselhoff, American actor, singer, and producer
- 1698Pierre Louis Maupertuis, French mathematician and philosopher
- 1958Wong Kar-wai, Chinese director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1975Terence Tao, Australian-American mathematician
What happened on July 17
- 1048Four year-old Henry IV is crowned as king of Germany in Aachen.
- 1821The Kingdom of Spain cedes the territory of Florida to the United States.
- 1850William Cranch Bond and John Adams Whipple took a daguerreotype of Vega, the first astrophotograph of a star other than the Sun.
- 1850Vega becomes the first star (other than the Sun) to be photographed.
- 1867Harvard School of Dental Medicine is established in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the first dental school in the U.S. that is affiliated with a university.
- 1899NEC Corporation is organized as the first Japanese joint venture with foreign capital.
- 1919The form of government in the Republic of Finland is officially confirmed with the enactment of the Constitution of Finland. For this reason, July 17 is known as the Day of Democracy (Kansanvallan päivä) in Finland.
- 1938Douglas Corrigan takes off from Brooklyn to fly the "wrong way" to Ireland and becomes known as "Wrong Way" Corrigan.
- 1948In Olympia, Greece, the Summer Olympics torch relay, nicknamed the "relay of peace", began.
- 1975Apollo–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.
- 1992The Manchester Metrolink, the first modern street-running light-rail system in the United Kingdom, was officially opened.
- 1994Brazil won the FIFA World Cup final against Italy 3–2 on penalties, following a 0–0 draw after extra time.
Also observed on July 17
- Constitution Day (South Korea)
- Gion Matsuri (Yasaka Shrine, Kyoto)
- Independence Day (Slovakia)
- International Firgun Day (International)
- King's Birthday (Lesotho)
- U Tirot Sing Day (Meghalaya, India)
Questions, answered
What star sign is July 17?
People born on July 17 are Cancer. Their birthstone is ruby and their birth flower is the larkspur.
Which famous people were born on July 17?
Angela Merkel (1954), Shmuel Yosef Agnon (1888), Donald Sutherland (1935), James Cagney (1899), Georges Lemaître (1894), Phyllis Diller (1917) were all born on July 17.
What happened on July 17 in history?
Among other things: in 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; in 1992, The Manchester Metrolink, the first modern street-running light-rail system in the United Kingdom, was officially opened; in 1994, Brazil won the FIFA World Cup final against Italy 3–2 on penalties, following a 0–0 draw after extra time.
Can I get a newspaper front page from July 17?
Yes. The Birthday Gazette makes a personalised vintage-style front page for any July 17 birth year, with their name in the headline, events, famous birthdays and typical US prices. The preview is free and the print files cost $9.
Events, birthdays and observances are adapted from Wikipedia contributors, “July 17”, English Wikipedia, under CC BY-SA 4.0 (shortened and filtered). Ranking uses Wikidata (CC0). Sources.