July 17
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1918: The end of House Romanov
On this day in 1918 Tsar Nicholas II, his wife, Alexandra, their five children, and four loyal servants were executed by Bolshevik forces in Yekaterinburg. The killings ended more than 300 years of Romanov rule and became one of the defining episodes of the Russian Revolution, fueling decades of rumors that one or more of the royal children—especially Anastasia—had survived.
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Prints and Photographs Division/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-DIG-ggbain-14545); Photo Illustration Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Featured Event
Courtesy of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives, Brandeis University Library
An uprising by Nationalist rebels against the Republican government of Spain sparked a bloody civil war that lasted until 1939, when the Nationalists and Francisco Franco assumed power. [Explore a timeline of the Spanish Civil War]
Featured Biography
Featured Biography
Courtesy of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh
Scottish social philosopher and political economist Adam Smith—best known for his seminal work The Wealth of Nations (1776), the first comprehensive systematization of political economy—died this day in 1790 in Edinburgh.
Famous Birthdays
More on July 17
Courtesy of the office of U.S. Representative John R. Lewis
2020
American civil rights leader and politician John Lewis—who helped lead the march that was halted by police violence on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, in 1965, a landmark event in the history of the civil rights movement—died at age 80. [Read about 10 other milestones in U.S. civil rights history.]
Vadim Ghirda/AP/Shutterstock.com
2014
Malaysia Airlines flight 17 crashed in separatist-held territory in Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board; a Dutch investigation later determined that the aircraft was shot down by a Russian-made surface-to-air missile.
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
2009
American journalist Walter Cronkite—who, as the longtime anchor of CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite (1962–81), became known as “the most trusted man in America”—died at age 92. [Take our quiz about notable Americans.]
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1998
The United Nations completed the statute establishing the International Criminal Court, which began sittings four years later. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about world organizations.]
REUTERS/Alamy
1996
TWA flight 800 exploded and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Long Island, killing all 230 people on board. A U.S. government inquiry determined that an electrical short circuit caused a mixture of fuel and air to ignite within one of the plane’s fuel tanks.
© Marcorubino/Dreamstime.com
1955
Disneyland, an amusement park featuring attractions based on the creations of Walt Disney and the Disney Company, opened in Anaheim, California. [What was Disney’s first cartoon critter?]
U.S. Army Photo
1945
Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill, and Harry S. Truman met at the Potsdam Conference, the last Allied summit conference of World War II. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about World War II.]
Ullstein Bilderdienst, Berlin
1944
German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel was seriously injured when his car was forced off the road by British fighter-bombers. [Take our quiz about Germany and World War II.]
GL Archive/Alamy
1918
The Carpathia, the ocean liner that rescued the survivors of the Titanic in 1912, was sunk by a German U-boat during World War I. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about World War I.]
Carrier Corporation
1902
American mechanical engineer Willis Carrier completed drawings for what would become the first modern air conditioner. [Test your knowledge of famous inventions.]
© Corbis
1862
Abraham Lincoln’s wartime Congress passed the second Confiscation Act, a precursor to the Emancipation Proclamation. [How much do you know about Abraham Lincoln?]
Courtesy of the Frick Art Reference Library
1763
John Jacob Astor, founder of a renowned family of Anglo-American capitalists, business leaders, and philanthropists, was born in Waldorf, Germany.
Courtesy of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
1683
Turkish forces began the Siege of Vienna against the Habsburg Holy Roman emperor Leopold I. [Take our quiz about kings and emperors.]
Image: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1453
French forces routed the English in the Battle of Castillon, the concluding battle of the Hundred Years’ War. [Match the battle with the war in our quiz.]