This Day in History - July 17

Today is , the 198th day of 2010. There are 167 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight

1994: Brazil makes World Cup soccer history with a fourth title.

Other Notable Events

1890: Cecil Rhodes becomes premier of Cape Colony in Africa.

1936: Spanish Civil War starts as General Francisco Franco leads army forces in revolt against the government.

1945: US President Harry Truman, British Prime Minister Clement Atlee, and Soviet leader Josef Stalin meet at Potsdam, Germany, to settle the post World War II future of Europe, in a conference that lasts until August 2.

1955: Disneyland, the first Disney amusement park, opens its gates in Anaheim, California.

1968: The Baath Party, including Saddam Hussein, overthrows the Iraqi government.

1973: Afghanistan is proclaimed republic following palace coup that ends 40-year rule of King Mohammad Zaher Shah.

1987: France breaks diplomatic relations with Iran.

1990: German Chancellor Helmut Kohl says all major obstacles to united Germany have been swept away and announces elections for a united German parliament.

1991: Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and US President George H W Bush announce a treaty to make historic cuts in nuclear weapons.

1998: Czar Nicholas II of Russia and his family are given a state funeral and reburied in a St. Petersburg cathedral, 80 years to the day after they were murdered by Bolsheviks. Scientists located the remains in 1976 but kept it secret until the collapse of the Soviet Union.

2005: Israel threatens to invade Gaza if Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas does not control militants who have stepped up rocket and mortar attacks ahead of Israel's pullout from Gaza the following month.

2006: A tsunami crashes into beach resorts and fishing villages on Java island, killing more than 300 people and leaving more than 160 missing. Bulletins failed to reach the Indonesian region because no warning system was in place.

2009: Suicide attackers set off bombs in Jakarta in two luxury hotels frequented by Westerners, killing at least eight people and wounding more than 50 and breaking a four-year lull in terrorist attacks in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country.

Today's Birthdays

Isaac Watts, English churchman (1674-1748); David Lloyd George, English statesman (1863-1945); James Cagney, US actor (1899-1986); Phyllis Diller, US comedian (1917--); Diahann Carroll, US actress/singer (1935-); Donald Sutherland, actor (1935-); Lucie Arnaz US actress (1951-); David Hasselhoff, US actor (1952-); Mark Burnett, TV producer (1960-).

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