What happened on July 17 ?

521 - Magnus Felix Ennodius, bishop and Latin poet (b. 474)

924 - King Edward the Elder of England

1070 - Baldwin VI, Count of Flanders (b. 1030)

1086 - King Canute IV of Denmark

1105 - Rashi, French rabbi and commentator (b. 1040)

1453 - John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury, English military leader

1531 - Hosokawa Takakuni, Japanese military commander (b. 1484)

1566 - Bartolomé de Las Casas, Spanish priest (b. 1484)

1571 - Georg Fabricius, German poet and historian (b. 1516)

1588 - Sinan, Ottoman architect (b. 1489)

1645 - Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset, Scottish politician

1704 - Pierre-Charles Le Sueur, French fur trader and explorer

1709 - Robert Bolling, English settler in Virginia (b. 1646)

1790 - Adam Smith, Scottish economist and philosopher (b. 1723)

1791 - Martin Dobrizhoffer, Austrian Jesuit missionary (b. 1717)

1793 - Charlotte Corday, French aristocrat and murderer (b. 1768)

1794 - John Roebuck, British inventor (b. 1718)

1878 - Aleardo Aleardi, Italian poet (b. 1812)

1881 - Jim Bridger, American Mountain man, Indian fighter, and explorer (b. 1804)

1885 - Jean-Charles Chapais, politician, Father of Canadian Confederation (b. 1811)

1887 - Dorothea Dix, American social activist (b. 1802)

1894 - Josef Hyrtl, Austrian anatomist (b. 1810)

1894 - Charles-Marie-René Leconte de Lisle, French poet (b. 1818)

1912 - Henri Poincaré, French mathematician (b. 1854)

1917 - Hector Malot, French writer (b. 1830)

1918 (N.S.) - Family of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia (b. 1868) Tsaritsa Alexandra Fyodorovna (b. 1872)

Grand Duchess Olga (b. 1895)

Grand Duchess Tatiana (b. 1897)

Grand Duchess Maria (b. 1899)

Grand Duchess Anastasia (b. 1901)

Tsarevich Alexei (b. 1904)

1928 - Giovanni Giolitti, Italian statesman (b. 1842)

1935 - George William Russell, Irish nationalist, poet and artist (b. 1867)

1944 - William James Sidis, gifted mathematician and child prodigy (b. 1898)

1945 - Ernst Busch, German field marshal (b. 1885)

1950 - Evangeline Booth, the 4th General of The Salvation Army (b. 1865)

1959 - Billie Holiday, American singer (b. 1915)

1959 - Eugene Meyer, American businessman and newspaper publisher (b. 1875)

1961 - Ty Cobb, baseball player (b. 1886)

1967 - John Coltrane, American musician (b. 1926)

1974 - Dizzy Dean, Major League baseball pitcher (b.1910)

1975 - Konstantine Gamsakhurdia, Georgian writer and public benefactor (b. 1893)

1980 - Boris Delaunay, Russian mathematician (b. 1890)

1987 - Yujiro Ishihara, Japanese actor (b. 1934)

1995 - Juan Manuel Fangio, Argentinian race car driver (b. 1911)

1996 - Chas Chandler, bass guitarist (The Animals), record producer and manager (b. 1938)

2001 - Katharine Graham, American publisher (b. 1917)

2003 - David Kelly, Welsh UN weapons inspector (b. 1944)

2003 - Rosalyn Tureck, American pianist and harpsichordist (b. 1914)

2004 - Pat Roach, British professional wrestler and actor (b. 1937)

2005 - Laurel Aitken, Jamaican singer

2005 - Sir Edward Heath, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1916)

2005 - Joe Vialls, Australian writer