Calendar date · July

What happened on July 17

On July 17, 180: Twelve inhabitants of Scillium (near Kasserine, modern-day Tunisia) in North Africa are executed for being Christians. This is the earliest record of Christianity in that part of the world.

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Notable births

50

Notable deaths

50

Zodiac

Cancer

Featured moment · 180

Twelve inhabitants of Scillium (near Kasserine, modern-day Tunisia) in North Africa are executed for being Christians. This is the earliest record of Christianity in that part of the world.

The Scillitan Martyrs were a group of early Christians of North Africa executed by the Roman Empire in Carthage, modern Tunisia, on 17 July 180 AD. The group takes its name from the nearby town of Scillium. They are venerated as martyrs in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches.

People

Born on July 17

Connor Bedard 2005– Canadian ice hockey player (born 2005)
Jordan Lawlar 2002– American baseball player (born 2002)
Rosana Serrano 1998– Cuban rower
OG Anunoby 1997– British basketball player (born 1997)
Wonwoo 1996– South Korean rapper and singer (born 1996)
Kali Uchis 1994– American singer-songwriter (born 1994)
Billie Lourd 1992– American actress (born 1992)
Tatu Sinisalo 1992– Finnish actor (born 1992)
Oliver Ekman-Larsson 1991– Swedish ice hockey player (born 1991)
Show 9 more — notable births on July 17
Darius Boyd 1987– Australia international rugby league footballer
Jeremih 1987– American R&B recording artist (born 1987)
DeAngelo Smith 1986– American gridiron football player (born 1986)
Loui Eriksson 1985– Swedish ice hockey player (born 1985)
Neil McGregor 1985– Scottish footballer
Adam Lind 1983– American baseball player (born 1983)
Omari Banks 1982– West Indian cricketer
Hely Ollarves 1981– Venezuelan sprinter (born 1981)
Javier Camuñas 1980– Spanish footballer (born 1980)

People

Died on July 17

Felix Baumgartner Austrian skydiver and extreme sportsman (1969–2025)
Alan Bergman American lyricists and songwriters
Joanna Kołaczkowska Polish actress (1966–2025)
Cheng Pei-pei Chinese actress (1946–2024)
Mary Gibby British botanist (1949–2024)
Bernice Johnson Reagon American singer, songwriter and scholar (1942–2024)
Pat Williams American basketball player (1940–2024)
John Lewis American politician and civil rights leader (1940–2020)
Ekaterina Alexandrovskaya Russian-Australian pair skater (2000–2020)
Show 9 more — notable deaths on July 17
Marie Sophie Hingst German historian, blogger and fraudster (1987–2019)
Bill Arnsparger American football coach (1926–2015)
Jules Bianchi French racing driver (1989–2015)
Owen Chadwick British historian and academic (1916–2015)
Van Miller American sports announcer (1927–2015)
John Taylor British jazz pianist (1942–2015)
Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 victims: Australian author (1957–2014)
Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 victims: Malaysian businesswoman and actress (1976–2014)
Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 victims: Dutch clinical researcher (1954–2014)

Timeline

Every July 17 on record

  1. 180 Twelve inhabitants of Scillium (near Kasserine, modern-day Tunisia) in North Africa are executed for being Christians. This is the earliest record of Christianity in that part of the world.

    African Christian victims of Roman persecutions (180 AD)

    The Scillitan Martyrs were a group of early Christians of North Africa executed by the Roman Empire in Carthage, modern Tunisia, on 17 July 180 AD. The group takes its name from the nearby town of Scillium. They are venerated as martyrs in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches.

  2. 1048 Damasus II is elected pope, and dies 23 days later.

    Head of the Catholic Church in 1048

    Pope Damasus II was the Bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from 17 July 1048 to his death on 9 August that same year. He was the second of the German pontiffs nominated by Emperor Henry III. A native of Bavaria, he was the third German to become pope and had one of the shortest papal reigns.

  3. 1203 The Fourth Crusade assaults Constantinople. The Byzantine emperor Alexios III Angelos flees from his capital into exile.

    Latin Christian armed expedition (1202–1204)

    The Fourth Crusade (1202–1204) was a Latin Christian armed expedition called by Pope Innocent III. The stated intent of the expedition was to recapture the Muslim-controlled city of Jerusalem, by first defeating the powerful Egyptian Ayyubid Sultanate. However, a sequence of economic and political events culminated in the Crusader army's 1202 siege of Zara and the 1204 sack of Constantinople, rather than the conquest of Egypt as originally planned.

  4. 1402 Zhu Di, better known by his era name as the Yongle Emperor, assumes the throne over the Ming dynasty of China.

    Name chosen by a reigning monarch, different from their original secular name

    A regnal name, regnant name, or reign name is the name used by monarchs and popes during their reigns and subsequently, historically. Since ancient times, some monarchs have chosen to use a different name from their original name when they accede to the monarchy.

  5. 1429 Hundred Years' War: Charles VII of France is crowned the King of France in the Reims Cathedral after a successful campaign by Joan of Arc.

    Medieval Anglo-French conflicts, 1337–1453

    The Hundred Years' War was a conflict between the kingdoms of England and France and a civil war in France during the late Middle Ages. It emerged from feudal disputes over the Duchy of Aquitaine and was triggered by a claim to the French throne made by Edward III of England. The war grew into a broader military, economic, and political struggle involving factions from across Western Europe, fuelled by emerging nationalism on both sides.

  6. 1453 Battle of Castillon: The last battle of the Hundred Years' War, the French under Jean Bureau defeat the English under the Earl of Shrewsbury, who is killed in the battle in Gascony.
  7. 1489 Sikandar Lodi succeeds Bahlul Khan Lodi as Sultan of Delhi.
  8. 1717 King George I of Great Britain sails down the River Thames with a barge of 50 musicians, where George Frideric Handel's Water Music is premiered.
  9. 1762 Former emperor Peter III of Russia is murdered.
  10. 1771 Bloody Falls massacre: Chipewyan chief Matonabbee, traveling as the guide to Samuel Hearne on his Arctic overland journey, massacres a group of unsuspecting Inuit.
  11. 1791 Members of the French National Guard under the command of General Lafayette open fire on a crowd of radical Jacobins at the Champ de Mars, Paris, during the French Revolution, killing scores of people.
  12. 1794 The 16 Carmelite Martyrs of Compiègne are executed ten days prior to the end of the French Revolution's Reign of Terror.
  13. 1821 The Kingdom of Spain cedes the territory of Florida to the United States.
  14. 1850 Vega becomes the first star (other than the Sun) to be photographed.
  15. 1867 Harvard 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.
Show 15 earlier entries from July 17
  1. 1899 NEC Corporation is organized as the first Japanese joint venture with foreign capital.
  2. 1918 Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his immediate family and retainers are executed by Bolshevik Chekists at the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg, Russia.
  3. 1918 The RMS Carpathia is sunk off Ireland by the German SM U-55; five lives are lost.
  4. 1919 The form of government in the Republic of Finland is officially confirmed. For this reason, July 17 is known as the Day of Democracy (Kansanvallan päivä) in Finland.
  5. 1932 Altona Bloody Sunday: A riot between the Nazi Party paramilitary forces, the SS and SA, and the German Communist Party ensues.
  6. 1936 Spanish Civil War: An Armed Forces rebellion against the recently elected leftist Popular Front government of Spain starts the civil war.
  7. 1938 Douglas Corrigan takes off from Brooklyn to fly the "wrong way" to Ireland and becomes known as "Wrong Way" Corrigan.
  8. 1944 Port Chicago disaster: Near the San Francisco Bay, two ships laden with ammunition for the war explode in Port Chicago, California, killing 320.
  9. 1945 World War II: The main three leaders of the Allied nations, Winston Churchill, Harry S. Truman and Joseph Stalin, hold the Potsdam Conference in the German city of Potsdam to decide the future of a defeated Germany.
  10. 1953 The largest number of United States midshipman casualties in a single event results from an aircraft crash in Florida, killing 44.
  11. 1954 First Indochina War: Viet Minh troops successfully ambush the armoured French column 'G.M. 42' in the Battle of Chu Dreh Pass in the Central Highlands. It is the last battle of the war.
  12. 1962 Nuclear weapons testing: The "Small Boy" test shot Little Feller I becomes the last atmospheric test detonation at the Nevada National Security Site.
  13. 1968 Abdul Rahman Arif is overthrown and the Ba'ath Party is installed as the governing power in Iraq with Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr as the new Iraqi President.
  14. 1973 King Mohammed Zahir Shah of Afghanistan, while having surgery in Italy, is deposed by his cousin Mohammed Daoud Khan.
  15. 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.

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