This day in history

[July 17, 2009]  (AP)  Today is Friday, July 17, the 198th day of 2009. There are 167 days left in the year.

Today's highlight in history:

On July 17, 1959, influential jazz vocalist Billie Holiday, known to her fans as "Lady Day," died in a New York City hospital at age 44.

On this date:

In 1821, Spain ceded Florida to the United States.

In 1918, Russia's Czar Nicholas II and his family were executed by the Bolsheviks.

In 1936, the Spanish Civil War began as right-wing army generals launched a coup attempt against the Second Spanish Republic.

In 1944, during World War II, 320 men, two-thirds of them African-Americans, were killed when a pair of ammunition ships exploded at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine in California.

In 1955, Disneyland had its opening day in Anaheim, Calif.

In 1968, a coup in Iraq returned the Baath Party to power, five years after it was ousted.

In 1975, an Apollo spaceship docked with a Soyuz spacecraft in orbit in the first superpower link-up of its kind.

In 1979, Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza resigned and fled into exile in Miami.

In 1981, 114 people were killed when a pair of walkways above the lobby of the Kansas City Hyatt Regency Hotel collapsed, one atop the other, during a tea dance.

In 1996, TWA Flight 800, a Paris-bound Boeing 747, exploded and crashed off Long Island, N.Y., shortly after leaving John F. Kennedy International Airport, killing all 230 people aboard.

Ten years ago: A search began for the missing plane that was carrying John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife, Carolyn, and her sister, Lauren Bessette, on a flight from New Jersey to Massachusetts. (The plane had crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near Martha's Vineyard the night before, killing all three.)

Five years ago: Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia submitted his resignation to Yasser Arafat, who rejected it the next day. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger mockingly used the term "girlie men" during a rally as he claimed Democrats were delaying the state budget by catering to special interests.

One year ago: The FDA lifted its salmonella warning on tomatoes amid signs the record outbreak, while not over, might finally be slowing. President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki held a secure video conference during which they agreed to set a "general time horizon" for bringing more U.S. troops home from the Iraq war.

Today's birthdays: TV personality Art Linkletter is 97. Comedian Phyllis Diller is 92. Former International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch is 89. Jazz singer Jimmy Scott is 84. Actor Donald Sutherland is 74. Actress-singer Diahann Carroll is 74. Rock musician Spencer Davis is 67. Rock musician Terry "Geezer" Butler (Black Sabbath) is 60. Actress Lucie Arnaz is 58. Actor David Hasselhoff ("Baywatch") is 57. Rock musician Fran Smith Jr. (The Hooters) is 57. Singer Phoebe Snow is 57. Television producer Mark Burnett ("Survivor," "The Apprentice") is 49. Actress Nancy Giles is 49. Singer Regina Belle is 46. Rock musician Lou Barlow is 43. Hip-hop singer Guru (Gang Starr) is 43. Contemporary Christian singer Susan Ashton is 42. Actor Andre Royo is 41. Actress Bitty Schram is 41. Actor Jason Clarke is 40. Singer JC (PM Dawn) is 38. Rapper Sole' is 36. Former NFL player Eric Moulds is 36. Country singer Luke Bryan is 33. Actor Eric Winter is 33. Boston Bruins center Marc Savard is 32. Actress Summer Bishil is 21.

Thought for today: "Sometimes it's worse to win a fight than to lose." -- Billie Holiday, American jazz singer (1915-1959)

[Associated Press]

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