Good morning, it’s Sunday, July 17, the 198th day of 2011. There are 167 days left in the year. We’ll start the day in the mid 70s, temperatures should rise to 101 or higher this afternoon, and lows overnight should be in the upper 70s.
On July 17, 1959—52 years ago today--influential jazz and blues vocalist Billie Holiday, known to her fans as "Lady Day," died in a New York City hospital at age 44.
Today’s Forecast And Current Conditions
Today's Highlight in History:
On July 17, 1981, 114 people were killed when a pair of suspended walkways above the lobby of the Kansas City Hyatt Regency Hotel collapsed, landing one atop the other, during a tea dance.
On This Date:
In 1821, Spain ceded Florida to the United States.
In 1841, the British humor magazine Punch was first published.
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 1961, Baseball Hall-of-Famer Ty Cobb died in Atlanta at age 74.
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 1996, TWA Flight 800, a Europe-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:
Katharine Graham, chairman of The Washington Post Co., died three days after suffering a head injury in Sun Valley, Idaho; she was 84.
Five years ago:
The shuttle Discovery and its crew of six returned home safely. A powerful earthquake sent a tsunami crashing into a beach resort on Indonesia's Java island, killing at least 600 people. Mystery writer Mickey Spillane died in Murrells Inlet, S.C., at age 88.
One year ago:
Federal authorities in Puerto Rico arrested alleged drug kingpin Jose Figueroa Agosto after a decade-long chase through the Caribbean. Thousands of gays and lesbians from around Europe marched through Warsaw to demand equal rights and more tolerance in the heavily Roman Catholic nation.
Today's Birthdays:
Comedian Phyllis Diller is 94. Jazz singer Jimmy Scott is 86. Actor Donald Sutherland is 76. Actress-singer Diahann Carroll is 76. Rock musician Spencer Davis is 69. Rock musician Terry "Geezer" Butler is 62. Actress Lucie Arnaz is 60. Actor David Hasselhoff is 59. Rock musician Fran Smith Jr. (The Hooters) is 59. Television producer Mark Burnett ("Survivor," "The Apprentice") is 51. Actress Nancy Giles is 51. Singer Regina Belle is 48. Country singer Craig Morgan is 47. Rock musician Lou Barlow is 45. Contemporary Christian singer Susan Ashton is 44. Actor Andre Royo is 43. Actress Bitty Schram is 43. Actor Jason Clarke is 42. Singer JC (PM Dawn) is 40. Rapper Sole' is 38. Country singer Luke Bryan is 35. Actor Eric Winter is 35. Hockey player Marc Savard is 34. Rhythm-and-blues singer Jeremih
is 24. Actress Summer Bishil (is 23.
Thought for Today:
"Modo et modo non habebant modum." (By and by never comes.) -- St. Augustine (A.D.354-A.D.430).
(Source: Associated Press)
