TODAY IN HISTORY

Tuesday, July  17, 2012 AP Highlight in History:  On July 17, 1936, the Spanish Civil War began as Gen. Francisco Franco led an uprising of army troops based in North Africa.   AP Photo
On this date in: 1821 Spain ceded Florida to the United States. 1898 Spanish troops in Santiago, Cuba, surrendered to U.S. forces during the Spanish-American War. 1917 With the country at war with Germany, the British royal family changed its name from the German Saxe-Coburg Gotha to Windsor. 1918 Russia's Czar Nicholas II, his wife and their five children were executed by the Bolsheviks. 1945 President Harry S. Truman, Soviet leader Josef Stalin and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill began meeting at Potsdam in the final Allied summit of World War II. 1948 Southern Democrats opposed to the party's position on civil rights met in Birmingham, Ala., to endorse South Carolina Gov. Strom Thurmond for president. 1955 Disneyland opened in Anaheim, Calif. 1961 Baseball Hall of Famer Ty Cobb died at age 74. 1967 Jazz saxophonist and composer John Coltrane died at age 40. 1981 A pair of walkways above the lobby of the Kansas City Hyatt Regency Hotel collapsed during a dance, killing 114 people. 1996 TWA Flight 800, a Boeing 747 bound for Paris, exploded and crashed off Long Island, N.Y., shortly after leaving John F. Kennedy International Airport. All 230 people aboard were killed. AP Photo/Jon Levy 2000 Bashar Assad succeeded his late father, Hafez Assad, becoming Syria's 16th head of state. 2009 Former CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite died at age 92.		Video Highlights of This Day in History Today's Birthdays: German Chancellor Angela Merkel turns 58 years old today. AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert Name Profession Age Phyllis Diller Comedian 95 Diahann Carroll Actress, singer 77 Donald Sutherland Actor 77 Spencer Davis Rock singer, musician 70 Connie Hawkins Basketball Hall of Famer 70 Terry "Geezer" Butler Rock musician (Black Sabbath) 63 Lucie Arnaz Actress 61 David Hasselhoff Actor ("Baywatch," "Knight Rider") 60 Bryan Trottier Hockey Hall of Famer 56 Mark Burnett TV producer ("Survivor," "The Apprentice") 52 Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, turns 65 years old today. AP Photo/Chris Jackson