| 17 July 924 | England [political events] | King Edward the Elder of England dies; he is succeeded by his capable son, Athelstan. |
| 17 July 1085 | Italy, Greece, Byzantine Empire, Sicily [wars] | When the Norman duke Robert Guiscard of Apulia is killed at the siege of Cephalonia, Greece, he is succeeded as duke of Apulia by his son, Roger Borsa, who withdraws the Normans from Greece. Robert's brother, Roger, succeeds him as count in Sicily and Calabria. |
| 17 July 1203 | Hungary, Venice, Italy, Byzantine Empire, Germany [Crusades (1095–1272)] | Carrying out their part of the arrangement made the previous November with Alexius IV Angelus, son of the deposed Byzantine emperor Isaac II Angelus, the crusaders force an entry into Constantinople; the Byzantine emperor Alexius III Angelus flees and Isaac is restored. |
| 17 July 1210 | Sweden [political events] | King Sverker II of Sweden is defeated, killed, and succeeded by Eric X Cnutson, the first Swedish king to be anointed at his coronation. |
| 17 July 1630 | Mantua, Italy, Holy Roman Empire [wars] | Mantua falls to the imperialist army in the War of the Mantuan Succession. |
| 17 July 1790 | Scotland [births and deaths] | Adam Smith, Scottish social philosopher known for his An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations on laissez-faire economics, dies in Edinburgh, Scotland (63). |
| 17 July 1912 | [athletics] | The International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF), the world governing body for track and field, is formed in Stockholm, Sweden, with 17 founder members. |
| 17 July–2 August 1945 | Germany, USSR, USA, UK [diplomacy] | At the Potsdam Conference in Germany, the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, the US president Harry S Truman, and the British prime minister (first Winston Churchill, then Clement Attlee after the Labour election victory of 26 July) organize the occupation of Germany following its surrender in World War II. |
| 17 July–31 December 1964 | UK, Australia [speed records] | The British car and speedboat enthusiast Donald Campbell emulates his father Malcolm Campbell's achievement of holding the world land- and water-speed records simultaneously. He sets a new land-speed record of 648.77 kph/403.14 mph on Lake Eyre salt flats, Australia. Later in the year he reaches 444.615 kph/276.279 mph on Lake Dumbleyung, Australia, to break the water-speed record for the seventh time since 1955. |
| 17 July 1973 | Afghanistan [political events] | A bloodless army-backed coup deposes King Mohammed Zahir Shah of Afghanistan and the country is proclaimed a republic. |
| 17 July 1981 | Middle East [political events] | Israeli military aircraft attack Palestinian areas of Beirut. Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization agree a ceasefire on 29 July after two weeks of fighting in southern Lebanon. |
| 17 July 1998 | Papua New Guinea [natural disasters] | A 10-m/30-ft tidal wave hits the north coast of Papua New Guinea, inundating several villages and killing an estimated 6,000 people. Of the survivors 70% are adults; a generation of children is wiped out. |
| 17 July 1998 | Russia [political events] | The last tsar of Russia, Tsar Nicholas II, and his family are buried in St Petersburg, Russia, 80 years after their murder at Yekaterinburg, Russia. Russian president Boris Yeltsin makes a public apology after initially refusing to attend the ceremony. |
| 17 July 2006 | Indonesia [natural disasters] | An offshore earthquake south of Java in Indonesia triggers a tsunami (tidal wave) which devastates coastal settlements and kills more than 500 people. |
