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Made for the 250thOn this day › July 17
What happened on July 17 in American history
July 17 is the 198th day of the year (the 199th in leap years). Patriot Compass has published 6 stories from July 17 spanning 1821 to 1975. Among them: in 1821, Spain hands over Florida; the U.S. takes possession of the peninsula under the Adams-Onís Treaty; and in 1867, Harvard charters a dental school; Dean Keep makes dentistry a university science.
1821
Spain hands over Florida; the U.S. takes possession of the peninsula under the Adams-Onís Treaty
Madrid settles for $5,000,000 in claims after years of Seminole raids, runaway slaves, and Jackson's soldiers crossing the border uninvited.
1867Member story · 1776 Club
Harvard charters a dental school; Dean Keep makes dentistry a university science
The first university-affiliated dental program in the country will confer a new degree, the DMD, on graduates who once would have learned the trade by apprenticeship alone.
1944Member story · 1776 Club
Two ships explode at Port Chicago; 320 men are dead, most of them Black sailors loading bombs in the dark
The SS E. A. Bryan goes up at 10:18 p.m., taking the pier, a locomotive, and the Quinault Victory with it; of 320 killed, only 51 bodies can be identified.
1945
Churchill, Stalin, and Truman convene at Cecilienhof; a new Europe is on the table
Three months into his presidency, Truman sits down with allies to settle Germany's occupation zones, Poland's government, and where the Reich's eastern border will now fall.
1962Member story · 1776 Club
Army fires the smallest U.S. nuclear device at Nevada; Robert Kennedy watches from the line
A Davy Crockett round yields just 18 tons of TNT a mile and a half downrange, the W54 warhead the tiniest the country has built.
1975
Stafford and Leonov shake hands through an open hatch; American and Soviet spacecraft dock in orbit
Soyuz 19 and the last Apollo ever built linked up at 16:19 UTC, two days after lifting off from opposite sides of the world.
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