July 17

• July 17, 1453
  Actively used artillery France defeat England at the Battle at Castillon in France, marking end of the Hundred Years War
• July 17, 1695
  The Bank of Scotland is founded, and is granted a 21-year banking monopoly with note-issuing privileges
• July 17, 1762
  Peter III, Emperor of Russia, is murdered by conspiracy led by his wife, German Princess Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg, who becomes Empress of Russia Catherine II
• July 17, 1789
  The Great Fear caused by peasant rebellions swept through France as the Revolution continued
• July 17, 1830
  French tailor Barthélemy Thimonnier patents the first practical and widely used sewing machine
• July 17, 1850
  Astronomer William Cranch Bond and photographer John Adams Whipple focus on Vega and produce the first photograph of a star
• July 17, 1876
  At Warbonnet Creek, Nebraska, Buffalo Bill Cody, an American soldier, takes the scalp of Cheyenne Chief Yellow Hair following a duel
• July 17, 1898
  United States troops under General William Rufus Shafter take Santiago de Cuba during the Spanish-American War
• July 17, 1902
  Willis Carrier, an American engineer, publishes drawings for the world's first modern air conditioning system to depress relative humidity due to quality problems in the Sackett-Wilhelms Lithographing
• July 17, 1945
  American President Harry Truman, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill meet at Schloss Cecilienhof in Potsdam near Berlin, Germany and divide Europe into Western and Soviet blocs
• July 17, 1955
  Disneyland theme park opens in Anaheim, California, with eighteen attractions which attract 28,000-33,000 guests for the day
• July 17, 1979
  Nicaraguan dictator General Anastasio Somoza Debayle resigns due to Nicaraguan revolution and flees to Miami, Florida
• July 17, 1981
  Israeli aircraft bomb Beirut, destroying multi-storey apartment blocks containing the offices of PLO associated groups, killing approximately 300 civilians and resulting in worldwide condemnation and a U.S. embargo on the export of aircraft to Israel
• July 17, 2014
  Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, a Boeing 777 with 298 people on board, crashes in eastern Ukraine after being shot down by a missile

April 28

• April 28, 357
  Roman Emperor Constantius II visits Rome for the first time and only time in his life
• April 28, 1202
  King Philip II of France throws out King of England John, which resulted in the collapse of most of the Angevin Empire and contributed to the subsequent growth in power of the Capetian dynasty during the 13th century
• April 28, 1253
  Nichiren, a Buddhist monk, establishes a new sect of Buddhism, Nichiren Buddhism
• March 30, 1282
  Inhabitants in Palermo massacres French occupation forces in Sicily after a Frenchman harassed a woman, beginning the War of the Sicilian Vespers
• April 28, 1376
  Good Parliament, the longest Parliament up until that time, begin to work
• April 28, 1503
  Spain defeats France at the Battle of Cerignola, which considered to be the first battle in history won by gunpowder small arms (arquebus) and mark end of period of knighthood in Europe
• April 28, 1628
  King Kristian IV of Denmark signs a three year alliance with Sweden. Both powers agree to come to the defense of Stralsund if attacked
• April 28, 1738
  Pope Clement XII issues the Eminenti Apostolatus Specula prohibiting Catholics from becoming Freemasons, the first papal decree against the Freemasons
• April 28, 1760
  French forces besieging Quebec defeat the British in the Battle of Sainte-Foy
• April 28, 1789
  Fletcher Christian, master's mate on board HMS Bounty, leads a mutiny on the ship as the crew of the British ship set Captain William Bligh and 18 sailors adrift in a launch in the South Pacific
• April 28, 1818
  President Monroe proclaims naval disarmament on Great Lakes and Lake Champlain
• April 28, 1819
  In India a British hunting party discovers the painted caves at Ajanta
• April 28, 1914
  American engineer Willis Carrier patents air conditioner
• April 28, 1925
  Netherlands and Great Britain return to gold standard
• April 28, 1935
  Moscow Metro, the first underground railway system in the Soviet Union, opens
• April 28, 1945
  Benito Mussolini is executed near Lake Como by Italian partisans while attempt to escape north
• April 28, 1967
  Expo 67, the most attendees World Fair, opens in Montreal, Quebec, Canada
• April 28, 1969
  Charles de Gaulle resigns as President of France after losing a referendum in which he proposed more decentralization
• April 28, 1992
  The two remaining countries of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia - the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Montenegro - form a new state, named the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
• April 28, 2004
  30 St Mary Axe, commercial skyscraper, also known as The Gherkin, opens in London and becomes one of the most recognised examples of contemporary architecture