July 17th...
1704: Pierre-Charles Le Sueur, aged approximately 48 years, died from yellow fever in Havana, Cuba, shortly after returning from a trip to France, where he secured a commission to serve as a local magistrate in what is now Alabama.
The French fur trader and explorer in North America is recognised as the first known European to explore the Minnesota River valley.
1714: John Forbes is born at Minorca as the second son of George Forbes, third earl of Granard and Mary, née Stewart, who was the eldest daughter of William, first Viscount Mountjoy. John would follow his father into the Navy, joining the 70-gun third rate HMS Burford on 31st May 1726, at the age of 12. He would be continually promoted throughout his career to eventually become Admiral of the Fleet
1717: At about 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, 17th July, 1717, King George I and several aristocrats boarded a royal barge at Whitehall Palace for an excursion up the Thames toward Chelsea. The rising tide propelled the barge upstream without rowing. Another barge provided by the City of London contained about fifty musicians who premiered performed George Frideric Handel's Water Music. Many other Londoners also took to the river to hear the concert as, scored for a relatively large orchestra, the Water Music is particularly suitable for outdoor performance.
Painting of George Frideric Handel (left, with right arm extended) with King George I of Great Britain, traveling by barge on the Thames River while musicians play in the background. The painting is an artist's rendering of the first performance of Handel's Water Music in 1717.
1761: The Barton Aqueduct, opened on 17th July 1761, carried the Bridgewater
Canal over the River Irwell at Barton-upon-Irwell in Greater Manchester, England. Designed largely by James Brindley under the direction of John Gilbert, it was the first navigable aqueduct to be built in England and was described as 'one of the seven wonders of the canal age.
Watercolour, pen and ink image of James Brindley's Barton Aqueduct, carrying the Bridgewater Canal over the River Irwell, c.1793.
1882: Two weeks after a Parliamentary Act approved the scheme, the East and West India Dock Company begin construction of Tilbury Dock on the River Thames at Tilbury in Essex, England
1882: James Fownes Somerville is born. He would go on to serve in the Royal Navy during WW1 and become one of the most famous British admirals of World War 2; being promoted to Admiral of the Fleet in 1945. He would also receive Knighthood and earn several distinctions; GCB, GBE, DSO, DL.
1944: The Port Chicago disaster occurs at around 22:00 hrs at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine in Port Chicago, California, U.S.A., when munitions on board the liberty ship SS 'E. A. Bryan' are detonated by an initial explosion during loading. The second, more powerful explosion created a fireball which was seen for miles - an Army Air Force pilot flying in the area reported that the fireball was 3 miles in diameter.
Chunks of glowing hot metal and burning ordnance were flung over 12,000 ft into the air. The 'E. A. Bryan' was completely destroyed and the 'Quinault Victory' (docked at the same pier) was blown out of the water, torn into sections and thrown in several directions; the stern landed upside down in the water 500 ft away. The Coast Guard fire boat CG-60014-F was thrown 600 ft upriver, where it sank. The pier - along with its boxcars, locomotive, rails, cargo and men - was blasted into pieces.
All 320 of the men on duty at the pier died instantly, and 390 civilians and military personnel were injured, many seriously. Among the dead were all five Coast Guard personnel posted aboard the fire barge. African Americans hurt and killed totaled 202 dead and 233 injured, which accounted for 15% of all African-American naval casualties during World War II.
1981: H.R.H. Queen Elizabeth II officially opens the Humber Bridge near Kingston upon Hull, England, United Kingdom. The suspension bridge was opened to traffic three weeks earlier on June 3rd.
1984: Six years after she was decommissionedand and laid-up, H.M.S. 'Devonshire' (D02), the first of the County-class guided-missile destroyers and the first Batch 1 ship of the Royal Navy (built by Cammell Laird in Birkenhead near Liverpool) is sunk as a target by H.M.S. 'Splendid' on 17th July 1984
Following preliminary preperation for disposal and 'marking-up' at Portsmouth Harbour, she was first used for testing the new 'Sea Eagle' Air-Launched Cruise Missile, then (two days after the Sea Eagle test) she was sunk by H.M.S. 'Splendid' in the North Atlantic during tests of the Mark 24-Mod-2 Tigerfish torpedo.
Named after the English county of Devon, her name was also used in the James Bond film 'Tomorrow Never Dies'.
Royal Navy hulk H.M.S. Devonshire (D02) in Portsmouth 29th June 1984, prior to use as a target.
