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.

1900 Hall of fame pitcher Christy Mathewson made his major league debut with the New York Giants.

1917 With the country at war with Germany, the British royal family changed its name from the German Saxe-Coburg Gotha to Windsor.

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.

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.

1979 Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza resigned and fled into exile in Miami.

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.

1997 Woolworth Corp. closed its last 400 five-and-dime stores, laying off 9,200 employees.

2000 Bashar Assad, son of Hafez Assad, became Syria's 16th head of state.

2004 California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger mockingly used the term "girlie men" during a rally as he claimed Democrats were delaying the state budget by catering to special interests.

2005 The Iraqi Special Tribunal filed its first criminal case against Saddam Hussein for a 1982 massacre of Shiites.

2007 Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick was indicted by a federal grand jury in Richmond, Va., on charges related to competitive dogfighting.

Current Birthdays

Angela Merkel turns 54 years old today.

AP Photo/Miguel Villagran German Chancellor Angela Merkel turns 54 years old today.

96 Art Linkletter
TV personality

91 Phyllis Diller
Comedian

83 Jimmy Scott
Jazz singer

73 Diahann Carroll
Actress, singer

73 Donald Sutherland
Actor

66 Spencer Davis
Rock singer, musician

66 Connie Hawkins
Basketball Hall of Famer

61 Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall
Wife of Britain's Prince Charles

59 Terry "Geezer" Butler
Rock musician (Black Sabbath)

57 Lucie Arnaz
Actress

56 David Hasselhoff
Actor ("Baywatch," "America's Got Talent")

56 Fran Smith Jr.
Rock musician (The Hooters)

56 Phoebe Snow
R&B singer

52 Bryan Trottier
Hockey Hall of Famer

48 Mark Burnett
TV producer ("Survivor," "The Apprentice")

48 Nancy Giles
Actress

45 Regina Belle
R&B singer

42 Lou Barlow
Rock musician

42 Guru
Hip-hop singer (Gang Starr)

41 Susan Ashton
Contemporary Christian singer

40 Andre Royo
Actor ("The Wire")

40 Bitty Schram
Actress

39 Jason Clarke
Actor

37 DJ Minute Mix
R&B singer (PM Dawn)

35 Solé
Rapper

32 Luke Bryan
Country singer

32 Eric Winter
Actor

Historic Birthdays

James Cagney

7/17/1899 - 3/30/1986
American motion-picture actor
(Go to obit.)

73 William Gargan
7/17/1905 - 2/16/1979
American motion-picture and television actor

71 Georges Lemaitre
7/17/1894 - 6/20/1966
Belgian astronomer and cosmologist

80 Erle Stanley Gardner
7/17/1889 - 3/11/1970
American mystery novelist and lawyer

81 S. Y. Agnon
7/17/1888 - 2/17/1970
Israeli novelist and short-story writer

86 Ernest Rhys
7/17/1859 - 5/25/1946
English editor

90 Sir Erskine Holland
7/17/1835 - 5/24/1926
English legal scholar

84 John Jacob Astor
7/17/1763 - 3/29/1848
German-born American founder of the Astor dynasty

70 Elbridge Gerry
7/17/1744 - 11/23/1814
American Revolutionary leader and U.S. vice president (1813-14)

47 Alexander Baumgarten
7/17/1714 - 5/26/1762
German philosopher and educator