Today in history July 17
1765 English Prime Minister Lord Grenville resigns and is replaced by Lord Rockingham.
1774 Russia and the Ottoman Empire sign the Treaty of Kuchuk-Kainardji, ending their six-year war.
1779 American troops under General Anthony Wayne capture Stony Point, N.Y.
1875 The new French constitution is finalized.
1882 Mary Todd Lincoln, the widow of Abraham Lincoln, dies of a stroke.
1918 Czar Nicholas and his family are murdered by Bolsheviks at Ekaterinburg, Russia.
1940 Adolf Hitler orders preparations for the invasion of England.
1944 Soviet troops occupy Vilnius, Lithuania, in their drive towards Germany.
1945 The United States detonates the first atomic bomb in a test at Alamogordo, N. M.
1969 Apollo 11 blasts off from Cape Kennedy, Florida, heading for a landing on the moon.