By The Associated Press

              - Today is Saturday, July 17, the 198th day of 1999. There are 167
                days left in the year.

              - One hundred years ago, on July 17, 1899, actor James Cagney was born
                in New York City.
              - In 1821 Spain ceded Florida to the United States.
              - In 1898 during the Spanish-American War, Spanish troops in Santiago,
                Cuba, surrendered to U.S. forces.
              - In 1917 the British royal family's name was changed from Saxe-Coburg
                Gotha to Windsor.
              - In 1944 322 people were killed when two ammunition ships exploded in
                Port Chicago, Calif.
              - In 1955 Disneyland debuted in Anaheim, Calif.
              - In 1975 an "Apollo" spaceship docked with a "Soyuz" spacecraft in
                orbit in the first superpower link-up of its kind.
              - In 1979 Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza resigned and fled into
                exile in Miami.
              - In 1981 114 people were killed when a pair of walkways above the
                lobby of the Kansas City Hyatt Regency Hotel collapsed during a "tea
                dance."
              - In 1996 TWA Flight 800, a Paris-bound Boeing 747, exploded and
                crashed off Long Island, N.Y., shortly after leaving John F. Kennedy
                International Airport, killing all 230 people aboard.
              - In 1997 Woolworth Corp. announced it was closing its 400 remaining
                five-and-dime stores across the country, ending 117 years in
                business.

              - Ten years ago the controversial B-2 Stealth bomber underwent its
                first test flight at Edwards Air Force Base in California, two days
                after a technical problem forced a postponement.
              - Five years ago fragments of comet Shoemaker-Levy continued to smash
                into Jupiter, sending up towering fireballs. Brazil defeated Italy
                to win its fourth World Cup title.
              - One year ago prosecutors in the Monica Lewinsky case questioned
                President Clinton's Secret Service protectors before a grand jury.
                Nicholas II, the last of the Romanov czars, was buried in Russia 80
                years after he and his family were executed by the Bolsheviks. In
                Rome, delegates from more than 100 countries overwhelmingly approved
                a historic treaty creating the world's first permanent war crimes
                tribunal - ignoring strenuous U.S. objections over certain
                provisions.
 

              *Happy Birthday*
              ----------------
              - TV personality Art Linkletter is 87.
              - Comedian Phyllis Diller is 82.
              - The president of the International Olympic Committee, Juan Antonio
                Samaranch, is 79.
              - Actor Donald Sutherland is 64.
              - Actress-singer Diahann Carroll is 64.
              - Rock singer Spencer Davis is 57.
              - Rock musician Terry "Geezer" Butler (Black Sabbath) is 50.
              - Actress Lucie Arnaz is 48.
              - Actor David Hasselhoff is 47.
              - Singer Phoebe Snow is 47.
              - Actress Nancy Giles is 39.
              - Singer Regina Belle is 36.
              - Hip-hop singer Guru (Gang Starr) is 33.
              - Rhythm-and-blues singer Stokley (Mint Condition) is 32.