This Day In History

July 17
1762
Catherine II becomes tsar of Russia upon the murder of Peter III of Russia.
1945
World War II: the leaders of the three Allied nations, Winston Churchill, Harry S. Truman and Joseph Stalin, meet in the German city of Potsdam to decide the future of a defeated Germany.
1948
The South Korean constitution is proclaimed.
1968
A revolution occurs in Iraq when Abdul Rahman Arif is overthrown and the Ba'ath Party is installed as the governing power in Iraq with Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr as the new Iraqi President.
1973
King Mohammed Zahir Shah of Afghanistan is deposed by his cousin Mohammed Daoud Khan while in Italy undergoing eye surgery.
1979
Sandinista rebels take Nicaraguan capital. The left-wing Sandinistas take control of the Nicaragua after 46 years of dictatorial rule by the Somoza family.