Today in History FacebookTwitterEmail Today in History Today is Saturday, July 17, the 198th day of 2021. There are 167 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On July 17, 1975, an Apollo spaceship docked with a Soyuz spacecraft in orbit in the first superpower link-up of its kind. On this date: In 1821, Spain ceded Florida to the United States. In 1862, during the Civil War, Congress approved the Second Confiscation Act, which declared that all slaves taking refuge behind Union lines were to be set free. In 1918, Russia’s Czar Nicholas II and his family were executed by the Bolsheviks. In 1936, the Spanish Civil War began as right-wing army generals launched a coup attempt against the Second Spanish Republic.