Today is Friday, July 17, the 198th day of 2026. There are 167 days left in the year.Today in History: On July 17, 1918, Russia’s Czar Nicholas II and his family were executed by the Bolsheviks. Also on this date: In 1862, during the Civil War, Congress approved the Second Confiscation Act, which declared that all enslaved people taking refuge behind Union lines were to be set free. In 1902, Willis Carrier produced a set of designs for what would become the world’s first modern air-conditioning system. In 1936, the Spanish Civil War began as right-wing army generals launched a...