17 August
August 17 is the 229th day of the year (230th in leap years) in the
Gregorian Calendar. There are 136 days remaining.
Events
- 1807 - Robert Fulton's first
American steamboat leaves New
York City for Albany, New York on the Hudson River, inaugurating the first commercial steamboat service in the
world.
- 1850 - Argentine's War of Independence hero, General José de San Martín, dies in Boulogne-sur-Mer (France), at the age
of 77.
- 1862 - Indian Wars: Lakota (Sioux) uprising begins in Minnesota as
desperate Lakota attack white settlements along the Minnesota River.
They will be overwhelmed by the US military six weeks later.
- 1863 - American Civil
War: In Charleston, South Carolina,
Union batteries and ships bombard Confederate-held Fort Sumter. Bombardment will not end until December
31, 1863.
- 1877 - Arizona blacksmith F.P. Cahill is
fatally wounded by Billy the Kid. Cahill will die the next day, becoming
the first person killed by the Kid.
- 1896 - London - Bridget Driscoll becomes the first person in the world to die in an
automobile accident after being struck by a car travelling about 4 MPH.
- 1914 - World War I: The German army of General Hermann von Francois defeats the Russian force commanded by
Pavel Rennenkampf at the Battle of Stalluponen.
- 1915 - Jewish American Leo Frank is lynched for the alleged murder of a 13-year-old
girl in Atlanta, Georgia.
- 1943 - World War II: The US 7th
Army under General George S. Patton arrive in Messina, Italy followed several hours later by the British 8th Army under
Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery, thus completing the
Allied conquest of Sicily.
- 1945 - Indonesia proclaims itself
independent from the Netherlands.
- 1953 - Addiction: First meeting of
Narcotics Anonymous in Southern California.
- 1960 - Gabon gains independence from France.
- 1962 - East German border guards
kill 18-year-old Peter Fechter as he attempts to cross the Berlin Wall into West Berlin. He thus
became the first victim of the wall
- 1969 - Category 5 Hurricane
Camille hits the Mississippi coast killing 248 people and causing US$1.5
billion in damage (1969 dollars).
- 1970 - Venera program:
Venera 7 is launched. It will later becomes the first spacecraft to successfully
transmit data from the surface of another planet, Venus.
- 1978 - Double Eagle II becomes first balloon to cross the
Atlantic Ocean when it lands in Miserey near Paris, 137 hours after leaving Presque Isle,
Maine.
- 1979 - Two Soviet Aeroflot jetliners collide in mid-air over Ukraine killing 156
- 1988 - Pakistani President Mohammad Zia ul-Haq and US Ambassador Arnold Raphel are killed in a plane
crash.
- 1996 - Alan Shearer Makes debut for Newcastel United after a then record £15m move from
Rivals Blackburn Rovers
- 1998 - Monica
Lewinsky scandal: US President Bill Clinton admits in taped testimony that he had an "improper physical relationship" with White House intern Monica
Lewinsky. On the same day he admits before the nation that he "misled people" about his relationship.
- 1999 - A 7.4-magnitude earthquake
strikes northwestern Turkey, killing more than 17,000 and injuring 44,000.
- 2002 - In Santa
Rosa, California, the Charles M. Schulz Museum opens to the
public.
- 2004 - MD5 collision found by Chinese researchers.
- 2004 - The National Assembly of Serbia
unanimously adopts new state symbols for Serbia: Boze Pravde becomes the new anthem and the coat of arms is adopted for the whole country.
Births
- 1601 - Pierre de Fermat,
mathematician
- 1629 - John III of
Poland (d. 1696)
- 1786 - Davy Crockett,
frontiersman, soldier (d. 1836)
- 1866 - Julia Marlowe, nee Sarah Frost, Shakespearean actress (d. 1950)
- 1882 - Samuel Goldwyn,
Hollywood producer (d. 1974)
- 1887 - Marcus Garvey, American
black leader (d. 1940)
- 1887 - Emperor Karl of Austria (d. 1922)
- 1893 - Mae West, actress, playwright (d.
1980)
- 1904 - Leopold Nowak,
musicologist
- 1911 - Mikhail
Botvinnik, world chess champion
- 1913 - Rudy York, Major League Baseball All-Star (d. 1970)
- 1920 - Maureen O'Hara,
actress
- 1929 - Francis Gary
Powers, U-2 pilot (d. 1977)
- 1929 - Jiang Zemin, President of the
People's Republic of China
- 1930 - Glenn Corbett, actor (d.
1993)
- 1932 - V. S. Naipaul, writer
- 1939 - Luther Allison, blues
musician, guitarist
- 1943 - Robert De Niro,
actor
- 1958 - Belinda Carlisle,
singer, guitarist
- 1958 - Kirk Stevens, Canadian snooker player
- 1959 - David Koresh, cult leader (d. 1993)
- 1960 - Sean Penn, actor, director
- 1964 - Colin James, blues
musician
- 1968 - Ed McCaffrey, American football player
- 1969 - Donnie Wahlberg,
actor, singer
- 1970 - Jim Courier, former tennis champion
- 1971 - Jorge Posada, Major League Baseball All-Star
- 1977 - Thierry Henry, French football star
- 1977 - Tarja Turunen,
leadsinger Nightwish
Deaths
- 1676 - Hans Jakob Christoph von Grimmelshausen, novelist
- 1850 - Don José de San Martín
- 1875 - Wilhelm Bleek,
linguist
- 1880 - Ole Bull, Norwegian Violinist
- 1896 - Bridget Driscoll,
world's first automobile fatality
- 1925 - Ioan Slavici,
Transylvanian writer of Romanian origin
- 1973 - Jean Barraqué,
composer
- 1973 - Paul Williams, singer (member of the Temptations)
- 1973 - Conrad Aiken, American Pulitzer Prize winning author
- 1979 - Vivian Vance, actress
- 1983 - Ira Gershwin,
lyricist
- 1987 - Rudolf Hess, former member
of Adolf Hitler's inner circle
- 1988 - Mohammad Zia
ul-Haq, president of Pakistan
- 1990 - Pearl Bailey, singer
- 2004 - Gérard Souzay, French
baritone (b. 1918)
Holidays and observances
August 16 - August 18 -
July 17 - September 17 --
listing of all days
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