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August 17 is the 229th day of the year (230th in leap years)
in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 136 days remaining.
Events
- 1807 - The Clermont, 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.
- 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.
- 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 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.
- 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.
- 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 another planet.
- 1978 - Double Eagle II becomes first balloon to cross the
Atlantic Ocean when it lands in Miserey near Paris, 137 hours after leaving Preque 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.
- 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.
Births
- 1601 - Pierre de Fermat,
mathematician
- 1629 - John III of
Poland (d. 1696)
- 1786 - Davy Crockett,
frontiersman, soldier (d. 1836)
- 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
- 1920 - Maureen O'Hara,
actress
- 1929 - Jiang Zemin, President of the
People's Republic of China
- 1929 - Francis Gary
Powers, U-2 pilot (d. 1977)
- 1930 - Glenn Corbett, actor (d. 1933)
- 1932 - V. S. Naipaul, writer
- 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
- 1969 - Donnie Wahlberg,
actor, singer
- 1977 - Thierry Henry, French football star
Deaths
Holidays and observances
August 16 - August 18 -
July 17 - September 17 --
listing of all days
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