August 17
August 17 is the 229th day of the year (230th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 136 days remaining.
Events
- 1427 - First band of gypsies visits Paris, according to an account of the citizen of Paris
- 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.
- 1864 - American Civil War: Confederate forces defeated Union troops at the Battle of Gainesville.
- 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.
- 1883 - Dominican Republic the first public performance of the Dominican National Anthem, Quisqueyanos valientes
- 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.
- 1918 - Bolshevik revolutionary leader Moisei Uritsky is assassinated.
- 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
- 1963 - A ferry linking remote islands off the coast of Okinawa sinks, killing 112.
- 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
- 1980 - Azaria Chamberlain disappears, likely taken by a dingo, leading to what was then the most publicised trial in Australian history.
- 1988 - Pakistani President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq and US Ambassador Arnold Raphel are killed in a plane crash.
- 1991 - Wade Frankum starts his killing spree in Strathfield, Australia, the event was later dubbed the Strathfield Massacre.
- 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.
- 2005 - The first forced evacuation of settlers, as part of the Israel unilateral disengagement plan, starts.
- 2005 - President Sellapan Ramanathan is declared President of Singapore for a second term at noon.
Births
- 1473 - Richard, Duke of York, one of the Princes in the Tower (d. 1483?)
- 1578 - Francesco Albani, Italian painter (d. 1660)
- 1601 - Pierre de Fermat, French mathematician (d. 1665)
- 1629 - King 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, Jamaican black leader, Rastafari prophet (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 (d. 1995)
- 1913 - W. Mark Felt, FBI associate director and Deep Throat Watergate informant
- 1913 - Rudy York, Major League Baseball All-Star (d. 1970)
- 1920 - Maureen O'Hara, actress
- 1926 - Jiang Zemin, former President of the People's Republic of China
- 1929 - Francis Gary Powers, U-2 pilot (d. 1977)
- 1930 - Glenn Corbett, actor (d. 1993)
- 1930 - Ted Hughes, English poet (d. 1998)
- 1932 - V. S. Naipaul, writer
- 1939 - Luther Allison, blues musician, guitarist
- 1943 - Robert De Niro, actor
- 1951 - Alan Minter, boxer
- 1952 - Nelson Piquet, Brazilian formula one driver
- 1952 - Guillermo Vilas, Argentinian tennis player
- 1954 - Eric Johnson, guitarist
- 1958 - Belinda Carlisle, singer, guitarist
- 1958 - Kirk Stevens, Canadian snooker player
- 1959 - David Koresh, cult leader (d. 1993)
- 1960 - Sean Penn, actor, director
- 1962 - Gilby Clarke, musician Guns N' Roses
- 1964 - Colin James, blues musician
- 1966 - Rodney Mullen, Skateboarder
- 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
- 1977 - William Gallas, French football defender
Deaths
- 1304 - Go-Fukakusa, Emperor of Japan (b. 1243)
- 1676 - Hans Jakob Christoph von Grimmelshausen, German novelist
- 1673 - Regnier de Graaf, Dutch physician and anatomist (b. 1641)
- 1720 - Anne Lefèvre, French scholar (b. 1654)
- 1723 - Joseph Bingham, English scholar (b. 1668)
- 1786 - King Frederick II of Prussia (b. 1712)
- 1832 - Husein Gradaščević, Bosniak rebel
- 1850 - Don José de San Martín, Argentine general
- 1875 - Wilhelm Bleek, linguist
- 1880 - Ole Bull, Norwegian violinist
- 1896 - Bridget Driscoll, world's first automobile fatality
- 1901 - Edmond Audran, French composer (b. 1842)
- 1925 - Ioan Slavici, Transylvanian writer of Romanian origin
- 1929 - Elek Benedek, Hungarian writer (b. 1859)
- 1954 - Billy Murray, early popular recording artist (b. 1877)
- 1969 - Otto Stern, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1888)
- 1973 - Jean Barraqué, French composer
- 1973 - Paul Williams, American singer (The Temptations)
- 1973 - Conrad Aiken, American author (b. 1889)
- 1979 - Vivian Vance, actress
- 1983 - Ira Gershwin, American lyricist
- 1987 - Rudolf Hess, Adolf Hitler's deputy in the Nazi party (b. 1894)
- 1988 - Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, President of Pakistan (b. 1924)
- 1990 - Pearl Bailey, singer (b. 1918)
- 2004 - Gérard Souzay, French baritone (b. 1918)
- 2005 - John Bahcall, Astrophysicist
Holidays and observances
- Roman Empire - Portunalia in honor of Portunes (god of ports)
- RC saints - Saint Hyacinth (apostle of Poland, patron of Lithuania)
- Gabon - National Day (indepencence from France, 1960)
- Indonesia - Independence Day (proclamation of independence from the Netherlands, 1945)
- Rastafari movement - celebration of the birth of Marcus Garvey
External links
August 16 - August 18 - July 17 - September 17 -- listing of all days