August 17

August 17 is the 229th day of the year (230th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 136 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

• 986 – A Byzantine army is destroyed in the pass of Trajan's Gate by the Bulgarians under the Comitopuli Samuel and Aron. The Byzantine emperor Basil II narrowly escaped.
• 1807 – Robert Fulton's North River 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: The Dakota War of 1862 begins in Minnesota as Lakota warriors attack white settlements along the Minnesota River.
• 1862 – American Civil War: Major General J.E.B. Stuart is assigned command of all the cavalry of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia.
• 1863 – American Civil War: In Charleston, South Carolina, Union batteries and ships bombard Confederate-held Fort Sumter.
• 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Gainesville – Confederate forces defeat Union troops near Gainesville, Florida.
• 1883 – The first public performance of the Dominican Republic's national anthem, Himno Nacional.
• 1907 – Pike Place Market, a popular tourist destination and registered historic district in Seattle, opened.
• 1908 – Fantasmagorie, the first animated cartoon, created by Émile Cohl, is shown in Paris.
• 1914 – World War I: Battle of Stalluponen – The German army of General Hermann von François defeats the Russian force commanded by Pavel Rennenkampf near modern-day Nesterov, Russia.
• 1915 – Jewish American Leo Frank is lynched for the alleged murder of a 13-year-old girl in Marietta, Georgia, United States.
• 1915 – A Category 4 hurricane hits Galveston, Texas with winds at 135 miles per hour (217 km/h).
• 1918 – Bolshevik revolutionary leader Moisei Uritsky is assassinated.
• 1942 – World War II: U.S. Marines raid the Japanese-held Pacific island of Makin (Butaritari).
• 1943 – World War II: The U.S. Eighth Air Force suffers the loss of 60 bombers on the Schweinfurt–Regensburg mission.
• 1943 – World War II: The U.S. Seventh Army under General George S. Patton arrives 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.
• 1943 – World War II: First Québec Conference of Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and William Lyon Mackenzie King begins.
• 1943 – World War II: The Royal Air Force begins Operation Hydra, the first air raid of the Operation Crossbow strategic bombing campaign against Germany's V-weapon programme.
• 1945 – Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta proclaim the independence of Indonesia, igniting the Indonesian National Revolution against the Dutch Empire.
• 1947 – The Radcliffe Line, the border between Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan is revealed.
• 1950 – Hill 303 massacre: American POWs were massacred by North Korean Army.
• 1953 – Addiction: First meeting of Narcotics Anonymous in Southern California.
• 1959 – Quake Lake is formed by the magnitude 7.5 1959 Yellowstone earthquake near Hebgen Lake in Montana.
• 1959 – Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, the much acclaimed and highly influential best selling jazz recording of all time, is released.
• 1960 – Decolonization: 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 becoming one of the first victims of the wall.
• 1969 – Category 5 Hurricane Camille hits the Mississippi coast, killing 248 people and causing $1.5 billion in damage.
• 1970 – Venera Program: Venera 7 launched. It will later become 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, probably taken by a dingo, leading to what was then the most publicised trial in Australian history.
• 1982 – The first Compact Discs (CDs) are released to the public in Germany.
• 1988 – Pakistani President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq and U.S. 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 the relationship.
• 1999 – A 7.4-magnitude earthquake strikes İzmit, Turkey, killing more than 17,000 and injuring 44,000.
• 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 – Over 500 bombs are set off by terrorists at 300 locations in 63 out of the 64 districts of Bangladesh
• 2008 – American swimmer Michael Phelps becomes the first person to win eight gold medals in one Olympic Games.
• 2009 – An accident at the Sayano–Shushenskaya Dam in Khakassia, Russia, kills 75 and shuts down the hydroelectric power station, leading to widespread power failure in the local area.

Births

• 1473 – Richard, Duke of York
• 1556 – Alexander Briant, English Jesuit and martyr (d. 1581)
• 1578 – Francesco Albani, Italian painter (d. 1660)
• 1601 – Pierre de Fermat, French mathematician (d. 1665)
• 1629 – King John III of Poland (d. 1696)
• 1686 – Nicola Porpora, Italian composer (d. 1768)
• 1753 – Josef Dobrovský, Czech linguist (d. 1828)
• 1768 – Louis Charles Antoine Desaix, French general (d. 1800)
• 1786 – Davy Crockett, American frontiersman and soldier (d. 1836)
• 1786 – Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, mother of Queen Victoria (d. 1861)
• 1794 – Prince Alexander of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst, German priest (d. 1849)
• 1828 – Jules Bernard Luys, French neurologist (d. 1897)
• 1840 – Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, English poet and writer (d. 1922)
• 1844 – Emperor Menelek II of Ethiopia (d. 1913)
• 1863 – Gene Stratton-Porter, American author and naturalist (d. 1924)
• 1866 – Mir Mahboob Ali Khan, 6th Nizam of Hyderabad (d. 1911)
• 1866 – Julia Marlowe, English actress (d. 1950)
• 1873 – John A. Sampson, American gynecologist (d. 1946)
• 1878 – Reggie Duff, Australian cricketer (d. 1911)
• 1880 – Percy Sherwell, South African cricketer (d. 1948)
• 1887 – Marcus Garvey, Jamaican-born Black rights activist (d. 1940)
• 1887 – Charles I of Austria (d. 1922)
• 1888 – Monty Woolley, American actor (d. 1963)
• 1890 – Harry Hopkins, 8th United States Secretary of Commerce (d. 1946)
• 1890 – Stefan Bastyr, Polish aviator (d. 1920)
• 1893 – Mae West, American actress (d. 1980)
• 1895 – Aris Maliagros, Greek actor (d. 1984)
• 1896 – Leslie Groves, American military engineer (d. 1970)
• 1904 – Leopold Nowak, Austrian musicologist (d. 1991)
• 1904 – Mary Cain, American newspaper editor and politician (d. 1984)
• 1909 – Larry Clinton, American trumpeter and bandleader (d. 1985)
• 1911 – Mikhail Botvinnik, Russian chess player (d. 1995)
• 1911 – Martin Sandberger, German military officer (d. 2010)
• 1913 – W. Mark Felt, American Watergate informant (d. 2008)
• 1913 – Rudy York, American baseball player (d. 1970)
• 1913 – Óscar Alfredo Gálvez, Argentine racing driver (d. 1989)
• 1914 – Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr., son of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (d. 1988)
• 1916 – Moses Majekodunmi, Nigerian politician (d. 2012)
• 1919 – Georgia Gibbs, American singer (d. 2006)
• 1920 – Maureen O'Hara, Irish actress
• 1921 – Geoffrey Rudolph Elton, British historian (d. 1994)
• 1922 – Roy Tattersall, England cricketer (d. 2011)
• 1926 – Jiang Zemin, Chinese politician
• 1926 – Valerie Eliot, surviving widow and second wife of the Nobel prize-winning poet, T. S. Eliot.
• 1926 – George Melly, British singer (d. 2007)
• 1926 – Jean Poiret, French actor, director and screenwriter (d. 1992)
• 1928 – T. J. Anderson, African American composer, conductor, orchestrator and educator
• 1929 – Francis Gary Powers, American U-2 pilot (d. 1977)
• 1929 – Jimmy Donley, American singer (d. 1963)
• 1930 – Glenn Corbett, American actor (d. 1993)
• 1930 – Ted Hughes, English poet (d. 1998)
• 1932 – V. S. Naipaul, West Indian writer, Nobel Laureate
• 1933 – Eugene F. Kranz, American NASA executive
• 1933 – Mark Dinning, American singer (d. 1986)
• 1935 – Oleg Tabakov, Russian actor
• 1936 – Floyd Red Crow Westerman, Native American musician and actor (d. 2007)
• 1937 – Ronnie Butler, singer
• 1937 – Spiros Focás, Greek actor
• 1938 – Abu Bakar Bashir, Indonesian Muslim cleric
• 1938 – Theodoros Pangalos, Greek politician
• 1939 – Luther Allison, American musician (d. 1997)
• 1939 – Anthony Valentine, British actor
• 1940 – Eduardo Mignogna, Argentinian film director (d. 2006)
• 1941 – Jean Pierre Lefebvre, French Canadian film director
• 1941 – Boog Powell, American baseball player
• 1943 – Robert De Niro, American actor
• 1943 – John Humphrys Welsh broadcaster and journalist
• 1943 – Dave "Snaker" Ray, American musician (d. 2002)
• 1944 – Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle Corporation, billionaire
• 1946 – Martha Coolidge, American film director
• 1946 – Patrick Manning, 4th and 6th Prime Minister of Trinidad & Tobago
• 1947 – Gary Talley, American musician (Box Tops)
• 1947 – Sylvia Nasar, German-born American economist and author
• 1948 – Rod MacDonald, American musician
• 1949 – Sib Hashian, American musician (Boston)
• 1949 – Norm Coleman, American politician
• 1951 – Wesley Eure, American actor
• 1951 – Robert Joy, Canadian actor
• 1951 – Alan Minter, British boxer
• 1952 – Nelson Piquet, Brazilian race car driver
• 1952 – Dr. Mario Theissen, German F1 team principal of BMW Sauber
• 1952 – Guillermo Vilas, Argentinian tennis player
• 1953 – Michael Malthouse, Premiership winning Australian football coach
• 1953 – Judith Regan, American book publisher
• 1953 – Kevin Rowland, English musician (Dexys Midnight Runners)
• 1954 – Eric Johnson, American guitarist
• 1955 – Richard Hilton, American heir
• 1955 – Colin Moulding, English bass player, singer and songwriter (XTC)
• 1955 – Kevin Welch, American country music singer-songwriter
• 1956 – Gail Berman, American film executive
• 1956 – Álvaro Pino, Spanish cyclist
• 1957 – Robin Cousins, British figure skater
• 1957 – Laurence Overmire, American poet and actor
• 1958 – Belinda Carlisle, American singer
• 1958 – Fred Goodwin, British banker
• 1958 – Kirk Stevens, Canadian snooker player
• 1959 – Chika Sakamoto, Japanese voice actress and singer
• 1959 – Jonathan Franzen, American author
• 1959 – David Koresh, American cult leader (d. 1993)
• 1959 – Eric Schlosser, American author
• 1960 – Stephan Eicher, Swiss singer
• 1960 – Sean Penn, American actor and director
• 1962 – Gilby Clarke, American musician (Guns N' Roses)
• 1962 – John Marshall Jones, American actor
• 1962 – Buddy Landel, American professional wrestler
• 1962 – Pierre Sanoussi-Bliss, German actor and director
• 1963 – Jon Gruden, American football coach
• 1963 – S. Shankar, Indian film director
• 1964 – Colin James, Canadian musician
• 1964 – Maria McKee, American singer
• 1966 – Maysa Leak, American jazz singer
• 1966 – Rodney Mullen, American skateboarder
• 1966 – Don Sweeney, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1967 – David Conrad, American actor
• 1967 – Kevin Max, American singer (dc talk)
• 1967 – Spencer Rice, Canadian Actor
• 1968 – Ed McCaffrey, American football player
• 1968 – Helen McCrory, English actress
• 1969 – Christian Laettner, American basketball player
• 1969 – Donnie Wahlberg, American actor and singer (New Kids On The Block)
• 1969 – Kelvin Mercer, American rapper (De La Soul)
• 1970 – Jim Courier, American tennis player
• 1970 – Rupert Degas, English actor and voice artist
• 1970 – Øyvind Leonhardsen, Norwegian footballer
• 1971 – Uhm Jung-hwa, South Korean singer and actress
• 1971 – Jorge Posada, Puerto Rican baseball player
• 1971 – Shaun Rehn, Australian Rules footballer
• 1972 – Habibul Bashar, Bangladeshi cricketer
• 1972 – Ken Ryker, American pornographic actor
• 1974 – Tony Hajjar, Lebanese musician (At the Drive-In, Sparta)
• 1974 – Nicola Kraus, American novelist
• 1975 – Giuliana DePandi, Italian-born American television personality
• 1976 – Scott Halberstadt, American actor
• 1976 – Geertjan Lassche, Dutch reporter
• 1977 – Nathan Deakes, Australian race walker
• 1977 – William Gallas, French footballer
• 1977 – Thierry Henry, French footballer
• 1977 – Tarja Turunen, Finnish singer
• 1977 – Matthew Oakley, English footballer
• 1978 – Karena Lam, Hong Kong actress
• 1978 – Vibeke Stene, Norwegian singer (Tristania)
• 1979 – Antwaan Randle El, American football player
• 1979 – Marcus Patric, British actor
• 1980 – Keith Dabengwa, Zimbabwean cricketer
• 1980 – Jan Kromkamp, Dutch footballer
• 1980 – Daniel Güiza, Spanish footballer
• 1980 – Lene Marlin, Norwegian singer
• 1981 – Kristin Holt, American television personality
• 1982 – Cheerleader Melissa, American professional wrestler
• 1982 – Phil Jagielka, English footballer
• 1982 – Mark Salling, American actor and singer
• 1983 – Dustin Pedroia, American baseball player
• 1984 – Dee Brown, American basketball player
• 1984 – Garrett Wolfe, American football player
• 1985 – Yū Aoi, Japanese actress
• 1986 – Rudy Gay, American basketball player
• 1986 – Tyrus Thomas, American basketball player
• 1986 – Bryton McClure, American actor & singer
• 1987 – Kemp Muhl, American model, actress & singer
• 1987 – Matthew Shultz, American musician (Cage the Elephant)
• 1988 – Brady Corbet, American actor
• 1988 – Erika Toda, Japanese actress
• 1988 – Nichole Cordova, American performer (Girlicious)
• 1989 – Elena Hight, American snowboarder
• 1989 – Frederick Lau, German actor
• 1989 – Lil B, American rapper
• 1990 – Colin Bates, American actor
• 1990 – Rachel Hurd-Wood, British actress
• 1991 – Austin Butler, American actor
• 1991 – Qory Sandioriva, Indonesian beauty queen, Puteri Indonesia 2009
• 1996 – Ella Cruz, Filipina actress

Deaths

• 1153 – Eustace IV of Boulogne, son of Stephen of England (b. 1130)
• 1304 – Emperor Go-Fukakusa of Japan (b. 1243)
• 1510 – Edmund Dudley, English statesman (b. 1462)
• 1657 – Robert Blake, British admiral (b. 1599)
• 1673 – Regnier de Graaf, Dutch physician and anatomist (b. 1641)
• 1676 – Hans Jakob Christoph von Grimmelshausen, German novelist (b. 1621)
• 1720 – Anne Lefèvre, French scholar (b. 1654)
• 1723 – Joseph Bingham, English scholar (b. 1668)
• 1768 – Vasily Kirillovich Trediakovsky, Russian poet (b. 1703)
• 1785 – Jonathan Trumbull, Governor of Connecticut (b. 1710)
• 1786 – King Frederick II of Prussia (b. 1712)
• 1834 – Husein Gradaščević, Bosnian rebel leader (b. 1802)
• 1838 – Lorenzo Da Ponte, Italian librettist (b. 1749)
• 1850 – José de San Martín, Argentine general (b. 1778)
• 1861 – Alcée Louis la Branche, American Politician (b. 1806)
• 1870 – Pedro Figueredo, Cuban poet, musician, and freedom fighter of the 19th century (b. 1818)
• 1875 – Wilhelm Bleek, German linguist (b. 1827)
• 1880 – Ole Bull, Norwegian violinist (b. 1810)
• 1896 – Bridget Driscoll, British automobile fatality
• 1897 – Sir William Jervois, British colonial administrator, Governor-General of New Zealand (b. 1821)
• 1901 – Edmond Audran, French composer (b. 1842)
• 1903 – Hans Gude, Norwegian landscape painter (b. 1825)
• 1909 – Madan Lal Dhingra, Indian Revolutionary (b. 1883)
• 1918 – Moisei Uritsky, Russian revolutionary (b. 1873)
• 1920 – Ray Chapman, American baseball player (b. 1891)
• 1924 – Tom Kendall, Australian cricketer (b. 1851)
• 1925 – Ioan Slavici, Transylvanian writer (b. 1848)
• 1935 – Charlotte Perkins Gilman, American feminist and writer (b. 1860)
• 1940 – Billy Fiske, American aviator (b. 1911)
• 1945 – Reidar Haaland, Norwegian Nazi collaborator (b. 1919)
• 1949 – Gregorio Perfecto, Filipino jurist and politician (b. 1891)
• 1954 – Billy Murray, American recording artist (b. 1877)
• 1962 – Peter Fechter, East German defector (b. 1944)
• 1964 – Happy Felsch, American baseball player best known for his involvement in the Black Sox Scandal
• 1969 – Otto Stern, German physicist, Nobel laureate (b. 1888)
• 1970 – Rattana Pestonji, Thai filmmaker (b. 1908)
• 1971 – Wilhelm List, German field marshal (b. 1880)
• 1971 – Maedayama Eigorō, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 39th Yokozuna (b. 1914)
• 1973 – Jean Barraqué, French composer (b. 1928)
• 1973 – Paul Williams, American singer (The Temptations) (b. 1939)
• 1973 – Conrad Aiken, American author (b. 1889)
• 1976 – William Redfield, American actor (b. 1927)
• 1979 – John C. Allen, American roller coaster designer (b. 1907)
• 1979 – Vivian Vance, American actress (b. 1909)
• 1983 – Ira Gershwin, American lyricist (b. 1896)
• 1987 – Rudolf Hess, Nazi deputy (b. 1894)
• 1987 – Shaike Ophir, Israeli actor (b. 1929)
• 1987 – Gary Chester, Italian studio drummer (b. 1924)
• 1988 – Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, Pakistani politician, Former Martial Law Administrator and President of Pakistan (b. 1924)
• 1988 – Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr., son of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (b. 1914)
• 1988 – Victoria Shaw, Australian-born American actress (b. 1935)
• 1990 – Pearl Bailey, American singer and actress (b. 1918)
• 1992 – Al Parker, American adult film actor (b. 1952)
• 1993 – Feng Kang, Chinese mathematician (b. 1920)
• 1994 – Luigi Chinetti, Italian-American race car driver and team owner (b. 1901)
• 1994 – Jack Sharkey, American boxer (b. 1902)
• 1995 – Howard Koch, American screenwriter (b. 1902)
• 1995 – Ted Whitten, Australian rules footballer (b. 1933)
• 1998 – Wladyslaw Komar, Polish track and field athlete (b. 1940)
• 1998 – Raquel Rastenni, Danish singer (b. 1915)
• 1998 – Tadeusz Slusarski, Polish track and field athlete (b. 1950)
• 2003 – Mazen Dana, Palestinian journalist (b. 1962)
• 2004 – Thea Astley, Australian writer (b. 1925)
• 2004 – Gérard Souzay, French baritone (b. 1918)
• 2005 – John Bahcall, American astrophysicist (b. 1934)
• 2006 – Shamsur Rahman, Bangladeshi poet, columnist and journalist (b. 1929)
• 2007 – Bill Deedes, British journalist and politician (b. 1913)
• 2007 – Eddie Griffin, American basketball player (b. 1982)
• 2008 – Franco Sensi, Italian businessman and football team owner (b. 1926)
• 2010 – Francesco Cossiga, Italian politician and eighth President of the Italian Republic (b. 1928)

Holidays and observances

• Christian Feast Day:
  • Clare of the Cross
  • Hyacinth of Poland
  • Mammes of Caesarea (Roman Catholic Church)
  • August 17 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
• Independence Day, celebrates the proclamation of Indonesia's independence from Japan in 1945.
• Portunalia (Roman Empire)
• Prekmurje Union Day (Slovenia)
• San Martin Day (Argentina)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: August 17

• BBC: On This Day
• The New York Times: On This Day
• On This Day in Canada