From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
August 17 is the 229th day of the year (230th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 136 days remaining.
[edit] Events
- 1427 - First band of Gypsies visits Paris, according to an account of the citizen of Paris.
- 1717 - George Boone, the grandfather of pioneer Daniel Boone sails to America from Bradninch, England
- 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.
- 1862 - Indian Wars: The Lakota (Sioux) Dakota War of 1862 begins in Minnesota as desperate Lakota attack white settlements along the Minnesota River.
- 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.
- 1877 - After he is fatally wounded, Arizona blacksmith F.P. Cahill becomes the first person killed by Billy the Kid.
- 1883 - The first public performance of the Dominican Republic's national anthem, Quisqueyanos valientes.
- 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.
- 1918 - Bolshevik revolutionary leader Moisei Uritsky is assassinated.
- 1933 - New York Yankees first baseman Lou Gehrig played his 1,308th consecutive game, breaking Everett Scott's record. He would continue the streak until 1939.
- 1942 - 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 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.
- 1943 - World War II: First Québec Conference of Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and William Lyon Mackenzie King begins.
- 1945 - Indonesian Declaration of Independence.
- 1953 - Addiction: First meeting of Narcotics Anonymous in Southern California.
- 1959 - Quake Lake: Quake Lake was formed by a 7.5 rated earthquake in Montana.
- 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 becoming 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 $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, 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 U.S. Ambassador Arnold Raphel are killed in a plane crash.
- 1991 - Wade Frankum starts his killing spree in Strathfield, Australia, an event that 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 İzmit, Turkey, killing more than 17,000 and injuring 44,000.
- 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.
[edit] Births
- 1473 - Richard, Duke of York, one of the Princes in the Tower (d. 1483?)
- 1562 - Hans Leo Hassler (baptised), German composer (d. 1612)
- 1578 - Francesco Albani, Italian painter (d. 1660)
- 1601 - Pierre de Fermat, French mathematician (d. 1665)
- 1629 - King John III of Poland (d. 1696)
- 1768 - Louis Charles Antoine Desaix, French general (d. 1800)
- 1786 - Davy Crockett, American frontiersman and soldier (d. 1836)
- 1794 - Prince Alexander of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst, German priest and miracle-worker (d. 1849)
- 1828 - Jules Bernard Luys, French neurologist (d. 1897)
- 1844 - Emperor Menelek II of Ethiopia (d. 1913)
- 1863 - Gene Stratton-Porter, American author and naturalist (d. 1924)
- 1866 - Nawab Mir Sir Mahbub Ali Khan Bahadur Fateh Jang, the sixth Nizam of Hyderabad (d. 1911)
- 1866 - Julia Marlowe, Shakespearean actress (d. 1950)
- 1873 - John A. Sampson, American gynecologist (d. 1946)
- 1882 - Samuel Goldwyn, Hollywood producer (d. 1974)
- 1887 - Marcus Garvey, Jamaican leader, Rastafari prophet (d. 1940)
- 1887 - Emperor Charles I of Austria (d. 1922)
- 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)
- 1896 - Leslie Groves, American military engineer (d. 1970)
- 1904 - Leopold Nowak, Austrian musicologist (d. 1991)
- 1904 - Mary Cain, Mississippi newspaper editor and politician (d. 1984)
- 1911 - Mikhail Botvinnik, chess player (d. 1995)
- 1913 - W. Mark Felt, FBI associate director and Watergate informant
- 1913 - Rudy York, baseball player (d. 1970)
- 1914 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr., son of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (d. 1988)
- 1920 - Maureen O'Hara, actress
- 1926 - Jiang Zemin, 3rd President of the People's Republic of China
- 1929 - Francis Gary Powers, U-2 pilot (d. 1977)
- 1930 - Glenn Corbett, American actor (d. 1993)
- 1930 - Ted Hughes, English poet (d. 1998)
- 1932 - V. S. Naipaul, West Indian-born writer, Nobel Prize Laureate
- 1933 - Eugene F. Kranz, NASA flight director
- 1935 - Oleg Tabakov, Russian actor
- 1938 - Abu Bakar Bashir, Indonesian Muslim cleric
- 1939 - Luther Allison, American blues guitarist
- 1943 - Robert De Niro, American actor
- 1943 - Dave "Snaker" Ray, American blues guitarist (d. 2002)
- 1948 - Rod MacDonald, American musician
- 1951 - Alan Minter, British boxer
- 1952 - Nelson Piquet, Brazilian 3 time Formula 1 World Champion
- 1952 - Guillermo Vilas, Argentinian tennis player
- 1953 - Judith Regan, American book publisher
- 1953 - Kevin Rowland, Irish musician (Dexys Midnight Runners)
- 1954 - Eric Johnson, American guitarist
- 1955 - Richard Hilton, American heir
- 1956 - Gail Berman, president of Paramount Pictures
- 1957 - Robin Cousins, British figure skater
- 1958 - Belinda Carlisle, American singer
- 1958 - Kirk Stevens, Canadian snooker player
- 1959 - David Koresh, American cult leader (d. 1993)
- 1959 - Jonathan Franzen, American author
- 1960 - Sean Penn, American actor and director
- 1962 - Gilby Clarke, American musician Guns N' Roses
- 1964 - Colin James, blues musician
- 1966 - Rodney Mullen, American skateboarder
- 1968 - Ed McCaffrey, American football player
- 1969 - Donnie Wahlberg, American actor and singer
- 1970 - Jim Courier, American tennis player
- 1970 - Rupert Degas, English actor and voice artist
- 1970 - Oyvind Leonhardsen, Norwegian footballer
- 1971 - Jorge Posada, Puerto Rican Major League Baseball player
- 1971 - Uhm Jung-hwa, South Korean singer and actress
- 1976 - Scott Halberstadt, American actor
- 1977 - Thierry Henry, French footballer
- 1977 - Tarja Turunen, Finnish singer (Nightwish)
- 1977 - William Gallas, French footballer
- 1978 - Vibeke Stene, Norwegian singer (Tristania)
- 1979 - Antwaan Randle El, American football player
- 1979 - Marcus Patric, British actor
- 1980 - Lene Marlin, Norwegian singer
- 1980 - Keith Dabengwa, Zimbabwean cricketer
- 1980 - Jan Kromkamp, Dutch footballer
- 1982 - Melissa Anderson, independent professional wrestler
- 1983 - Dustin Pedroia, Major League Baseball player
- 1984 - Dee Brown, American basketball player
- 1985 - Reda Wahid, Lebanese footballer
- 1986 - Rudy Gay, American basketball player
- 1986 - Tyrus Thomas, American basketball player
- 1988 - Erika Toda, Japanese actress
- 1990 - Rachel Hurd-Wood, British actress
[edit] 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 (N. S.) - Vasily Kirillovich Trediakovsky, Russian poet (b. 1703)
- 1785 - Jonathan Trumbull, Governor of the Colony and the state of Connecticut (b. 1710)
- 1786 - King Frederick II of Prussia (b. 1712)
- 1834 - Husein Gradaščević, Bosnian rebel leader (b. 1802)
- 1850 - Don José de San Martín, Argentine general (b. 1778)
- 1850 - Honoré de Balzac, French novelist (b. 1799)
- 1875 - Wilhelm Bleek, linguist (b. 1827)
- 1880 - Ole Bull, Norwegian violinist (b. 1810)
- 1896 - Bridget Driscoll, world's first automobile fatality
- 1901 - Edmond Audran, French composer (b. 1842)
- 1918 - Moisei Uritsky, Russian revolutionary (b. 1873)
- 1920 - Ray Chapman, American baseball player (b. 1891)
- 1925 - Ioan Slavici, Transylvanian writer of Romanian origin (b. 1848)
- 1940 - Billy Fiske, American aviator and Olympic athlete (b. 1911)
- 1954 - Billy Murray, American recording artist (b. 1877)
- 1962 - Peter Fechter trying to cross the Berlin Wall (b. 1944)
- 1969 - Otto Stern, German physicist, Nobel laureate (b. 1888)
- 1971 - Wilhelm List, German field marshal (b. 1880)
- 1973 - Jean Barraqué, French composer (b. 1928)
- 1973 - Paul Williams, American singer (The Temptations) (b. 1939)
- 1973 - Conrad Aiken, American author (b. 1889)
- 1979 - Vivian Vance, actress (b. 1909)
- 1983 - Ira Gershwin, American lyricist (b. 1896)
- 1987 - Rudolf Hess, Nazi deputy (b. 1894)
- 1988 - Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, 6th President of Pakistan (b. 1924)
- 1988 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr., son of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States (b. 1914)
- 1990 - Pearl Bailey, American singer and actress (b. 1918)
- 1992 - Al Parker, actor (b. 1952)
- 1995 - Howard Koch, American screenwriter (b. 1902)
- 1995 - Ted Whitten, Australian rules footballer (b. 1933)
- 2004 - Gérard Souzay, French baritone (b. 1918)
- 2005 - John Bahcall, astrophysicist (b. 1934)
[edit] Holidays and observances
[edit] Liturgical feasts
- Saint Elias of Calabria
- Saint Hyacinth of Poland
- Saint Hiero (Jeron), martyr [Utrecht]
- Octave of saint Lawrence [common]
- Saint Liberatus, abbot, and companions, martyrs
- Saint Mamas, martyr [Metz, France]
- Victory of French king Philip IV the Fair at Mons-en-Pévèle [Paris]
- Saint Clare of the Cross
[edit] External links
