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
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 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 and the most famous wrongful conviction when her parents are found guilty of murder.
1988 - Pakistani President Muhammad 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 )
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
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
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
Deaths
1676 - Hans Jakob Christoph von Grimmelshausen , German 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 , French composer
1973 - Paul Williams , American singer (member of the Temptations)
1973 - Conrad Aiken , American Pulitzer Prize winning 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
2004 - Gérard Souzay , French baritone (b. 1918 )
Holidays and observances
External links
August 16 - August 18 - July 17 - September 17 -- listing of all days
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