See what makes August 17 special at Famous Daily.
History, birthdays, holiday, and a quote!
What happened on August 17
- August 17, 1227 Death of the Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan.
- August 17, 1717 "George Boone, the grandfather of pioneer and American folk hero Daniel Boone sails to America from Bradninch, England"
- August 17, 1787 Jews are granted permission in Budapest Hungary to pray in groups
- August 17, 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."
- August 17, 1807 Robert Fulton's steamboat Clermont begins 1st trip up Hudson River
- August 17, 1812 Frigate President captures British schooner L'Adeline in North Atlantic
- August 17, 1846 US takes Los Angeles
- August 17, 1850 "Jose de San Martin, liberator of Chile, dies."
- August 17, 1859 Circus acrobat Blondin crosses Niagara Falls on a tightrope.
- August 17, 1862 Indian Wars: The Lakota (Sioux) Dakota War of 1862 begins in Minnesota as vicious Lakota attack white settlements along the Minnesota River.
- August 17, 1863 "Federal batteries & ships bombard Fort Sumter, Charleston"
- August 17, 1869 The first international boat race (Thames River) (Oxford beats Harvard)
- August 17, 1870 "Mrs Esther Morris becomes 1st woman magistrate (South Pass, Wyoming)"
- August 17, 1870 "The first ascent of Mt Rainier, Washington"
- August 17, 1870 Western Australia is granted representative government
- August 17, 1883 "The first public performance of the Dominican Republic's national anthem, Quisqueyanos valientes."
- August 17, 1896 Gold is discovered on Klondike River
- August 17, 1907 "Pike Place Market, the longest continuously-running public farmers market in the US, opened in Seattle."
- August 17, 1908 Bank of Italy opens new HQ at Clay & Montgomery
- August 17, 1914 The Belgian government moves its offices from Brussels to Antwerp.
- August 17, 1915 "Jewish American Leo Frank is lynched for the alleged murder of a 13-year-old girl in Marietta, Georgia."
- August 17, 1915 "Mob lynches Jewish businessman Leo Frank in Cobb County, Ga after death sentence for murder of 13-year-old girl commuted to life"
- August 17, 1915 "SS Glenby, this Ropner ship was sunk by gunfire from a U boat St. George's Channel. The Germans then machine gunned the survivors in the life boats, killing two and seriously wounding two others"
- August 17, 1918 Bolshevik revolutionary leader Moisei Uritsky is assassinated.
- August 17, 1918 "Samuel Riddle buys Man o'War for $5,000"
- August 17, 1938 Henry Armstrong won his 3rd concurrent boxing championship
- August 17, 1940 FDR & Canadian PM William M King agree to joint defense commission
- August 17, 1942 "Submarines USS Nautilus and USS Argonaut land 222 Marines on Makin Island, first amphibious attack made from submarines"
- August 17, 1942 U.S. Marines raid the Japanese-held Pacific island of Makin (Butaritari).
- August 17, 1942 "US bombers staged 1st independent raid on Europe attack Rouen, France"
- August 17, 1943 "World War II: First Qubec Conference of Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and William Lyon Mackenzie King begins."
- August 17, 1943 World War II: The U.S. Eighth Air Force suffers the loss of 60 bombers on the Schweinfurt-Regensburg mission.
- August 17, 1945 Indonesia declares independence from Netherlands (National Day)
- August 17, 1945 Indonesia proclaims its independence from Holland.
- August 17, 1945 Indonesian Declaration of Independence. Animal Farm by George Orwell is first published by Fredric Warburg
- August 17, 1947 "The Radcliffe Line, the border between Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan is revealed."
- August 17, 1948 Alger Hiss denies ever being a Communist agent
- August 17, 1950 Indonesia gains independence from the Netherlands
- August 17, 1951 "Hurricane winds drive 6 ships ashore, Kingston, Jamaica"
- August 17, 1953 Addiction: First meeting of Narcotics Anonymous in Southern California.
- August 17, 1955 "Hurricane Diane, following hurricane Connie floods Connecticut River killing 190 & doing $1.8 billion damage"
- August 17, 1958 "World's 1st Moon probe, US's Thor-Able, explodes at T +77 sec"
- August 17, 1959 7.1 quake strikes Yellowstone National Park
- August 17, 1959 "ADM Arleigh Burke reappointed CNO for 3rd 2 year term, serving longest term as CNO"
- August 17, 1959 Quake Lake: Quake Lake was formed by a 7.5 rated earthquake in Montana.
- August 17, 1960 Decolonization: Gabon gains independence from France.
- August 17, 1960 Francis Gary Powers U-2 spy trial opens in Moscow
- August 17, 1960 Gabon gains independence from France (National Day)
- August 17, 1960 The west African country of Gabon gains its independence from France.
- August 17, 1961 Kennedy administration establishes Alliance for Progress
- August 17, 1962 Beatles replaces Pete Best with Ringo Starr
- August 17, 1962 "E German border guards shot & kill Peter Fechter, 18, attempting to cross Berlin Wall into western sector"
- August 17, 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.
- August 17, 1962 "Navy's first hydrofoil patrol craft, USS High Point (PCH-1) launched at Seattle, WA"
- August 17, 1963 "A ferry linking remote islands off the coast of Okinawa sinks, killing 112."
- August 17, 1966 Pioneer 7 launched into solar orbit
- August 17, 1969 "Category 5 Hurricane Camille hits the Mississippi coast, killing 248 people and causing $1.5 billion in damage."
- August 17, 1969 Hurricane Camille claims more than 250
- August 17, 1970 Venera 7 launched by USSR for soft landing on Venus
- August 17, 1970 Venera Program: Venera 7 launched. It will later become the first spacecraft to successfully transmit data from the surface of another planet (Venus).
- August 17, 1972 In New Britain a 7.1 earthquake caused a two-foot tsunami at Pomino on southeast New Britain
- August 17, 1972 Phillies Steve Carlton wins his 15th straight game
- August 17, 1973 Lee Trevino's 1st hole-in-one
- August 17, 1973 US archaeologists in Greece uncover evidence that people went to sea as early as 7500 BC
- August 17, 1974 Number one hit on UK music charts - Three Degrees - When Will I See You Again
- August 17, 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."
- August 17, 1978 The first manned balloon crossing of Atlantic Ocean (Eagle II)
- August 17, 1979 "Two Soviet Aeroflot jetliners collide in mid-air over Ukraine, killing 156"
- August 17, 1979 "Vivian Vance actress (Ethel Mertz-I Love Lucy), dies at 72"
- August 17, 1980 "Azaria Chamberlain disappears, likely taken by a dingo, leading to what was then the most publicised trial in Australian history."
- August 17, 1980 Midway relieved Constellation to begin another Indian Ocean deployment and complement Eisenhower task group still on contingency duty in the Arabian Sea
- August 17, 1982 "Barney Phillips actor (Dragnet, Felony Squad), dies at 68"
- August 17, 1982 "South Bend, Ind jury acquits self-avowed racist Joseph Paul Franklin"
- August 17, 1982 The first Compact Discs (CD's) were released to the public in Germany.
- August 17, 1983 "Ira Gershwin lyricist, dies in Beverly Hills, Cal, at 86"
- August 17, 1985 Dave Kingman hits his 400th HR
- August 17, 1985 Rajiv Gandhi announces Punjab state elections in India
- August 17, 1986 Bronze pig statue unveiled at Seattle's Pike Place Market
- August 17, 1987 "Rudolph Hess Nazi, dies at 93, after 46 years in Spandau Prison"
- August 17, 1988 "Franklin D Roosevelt Jr (Rep-D-NY, 1949-55), dies on 74th birthday"
- August 17, 1988 LIRR says Penn station will get air conditioning in 1991
- August 17, 1988 "Mohammad Zia Ul-Haq pres of Pakistan (1978-88), dies at 63 in plane crash"
- August 17, 1988 NYC 1st case of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (9 year old Bronx boy)
- August 17, 1988 Pakistani President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq and U.S. Ambassador Arnold Raphel are killed in a plane crash.
- August 17, 1990 """The Exorcist 3"" premiers"
- August 17, 1990 "Pearl Bailey broadway actress/singer, dies at 72 from a heart attack"
- August 17, 1990 Phyllis Polander sues Mike Tyson for sexual harassment
- August 17, 1991 "Wade Frankum runs amok with automatic rifle and knife at Strathfield in Sydney, killing seven people and himself."
- August 17, 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."
- August 17, 1999 "A 7.4-magnitude earthquake strikes zmit, Turkey, killing more than 17,000 and injuring 44,000."
- August 17, 2004 MD5 collision found by Chinese researchers.
- August 17, 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.
- August 17, 2005 "The first forced evacuation of settlers, as part of the Israel unilateral disengagement plan, starts."
- August 17, 2007 "Disney Channel's High School Musical 2 debuted in the United States and on Family Channel in Canada, making it the most watched US basic cable show in recorded history, a record that would stand until ESPN's telecast of the Monday Night Football game between the New England Patriots and the Baltimore Ravens on December 3rd of that year."
- August 17, 2009 "A bomb explodes on a truck at a fuel station in Charsadda, North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan (20 km from Peshawar), killing seven people."
- August 17, 2009 "A suicide bomber explodes a truck at a police station in Nazran in Russia's North Caucasus, killing at least 20 people and wounding about 60 others."
- August 17, 2009 An accident at the Sayano?Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station in Russia kills seven and causes power shortages in Siberia.
- August 17, 2009 Japan officially exits the recession.
- August 17, 2009 "The actor Miguel Magno, of the series Toma LÂ , DÂ CÂ dies at the age 58."
- August 17, 2009 The Canadian Forces begin exercises to protect Canada's sovereignty in the far north.
- August 17, 2009 "The MV Arctic Sea, a cargo ship missing after an apparent hijacking in July off the Swedish coast, is discovered by the Russian Navy off Cape Verde."
- August 17, 2011 San Francisco Bay Area Transit System website hacked - a hacker publicly posted the home addresses and other info of all 102 police officers with the Bay Area Transit System
|
|
|
|
