August 17
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 until the end of the year.
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Births [change]
- 1473 – Richard, Duke of York, one of the Princes in the Tower (d. 1483?)
- 1586 – Johann Andreas Valentinus Andreae, German theologian, writer and mathematician (d. 1654)
- 1601 – Pierre de Fermat, French mathematician (d. 1665)
- 1603 – Lennart Torstensson, Swedish field marshal and military officer (d. 1651)
- 1629 – John III of Poland (d. 1696)
- 1686 – Nicola Porpora, Italian composer and teacher (d. 1768)
- 1735 – Tobias Furneaux, British explorer (d. 1781)
- 1768 – Louis Charles Antoine Desaix, French general (d. 1800)
- 1786 – Davy Crockett, American frontiersman, soldier (d. 1836)
- 1786 – Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, mother of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom (d. 1861)
- 1798 – Thomas Hodgkin, English physician (d. 1866)
- 1799 – Robert von Mohl, German jurist (d. 1875)
- 1801 – Fredrika Bremer, Swedish writer (d. 1865)
- 1844 – Menelik II, Emperor of Ethiopia (d. 1913)
- 1866 – Julia Marlowe, née Sarah Frost, Shakespearean actress (d. 1950)
- 1887 – Marcus Garvey, Jamaican-born American black leader (d. 1940)
- 1887 – Emperor Karl of Austria (d. 1922)
- 1890 – Harry Hopkins, American politician (d. 1946)
- 1890 – Stefan Bastyr, Polish aviator (d. 1920)
- 1893 – Mae West, American actress and playwright (d. 1980)
- 1896 – Johannes Kleiman, Dutch helper of Anne Frank (d. 1959)
- 1901 – Hedin Bru, Faroese writer (d. 1987)
- 1904 – Leopold Nowak, Austrian musicologist (d. 1991)
- 1911 – Mikhail Botvinnik, world chess champion (d. 1995)
- 1911 – Martin Sandberger, German military officer (d. 2010)
- 1913 – W. Mark Felt, American agent, 'Deep Throat' in the Watergate scandal (d. 2008)
- 1913 – Rudy York, American Major League Baseball All-Star (d. 1970)
- 1914 – Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jr., son of Franklin D. Roosevelt (d. 1988)
- 1920 – Maureen O'Hara, Irish actress
- 1926 – George Melly, British singer (d. 2007)
- 1926 – Jiang Zemin, former President of the People's Republic of China
- 1929 – Francis Gary Powers, American U-2 pilot (d. 1977)
- 1930 – Glenn Corbett, actor (d. 1993)
- 1930 – Ted Hughes, English poet (d. 1998)
- 1932 – V. S. Naipaul, Trinidad and Tobago-born writer
- 1933 – Tom Courtney, American athlete
- 1939 – Luther Allison, American blues musician, guitarist (d. 1997)
- 1941 – Lothar Bisky, German politician
- 1941 – Ibrahim Babangida, Nigerian military leader
- 1943 – Robert De Niro, American actor
- 1943 – John Humphrys, British broadcaster
- 1946 – Patrick Manning, former Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago
- 1947 – Mohamed Abdelaziz, Western Sahara politician
- 1949 – Julian Fellowes, English actor
- 1951 – Alan Minter, boxer
- 1952 – Nelson Piquet, Brazilian racing driver
- 1952 – Mario Theissen, German Formula 1 team principal
- 1952 – Guillermo Vilas, Argentine tennis player
- 1953 – Herta Müller, Romanian-German writer, Nobel Prize winner
- 1953 – Kevin Rowland, British musician
- 1957 – Robin Cousins, British figure skater
- 1958 – Belinda Carlisle, American singer, guitarist
- 1958 – Kirk Stevens, Canadian snooker player
- 1958 – Fred Goodwin, Scottish banker, former head of the Royal Bank of Scotland
- 1959 – David Koresh, American cult leader (d. 1993)
- 1960 – Sean Penn, American actor, director
- 1962 – Gilby Clarke, American musician (Guns N'Roses)
- 1964 – Colin James, American blues musician
- 1966 – Rodney Mullen, American skateboarder
- 1968 – Ed McCaffrey, American football player
- 1969 – Donnie Wahlberg, American actor, singer
- 1970 – Jim Courier, former tennis champion
- 1971 – Jorge Posada, American Major League Baseball All-Star
- 1972 – Habibul Bashar, Bangladeshi cricketer
- 1974 – Tomomi Kahala, Japanese singer
- 1977 – William Gallas, French footballer
- 1977 – Thierry Henry, French footballer
- 1977 – Tarja Turunen, Finnish lead singer of Nightwish
- 1980 – Jan Kromkamp, Dutch footballer
- 1980 – Lene Marlin, Norwegian singer
- 1980 – Daniel Guiza, Spanish footballer
- 1982 – Phil Jagielka, English footballer
- 1982 – Karim Ziani, French-Algerian footballer
- 1983 – Dustin Pedroia, American baseball player
- 1984 – Dee Brown, American basketball player
- 1986 – Marcus Berg, Swedish footballer
- 1989 – Elena Hight, American snowboarder
- 1990 – Rachel Hurd-Wood, English actress
Deaths [change]
- 1153 – Eustace IV, Count of Boulogne, son of King Stephen of England (b. 1130)
- 1304 – Emperor Go-Fukakusa of Japan (b. 1243)
- 1510 – Edmund Dudley, English statesman (b. 1462)
- 1673 – Regnier de Graaf, Dutch physician and anatomist (b. 1641)
- 1769 – Vasily Trediakovsky, Russian poet and writer (b. 1703)
- 1785 – Jonathan Trumbull, Governor of Connecticut (b. 1710)
- 1786 – Frederick II of Prussia (b. 1712)
- 1850 – Jose de San Martin, Argentine revolutionary (b. 1778)
- 1870 – Perucho Figueredo, Cuban poet, musician and freedom fighter (b. 1818)
- 1880 – Ole Bull, Norwegian violinist (b. 1810)
- 1886 – Alexander Butlerov, Russian chemist (b. 1828)
- 1896 – Bridget Driscoll, English automobile accident victim (b. 1851)
- 1897 – William Jervois, British Governor-General of New Zealand (b. 1821)
- 1898 – Carl Zeller, Austrian jurist and composer (b. 1842)
- 1903 – Hans Gude, Norwegian painter (b. 1825)
- 1918 – Moisei Uritsky, Russian revolutionary (b. 1873)
- 1935 – Charlotte Perkins Gilman, American writer and feminist (b. 1860)
- 1939 – Wojciech Korfanty, Polish journalist and politician (b. 1873)
- 1942 – Herman Auerbach, Polish mathematician (b. 1901)
- 1962 – Peter Fechter, shooting victim at the Berlin Wall (b. 1944)
- 1969 – Otto Stern, German physicist (b. 1888)
- 1969 – Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, German architect (b. 1886)
- 1974 – Aldo Palozzeschi, Italian poet and writer (b. 1885)
- 1979 – Vivian Vance, American actress (b. 1909)
- 1983 – Ira Gershwin, American lyricist (b. 1896)
- 1987 – Rudolf Hess, Nazi leader (b. 1894)
- 1988 – Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, President of Pakistan (b. 1924)
- 1988 – Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jr., son of Franklin D. Roosevelt (b. 1914)
- 1990 – Pearl Bailey, American singer and actress (b. 1918)
- 1998 – Wladyslaw Komar, Polish athlete (b. 1940)
- 1998 – Tadeusz Slusarski, Polish athlete (b. 1950)
- 2003 – Mazen Dana, Palestinian journalist (b. 1962)
- 2006 – Shamsur Rahman, Bangladeshi poet, columnist and author (b. 1929)
- 2007 – Eddie Griffin, American basketball player (b. 1982)
- 2010 – Francesco Cossiga, 8th President of Italy (b. 1928)
- 2011 – Pierre Quinon, French pole vaulter (b. 1962)
Events [change]
- 986 – A Byzantine army is destroyed at the pass of Trajan by Bulgarians.
- 1807 – Robert Fulton's North River Steamboat leaves New York City for Albany on the Hudson River.
- 1862 – American Indian Wars: The Dakota War of 1862 begins in Minnesota.
- 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Gainesville - Confederate forces defeat Union forces near Gainesville, Florida.
- 1914 – The first pilots are trained for the Royal Australian Air Force.
- 1915 – A category 4 Hurricane hits Galveston, Texas.
- 1918 – Bolshevik revolutionary leader Moises Uritsky is assassinated.
- 1942 – World War II: The first US bombing raid in Europe takes place.
- 1943 – World War II: The US Seventh Army under George S. Patton and the British 8th Army under field marshal Bernard Montgomery enter Messina, Sicily, completing the allied conquest of Sicily.
- 1945 – Indonesia declares independence from the Netherlands.
- 1959 – Quake Lake in Yellowstone National Park is formed by a magnitude 7.5 earthquake centred near Hebgen Lake, Montana.
- 1960 – Gabon becomes independent from France.
- 1962 – East German border guards kill 18-year-old Peter Fechter.
- 1970 – The Soviet spacecraft Venera 7 is sent to the planet Venus.
- 1977 – Soviet nuclear icebreaker Arktika becomes the first vessel to cross the North Pole overwater.
- 1978 – US balloonists, Ben Abruzzo, Larry Newman and Max Anderson, become the first people to cross the Atlantic Ocean in a hot-air balloon.
- 1988 – Pakistani President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq is killed in a plane crash near Bahawalpur, Punjab.
- 1998 – US President Bill Clinton admits an 'improper physical relationship' with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
- 1999 – A magnitude 7.4 earthquake hits Izmit in Northwestern Turkey, killing more than 17,000 people, and injuring around 44,000.
- 2002 – The water levels of the River Elbe reach their highest-recorded level. The city of Dresden is among the places flooded.
- 2004 – New state symbols are adopted by Serbia.
- 2005 – The first forced evacuation of settlers as part of the Israeli unilateral disengagement plan begins.
- 2005 – Over 500 bombs are set off by terrorists at around 300 locations in 63 out of 64 districts in Bangladesh.
- 2008 – Michael Phelps becomes the first person to win 8 individual gold medals at a single Olympic Games.
- 2009 – An accident occurs at the Sayano-Shushenskaya dam in Khakassia, Russia, killing 75 people and shutting down the hydroelectric power station.
