August 17: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

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

Events

• 1427 - First band of gypsies visits Paris, according to an account of the citizen of Paris
• 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 U.S. 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.
• 1864 - American Civil War: Confederate forces defeated Union troops at the Battle of Gainesville.
• 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.
• 1883 - Dominican Republic the first public performance of the Dominican National Anthem, Quisqueyanos valientes
• 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.
• 1918 - Bolshevik revolutionary leader Moisei Uritsky is assassinated.
• 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.
• 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 is launched. It will later becomes 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 US 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 Izmit, 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.
• 2005 - The first forced evacuation of settlers, as part of the Israel unilateral disengagement plan, starts.

• 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)
• 1786 - Davy Crockett, frontiersman, soldier (d. 1836)
• 1828 - Jules Bernard Luys, French neurologist (d. 1897)
• 1844 - Emperor Menelek II of Ethiopia (d. 1913)
• 1866 - Julia Marlowe, nee Sarah Frost, Shakespearean actress (d. 1950)
• 1882 - Samuel Goldwyn, Hollywood producer (d. 1974)
• 1887 - Marcus Garvey, Jamaican leader, Rastafari prophet (d. 1940)
• 1887 - Emperor Charles I of Austria (d. 1922)
• 1893 - Mae West, American actress and playwright (d. 1980)
• 1904 - Leopold Nowak, Austrian musicologist
• 1911 - Mikhail Botvinnik, chess player (d. 1995)
• 1913 - W. Mark Felt, FBI associate director and Deep Throat Watergate informant
• 1913 - Rudy York, baseball player (d. 1970)
• 1920 - Maureen O'Hara, actress
• 1926 - Jiang Zemin, former President of the People's Republic of China
• 1929 - Francis Gary Powers, U-2 pilot (d. 1977)
• 1930 - Glenn Corbett, actor (d. 1993)
• 1930 - Ted Hughes, English poet (d. 1998)
• 1932 - V. S. Naipaul, West Indian-born writer, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1935 - Oleg Tabakov, Russian actor
• 1939 - Luther Allison, blues musician, guitarist
• 1943 - Robert De Niro, actor
• 1948 - Rod MacDonald, musician
• 1951 - Alan Minter, boxer
• 1952 - Nelson Piquet, Brazilian formula one driver
• 1952 - Guillermo Vilas, Argentinian tennis player
• 1954 - Eric Johnson, guitarist
• 1958 - Belinda Carlisle, singer and guitarist
• 1958 - Kirk Stevens, Canadian snooker player
• 1959 - David Koresh, American cult leader (d. 1993)
• 1960 - Sean Penn, actor, director
• 1962 - Gilby Clarke, American musician Guns N' Roses
• 1964 - Colin James, blues musician
• 1966 - Rodney Mullen, American skateboarder
• 1966 - William E. Dudley, American poet
• 1968 - Ed McCaffrey, American football player
• 1969 - Donnie Wahlberg, American actor and singer
• 1970 - Jim Courier, American tennis player
• 1971 - Jorge Posada, Puerto Rican Major League Baseball player
• 1977 - Thierry Henry, French footballer
• 1977 - Tarja Turunen, Finnish singer (Nightwish)
• 1977 - William Gallas, French footballer
• 1980 - Lene Marlin, Norwegian singer

• 1153 - Eustace IV of Boulogne, son of Stephen of England
• 1304 - Emperor Go-Fukakusa of Japan (b. 1243)
• 1510 - Edmund Dudley, English statesman
• 1657 - Robert Blake, British admiral (b. 1599)
• 1676 - Hans Jakob Christoph von Grimmelshausen, German novelist
• 1673 - Regnier de Graaf, Dutch physician and anatomist (b. 1641)
• 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, Bosniak rebel leader (b. 1802)
• 1850 - Don José de San Martín, Argentine general
• 1875 - Wilhelm Bleek, linguist
• 1880 - Ole Bull, Norwegian violinist
• 1896 - Bridget Driscoll, world's first automobile fatality
• 1901 - Edmond Audran, French composer (b. 1842)
• 1925 - Ioan Slavici, Transylvanian writer of Romanian origin
• 1954 - Billy Murray, recording artist (b. 1877)
• 1969 - Otto Stern, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1888)
• 1973 - Jean Barraqué, French composer
• 1973 - Paul Williams, American singer (The Temptations)
• 1973 - Conrad Aiken, American author (b. 1889)
• 1979 - Vivian Vance, actress
• 1983 - Ira Gershwin, American lyricist
• 1987 - Rudolf Hess, Nazi deputy (b. 1894)
• 1988 - Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, President of Pakistan (b. 1924)
• 1990 - Pearl Bailey, American singer and actress (b. 1918)
• 1992 - Al Parker, actor
• 2004 - Gérard Souzay, French baritone (b. 1918)
• 2005 - John Bahcall, astrophysicist

August 16 - August 18 - July 17 - September 17 -- listing of all days