August 17



Events

Up to 1900 
310  Pope Eusebius is banished by Emperor Maxentius to Sicily, where he dies.
682  Pope Leo II is elected.
986  A Byzantine army is destroyed at the pass of Trajan by Bulgarians.
1386  Karl Topia, ruler of the Princedom of Albania, creates an alliance with the Republic of Venice.
1424  Hundred Years' War: Battle of Verneuil - English victory over the French.
1498  Cesare Borgia, son of Pope Alexander VI, becomes the first cardinal to-date to resign from his post.
1560  Protestantism becomes the official religion of Scotland.
1585  Eighty Years' War: Siege of Antwerp - Antwerp is captured by Spanish forces under Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma, who orders Protestants to leave the city.
1668  A magnitude 8.0 earthquake kills around 8,000 people in northern Anatolia, Ottoman Empire.
1740  Pope Benedict XIV is elected.
1771  Edinburgh botanist James Robertson makes the first recorded successful climb of Ben Nevis, the highest point in both Scotland and the whole of the present-day United Kingdom.
1786  Frederick II of Prussia dies, having been a very influential leader in Prussia. His son, Frederick William II of Prussia, succeeds him.
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.
1896  Bridget Driscoll becomes the first-recorded person to be killed in an automobile accident when she is run over in the grounds of London's Crystal Palace by a Benz car.

1901  2000 
1908  Fantasmagorie, the first animated cartoon, created by Emil Cohl is shown in Paris.
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. The Netherlands only recognize Indonesian independence in 1949.
1947  The Radcliffe Line is set to mark the border between India and Pakistan.
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.
1969  Hurricane Camille kills 243 people in the Southern United States.
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.
1982  The first CDs are released to the public in Germany.
1987  At age 18, Steffi Graf becomes women's singles Number One in tennis. She goes on to hold this position for 377 weeks.
1987  Adolf Hitler's deputy, Rudolf Hess, dies aged 93, as the last prisoner at Spandau Prison.
1988  Pakistani President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq is killed in a plane crash near Bahawalpur, Punjab.
1996  Claudie André-Deshays becomes the first Frenchwoman in space.
1998  US President Bill Clinton admits an "improper physical relationship" with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
1999  A magnitude 7.4 earthquake hits İzmit in northwestern Turkey, killing more than 17,000 people, and injuring around 44,000.

From 2001 
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.
2015  A bomb explodes at the Ratchaprasong Intersection near the Erawan Shrine in Bangkok, Thailand, killing 23 people and injuring over 100.
2017  2017 Barcelona attack: A vehicle is driven at people on the street Las Ramblas in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, killing 13 people.
2019  A bomb attack on a wedding party in Kabul, Afghanistan, kills at least 63 people and wounds 180.

Births

Up to 1900 
 1465  Philibert I, Duke of Savoy (d. 1482)
 1473  Richard, Duke of York, one of the Princes in the Tower (d. 1483?)
 1556  Alexander Briant, English martyr and saint (d. 1581)
 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)
 1699  Bernard Jussieu, French naturalist (d. 1777)
 1735  Tobias Furneaux, British explorer (d. 1781)
 1755  Thomas Stothard, British painter (d. 1834)
 1761  William Carey, English botanist and missionary (d. 1824)
 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)
 1800  Charles Rogier, 4th, 10th and 13th Prime Minister of Belgium (d. 1885)
 1801  Fredrika Bremer, Swedish writer (d. 1865)
 1828  Jules Bernard Luys, French neurologist (d. 1897)
 1844  Menelik II, Emperor of Ethiopia (d. 1913)
 1863  Gene Stratton-Porter, American author and photographer (d. 1924)
 1866  Julia Marlowe, née Sarah Frost, Shakespearean actress (d. 1950)
 1870  Liberato Marcial Rojas, President of Paraguay (d. 1922)
 1877  Ralph McKittrick, American golfer and tennis player (d. 1923)
 1877  Princess Mathilde of Bavaria (d. 1906)
 1887  Marcus Garvey, Jamaican-born American black leader (d. 1940)
 1887  Emperor Karl of Austria (d. 1922)
 1887  Samuel Stritch, American cardinal (d. 1958)
 1890  Harry Hopkins, American politician (d. 1946)
 1890  Stefan Bastyr, Polish aviator (d. 1920)
 1893  Mae West, American actress and playwright (d. 1980)
 1893  Walter Noddack, German chemist (d. 1960)
 1894  Otto Suhr, German politician (d. 1957)
 1896  Johannes Kleiman, Dutch helper of Anne Frank (d. 1959)

1901  1950 
 1901  Hedin Bru, Faroese writer (d. 1987)
 1904  Leopold Nowak, Austrian musicologist (d. 1991)
 1906  Marcelo Caetano, Portuguese politician (d. 1980)
 1907  Gustav Schwarzenegger, Austrian police chief and postal inspector, father of Arnold Schwarzenegger (d. 1972)
 1909  Larry Clinton, American trumpeter and bandleader (d. 1985)
 1910  Erkki Aaltonen, Finnish composer (d. 1990)
 1911  Mikhail Botvinnik, world chess champion (d. 1995)
 1911  Martin Sandberger, German military officer (d. 2010)
 1913  Mark Felt, American agent, 'Deep Throat' in the Watergate scandal (d. 2008)
 1913  Rudy York, American Major League Baseball All-Star (d. 1970)
 1913  Oscar Alfredo Galvez, Argentine racing driver (d. 1989)
 1914  Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jr., son of Franklin D. Roosevelt (d. 1988)
 1919  Georgia Gibbs, American singer (d. 2006)
 1920  Maureen O'Hara, Irish-American actress (d. 2015)
 1922  Frederick B. Dent, American politician
 1923  Larry Rivers, American artist, musician, filmmaker and actor (d. 2002)
 1926  George Melly, British singer (d. 2007)
 1926  Jiang Zemin, former General Secretary of the Communist Party of China
 1926  Jean Poiret, French actor, director and screenwriter (d. 1992)
 1929  Francis Gary Powers, American U-2 pilot (d. 1977)
 1929  Jimmy Donley, American singer-songwriter (d. 1963)
 1930  Glenn Corbett, actor (d. 1993)
 1930  Ted Hughes, English poet (d. 1998)
 1932  V. S. Naipaul, Trinidad and Tobago-born writer (d. 2018)
 1932  Jean-Jacques Sempe, French cartoonist
 1933  Tom Courtney, American athlete
 1933  Gene Kranz, American NASA flight director and manager
 1934  Carin Mannheimer, Swedish writer (d. 2014)
 1936  Margaret Hamilton, American computer scientist
 1937  Ronnie Butler, Bahamian singer
 1938  Theodoros Pangalos, Greek politician
 1939  Luther Allison, American blues musician, guitarist (d. 1997)
 1940  Eduardo Mignona, Argentine director (d. 2006)
 1941  Lothar Bisky, German politician (d. 2013)
 1941  Fritz Wepper, German actor
 1941  Ibrahim Babangida, Nigerian military leader
 1943  Robert De Niro, American actor
 1943  John Humphrys, British broadcaster
 1943  Yukio Kasaya, Japanese ski jumper
 1943  Dave "Snaker" Ray, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
 1944  Rexhep Meidani, former President of Albania
 1944  Bobby Murdoch, Scottish footballer (d. 2001)
 1946  Patrick Manning, former Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago (d. 2016)
 1946  Angel Romero, Spanish guitarist and conductor
 1947  Mohamed Abdelaziz, Western Sahara politician (d. 2016)
 1948  Chico Maki, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2015)
 1949  Julian Fellowes, English actor, producer and director
 1949  Mitsunori Fujiguchi, Japanese footballer
 1949  Norm Coleman, American lawyer and politician

1951  1975 
 1951  Robert Joy, Canadian actor
 1951  Alan Minter, boxer
 1951  Elba Ramalho, Brazilian singer-songwriter
 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
 1954  Andrés Pastrana Arango, former President of Colombia
 1956  Fabio Armiliato, Italian tenor
 1957  Robin Cousins, British figure skater
 1958  Michael Brooks, American basketball player
 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  Jonathan Franzen, American writer
 1959  David Koresh, American cult leader (d. 1993)
 1960  Sean Penn, American actor, director
 1962  Gilby Clarke, American musician (Guns N'Roses)
 1963  Maritza Marbén, Cuban discus thrower
 1963  Shankar, Indian director and producer
 1964  Colin James, American blues musician
 1965  Sergio Vargas, Chilean footballer
 1966  Rodney Mullen, American skateboarder
 1968  Helen McCrory, British actress
 1968  Ed McCaffrey, American football player
 1968  Anthony E. Zuiker, American television producer
 1968  Andriy Kuzmenko, Ukrainian singer, writer, presenter, producer and actor (d. 2015)
 1968  Andrew Koenig, American actor (d. 2010)
 1969  Christian Laettner, American basketball player
 1969  Donnie Wahlberg, American actor and singer
 1970  Jim Courier, American tennis player
 1970  Rupert Degas, Australian voice actor
 1971  Uhm Jung-hwa, South Korean singer and actress
 1971  Jorge Posada, American Major League Baseball All-Star
 1972  Habibul Bashar, Bangladeshi cricketer
 1974  Tomomi Kahala, Japanese singer

From 1976 
 1976  Serhiy Zakarlyuka, Ukrainian footballer (d. 2014)
 1977  William Gallas, French footballer
 1977  Thierry Henry, French footballer
 1977  Tarja Turunen, Finnish lead singer of Nightwish
 1977  Mike Lewis, Welsh guitarist
 1977  Claire Richards, English singer (Steps)
 1980  Jan Kromkamp, Dutch footballer
 1980  Lene Marlin, Norwegian singer
 1980  Daniel Güiza, Spanish footballer
 1982  Phil Jagielka, English footballer
 1982  Karim Ziani, French-Algerian footballer
 1982  Mark Salling, American actor (d. 2018)
 1983  Dustin Pedroia, American baseball player
 1984  Dee Brown, American basketball player
 1985  Troy Brouwer, Canadian ice hockey player
 1986  Marcus Berg, Swedish footballer
 1986  Denis Kornilov, Russian ski jumper
 1986  Rudy Gay, American basketball player
 1989  Rachel Corsie, Scottish footballer
 1989  Elena Hight, American snowboarder
 1990  Rachel Hurd-Wood, English actress
 1991  Austin Butler, American actor
 1993  Cinta Laura, Indonesian actress and singer
 1993  Sarah Sjöström, Swedish swimmer
 1994  Taissa Farmiga, American actress

Deaths

Up to 1900 
 1153  Eustace IV, Count of Boulogne, son of King Stephen of England (b. 1130)
 1304  Emperor Go-Fukakusa of Japan (b. 1243)
 1324  Irene of Brunswick, Empress of Constantinople (b. 1293)
 1338  Nitta Yoshisada, Japanese samurai (b. 1301)
 1510  Edmund Dudley, English statesman (b. 1462)
 1657  Robert Blake, English admiral (b. 1599)
 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)
 1838  Lorenzo Da Ponte, Italian poet (b. 1749)
 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)
 1900  Raimundo Andueza Palacio, 24th President of Venezuela (b. 1846)

1901  2000 
 1903  Hans Gude, Norwegian painter (b. 1825)
 1918  Moisei Uritsky, Russian revolutionary (b. 1873)
 1925  Ioan Slavici, Romanian journalist (b. 1848)
 1935  Charlotte Perkins Gilman, American writer and feminist (b. 1860)
 1935  Adam Gunn, American athlete (b. 1860)
 1939  Wojciech Korfanty, Polish journalist and politician (b. 1873)
 1942  Herman Auerbach, Polish mathematician (b. 1901)
 1954  Billy Murray, American singer (b. 1877)
 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)
 1971  Maedayama Eigoro, Japanese sumo wrestler (b. 1914)
 1973  Conrad Aiken, American author and poet (b. 1889)
 1974  Aldo Palozzeschi, Italian poet and writer (b. 1885)
 1979  Vivian Vance, American actress (b. 1909)
 1979  John C. Allen, American rollercoaster designer (b. 1907)
 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)
 1994  Luigi Chinetti, Italian-American racing driver (b. 1901)
 1995  Howard E. Koch, American screenwriter (b. 1902)
 1995  Ted Whitten, Australian footballer and coach (b. 1933)
 1998  Wladyslaw Komar, Polish athlete (b. 1940)
 1998  Tadeusz Slusarski, Polish athlete (b. 1950)
 1998  Tameo Ide, Japanese footballer (b. 1908)
 1999  Reiner Klimke, German equestrian (b. 1936)

From 2001 
 2003  Mazen Dana, Palestinian journalist (b. 1962)
 2005  John N. Bahcall, American astrophysicist (b. 1934)
 2006  Shamsur Rahman, Bangladeshi poet, columnist and writer (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)
 2013  Claus Jacobi, German journalist (b. 1927)
 2014  Wolfgang Leonhard, German political author and historian (b. 1921)
 2014  Sophie Masloff, American politician, 56th Mayor of Pittsburgh (b. 1917)
 2014  Pierre Vassiliu, French singer (b. 1937)
 2014  Ger van Elk, Dutch artist (b. 1941)
 2015  Eduardo Guerrero, Argentine rower (b. 1928)
 2015  László Paskai, Hungarian cardinal (b. 1927)
 2015  Arsen Dedic, Croatian poet (b. 1938)
 2015  Jacob Bekenstein, Mexican-Israeli theoretical physicist (b. 1947)
 2015  Yvonne Craig, American actress (b. 1937)
 2015  Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder, German football executive (b. 1933)
 2016  Arthur Hiller, Canadian-American film director (b. 1923)
 2017  Sonny Landham, American actor and politician (b. 1941)
 2017  M. T. Liggett, American sculptor (b. 1930)
 2017  Sirkka Selja, Finnish poet (b. 1920)
 2017  Fadwa Soliman, Syrian actress and activist (b. 1970)
 2017  Mohamed Refaat El-Saeed, Egyptian politician and scholar (b. 1932)
 2018  Leonard Boswell, American politician (b. 1934)
 2018  Ezzatolah Entezami, Iranian actor (b. 1924)
 2018  David McReynolds, American political activist and politician (b. 1929)
 2018  Linton Freeman, American sociologist (b. 1927)
 2019  Cedric Benson, American football player (b. 1982)
 2019  Walter Buser, Swiss Federal Chancellor (b. 1926)
 2019  Jacques Diouf, Senegalese diplomat (b. 1938)
 2019  Donald A. B. Lindberg, American physician (b. 1933)
 2019  José A. Martínez Suárez, Argentine film director and screenwriter (b. 1925)
 2019  Bill McDonagh, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1928)

Observances 
 Independence Day (Indonesia, Gabon)

Days of the year