August 17

### 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.

### 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 (d. 2022)
- 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

### 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. 1598)
- 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)