August 17

## Events 
### Up to 1900 
*310 &ndash; Pope Eusebius is banished by Emperor Maxentius to Sicily, where he dies.
*682 &ndash; Pope Leo II is elected.
*986 &ndash; A Byzantine army is destroyed at the pass of Trajan by Bulgarians.
*1386 &ndash; Karl Topia, ruler of the Princedom of Albania, creates an alliance with the Republic of Venice.
*1424 &ndash; Hundred Years' War: Battle of Verneuil – English victory over the French.
*1498 &ndash; Cesare Borgia, son of Pope Alexander VI, becomes the first cardinal to–date to resign from his post.
*1560 &ndash; Protestantism becomes the official religion of Scotland.
*1585 &ndash; 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 &ndash; A magnitude 8.0 earthquake kills around 8,000 people in northern Anatolia, Ottoman Empire.
*1740 &ndash; Pope Benedict XIV is elected.
*1771 &ndash; 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 &ndash; Frederick II of Prussia dies, having been a very influential leader in Prussia. His son, Frederick William II of Prussia, succeeds him.
*1807 &ndash; Robert Fulton's North River Steamboat leaves New York City for Albany on the Hudson River.
*1862 &ndash; American Indian Wars: The Dakota War of 1862 begins in Minnesota.
*1864 &ndash; American Civil War: Battle of Gainesville – Confederate forces defeat Union forces near Gainesville, Florida.
*1896 &ndash; 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 &ndash; 2000 
*1908 &ndash; Fantasmagorie, the first animated cartoon, created by Emil Cohl is shown in Paris.
*1914 &ndash; The first pilots are trained for the Royal Australian Air Force. 
*1915 &ndash; A category 4 hurricane hits Galveston, Texas.
*1918 &ndash; Bolshevik revolutionary leader Moises Uritsky is assassinated.
*1942 &ndash; World War II: The first US bombing raid in Europe takes place.
*1943 &ndash; 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 &ndash; Indonesia declares independence from the Netherlands. The Netherlands only recognize Indonesian independence in 1949.
*1947 &ndash; The Radcliffe Line is set to mark the border between India and Pakistan.
*1959 &ndash; Quake Lake in Yellowstone National Park is formed by a magnitude 7.5 earthquake centred near Hebgen Lake, Montana.
*1960 &ndash; Gabon becomes independent from France. 
*1962 &ndash; East German border guards kill 18–year–old Peter Fechter.
*1969 &ndash; Hurricane Camille kills 243 people in the Southern United States.
*1970 &ndash; The Soviet spacecraft Venera 7 is sent to the planet Venus.
*1977 &ndash; Soviet nuclear icebreaker *Arktika* becomes the first vessel to cross the North Pole overwater.
*1978 &ndash; US balloonists, Ben Abruzzo, Larry Newman and Max Anderson, become the first people to cross the Atlantic Ocean in a hot–air balloon.
*1982 &ndash; The first CDs are released to the public in Germany.
*1987 &ndash; At age 18, Steffi Graf becomes women's singles Number One in tennis. She goes on to hold this position for 377 weeks.
*1987 &ndash; Adolf Hitler's deputy, Rudolf Hess, dies aged 93, as the last prisoner at Spandau Prison.
*1988 &ndash; Pakistani President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq is killed in a plane crash near Bahawalpur, Punjab.
*1996 &ndash; Claudie André-Deshays becomes the first Frenchwoman in space.
*1998 &ndash; US President Bill Clinton admits an "improper physical relationship" with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
*1999 &ndash; A magnitude 7.4 earthquake hits İzmit in northwestern Turkey, killing more than 17,000 people, and injuring around 44,000.

### From 2001 
*2002 &ndash; The water levels of the River Elbe reach their highest–recorded level. The city of Dresden is among the places flooded.
*2004 &ndash; New state symbols are adopted by Serbia.
*2005 &ndash; The first forced evacuation of settlers as part of the Israeli unilateral disengagement plan begins.
*2005 &ndash; Over 500 bombs are set off by terrorists at around 300 locations in 63 out of 64 districts in Bangladesh.
*2008 &ndash; Michael Phelps becomes the first person to win 8 individual gold medals at a single Olympic Games.
*2009 &ndash; An accident occurs at the Sayano–Shushenskaya dam in Khakassia, Russia, killing 75 people and shutting down the hydroelectric power station.
*2015 &ndash; A bomb explodes at the Ratchaprasong Intersection near the Erawan Shrine in Bangkok, Thailand, killing 23 people and injuring over 100.
*2017 &ndash; 2017 Barcelona attack: A vehicle is driven at people on the street Las Ramblas in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, killing 13 people.
*2019 &ndash; A bomb attack on a wedding party in Kabul, Afghanistan, kills at least 63 people and wounds 180.

## Births 
### Up to 1900 
* 1465 &ndash; Philibert I, Duke of Savoy (d. 1482)
* 1473 &ndash; Richard, Duke of York, one of the Princes in the Tower (d. 1483?)
* 1556 &ndash; Alexander Briant, English martyr and saint (d. 1581)
* 1586 &ndash; Johann Andreas Valentinus Andreae, German theologian, writer and mathematician (d. 1654)
* 1601 &ndash; Pierre de Fermat, French mathematician (d. 1665)
* 1603 &ndash; Lennart Torstensson, Swedish field marshal and military officer (d. 1651)
* 1629 &ndash; John III of Poland (d. 1696)
* 1686 &ndash; Nicola Porpora, Italian composer and teacher (d. 1768)
* 1699 &ndash; Bernard Jussieu, French naturalist (d. 1777)
* 1735 &ndash; Tobias Furneaux, British explorer (d. 1781)
* 1755 &ndash; Thomas Stothard, British painter (d. 1834)
* 1761 &ndash; William Carey, English botanist and missionary (d. 1824)
* 1768 &ndash; Louis Charles Antoine Desaix, French general (d. 1800)
* 1786 &ndash; Davy Crockett, American frontiersman, soldier (d. 1836)
* 1786 &ndash; Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, mother of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom (d. 1861)
* 1798 &ndash; Thomas Hodgkin, English physician (d. 1866)
* 1799 &ndash; Robert von Mohl, German jurist (d. 1875)
* 1800 &ndash; Charles Rogier, 4th, 10th and 13th Prime Minister of Belgium (d. 1885)
* 1801 &ndash; Fredrika Bremer, Swedish writer (d. 1865)
* 1828 &ndash; Jules Bernard Luys, French neurologist (d. 1897)
* 1844 &ndash; Menelik II, Emperor of Ethiopia (d. 1913)
* 1863 &ndash; Gene Stratton-Porter, American author and photographer (d. 1924)
* 1866 &ndash; Julia Marlowe, née Sarah Frost, Shakespearean actress (d. 1950)
* 1870 &ndash; Liberato Marcial Rojas, President of Paraguay (d. 1922)
* 1877 &ndash; Ralph McKittrick, American golfer and tennis player (d. 1923)
* 1877 &ndash; Princess Mathilde of Bavaria (d. 1906)
* 1887 &ndash; Marcus Garvey, Jamaican–born American black leader (d. 1940)
* 1887 &ndash; Emperor Karl of Austria (d. 1922)
* 1887 &ndash; Samuel Stritch, American cardinal (d. 1958)
* 1890 &ndash; Harry Hopkins, American politician (d. 1946)
* 1890 &ndash; Stefan Bastyr, Polish aviator (d. 1920)
* 1893 &ndash; Mae West, American actress and playwright (d. 1980)
* 1893 &ndash; Walter Noddack, German chemist (d. 1960)
* 1894 &ndash; Otto Suhr, German politician (d. 1957)
* 1896 &ndash; Johannes Kleiman, Dutch helper of Anne Frank (d. 1959)

### 1901 &ndash; 1950 
* 1901 &ndash; Hedin Bru, Faroese writer (d. 1987)
* 1904 &ndash; Leopold Nowak, Austrian musicologist (d. 1991)
* 1906 &ndash; Marcelo Caetano, Portuguese politician (d. 1980)
* 1907 &ndash; Gustav Schwarzenegger, Austrian police chief and postal inspector, father of Arnold Schwarzenegger (d. 1972)
* 1909 &ndash; Larry Clinton, American trumpeter and bandleader (d. 1985)
* 1910 &ndash; Erkki Aaltonen, Finnish composer (d. 1990)
* 1911 &ndash; Mikhail Botvinnik, world chess champion (d. 1995)
* 1911 &ndash; Martin Sandberger, German military officer (d. 2010)
* 1913 &ndash; Mark Felt, American agent, 'Deep Throat' in the Watergate scandal (d. 2008)
* 1913 &ndash; Rudy York, American Major League Baseball All-Star (d. 1970)
* 1913 &ndash; Oscar Alfredo Galvez, Argentine racing driver (d. 1989)
* 1914 &ndash; Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jr., son of Franklin D. Roosevelt (d. 1988)
* 1919 &ndash; Georgia Gibbs, American singer (d. 2006)
* 1920 &ndash; Maureen O'Hara, Irish–American actress (d. 2015)
* 1922 &ndash; Frederick B. Dent, American politician
* 1923 &ndash; Larry Rivers, American artist, musician, filmmaker and actor (d. 2002)
* 1926 &ndash; George Melly, British singer (d. 2007)
* 1926 &ndash; Jiang Zemin, former General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (d. 2022)
* 1926 &ndash; Jean Poiret, French actor, director and screenwriter (d. 1992)
* 1929 &ndash; Francis Gary Powers, American U–2 pilot (d. 1977)
* 1929 &ndash; Jimmy Donley, American singer-songwriter (d. 1963)
* 1930 &ndash; Glenn Corbett, actor (d. 1993)
* 1930 &ndash; Ted Hughes, English poet (d. 1998)
* 1932 &ndash; V. S. Naipaul, Trinidad and Tobago–born writer (d. 2018)
* 1932 &ndash; Jean-Jacques Sempe, French cartoonist
* 1933 &ndash; Tom Courtney, American athlete
* 1933 &ndash; Gene Kranz, American NASA flight director and manager
* 1934 &ndash; Carin Mannheimer, Swedish writer (d. 2014)
* 1936 &ndash; Margaret Hamilton, American computer scientist
* 1937 &ndash; Ronnie Butler, Bahamian singer
* 1938 &ndash; Theodoros Pangalos, Greek politician
* 1939 &ndash; Luther Allison, American blues musician, guitarist (d. 1997)
* 1940 &ndash; Eduardo Mignona, Argentine director (d. 2006)
* 1941 &ndash; Lothar Bisky, German politician (d. 2013)
* 1941 &ndash; Fritz Wepper, German actor
* 1941 &ndash; Ibrahim Babangida, Nigerian military leader
* 1943 &ndash; Robert De Niro, American actor
* 1943 &ndash; John Humphrys, British broadcaster
* 1943 &ndash; Yukio Kasaya, Japanese ski jumper
* 1943 &ndash; Dave "Snaker" Ray, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
* 1944 &ndash; Rexhep Meidani, former President of Albania
* 1944 &ndash; Bobby Murdoch, Scottish footballer (d. 2001)
* 1946 &ndash; Patrick Manning, former Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago (d. 2016)
* 1946 &ndash; Angel Romero, Spanish guitarist and conductor
* 1947 &ndash; Mohamed Abdelaziz, Western Sahara politician (d. 2016)
* 1948 &ndash; Chico Maki, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2015)
* 1949 &ndash; Julian Fellowes, English actor, producer and director
* 1949 &ndash; Mitsunori Fujiguchi, Japanese footballer
* 1949 &ndash; Norm Coleman, American lawyer and politician

### 1951 &ndash; 1975 
* 1951 &ndash; Robert Joy, Canadian actor
* 1951 &ndash; Alan Minter, boxer
* 1951 &ndash; Elba Ramalho, Brazilian singer-songwriter
* 1952 &ndash; Nelson Piquet, Brazilian racing driver
* 1952 &ndash; Mario Theissen, German Formula 1 team principal
* 1952 &ndash; Guillermo Vilas, Argentine tennis player
* 1953 &ndash; Herta Müller, Romanian–German writer, Nobel Prize winner
* 1953 &ndash; Kevin Rowland, British musician
* 1954 &ndash; Andrés Pastrana Arango, former President of Colombia
* 1956 &ndash; Fabio Armiliato, Italian tenor
* 1957 &ndash; Robin Cousins, British figure skater
* 1958 &ndash; Michael Brooks, American basketball player
* 1958 &ndash; Belinda Carlisle, American singer, guitarist
* 1958 &ndash; Kirk Stevens, Canadian snooker player
* 1958 &ndash; Fred Goodwin, Scottish banker, former head of the Royal Bank of Scotland
* 1959 &ndash; Jonathan Franzen, American writer
* 1959 &ndash; David Koresh, American cult leader (d. 1993)
* 1960 &ndash; Sean Penn, American actor, director
* 1962 &ndash; Gilby Clarke, American musician (Guns N'Roses)
* 1963 &ndash; Maritza Marbén, Cuban discus thrower
* 1963 &ndash; Shankar, Indian director and producer
* 1964 &ndash; Colin James, American blues musician
* 1965 &ndash; Sergio Vargas, Chilean footballer
* 1966 &ndash; Rodney Mullen, American skateboarder
* 1968 &ndash; Helen McCrory, British actress
* 1968 &ndash; Ed McCaffrey, American football player
* 1968 &ndash; Anthony E. Zuiker, American television producer
* 1968 &ndash; Andriy Kuzmenko, Ukrainian singer, writer, presenter, producer and actor (d. 2015)
* 1968 &ndash; Andrew Koenig, American actor (d. 2010)
* 1969 &ndash; Christian Laettner, American basketball player
* 1969 &ndash; Donnie Wahlberg, American actor and singer
* 1970 &ndash; Jim Courier, American tennis player
* 1970 &ndash; Rupert Degas, Australian voice actor
* 1971 &ndash; Uhm Jung-hwa, South Korean singer and actress
* 1971 &ndash; Jorge Posada, American Major League Baseball All-Star
* 1972 &ndash; Habibul Bashar, Bangladeshi cricketer
* 1974 &ndash; Tomomi Kahala, Japanese singer

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

## Deaths 
### Up to 1900 
* 1153 &ndash; Eustace IV, Count of Boulogne, son of King Stephen of England (b. 1130)
* 1304 &ndash; Emperor Go-Fukakusa of Japan (b. 1243)
* 1324 &ndash; Irene of Brunswick, Empress of Constantinople (b. 1293)
* 1338 &ndash; Nitta Yoshisada, Japanese samurai (b. 1301)
* 1510 &ndash; Edmund Dudley, English statesman (b. 1462)
* 1657 &ndash; Robert Blake, English admiral (b. 1598)
* 1673 &ndash; Regnier de Graaf, Dutch physician and anatomist (b. 1641)
* 1769 &ndash; Vasily Trediakovsky, Russian poet and writer (b. 1703)
* 1785 &ndash; Jonathan Trumbull, Governor of Connecticut (b. 1710)
* 1786 &ndash; Frederick II of Prussia (b. 1712)
* 1838 &ndash; Lorenzo Da Ponte, Italian poet (b. 1749)
* 1850 &ndash; Jose de San Martin, Argentine revolutionary (b. 1778)
* 1870 &ndash; Perucho Figueredo, Cuban poet, musician and freedom fighter (b. 1818)
* 1880 &ndash; Ole Bull, Norwegian violinist (b. 1810) 
* 1886 &ndash; Alexander Butlerov, Russian chemist (b. 1828)
* 1896 &ndash; Bridget Driscoll, English automobile accident victim (b. 1851)
* 1897 &ndash; William Jervois, British Governor–General of New Zealand (b. 1821)
* 1898 &ndash; Carl Zeller, Austrian jurist and composer (b. 1842)
* 1900 &ndash; Raimundo Andueza Palacio, 24th President of Venezuela (b. 1846)

### 1901 &ndash; 2000 
* 1903 &ndash; Hans Gude, Norwegian painter (b. 1825)
* 1918 &ndash; Moisei Uritsky, Russian revolutionary (b. 1873)
* 1925 &ndash; Ioan Slavici, Romanian journalist (b. 1848)
* 1935 &ndash; Charlotte Perkins Gilman, American writer and feminist (b. 1860)
* 1935 &ndash; Adam Gunn, American athlete (b. 1860)
* 1939 &ndash; Wojciech Korfanty, Polish journalist and politician (b. 1873)
* 1942 &ndash; Herman Auerbach, Polish mathematician (b. 1901)
* 1954 &ndash; Billy Murray, American singer (b. 1877)
* 1962 &ndash; Peter Fechter, shooting victim at the Berlin Wall (b. 1944) 
* 1969 &ndash; Otto Stern, German physicist (b. 1888)
* 1969 &ndash; Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, German architect (b. 1886)
* 1971 &ndash; Maedayama Eigoro, Japanese sumo wrestler (b. 1914)
* 1973 &ndash; Conrad Aiken, American author and poet (b. 1889)
* 1974 &ndash; Aldo Palozzeschi, Italian poet and writer (b. 1885)
* 1979 &ndash; Vivian Vance, American actress (b. 1909)
* 1979 &ndash; John C. Allen, American rollercoaster designer (b. 1907)
* 1983 &ndash; Ira Gershwin, American lyricist (b. 1896)
* 1987 &ndash; Rudolf Hess, Nazi leader (b. 1894)
* 1988 &ndash; Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, President of Pakistan (b. 1924)
* 1988 &ndash; Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jr., son of Franklin D. Roosevelt (b. 1914)
* 1990 &ndash; Pearl Bailey, American singer and actress (b. 1918)
* 1994 &ndash; Luigi Chinetti, Italian–American racing driver (b. 1901)
* 1995 &ndash; Howard E. Koch, American screenwriter (b. 1902)
* 1995 &ndash; Ted Whitten, Australian footballer and coach (b. 1933)
* 1998 &ndash; Wladyslaw Komar, Polish athlete (b. 1940)
* 1998 &ndash; Tadeusz Slusarski, Polish athlete (b. 1950)
* 1998 &ndash; Tameo Ide, Japanese footballer (b. 1908)
* 1999 &ndash; Reiner Klimke, German equestrian (b. 1936)

### From 2001 
* 2003 &ndash; Mazen Dana, Palestinian journalist (b. 1962)
* 2005 &ndash; John N. Bahcall, American astrophysicist (b. 1934)
* 2006 &ndash; Shamsur Rahman, Bangladeshi poet, columnist and writer (b. 1929)
* 2007 &ndash; Eddie Griffin, American basketball player (b. 1982)
* 2010 &ndash; Francesco Cossiga, 8th President of Italy (b. 1928)
* 2011 &ndash; Pierre Quinon, French pole vaulter (b. 1962)
* 2013 &ndash; Claus Jacobi, German journalist (b. 1927)
* 2014 &ndash; Wolfgang Leonhard, German political author and historian (b. 1921)
* 2014 &ndash; Sophie Masloff, American politician, 56th Mayor of Pittsburgh (b. 1917)
* 2014 &ndash; Pierre Vassiliu, French singer (b. 1937)
* 2014 &ndash; Ger van Elk, Dutch artist (b. 1941)
* 2015 &ndash; Eduardo Guerrero, Argentine rower (b. 1928)
* 2015 &ndash; László Paskai, Hungarian cardinal (b. 1927)
* 2015 &ndash; Arsen Dedic, Croatian poet (b. 1938)
* 2015 &ndash; Jacob Bekenstein, Mexican–Israeli theoretical physicist (b. 1947)
* 2015 &ndash; Yvonne Craig, American actress (b. 1937)
* 2015 &ndash; Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder, German football executive (b. 1933)
* 2016 &ndash; Arthur Hiller, Canadian–American film director (b. 1923)
* 2017 &ndash; Sonny Landham, American actor and politician (b. 1941)
* 2017 &ndash; M. T. Liggett, American sculptor (b. 1930)
* 2017 &ndash; Sirkka Selja, Finnish poet (b. 1920)
* 2017 &ndash; Fadwa Soliman, Syrian actress and activist (b. 1970)
* 2017 &ndash; Mohamed Refaat El-Saeed, Egyptian politician and scholar (b. 1932)
* 2018 &ndash; Leonard Boswell, American politician (b. 1934)
* 2018 &ndash; Ezzatolah Entezami, Iranian actor (b. 1924)
* 2018 &ndash; David McReynolds, American political activist and politician (b. 1929)
* 2018 &ndash; Linton Freeman, American sociologist (b. 1927)
* 2019 &ndash; Cedric Benson, American football player (b. 1982)
* 2019 &ndash; Walter Buser, Swiss Federal Chancellor (b. 1926)
* 2019 &ndash; Jacques Diouf, Senegalese diplomat (b. 1938)
* 2019 &ndash; Donald A. B. Lindberg, American physician (b. 1933)
* 2019 &ndash; José A. Martínez Suárez, Argentine film director and screenwriter (b. 1925)
* 2019 &ndash; Bill McDonagh, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1928)

## Observances 
* Independence Day (Indonesia, Gabon)