Historical Events on August 17

Events 1 - 200 of 208

• 682 Leo II begins his reign as Catholic Pope
• 1180 Yoritomo Minamoto leads uprising against Kiyomori Taira who installed his grandson, Emperor Antoku, to the throne
• 1544 French city of Saint-Dizier seized by Imperial army of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V during Italian War (1842-46)

• 1577 Peace of Bergerac: Political rights for Huguenots

• 1585 Antwerp surrenders after 8 months siege by Duke of Parma
• 1590 Governor of Roanoke Island colony, John White, returns from England to find no trace of the colonists he had left there 3 years earlier [or Aug 18, 1591]
• 1648 -20] Battle at Preston, Lancashire: Henry Ireton beats Scottish

• 1717 France, Russia & Prussia sign agreement
• 1743 Treaty of Åbo signed in Turku by Sweden and Russian Empire, ending the Russo-Swedish War (1741-1743)
• 1787 Jews are granted permission in Budapest Hungary to pray in groups
• 1795 Slave revolt at Knip plantation, Curacao
• 1796 British defeat Batavian navy in Saldanha Bay, South Africa

• 1819 The Church Missionary Society establishes New Zealand's second mission station at Kerikeri
• 1827 Dutch King Willem I and Pope Leo XII sign concord

• 1835 Solymon Merrick of Springfield, Massachusetts patents the first wrench
• 1836 British parliament accepts registration of births, marriages and deaths
• 1836 Charles Darwin leaves South America for the last time on HMS Beagle
• 1846 Commodore Robert F. Stockton of the US Navy, annexes California
• 1858 1st bank in Hawaii opens
• 1859 1st air mail (in a balloon) took off from Lafayette, Indiana
• 1862 Confederate troops under Edmund Kirby Smith enter Kentucky
• 1863 Federal batteries & ships attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina
• 1870 1st ascent of Mt Rainier, Washington, by Hazard Stevens and P. B. Van Trump

• 1877 American astronomer Asaph Hall discovers Mars' moon Phobos
• 1879 Ferdinand de Lesseps forms French Panama Canal Company
• 1883 The first public performance of the Dominican Republic's national anthem, Himno Nacional
• 1891 1st public bathhouse with showers opens in NYC (People's Bath)
• 1891 Electric self-starter for automobile patented
• 1892 Russian and French generals, Obruchev and Boisdeffre sign Double Alliance
• 1894 Phils get 36 hits, Sam Thompson hits for cycle beating Louisville 29-4
• 1897 W. B. Purvis patents electric railway switch (aka points)
• 1901 The Royal Titles Act adds the words 'and the British Dominions beyond the Seas' to the monarch's style
• 1903 Joe Pulitzer donates $1 million to Columbia University & begins the Pulitzer Prizes in America
• 1904 Boston's Jesse Tannehell no-hits Chicago White Sox, 6-0
• 1904 George H. Reid succeeds John Watson as Prime Minister of Australia
• 1905 Dutch government of Theo de Meester begins
• 1907 Bishop forbids Christian membership of Dutch Textile Union

• 1908 Booth Tarkington & Harry Leon Wilson's play "Man from Home" premieres in New York
• 1908 Projection in Paris of the very first animated cartoon, "Fantasmagorie" realized by Émile Cohl
• 1914 French troops under General de Castelnau occupy Chateau Salins
• 1915 German troops over run Kovno, Lithuania
• 1915 Hurricane makes landfall near Galveston, Texas killing 275, and causing $50M damage
• 1915 Mob lynches Jewish businessman Leo Frank in Cobb County, Georgia, after death sentence for murder of 13-year-old girl commuted to life
• 1916 Bulgarian offensive in Macedonia
• 1917 Italy declares war on Turkey
• 1918 Bolshevik revolutionary leader Moisei Uritsky is assassinated
• 1918 British troops attack Baku, Azerbaijan
• 1918 Samuel Riddle buys Man o'War for $5,000
• 1918 Turkish troops overthrow Caukasus
• 1920 New York Yankees cancel game with Cleveland Indians in memory of Ray Chapman who dies after being hit by a pitch the previous day
• 1924 French-German trade agreement signed
• 1926 Greek-Serbian, Croatian and Slavs peace treaty signed

• 1933 Soviet Union test GIRD-R1 rocket ("Object 09")
• 1936 An unemployed worker, Neils B. Ruud, in Madison, Wisconsin, receives the first unemployment benefit check paid under a State law, for $15
• 1938 1st aircraft owned by US Forest Service in service (Oakland)
• 1938 Henry Armstrong wins his 3rd concurrent boxing championship

• 1941 German raider attacks Dutch SS Kota Nopan
• 1942 Task Force 17 leaves Pearl Harbor under Admiral George Murray on USS Hornet
• 1942 Transport #20 departs with French Jews to nazi-Germany
• 1942 US 8th Air Force bombers stage first independent raid on Europe, attack Rouen, France
• 1943 498 British bombers attack Peenemunde (development base for the V weapons)
• 1943 US 8th Air Force loses 60 B-17s during attack on Schweinfurt and Regensburg

• 1944 4th Canadian Armoured division occupiers Trun, Normandy

• 1944 Soviet troops arrive at Austria-Prussia border
• 1944 US 12 Army Corps occupies Orleans
• 1944 US 320th regiment infantry occupies Châteaudun
• 1944 Yanks Johnny Lindell ties record with 4 consecutive doubles in a game
• 1945 Korea is divided into North and South Korea along the 38th parallel

• 1947 The Radcliffe Line, the border between Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan is revealed
• 1948 Alger Hiss denies ever being a Communist agent
• 1948 Phillies commit 8 errors in a baseball game for the 2nd time
• 1948 Tom Henrich hits his then record tying 4th grand slam of season
• 1950 Indonesia gains independence from Netherlands
• 1950 Pee Wee Reese (Dodgers) & Sam Calderone (Giants) hit inside park HRs
• 1951 18th NFL Chicago All-Star Game: Cleveland 33, All-Stars 0 (92,180)
• 1951 Hurricane winds drive 6 ships ashore, Kingston, Jamaica
• 1952 "Fallout" 1st used (NY Times)
• 1953 Addiction: First meeting of Narcotics Anonymous in Southern California
• 1955 Hurricane Diane, following hurricane Connie floods Connecticut River killing 190 & doing $1.8 billion damage
• 1956 Federal Constitutional Court bans the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) in West Germany
• 1956 One of the largest demonstrations in South Africa's history, 20,000 women marched to Pretoria's Union Buildings to present petition against carrying of passes by women to the Prime Minister

• 1958 World's 1st Moon probe, US's Thor-Able, explodes at T +77 sec
• 1959 7.1 quake strikes Yellowstone National Park
• 1959 USSR & Iraq signs contract for building Iraqi nuclear reactor

• 1960 Gabon gains independence from France (National Day)
• 1960 Indonesia drops diplomatic relations with Netherlands
• 1961 Kennedy administration establishes Alliance for Progress
• 1962 East German border guards shot and kill Peter Fechter, 18, attempting to cross Berlin Wall into western sector
• 1963 Jim Hickman becomes 1st NY Met to hit for cycle
• 1963 Oriole's Dick Hall retires his 28th consecutive player in relief
• 1964 Boycott scores his 1st Test Cricket century, 113 v Aust at the Oval
• 1966 NASA satellite Pioneer 7 launched into solar orbit

• 1968 Dick Beyers (Dr X) beats Verne Gagne, to become NWA champ
• 1969 Hurricane Camille strikes US coastline and kills 259 people (mainly in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana)
• 1969 NY Jets beat NY Giants, 37-14 in their first meeting (pre-season)
• 1970 Venera 7 (US), 1st softlanding on Venus, launched

• 1973 Mets first baseman Willie Mays hits 660th & last career home run. off Don Gullett of Cincinnati Reds, in 2-1 loss at Shea Stadium, in New York
• 1976 An earthquake & tsunami in the Philippines kills up to 8,000
• 1976 Big win for WI at The Oval Michael Holding 14-149 for match
• 1977 Russian nuclear sub "Artika" is 1st to North Pole
• 1977 Thomas Wessinghage, Harald Hudak, Michael Lederer and Karl Fleschen walk world record 4x1500m (14:38.8)
• 1977 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
• 1978 1st successful crossing of the Atlantic by balloon (3 Americans)

• 1979 2 Russian passenger planes collide above Ukraine, 173 killed
• 1980 Azaria Chamberlain disappears, likely taken by a dingo, leading to what was then the most publicised trial in Australian history

• 1982 First Compact Discs (CDs) released to the public in Germany
• 1982 LA Dodgers beat Chicago Cubs, 6-5, in 21 innings (game completed 8/18)
• 1982 South Bend, Ind jury acquits self-avowed racist Joseph Paul Franklin
• 1983 -19] Hurricane Alicia, kills 17 in Texas

• 1985 1,400 meatpackers walk off the job at a Geo A Hormel & Co plant

• 1985 Sara Trollinger forms House of Hope in Orlando
• 1986 Bronze pig statue unveiled at Pike Place Market, Seattle
• 1986 Red Sox trade shortstop Rey Quinones & pitcher Mike Trujillo to Mariners for shortstop Spike Owen & outfielder Dave Henderson
• 1986 Rioting at DMC concert at Long Beaxh (California) Convention Center - 40 injured

• 1987 Dow Jones Industrial Avg closes above 2,700 for 1st time (2,700.57)

• 1988 Butch Reynolds runs world record 400m (43.29)
• 1988 LIRR says Penn station will get air conditioning in 1991
• 1988 NYC 1st case of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (9-year-old Bronx boy)
• 1988 Pakistani President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq and U.S. Ambassador Arnold Raphel are killed in a plane crash.
• 1988 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
• 1988 US Republicans nominate George H. W. Bush for President

• 1990 Carlton Fisk hits White Sox record 187th HR

• 1991 ArenaBowl V, Joe Louis Arena, Detroit: Tampa Bay Storm beats Detroit Drive 48-42, Stevie Thomas MVP
• 1991 Royals Warren Cromartie's 1st major league HR since 1983
• 1992 Hurricane Andrew forms south-east of Barbados in the Caribbean
• 1992 Kevin Gross of Dodgers tosses only 9-inning no-hitter of season, a 2-0
• 1994 King Letsie II of Lesotho dismisses premier Ntsu Mokhehle
• 1994 NY Central park reservoir officially named after Jackie Kennedy Onasis
• 1995 China performs nuclear test at Lop Nor, PRC

• 1996 Soyuz TM-24, launched into orbit

• 1999 A 7.4-magnitude earthquake strikes İzmit, Turkey, killing more than 17,000 and injuring 44,000.
• 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.
• 2004 Yana Klochkova of Ukraine wins the 200m individual medley in 2:11.14 at the Athens Olympics to wrap up the 200/400m medley double
• 2005 The first forced evacuation of settlers, as part of the Israel unilateral disengagement plan, starts.

• 2008 Australian women's 4 x 100m medley relay team of Emily Seebohm, Leisel Jones, Jessicah Schipper & Libby Trickett upset the United States to win the gold medal in world record 3:52.69 at the Beijing Olympics
• 2008 China wins its 33rd gold medal of the Beijing Olympics by beating Singapore in the table tennis women's team event; most successful Olympiad ever for China; wins all 10 singles and all 5 doubles matches
• 2008 Four years after winning Olympic silver in the rowing quad sculls in Athens, Briton Rebecca Romero becomes only 2nd woman to earn medals in 2 different sports at the summer Games when she wins the pursuit track cycling gold in Beijing
• 2008 German swimmer Britta Steffen beats American Dara Torres by 0.01 in the 50m to wrap up the 50/100m double at the Beijing Olympics
• 2008 Gulnara Samitova-Galkina of Russia wins the 3,000m steeplechase gold medal at the Beijing Olympics in world record 8:58.81
• 2008 Jamaica dominates the 100m at the Beijing Olympics with Shelly-Ann Fraser taking the gold medal in 10.78; her teammates Sherone Simpson & Kerron Stewart dead-heat for silver in 10.98

• 2012 Gay pride events are banned for a century in Moscow
• 2012 Three members of Russian punk band Pussy Riot are jailed for two years
• 2013 15 civilians are killed by a Syrian warplane attack in Aleppo
• 2013 18 people are killed in conflict between Boko Harem and Nigerian military
• 2015 2012 Olympic 1500m champion from Turkey Asli Cakir Alptekin is stripped of her gold medal for doping by the IAAF
• 2015 Bomb blast in Bangkok at Erawan Shrine kills at least 19, injures over 100
• 2015 Discovery of 7,000 year old mass grave in Schöneck-Kilianstädten, Central Germany, published in PNAS Journal. 26 bodies bear evidence of violent conflict
• 2015 World's first flower could be underwater plant Montsechia Vidalii claim US botanists (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)
• 2016 American sweep in 100m women's hurdles at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics with Brianna Rollins taking gold ahead of Nia Ali & Kristi Castlin; 1st time US has swept medals in an Olympic women's track & field event
• 2016 Flood waters recede in Louisiana leaving 13 dead and damaging 4,000 homes
• 2016 German pair Laura Ludwig & Kira Walkenhorst upsets Brazilian hometown favourites Ágatha Bednarczuk & Bárbara Seixas 21–18, 21–14 to win the Olympic women's beach volleyball gold in Rio de Janeiro
• 2016 Jamaican sprinter Elaine Thompson wins 200m gold medal in 21.78; wraps up 100/200m Rio de Janeiro Olympics double
• 2016 Kenyan runner Conseslus Kipruto records an Olympic record 8:03.28 to win the men's 3,000m steeplechase gold medal at the Rio de Janeiro Games
• 2017 Anti-immigrant One Nation party leader Pauline Hansen is widely criticized for wearing a burqa into the Australian parliament
• 2017 Collision of two neutron stars witnessed for the first time first picked up by US-based Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (Ligo)
• 2017 On This Day helps launch Borneo Dictionary, an online not for profit dictionary of indigenous Borneo languages with translations in English and Bahasa Malaysia
• 2017 Terror attack on Las Ramblas in Barcelona, Spain as van rams into crowds killing 16, injuring 120
• 2017 Three Hong Kong activists, Jason Wong, Nathan Law and Alex Chow jailed for unlawful assembly
• 2019 Huge wildfires begin on Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands prompting evacuation of 9,000 people
• 2019 Landmark power-sharing deal signed by military and civilian leaders celebrated in Khartoum, Sudan, with transitional government to take over Sept 1
• 2019 Suicide bombing at a wedding in Kabul, Afghanistan, kills 63, with over 200 injured. The Islamic State claims responsibility
• 2020 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is the 1st US college to send students home and convert to online classes after 135 COVID-19 cases detected

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