On this day in History - Aug 17

1473 - Richard, Duke of York was born (d. 1483). One of the Princes in the Tower
1601 - Pierre de Fermat was born (d. 1665). French mathematician
1629 - King John III of Poland was born (d. 1696)
1676 - Hans Jakob Christoph von Grimmelshausen dies. German novelist
1673 - Regnier de Graaf dies (b. 1641). Dutch physician and anatomist.
1699 - Bernard de Jussieu was born. († 6 Nov 1777) . French botanic
1710 - Morte de Manuel Bernardes (n. 1644). Escritor português.
1720 - Anne Lefèvre dies (b. 1654). French scholar.
1723 - Joseph Bingham dies (b. 1668). English scholar .
1740 - Prospero Lorenzo Lambertini is elected Pope Benedictus XIV.

1755 - Thomas Stothard was born (d. 27 Apr 1834). English Romantic painter, designer, and illustrator.
1761 - William Carey was born (d. 1834). English missionary.

1778 - John Varley was born (17 Nov 1842). English painter and draftsman.

1786 - Davy Crockett was born (d. 1836). Frontiersman, soldier.
1790 - A capital dos Estados Unidos muda de Nova Iorque para Filadélfia, no estado da Pensilvânia.
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.
1808 - Combate da Roliça. O exército britânico desembarcado em Lavos derrota uma divisão francesa perto de Óbidos.

1812 - Battle of Smolensk: French forces of Napoleon agains Russians.

1834 - Peter Benoit was born in Harelbeke (Westflandern) ( † 8. Mar 1901 in Antwerpen). Composer.
1841 - Nascimento do poeta brasileiro Luís Nicolau Fagundes Varela
1850 - Argentine's War of Independence hero, General José de San Martín, dies in Boulogne-sur-Mer (France), at the age of 77.
1850 - Don José de San Martín dies (b. 25 Feb 1778). Argentine general. Together with Simón Bolívar in the north, San Martín is regarded as one of the Liberators of Spanish South America. He is a national hero of Argentina.
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 US 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.
1866 - Julia Marlowe, nee Sarah Frost, was born (d. 1950). Shakespearean actress.
1875 - Wilhelm Bleek dies (8 Mar 1827). German linguist.
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.
1878 - Primeira representação da ópera de Richard Wagner O Crepúsculo dos Deuses, última parte da Tetralogia O Anel do Nibelungo, em Bayreuth, na Baviera, reino integrado no Império Alemão.
1880 - Ole Bull dies (b. 5 Feb 1810). Norwegian violinist.
1882 - Samuel Goldwyn was born (d. 1974). Hollywood producer.
1887 - Marcus Garvey was born (d. 1940). American black leader.
1887 - Emperor Karl of Austria was born (d. 1922)
1888 - Antonio Flores assume a presidência do Equador.
1893 - Mae West was born (d. 1980). Actress, playwright.
1895- Nascimento de António Joaquim Tavares Ferro. Político e jornalista português.
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.
1896 - Nascimento de Ana Amélia Queiros Carneiro de Mendonça. Poetisa brasileira.
1896 - Bridget Driscoll dies in a car accident. World's first automobile fatality
1897 - Nascimento, em Concavada, Abrantes, de António Tomás Botto, escritor português (m. 17 Mar 1959 no Rio de Janeiro, na sequência de um atropelamento automóvel). Publicou em 1921 "Canções" livro que viria a ser apreendido dado o escandalo provocado pelo erotismo exacerbado que faziam a exaltação da beleza masculina. Homossexual assumido, foi expulso do funcionalismo público em 1942, indo viver para o Brasil em 1947. Era muito admirado por Fernando Pessoa, José Régio e outros.
1901 - Edmond Audran dies (b. 1842). French composer.
1903 - O primeiro Prêmio Pulitzer é entregue, quando Joseph Pulitzer contribui com uma doação de um milhão de dólares para a Universidade de Colúmbia, providenciando os fundos para a criação dos Prêmios Pulitzer, feitos em seu nome.
1904 - Leopold Nowak was born. Musicologist.
1906 - Marcelo Caetano was born. Portuguese politician.
1911 - Mikhail Botvinnik was born (d. 1995). World chess champion.
1912 - Nascimento de Aderbal Jurema. Jornalista e poeta brasileiro.
1913 - W. Mark Felt was born. FBI associate director and Deep Throat Watergate informant.
1913 - Rudy York was born (d. 1970). Major League Baseball All-Star
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.
1920 - Maureen O'Hara was born. Actress.

1923 - Yitzroch Loiza Grossberg "Larry Rivers" was born in the Bronx, New York. US proto-Pop painter, printmaker, and sculptor; jazz saxophonist, writer, poet, teacher. Author of autobiography What Did I Do?
1925 - Ioan Slavici dies. Transylvanian writer of Romanian origin.
1926 - Jean Poiret was born († 14 Mar 1992). French comedian, actor.
1926 - George Melly was born in Liverpool. English jazz singer, critic for The Observer and he also lectures on art history.
1929 - Francis Gary Powers was born (d. 1977). U-2 pilot.
1929 - Jiang Zemin was born. President of the People's Republic of China
1930 - Glenn Corbett was born (d. 1993). Actor.
1930 - Ted Hughes was born (d. 1998). English poet.
1932 - Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul was born in Trinidad. British writer, 2001 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate.
1937 - Vicente Median dies (b. 27 Oct 1866) . Spanish poet. (Cansera )
1939 - Luther Allison was born. Blues musician, guitarist
1939 - Devido ao perigo de uma nova guerra, a Grã-Bretanha assina um acordo de cooperação militar com Portugal, aceitando apoiar directamente o esforço de rearmamento e modernização das forças armadas portuguesas. O acordo só começará a ser cumprido a partir de Setembro de 1943.
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.
1943 - Robert De Niro was born. Actor.
1944 - Eugénio de Castro dies in Coimbra (b . 4 Mar 1869 in Coimbra). Portuguese poet ( A Sombra do Quadrante -1906, Oaristos 1890, Depois da Ceifa 1901 ...).
1945 - Indonesia proclaims itself independent from the Netherlands.
1946 - Morte do presidente boliviano Gualberto Villarroel
1951 - Alan Minter was born. Boxer
1951 - Elba Ramalho was born. Brazilian singer.
1952 - Nelson Piquet was born. Brazilian formula one driver
1952 - Guillermo Vilas was born. Argentinian tennis player
1953 - Addiction: First meeting of Narcotics Anonymous in Southern California.
1954 - Nascimento de Andrés Pastrana. Pesidente da Colombia.

1955 - Fernand Léger dies (b. 4 Feb 1881). French Cubist painter, draftsman, illustrator, printmaker, stage designer, film maker, and ceramicist.

1958 - Belinda Carlisle was born. Singer, guitarist
1958 - Kirk Stevens was born. Canadian snooker player
1959 - David Koresh was born (d. 1993). Cult leader.
1960 - Sean Penn was born. Actor, director
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.
1964 - Colin James was born. Blues musician
1966 - Rodney Mullen was born. Skateboarder
1966 - Morre , em Moledo do Minho, António Pedro da Costa (n. 1909 em Cabo Verde). Escritor, poeta e artista plástico português.
1968 - Ed McCaffrey was born. American football player
1969 - Donnie Wahlberg was born. Actor, singer
1969 - Category 5 Hurricane Camille hits the Mississippi coast killing 248 people and causing US$1.5 billion in damage (1969 dollars).
1969 - Chega ao fim o Festival de Música e Arte Woodstock, realizado próximo a Bethel, em Nova Iorque.
1969 - Mies van der Rohe, dies. German architect.
1969 - Otto Stern dies (b. 1888). German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate.
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.
1970 - Jim Courier was born. Former tennis champion
1971 - Jorge Posada was born. Major League Baseball All-Star
1973 - Jean Barraqué dies. French composer
1973 - Paul Williams dies. American singer (The Temptations)
1973 - Conrad Aiken dies (b. 1889). American author.
1977 - Thierry Henry was born. French football star
1977 - Tarja Turunen was born. Leadsinger Nightwish
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.
1979 - Vivian Vance dies (b. 26 Jul 1909). American actress.
1980 - Azaria Chamberlain disappears, likely taken by a dingo, leading to what was then the most publicised trial in Australian history and the most famous wrongful conviction when her parents are found guilty of murder.
1983 - Ira Gershwin dies. American lyricist.
1987 - Rudolf Hess Hitler's former right-hand man, is found dead in Spandau Prison (b. 1894).
1987 - Carlos Drummond de Andrade dies in Rio de Janeiro (b. 1902). Brazilian poet and cronist /Morre Carlos Drummond de Andrade no Rio de Janeiro (n. 31 Out 1902 em Itabira do Mato Dentro (MG). Formado em Farmácia nunca exerceu: Dedicou-se ao jornalismo como cronista, ensinou português egeografia e ocupou cargos públicos. A Rosa do Povo, Claro Enigma Fazendeiro do Ar, Lição de Coisas são títulos de algumas das suas obras. Recusou vários prémios literários.
1988 - Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq dies (b. 1924). President of Pakistan.
1988 - Pakistani President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq and US Ambassador Arnold Raphel are killed in a plane crash.
1990 - Pearl Bailey dies (29 Mar 1918). American singer and actress.
1991 - The Smells Like Teen Spirit Video by Nirvana is Filmed.
1996 - Alan Shearer makes debut for Newcastle United after a then record £15m move from Rivals Blackburn Rovers
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 northwestern Turkey, killing more than 17,000 and injuring 44,000.
2000 - Franco Donatoni dies (b. 1927). Italian composer.
2002 - Alicia Montoya dies (b. 20 Jan 1920). Mexican actress.
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.
2004 - Gérard Souzay dies (b. 8 Dec 1918). French baritone.
2004 - Neal Fredericks dies (b. 1969). American cinematographer 'Blair Witch'
Rastafari movement - celebration of the birth of Marcus Garvey
Roman Empire - Portunalia in honor of Portunes
Independence Day in Indonesia (1945)