August 17
1807 - Robert Fulton's steamboat, the Clermont, began its trip up the Hudson River to Albany.
1863 - Fort Sumter, South Carolina was bombarded by Union ships during the Civil War.
1896 - Prospectors found gold in Alaska, a discovery that set off the Klondike gold rush.
1915 - A mob in Cobb County, Georgia, lynched Jewish businessman Leo Frank, 31, whose death sentence for the murder of 13-year-old Mary Phagan had been commuted to life imprisonment. (Frank, who’d maintained his innocence, was pardoned by the state of Georgia in 1986.)
1942 - During World War II, U.S. 8th Air Force bombers attacked German forces in Rouen, France. U.S. Marines raided a Japanese seaplane base on Makin Island.
1943 - The Allied conquest of Sicily was completed as U.S. and British forced entered Messina.
1945 - Indonesian nationalists proclaimed independence from the Netherlands.
1962 - East German border guards shot and mortally wounded 18-year-old Peter Fechter, who had attempted to cross over the Berlin Wall into the western sector.
1964 - Teamsters union president Jimmy Hoffa was sentenced in Chicago to five years in federal prison for defrauding his union's pension fund. (Hoffa was released in 1971 after President Richard Nixon commuted his sentence for this conviction and jury tampering.)
1969 - Hurricane Camille devastated the Gulf Coast, killing 248 people.
1969 - The Woodstock Music and Art Fair concluded near Bethel, New York.
1978 - The first successful trans-Atlantic balloon flight landed outside Paris.
1982 - The first commercially produced compact discs (CDs), a recording of ABBA's "The Visitors," were pressed at a Philips factory near Hanover, West Germany.
1987 - Rudolf Hess, Adolf Hitler's second in command during World War II, committed suicide at age 93 at Spandau Prison in West Berlin; he had been the only inmate at Spandau for 21 years.
1988 - Pakistani President Mohammad Zia ul-Haq and U.S. Ambassador Arnold Raphel were killed in a mysterious plane crash.
1992 - Actor-director Woody Allen admitted being romantically involved with Soon-Yi Previn, the adopted daughter of his longtime companion, actress Mia Farrow.
1998 - President Bill Clinton gave grand jury testimony via closed-circuit television from the White House concerning his relationship with Monica Lewinsky; he then delivered a TV address to the nation in which he denied previously committing perjury, admitted his relationship with Lewinsky was "wrong" and criticized Ken Starr's investigation.
1998 - Russia devalued the ruble.
1999 - More than 170,000 people were killed when a magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck Turkey.
2002 - Pope John Paul II arrived in Krakow, Poland, for the ninth and final visit to his native country during his papacy.
2005 - Israeli security forces began the forcible removal of Jews from four settlements in the Gaza Strip.
2010 - A mistrial was declared on 23 corruption charges against ousted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. (He was convicted of 17 counts of corruption in a retrial.)
2011 - Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Beijing to meet with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.
2016 - Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump announced a shake-up of his campaign leadership, naming Steve Bannon of the conservative Breitbart News website as chief executive officer and promoting pollster Kellyanne Conway to campaign manager.
2017 - A van plowed through pedestrians along a packed promenade in the Spanish city of Barcelona, killing 13 people and injuring 120. (A 14th victim died later from injuries.) Another man was stabbed to death in a carjacking that night as the van driver made his getaway, and a woman died early the next day in a vehicle-and-knife attack in a nearby coastal town. (Six suspects in the attack were shot dead by police, two more died when a bomb workshop exploded.)
2020 - As Democrats opened their virtual national convention, Michelle Obama delivered a passionate condemnation of President Donald Trump, saying he was “clearly in over his head.”
Birthdays
26 - Gracie Gold (figure skater)
27 - Taissa Farmiga (actress)
29 - Paige (professional wrestler)
30 - Austin Butler (actor)
33 - Brady Corbet (actor)
35 - Andrea Espada (TV host)
35 - Bryton James (actor)
43 - Jelena Karleusa (singer)
47 - Giuliana Rancic (TV personality)
50 - Jorge Posada (baseball player)
51 - Tammy Townsend (actress)
51 - Jim Courier (tennis player)
52 - Christian Laettner (basketball player)
52 - Donnie Wahlberg (singer/TV personality)
54 - David Conrad (actor)
57 - Maria McKee (singer)
61 - Sean Penn (actor)
62 - Jonathan Franzen (author)
63 - Belinda Carlisle (singer)
70 - Robert Joy (actor)
78 - Robert DeNiro (actor)
80 - Boog Powell (baseball player)
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Today in Sports History - August 17
1894 - John Wadsworth of Louisville set a major league record when he gave up 28 base hits in a single game.
1933 - Lou Gehrig of the New York Yankees establishes a new MLB record by playing in his 1,308th consecutive game.
1957 - Baseball player Richie Ashburn of the Philadelphia Phillies fouls and hits fan Alice Roth twice in the same game during the same at-bat. His first foul breaks her nose, the second one hits her while she is lying on a stretcher.
1966 - Willie Mays moves into second place on the all-time home run list with his 535th, passing Jimmie Foxx.
1973 - Willie Mays hits the 660th and final home run of his career.
1980 - George Brett of the Kansas City Royals goes 4-for-4 at the plate to raise his season batting average to .401.
1986 - Pete Rose (Cincinnati Reds) was struck out for his last at bat by San Diego Padres relief pitcher Rich "Goose" Gossage.
2008 - U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps won his eighth gold medal at the Beijing Summer Games, breaking the record of seven set by Mark Spitz in the 1972 Olympic Games for the most golds won in a single Olympics.
1807 - Robert Fulton's steamboat, the Clermont, began its trip up the Hudson River to Albany.
1863 - Fort Sumter, South Carolina was bombarded by Union ships during the Civil War.
1896 - Prospectors found gold in Alaska, a discovery that set off the Klondike gold rush.
1915 - A mob in Cobb County, Georgia, lynched Jewish businessman Leo Frank, 31, whose death sentence for the murder of 13-year-old Mary Phagan had been commuted to life imprisonment. (Frank, who’d maintained his innocence, was pardoned by the state of Georgia in 1986.)
1942 - During World War II, U.S. 8th Air Force bombers attacked German forces in Rouen, France. U.S. Marines raided a Japanese seaplane base on Makin Island.
1943 - The Allied conquest of Sicily was completed as U.S. and British forced entered Messina.
1945 - Indonesian nationalists proclaimed independence from the Netherlands.
1962 - East German border guards shot and mortally wounded 18-year-old Peter Fechter, who had attempted to cross over the Berlin Wall into the western sector.
1964 - Teamsters union president Jimmy Hoffa was sentenced in Chicago to five years in federal prison for defrauding his union's pension fund. (Hoffa was released in 1971 after President Richard Nixon commuted his sentence for this conviction and jury tampering.)
1969 - Hurricane Camille devastated the Gulf Coast, killing 248 people.
1969 - The Woodstock Music and Art Fair concluded near Bethel, New York.
1978 - The first successful trans-Atlantic balloon flight landed outside Paris.
1982 - The first commercially produced compact discs (CDs), a recording of ABBA's "The Visitors," were pressed at a Philips factory near Hanover, West Germany.
1987 - Rudolf Hess, Adolf Hitler's second in command during World War II, committed suicide at age 93 at Spandau Prison in West Berlin; he had been the only inmate at Spandau for 21 years.
1988 - Pakistani President Mohammad Zia ul-Haq and U.S. Ambassador Arnold Raphel were killed in a mysterious plane crash.
1992 - Actor-director Woody Allen admitted being romantically involved with Soon-Yi Previn, the adopted daughter of his longtime companion, actress Mia Farrow.
1998 - President Bill Clinton gave grand jury testimony via closed-circuit television from the White House concerning his relationship with Monica Lewinsky; he then delivered a TV address to the nation in which he denied previously committing perjury, admitted his relationship with Lewinsky was "wrong" and criticized Ken Starr's investigation.
1998 - Russia devalued the ruble.
1999 - More than 170,000 people were killed when a magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck Turkey.
2002 - Pope John Paul II arrived in Krakow, Poland, for the ninth and final visit to his native country during his papacy.
2005 - Israeli security forces began the forcible removal of Jews from four settlements in the Gaza Strip.
2010 - A mistrial was declared on 23 corruption charges against ousted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. (He was convicted of 17 counts of corruption in a retrial.)
2011 - Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Beijing to meet with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.
2016 - Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump announced a shake-up of his campaign leadership, naming Steve Bannon of the conservative Breitbart News website as chief executive officer and promoting pollster Kellyanne Conway to campaign manager.
2017 - A van plowed through pedestrians along a packed promenade in the Spanish city of Barcelona, killing 13 people and injuring 120. (A 14th victim died later from injuries.) Another man was stabbed to death in a carjacking that night as the van driver made his getaway, and a woman died early the next day in a vehicle-and-knife attack in a nearby coastal town. (Six suspects in the attack were shot dead by police, two more died when a bomb workshop exploded.)
2020 - As Democrats opened their virtual national convention, Michelle Obama delivered a passionate condemnation of President Donald Trump, saying he was “clearly in over his head.”
Birthdays
26 - Gracie Gold (figure skater)
27 - Taissa Farmiga (actress)
29 - Paige (professional wrestler)
30 - Austin Butler (actor)
33 - Brady Corbet (actor)
35 - Andrea Espada (TV host)
35 - Bryton James (actor)
43 - Jelena Karleusa (singer)
47 - Giuliana Rancic (TV personality)
50 - Jorge Posada (baseball player)
51 - Tammy Townsend (actress)
51 - Jim Courier (tennis player)
52 - Christian Laettner (basketball player)
52 - Donnie Wahlberg (singer/TV personality)
54 - David Conrad (actor)
57 - Maria McKee (singer)
61 - Sean Penn (actor)
62 - Jonathan Franzen (author)
63 - Belinda Carlisle (singer)
70 - Robert Joy (actor)
78 - Robert DeNiro (actor)
80 - Boog Powell (baseball player)
===========================================
Today in Sports History - August 17
1894 - John Wadsworth of Louisville set a major league record when he gave up 28 base hits in a single game.
1933 - Lou Gehrig of the New York Yankees establishes a new MLB record by playing in his 1,308th consecutive game.
1957 - Baseball player Richie Ashburn of the Philadelphia Phillies fouls and hits fan Alice Roth twice in the same game during the same at-bat. His first foul breaks her nose, the second one hits her while she is lying on a stretcher.
1966 - Willie Mays moves into second place on the all-time home run list with his 535th, passing Jimmie Foxx.
1973 - Willie Mays hits the 660th and final home run of his career.
1980 - George Brett of the Kansas City Royals goes 4-for-4 at the plate to raise his season batting average to .401.
1986 - Pete Rose (Cincinnati Reds) was struck out for his last at bat by San Diego Padres relief pitcher Rich "Goose" Gossage.
2008 - U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps won his eighth gold medal at the Beijing Summer Games, breaking the record of seven set by Mark Spitz in the 1972 Olympic Games for the most golds won in a single Olympics.
