History Events on August 17

The Vietnamese Catholics report a Marian apparition in Qu?ng Tr?, an event which is called Our Lady of La Vang.

#Vietnam

The Grand Duchy of Baden announces her withdrawal from the German Confederation and signs a treaty of peace and alliance with Prussia.

#Grand_Duchy_of_Baden

Ioan Giurgiu Patachi becomes Bishop of F?g?ra? and is festively installed in his position at the St. Nicolas Cathedral in F?g?ra?, after being formally confirmed earlier by Pope Clement XI.

#Ioan_Giurgiu_Patachi

Dutch King William I and Pope Leo XII sign concord

#William_I_of_the_Netherlands

A bomb explodes at a wedding in Kabul killing 63 people and leaving 182 injured.

#17_August_2019_Kabul_bombing

American swimmer Michael Phelps becomes the first person to win eight gold medals at one Olympic Games.

#Michael_Phelps

Pope Benedict XIV, previously known as Prospero Lambertini, succeeds Clement XII as the 247th Pope.

#Pope_Benedict_XIV

An accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya Dam in Khakassia, Russia, kills 75 and shuts down the hydroelectric power station, leading to widespread power failure in the local area.

#2009_Sayano-Shushenskaya_power_station_accident

American Civil War: Major General J. E. B. Stuart is assigned command of all the cavalry of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia.

#American_Civil_War

The Soviet icebreaker Arktika becomes the first surface ship to reach the North Pole.

#Arktika_(1972_icebreaker)

Pioneer 0, America's first attempt at lunar orbit, is launched using the first Thor-Able rocket and fails. Notable as one of the first attempted launches beyond Earth orbit by any country.

#Pioneer_0

Battle of Sampford Courtenay: The Prayer Book Rebellion is quashed in England.

#Battle_of_Sampford_Courtenay

American Civil War: Battle of Gainesville: Confederate forces defeat Union troops near Gainesville, Florida.

#Battle_of_Gainesville

British parliament accepts registration of births, marriages and deaths

#Parliament_of_the_United_Kingdom

A bomb explodes near the Erawan Shrine in Bangkok, Thailand, killing at least 19 people and injuring 123 others.

#2015_Bangkok_bombing

The 7.6 Mw? ?zmit earthquake shakes northwestern Turkey with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), leaving 17,118-17,127 dead and 43,953-50,000 injured.

#1999_?zmit_earthquake

Classical composer Luigi Boccherini receives a pay rise of 12000 reals from his employer, the Infante Luis, Count of Chinchón.

#Luigi_Boccherini

The novella Animal Farm by George Orwell is first published.

#Animal_Farm

Pope Eusebius is banished by the Emperor Maxentius to Sicily, where he dies, perhaps from a hunger strike.

#309

A Category 4 hurricane hits Galveston, Texas with winds at 135 miles per hour (217 km/h).

#1915_Galveston_hurricane

The Catholic Church is overthrown and Protestantism is established as the national religion in Scotland.

#Catholic_Church

American Indian Wars: The Dakota War of 1862 begins in Minnesota as Dakota warriors attack white settlements along the Minnesota River.

#American_Indian_Wars

World War I: Romania signs a secret treaty with the Entente Powers. According to the treaty, Romania agreed to join the war on the Allied side.

#Kingdom_of_Romania

Georgenberg Pact: Ottokar IV, Duke of Styria and Leopold V, Duke of Austria sign a heritage agreement in which Ottokar gives his duchy to Leopold and to his son Frederick under the stipulation that Austria and Styria would henceforth remain undivided.

#Georgenberg_Pact

Barcelona attacks: A van is driven into pedestrians in La Rambla, killing 14 and injuring at least 100.

#2017_Barcelona_attacks

World War II: The U.S. Eighth Air Force suffers the loss of 60 bombers on the Schweinfurt-Regensburg mission.

#Eighth_Air_Force

World War I: Battle of Stallupönen: The German army of General Hermann von François defeats the Russian force commanded by Paul von Rennenkampf near modern-day Nesterov, Russia.

#World_War_I

Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta proclaim the independence of Indonesia, igniting the Indonesian National Revolution against the Dutch Empire.

#Sukarno

World War II: U.S. Marines raid the Japanese-held Pacific island of Makin.

#World_War_II

Venera program: Venera 7 launched. It will later become the first spacecraft to successfully transmit data from the surface of another planet (Venus).

#Venera

Peter Fechter is shot and bleeds to death while trying to cross the new Berlin Wall.

#Killing_of_Peter_Fechter

Hurricane Diane made landfall near Wilmington, North Carolina, and it went on to cause major floods and kill more than 184 people.

#Hurricane_Diane

Robert Fulton's North River Steamboat leaves New York City for Albany, New York, on the Hudson River, inaugurating the first commercial steamboat service in the world.

#Robert_Fulton

The Radcliffe Line, the border between the Dominions of India and Pakistan, is revealed.

#Radcliffe_Line

Fantasmagorie, the first animated cartoon, created by Émile Cohl, is shown in Paris, France.

#Fantasmagorie_(1908_film)

Double Eagle II becomes first balloon to cross the Atlantic Ocean when it lands in Miserey, France near Paris, 137 hours after leaving Presque Isle, Maine.

#Double_Eagle_II

Quake Lake is formed by the magnitude 7.5 1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake near Hebgen Lake in Montana.

#Quake_Lake

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 and as a result over half of the 100,000 inhabitants flee to the northern provinces.

#Eighty_Years'_War

World War II: The Royal Air Force begins Operation Hydra, the first air raid of the Operation Crossbow strategic bombing campaign against Germany's V-weapon program.

#Royal_Air_Force

President of Pakistan Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq and U.S. Ambassador Arnold Raphel are killed in a plane crash.

#Muhammad_Zia-ul-Haq

The first forced evacuation of settlers, as part of Israeli disengagement from Gaza, starts.

#Israeli_settlement

Jewish American Leo Frank is lynched in Marietta, Georgia after a 13-year-old girl is murdered.

#Leo_Frank

Pike Place Market, a popular tourist destination and registered historic district in Seattle, opened.

#Pike_Place_Market

Cesare Borgia, son of Pope Alexander VI, becomes the first person in history to resign the cardinalate; later that same day, King Louis XII of France names him Duke of Valentinois.

#Cesare_Borgia

Byzantine-Bulgarian wars: Battle of the Gates of Trajan: The Bulgarians under the Comitopuli Samuel and Aron defeat the Byzantine forces at the Gate of Trajan, with Byzantine Emperor Basil II barely escaping.

#Byzantine-Bulgarian_wars

The first public performance of the Dominican Republic's national anthem, Himno Nacional.

#Dominican_Republic

American Civil War: In Charleston, South Carolina, Union batteries and ships bombard Confederate-held Fort Sumter.

#Charleston,_South_Carolina

Hundred Years' War: Battle of Verneuil: An English force under John, Duke of Bedford defeats a larger French army under Jean II, Duke of Alençon, John Stewart, and Earl Archibald of Douglas.

#Hundred_Years'_War

Over 500 bombs are set off by terrorists at 300 locations in 63 out of the 64 districts of Bangladesh

The National Assembly of Serbia unanimously adopts new state symbols for Serbia: Bože pravde becomes the new anthem and the coat of arms is adopted for the whole country.

Lewinsky scandal: US President Bill Clinton admits in taped testimony that he had an "improper physical relationship" with White House intern Monica Lewinsky; later that same day he admits before the nation that he "misled people" about the relationship.

Strathfield massacre: In Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, taxi driver Wade Frankum shoots seven people and injures six others before turning the gun on himself.

Category 5 Hurricane Camille hits the U.S. Gulf Coast, killing 256 and causing $1.42 billion in damage.

Addiction: First meeting of Narcotics Anonymous takes place, in Southern California.

World War II: First Québec Conference of Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and William Lyon Mackenzie King begins.

World War II: The U.S. Seventh Army under General George S. Patton arrives in Messina, Italy, followed several hours later by the British 8th Army under Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, thus completing the Allied conquest of Sicily.

Bolshevik revolutionary leader Moisei Uritsky is assassinated.

Bridget Driscoll became the first recorded case of a pedestrian killed in a collision with a motor car in the United Kingdom.

Austro-Turkish War of 1716-18: The month-long Siege of Belgrade ends with Prince Eugene of Savoy's Austrian troops capturing the city from the Ottoman Empire.

Action of 17 August 1712 New Deep naval battle between Denmark and Sweden.

A magnitude 8.0 earthquake causes 8,000 deaths in Anatolia, Ottoman Empire.

Islands Voyage: Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, and Sir Walter Raleigh set sail on an expedition to the Azores.

A first group of colonists sent by Sir Walter Raleigh under the charge of Ralph Lane lands in the New World to create Roanoke Colony on Roanoke Island, off the coast of present-day North Carolina.

Karl Topia, the ruler of Princedom of Albania forges an alliance with the Republic of Venice, committing to participate in all wars of the Republic and receiving coastal protection against the Ottomans in return.

Pope Leo II begins his pontificate.