SomeFacts | August 17

On this day - August 17

986 — Byzantine–Bulgarian wars: Battle of the Gates of Trajan: The ...

1186 — Georgenberg Pact: Ottokar IV, Duke of Styria and Leopold V, ...

1386 — Karl Topia, the ruler of Princedom of Albania, forges an ...

1424 — Hundred Years' War: Battle of Verneuil: An English force ...

1488 — Konrad Bitz, the Bishop of Turku, marks the date of his ...

1498 — Cesare Borgia, son of Pope Alexander VI, becomes the first ...

1549 — Battle of Sampford Courtenay: The Prayer Book Rebellion is ...

1560 — The Catholic Church is overthrown and Protestantism is ...

1585 — A first group of colonists sent by Sir Walter Raleigh under ...

1585 — Eighty Years' War: Siege of Antwerp: Antwerp is captured ...

1597 — Islands Voyage: Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, and Sir ...

1668 — The magnitude 8.0 North Anatolia earthquake causes 8,000 ...

1717 — Austro-Turkish War of 1716–18: The month-long Siege of ...

1723 — Ioan Giurgiu Patachi becomes Bishop of Făgăraș and is ...

1740 — Pope Benedict XIV, previously known as Prospero Lambertini, ...

1784 — Classical composer Luigi Boccherini receives a pay rise of ...

1798 — The Vietnamese Catholics report a Marian apparition in Quảng ...

1807 — Robert Fulton's North River Steamboat leaves New York ...

1808 — The Finnish War: The Battle of Alavus is fought.

1827 — Dutch King William I and Pope Leo XII sign concord.

1836 — British parliament accepts registration of births, marriages ...

1862 — American Civil War: Major General J. E. B. Stuart is assigned ...

1862 — American Indian Wars: The Dakota War of 1862 begins in ...

1863 — American Civil War: In Charleston, South Carolina, Union ...

1864 — American Civil War: Battle of Gainesville: Confederate forces ...

1866 — The Grand Duchy of Baden announces its withdrawal from the ...

1876 — Richard Wagner's Götterdämmerung, the last opera in his ...

1883 — The first public performance of the Dominican Republic's ...

1896 — Bridget Driscoll became the first recorded case of a ...

1907 — Pike Place Market, one of the oldest continuously operated ...

1914 — World War I: Battle of Stallupönen: The German army of General ...

1915 — A Category 4 hurricane hits Galveston, Texas with winds at 135 ...

1915 — Jewish American Leo Frank is lynched in Marietta, Georgia, USA ...

1916 — World War I: Romania signs a secret treaty with the Entente ...

1918 — Bolshevik revolutionary leader Moisei Uritsky is assassinated.

1942 — World War II: U.S. Marines raid the Japanese-held Pacific ...

1943 — World War II: The Royal Air Force begins Operation Hydra, the ...

1943 — World War II: First Québec Conference of Winston Churchill, ...

1943 — World War II: The U.S. Seventh Army under General George S. ...

1943 — World War II: The U.S. Eighth Air Force suffers the loss of 60 ...

1945 — Evacuation of Manchukuo: At Talitzou by the Sino-Korean ...

1945 — The novella Animal Farm by George Orwell is first published.

1945 — Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta proclaim the independence of ...

1947 — The Radcliffe Line, the border between the Dominions of India ...

1949 — Matsukawa derailment: Unknown saboteurs cause a passenger ...

1949 — The 6.7 Ms Karlıova earthquake shakes eastern Turkey with a ...

1950 — Korean War: Forty-two American prisoners of war were massacred ...

1953 — First meeting of Narcotics Anonymous takes place, in Southern ...

1955 — Hurricane Diane made landfall near Wilmington, North Carolina, ...

1958 — Pioneer 0, America's first attempt at lunar orbit, is ...

1959 — Quake Lake is formed by the magnitude 7.2 1959 Hebgen Lake ...

1960 — Aeroflot Flight 036 crashes in Soviet Ukraine, killing 34.

1962 — Peter Fechter is shot and bleeds to death while trying to ...

1969 — Category 5 Hurricane Camille hits the U.S. Gulf Coast, killing ...

1970 — Soviet Union Venera program: Venera 7 launched. It will become ...

1976 — A magnitude 7.9 earthquake hits off the coast of Mindanao, ...

1977 — The Soviet icebreaker Arktika becomes the first surface ship ...

1978 — Double Eagle II becomes first balloon to cross the Atlantic ...

1985 — The 1985–86 Hormel strike begins in Austin, Minnesota.

1988 — President of Pakistan Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq and U.S. Ambassador ...

1991 — Strathfield massacre: In Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, ...

1998 — Lewinsky scandal: US President Bill Clinton admits in taped ...

1999 — The 7.6 Mw İzmit earthquake shakes northwestern Turkey with a ...

2004 — The National Assembly of Serbia unanimously adopts new state ...

2005 — Over 500 bombs are set off by terrorists at 300 locations in ...

2005 — The first forced evacuation of settlers, as part of Israeli ...

2008 — American swimmer Michael Phelps becomes the first person to ...

2009 — An accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya Dam in Khakassia, ...

2015 — A bomb explodes near the Erawan Shrine in Bangkok, Thailand, ...

2017 — Barcelona attacks: A van is driven into pedestrians in La ...

2019 — A bomb explodes at a wedding in Kabul killing 63 people and ...