On this day: 17 August
Events, births and deaths on 17 August. Every date is checked against Wikidata.
Years ago today
1 year ago2025
- Deaths · Terence Stamp
10 years ago2016
- Deaths · Arthur Hiller
100 years ago1926
- Births · Jiang Zemin
1000 years ago1026
Within 100 years of that
- 986 · Events · Battle of the Gates of Trajan
Events · 34
- 986Battle of the Gates of Trajan — part of The Byzantine Bulgarian Wars
- 1424Battle of Verneuil — 1424 battle
- 1648Battle of Preston — 1648 battle
- 16681668 North Anatolia earthquake — 8.0 magnitude earthquake in 1668 in North Anatolia, Ottoman Empire (present-day Turkey)
- 1676Battle of Halmstad — 1676 battle during the Scanian War
- 1808Battle of Alavus — 1808 battle of the Finnish War
- 1862Dakota War of 1862 — 1862 armed conflict between the United States and eastern Dakota people
- 1864Battle of Gainesville — 1864 battle of the American Civil War
- 1896death of Bridget Driscoll — first known instance of a pedestrian killed in an automobile collision in Great Britain
- 1914WWI Eastern Front — theatre of World War I
- 1914Battle of Stallupönen — 1914 battle
- 1942Makin Island raid — 1942 raid of WWII in the Pacific Theater
- 1943Quebec Conference — secret military conference during World War II
- 1943
- 1945Indonesia — island country in Southeast Asia and Oceania
- 1945Proclamation of Indonesian Independence — 1945 document declaring Indonesian independence from the Netherlands
- 1949Matsukawa derailment — train derailment in Japan
- 1949Karlıova earthquake of 1949 — 6.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Bingöl in eastern Turkey on August 17, 1949
- 1950Hill 303 massacre — incident in the Korean War on 17 Aug. 1950, in which 41 US prisoners of war were executed by North Korean troops in Waegwan-eup, Chigok-gun, Gyeongsangbuk-do, South Korea
- 19591959 Hebgen Lake earthquake — earthquake in southwestern Montana, United States in 1959
- 1960President of Gabon — head of State of the Gabonese Republic
- 1960Aeroflot Flight 36 (1960) — aviation accident
- 1978Double Eagle II — First transport balloon to cross the Atlantic ocean
- 1988death of Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq — 1988 events in Pakistan
- 1991Strathfield massacre — 1991 mass shooting at a shopping mall in Strathfield, Sydney, Australia
- 19991999 İzmit earthquake — August 1999 earthquake in Turkey
- 2004Mahathir Science Award — Award named after Mahathir Mohamad
- 2005coat of arms of Serbia — coat of arms
- 2005People's New Party — political party in Japan
- 20052005 Bangladesh bombings — Major terrorist attack
- 20092009 Sayano-Shushenskaya power station accident — Major Russian power failure
- 20152015 Bangkok bombing — bomb attack in Thailand
- 20172017 Catalonia attacks — jihadist terrorist attacks in Catalonia, Spain in August 2017
- 201917 August 2019 Kabul bombing — Suicide bombing wedding Kabul
Births · 60
- 1473(Julian date)Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York — Second son of King Edward IV of England, younger of the princes in the Tower
- 1578Francesco Albani — Baroque painter (1578–1660)
- 1601Pierre de Fermat — French mathematician and lawyer
- 1629John III Sobieski — King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania (1629–1696)
- 1686Nicola Porpora — Italian composer
- 1753Josef Dobrovský — Czech historian, lexicographer, linguist, literature historian, religion writer, science writer and roman catholic priest (1753-1829)
- 1768Louis Desaix — French general (1768–1800)
- 1786Davy Crockett — American frontiersman and politician (1786–1836)
- 1786Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld — German princess (1786–1861)
- 1801Fredrika Bremer — Swedish writer and feminist (1801–1865)
- 1887Charles I of Austria — Last monarch of Austria-Hungary (r. 1916–1918)
- 1887Marcus Garvey — Jamaica-born British political activist, Pan-Africanist, orator, and entrepreneur (1887-1940)
- 1890Harry Hopkins — American politician, 8th United States Secretary of Commerce, assistant to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1890-1946)
- 1893Mae West — American actress, singer, screenwriter, and writer (1893–1980)
- 1896Leslie Groves — United States Army Corps of Engineers officer (1896–1970)
- 1906Marcelo Caetano — Portuguese politician (1906-1980)
- 1911Mikhail Botvinnik — Soviet chess player
- 1913Mark Felt — Whistleblower who exposed the Watergate scandal (1913-2008)
- 1920Maureen O'Hara — Irish–American actress and singer (1920–2015)
- 1926Jiang Zemin — former General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (1926–2022)
- 1929Francis Gary Powers — American pilot shot down flying a U-2 spy plane over the Soviet Union (1929-1977)
- 1930Ted Hughes — English poet and children's writer (1930–1998)
- 1932V. S. Naipaul — Trinidadian-British writer (1932–2018)
- 1936Margaret Hamilton — American NASA scientist and mathematician
- 1943Robert De Niro — American actor (born 1943)
Deaths · 60
- 754(Julian date)Carloman — Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia (710-754)
- 1153(Julian date)Eustace IV, Count of Boulogne — Heir apparent of King Stephen of England (died 1153)
- 1304(Julian date)Emperor Go-Fukakusa — Emperor of Japan
- 1324(Julian date)Irene of Brunswick — Byzantine empress
- 1338(Julian date)Nitta Yoshisada — Japanese samurai lord (1301–1338)
- 1424(Julian date)John Stewart, Earl of Buchan — French general
- 1673Regnier de Graaf — Dutch physician (1641-1673)
- 1676Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen — German writer
- 1720Anne Dacier — French scholar and translator (1645-1720)
- 1769Vasily Trediakovsky — Russian poet, translator, philologist
- 1786Frederick II of Prussia — King of Prussia from 1740 to 1786 (1712-1786)
- 1809Matthew Boulton — English manufacturer, industrialist, business partner of James Watt (1728–1809)
- 1834Husein Gradaščević — Bosnian Muslim general (1802–1834)
- 1838Lorenzo Da Ponte — Italian opera librettist, poet and Roman Catholic priest (1749–1838)
- 1850José de San Martín — Argentine general and independence leader (1778–1850)
- 1870Perucho Figueredo — Cuban musician (1818–1870)
- 1875Wilhelm Heinrich Immanuel Bleek — German linguist (1827-1875)
- 1901Edmond Audran — French composer (1840–1901)
- 1903Hans Gude — Norwegian painter (1825–1903)
- 1909Madan Lal Dhingra — Indian revolutionary (1883–1909)
- 1925Ioan Slavici — Romanian writer (1848–1925)
- 1935Charlotte Perkins Gilman — American feminist, writer, artist, and lecturer (1860–1935)
- 1940Billy Fiske — American bobsledder and pilot (1911-1940)
- 1958Arthur Fox — English-American fencer
- 1966Ken Miles — British racing driver (1918–1966)
Dates verified against Wikidata (CC0). Titles and descriptions come from Wikidata.