This is a list of selected August 17 anniversaries that appear in the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases, you can be bold and edit this page. Please read the selected anniversaries guidelines before making your edit. However, if your addition might be controversial or on a day that is or will soon be on the Main Page, please post your suggestion on the talk page instead.
Please note that the events listed on the Main Page are chosen based more on relative article quality and to maintain a mix of topics, not based solely on how important or significant their subjects are. Only four to five events are posted at a time and thus not everything that is "most important and significant" can be listed. In addition, an event is generally not posted this year if it is also the subject of the scheduled featured article or picture of the day.
To report an error when this appears on the Main Page, see Main Page errors. Please remember that this list defers to the supporting articles, so it is best to achieve consensus and make any necessary changes there first.
Images
Use only ONE image at a time
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Hurricane Camille -
Robert Fulton -
Bill Clinton -
Monica Lewinsky -
Damage from the 1999 earthquake at İzmit, Turkey -
Sukarno, accompanied by Mohammad Hatta, proclaiming Indonesian independence
Ineligible
| Blurb | Reason |
|---|---|
| Independence Day in Gabon (1960) | unreferenced sections |
| 1862 – A council of Dakota decided to attack settlements throughout the Minnesota River valley in an effort to drive whites out of the area, sparking the Dakota War. | refimprove section |
| 1914 – World War I: Ignoring orders to retreat, Hermann von François led a successful counterattack defending East Prussia at the Battle of Stallupönen and scored the first German victory in the Eastern Front. | refimprove |
| 1962 – East German border guards shot and killed Peter Fechter as he attempted to cross the Berlin Wall into West Berlin. | Tagged with {{Nofootnotes}} |
| 1999 – A 7.5 Mw earthquake struck northwestern Turkey, killing over 17,000 people and leaving approximately half a million people homeless. | refimprove section |
Eligible
- 986 – Byzantine–Bulgarian Wars: The Bulgarians defeated the Byzantine forces at the Gate of Trajan near present-day Ihtiman, with Byzantine Emperor Basil II barely escaping.
- 1915 – American Jew Leo Frank was lynched by a mob of prominent citizens in Marietta, Georgia, for the alleged murder of a 13-year-old girl.
- 1945 – Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta proclaimed the independence of Indonesia, igniting the Indonesian National Revolution against the Dutch Empire.
- 1947 – A commission led by Cyril Radcliffe established the Radcliffe Line, the border between India and Pakistan after the Partition of India.
- 1959 – An earthquake registering at least 7.3 Mw struck southwestern Montana, killing over 28 people and causing a landslide that blocked the flow of the Madison River and created Quake Lake.
- 1969 – Hurricane Camille struck the Mississippi coast of the United States, killing 259 people and causing US$1.42 billion in damages.
- 1980 – Two-month-old Australian Azaria Chamberlain was taken from her family's campsite at Uluru by a dingo, for which her mother would be convicted of murder.
- 2008 – With the victory in the 4×100 m medley relay at the Beijing Summer Olympics, Michael Phelps set the records for the most gold medals won by an individual in a single Olympics (8) as well as total career gold medals (14) in modern Olympic history.
Notes
- Hurricane Charley appears on August 13, so Hurricane Camille should not appear in the same year
August 17: Independence Day in Indonesia (1945)
- 1807 – Robert Fulton's North River Steamboat, the world's first commercially successful paddle steamer, went into service on the Hudson River in New York.
- 1945 – Animal Farm, George Orwell's satirical allegory of Soviet totalitarianism, was first published.
- 1950 – Korean War: A North Korean Army unit massacred 42 American prisoners of war so that they would not slow the North Koreans down (memorial pictured).
- 1959 – Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, one of the best selling and most critically acclaimed jazz recordings of all time, was released.
- 1998 – U.S. President Bill Clinton admitted in taped testimony that he had an "improper physical relationship" with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
- 2009 – A turbine at Sayano–Shushenskaya Dam in Khakassia, Russia, broke apart violently, flooding the power station, causing widespread power failures, and killing 75 people.